February 2011 Archives

Proud to announce our lineup for Built at SXSW:

• DL Byron - Intros
• Chris Brewer - The Journey
• Mike Lin - Readyset Go! Smart Power Revolution
• Rob Roy Chalmers - The Sporozoan Swarm
• Michael Pusateri - How to Build A BBQ Smoker from a Trash Can
• Danielle Sipple - I Am Femme: Creating your Own Gender Identity
• Brent Heyning - Hackable: Light Communication Kits for Bikers
• Scott Benish - Interactive Design Skills and Urban Chickenry
• Naz Hamid - Online Communities, Offline Relationships
• Andrew Neher - Drawing A Bike From Memory
• Kris Krug - Killer Photos with Your Cameraphone

Follow them on Twitter:

• @livestrongcb
• @bikehugger
• @fenixintl
• @printtroll
• @Cruftbox
• @fiercekitty
• @toyshoppe
• @benish
• @weightshift
• @andrewneher
• @kk

This year at SXSW, we've got a Hugga Booth in the Trade Show. The booth is number 106 and we'll host various happenings there like schwag-a-thons, street art, and the speakers from Built.

We'll also broadcast codes from the booth. The codes are for free samples of our new product, gear deals, and Ibex Wool giveaways. Like our Fan Page and follow us on Twitter to receive the codes. Then come to the booth for code redemption.

Of course, we'll have some schwag at the start of the Mobile Social too, like those Ibex wool hats ....

Conditions were right to ride most of the beach at Lincoln Park before stalling in the Sand.

I've ridden a route past the beach for 20 years and never thought to ride it. A winter storm had pushed all the driftwood up into the concrete wave breakers. The wet sand, pebbles, and rocks made it rideable for a long section.

It was a rush with the surf, wind, and just one other person on there (seen in the top center left) I powered around the point and back towards Alki where the sand was too soft. Then I jogged along, back up onto the path, and home.

I'm enjoying a quiet weekend of riding before racing season starts and we travel to Austin for SXSW. Once there, we've got Built and the Mobile Social.

This cruiser is bad ass.

Just thinking of the rides you could do with that -- add some spiked tires and you're unstoppable on the bike path in Winter. Meccanico di Veno posts on the paint and build on his blog. Also see Go Means Go 1979 Schwinn Typhoon from last year.

I found this Battaglin picture. Notice the heavily bulged FIR front disc wheel and how the fork blades splay out around the bulge. I vaguely remember a story about a late 1980s Giro d’Italia prologue in which a team tried to use bikes with wheels described as such. Is this the bike? I don’t know, and my OCD won’t let it go till I do.

I did find a tiny picture of a similar wheel from a page on the mad Pino Moroni, genius tinkerer to the kings of cycling, the demon of drillium. Native of Italy, resident of Detroit, Moroni’s handiwork with components made Merckx’s hour record bike into 12 lb marvel. In the late ’80s, his services were retained by the Italian cycling federation. It can’t be a coincidence.

I want to know the design rationale behind the bulged wheel. Was it, as one poster hypothesized, to block the wind for the rider’s feet and pedals? Or was it to improve crosswind aerodynamics? Were bike designers even thinking about crosswind performance back then?

I should ask Steve Hed…I bet that guy would have something useful to say about aero wheels.

I was surfing the web looking for an image of an esoteric front disc wheel that got banned by the UCI before the start of a late ’80s Giro d’Italia prologue blah, blah blah when I discovered a blog called Chicks and Bikes. Well, that was a natural combination, I was thinking.

The vast majority of images are SFW, but funny thing is that someone poached a picture that I shot of an ex-girlfriend (er, one of the Safe For Work variety).

PRO, Shimano’s brand of bars and stems, soon will be delivering their Cavendish signature series bars and stems to bike shops. These items are built extra beefy for stiffness, exactly what a sprinter asks for. The 7000-series aluminium handlebar has internal ribbing to enhance stiffness, while the monocoque carbon fibre stem is hugely bulbous. Since the bar is only available in PRO’s anatomic bend and not their round bend, I am indifferent; PRO’s non-traditional round shape is my big favourite for road bars.

However, the stem I am keen on. It’s available in 130, 120, and 105mm. Frankly, I think PRO wants to sell to consumers who ride a 100mm but don’t really want to make 4 different moulds for stems, ie 130, 120, 110, and 100mm. I like 100mm, but ok…I’ll bite. I actually got to turn one of these about in my hands at a recent Shimano tech seminar. What I can say is that when it comes to light and stiff stems on the market, this stem better be stiff.

I’ve heard and read that these dropouts are elegant, but there really is a worrisome lack of mass at the oh-so crucial junction between axle and right chainstay. This is of course a classic place for a steel bike to fatigue fail. Maybe not today or even next year but…

I’d like to see dropouts that were assymmetrical…the right dropout would have additional material between the axle and chainstay compared to the left. I can’t recall any left dropout on a steel bike that failed from fatigue.

And what the hell is “Speedvagen” anyways? It ain’t German, that’s for sure. Why spell it with a “v”? “Volkswagen” is actually pronounced “folks-vah-gen”, meaning people’s car. Are we supposed to pronounce it “Spayd-fag-en”? Ugh, it burns my eyes to see it in print, like when people spell “seniora” with a ~.

“Der Wagen” means car auf Deutsch, whereas “das Fahrrad” is a bicycle. The slang for bicycle is “Rad”, though that technically means wheel. “Speed Wagon” was an early American example of a lorry or pickup truck, and “Speedwagon” was a cheesy (not in a good way) ’80s band.

photo from QBP.com

Oooh, I just saw this on the Deda Elementi website.

The site states the stem has an 82deg angle (ie negative 8deg), but the standard Zero100 stem is the 82 while this Pista Zero100 is actually 67deg (23deg down). Deda boasts that this stem will be the star at the London Olympic velodrome, but though I really like this stem, it ain’t gonna be the star.

Why? Well, take a look at the heavy hitters in the World Cup track scene, and you’ll see that their bikes are really low profile. Whether they are riding carbon or aluminium, the tops of the headsets are already so low that there is no need for a severely down angled stem to get the bars suitably low. Indeed, 3T’s new Scatto sprint bar has a very short drop, and I bet it’s so that a rider can use a stem that isn’t angled up so much. So called “pista” or “track” stems date back to a time when track riders used steel bikes with horizontal top tubes and very little seatpost exposed, which placed the bars quite high by modern standards unless a pista stem was used. And the days of steel bikes being ridden to Olympic gold medals on the track are past.

Took this photo on a ride late yesterday before the snow arrived. Finished the ride with a few flakes falling on me and a few inches on the ground today. Realized when I took the photo that trainer rides would happen over the next few days and statused Facebook with

Would rather get dropped a 1000 times at Seward then ride the trainer.

Seward is our local Thursday night World Championships. I'm just not into the trainer and never have been. I think it's mostly because I work from a home studio and need to get out of the house. When I ride, I disconnect, and clear my head. I also don't ride with computers on my bike. I spend about 60 hours a week on the computer and need a break. The last thing I want to do is measure my joules when I'm just riding -- racing is another matter. I do like having an iPhone with me and use it for photos and GPS routes. Spin class? Whatever.

I've known cyclists that will watch a tour tape and ride a trainer for hours. How about you? Do you hate the trainer or sweat it out for hours on end?

Handbuilt bikes in small batches from Lovely Bicycles. This is Bryan Hollingsworth of Royal H Cycles in Somerville, MA, hand brazing a lugged stainless steel frame

Uploaded by Lovely Bicycle! | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

From the ever-growing Don't Steal Bikes Bro category, we've got the Wobble Bike.

The thief likely thought it was broken, confused his fellow bike-stealin' bros and the pawn shop was like, "uhm what's this." Unintentional humor in the news report includes the caption

DISTINCTIVE: The wobble bike

The bike bends in the middle and it is not really meant for the daily commute as the front fork has been turned around.

So if you see a Chav trying to ride this, call a Bobbie! The bike was bought by Cycling England, which gives the council funding for Cycle Cambridge. It cost £50 and joking aside, they use it a cycling events to get kids interested in the bike.

Mayor's Wife!

Also, don't steal a bike from the Mayor's Wife, Bro.

You may have noticed us mentioning a new product on Twitter and Facebook. We're launching the product next month and will issue codes to get free samples. Note that's not some "retweet, sign up, or like us" game we're playing. We're just getting the codes out first to our readers, fans, and followers.

We hope you like the product and tell your friends. We think it's cool and we're excited about it.

That’s a Mobile Social from a century ago. As long as bikes have been made, people rode them together, in groups. Raced them too.

Uploaded by National Library NZ on The Commons | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Also see our post on Hercules and more photos from India.

Uploaded by acme59 | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

I was looking at a Restoration Hardware catalog and thought, bikes from NAHBS should get featured in here with the same nostalgic flare

This is the bike that reminds you of grandpa's house or the aunt that gives you cookies.

This basket was found in a dust bin of a long-since shuttered textile factory and for this limited edition newsboy bike, we've found a cache of stove piping!

With props for the craftsmanship and dedication, I also wonder how bikes will grow from an enthusiastic niche with such a determined focus on the past and the old. What other industry puts so much energy into ancient designs? Gary Fisher said it to me last week in a call, "We've reached Peak Used Bikes."

Could place this bike in the pages of a Restoration Hardware. This one too.

Gary was admitting there's not much compelling about a new old bike when you can get an old bike and that old bike is far more authentic. Furthermore, there's no growth in old bikes. Builders are just taking market share from each other; especially, when the big companies get into the urban or city bike market. Where innovation drives other markets and companies, what drives a mixte, Dutch, or cargo bike? Don't get me wrong, as the name of this blog implies, we love the bike, but also are concerned about the lack of innovation and stagnant marketshare. In the 5 years we've been blogging urban cycling, we've yet to see anything really move the needle with a new, hit bike (that excludes racing bikes).

@bicycledesign asked recently if the bicycle industry need new ideas. Well, sure it does. Last week in @fredcast's Spokesmen 61, I said, "Safety Bike 3000." What I meant was we need to challenge the industry to innovate and focus on safety as a core design objective. I don't think there's a significant milestone in bike design since the safety bike saved people's heads from the penny farthing.

The reason I focus on safety is people get hit by cars and die and the number one thing potential cyclists say to me is that they're afraid to ride on the streets and wonder how I do it. You know how. So do I, but they're still afraid. We could take a queue from the car industry, where safety is in every marketing statement they make.

Really, what does a mixte or single speed from any company offer a cyclist that a bike from a pawn shop doesn't? Certainly nothing with built-in running lights, proximity sensors, GPS locators, or run flat tires.

Finally, if builders are going to relive and recreate the past, please do it with some marketing flair like Restoration Hardware does for yogurt bottles.

A Hungarian scientist introduced yogurt to the United States in the 1940s. It is no surprise that the Hungarians also handcrafted the perfect yogurt bottle. We rescued these hand-blown glass vessels from 60 years of retirement, giving them new purpose as vases or decorative accents for home and garden.

Swap out the word yogurt for bike and there's a catalog from NAHBS.

Our latest roadside finds are more of a curiosity. A bottle of Macnaughton and batteries.

Maybe the bottle and the batteries ran out at the same time or, as I said on Twitter,

Hey @Raleighs_Sally @gomeansgo riding in Hugga's hood? Found whiskey bottle + batteries

See what else we find while in the Bicycle Roadside Finds group on Flickr, like

• Creepy Garden Gnome
• Odd Statue
• Toilet Seat

Seen some bad road rash, had some myself, split my knee cap open last year in a Cross race, but nothing like this. That's more like an arrow than a splinter. Malaysia's Azizulhasni Awang crashed in the Men's Keirin Final during the Track Cycling World Cup at the National Cycling Centre, Manchester, England. Remarkably, he got up, stumbled across the line with a giant splinter in his leg, and won bronze!

Photo: AP Photo/Jon Super

Also see another photo from Getty images

Both photos via Daylife.

Video

A reader wrote to say

My view for six hours today...

That's some good branding and our favorite cap.

A couple of steel bikes with kick shift out for a ride and photoshoot in the city.

We'll have more on the belt-drive Moulton TSR2 and a long-term report on Torker KB2 soon.

Montgomery Ward Trike with front suspension and rusty. Spotted near Alki Beach.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Lance announced he's retiring again in an AP article and video conference. Our colleague Sal Rubial posted this photo to Facebook. It's from a USA Today cover story he wrote in 2001.

The Greenes are cancer survivors and members of the Lance Armstrong Foundation's fundraising Peloton Project. They were among 202 members who earned a short visit with Armstrong by raising more than $5,000 in the past year. The meeting was billed as an autograph session, a chance to get a signature on a yellow Tour de France replica jersey. But for the participants, it was almost a spiritual encounter.

Photo: USA Today Cover via Sal Ruibal.

Those were the days. As I wrote in Choosing Sides

The cycling community has, I think, chosen sides. You probably have. I don’t know if he’s done dope, but do know it’s the topic we’re discussing in the bike shop, on rides, and online.

Now we'll get into legacy discussions, the wins, and possibly a prosecution. As cyclists, we must realize millions more people thank Lance for what he's done off the bike then on. For them Livestrong is spiritual and full of hope. He's a saint.

What do you think of his retirement and legacy?

Readied for NAHBS, a Truss Bike by antbikemike.

Uploaded by antbike | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

We get all kinds of pitches in email and also see some crazy bike-related products on gadget blogs. Last week I saw the TurboSpoke and made a note to return to the site because I did have spoke cards on my bike. My Sears bike.

Where I see this working is on a cargo bike that's already ludicrous looking and, of course, Single Speed Cross Worlds. On Bettie, I've got a basket in front, a motor in the middle, and hey an exhaust system!

At Cross races, they'll hear you coming and you could ask a mechanic to work on it in the pits. A conversation piece on a social ride? Sure and I'd get the card that sounds like a lowered japanese sedan with a buuuuuuwhaaapaaa! exhaust sound. A must is to pare the Turbospoke with POWERwheels.

Reader Amy wrote to ask

Hi Bike Hugger, I'm not sure if you will have an answer for my question (or if you even answer questions) but do you know where I can find a good Women's Fit drop bar and headset? I have a Marin mountain bike and I absolutely love their thinner handlebar made just for us ladies but they only sell a flatbar. I was hoping to fit my road bike with a thinner drop bar but all I can seem to find are boys drop bars. Thank you for your help! Amy

Thanks for writing. Women's fit is always an issue. To your question, Mark V replied

Unfortunately, there is no women's bar to replace the boy's bar on that Marin...but I do know a gay bar that might work for you! Seriously, take the bike into a decent bike shop for help.

We’ve back at SXSW with Triple the Hugga this year, so we wanted to summarize it one place.

• Built— Our flavor of a maker, hacker, DIY, Ignite-style event, with the bike as a backdrop.
• Core Conversation— What Exactly Are We Doing on the Web. Kevin Tamura and Byron we’ll take a good look at just what it is we are doing and where we are going on the Web.
• Mobile Social— We’re back in Austin, riding, blogging, partying. Please to ride with us and have a good time.

That makes for a full day. We’re making and telling, then talking, and riding. After that? Tacos and beer!

We Want to Help

Bike Hugger wants to help and we’ve got so much going on, we even get confused. So we made a support site. Ask questions about Built and the MoSo. Wondering what my first name is or do I even have one? Ask and we’ll answer.

We’ve carried lots of goods and gear with our cargo bike, like a workbench (video), but not a tree. Greg Raisman got a good deal on some trees and hauled them with his bike and a trailer.

Uploaded by gregraisman | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Remember that story about the Cindy v. the Raccoon? She has these decals on her bike now.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Remember when it was anorexic models and mountain bikes? We know Kate wouldn't have made it a mile or so without any calories to burn in her emaciated body or muscles to get over the slightest hill. The black and white, the silhouette of a body in a bikini likely made men want to buy a Manitou bike and women want to not eat.

I don't remember seeing models on bikes during the heroin chic look, but a Tumblr blog will likely find it.

Source is in Blackshine scans.

After a long ride, sometimes feel like this. Worn out and through.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

This bike was made for the Topeka Community Cycle Project

Through a youth program, earn-a-bike program, and work bike program volunteers refurbish bicycles that would otherwise take up space in a landfill giving new life and utility to bicycles. The Topeka Community Cycle Project promotes self-reliance, sustainability, and healthful living in Topeka.

Uploaded by tropicofkansas | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

In prior best frame material debates, pundits would take sides on aluminum, carbon, steel, or Ti. Even combinations of those materials "tuned" to the best ride. There were a few instances of beryllium and other exotic materials, but eventually carbon and aluminum pushed steel and Ti to specialty builders. Steel did hang around like an unwelcome guest at the party in manufacture's line. Chromoly was used for low-end hybrids or inexpensive campus cruisers. A material that was loved for a century by cyclists, had cheap components hung on it and was sold as hybrid, comfort bikes. If bikes have personalities, and I think they do, those were sad years for steel.

In the past few years though, cross, urban, and fixed-gears bike trends have brought steel back. You could argue with product managers whether they did for the ride and their customer's benefit or there was an aluminum shortage and they got better margins with steel. Some even insisted that steel was greener, but when pushed had no facts to prove that; especially, when their factories are in countries that don't manufacture to modern, clean standards.

Your school days are over with this bike. This is a commuter that'll keep up with the Big Yellow bus on the flats, but the hills are another matter. Just up that riser, you'll grab for gears that aren't machined into the internally-geared hub.

Having finally ridden the Luggernaut after getting it for New Years and noticing the details, I think Traitor released the bike for the ride. They like it and want you too. They believe in steel and manufacture their entire line with it.

Ride this bike into the sunset and nearest pub. That's what it wants to do. It's a pub-crawler

We share their enthusiasm for lugged steel, but an enthusiastic ride is stalled at the first steep rise in the road. I wondered if this bike was geared for the Bonneville Salt Flats, cause there's not a hill you're going to spin over, even with 3 speeds. Besides San Fran and Seattle, I know other cities have hills, including outside of the downtown core of Portland. The thick as a brick, puncture-proof, Halo Twin Rail Courier tire isn't going to help you go fast. When it wears out, replace it with one that rolls well.

Note the surfboard holder and the rear pegs for a passenger.

Uploaded by jeremyhughes | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

With this photo, may we introduce to you, the next Vélocouture, another potential social cycling trend ... cowboy bike rides in the desert.

Cowboy Bike!

These photos were taken circa 1900 and are of a modern sheepherder, his dog, and bike.

Other captions:

• San Francisco Critical Mass, 1902
• Portland bike commuter, Circa 2009
• Meet the King of the Fixed Gear Frontier
• Brokeback Cyclists
• West of Portlandia

Photo: Powerhouse Museum Collection

In light of Huffington Post and AOL’s shotgun wedding designed to fill the net with crap just to drive traffic—we just wanted to let you know that we do this for the love. We don’t linkbait, we don’t write posts to capture buzz or to rank high in the trends. We do this organically for the community. We figure the more people there are to ride with the better. We also think that if we make good products, people will buy them and we can work on eliminating ads and making Hugga cleaner and fresher.

We won’t sell your data, we’re not hijacking your Facebook posts or your statuses. There aren’t a bunch of VC suits pushing us to grab mindshare, it’s just us and our bikes.  

We’ve already moved to Happy Cog Hosting, a new blogging app is next, and then we’re focusing on our events, and online store. You’ll eventually see more and better content with less clutter.

The driver parked in my spot!

Normally I roll up late afternoon and deliver the goods.

After chatting about the freight business, he let me borrow his handtruck. UPS drivers are working late these days. Rolling heavy trucks with extra packages from the storm delays in the midwest.

As Pete said

After being smashed in the face with a big lethargy stick this afternoon I decided to get my singlespeed out and go for a play. One of the really nice things about living in York is that you don’t have to ride for very long to get to places like this.

Some of our best rides happen when we cancel or reschedule a meeting. Interesting things happen when an effort is made to disengage and disconnect. We learned that If you put energy into the pedals instead of the keyboard, the returns are high.

There’s a proven ROI in riding, at least for us.

Uploaded by Pete Lambert | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

By now you know that Bike Hugger is doing something different at this year’s SXSW with Built. Well that’s not all, Byron and I will also host a core conversation around the topic: What exactly are we doing on the web?

On the surface this seems like such an innocuous question with an easy answer. But, dig a little deeper and you you find yourself mired in answers, some of even contradicting each other. And that’s okay. After all, our industry is under constant change and we are still forming our building blocks and principals.

Our core conversation will take a step back and start digging into these answers and seeing where they take us, maybe even sacrificing a golden calf along the way. We’ll take a good look at just what it is we are doing and where we are going.

Last year Byron spoke with Doug Ulman in a core conversation. Those are speakers and attendees in a room just talking with no screens, podiums, our presentation. They look like this.

Swarm, a small design firm in Salt Lake are cyclists who like beer. Well that's familiar sounding and they had this idea for a new product. Don't know Swarm, but we've got much in common with bikes, beer, and making products. So Swarm decided they want to combine a seat collar with a bottle opener and then figured how much time and money it takes to bring a new product to market.

15K is more than they'd make passing the cycling cap around the pub, or likely find with a bank or investors, so they launched a Kickstarter campaign.

Beer Opening Seat Collar with Quick Release

Manufactured using premium extruded and CNC machined 6061 aluminum the clamp openers are also anodized in 5 colors. Available in quick release too.

They'll want to test these and I'm sure they will. A novelty seat post collar isn't something you want to snap on your bike. I had a collar snap once and rode for miles standing up. Seat posts collars are a necessary function of a frame and when you decide to make it open bottles too, let's hope its primary function is to hold the post.

That’s a good looking bike from On One. I raced an On One single speed last year and to put it politely it was, “not a fav.” This bike looks like a whole different level from On One.

Uploaded by placid casual | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

South of Seattle in the flats and hills of Kent you'll find this Col. It's not particularly steep or long, but fast enough to have you gasping and reaching for gears that aren't there. It's ridden at least once a week, every week, by the Novara crew on their lunch ride. They know every curve, bump, and rise in the road. If you happen to ride with them, or they come up you, it's best to take their cues. Follow what they do. If they move you move. They shift you shift.

Lunch Rides

We've heard of other legendary lunch rides and REI employees have been ripping each other's legs for more than two decades. What's your lunch ride? Is it legendary?

Right around the bend there on the left, is where they'll hit it hard.

Updates

Added deadlines and notes on the format of the event today.

Bike Hugger Wants to Help

We've got a Help Desk set up for you. We hope it answers all your questions about Built and maybe more. Like why does that cyclist always half wheel you or is your chain too dirty?

More Talks

There's still time to get your talk in. If you're not attending SXSW, we're announcing more Builts soon in Portland and elsewhere.

Suggested

What do you make? Tell is about it. We want to know what you do off the computer and have already accepted talks about chicken coops, BBQs, and art installations.

Stopped by Woodinville bikes for a spot check on the upcoming Spring season. The manager reported sales are good and the S-Works is their hot bike.

Clean Workbench

Last time we saw a workbench that clean was at REI's Flagship store. Mine doesn't come close to that organization.

Matte Finish

Besides the hotness of that look, we've finally got a paint job that won't flake off if you snot rocket on it, breathe too heavy, or a fig newton falls out of your mouth and onto the top tube. High-end carbon bikes have almost always had what we can best describe as, "crap paint." I had a Madone once and watched paint flake off of the BB while I was lubing the chain. The old, "stiff as shit," M2 S-works had a similar finish.

During my first trip to Chicago, I went out for a ride in Millennium Park and stopped to marvel at a bicycle rental center. It is a glass and steel structure and brought the eye to the bike. As an entry to the park, and a focal point, it made clear that this part of the city was for pedestrians and bicycles. Architecture should make a statement and indicate what the building's purpose is. The new Union Station Bicycle Transit Center is based on a cross-section of a wheel with tension and compression forces holding it together.

The facility which is located outside of Washington's Union Station is designed to be a highly visible catalyst in the promotion of bicycle use. The enclosure is strategically placed between two turn-of-the-century landmarks - Union Station and the Post Office - to meet the needs of thousands of tourists and commuters who pass through the transportation hub on a daily basis.

The center is designed by KGP Design Dtudio. Reader Design Boom's post for more photos and renderings.

An instrument of mass destruction or a complicated technical solution to aide in simple acts of vandalism. Also a bike-based, robot, graffiti machine.

robo-rainbow from mudlevel on Vimeo.

Hat tip to @indi_gone and we've requested a contact with the bot maker to invite them to Built at SXSW.

A skilled cabinet maker, Preston Brown, turns a bike hobby into a business with Driftwood Cruisers.

This is a bike you're likely not going to see in handbuilt bike shows, but look at the craftsmanship and "small-batch," one-of-a-kind creation. Each is built from premium hardwoods and custom finishes.

Preston has brought a hotrod aesthetic to bike building and he's obviously doing it for the love. Read more about him in this profile from AZ Central.

Would like to see how he'd fair in an ultimate utility bike challenge. Really what's more city bike than a cruiser that looks cool or the utility of riding on a boardwalk on a Summer evening?

I’ve been running SRAM and Shimano 10sp wide-range cassettes for almost a year now with road shifters, as well as having installed them on a number of custom bikes. They work pretty well. In fact, my SRAM Red shifters/X.9 mtn rear derailleur/XT 11-34 cassette shifts with crisp perfection. I don’t have really strong preferences for SRAM vs Shimano cassettes, and I’ve installed SRAM, Wipperman, and Shimano 10sp chains. But there are certain recipes for shifters and derailleurs.

SRAM Double-Tap shifters (Red, Force, etc): for 11-32 cassettes, you can use either the longer cage Apex derailleur (which is nice and inexpensive), or any of the 10sp mtn rear derailleurs. The Apex rear derailleur is rated for a 32T cog and might not work for cassettes bigger with cogs bigger than that (eg, 11-36). In my experience, you can’t often cheat the max cog rating of a SRAM derailleur. Better to go with the 10sp mtn derailleur. Make sure you choose a cage length with enough chain wrap capacity to deal with the combined ranges of the chainrings and cogset. Also, SRAM’s unfortunate nomenclature for mtn components can be confusing. For example, there is a X.9 rear derailleur that is 10sp and several generations of X.9 that are 9sp. Only the 10sp stuff will work.

Shimano STI: for 10sp road cassettes and chains, the best choice is 9sp Shimano mtn rear derailleurs, though older 8sp might be passable. New Shimano 10sp mtn derailleurs are completely INCOMPATIBLE with any road shifters. Also, the Shimano 9sp rear mtn derailleurs seem to be a fairly tolerant of exceeding the rated max cog size (ie, they were never meant to accept cogs bigger than 34T but in practice they’ll work on a 36T with margin to spare). Again watch the chain capacity.

Campagnolo: you’re screwed, thanks for playing. Well, not completely. Campagnolo doesn’t make cassettes with cogs larger than 29T,and Campag 10sp spacing (cog-to-cog) is physically wider with different mounting splines than the Shimano/SRAM standard. And Campagnolo rear derailleurs aren’t meant to work with cogs bigger than 29T….so what part isn’t completely screwed? Here’s some voodoo that I’ve tried. Take Campagnolo 10sp Ergopower shifters, SRAM 10sp mtn rear derailleur, and a SRAM or Shimano 10sp mtn cassette (on a wheel with the Shimano-type splines). It seems all wrong, but if you calculate cable pull for shifters vs cog-to-cog spacing vs derailleur ratios, it works out. Even better, other people like Lennard Zinn have been doing this with SRAM road derailleurs for a few years. Now that the SRAM mtn derailleurs (10sp) have the same ratio as the road derailleurs, this magic mix is even more useful. I’ve installed that on one customers bike so far.

Note: all this info sets aside issues of cranks. front derailleurs, and front shifters. That is a very complex story of integrated systems, shit that sorta works, and then stuff that just doesn’t. The basic rule is don’t mix and match there.

This is a headtube facer & reamer tool. The reaming portion of the tool is made by Park and has a diameter of 43.95mm. The facing tool is also from Park and has a diameter of 57mm. Bill Davidson combined the two into a single tool for the lathe chuck. This was the last step necessary before the frameshop starts building my next bike project. It’s a titanium bike with S&S couplings and a couple features that have never been used on a Davidson before. This tool is for one of them, an internal headset. With headset cups and bearings nestled within the headtube, the ID of the headtube balloons out from 34.0mm to 44.0mm with an OD of 50mm. The new tool is machine the headtube post-welding to fit the Chris King “InSet” (internal cup) headset.

Muscled this delivery today and even with electric assist, that's still a heavy load to handle.

3 SKUs, 190 Units, 7 Boxes of Clip-n-Seals. 215 pounds.

I use just enough power to keep the bike moving with my legs and a steady hand to keep the bike straight.

If they make us a custom one with our logo, we'd put a Throne on every bike. They ship in a variety of flavors, including King of the Cobbles, 'Merica, and Beer.

An iconic photo from Cartier-Bresson that showed up in a delete-me photo pool on Flickr with 11 pages and counting of comments. The comments deride and praise the photo with a few commenters noticing "hey that's an iconic Cartier-Bresson. Is it in here as a joke?"

Iconic Photo sets the record straight

The photo above was taken in 1932 in Hyeres, a small town on the French Riviera, and has been featured in many retrospectives on Cartier Bresson’s work. The decisive moment here nicely juxtaposes the fleeting biker with the spiral staircase; the poignancy of the moment is accentuated by the fact that although the photo seems as if it was taken accidentally or on the spot, we can also imagine Cartier-Bresson crouching over those railings in Hyeres for hours, waiting for the right instant.

When I saw the photo it reminded me of the collective advice David Schloss and Martin Gisborne gave me about street photographer.

Composition must be one of our constant preoccupations, but at the moment of shooting it can stem only from our intuition, for we are out to capture the fugitive moment, and all the interrelationships involved are on the move. -- Martin quoting Cartier-Bresson

The difference between the pros and amateurs is pros take thousands of shots to get one good one. -- David

Last year I said we were working hard to increase the quality of the media and content we publish. Aspiring to a street shooter of bikes in cities has me capturing moments like this one in Hyeres. Every photo that I consider good ones have been accidents so far . . .

As it was told to me by @mzsitka

Riding to work this morning I came across seagulls near Pike's Place who had gotten some fish parts. One of them panicked and dropped it's fish belly inches from my face. After recovering from that, another seagull dive bombed me to join a feeding frenzy at a 30 pound garbage bag of popcorn.

I replied with

I ran over a seagull once. It flew into my wheel and I heard a pop as I rode over it. Took off quick fearing its flock would attack me or something. Felt bad for a while and then realized plenty of seagulls by the sea and maybe it survived. Didn't see it again.

Photo: David Schloss

Mentioned a few times after using a prototype that Windows new mobile OS is, well, entirely different and massively improved. Also noticed today that the OS ships with bicycle photos, including this one

and another of a rain bike with race number. I ride with several MS peeps -- probably know that bike. As we learned a few years ago, they've got thousands of commuters (video). It's also another example of how the bike connects people across a variety of demographics and devices.

Happy Cog Hosting is launching this week and we’ve been with them since they started their beta late last year. I’ve let you know we moved to a new host and that’s who it is.

We’re in good company with them and hope you noticed the improvements. We’re still working on some issues and will continue to make changes. Our frequency of posting will return to daily later this week too. We’ve got plenty to write about now that our website is more stable.

Update

Happy Cog Hosting has launched with these words from Grey Hoy.

”Why do you want to offer hosting? Hosting is hard!” We’ve heard quite a bit of that lately from our friends. Hosting is hard, no doubt. And that’s exactly why we want to offer it … The only way to get on board is to receive an invitation through a friend or colleague, so keep your eyes on Twitter and your email.

If you’re interested, we’ve got invites. Also see Cameron Moll’s post on Happy Cog Hosting.