Amhole with a Bike
Amhole with a bike, a nice one
Amhole is a term Seattleites use to describe Amazon employees who’ve taken over South Lake Union, a few regentrified blocks in the shadow of Space Needle where the south edge of an urban lake laps at the city. It’s where the will of a couple billionaires is reshaping a neighborhood and changing building height rules. Paul Allen tore down warehouses to build space that Amazon leases and Tom Douglas opens yet another themed restaurant. There are condos, apartments, retail, not enough parking or trees. Employees wearing Amazon badges on lanyards, like they’re at a never-ending tech conference, walk 3 x 3 on the sidewalks. Their chatter about important online matters continues until they detect you’re not one of them, then it’s like, “sorry to interrupt, please continue your strategery after I pass.”
It’s like the Alaskan gold rush started in this very restaurant
In the hood for a meeting about what we’re doing at SXSW next year, I spotted this bike.
Fendered and an Automatic hub
Hold up, that’s a Nishiki with a Pacific Northwest patina, custom wood fenders, and an automatix hub.
Sorry to interrupt again, but may I take your picture?
This Nishiki once had retro drivetrain and he showed me a photo of it.
“Send me that,” I said and thought he wasn’t an amhole at all, but another bike geek working in tech, like me.
Update
More photos of the retro-direct drivetrain mentioned above are on Matthew Weltman’s site.