PROLLY IS NOT PROBABLY

Posts Tagged ‘frame builders’

Recent Roll: 2013 NAHBS!

NAHBS. For some, it represents a culmination of a year’s efforts and creates unbearable stress and deadlines. For others, it’s a place to see all your friends, have a drink, or twenty and dork out over bikes. Then there’s the media, scrambling around with mini recorders, LCD lighting for their DSLR rigs, flashes, notepads and sweaty brows. Somewhere in between all of this, I fall into place.

Over the years of covering NAHBS, I’ve gone from taking it very seriously to finding a middle ground (thanks to Tracko for always talking some sense into my bull-headed mind). Halfway between the all-nighter, hot tub hopping, bourbon binge fest and the casual conversation in a pizza restaurant is where NAHBS fell for me this year. I didn’t stress about how to cover what, I just showed up and went with what I felt was right.

This Recent Roll is an amalgamation of my time in Denver. Mixed in are some convention center shots, some party pics from the #OutsideisFree event, a few from the Mile High Messenger Challenge alleycat and some around the town photos.

I already can’t wait until next year! Again, this photoset is a little long, so I narrated each photo.

Leica M7
Zeiss 28mm f2.8 T* ZM
Neopan 400

Yashica T4
Neopan 400

Shop Visit: Avery County Cycles

For me, the best part about NAHBS is being submerged into the host city’s community and getting to know some of the local names. I first heard of Avery County Cycles through a video that I posted about a year ago. Josh seemed like a good guy, with attainable aspirations and a love for frame building. One of the things that struck me in his interview was his commentary on “more frame builders are a good thing”. That’s a weighted statement but in Josh’s eyes, and as something I can understand, having a local framebuilder that serves the local community is important. In today’s world, everyone orders frames from all over. You simply email in your fit information and 6 months later, your bike arrives. It’s great for business and no builder would ever complain about being busy, but that statement really struck me.

In the two years Josh has been building frames, he’s been catering to his local community. Starting out with frames for friends to practice his torch skills and moving up to a full fleet of single speed cross bikes for Pearl Velo. His space sits next to Berkeley Supply Co and Pearl Velo, just up the hill in Denver. The energy of these three storefronts is intoxicating. Honestly, the only comparison I can draw is how the old FYXO Hub and Shifter Bikes shared a space. A couple of motivated young men, looking to just do shit right. Josh’s work is very much localized to the Denver / Boulder area and he’s just one of the many faces building bicycles in Colorado. I honestly believe what he’s doing is legitimate and his community respects him for that. His work won the Rookie of the Year award at NAHBS, so he’s doing something right!

Check out some photos I shot of Josh working during my stay in Denver in the Gallery.

Leica M7
Leica Summicron 50mm f2
Zeiss 28mm f2.8 T* ZM
Neopan 400

Mamiya 7ii
80mm
Portra 400

Winter Bicycles: Tool Series

WinterToolSeries

Here’s an update to the run of production frames that Winter displayed at NAHBS. Dubbed the Tool Series, these frames offer an easily accessible, handmade road frame designed for everything from daily use to road racing. Each Tool Series frame is made in Oregon by Winter Bicycles using fillet brazing and is fit to the rider. These bikes are built to order, feature a Pegoretti Falz Carbon Fork, a Cane Creek 110 Headset and come in two color schemes: Pewter and Hammervein (pictured). See more at Winter and check out additional photos at the Winter Flickr.

Firefly Detail Photos by Heather McGrath

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Photo by Heather McGrath

For Firefly’s latest build, they had Boston photographer Heather McGrath come in for some detail photos. I’ve been following this bike’s process over on their Tumblr and the end product is quite nice. Check out more detail photos from the Firefly titanium and carbon road at their Flickr and see the full build right here.

2013 NAHBS Gallery

“builder’s hands are always dirty…”

NAHBS is always a difficult event to cover. There’s no feasible way for me to go to every booth and talk to the builders, or select one of their frames to shoot, so I tend to just walk around, aimlessly and stop to shoot when something catches my eye. This Photoset is filled with randomness from the show, check the captions for more information and check out my other NAHBS coverage here.

2013 NAHBS: Alchemy Bicycle Co

The guys at Alchemy began their operation here in Austin and last year the company relocated to Denver, the home of the 2013 NAHBS. Since relocating, the team has pulled together an empire of steel, carbon and titanium bikes all of which were displayed in their booth. My favorite was the stainless road with Dura Ace.

I didn’t get the chance to visit their facilities in Denver, but all the more reason to return to that awesome city in the spring.

Beautiful Bicycle: Wilis’ Rosko Team King Kog Cross

Ok, ok. I’m playing hookie right now from the interwebs and am probably staring down the rear brake yolk on this beaut, ripping through the limestone and singletrack of Austin. There’s something to be said about a bike that’s usually seen from the rear during a race, which is what a lot of Wilis‘ race companions had the pleasure of admiring. Cross bikes aren’t meant to be dainty, precious objects that you wipe down every day. They’re meant to be dirty, muddy and fast.

Wilis showed up to Austin with his Rosko cross bike and it was too clean to shoot photos. We’ve been riding a lot, #corndogging and just having a blast hitting the local trails and hills. After a couple days of that, his bike looked good and happy, i.e. primed to shoot photos. I love Seth Rosko’s work and was very pumped on his grassroots support for King Kog during this year’s cross season. The team did well and the bikes did exceptionally well, even Wilis’ Campagnolo beast saw the podium on more than one occasion.

There’s something very metal about a black bike and this one’s got battle scars just about everywhere, save for the Cadence bar tape. Oh and the Pearl Velo bottle was my touch! We’re both fans of H.G. Wells.

Argonaut Cycles by Brian Vernor Free Digital Download

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I’m so pumped on this Argonaut book. I’ve got the physical copy and it’s one of the best pieces of branding to come from a cycling company I’ve seen. Brian’s film photography might have something to do with it. Might..

“Brian Vernor did an amazing job capturing Ben’s vision and passion for ride quality and life on the bike. Argonaut is excited to publicly release the book, as only a select few have physical copies. Many thanks to Brian and David at Wilderness for helping us put this project together. We hope you enjoy it.”

Click here to download this incredible book for free!

In Roads: Handmade Bikes in Denver and Boulder

I’m still on kind of a Denver high and no, I’m not talking about the altitude. I really fell in love with that city and believe me, that’s a big deal considering it was under snow most of the time I was there. In Roads is the aforementioned documentary on handmade bikes in Denver and Boulder. Featuring Salvagetti Bicycle Workshop and Mosiac, with music by Trout Steak Revival. Great work Tyler!

Now I need to make it back when it’s warm!

Beautiful Bicycle: Pearl Velo Team SSCX by Avery County Cycles

As I await for my film to get processed and scanned, I figured I’d post a little bit of love for these two parties: Pearl Velo and Avery County Cycles. Last year, when Josh from Avery was hanging around Pearl Velo, he and Tyler chatted about making a run of singlespeed cross frames for the Pearl Velo ‘cross team. This one’s Tyler’s personal frame, the first from the batch.

He prefers his cross frames a bit smaller, with a positive rise stem to put him at the proper riding position. Built with Columbus Spirit tubing and a sparkle clear over the olive drab paint, this is a no-nonsense race machine.