Interesting news from Atomlab Bikes

Wandered over to the AtomLab bikes site today to find this message. Seems that they're discontinuing a few of their products, namely frames and cranks, to focus on pedals, bars, stems and wheels. It sounds like they grew quickly and are trying to curb overhead and poor turnaround in favor of service.

  Atomlab has had a pretty cool line for a while. They had a prototype hydraulic brake and even an upside-down dirt jumping fork a year or so ago:

Nifty!

So, as some companies grow at the expense of quality and craftsmanship, others are focusing on how to keep riders happy and making bombproof products. Hopefully this works out for them, because their produts are pretty cool!

Cool Bike Design of the Day

Sadly, only one shot of this bike, but check out the awesome split top tube:

The standout bike on this rack

The frame reminds me of the old Torker designs:

The original split top tube!

Home Made Fender

Got caught in the rain yesterday, and I'm proud of my makeshift fender:

Functional?

 It was pretty wet when I got home, but not as wet as it could have been.

Epic Road Bike Shot of the Day

About how much time does it takes to learn this trick? You may notice that the guy is wearing skate shoes, which reminded me that this is probably part of this video. Still, impressive!

High Commitment!

Thanks to BRKNTEETH for the sweet link. Check out his site for more bicycle awesomeness. 

WTF of the Day: Slingshot bikes

Behold the Slingshot Farmboy 29er frame. This is a 2007 model that is on the cutting edge (at the time) of the 29er craze. I like to see this kind of forward thinking, even if it's so wacky looking:

How much do you trust this cable?

Quite the steer tube 

The frame design is centered around a flexible piece of fibre where the top tube meets the seat tube, and then a cable and spring for the down tube. The frame flexes in the middle, rather than at either end such as a conventional suspension system. Pretty rad. 

Pretty Cool Retro Build

At Strange Brewery in Denver, this nice ride popped up:

Retro Cool

This was a Raleigh frame... either vintage or a new steel build... outfitted with a new Ultegra group, some Mavic wheels and even a new headset. It also had some nice classic touches like a Brooks saddle and some leather bar tape. The only exception was the super saggy saddle bag. This ride deserves better than that!

The Cockpit

I thought that this was a really nice, clean build... maybe steel isn't dead after all!

Crazy Tandem of the Day

Spotted this sweet ride in Denver a few weeks ago - a folding tandem bike!

Size Reduced by nearly 8%

WTF of the Day

What is this I don't even...

I still want to ride it real bad...

Great Shot from Koppenberg!

I raced Koppenberg in Superior last weekend, and some photographer got a great pic of both me and Natalie:

So Photogenic!

About 15 min after this pic was taken I suffered catastrophic tube failure followed by pump failure and ended up taking a leisurely 25 min walk back to my Natalie, and then another 30 min back to our car. Not my best race, but not my worst either!