The Rare Bicycle with a Fairing

   What better way to start your week than with a look back at some awesome vintage bicycles. These babies were the partially marketing of motorcycles to children, and partially misguided 'advancement' of the sport. First off, the Motocykes, the motorcycle for kids. One of the neighbor kids had one of these, and I have to say, they were pretty cool:

'They'll draw a crowd, and leave it behind!'

  Next is BMX legend Hutch's foray into bicycles with fairings:

Complete with disc wheels!

   I think this is an attempt to simulate the popular sport bikes of the day.

The Suzuki RG125

   Finally, a bike that is actually pretty awesome. Even through a reverse image search, the only thing I learned was that it's Japanese, and the general opinion is that it's, "pretty cool". And I fully agree!

Bike of teh future?/?

Friday WTF: Vintage Bike Tricks!

   For your Friday viewing pleasure, a collection of vintage tricks, performed by vintage people. First, the track stack, performed by brother and sister duo Tony and Angela Bower

   Next, a series of feats of balance, displayed on notecards, that were included in cigarette packs and ammunition bandolier casings. All the great moves are here; The Flying V, The Falling V and Testicle Destroyer (versions 1-4)

Last, a shoulder ride extraordinaire, performed by conveniently conjoined twins Mike and Ben Seaver.

Enjoy your weekend!

North American Handmade Bike Show 2013: Part 2

   And it's time for round two! Enough chatter, on to the bikes:

  This time trial bike was a real piece of art. I really recommend opening these up and looking at them larger (by clicking on them). The bike was a 1x10 with DI2 electronic shifting. The shifters are small round black buttons in the end of the aero bars. The battery is a custom, USB powered and located in the frame. 

The headset and brakes are also really wild. Completely internal cable routing to rear facing V-brakes. The levers are mounted on the front of the crown height bars (a hand is on the rear brake).

   Even the front wheel was out of control. The hub was real narrow and the outer part of the axle was wing shaped.

   This Huffy was the bike that won the Giro in 1988 by Andrew Hampsten. Huffy used to be a major contender in these races.

   This Schlumpf Innovations crank featured an internal 2 speed, operated by buttons on the end of the bottom bracket spindle you hit with your heels. I got a chance to try this out, and it was surprisingly easy and natural feeling.

   Here's Zac trying out a bakefeits cargo bike. Man, one of these would be fun with a pile of kids in it!

   This bike wins most eccentric paint

   And lastly, Geoff is confused and enraged by a 4 chainring crank... a quadruple. For use on tandems, apparently, of which there were many.

   That's the full report from the North American Handmade Bike Show. Want more? Check out bikerumor for some extensive posts on individual products.

North American Handmade Bike Show 2013: Part 1

   Last weekend I had the chance to attend the NAHMBS. Clunky acronym aside, this was a really fun and awesome show. I'm going to skip the pleasantries and jump into the pics!

   One of the titanium bike companies had a sweet little custom frame.

   Festka was showing off what was a pretty ridiculous track bikes. The fade on this was really beautiful.

   Sanomagic is a company working with wooden sailboats and their interiors, and put their considerable skills into this bike. Wood everything! Seat, wheels, bar plug ends, cable ends... Everything!  It was a pretty incredible sight!

   Shimano was there with a couple cool things as well. here Shimano has combined the Alfine 8 speed internal hub with a DI electronic shifting system. Since it's internal, there's little readout on the handlebar telling you what gear you are in.

   Shimano's second cool technology was a clear plastic disc brake set, showing the inner workings of a hydraulic disc brake. A 4 piston brake no less!

Lastly, for this post, here's a bike with two awesome pieces of tech: The first is a cable-to-hydraulic adaptor. Brake cables go in; hydraulic cables come out. It was a sweet way of running juice brakes on a road or cross set up, even if a little clunky.

   The Second cool thing on the same bike was some carbon composite brake rotors. I mean, if you're going to go to the trouble of using the hydraulic converter, might as well go all out! You may recall I posted about some similar rotors a while back, so it was awesome to see them in real life.

Well, that's all for now - But there are more pictures and more awesome thing to check out, so stay tuned!

Marshal Mesa vs Hall/Heil : Trail vs Road

   There are two pretty fantastic rides from our place in Boulder I frequent, and with our not-so-recent move to Gunbarrel, I've been contemplating how to get to them. Bus? Nothing like sitting on public transit in skin tight Lycra. Car? What am I? Some kind of invalid? So I'm riding to the trail head LIKE A MAN. I have ridden each form the front door, and it's surprisingly not so bad. It is a great way to get additional miles and also maximize a workout.

OK, to compare the two trails, here's a graphic:

Road        Mixed Use          Trail

   Let's start with Marshal Mesa. This ride takes you parallel Foothills and Cherryvale, then along about a 22 mile loop form the Marshal trailhead heading West toward Eldorado Canyon then back East toward Superior. This ends up back at the trailhead and back to Gunbarrel the same way:

Marshal Mesa +

Marshal Mesa elevation profile

Marshal Mesa = 45.5 miles

• Road: 16.5
• Mixed: 14.5
• Trail: 14.5

Distribution

   Next is Hall / Heil. This goes North on one of any number of country roads paralleling 63rd North. Once you get to Lyons a quick lap around Hall followed by a harrowing trip through the rock garden. Back through town and then South up Picture Rock and down Heil. Then it's back down Neva to the house.

 Hall - Picture Rock - Heil

Hall / Heil  elevation profile

Hall / Heil = 43 miles

• Road: 25
• Mixed: 2
• Trail:  16

Distribution

   So the result is that there is a bunch more road on hall / Heil. The mixed use stuff, mostly jogging trails and dirt roads really are nicer than the paved roads for riding a mountain bike on. The trade off is that Hall / Heil is a lot more technical and more fun mtn biking. so, If you're looking to ride form my house, for some reason, and feeling like more fast miles, hit up Marshal Mesa. If you're feeling like some more technical trails at the expense of some road riding, hall is your best bet!

Friday WTF: Low Budget Flatland

   I found myself in the weird part of YouTube the other night, and came across this:

   The crowd is really getting into it! I wish I knew more about this but all I can say is it looks urban. 

Weekend Project: Pallet Coat Rack

  Last weekend Natalie and I decided to take down the generic coat rack in the entryway and put up something a little more modern! Here is the space before we got started:

So much room for activities!

   Natalie found a pretty cool idea on Pinterest, so we tried to replicate it. We both liked the kind of abstract look and uncluttered look. Initially we were looking at pallets, but they were fairly rough and kind of hard to come by. I suggested we build something to our liking. Here's a start:

Laying out the design

   Once I cut out all the parts, I painted it the color of the trim in the entryway. On to ASSEMBLY!

The frame

   I set up a small jig to space out the slats and screw holes. Since this is going to be the first thing you see when walking in the door, I wanted to be sure that the details were good. 

Nearly complete!

   I also built in some small shelves for holding keys and stuff. They are kind of hidden so it looks pretty clean .

Objects shown more blue than they appear

   And of course Max was lots of help...

'My heart yearns to run...'

   Hanging was a bit of an ordeal. Unfortunately, I had about 50% success rate finding studs, but I'll spare you pictures of me patching holes. Eventually, I was able to get everything mounted:

Ready to be used!

   ... And then I took max for a nice run!