Go Big or Go Home

You might have seen this over at Prolly's blog or at Heavy Pedal a few days ago. But Rick Anderson took this photo of Torey Thornton's rooftop drop and if you notice he's got some Antifreeze P35s.

Crazy.

Alo's Voyage....ur....

This past weekend, I was able to finish my latest bike. Hardly able to contain my excitement for it, I posted the bike over on my personal blog and figured it fits our '...because we ride' blog post series. So for today, my 'new' 1987 Schwinn Voyageur, enjoy:

Life's a Voyage-ur

That's right, life is a voyage. We're all going some where, we talk to people, make new friends and keep up with old ones. The story of my newest bike is some thing like that. 3 years ago, as many of you know, life brought me to the high five of Michigan after the time came for much needed change. One of the many people I have kept up with since moving is the one and only Guitar Ted. We've exchanged emails, gone for rides when I've made my way back to the homeland, and the such.

Recently, Mark [ask G-Ted] posted on his Twitter that a Xtracycle could be in the future for him. Being in the middle of a move and evaluating what I have, what I need and didn't need. In seeing that, I sent him a little what's up and said that I had a Xtracycle kit that had spent the last year in pieces since taking off the K-Monkey to finally get a mountain bike going. Since I was moving from a house to a studio, space was the issue and with 6 other bikes floating around having the Xtracycle wasn't the best idea.

I told Mark, I was looking for a touring bike and a few other odds and ends. And what do you know, Mark just so happened to have a 1987 Schwinn Voyageur gathering dust in his basement. A trade began to work itself out and through some middlemen the bike made its way here and the Xtracycle kit his way...

Here is what the Voyageur looked like when I got it:

The bike came with Campy barend shifters, Shimano 105 brake levers, Shimano Deore front deraileur, Shimano 6 speed rear, Suntour cranks, Blackburn front and rear racks. To be perfectly honest, I was so excited about getting the bike that I didn't really pay a whole lot of attention while I was taking it down to it's frame for paint. Yes, that's right, paint. I decided that I couldn't deny my desire to update the look of the bike and started on the 'winter' project right way.

I asked around to the guys in the wheel department at Velocity what a classic or pseudo-classic color for the bike might be and in the end I landed on a baby blue. As luck may have it, parts began to compile. As I stumbled onto the actual decal set from Alger Cyclery along with a few year old, yet still in the box 105 crank and 105 rear deraileur. I had the WTB Mountain Drop Bar floating around from my Trans Iowa set-up a few years back and decided that it would be a good way to go for touring. The canti brakes, front deraileur, Campy bar end shifters and 105 brake levers all cleaned up great with a little elbow grease. I couldn't help myself when I had the chance to bring the baby blue down onto the racks. I topped off the touring rig with a Shimano Dymo hub in the front, laced to Velocity Reflective Dyads [32 hole 3x front, 36 hole 4x rear], bronze Bottle Traps and a brown Chris King 1" headset.

So without much ado, the after:


I'm excited to get this thing out on the road, I could easily see this become my main commuter. Either way, there are 3 rides begging for this bike to be used: the November 13th/14th 200 mile Cadillac and Back installment: honoring the 29 men lost with the Edmond Fitzgerald, RAGBRAI, and my personal goal of riding around Lake Michigan. We'll see what become of it.

A Post-weekend, pre-weekend recap

On the verge of a new weekend, why not a recap of the past weekend. Matt and Alex headed up to the Fixed Gear Symposium in Traverse City, MI as part of the Third Coast Bicycle Festival that was going on there. I asked Matt to do a little write up and here's what he came back with this and a fair amount of photos [ for those of you who don't like to read or wanting to see reference photos they go in order to Matt's red notes, sorry if the formatting on today's post sucks]... Enjoy your 3 day weekend everyone!


Ever heard the story of creation, told by a Michigander? It generally includes the events associated with the formation of the globe, depending on the orator’s religious, spiritual or scientific views…but ends with a twist. Michigan, it turns out, is the handprint of God him/her/it self. This places Traverse City, Michigan and her twin, magnificent bays at the tip of the left ring finger of the creator of the universe. If you’ve ever been to Traverse, you realize that’s not much of a stretch.

This weekend I had the privilege of traveling to TC for the first Third Coast Bike Week and my fourth Fixed Gear Symposium. The Symposium is put on by Dennis of the Fixed Gear Gallery, who tirelessly organizes, promotes and executes a number of events glorifying the simplicity that is a fixed gear bicycle. My crew [::bikerack] and I arrived late Thursday night and set up camp [:: cinelli tent] in a back yard on Webster Street. We were graciously hosted by JW’s parents who have two wonderful dogs [::daag] and a very centralized location in the city, which proved to be a very effective base camp throughout the weekend. We rolled out to say hello to the town and have some drinks at U & I, when suddenly a cyclist veered in front of me and we collided head on. Needless to say I was a bit upset at his carelessness and the busted jaw I received as a result. Straightened out the handlebars, checked the Deep Vs for true (they were) and headed to the bar to cleanse my new wounds with a bit or rail tequila. Properly lubricated, we set out and pre rode the hill for Friday’s Wayne Street Hill Climb.

Alex competed and took home seventh place in the fixed division [::alex hill climb]…not too shabby! Jill took second [::jill # two hill climb] in the women's division, 2010 Hillclimb Times. With beer levels at an unacceptably low level, we headed to Right Brain Brewery and treated ourselves to a few of their fantastic brews. We departed and headed down to the Cherry Roubaix sprints, where Jay was able to capture third place in the highly competitive fixed division and first place in “doing it in style” [::jay sprint] division. The star of the show, however, was a guy on a BMX [::sprint BMX] who was keeping pace with kitted roadies for ¾ of the course. The crowd loved it! Since we had an early morning alleycat the next day, we all decided it would be best to rip around the city and consume copious amounts of beer for the rest of the night. We did so and casualties were minor, hilarity was major [::casey party], and the morning of course came too quickly.

After a good breakfast [::alleycat breakfast] (remember I’m on a liquid diet at this point), Bob and I rode the alleycat [::bob alleycat] at a leisurely pace. “Mustache” [::mustache] was the first rider back and took home a set of special edition B43 wheels. After awarding prizes and congratulations, we scooted over to the Ben's Cycle Polo Tournament, which was held inside the Cherry Roubaix Criterium Race circuit. Six teams competed for top honors, and our team (Bob, Casey {casey polo} and myself) was able to take second place after a disappointing shutout handed to us by the Ann Arbor team. Big Matt {big matt} is a fantastic goalie, and we played him all together too clean. Next time your @$$ is mine, Matt.

Jay won the shark competition [::jay shark] and took home a really nice Mission Workshop backpack. Nate from TC won the trackstand competition [::nate trackstand] and with it a slick Aerospoke front wheel. Thoroughly exhausted, we headed back to the Symposium tent and were treated to a taco bar [::tacos] complete with Katy’s own homegrown chicken. Yum…only took me one hour to down two tacos. We drank our fill, rode a bit and hit the sack. Sunday’s agenda included only two things, pack up and hit the beach [::bay]. What a fabulous weekend. Thanks again to Dennis for all the hard work and to the city for its hospitality. Can’t wait for next year!

Cutterskink.

You might have stumbled upon this over at Prolly's blog a few days ago but there is a stellar thing about it, this is a project we have had the privilege of being a part of for some time. As Patrick Seabase [being filmed/blogged by Ian White] riding on what can really only be said to be an epic fixed gear ride; and what rims is he rocking along the way? The one, the only... A23.

I'll just repost Ian's post from Tuesday, continue to check out their journey at their website Cutterskink.

Patrick Seabase x Grimsel Switzerland

This Summer has been a lot of fun, I have had the pleasure of joining Swiss cyclist Patrick Seabase on a few mountain rides, documenting what I feel are some truly amazing cycling achievements. I've witnessed sheer determination and guts as he's climbed and then descended alpine passes that would test professional and experienced road cyclists. Averaging speeds of 30-35km per hour over 120 km rides with descents at speeds of 75-80 km per hour, all being done on his own prototype carbon track bike frame with a fixed gear (49/17) ratio. If that was not challenging enough for this inadvertent icon he also rides brake-less. Much more on this will be revealed in Issue 7 of Amateur magazine due out early October, until then here are some photos taken during a recent ride over the famous Grimsel pass.

Fast cars...

A while back you might remember we received, as part of a container, a gift from the Aussies, A-PAC. He has continued to make is presence known, with random getaway attempts and taunting from the end of my desk for the last few months. I might add that he has started to lose the accent [or at least that's what it sounds like in my head]. Today's post definitely falls into the not bicycle related but enjoy...

Last night we received an email from the real life man himself, Mr. Adam Pelzer. Like Jacobi and his affinity for all things 1980's [cut-off jean jackets, Z28's and Poison] and J-Bolt and E-350's, we each have our past times and hobbies outside of work... besides riding that is. One of Pelzer's is making cars go faster than they rightfully should.

The video below was what Pelzer had in store for us with with the following message:

Here's a couple of video's from last weekend's powercruise event. Basically it's an open track for 3 days to race your mates, cruise around and some events, to use our cars, they way we built them, with minimal rules!

I haven't been for two years because "apparently the minimal rules enforced, I chose not to obey" and had to "sit out" to learn my lesson......hmmm

OMR327 VK CALAIS, POWERCRUISE 2010 from ADAM PELZER on Vimeo.

A-PAC misses his homeland... and his legs.