On this episode of bike of the week, we get a proper education from the ‘gents over at IF on how to make a stunning, clean bike. The paint job totally pops, and it begs for the viewer to take it all in nice and slow.
We hope Bob is happy with his new IF because if he isnt, there’s a long line of people who would probably commit felonies to get their grubby hands on this gorgeous rig.
With the road racing season in its death throes, we can’t help but look ahead with muddy, beer-filled anticipation and see that another season of cyclocross is just around the bend. In preparation for the CX festivities to come in the next few weeks, this BOTW is none other than a gorgeous SS Vanilla CX rig. Complete with incongnito carbon tubies, this Vanilla is ready to be lusted over by the single speed connoisseurs of the CX scene. Whether it’s clean or caked in mud, this svelt CX rig is sure to turn heads. See you guys at the barriers and beer tents in a few weeks!
This week’s Bike of the Week is our friend Mike’s townie. It’s a handmade bike from 20 years ago, when Mike’s buddy Greg decided to make track bikes with relaxed geometry for all his messenger friends up in Boston. This was Mike’s work bike in the early 90s, then it became a commuter, and now it’s Mike’s “around town” bike – as well as the official errand bike for the Rapha Cycle Club. Mike decided on a relaxed fit, with gentlemanly Nitto bars, a Brooks B-17, and a Shimano coaster brake for fun. Couple that with an slick t-shirt from Mike’s Gage & Desoto line, and you can see why everyone says Mike Spriggs is the “cock of the walk.”
Some might accuse us of playing favorites, and we would have to agree. Can you blame us?
It’s not our fault that the folks at Geekhouse keep pumping out these slick, gorgeous rigs, is it? We just want to share the love with you, our readers.
This week’s specimen is aptly titled “Mellow Yellow,” and it’s the prettiest commuter we’ve seen in a while. It also wins the award for the most gorgeous integrated stem/handlebar we’ve seen on a commuter.
We’re big fans of bikes that seamlessly blend function and aesthetics in a unique way. Geekhouse gets a gold star for this one.
We’ll admit: Most bike manufacturers have it down: they’re able to make light, stiff bikes road racing bikes. But that list of bike manufacturers seriously dwindles when you start looking at road racing bikes that are light, stiff, and aero.
We present to you our Bike of the Week: the Felt AR1. The folks at Felt spent hours upon hours in the windtunnel optimizing this frame’s aerodynamics. The result? A 2% improvement over a standard frameset. In other words, you save a minute over the course of an hour. On top of that, the frameset weighs in at 1055 grams. If it were any lighter we would worry that it had an eating disorder. This beautiful all-arounder is the sort of bike you can both race and train on without hesitation.
We just built this beauty up for one of our customers, and would love to build one up for you. Stop by and chat with us if you’re in the market for an epic new racing rig!
This week’s bike of the week is the product of our quirky and cool collaboration with Geekhouse. This limited edition frame and fork was purchased from us by our friend Tomer, who has a penchant for collecting bikes of interest (ie: he owns a Vanilla). We then worked with Tomer to build up the frame with a host of cool components to compliment the slick and simple aesthetics of the frameset.
We hope he has fun ‘rippin’ through the streets on his new Geekhouse while listening to music from bands you have never heard of.
Sometimes a bike doesn’t need any back story to be deemed BOTW-worthy. This Tomassini Techno happens to be one of them. A well-ridden, lugged Italian beauty is something that should be cherished for years and years. Enjoy more shots here!
This week’s BOTW is a real gem. We concede that it may not look like much, but Liam’s Lemond Buenos Aires has a rich provenance. The bike started off as the brainchild of Tour de France and World Champion Greg Lemond. Le Champ spent years developing his preferred bike geometry, culminating in the Buenos Aires model. Greg probably had a pretty legitimate reason for naming this bike the BA, we can’t remember what it is, though we hear South America is a good place to be this time of year (unless you’re a footballer).
The bike spent time under local road and track star Jared Bunde before moving on to serve as a conduit for change in the form of Liam’s (of Cycleosity fame) get-around-townie. Liam and his Lemond are fighting the good fight by, among other things, documenting NYC and Baltimore bike lane offenders. The mods to the BA are too many to list here, luckily, the photos speak for themselves. We think it’s a 4 speed, but you can judge for yourself.
This bike of the week comes with a motor attached…while we prefer vehicles that use sustainable fuel, we do love all things with two spoked wheels!
This Ducati belongs to one of our customers who faithfully restored it to its original 1974 beauty – turns out getting parts for 30 year old Italian motorcycles is just as hard as getting them for 30 year old Italian bicyles. When he parked it out front we couldn’t resist snapping some shots – this bike is definitely BOTW worthy! Most motorcycles don’t come close to this machine in the style dept – the Ducati oozes it.
More shots of the bike can be found on our Flickr Page.
So hot (and irresistible), that it was stolen during the Bicycle Film Festival.
We wish we were joking and if we find the thief, he’ll know we don’t.
More pics here.
