A View From 930 Miles South

July 7th was the last time I updated this page. It goes without saying, that I suck as a blogger . It was indeed a busy summer and fall, despite how it looked to those of you who know us well. As in previous years, we again refined what we do and how we build and although we finished a lot less, the projects we completed were of much higher quality than in years past. Unfortunately it cost more money to build this way. Sadly, that alienated some people. Below are a few of my favorites.





Hard to believe that bike was 35 years old. It's an old Schwinn LeTour, that is finally deserving of the name, "tour". The fellow who requested this bike owns a hair salon. He has impeccable taste, but likes things minimal and uncluttered. I had to make him take that rear rack. He loves it now. He completed the Apple Cider Century in Michigan, late this past summer.

This next bike was also a request. This fellow favored beach cruisers, but his girlfriend, a longtime friend of ours, favors road bikes. When they rode together, she spent a lot of time waiting for him to catch up. This was our compromise.







You can likely tell I have a fondness for the color off white. I did four bikes in this shade over the past year. It's called "Platinum Smooth". It's just so goddamn elegant. We special ordered the wheels for this one. They are coaster brake, Shimano hub with Sta-Tru alloy rims 700x25. I committed to 9 pairs. We still have 5 pairs remaining. The basket is from Wald, it's called the "Woody" (bet that took a lot of thought) The tires are Schwalbe Delta Cruisers. I'm sold on the Schwalbe brand. They may cost a bit more, but with the exception of theLugano's, they are very high quality. They have a new tire available this spring that looks very good as well. Never, ever buy the Lugano's however.

Emily Taylor is co-owner of Pocampo. A company she founded. They make cycling accessories for women. Everything is done locally with no out-sourcing. I'm always happy when I see her riding around town. She even took this bike to Interbike in Las Vegas. The shipper however was not very kind to it. We may have to do a repaint. This bike is also featured in the TYK calender, along with Emily.
She's Ms. September.

I like my photo better:


Sometimes when building a bike. You're asked to do things that pain your soul. This next picture was one such bike. I'll only show part of it. This was a Nervex frame, extremely light and elegant. It was from the late 1960s. Beautiful in every way. Jaime again wanted it minimal. Not even any lug highlights. That hurt...


For some reason the bike below, took forever to assemble. I replaced everything from the bottom bracket up. The only thing original to the bike are the frame and crank. Using cross tires made for some really tight clearances. The thought process in building this was, handling Chicago's winter. I added bar end shifters, which I'm a big fan of. I also have a fondness for vintage randonneur bars. It test rode like a dream. Even though we kept its original finish, it cost as much to assemble, as some of our powdercoated bikes. The Vittoria Cross tires are among the best that I've tested. The sidewalls are really stiff enabling them to corner like no other cross tire. Quite a superb little machine.


I've had more free time on my hands than I could have ever in my life imagined. It's allowed me time to look around and to rethink bike building. Living in Chicago, I've spent much of my time focusing on bicycles that Chicago commuters want. Which for the most part, means light, quick and efficient. I personally am not a big fan of someone tearing ass down the avenues. Not only is it risky, as getting doored could make you a human catapult, but the rider seems to be rolling in a tunnel. With views to the left and right mostly obscured. There could be the sweet aroma or the sight of something grand nearby, but the tunnel often keeps the rider from ever acknowledging it.

Riding around New Orleans is nothing like commuting up and down Chicago's busy streets. I must say, I will never complain about the shitty pavement in Chicago. The streets of New Orleans, are on par with, dirt roads. I'm sure much of it is it's elevation (51 percent of the city is at or below sea level) and the fact that it's still a very poor town. Priorities first, I suppose.
The cruiser, seems to dominate the streets of New Orleans. Much of it, is cheap Walmart shit. Carene, Ryan and I serviced some vintage cruisers before we headed down here. They sold as soon as we posted them on craigslist. Wish we could have bought more. I have requests here from folks who want them for Christmas.



Yes we are in WHO DAT nation, with a Bears themed RV.
Give me the "C", over the crescent any day.

Sitting in the park in December. That's one thing this town has on Chicago.

Vittoria's Randonneur

I usually don't feel compelled to write about a product. I figure most things get due praise without my two cents. There's a ton of killer bicycle parts and accessories in the marketplace today, and from all indications plenty of cool stuff coming in the near future.

I built up an old Raleigh Grand Prix, I recently acquired. It started life as a ten speed with pretty shitty Simplex gearing. Most of these seem to have come stock with drop bars, but this one had a factory set of steel cruiser bars. I decided it was best not to change too much of the original stuff and came up with this:


It's still a vintage cruiser, but now it's fixed with a nice Shimano 600 crank and sealed cartridge bottom bracket.
What's I like most about this bike, almost enough to make me want to keep it for myself, is how it rides.
I installed Vittoria Randonneur's after initially installing white CST 700x23 tires. The Vittoria's cost about twice the money. They have a double casing and heavy wire bead which makes most tires pretty fucking hefty. I'm a stickler for tires having low rolling resistance. I'm not the fastest guy out there and don't need a sluggish tire slowing me down even more. Even though the tire is fat at 28c it's still pretty fast. The weight doesn't hold these tires back one bit. The best part about them...they ride like butter. They max out at 85psi which keeps them fairly soft. You could ride on these for many hours in real comfort. I got caught in the rain with them and one thing I noticed was how well they dispense water when rolling. Lot's of road and almost all race tread tires just kind of get wet and ride on top of water. With automobile tires they call it Hydroplaning. The double casing will also save you a few bucks on tubes as they have superior flat protection for this type tire.
If you're planning on commuting this winter, (i sincerely hope you are) this would be a good all season tire to install. I know they come in black, but not sure about any other colors. Trust me your ass will thank you.

They're kinda cool lookin too.