Here is a long overdue update on those bike projects that I’ve been working on.
Desdemona was the first to be finished.. Peep those wheels! Handmade by Mr. Me!
She still needs a brake and some type of foot retention.. against my better judgement I’ve been riding her around in her current deathtrap mode. One time I took her over to Safeway to procure more vodka that I really didn’t need.. Way to go dummy!
Jane Deere.. oh for fun let’s do the Before/After thing..
Here we have a left for dead 21 speed mountain bike.
And now we have a John Deere Green 7 speed townie!
Here’s some detail shots.
Serena even rode Jane Deere to the Donut shop! granted the donut shop is literally 1 block from our house..
You’ll notice my buddy the Bridgestone “possible xtracycle” project hasn’t been listed yet.. He’ll still become an xtracycle one day but currently he’s been bumped.
Meet my, yet to be named, Cyclocross bike
A Santa Cruz Stigmata that I picked up last week after cruising over to their warehouse to check out frame sizes..
The director of operations at my work hooked me up with some carbon bars, bottom bracket, seat and a Ritchey compact crankset. Thanks Richard!
Oh and here’s the space age fork that I picked up from Santa Cruz as well
As you can see I still need several more parts but we’re getting there! So amped!
For my last bit of bike dork-ness I have a bit of a rant. There was a time when I thought music snobs were pretty much the worse type of people to know. You see, I champion Rod Stewart right alongside Drive Like Jehu.. if you have a problem with that I doubt we’ll ever be that great of friends. Anyways what I’ve discovered lately is that bike snobs are possibly worse then music snobs.
People who post bikes on fixedgeargallery are constantly being ripped on by people on bikeforums.net as well as people on the fixed gear gallery forum for having their seat at the wrong angle/using risers/not using risers/having the wrong color scheme/caring too much about their color scheme/etc… It’s insane! Everybody on there is an expert and all of them are deathly afraid of being mistook for a hipster. Why do I read these forums? Well as I bike rider I have found some really good information on both of these sites.. however you have to wade through a lot of shit to get to it! Whatever happened to riding bikes and simply using the internet for help and information?
Additionally I was bothered the other week when I was reading a thread on bikeforums.net about Vanilla Bicycles. It is interesting to be in an industry (in my case skateboards) and listen to die-hard users of your product who have no idea about how things really work. It’s really a no win situation I guess.. Someone is always going to think that you’re just in it just to screw people over while you swim through your scrooge McDuck-esqe vault of money.
Now I don’t know the fine people of Vanilla bicycles that well.. but I have toured the facilities
and I also took the best photo of my life there
Sacha kindly lent me a bike last time I was in Portland and Scott is one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. It’s insane to me that people have such weird preconceived notions about companys/brands because they carry a certain price tag or are sought after.
I’m not sure why that thread got to me so much. After all I’ve read a hundred internet posts on how much “Independendent Trucks suck” and/or how “NHS is a bunch of assholes”. It used to bother me.. but these days I look around the place that I work and I know that everyone there is trying to make the best products, constantly innovate and have a good time. From what I’ve heard and seen from Vanilla they’re on the same page. To all the anonymous internet haters.. get fucked.
Wow.. If anyone is still reading this I am impressed! Anyways to end on a positive and still bicycle related note.. Here is a blog that I have been enjoying recently which is also based out of Portland mollycameron.com
Why didn’t you post that picture of the giant bike-making factory staffed entirely by illegal immigrants that is located underneath the stairs at Vanilla? The people deserve the truth!
— Thecranewife · Oct 8, 10:29 PM · #
Like dang, that John Deere Green 7 speed townie looks unbelievably improved. Nice work.
— Nightrain · Oct 8, 10:44 PM · #
Love the Jane Deere. I bet that certain Portlanders would be very accepting of the lady Deere moving into the ‘hood (in my humble opinion). And I don’t care about all of those haters…a doughnut is always a worthy cause for a bike ride.
— Brasilliant · Oct 9, 01:14 AM · #
“Everybody on there is an expert and all of them are deathly afraid of being mistook for a hipster.”
I swear, hipsters are a subculture for which no wants to be associated with. It’s like an anti-subculture. However, when someone identifies a hipster it includes quite a few people.
It seems to me that hipster has taken on the definition of shallow and/or superficial. It’s as if people, when they disparage the hipster, are actually defining themselves as not shallow or superficial. They are authentic unlike those people.
That’s my 1.5 cents.
— Everybody · Oct 9, 06:14 PM · #
Coming in with the Portland Love. I am thinking of becoming a hipster just to give them a better name, they keep getting beat up these days amongst the late twenties and early thirties crew. who am I kidding I’m the first to cast first stone at those rat bastards.
totally impressed with the late ’08 Models of this years Holgers Cycles, I think they should have a head badge in the shape of a girl scout marret badge, or girls scout cookie.
It seems that as soon as someone becomes a little successful every asshole who loves to hate comes out of the wood work, thats why I’m staying mediocre.
— shmoopy · Oct 10, 07:27 AM · #