Working on bikes

New tools from bringheli and making some "Cameron caps." Obviously hoping to get a real table for the alignment action but this old door will work for now. Oh yeah and the edge of that chainstay. It's sharp. As one can see.

Well there is has been lots happening lately.  The Lady, the Meeks, and I moved to our new pad!  It is quite fantastic to be settling into our own place.  After years and decades of crazed landlords, we can finally fix stuff around the house and know that it will not go unnoticed.  Granted, we now have to do everything, but at least its our everything.

One fantastic part of the house is the uber man cave that is in the process of the being ground zero for the Olivetti Bicycle Company.

Building out the garage has been arduous but also pretty fun.  Some of this shit is fricken heavy, for example the 30 sandstone slabs the previous owners left for us perchance our bulletproof front walkway decomposes.  Another great part is the fact that, in this photograph and in reality, now see everything in the shop.  That was courtesy of Mr. Devine and his Electric Company.  Get in touch with the man for all your electrical needs or if you would like to get crushed on a wednesday morning ride.

Along these lines here is some progress on some tubesets I am work on.  1 for me, 1 for the Kiwi, and 1 for T. Buck.  

With any luck I should be taking possession of a "get the job done" type jig next week, with the real deal coming the end of July from Jeff at Sputnik tools.  That will make life a heck of a lot easier, and straighter for that matter.

So, at this point you might ask yourself, how I got from tinkering around on my bike to working on bikes, to building them, to trying to build a handmade american bicycle empire, that may or may not be limited exclusively to the mill valley area?   Well that's easy.  You just ask mister Gordon, of design fame and Fuckawfs fortune, to help you get there.  And after a few hours you get a business plan that is clear and concise, and looks a little like this.

Doesn't get much clearer than that!  A map to success without a doubt.  In all reality, The Gordon and an amazing sense of what it takes to get your products off the ground and into the hands of the people that want them, even if they don't know it yet.  

We the real and final finally that is really the best part of today's post is that I woke up today to realize that I had my first pretty much Father's day today.  The Lady dropped me a little note that, well frankly, brought this hombre to a bit of eye rain.  Its a pretty special part of our lives and I can't wait to start getting the beat down by that little bugger.  In a homage to all those requests I get to photograph at the ggb.  Here is my iphone rendition.

Alrighty until the next time! 

Time to get my blog on!!! Its been a while and much has happened and is happening. So lets get into it. I am sure I am not the first to link up to this hoopla, but its definitely the new greatest show on earth. Sactown won't know what hit it when thousands of bike nerds land in its perimeters.  There are many folks and builders I am looking forward to linking up with and checking out.
some of my fav's but certainly not limited to:

ahearne cycles

Soulcraft

 (my own whip shown here)

Black Cat

dead sexy

DeSalvo

A teacher of mine.

Mr. Hunter

Sweet Wishboner Goodness

Which makes me think of the
Vulture
You'll just have to click the link because his portfolio is large and diverse.

And the last one... for now
Naked

However, I am really stoked to catch up with an old buddy ZB.  We haven't linked up in a while.  The last time being at a sf Giants game.  I can't remember who won the game, I think the giants, but what I can remember was that ZB was wearing something resembling a mexican poncho, but was more likely a navajo throw rug with a hole cut in it for his dome.  I think he may have imagined he looked like this:

But the reality was probably a little more like this:

Style aside, I am looking forward to catching up with that hombre.... so to speak.  

Back to the bike oriented bits.  I have been meeting on with some frequency in the am hours with the great Shooky of Skye Designs .  He has done some great work getting a few things together for me.  Some top secret, others not so much.  I had produced a set of stickery propaganda that was met with good reception, so I had Shooky make a more cleaned up version as well as a variable one.  

Good Cross

Good Bike

The 2 are available for either $3.00 each or both for $5, in which ever form you order them, you will also get the OG singletrack sticker too.  The stickers are 4x4 inchesurprisingly close to the actual dimensions of some not to be named institution signs.  Obviously one should not use these on any public spaces... Im just sayin'

anyway, if you want to get some stickies, just click through on the "buy some shiz" tab on the right.  You won't be sorry.

Pretty much have to wrap it up now.  I'll depart with a few picks of rides taken in the last small grip of time.

A quick trip on the skinnies

The Super Tacky, though the duffy ground may make you think otherwise.

Top o the Mtn

The Blister schralping the goods

me looking weird without a bike

me looking weird with a bike

Ok See you folks later.  Get Some!!!

Bikes used to be cool...then the germans ruined it.

I listened to all of about 40 seconds of this then realized, I wasn't wholly interested in some crazy e rocket super bike. Give me standard pedal powered bicycle or give me a motorcycle, but don't try to pawn off some half breed on me.

There are my two cents on that one.

Anyway Shooky has continued to offer us a variety of imagery from our TNR excusions. Here are just a few clicks from his helmet mounted light capture box. A circuit some call legends, others call rr-mtn theater-oldballs-thcc-tfoot-joes







As always, good times had by all. Unfortunately, shooky failed to capture his epic digger with images. Sound would have been better. He otb'd to knocked the turd out of himself. Miraculously, in what seems to be his super power, shooky came away unscathed. Frosty, who we all remember so well.

made it out as well. He had the other epic digger. Undocumented of course, but lets say the expression, "Here's mud in your eye!" really came to mind. A Mr. Firsty (he's much more attactive and trim in real life I swear.) jumped in and showed the rest of us how its done in style. He presides over, or resides depending on how you see it, the Crank Brothers mini empire. A tip top rider and all round good hombre who knows his way around a schralp. Hope to link up with him again soon.

Lastly, Kiwi, the Boz, Mrs O. and I traveled our way to the way north to conquer, or rather get conquered, the Shasta Lemurian.



The guitar riffs in the video are especially noteworthy. Anyway, after a painful 3+ hour slog, the absolute worst cramps I have ever had, quite literally my legs completely locked, and on the plus side a solid does of singletrack, the ride was complete. The Kiwi was able to pull back 2 minutes of time off last years pace, while I on the other hand gave the old man time 23 minutes rounding out my worst time ever. I found some resolve in the fact that I pretty much get to spin the pedals 2 times a week these days. Not to mention he looks like he could use the extra 20+ minutes. I am happy to just get out to such a great event. If you are on the book of the face, you should friend up with these guys. They put on once of the best grassroots races around.

That's it til hopefully next week. see you then.

News from Bike Nerds Across the World...or maybe just around the country.

So the legs these days only get a few turns a week, but this week Shooky was wired and got a great vid of some pretty good schralping. Sadly, its only on le Facebook right now, hoping to get it to vimeo shortly. here is the facebook feed though: good run TNR style, note DYlan's jorts.the kid don't mess. Kiwi Jon, the Boz, Weak Sauce (if you can believe he made it out), and I felt we had pretty good showing too!
Most importantly, good times were had. Upon landing back in the villa of MV,Charley of the hong kong variety fueled the emptied tanks. This was followed by a kolsh or 3 at the favored beer vendor in town.

Spanning the globe, Frankenbike's Revenge's own Pittsburgh based Jamaican correspondent, D Dub (seen here getting his schralp on at the pump track with his very own progeny Malik, perhaps 3 years old in this photo.)
posted this video

RedBull Conquer the Spots - Highlight: Krash Test Dummies from New Caribbean Cinema on Vimeo.

about the bmx scene down on the island. Its a pretty great story about the Krash Test Dummies and what its like to have a bmx team in a country that doesn't even really have a bike shop. Makes you appreciate places like the Bay Area that seem to have bike shops matching the numbers of Starbucks. Fortunately most of the bike shops around here serve better Java that the latter mentioned.

From the technical desk of Gene Pascua, We have the ultimate of all advance fixie freewheeling nerdery, with a good dose of coolness.
http://www.thealphabike.com/ALPHA/ALPHA.html


And finally from the entertainment desk of the WeakSauce, we have the biggest conflict of awesome and super lame. I truly am in a conundrum about his one. Barbie Rock the Pump Track. You control Barbie while she kick booters, doing no handers and supermans. I don't know, its really messing up my head, but semi addicting. probably why it's messing with my head. I just gotta superman can collect those jems!

thanks for wasting a grip of time with me. Check back soon.

Lets get this thing back on track...

Ok so its winter. So, I hadn't been on my bike in a while prior to the start of 2011. So fuck it... lets get on some snow. The lady and I recently made a trip to Idaho, quite possibly one of the least populated places I have been. We went to visit some of Mandi's family, get some skiing in, and see what the whole Ketchum buz is about. It was quite a delightful time, with much to much food eaten, wine drank, and not enough hot springs sat in (beware of the sexiness is you click the link). In the end a great time was had by all and we look forward to making more trips out to visit with the fancy people of the Sun Valley area in the future.

Anyway, back to the bike. I have been putting in some better miles than my previous end of 2010 attempts. Still feeling pretty weak sauce, but actually starting to feel like I ride a bike again. Its truly a terrible feeling however when you get on your bike after a hiatus and your body justliterally feels like it doesn't belong on that thing. I think I am finally feeling like I can ride a bike again though. D.Dub send me this link that shows you how its done even when its cold, unmotivating, and straight up hott sauce.

We, thats all I really got right now. Hopefully I'll get back on this on a regular basis.

Hope to see you tuesday night.

Day 5, Stayin Alive... On to Day 6.

Hey All-

Here We go. I've been working and working to get this thing up and going again, and it has been tough.

At any rate, here are a few updates.

From the MV Scene, Me the Kiwi, Reevie, and Weak Sauce have been hitting up a few rides together. Along with that, I got a good one in with Frosty on Day 4... I think it was 4 anyway. Having been missing my camera, I haven't been able to snap too many shots, but here are a few from the past days.

Day 1: As quoted by the Bo Kid on Suntrail. "I mean I do the same thing man, get on the trails, but 20..? Dude..?"
Images Courtesy of Master Q


Sick Singletrack



Schooky of course without la ropa.


Day 2 was a scorching roll of the dice, though these photos don't really do the justice of how my legs felt afterwards. Keep an I on that Kiwi, He's got some legs for shizzle.


For Days 1,2, and 3, I got word from Weeder that Mendo and the surround trees were epic on the skinnies.
Quick update from the north.
Day one solid 2.5 hours on the redwood highway. Sweet rolling river road throught the woods.
Day two pounding out 45 miles some hills and of course fucking trees the size of skyscrapers. On the redwood highway and then thru old groth forest road. back to camp with a little single track poach.
Day three a.k.a. Pinch flat day. Pounding up three miles of steep ass shit. Then to a road that turned to steep ass down fire road handling the huge chunks of gravel. Feeling on top of it fixie skidding hipster style. Then that flat feeling, the repair all good... Hating myself about the point when I was packing and thinking "I'm not gonna need co2..." quick note you always need the co2 worth every 500 fucking pennies (or 40 bucks for the whole set up and extra cartridges with tube at fort brag cycles. And if you think I'm a bitter bike shop guy go chat with him... He Makes me look like Skye.)... So steep ass two miles or gravel the size of mother ass babies the road smooths out for fifteen miles of the the sweetest road I swear to god makes me want to give up the dirt... Almost. All in all with the walking and flat 30 miles of good spinning. Good loop.

Tomorrow is Cameron road from navorrow river to paper mill. About 40 miles.

And on a side note I'm riding the benotto fixed wheel. Yeah Weeder style.

And to pete and weak sauce. Tons of avo and rice cakes up here if you bros need a refill.


Peace and avo
Regards,
Matt

Heading into day 6, with legs feeling a bit rousted, from an epic with the Kiwi yesterday, Coastal-Heather Cuttoff-Miwok Singletrack (AKA poison oak Trail), which I'll have you know Kiwi and I got harassed my a Sierra Douche with a NPS hat on. It almost came to physicality, but fruitcake knew better. But apparently, by riding trails we're ruining it for everyone.-on to Miwok Fire road-whatever it is to tennessee valley-rhubarb. As I am sitting in my office doing work to catch up before taking off for Nicky D's Bachelor party as well as SSWC09, I will probably be knocking out a road loop as soon as I return home to MV.

Other than that, I haven't been getting updates from many, so shoot me some mail with pic and other such business. I'll start creating some more posts if I got some good stuff from the rest of you folks out there. Having Found my Camera

That's if for now. Check I'll hit you up with the next post soon.

Oh yeah... Weak Sauce-that was stEvil with Loudass.