These photos were taken one December weekend during two fun races in which I participated as both a rider and spectator, except for the first shot of Chris riding on the Schuylkill trail. The later photos were from Bilenky‘s junkyard cross race which I had been wanting to race in ever since I moved to Philly but have only recently owned a bike suitable for the terrain. Check out In the Crosshair‘s footage below to see how crazy it actually was.. Continue reading
Filed under bike, photography
Jordan Clark Haggard is a Los Angeles based cyclist and photographer who keeps a blog/visual cycling journal called The Blue and Red. Sure, there’s a bunch of pictures of kitted-out dudes on road bikes but there’s also a lot of other nice moments that Jordan’s put on film ranging from the greatest scenery to the worst mechanicals imaginable. Check out his other (non-cycling focused) photo blog while you’re at it, too.
Filed under bike, photography
Jordan Hufnagel forwarded me these photos of his new porteur that he’s offering as a complete build with plenty of options to make it the ultimate city bike. A couple details really caught my interest that separate it from the pack of porteurs with front racks and 650B tires that other builders are doing. I’m a big fan of “1 by” drivetrains, it’s a big trend in the mountain bike world and serves perfectly for city bikes as well since having more than one chainring isn’t really all that necessary unless you ride really hilly terrain. Jordan’s custom stem mounted shifter and chain keeper make for a clean and simple drivetrain- one ring, one shifter.
Here’s a bonus photo Jordan sent over of him hauling a Poler Rucksack on his porteur with yet another clean custom shifter component- a brake lever with a mount for a shifter so that a gear shift is always within thumb’s reach (closeup). For most, custom components like these are out of reach but there’s always Paul thumbies.
Filed under bike
Before there was mountain biking as we know it today there was Klunking. Take some fat tires, a cruiser frame, and a go down a hill as fast as you can.. foot-out sliding is also a must. Check out both videos to see some old school and present day klunking, the former has a nice little interview with a young Gary Fisher around midway through. If you want to learn about the whole history of klunking check out the documentary Klunkerz.
Filed under bike
Hackney GT is a London based company run by a fella named Russ Jones. Russ got in touch with me after I posted a screen cap of his jerseys as seen in a Rapha Super Cross video on tumblr seeking its origins because I thought they were just that awesome. The alpine style jerseys are now on sale at the Hackney GT webshop, save me a green in a size small Russ!
This past weekend marked the fourth year of the annual Tweed Ride here in Philadelphia and the third year that I’ve participated, but the first that I was able to help organize and design various print components like flyers and spoke cards. I brought out my 4×5 field camera again this year but was having trouble getting the Polaroid film I had around for it to process evenly (the caustic paste wasn’t spreading right) but I did shoot a couple black and white plates which still need to be processed. Carrying the whole rig of 4×5 camera, film holders, polaroid back, 35mm camera, light meter, and U-lock proved to be a mighty test for my newly installed Nitto M-12 rack and bag made by Ruth Works SF (see third photo below, review to come) but it was very stable even without running a decaleur. The couple loosely cobbled blocks that we were forced to take due to construction closures had me a little nervous but it all held together.
Heres just a sample of some of what I saw, I’ll be posting more on my photo blog over the next couple of days so be sure to follow along there. The Tweed Ride Philadelphia website has also started linking to galleries of photos taken that day by camera-wielding participants so there’s plenty more there as well.
Filed under bike, Philadelphia
Photographs by Tom Robertson, a Missoula, Montana based photographer and cyclist, found on the Hellgate Cyclery shop blog. Is it the weekend yet?
Filed under bike, outside, photography
Shoichi Watanabe is a craftsman of leather and canvas bags whose workshop and retail store are situated in the Kichijoji neighborhood of Tokyo. Watanabe specializes in touring style bike luggage for panniers and racks but also does a good deal of shoulder and hand bags. His flickr is filled with photos, pushing 3,000 of them, of bags along with both his own and customer travel/in use photos.
cork grips 
