First Impressions: Nashbar's New SS/fixed gear frame!

Sick of hearing about Nashbar yet? Well tough shit! I'm all types of stoked on their new SS/fixed gear frame:

For a $100 bones it's pretty sweet and DEF hard to beat!

Moar snaps here..

I've always been stoked on their road frames but mmmMAN, suuuuper stoked on this new SS/fixed gear frame of theirs! It's essentially the exact same thing as their road frames only with some nice track dropouts and a 120mm spaced rear end. Otherwise it appears to be nearly identical. The paint is pretty sweet too. It's black but kinda shimmers purple-ly blue in the light. 1 1/8 HS set up too! 

The frame size is listed as a 54cm. 54cm CTC ST and 53.5cm CTC TT. I feel like the ST measurement is slightly less than 54 but it's close enough. This size weights in at 3.57lbs..

The only thing that pisses me off is that they don't have one listed in my proferred size otherwise I'd get one in a heartbeart! Just don't forget to order a seat post collar (31.8) while you're at it instead of forgetting like I did :-/

Hopefully I'll have this all built up real soon :-)

First Impressions: Nashbar's New SS/fixed gear frame!

NAHBS 2011: To go or not to go..?

The obvious answer to that question is FUCK YEA MAN! However there certainly are costs that I have to consider now that I am jobless. But I'll be dammed if I can't got chill with friends and check out rad bike shit in Austin TX of all places! Esp since I've never been and always wanted to go. So yeah, I suppose we'll see. I have a few things I can sell to make some extra cash but I'm not sure if it'll be enough. The hotel being the most expensive thing of course. Unless someone happens to have a spare bedroom they can lend me or knows of a nice cheap place in the area. No, I'm not couching it. I'm too old for that shit! How's this: Spare room for bike parts trade! Who's in?! 

Anyways, with any luck I can figure this out soon and get me a ticket to fly on down there, coupled Jackson and camera in hand. If you're from Austin and have a room to let and or have any useful info def let me know. I'd LOVE to come down and chill for the show and check out Austin for like a week or something if possible. Shit I'll shoot your cousin's wedding for free or some shit. Whatevz! 

FANCY BIKE SHIT LUST MUST BE APPEASED!!!

NAHBS 2011: To go or not to go..?

Check out how..

..wicked creepy the back of this deli truck is I spotted the other day:

My first thought (after being like WTF?!) was that the quote on there should say something along the lines of- "Ancient aliens heavily influenced our race, the only true religion you need to believe in is yourself and those around you". Which may sound really fucking stupid but after having watched 2 seasons of the History Channel's AWESOME series called Ancient Aliens, it can't be helped (not to mention an old infatuation with Time Life's series of books called Mysteries of the Unknown ((87'-91')) ). Talk about mind fuckingly interesting! Seriously, check it out when you get a chance. I'll admit a good portion of it is can seem pretty far fetched but at the same time, it's totally uncanny when interpreted with modern thought and in light of recent discoveries. Not so recent a discovery, but one that torqued me the fuck out was the Antikythera Mechanism. In any case, A MUST SEE for the engineers out there! Just check out this ENTIRE clip and you're sure to be sold..

Both seasons can be found on The Pirate Bay here and here. Here's a link to Vuze if you haven't already joined the bandwagon of getting shit for free. Along with VLC player while we're at it..

Check out how..

A rack even a plumber could love!

This was sent in to me by a reader who like myself, just felt like building something with what they had lying around the shop:

The entire cage/basket/rack whatever it is is made of copper pipe my dad had laying around his shop. All sections are soldered together in my garage and is held up by an old fork with the steerer tube cut off and attached to bottom of the basket. Two pieces of rich warm mahogany were dilled out and put into the basket to connect it to the handlebars. A lot of work with not much planning makes for a fun project as I'm sure you know. Anyways, hope you dig it.

That's some serious Plumber's Rack!

Yeah, it's kinda ugly but fuck it man, shit is cleverly built and totally DIY! I'm sure a little flat black matte would make it look like 10 times better if he painted it. Glad to see it raw tho for the ingenuity factor..

So yeah, you basically, you have no excuse not to make your own rack out of WTF ever if you have access to tools. Materials can easily be found and if not, can be purchased for no more than $20 bucks. That about how much the RC Broham rack cost me if that. To make something similar to the copper pipe rack would cost like maybe $15 bucks more for the torch and stuff to help weld it together..

In any case, great job on the rack Craig! Paint that shit like stat tho, hehe..

NOW STOP JERKING OFF ON FACEBOOK AND GET SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE DONE YOU NASTY MOFOZ!!!

I don't care if it's ugly, relatively useless or a total failure. You'll learn something regardless of the outcome- JUST FUCKING DO IT!

A rack even a plumber could love!

OOF!

d-d-d-DOOOINNNIIINNNNGGG!!! 

A Lotus Sport frame and Mavic Comete discs F+R!? SO TOTALLY GNAR-DAWG!!

OOF!

Classic Beauty..

It truly is hard to beat:

Daaag..

..via Ride A Bike

Classic Beauty..

BRRRRUUUTAL Cinetica Track Tandem!!

8-I

You could reappropriate those forks as a dip/hors d'oeuvres tray!

More info along with a sweet road road frame can be found here..

BRRRRUUUTAL Cinetica Track Tandem!!

Martin Luther King Day: I have a dream..

GRANDMAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

via..

Best messed up song lyrics EVER!

Martin Luther King Day: I have a dream..

Silver and Gold!

Two very sexy frames available on the bay in the form of a SICK gold Naggie:

(There's also a lovely sparkly blue and yellow one 8-) )

..and a Sweet NOS Silver Jackson:

Thanks Pat!

Some more silver and gold and more gold while we're at it..

Oh and here's one for the Prollz just for good measure. Wait! Speaking of which, here's a whip formerly ridden by the man himself:

Knowing that you could easily pull a good sample of his DNA off this steed should def add to it's value ;-)

Yo dawg, you are SO not missing anything here- fucking snow!

Silver and Gold!

Two wwwwicked clean rippers!

via Projekt B

via NYC Fixed

Two wwwwicked clean rippers!

Tokyo Fixed Gear just posted some HELLA sweet 3Rensho's FOR SALE!

Dag, dag and more dag!

That last one looks like it would fit me just right! Tho I'd SO love to rock the crazy purple TT one 8-)

Check em out along with a ton more photos on the TFG site and on their flickr..

Tokyo Fixed Gear just posted some HELLA sweet 3Rensho's FOR SALE!

20% OFF FRAMEZ AT BEN'S CYCLE!!!

SWEET!

 Kinda wishing I had a job right about now. That reddic Makino has been fucking with my dome forever now!

20% OFF FRAMEZ AT BEN'S CYCLE!!!

Well now this is kinda awesomely embarrassing..

My first 'real' bike as an adult- A 2003 Lemond Zurich that I eventually put a lame ass TT bar set up on along with a 56T DA chainring:

Yeah, like I said, kinda embarrassing, but kinda awesome. I originally bought the bike stock from the Metro Bikes on 47th street in Manhattan. One of my fondest memories of riding it around when I first got it was when the right hand side brifter shifted inwards and down a couple of inches when I hit a bump. Fucking douches. I think I got it for like $1100-1200 complete or something? Which I thought was a pretty great price at the time. Guess it still is..

In any case, it wasn't long after that I really started getting obnoxiously nerdy with bike shit that I swapped out the original cockpit for the lamer TT one. Tho I will say, that chainring made it retardedly fast! I rode that bike from my house in Jersey to The Far Rockaways in like 2&1/2 or + or - hours. I was pretty destroyed after that so I rode the E train all the way back up to the GW bridge. Which took about the same amount of time as the ride did. Only it was WAY more embarrassing than just being that guy whizzing by on a bike in spandex..

In any case, it wasn't long after that I got myself a less embarrassing road bike in the form of a Bob Jackson road bike with Bilenky installed custom cut and polished S+S couplers with Ultegra Triple 10speed, Chris King wheels/headset, a Brooks saddle and since they weren't making leather bar wrap at the time, leather bar wrap I made myself:

That thing was pretty sweet huh? I totally traveled with a few times and it was great! Regrettably, I sold it a few years later after having gotten WAY into fixed gear bikes. After not riding it for a couple of years I felt really bad. Seemed like such a waste to let it sit around and collect dust. So off it went! The one thing I was stoked on about selling it was when the legend himself, Sheldon Brown, emailed me about it:

           Greetings,

           Im interested in your frame but need to know the size. 

           Please advise and thanks in advance.

           SB

I thought it was funny he asked about the size since I had it clearly listed. Apparently he also suffered from the my dick just got so hard looking at something awesome that I forgot to act rationally before asking a question I could have answered myself had I acted more rationally thing that almost every male ebayer seems to suffer from..

More pics of the Jackson on my flickr..

Around the same time I also put together a bitchin' locker bike in the form of a front end impacted Colnago Master frame, Lemond carbon fork (that I got for $150!!), Chris King wheels/HS and a mix of DA/Ultegra/105 9 speed parts:

Yes, I spray painted a Colnago Master frame matte black. Would I have done so if the front end wasn't impacted? Of fucking COURSE I would have! Jeez the bright ass freaking yellow paint job on there was huuurrreeennndous!

Regrettably, I sold that one as well around the same time as the Jackson for the same none use due to tarck afflicted reasons. Which kinda bums me out more than having sold the Jackson since I rode the shit out of that bike! Stupid track bikes..

While I've had a few road bikes come into my possession these two were the only ones I really held onto and actually rode-rode. Wait, I had one of those handy dandy Nashbar roadies as a locker as well but it wasn't nearly as cool as these two. Anyways, once the mini tall compact steez roadie was built, I was once again excited to be riding a road bike. Until it became a winter blizzard here of course. Snowboarding and shoveling out my big ass driveway is great and all but I'm DYING for the thermostat to rise above 50-60 degrees again..

Wow the snore factor on this post was pretty high wasn't it?! Hopefully I'll have something way more interesting soon enough :-)

Well now this is kinda awesomely embarrassing..

I think I've got the bends..

..just about right on the first section of the jig I'm putting together for the 1.0 version of the new 40&1/2 cage:

I decided that having a nice bend at the top of the cage, instead of just a flat rectangular section like on the BETA version, would aid in keeping the neck of 40oz bottles and 1/2 gallon jugs (JUGZ!) centered. That and I've made the bottom rails wider to aid in stabilization. I think I'm also going to add a third H2O boss mount as well. How is this going to happen seeing as how all bikes only have 2 mounts? With one of these bad boys:

Can you say Zefal Gizmo clamp?

All it will require is a slightly shallower mounting bracket in order to do the job. I feel like with the extra weight the cage will carry, it couldn't hurt to have an extra mount. Which would be included with the cage..

Engineer types: If you think the two H2O bosses alone will do the job and last over time, please feel free to chime in since I tend to over engineer things..

If not, I kinda like the idea of people adding a third H2O boss to their frames instead of the Zefal mount. I'll probably offer this service to any local cats with beater frames..

Oh and check out what I found when I was looking for the snap of the acc. mount:

I could spend all day chasing that one down the block repeatedly smacking each butt cheek at the same time..

Anyways, since this is my first jig it was really tough getting things to work right and evenly but I think I've got it now. Next up is to get the rest going. Which I'm really not looking forward to since it's taken me a couple of days to get to this point :-/

Hopefully I'll have everything finished and be able to spread some testers around some time next week :-)

I think I've got the bends..

Crazy ass 1980's Mercian Vincitore!

A bit much price wise but DAMN that paint is SICK!

Fucker is something else huh?!

Reminds me that I should really get off my ass and complete my Mercian 3.0 build..

Crazy ass 1980's Mercian Vincitore!

Now this looks like an interesting polo game!

I randomly came across this on the web so I have no context for it other than the fact that it's pretty fucking amusing..

PLAY AWN PLAYAZZ!!!

Now this looks like an interesting polo game!

What is it about photos of models..

..posing with bikes that seems so ridiculous..?

It must have something to do with the fact that it's just about as an unlikely a scenario as convincing someone who thinks global warming is a scam to believe otherwise..

What is it about photos of models..