National Bike Summit
By spokesman | March 8, 2010
The 10th annual National Bike Summit will be held in Washington D.C. from March 9-11. The summit is sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists. The two day event focuses on bike advocacy and includes education workshops to train people to advocate on behalf of bicycle related issues. We live in a car-centric country and it takes strong advocacy to get bike trails, lanes, paths and facilities. (see my blog post entitled “An Absurd Ending To The ICC Bike Path” as an example of what can go wrong when there isn’t enough bicycle advocacy around an issue). The event includes meetings on Capitol Hill with members of Congress to lobby for bicycle related legislation. There will be a Congressional bike ride on Friday morning March 12. Information about the bike ride is on the Bike Summit website.
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Topics: Bicycle Event, Bikes and Politics | No Comments »
Vanilla Bicycles Follow-up
By spokesman | March 7, 2010
Last week, at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Richmond, I had the opportunity to speak with Sacha White of Vanilla Bicycles. I had written about Vanilla Bicycles last April after reading an article in Forbes magazine about the company.
I asked Sacha about the Forbes article and the response to it. He was happy with the article. In particular, he was pleased with how the article portrayed his business. It used a different definition of success than the typical measures (revenues, profit, growth) used in most Forbes articles. Not that Vanilla isn’t successful, but Forbes usually focuses on much larger businesses. The article recognized that Vanilla is a business and not just an artistic endeavour, but growth at all costs or growth by sacrificing quality is not an option. Sacha wants to be successful building beautiful bikes for a limited number of customers. And on the subject of beautiful bicycles, as I looked at the bicycles that Sacha had at the show, I commented that some of the commuter bikes were my favorites. They had classic styling but modern features. I live about 1 mile from both a train station and a new Whole Foods so I am in the market for a commuter/errand bicycle. One of those commuters would be the perfect for me except they are far to nice to leave locked up. I think that I am going to stick with a Craigslist beater bike.
Here is a link to a video of Sacha discussing a bicycle that he built for his daughter. It won the Bicycle Of The Day Award on the last day of the Handmade Bicycle Show in Richmond.
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Topics: Bicycles | No Comments »
Vasa Ride at the Swedish Embassy on Sunday
By spokesman | March 5, 2010
The Embassy Of Sweden will sponsor a bicycle ride this Sunday (3/7/10) as part of their celebration of Vasaloppet, Sweden’s famous ski race and festival. The ride is co-sponsored with the Washington Area Bicycle Association (WABA). There are 3 different ride options - 14,28 or 56 miles. There will be Blueberry Soup at the end of the ride. Full details are provided on the WABA website.
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Topics: Washington DC | 1 Comment »
Six Eleven Bicycles
By spokesman | March 5, 2010
I had the chance to meet Aaron Dykstra of Six-Eleven Bicycles at the North American Handmade Bicycle show last weekend. First let me clear up two potential misconceptions - he is not related to former baseball player Lenny Dykstra and his bicycle company has nothing to do with 7-11. Aaron won the Rookie of The Year Award at the Handmade Bicycle Show this year. The bicycle he brought to the show is in the photograph above, but there are better shots of his work on his very well designed website.
Six Eleven bicycles is a one man operation and a fairly new company. However Aaron has a long history with bicycles. He apprenticed under master frame builder Koichi Yamaguchi to learn frame building and he has experience both as a bicycle mechanic and a racer. He doesn’t specialize in any particular type of bicycle but works closely with clients to create a custom bike to meet their needs and riding style. His frames are either lugged or fillet brazed steel.
The company is named in honor of the Six-Eleven locomotive which was manufactured in Roanoke VA where his company is based. When Aaron told me that the locomotive served as the inspiration for the name of his company, it sounded familiar. Later I realized it was related to one of my favorite photographers - Winston Link.
Winston Link was a photographer who specialized in documenting the Norfolk & Western railroad during the end of the steam era in the 1950s. Winston Link was primarily a New York based fashion photographer, but on weekends he would drive south to Norfolk & Western territory and find locations to take pictures of the railroad. He would often take the pictures at night and used hundreds of flash bulbs to illuminate the picture. He would set up the shot locations for hours and then only get one chance to take the picture. He also took pictures where the railroad was featured in the background of scenes of ordinary life to emphasize the relationship between the communities and the railroad. In these pictures, the trains might be seen through a living room window, speeding by a gas station or in one of my favorites (shown below), passing by a drive-in movie theater during the movie. There is a museum of Winston Link’s work in Roanoke. Check out the museum’s website to see more of his work. The Six-Eleven, one of the last surviving Norfolk Southern J Class locomotives, is housed in the Virginia Museum Of Transportation in Roanoke. A donation from Winston Link helped to save the Six-Eleven from the scrap heap.
Hot Shot Eastbound at the Iaeger Drive-In, Iaeger West Virginia 1956 by O. Winston Link
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Topics: Bicycles, Photography | 1 Comment »
Psst - Do You Wanna Buy A Sprocket?
By spokesman | March 2, 2010
I saw this guy walking around at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Richmond this weekend. He had a bunch of old bicycle components taped on a backpack with a for sale sign.
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Topics: Flotsam | No Comments »