thewashingmachinepost




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seems perfectly ok to me

i know, like me, many of you probably buy the comic each week, and after crying for an hour or so over that particular week's cover, my first port of call is the off the back column, ably and humorously written by dr hutch, aka michael hutchinson, time trialist extraordinaire. it is, perhaps, somewhat incestuous to quote from what is essentially another blog, but the sign off from this week's rant makes so much sense that it bears repeating here for those who either don't get the comic, or who don't read the column.

"no activity can count as a sport if you've ever found it on the front page of a paper that ought rightfully to have been devoted to cycling"

i wish i'd said that.

michael hutchinson | hello sailor

twmp

posted on sunday 24 may 2009

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ride with courage

aaron hayes

not that i necessarily feel that i have to justify my portland trip as being business rather than pleasure - that's always a tough question when they hand you that little green card on the plane - for while the whole trip was pleasure from start to finish, there were a lot of hours put into garnering information for myself and hopefully interesting articles on the post. on this latter count, only you can be the judge. however, if pushed to underline my dedication to duty, on the way to the airport on saturday morning, chris distefano and i dropped by the abode of aaron hayes, progenitor of courage bicycles. i cannot, however, take all the credit for this: cd had made a comprehensive list of people i really needed to meet, and i think that by the time i boarded the aircraft for amsterdam, there was probably only one box that hadn't been ticked.

however, the evening before, we had both been watching the giro d'italia on universal sports, and not unnaturally, discussing the apparent demerits of the seriously overbuilt carbon frames ridden by the pros. while we both are adamant that steel will make a comeback (maybe sooner rather than later, if the uci have anything to do with it), chris said that the steel frames made by aaron hayes were the ones that he figured would fit in the pro peloton without looking out of place. in reality, this may have been somewhat of an overstatement: considering the colossal downtubes and massive bottom brackets seen on the likes of focus, cervelo, cannondale and the like, it is unlikely that any steel tubed bicycle would pass incognito. all such conjecture notwithstanding, we still made a slight detour on the way to pdx on a saturday morning to visit courage bicycles at ne 48th avenue.

courage bicycle fork crown

having mentioned earlier about the wide variety of spaces occupied by portland's large number of bicycle frame builders, aaron creates his rather fine looking machines in a garage at the rear of one of those wooden slatted portland houses that are oh so quirky and attractive, but that wouldn't last five minutes in an islay breeze. courage bicycles arrived on the portland scene faster than chris hoy's kilo at manchester velodrome. aaron is an industrial designer who became rather disillusioned with his career, and was looking about for an alternative. since he was already a bike rider of note and had the enthusiasm for the machines that we all have (don't we?), it wasn't too much of a stretch to arrive at the notion of building some frames, if not as a full-time occupation, certainly as a challenge that many of us would perhaps have passed on. to give you an idea of just how quickly all this came together, aaron committed to his presence at the 2008 north american handbuilt show in portland when it was only six months away. since it is expected that each exhibitor will have at least four bicycles on show, and that he still had to wait a few months for the appropriate jig to make such possible, impressive is a word that could not possibly be overused in this situation.

eventually there were only three courage bicycles on show at nahbs, because as aaron said 'i made a mess of one of them', but that was really of no such nevermind, as he won the coveted best new builder award. stick that on your top tube and polish it.

courage bicycle fork stem

aaron has his very small workspace very neatly arranged for maximum build efficiency, and the homeliness of it all was brought home by his neighbours sitting at the back of their very nearby back door eating breakfast while we chatted. the one completed bike sitting against the workbench displayed some beautiful, clean workmanship with some exotic detailing: the stem clamp, the brake bridge, fork crown and rear dropouts all point to a level of skill and accuracy that make it even more incredible that standing start to award arrived in only six months. lying on the workbench were some filed lugs that you and i would never have the patience to bring to such an exquisite level of decor. if it stopped there, you would be impressed enough, but the frame on which he was about to embark would include s and s torque couplings to allow taking apart for transit. these couplings are usually of a standard design, but aaron was filing his to have them match the already complex lug design. art really does lie in the details.

having returned home to the magical isle, it dawned on me that i hadn't enquired why aaron's company was called courage bicycles, so i e-mailed to ask. here's the reply i received:

courage bicycle

the courage name came from an old college friend who build a handful of 'junkyard' choppers a few years ago for fun.  and the first thing he said when i told him i was going to build bikes was: use courage! but it took about three months of thinking about it till i came around to liking it.  i like that other people assign their own ideas to the name - it really means something different to everyone!

i left portland and the united states less than two hours later, but it was darned decent of the guy to take time out of his saturday morning to chat to a scruffy scotsman, still learning and assimilating far too much information about frame building to be making informed judgements.

not that that has ever stopped me.

courage bicycles

twmp

posted on sunday 24 may 2009

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uncle tom

tom simpson t-shirt

tom simpson is, unfortunately, principally remembered for leaving this world under the circumstances of drug abuse. while i wish not to cast unsubstantiated accusations, legend has it that his consumption of amphetamines, coupled with burning sun and dehydration on the slopes of mont ventoux conspired to his demise. however, in common with another more recent hero who died under a cloud of suspicion, tom simpson seems to have entered the cyclists' psyche as much of a hero as marco pantani. something that seems very much at odds with the current line taken on drug use in the peloton, where those found guilty, or even just under suspicion, are villified and hounded out of the sport. i take no moral ground on this, since i have never been, nor ever likely to be, in the position where this sort of thing could or would happen to me.

however, if we accept the situation as it is, or was, simpson can be counted amongst the finest that britain has produced, along with robert millar and possibly chris boardman. mark cavendish will have to wait just a little longer for his plaudits. simpson is the only brit to have won the world road championships (1965), the brussels six-day, paris-nice, and up until this year, milan-san remo, and not for nothing was he known as gentleman tom. many of us will have seen the photograph of tom wearing a bowler hat and playing the accordion (though we really shouldn't hold that against him - some of my best friends play the accordion).

in order to delight the many long-time fans of simpson, and many of those who have come to admire the man as their knowledge of cycling history accumulates, urban hunter, in co-operation with gage and desoto, well known new york casual cycling apparel creators, have produced a tom simpson t-shirt highlighting his peugeot days, and incidentally, correcting those famous last words: simpson is alleged to have said 'put me back on my bike', but the true words spoken to harry hall were 'on, on, on', which are printed on the back of the tee. with a stage to mont ventoux the day before paris in this year's tour, simpson fans will wish to remember their hero by wearing the shirt on 25th july. in fact, richard at urban hunter would be very happy if you'd send photos of yourself doing just that on the appropriate date.

the t-shirt can be had in small through to xl in either black on white or black on red, for a cost of £21.95 plus postage.

urbanhunter

twmp

posted on saturday 23 may 2009

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chris king cielo

cielo

its hard to get a bicycle from islay to glasgow, let alone trek one half-way across the world to portland, in order that one may not only observe the bicycle culture, but immerse oneself in its bike lanes, coffee shops and bonhomie. however, it's true what they say: it's not what you know, but who you know, and in this case the man i know is chris distefano at chris king's. basic statement: i would be in portland for a week, and quite plainly need a bicycle; without my saying anything at all, chris proffered the use of a brand new cielo production bicycle, one that had been seen in photographs before, but never ridden by anyone outside of the factory. and it was all mine for a whole seven days.

portland's a long way to go to test a bicycle, but the combination of scenery, good company and roads as different to home as the sahara is to alaska, meant that portland perhaps gave me more of a test than i gave the bicycle. having ridden carbon for around seven years, shifting to steel would surely prove a somewhat difficult baptism into north american riding and culture, including the fact that portland hotels think nothing of a scotsman wheeling a bicycle into his bedroom. a steel bicycle will always speak the truth.

read more...

twmp

posted on friday 22 may 2009

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dirty pictures

dirty pictures

my first few seconds of my very first race, i screamed inside 'oh god, i'm going to die!'

as i have mentioned on more than one occasion, mostly to assuage guilt or excuse my lack of speedy forward motion, i have never raced: not road, not cross, and certainly not mountain bike. however were i to be resident in portland, there's more than an evens chance that i'd break that pattern by trying my hand at cyclocross. you may well be wondering why a boring old fart of sadly limited athletic ability would find it necessary to uncover the cantis and get muddy. the latter is almost guaranteed, as portland's winter weather seems rather similar to islay's winter weather, though perhaps a touch lighter on the wind. the answer is dirty pictures.

finding a thus entitled volume lying on the side-table at mr olson's portland residence, there's a moment's hesitation in picking it up; one wouldn't wish to pry or cause embarrassment, but in this case, it's one of the finest clandestine choices i have ever made. dirty pictures is a selection of output from the guys at pdxcross.com and is a self published book (through the auspices of blurb.com) detailing the joys of mud, sweat and gears through the 2008 cross season.

to watch messrs boom, nys and stybar cause each other anguish and pain through successive years of uci cross is all very well to view on telly or cycling.tv, but at the risk of incurring belgian wrath, it's all very, very serious and laden with start fees and coloured jerseys. pdxcross is as far removed from that as peanut butter is from marmalade. in the words of sly and the family stone, 'it's a family affair' encompassing races for big people, female people, little people and family people, mostly conducted with muddy, ear to ear grins.

'if winning is more important to you than having fun, then you've already lost'

dirty pictures

but the realisation that cross can be fun in portland could just as easily have been garnered from the many folks i met during my week: vanilla already have a cross team (and it's not like sacha needs the advertising), molly cameron races cross, as does ira ryan, slate olson and even the less competitive chris distefano. and jordan hufnagel is bringing on his own team this year. i rest my case m'lud.

however, the underlining of the affair is encapsulated in this book of dirty pictures; 160 photographs selected from 50,000 all snapped by some of the finest photographers it has ever been my privilege to meet. the book and the website give the impression that this is a venture by some radical crossers living on the periphery of portland bicycle culture. but in fact mike davis and torsten kjellstrand are comfortably middle class, work for the oregonian newspaper, and also produce an excellent magazine covering the food and drink culture of portland city and its surrounds.

dirty pictures contains some indescribably beautiful black and white pictures, that are so finely and acutely observed that i am now happy i never moved from photoshop over to the emulation of a real photographer. davis and kjellstrand are accompanied in this venture by rob finch, pamela royal, jamie francis, tim labarge, heidi swift and mike's wife, deb pang davis. such is the impact of the contained photography, that i spent a considerable portion of a ten hour flight from pdx to amsterdam, marvelling at their uncanny observation, timing and a highly sympathetic vision of pdx cyclocross.

dirty pictures

'...and heck, i had freaking darth vader chasing after me on a bike, i mean how many times in life do i get to say that?'

if you'd like to share my enthusiasm for cross, photography or more likely, both, you can grab your own copy of dirty pictures from blurb.com for £35.38 ($70) for the hardcover version, or £25.38($50). it will be money well spent even if you never don cantilevers and dugast tubulars. you can also view a selection of the photography at pdxcross.com. many thanks to mike davis and torsten kjellstrand for stopping by at stumptown coffee. the photos accompanying this article were taken by and are copyright of mike davis.

twmp

posted on thursday 21 may 2009

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alpenrose velodrome

alpenrose velodrome

several years ago, i ran an april fool in the local paper to wit that the predecessors to velo club d'ardbeg had been given a lottery grant to build a velodrome adjacent to islay airport. the resultant outcry was whimsical to witness, but sad to say, islay is still bereft of its velodrome, and that's something that is very unlikely to change in my (or anyone else's) lifetime. britain has very few velodromes, though glasgow's running of the 2014 commonwealth games is adding to that number. the united states has a total of twenty velodromes, one of which is situated in the hayhurst district of portland in the grounds of alpenrose dairy. the dairy belongs to the cadonau family and has done since so its inception in 1916, being named after the the alpine rose.

a youthful member of the cadonau family seemingly excelled at track racing and used a portion of the family's fortune and land to build the outdoor concrete track that is alpenrose velodrome. it's 268.43 metres around and sports one of the steepest bankings in the country at 43 degrees, a fact to which i can attest, having stood at the top and trembled as i looked down to the in-field section. this banking also features in the pdx cross season. alpenrose is also home to the only six-day race in north america.

but the most wonderful feature of alpenrose is that it's a public facility: there's no membership, no charges and effectively, no problem of access. chris distefano took me by to watch the thursday eve timed events which took the form of pursuit racing, though visibly for individual times only, as several competitors had bicycles that verged on state of the art, while their opposite numbers were on what looked like standard track bikes.

alpenrose velodrome

the sense of community is incredible. i arrived on a brand new cielo bicycle which was left lying on its own behind the raked bench seating visibly unlocked and the only attention it drew was a series of admiring looks. we were only there for about an hour, but i watched the track racing while carrying on conversations with a number of people i'd never met before. around the viewing area, there were several riders on turbo trainers and rollers warming up before it was time for their attempt at record times, and a (very good) commentator in the centre of the track keeping all informed as to the proceedings.

alpenrose velodrome is truly the icing on the cake within the portland cycling world: amongst the cycle lanes, light railway, buses with bike racks and endless bike parking throughout the area, to have such a well-maintained velodrome (there is an annual re-paint the track day) - heck, to have a velodrome at all - is quite phenomenal. i need to get out more.

alpenrose velodrome

twmp

posted on wednesday 20 may 2009

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bikeportland.org

jonathan maus

if you check up to the left of this page, you'll see a link alluding to pages about cycling on islay, pages that are not updated as often as i'd like, but well, there you go. but imagine if the latter were the case, where you could check daily to find out about events, restrictions, transport or ferries that might conceivably impinge on your visit to the hallowed isle. sadly, i have too much else to do to even have a run at attempting that sort of web information, but prior to my trip to portland - prior meaning several months before - i was regularly accessing bikeportland.org to find out not only what shapes the bike culture in the city, but any relevant information that i could follow up to make my trip more inclusive as well as more interesting. i discovered jeff mapes' book pedaling revolution, recently reviewed on the post through the pixels of bikeportland.

an essential part of portland bicycle culture, the website is read daily by cyclists all across the city, as well as several across the world (i'm finding it difficult to get out of the habit). bikeportland is the brainchild of and daily life for jonathan maus, aided and abetted by elly blue, keeping several fingers on what makes the city tick when it comes to bicycles, both in terms of daily operation and in terms of the state legislature. much like my portland guide, chris distefano, jonathan seems to know everybody, and is impressively clued up on events happening in real-time, as well as prospective happenings. it makes me feel quite inadequate.

jonathan started bike blogging through the 'bike fun blog on the oregonianlive.com website of dead tree newspaper, the oregonian. this didn't really pan out in quite the manner hoped for by either party, but as his entrenchment in portland's bike culture increased, he left the oregonian after a few months and bikeportland surfaced. in much the same way at thewashingmachinepost, the blogging was a daily obsession until a couple of years ago, when it turned into a business with a daily wage. the site now not only garners thousands of daily visitors but has also acquired a substantial number of advertisers.

this degree of financial security has meant a nice new office in se main street (coincidentally a few floors below epic wheelworks) from where both jonathan and elly ply their essential trade, with a handy little bakery and coffee shop just next door. the work carried out by bikeportland cannot be underestimated: as the cycling population of the city increases, its presence has become a necessity; more bikes interfacing with more cars, buses and the portland light railway, means a need for an overseeing pair of eyes. one of the few cases in the world where the phrase if it didn't exist, we'd have to invent it rings particularly true.

bikeportland.org | follow bikeportland on twitter

twmp

posted on wednesday 20 may 2009

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a visit to chris king components

chris king truck

there are all sorts of places to which, at some time in our lives, we just need to make a pilgrimage to - depending of course, on whichever obsession it is that dictates. in a matter of days, islay will be filled from edge to edge with folks from the four corners, eager to explore every last centimetre of the eight malt whisky distilleries as the islay whisky festival enters its tenth year. and some of those visitors have been making the pilgrimage every single year. if you're a cyclist however, you can take your pick: the champs elysees; cambiago; roubaix velodrome; i'm sure you get the general idea.

while cambiago definitely figures high on my obsession pilgrimage, the opportunity to pay a visit to chris king precision components in nw nela street, portland vies very close to the top of the same list. and perhaps in similar manner to that of the colnago building in cambiago (which i have yet to pay my particular pilgrimage), the exterior masks the jewellery that is made inside. the chris king building is a large, grey anonymous building in amongst similar in portland's northwest industrial district. reached by cycling (how else would you arrive at chris king's?) alongside and across unused railtracks embedded in the tarmac, the only outward sign that you may have reached the correct destination is a truck parked outside, bearing the king logo on the side. this is the truck used to support outside events, containing large internal water tanks to ensure that competitiors served receive cool, clear water no matter where the event is held. you start, at this point, to realise the lengths to which the company goes in its own obsessiveness.

the employee entrance is round the side, but the single door with the company cat sunning itself behind the glass leads to the dealer sales operation, and that's generally as far as any non-employee gets. the reception is a pleasantly open area with several busy folks sat behind their macs (the company uses apple macintoshes exclusively) and facing a display of the complete product range in the myriad of available colours decoratively arranged on the facing wall. and it's possible to pick up a postcard featuring chris king's very first headset, the real thing sitting on the windowsill of chris king's office.

chris distefano

at the time of my visit, chris himself was off on travels, so while i've seen the factory, i haven't, unfortunately, met the man. this was almost of academic importance however, as my host (for virtually all of my last three days in portland) was the affable and brilliant, chris distefano, generally referred to by his friends (and there are many of them) as ceedee. if ever the opportunity presents itself to follow in my footsteps, so to speak, this is definitely the man you want to be guided by. cd is in charge of marketing at chris king. he shares an office with recent recruit, jay sycip who was brought on board to mastermind the cielo project as well as the soon to be released chris king inset semi-integrated headset. at the third mac in the room is rich whitekettle, the man who deals with all the product and website literature as well as all the photography.

their office is on the same floor as chris king's, and overlooks the very clean and remarkably silent production area, with its white milling machines, each linked to a system of pipes that sucks away all the waste for recycling. green accountability is a big part of the production cycle, using only vegetable based oils at every stage and recycling the water used in the anodising process. this concern with the employees and planet's well-being extends to the employees personal facilities. each is supplied with a locker for their cycle gear, fed continuously with air throughout the day to ensure any damp clothing enjoys a freshness not usually associated with locker rooms. there is more than adequate bike parking and showers making it a no brainer to cycle to work and not worry about how comfortable the working day is likely to be.

it was pointed out to me that all the employees on the shop floor were wearing their own clothes (though tellingly, many wore chris king t-shirts) and yet they were all perfectly clean (engineering workers of the world, weep in unison) - a testament to the systems described above. employees also rotate their work positions: if you start on one inch headsets, this doesn't mean you'll stay there. this means that eventually everyone knows how to make virtually everything: demarcation is seemingly not a word in the ck vocabulary.

a new cafe is currently under construction; for the time being employees eat in a diner style cafeteria on the ground floor, and the company employs a chef to ensure a suitable standard and quality of food. with may being america's bike to work month, all chris king employees who commute by bicycle (or even a combination of cycle, bus and/or light railway) every day receive an additional two days paid holiday. it's fairly easy to see why staff turnover is on the low side.

chris king rear hub

every part of the chris king product range is manufactured in-house, including the medical standard bearings, factors that allow the confident offering of a ten year warranty on the world famous headsets and a five year warranty on their hubs. these latter components have to be the easiest hubs in the world to service: cd pulled apart a cut-away rear hub lying on his desk in a matter of seconds - the only tool required would have been an appropriately sized allen key to release the non-drive side locknut. all products are milled from solid aluminium billet which lies in serious lengths at the back of the plant. even the cogs for their single speed hubs are cnc machined from solid disks of steel.

while world renowned for their headsets, hubs, and bottom brackets, more recently chris king has re-discovered frame building; he will build a very limited number by himself from reynolds 953 stainless steel using tubes and lugs, but there is a production version of the cielo, one of which i was very privileged to have exclusive use of throughout my week in portland (review and road test to follow) which is tig welded in-house using american true temper steel tubes.you learn a great deal at chris kings, but come away knowing less than you really want to know; there isn't a hint of any future products dropped at anytime, though there seemed to be no forbidden areas that i was kept away from while walking around the plant. yet i apparently was given the full tour plus. there was never any 'we can't tell you that' moments: i spent friday afternoon cycling round town with cd and jay sycip, and i'm not aware of anything being placed out of bounds.

for such an anonymous grey building, in less than salubrious surroundings, it's a very inspiring place. great to know that such care and attention accompanies every chris king precision component. i will cycle with pride on my chris king wheels and headset, and i don't even work there.

chris king | cielo bicycles





twmp

posted on tuesday 19 may 2009

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no more mr nice guy

jordan hufnagel

if you're a creative person, you need space. this often takes the form of headspace but assuming the creativitiy needs a physical outlet, then that space takes on a more manifest description, translating into physical space and probably physical money to pay for it. and thus ends the complete ideology of true creativity; a sense of the need to pay rent at the end of the month means at least a degree of commerciality creeps in somewhere along the line. sitting in my leather armchair with a macbook pro on my knee takes not a lot of space, but assembling a series of steel tubes via brazing and soldering takes a little more, and that little more would hopefully be bereft of flammable materials in the immediate vicinity. the biggest difference between the buillders i have had the great good fortune to visit in portland, has been the wide varity of spaces they inhabit, either through good fortune, economic necessity or strategic policy, though i think numbers one and two play more of a part in this process.

jordan hufnagel is originally from indianapolis, but like his peers in the industry the portland thing grabbed him too, and he is now happily ensconced in a large open space in portland's south east side, behind a rather brightly painted and graffitied yellow wall. happily, the inside is a lot easier on sun impinged eyes: the workspace is split into three, with tattoo equipment being made behind the walls and door at the back, while a screenprinting setup stood idle in the third space. jordan plans to set up a wall of windows to give the screenprinter and himself a greater degree of separation.

hufnagel frame

i figure that the only bit of a framebuilder's space that really ought to be neat and tidy, similar to the space of the refined bicycle mechanic, is the tool board: a place for everything and everything in its place - the hufnagel space complies. but he did let slip that he'd just finished a frame, and that tends to be the time when tidying up gets done and those essential tools return to the pegboard. the rest of the place is very much like its occupier: very relaxed. there are wheels adorning various corners of the floor, pedals lying on top of the fridge, an orange track pump in the middle of the floor, and quite a number of exquisite hufnagel bicycles with and without gears hanging from the ceiling, leaning against the wall, and one sitting in front of a big green, comfy sofa that no-one is sitting on. we're all on chairs and stools.

jordan is a really nice guy, too nice to be someone you'd consider a seriously competitive cyclist, but that's just what he plans on being later this year when cross season starts again. in fact, not only is he really up for giving everyone else a hard time, it seems highly likely that there will be a hufnagel cross team this year; no more mr nice guy.

with few, if any exceptions, portland's band of bicycle builders construct in steel: fillet brazed, lugged and tig-welded, but carbon is currently the weapon of choice for most of the world's serious and not so serious racing cyclists, so one has to ask the question as to whether the black fibre has been considered. the green couch surprisingly, to me at least, jordan has been looking at the possibilities of building some future hufnagels out of carbon. not being particularly skilled in even discussing framebuilding techniques, i didn't quiz further, but the conversation did mention a third party currently experimenting with carbon bits, and it would be an interesting development in the portland world if this material joined the steel and titanium currently available.

starting a career as a framebuilder in a city that already sports so many, can't be an easy option - financial security is hardly guaranteed, and the more there are, the more it would seem necessary that they all differentiate themselves from each other in some way. however, the distinctive hufnagel badge and decal seem already a part of the portland bicycle culture. only the next day there was one hanging significantly on a wall hook at the green dragon.

hufnagelcycles

twmp

posted on monday 18 may 2009

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