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These oversized tubed, fillet brazed, steel track machines have caught my eye. Antti Konga builds these bikes in Finland, which explains the name, Rata, which means “track” in Finnish. Antti doesn’t have a website yet, so check out more photos of the KONGA Rata track bike here. Really loving that set!
This is about as balleur as a single speed cross bike gets. The new Ritte Racing team rider Ben Jacques-Maynes is tearing apart SoCal’s cross races on this beast. Equipped with the 2012 TRP Parabox Hydraulic disk brakes, it’s good to go.
Ritte, we wanna see more ASAP! Maybe I’ll track down Ben at the SSCXWC in LA next week to shoot some photos.
Photo by Kyle Kelley
The Brooklyn Machine Works Gangsta track was one of the first cross over track bikes that really could adapted for just about any terrain. I remember a few messengers in NYC racing cross on these bikes at Staten Island a few years back. One of those messengers was Austin Horse. Well, he’s still on it. In fact, he raced the Westside Invite in LA a few weeks back before heading over to Japan to race cross and another Red Bull event.
Before Austin embarked for Japan, Kyle at Tracko took some nice photos of this unique machine. Check out more photos here.
Finding American-made components and frames is easier than you think. Check out what Cult’s current US-made offerings are.
Chris has been so busy building that he hasn’t had time to photograph any of his new bikes. That said, this one is far from new but it’s still classic Bishop. Kyle at Tracko shot a great set of photos after this Gilco tubing SSCX bike left Golden Saddle Cyclery for a facelift. See more photos here.
This has got to be the sickest modern production track bike I’ve ever seen. A mix of fillet brazed Columbus MAX and Zona really hammers home the meaning behind “ono”, or a tool for cutting through your obstacles in Japanese. See more photos of the Tokyo Fixed Ono here and pick one up here. This will probably be your only chance to own a Death Spray Custom designed paint job!
The first aluminum bike in the All City catalog is their new Thunderdome track frame. These race-ready machines are pre-booking now at your LBS for $650 frame and carbon fork. Get on it! Check out more specs here at All City.
Bryan Myers of Fresh Frame has painted two of my bikes, my Icarus MAX track and my Bishop road. He’s a master masker and the designs that leave his shop are, well, incredible. While Fresh Frame didn’t have a booth at the Philly Bike Expo, he did lead a seminar on painting and for an in-progress project example, he brought this partially finished Icarus road. This frame is stunning! I can’t wait to see it built up. Check out more below.
Check out details on how you can win a Fyxation Eastside Track bike here.
Affinity Cycles is giving away a Kissena track frameset over on their blog. Head over to check out the details! That’s a $750 value and a frame that has world championships pouring out of its bb shell.
So Ian at Icarus has been working on this monster track machine for a little while. The idea is that bigger track racers, like 200+ lb sprinters, need a stiff bike and weight isn’t really a big of an issue. So he’s gone oversize everywhere he can. He’s still working on the frame, in his down time but this thing would rip the boards off a velodrome underneath the right racer…
Marty at Geekhouse is probably the biggest Chris Chance fanboy out there. Somerville, Mass and its framebuilding community are forever in debt to Fat City Cycles. Little homages like this prove it! Man, I can’t wait to build this thing up!
Damn. Those Milwaukee Bicycle Co OX disk cross frames look great, especially with a Wound Up. They’re in stock now and ready to roll over at Ben’s Cycle.
Since my touring bike was stolen, the only bike that I’ve been riding around town is my track bike. I’ve been waiting for my Geekhouse team Mudville for what feels like an eternity. I miss having a bike with gears that I can ride around town and lock up (the Bishop has too much carbon). So when Marty posted this up this morning, my palms got sweaty. I can’t wait!
Let’s see, mine must be the really big one.
Today I swung through to see Ian at Icarus about a few things. One of which was to photograph a new frame that just returned from Fresh Frame, his painter. This frame in particular is headed over to Germany tomorrow and it’s stunning. The client wanted a blue and white track frame, inspired by Jeremy’s Classic Track. The subtle pearl coat’s blue reflection really pops in the sunlight and I can’t wait to see how this beauty builds up. Until Ian and I can figure out a way to display these frames, I just asked to hold it in front of his new shop. It’s gonna be a busy winter for Icarus.
For 2013, Parlee introduces their new Z0 road model, the pinnacle of their US-made carbon fiber frames. While the standard road caliper model was stunning, their new Z0 disk road caught my eye. With its proprietary, Parlee-made, tapered carbon fiber disk fork, the Z0 has plenty of stiffness up front to counteract the disk stopping power. Seen here in an early prototype, the Z0 road will be available in 2013. See more photos below and I’ll post more details as events warrant.
Click on the above photo to launch the gallery, or here to open in a new tab.
These are the types of posts I love seeing from Chris Bishop. I like to think of Chris’ work as detailed, with a purpose. While I’ve got nothing against builders who file down pedal cages and machine their own tail lamps, I really appreciate little nuances that make a bike function better, while adding a little aesthetic pulse of energy.
Chris cites Aaron Hayes from the late Courage Cycles as a precedent for this (something I wish the new jack builders would do – cite your sources), as an effort to stiffen up cantis and mini v’s. He even noticed an increase in stiffness while brazing this bridge booster in place.
See the mini v’s installed below.
Jeff from All-City sent this my way. The new All-City Photo Annual is out (V3 already?!) and the new All-City product catalog. Each year it gets better and better. See more here. I’ve even got some shots in there this year.
