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The Life and Times of Shop Dog Stella

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The Life and Times of Shop Dog Stella

Life’s tough when your day-to-day routine consists of a few behaviors, both innate and learned. For Stella, the resident shop dog at Golden Saddle Cyclery in Los Angeles, her mornings usually start out with a nap in the morning sun, followed by the inevitable first run to the corner store snack begging session, a quick piss in the alley, then more begging before greeting the afternoon clientele’s ascension to the back alley bench.

From there, it’s beg relentlessly for food to no avail, back to napping (this time in the middle of the doorway), maybe a sniff or a scoff here or there when you try to pet her, before finally scoring an avocado chip or a loose pepperoni. Yeah, for Stella, it’s all about sniffing messenger bags, licking sweaty legs and cold lamping on a chilly Los Angeles springtime afternoon… Until the next pair of unsuspecting legs waltz through the door of the shop.

Here’s to the cold lampin’ shop dogs.

DJ’s Dirt Shark Landshark MTB

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DJ’s Dirt Shark Landshark MTB

Vintage mountain bikes can provide just as much excitement as modern mountain bikes on your local trails. Sure, modern tech trumps clapped out forks and squishy brakes, but any trail shaman will show you the way to the wakkiness if you know how to summon your inner Tomac.

Not that DJ is going hucking anytime soon on his Dirt Shark frame, but in the meantime, it’s making a meal of his local one-track. Even if it’s hobo trails lined with syringes and scratch tickets, there’s still a good amount of dirt to be found in between Long Beach and Los Angeles for jibbin’.

Duder picked this bike up for a song and with that Kooka Stem and blue Sid fork, it’s one that I’d tune my ears to hear. With that paint, those components and the vintage fit philosophy, this bike will offer a truly unique experience on the trails. One that even your lightest 1x setup would have a hard time to rival.

You see, it’s not always about smashing KOM’s or blasting berms, sometimes it’s about just making it down in one piece… Keep her pretty DJ, but let her rip!

Reminder: Next Week is the Speedvagen Fit Tour!

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Reminder: Next Week is the Speedvagen Fit Tour!

Next week I’ll be embarking on a trip with Speedvagen as we cruise the Cali coast, stopping at key spots and fitting customers for the 2015 Speedvagen Fit Tour. Which, I might add, still has a few spots open. Sign up for a Speedvagen Fit today.

Even if you’re not going to get fit by Sacha, you can come hang in SF on May 2nd and Los Angeles on May 5th at a few choice locations. Our host shops are the Rapha Cycles Club in SF, Mission Workshop’s Valencia store and Golden Saddle Cyclery in Silverlake. There will be group rides leaving from these shops, with special parties at night. Come check out some Speedvagens and artwork from Chris McNally on display.

Check out the full details below.

Golden Saddle Rides: The SOMA Electric Wolverine Turn On Your Bike

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Golden Saddle Rides: The SOMA Electric Wolverine Turn On Your Bike

Golden Saddle Rides: The SOMA Electric Wolverine Turn On Your Bike
Photos and words by Kyle Kelley

One part inspired by the band Electric Wizard and six parts inspired by Erik’s Di2 Alfine 11 Peacock-Nuke AWOL.

While this customer may not be heading off to Europe to participate in The Transcontinental anytime soon, he is riding this thing through the urban jungle we call Los Angeles and participating in daily jaunts through the Santa Monica Mountains.

The new Soma Wolverine was our canvas and the picture which we would paint took longer than some of the most famous oil paintings. Most of the components were no-brainers. While questions like whether to use a belt or chain took a bit longer.

I hope you guys enjoy looking at this bike as much as we liked building it!

p.s. The Soma Wolverine was also reviewed in the latest issue of Bicycle Quarterly. So if you’d like to know more about the performance of this bike, I’d suggest heading to your local bike shop and picking up issue No. 51 of BQ.

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Follow Kyle on Instagram and visit Golden Saddle Cyclery in Silverlake, Los Angeles.

FYXO: GSC and the Concrete Jungle

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FYXO: GSC and the Concrete Jungle

Photos by Andy White

Looking through the latest gallery on FYXO has all kinds of nostalgic gears spinning in my head. It was one of my favorite trips to Los Angeles and easily one of the best road trips on the west coast.

Many months ago, Andy visited LA and documented the whole trip, extensively. Seriously, the mate always had his camera on him. Over a year later and he finally shared them all in one gigantic gallery.

Head over to FYXO to see more!

Golden Saddle Rides: Haunted Hollows Stinner Off-Roadie

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Golden Saddle Rides: Haunted Hollows Stinner Off-Roadie

Golden Saddle Rides: Haunted Hollows Stinner Off-Roadie
Photos and words by Kyle Kelley

I guess this bike would be a little more Halloweeny if it was black and orange, but what the HELL, it’s not!

Stinner Frameworks provided the skeleton, and we installed the costume.

Matt, the owner of this bike knew exactly what he wanted. A no nonsense road bike that could take large enough tires to really get dirty. The Velo Orange Grand Cru brakes are what made his decision to go standard caliber, over a cantilever or Mini-Moto style brake. Besides the Chris King bits, the bike is outfitted with a full Ultegra kit. The ENVE bar and seatpost are keeping Matt comfy on long dirty rides. Be it road or dirt the bike is always outfitted with some skin walls, duh.

Steal Your Shop Top Caps

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Steal Your Shop Top Caps

This image is rad on so many levels. I’m thankful for two things: shops like GSC and my parents for giving me all their Dead albums to listen to when I was a kid. Unfortunately, these top caps aren’t available online, you’ll have to head to Golden Saddle Cyclery to score one.

That Was Such an Amazing Road Trip

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That Was Such an Amazing Road Trip

I finally got all my film back from the #RadGoldenDream road trip that Golden Saddle, Team Dream and I went on. These two photos are some of my favorites and best represent the vibes on the road.

Yeti Pro F.R.O (For Rockin’ Only!)

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Yeti Pro F.R.O (For Rockin’ Only!)

This bike is pretty damn old and you’d think that the stem and fork were too, but they’re not. Anybody wanna try and guess who built them?

Everything else on the bike is very period correct, my favorite part is the NOS Onza Racing Porcs though. Those guys are probably the best looking tires ever made!

The owner of this bike is probably one of the funnest customers to work with here at Golden Saddle Cyclery, because all the bikes we build for him are BANGERS!

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Follow Kyle on Instagram and visit Golden Saddle Cyclery in Silverlake, Los Angeles.

We Made it To Vegas

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We Made it To Vegas

… and it was a wild ride. Hopefully, you’ve been following along on the #RadGoldenDream hashtag. Let me settle in a bit with WiFi and I’ll get back to posting.

Living the #RadGoldenDream en Route to Interbike

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Living the #RadGoldenDream en Route to Interbike

For the next few days leading up to Interbike, I’ll be on the road. Kyle and Ty from Golden Saddle, Sean from Team Dream and myself will be trekking out to Vegas via a few choice trail systems. While we’re on the road, we’ll be documenting the shenanigans thanks to Impossible Project‘s instant film and Mission Workshop / Acre‘s kick-ass gear!

If I get ahold of WiFi, I’ll be updating the site, if not, expect everything to resume with Interbike coverage on Tuesday.

Follow us on Instagram.

@AcreSupply@MissionWorkshop@impossible_HQ@JohnProlly@KyleBKelley@Tytanium@ItsMeSeanT