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Photos by Jeremy Dunn
I’ve really come to admire photos that are taken while riding, much moreso than staged photo shoots. So it’s nice to see Jeremy’s photos and accompanying write-up of the 2012 Chris King Gourmet Century on the Rapha blog. That shot of Cindy is too good!
I think everyone can agree that this looks like a great time. Thanks for sharing Chris King!
If you like clean, simple builds and you want a frame made in the USA by Waterford, check out the Orange One frames by Milwaukee. This recent customer build up came out super clean. See more at the Ben’s Cycle Blog. Who else is making affordable production singlespeed, track and road frames in the States anymore?
Photos by Dylan VanWeelden
Kyle and Dylan have pretty sweet gigs at Chris King. All they do all day is drink coffee, visit shops and then drink beer when their caffeine buzz subsides. Ok, maybe that’s not 100% accurate but this shop visit post to the SyCip Bicycles came out great. Check out more here.
Hey, I like food and I love riding in Portland. If you do too, you should really check out an event Chris King is putting on called the “Gourmet Century“. It’ll be around 60 miles (+/- 100k) and 1,000′, just enough to work up an appetite. Head over to Chris King for registration.
I like what I see here. Two solid companies, visiting each other’s facilities. Chris King and Tanner Goods. Head to the Cielo Blog for more!
Thanks for sharing Mr. Kyle Von Hoetzendorff and nice photos Mr. Dylan Van Weeldan!
Two names you can’t go wrong with in the style category of cycling is Beloved and Rapha. You’ve most likely heard of the latter but Beloved was a new name to me up until last summer, when I toured the Chris King facilities prior to my tour. Their niche is deeply tied to their slogan “Let Us Chase the Sun” and it’s only fitting that these bikes are born in the Pacific Northwest where chasing the sun is a literal activity. Marketing aside, Beloved makes timeless bicycles with details to match. Most of this bike was made in the USA and that’s a huge plus in my book.
This Rapha Every Day townie bike sits pretty in the Cycle Club SF window, so I took it outside for some lens love and SF sun (i.e. overcast)…
Check out more by clicking the photo above or here to open in a new tab.
Where do I even begin with this bike? At the 2011 NAHBS, I spent the afternoon with Chris Bishop, after all the madness of the show had subsided. We rode around Austin, soaked up the sun, got lunch and chatted bikes. That’s when he asked if I would want to have a road bike in the 2012 NAHBS. Of course I wanted a Bishop road bike but I was torn. Since Chris was mostly known for lugged frames, would he want to make a modern, light, fillet frame? Hell, I didn’t even know what I wanted to be honest.
But first thing’s first. I had to get fit by Chris. After the Philly Bike Expo, I headed to Baltimore with him and Tommy, where I stayed the night and got fit in the morning. We began with what I knew, my Merckx road bike and some standard body dimensions. These became our starting point. From there, we tweaked the fit based on what kind of riding I do. Everything was dialed in on the fit bike: head tube angle, fork rake, seat tube angle, etc. Chris asked what I liked and what I didn’t like.
After some back and forth, we had a geometry and finally, a tubing selection: the downtube and chain stays are Columbus Spirit. The head tube is True Temper OX Platinum, Seat tube NOS Columbus MAX, seat stays, top tube are Dedacciai Zero. I wanted the bike as light as possible but not getting into weight weenie status so we went with an ENVE cockpit and a ENVE 1.0 fork, along with an ENVE post, which was made in the States a week before the show! Other tidbits include a Chris King No-Threadset headset and a Fizik Kurve saddle.
Since I love SRAM, a mix of Force and Red was used (not showing the Red Cassette) but I’m most stoked on the wheels. I went with Pewter Chris King R45s laced with Sapim spokes to HED Belgium Rims. Tommy built the wheels with CX Rays up front and Race spokes on the rear. But the frame is what makes the bike. Chris went to town on every single detail here. The cable stops were machined, the replacable, 7075 Paragon drop outs were machined, the pressfit 30 BB shell was hand filed and the fillet construction is pristine. So pristine that it won best fillet construction at the 2012 NAHBS. To top it off, Bryan at Fresh Frame and Tommy concocted one killer paint job, using my logo colors and my love for chevrons as a precedent.
There, enough talking, check out the Gallery by clicking the above photo or click here to open a new tab.
What a week! I feel like I’ve been burning the candle at both ends and it’s finally Friday afternoon. I hope everyone has a great weekend. Spend some time in the saddle and with your friends. When the sun goes down, pour it neat and ride the streets.
REMINDER: If you’re in Austin and you brought a road bike, don’t forget the Loose Legs SxSW Ride tomorrow. Swing through and hang for a bit, or the whole haul. It’s an early one, with a 9am roll-out from Frank. A road bike is encouraged, but it’s possible on fixed.
How do they get that paint in there? Some will brush it in and rub it off but not Chris King‘s in-house frame company Cielo. For them, it’s more of a process. A reader sent this in, via Rie’s Flickr. From what I can gather, they’re visiting from Germany, with a ton of great photos. Check the rest out here.
While I was in Geelong, visiting Baum, I took one of Darren’s shop bikes outside for some lens love. This Baum Cubano road bike was built up sparing no expense. Chris King, ENVE, SRAM, you name it. It just oozes cool. Pulling precedents from old race cars, Darren and his in-house painters worked on the livery. The white, black and orange is reminiscent of the old Gulf Porsche cars and knowing that the build could pass for the weight weenies, i’m sure it rides like one too. Check out more in the gallery.
Gallery (FYI, you can also just click on the photo above to launch this)
The second day of the 2012 North American Handmade Bicycle show was a madhouse. Walking up to the convention center, I was shocked to see the line wrapping around the block. Inside, the booths were crowded with bell-ringers, brake pullers, tire kickers and top tube tingers. As someone who tends to obsess over frame details, it was easy to document some bikes but the overall frame shots were a real pain. I managed to document a good number of builders, as well as some friend’s bikes. For now check out a photo gallery, featuring Richard Sachs, Yipsan, Mosaic, Rebolledo, Della Santa and Sycip.
