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Photos by Andy White
Melbourne is a special place for me, with its unique riding and exceptional local cyclists. Recently, the Vanilla Workshop and Speedvagen took to the road, er air, to hop Down Under for an Australian Fit Tour in Sydney and Melbourne. Behind the lens in the latter was Andy White from FYXO who captured some great moments from Sacha and company’s time at Shifter Bikes and on the streets.
See more at FYXO!
Hey Aussies! Get ready, the 2015 Speedvagen Australia Fit Tour is heading your way!
“Sacha White and The Vanilla Workshop are preparing to take off on the second leg of the Speedvagen Fit Tour. This trip takes Speedvagen to Australia, specifically Sydney and Melbourne. In addition to fitting new Speedvagen customers, there will be rides in each city as well as evening events open to the public. Fresh off the success of the California Fit Tour, extending the program is a natural progression, reaching customers that would normally not make it to Portland for a personal fitting with Sacha.
There are limited spots available, as each fit takes 2-3 hours. Spending this much time working with each customer allows Sacha to understand each rider’s unique strengths, needs, and limitations. The end result is your dream bike, completely tuned to your riding style. Learn more about the Australia Fit Tour or schedule a fit session with Sacha here.”
Sydney Dates: August 24th – 30th at the Rapha Cycle Club
Melbourne Dates: Sept 1st – 6th at Shifter Bikes
Photo by Andy White
Andy over at FYXO has been altering modern Campagnolo components for some time now. First stripping the clear anodizing, then sending them off to an engraver, before polishing them up. FYXO’s handywork has been featured here on the site so much that even Campagnolo took note and contacted Andy to see if he’d feature Athena 11 in a similar manner.
All he needed was a frame and a client… and boy did he ever. Head to FYXO for the full scoop!
“In this episode – Stuart O’Grady speaks with Andy White about this and that. This episode brought to you by Brut 33. Stinks as bad now as it always has.”
Nice one, FYXO!
When a guy like Jeff Curtes shoots photos and writes a bit of copy, you don’t paraphrase his work. Sure, you edit it down a bit but it’s best left untouched. When he contacted me to share a recent photoshoot for Australia’s MAAP, I very much obliged to let him do just that. Read on for the full account and a selection of photos from Jeff’s recent shoot on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia…
I can’t wait to see this year’s show after last year’s showcase didn’t happen. Future updates as events warrant over at FYXO.
The Cycle Messenger World Championships return to Melbourne, Australia in 2015. Registration is now open and it’s sure to fill up, so get on it. This is sure to be a crazy event, if you can float the flight. Head to the 2015 CMWC site to register.
Photo by Andy White
Down Under, it’s the middle of summer and frame builders like Gellie Custom are in full-on production, keeping their custom customers happy. Gellie makes road, track, tourer, tandem, ‘cross and MTB frames. Did I leave anything out?
Andy White of FYXO recently visited Gellie’s shop in Kinglake and photographed some of his recent builds, which you’ve got to check out. Head over to FYXO for the full scoop.
Melbourne is a rad city and this video just scratches the surface. Here’s what riding fixed gears in Melbourne means to a group of ladies.
Sunday in Hell? More like, Funday in Hell. The 2014 Melburn Roobaix was a blast! Nice video FYXO.
There’s something magical about waking up to the call of the Magpie, in a dingy hotel room, with holes in the walls (wall paper peeling off) and to the stench of post-parma flatulence mixed with dirty bib shorts. Now, I know that was grotesque, but it’ll paint a vivid picture for ya.
Personally, I was stoked on our accommodations. For $30 Aussie notes, we slept like logs on a windless summer night. The sunrise looked good and best of all: it wasn’t raining. At all. Yet.
After scarfing down a “scroll” – Australian for cinnamon roll, two tangerines, a pie (meat pie), another pie (meat pie) and a breakfast croissant (ham and cheese), we were ready for mediocre coffee and yellow-tinted water for our bidons. The sun was still shining, so we went off, rain jackets strapped to our bags.
The winter in Victoria can be unforgiving. One minute, it’ll be sunny and the next, a monsoon. After losing a 5D Mkiii body to the Roobaix (R.I.P. baby), I was hesitant to shoot in the rain, so a sunny morning meant more photos and more photos means more “recovery stops.” Even, in the end, that means for hurterer legs. Bugga!
Our day would be packed with hardpack. Lots of climbing, up steep hills, over the range and back down into Healesville. On paper, it looked easy, on the legs, not so much. 65ish miles and 7,000′ of almost all dirt meant we were in for a long day and even longer descents. BRAPPPPP!
Thankfully, the morning light and afternoon landscapes kept my mind off the lactic acid fermentation forming in my quads… See for yourself in the Gallery!
Andy White of FYXO has a pretty decent bicycle collection, ranging from some Australian pedigree, to classic Italian, carbon madness and bikes like this immaculate Concorde Squadra with a mix of Campagnolo.
Most of Andy’s bikes are obvious choices but this one stood out as being a bit different…
So I asked him why, out of all the bikes on this Earth, did he spend so much time building up a Concorde Squadra PDM? Nothing against these frames, they’re immaculate! His answer “Because I wanted to do Concorde PDM FYXO bidons.”
That’s dedication to the cause…
A local rider in Melbourne came out and shot some video of the 2014 Melbourne Roobaix.
Thanks for letting me go on another overnighter ride in the Aussie bush. It’s exactly what I (and my bike) needed. What a perfect 48 hours… oh and happy 4th of July!
For the next 48 hours, I’ll be riding in the outer reaches of civilization deep in the Yarra Ranges with a handful of mates. As per the norm when it comes to these rides, there will be ample documentation upon my return.
This trip will be atypical from previous treks, since it’s winter and the weather can change in the blink of an eye…
See you soon!
Llewellyn is one of Australia’s best kept, not-so secrets. Those who know, know, leaving the rest of the world coveting frames from Eisentraut (1959), Moulton (1957), Weigle (1977), Sachs (1975), etc.
Granted, Llewellyn has only been building since 1979, and the others, as stated above, have been around only slightly longer. Darrell Llewellyn makes steel bikes and steel bikes alone. He’s built for numerous Australian national athletes, was an Olympic mechanic and had a hand in the early days of NAHBS.
It’s winter here, Down Under and it’s been quite the shock to the system. I was just getting acclimated to the heat of Texas Summer and now I’m riding in nothing but cold weather and pissing rain.
Today Andy and I went riding a few local trails and after our ride, I shot a few photos. Nothing serious, just head shots, head tubes of our bikes (thanks to My Mountain Melbourne for the loaner Yeti SB95c!) and dirty butts. See a few more below.
It’s merely by coincidence that I’m in Australia when this kit was completed at Endo Customs in Los Angeles but it worked out perfectly. My original concept for doing the Radavist’s first kit was looking to nature for inspiration, particularly venomous animals you might encounter in the woods or while camping.
The Black Widow spider (USA), or in this case, the Redback spider (OZ) has a far worse reputation than its bite, yet the population fears it. An all-black spider, with a bright red marking on its abdomen will induce your fight or flight response. These kits were an homage to nature’s way of visual coding… The same marking makes it visible in the woods as you’re ripping trails, or on a road climb.
Marked with “Rubber Side Up” on the drive-side leg, the Radavist Jackal on the other, the script logo across the chest, on the lower back and the raidō r-rune from the Elder Futhark on the upper back of the bib, it’s a straight forward, yet classic kit that hopefully will become your staple.
Price is $270 + shipping for the bibs and jersey. I’m only selling this paired for this round. That means you get a medium jersey and medium bibs in each order, along with some stickers and a stem cap. This is not a pre-order, these kits are in stock and will ship this week.
SORRY SOLD OUT but thanks to FYXO for the photos!