here is michael pedron's 650b touring bicycle built up. the lugs are very simple, the seat stays are bent in my fork blade bender.
it was painted at Villin Cycles in gainesville florida.

B is for Boston

just spent a week in Boston visiting Katie and Aaron. they are summering in Jamaica Plains staying at a co-op house. the exterior is surrounded by sunflowers, while the inside is filled with 9 people. in order to accommodate this many people, they have a kitchen with two ovens, 2 refrigerators, and a large pantry along with a well working system for meals, shopping and cleaning. the basement has bike hooks with what seems like more than 1 bike per person(and at least a couple bikes for guests).
on my first day, Aaron, Erica and i rented a sail boat at the lake across the street. we had to convince the boat house keeper(aka merman) that we could sail(we dont know how to sail). we did a bunch of laps around the lake(i guess we kinda do know how to sail). i am now itching to get home to fix up my brothers hobie cat so we can take it out.
that same night we went out contra dancing in a small town outside the city. i thought i knew a thing or two about contra dancing, it turns out that i am better at sailing than i am at contra dancing(this is not saying very much).
day 2 was filled with rain and the most exciting thing we did was go to the Bikes Not Bombs storefront which is right down the street from the house. the shop sells new and used bikes and all the profits go to fund the BNB community projects. day three Aaron and i rode around boston. in boston common we saw some really awesome pedal powered paddle boats. the sat probably 20 people and the driver sat in a large swan. that night we went to a party at katie's work and ate free Turkish food till we couldnt move.
other highlights of the trip:
we went on 2 very nice rides in the boston area. the first one we rode up to Lynn, not the most exciting town, but its right one water, so that was nice.
the second ride was out to Holliston to visit A.N.T. Bicycles. Mike Flanigan's bikes really inspire me. they are simple, beautiful and utilitarian. they have a dutch city bike look, but are still very unique. his shop is in an old shoe factory. he was nice enough to show us his shop, let us see and ride one of his bikes(his personal dutch style bike) and then had lunch with us at a local cafe.(mike, thanks again for the drum brake boss, it will go on the next fork i build).
after 3 hours we were back on the road to boston.
im not going to post all the pictures on here, click this image to see more.


so, here are some statistics from my trip so far:

minimum number of miles ridden on a bike thus far: 200(hmm, should be more)

number of bikes ridden: 5

number of dead rats: boston 5
philly 2
nyc 0(huh?)
number of live rats: boston 0
philly 2
nyc 4
number of bus rides: 5 (2 more to go)

vegan ice cream shops visited: 2

of those, how many actually open for business: 1

# of collectively run vegan pizza joints that i tried to visit but were no longer in business: 1

Vietnamese veggie sandwiches eaten:5 (the ones in philly are the best so far)

total cost: $15

famous people i had to move out of the way of? 3

city were i spent the most money: new york

last day in philly, off to boston

on my last day in philly, i decided to go down to south street. its pretty busy there and there are a bunch of cheesy shops along with some good ones like the wooden shoe collective book store and Via Bicycle a bike shop that has tons of vintage bikes and parts crammed into a small building. these are the shops i wanted to go to.
on south street there are a couple really cool community gardens along with the magic garden, an old empty lot that has been turned into a museum of mosaics.


Isaiah Zagar's mosiacs adorn buildings all over philadelphia. philly also has a lot of really interesting murals, i like this one of the dogs and cats, but there are ones that i have no idea what they are suppose to be about. i then met up with my friend lauren, her room mate Meg made us a treasure map to devils pool along the Wissahickon River. there is a great bike trail that goes along the river and connects to the trail on the Schuylkill.these trails are great connectors as well as for recreation. devils pool is pretty much a small deep pool in a stream off the Wissahickon between a couple 15-20ft high boulders that are perfect to jump off of. the pool isnt too deep but that didnt stop the kids from doing front flips and dives into it. i jumped feet first from the highest point from fear of hitting my head on the bottom. good idea since my feet hit the bottom. there is also bridge about 50 feet above the pool. the kids claim that they jump off it into the water, but i doubt you could do it without dying.


















it took a while to get back and we stopped to see this great view of the skyline

my week in philadelphia

i decided to take a vacation before i go on the poster job(hopefully for the last time and hopefully ill pay off my student loans)
i spent a week in new york and im now in philadelphia. visiting old friends, helping with there house projects and seeing whats new with the city.

sunday brunch around the corner at a house around the corner from Ben's place.
the money raised will go to start an Urban CSA





















bike path along the schuylkill river. cycling has increased by over 300% in philly since the city has started to invest in bike facilities










neighborhood bike works is a community bicycle shop on penn campus, they do a youth earn a bike program along with open community shop hours.

Ryan's blinged out fillet brazed track frame.

just got Ryans bike back from the powder coater. its sparkly black. it was hard to get good pictures of it during the day, i really need to get someone to come take good photos, but this is the best i could do outside my shop.

michael's touring frame

just got this one finished before i left for the northeast. its a 650b touring frame Michael will be getting it painted at Villin Cycles in Gainesville Florida

its built with columbus spirit tubing for lugs. the fork crown is Pacenti cycles new Paris-Brest model. im digging it quite a bit. yet again this is another frame with curved seat stays, ever since i built the first bike with them, everyone has wanted their frame with curved stays. its not too hard for me to bend them, takes just a few more minutes. this one i made the top a scallop design then brazed them to the binder, i think i like this look best.

awesome photo in the shop

kyle took this photo while we were building Ryan's track frame. just got the thing painted yesterday, should have some photos up tonight.