Candy Cranks

I’m a sucker for cute-ness and this illustration by Noulou, Erin Moniotte just about takes the cake. It’s titled “The Runaway Bicycle” and you can have one of your very own for $18. You can check out more of her lovely doodles here.

Thanks Jewlz!

Saturday morning we got up and started riding to the Richmond, VA convention center, hoping we’d find a place to stop and eat breakfast on the way. We seriously hit the jackpot! If you know me, you know I’m all about breakfast. I wish we had a place like City Diner in Nashville. Not only was the food great, but the service was amazing too; City Diner saved my life this past weekend. All photos by Keith Gallagher.

The North American Handmade Bicycle Show had a lot going on. There were so many insane bikes and parts to even name them all. I met the guys at Urban Velo, and they were really cool. I also ran into Ben and the rest of the Cinelli guys again. Here are some pictures that Keith took while we wandered around the show. More photos here.

Photos from the last saturday races!

Bike Polo Tournament

…and Gold Sprints!

Female: 1°

2°

3°

And a Candy Cranks fan!

RC, Scattofisso e FixedForum

Robo cog is a new workshop that has recently opened up in Surry hills on the corner of Commonwealth Stand and Campbell St. (at the back of the Spring Court store) It’s an open workshop with tools and workstands and some friendly peeps around to answer any questions you may have.

The guys are putting on a photography competition with some great prizes up for offer. Register at Robo Cog with a photo of you and your best whip and you could be sporting some super new gear.

Robo Cog is open on weekends, Saturday - Sunday from 1-4pm.

Check out Le Pistas photos and post on Robo Cog.

Some super illustration work from Candy Land Comics, this is a snippet from a story called “Fixie Girl”, looks great! Can’t wait to see the finished piece.

Via Prolly

*Happy Valentine’s Day everybody*

I always wished to make people happy with my hand brewed coffee on bike. My dream has come true on Valentine’s Day!

Charinco (Bicycle) + Rie = CharRie’s

HAHA… I’ve been studying hand brewed coffee techniques at a local café and tought it would be cool to serve to my friends and customers at Circles which is my favorite bike shop in Nagoya and has a big influence on my life. The owner of Circles let me use a little space for setting up my bike café as a Valentine’s special event.  I always make miracles at Circles so I did it! I sold out 100 cups of coffee at the 1st day, yaaaaay!

Rum Ball & Gateau Chocolat made by Izumi & Rie

*Thank you for coming*

￥300 with chocolate treats (￥200 for a Refill)

Hand made milk caps.

Wrapping cube sugar.

CharRie's bike café totally matching the colors with Circles.

Circles offered me to do this every Sunday starting on March 7th *Thank You*.  I have a crazy friend “Crankee“, he invented his BBQ SURLY, we will put our bike kitchen toghether next time!

 I have a confidence with my coffee, it is actually soo GOOD!! Please stop by Circles in Nagoya and say hello to my coffee bike when you ever get a chance to visit Japan.

Thanks a lot to Circles and everyone who stopped by and had my coffee, to all my great friends who supported to put me up and had awesome happy time together.

*Have a happy coffee*

More pics → HERE!

I’m part of a group called the B:C:Clettes. We are an all-lady bicycle-inspired performance collective based in wonderful Vancouver.

Every week, throughout the year, we get together to dance, talk, dream, and have a great time together. Over the winter we choreograph new performance pieces and refine our collective process, by assessing our goals and making new plans. In the summer we are either preparing, participating or recovering from performing on tour or at a slew of shows around town.

We have traveled our show to LA and back, run a cabaret featuring the B:C:Clettes and other amazing local acts, filmed a music video/public service announcement, presented workshops and talks, and completed two bike-powered summer performance tours. And all while dressed in red, black and shiny!

As a way of highlighting not just our performances, but our process and the wonderful people involved, I thought it worthwhile, and perhaps even interesting to do a few posts about the group. For a more fleshed-out description and history of the group, plus links to photos, videos and press coverage, please visit the B:C:Clettes website.

I recently photo-documented an average winter practice for the B:C:Clettes. On Thursday nights we trickle in to our winter practice space, chat while we peel off layers of rain and bike gear, and then get right into the fun. Each week a different B:C:Clette acts as the facilitator to keep us on track, take notes during our discussions and ensure that we have a great time. As far as moving around, we do a warm-up followed by dancing in the form of learning new choreography, reviewing old numbers and brainstorming new moves.

Pre-practice meeting of our website team.

Deep into one of our discussion sessions.

Our beautiful indoor winter practice space. The B:C:Clettes practice outside over the spring, summer and fall.

Dance-off to warm up those leg muscles.

Working in pairs to go over the moves for one of our numbers

Mini-rims makes great props!

Working in front of the mirror to perfect our moves.

Blocking our starting pose for our robot-inspired bike dance.

Experimenting with new choreography.

Gliding across the floor in pairs.

Learning choreography for a new dance for the 2010 season.

While it’s freezing, snowing or raining in Paris (brrr….), we are trying to find ways to have fun… Here is the result:

credit: Paul Hackmann
More pics here

Available here.

A thank you gift from my neighbour (bicycle notepad) for looking after their pooches while they were on holidays. Who wouldn’t want to look after this adorable pair, I’ve become completely addicted to them and walk them everyday now. I’m such a dog perve, I can’t have a dog of my own so I’m constantly grappling other people’s dogs in the street.
These guys are Burmese Mountain Dogs, Silka is the female with one blue eye, slightly older, definitely the boss and the smarter of two. Fry is the male who is far more obedient but as strong as an ox and taken me for more than a few slides around the park when he’s seen something to chase. They each weigh more than I do, so as you can imagine when 120kg suddenly takes off and I’m holding onto the other end, things get pretty messy. I totally love them, they’re like giant puppies and they get spoilt by everyone wherever they go.

Bicycle notepad and card from Kikki-k

This is so Rad.

So, February is coming up and what better way to fend off the winter blahs than a party?

Get ready for…

BIKES INSIDE

- Saturday, February 20, 2010, doors @ 9pm

W2 Culture + Media House

Bike Porn visuals by Rev Phil
Gastown Sprints
Disco, electro & dubstep by the Soft Infiltrators
Live dirty pop electro by Autacoid
Bicycle Art, Prizes, Cheap Beer + More!!!

Art by Topher Wong

“The Anger Release Machine created by artists Katja Kublitz and Ronnie Yarisal. The pair has converted a snack vending machine into a dispenser of cheap psychological therapy, filling the rows with various breakable tschotskes that invite passersby to vent their frustrations for a few coins each. Simply insert money into the slot, make a selection and wait for the sound of the satisfying crash as the vase or ceramic cat hits the deck.”

I like! I’d prefer to be able to smack them with a hammer or big mallet, more satisfying.

Via psfk

This is so awesome.

I participated in several craft sales this November and December, and part of the process included moving my wares by bike with the help of my trusty fella. Our sturdy xtracycle once again came in handy for carrying crafty goodies, including the mannequin/judy. We were lucky to have fantastic weather this fall, aside from a week of torrential rain, which made it easy to get around our wonderful city every weekend to set up for another show.

This year I noticed many customers arriving with helmets and panniers in tow.What a great autumn activity! Find out where and when the craft sales are happening in your city and plan an afternoon with a friend riding around and getting your holiday shopping done, all while supporting local artists and craftspeople.

Loading the bike

Judy - strapped in and secure

My fella, ready to ride to another show

My booth at the Round House Urban Artisans’ Fair

New year postcard I designed

Sending new years postcards is a big deal in Japan. Every year there are tonnes of designs to choose from that are all variations on whichever animal’s year it is in the Chinese Zodiac. I’ve never sent new years cards before, but thought I’d give it a shot. Next year will be the year of the tiger. Here’s my design. The red stamp is my signature, which reads “je”.

Click the thumbnails for a bigger view.

My new bike is finally ready! It’s been 6 months in the making and so much fun watching it all come together. The frame was designed and built by Tarn at Primate Frames here in Sydney. I sourced the parts from various places including Japan, America and the UK, a lot of it is from Japan, I picked up some great bargains when I was over there in September. Pete from Star Enamellers did an amazing job on the paintwork, including my lovely custom sprayed Aerospoke, Chub Hub and B43 all in matching pink.

It’s so much fun to ride, it’s really compact and feels great to zip about on. I went for a slightly smaller frame than I usually ride and I managed to stay away from the usual black and white I tend to stick to, and I’m glad I did, I’m loving the pink wheels!

The specs are:

- Candy Cranks frame and forks
- Aerospoke, Chub Hub, B43 custom sprayed
- Paul lever
- Chris King headset
- Onebyesu CNC’d Brake
- Eastern bars, custom sprayed white
- Nitto stem
- Supertype seat post
- Regal saddle
- Candy Cranks chainring
- Sugino 75 cranks
- MKS custom nuevo pedals
- Toshi double toe straps
- Starfuckers cages
- Soma grips
- Phil Woods bottom bracket
- Shadow Conspiracy chain
- Gran Compe tyres

More info on Candy Cranks frames and Primate Frames.

And now we take a pause from the bike-centric for a fashion highlight on:

Cufflinks!

I don’t think that cufflinks get enough attention. And I think that they may appeal to Candy Cranks readers, so allow me to elaborate.

A few years ago I acquired a very bold and very pink button-down shirt. The only sartorial problem was what to do at the wrists, because the shirt sleeves ended in the button-less mystery of French cuffs. My quest for cufflinks was born.

Cufflinks are a largely under-appreciated ornament, typically only spotted on bankers, European CEOs and the stray dandy. And forget about seeing cufflinks on a woman. But why are cufflinks so ignored? Why do we submit to the tyranny of shirtmakers who impose their choice of cuff buttons on us?

Cufflinks are bits of color and texture, fragments of delight at the end of the sleeve. They add a flourish without the weight or bother of something hanging from your ears or around your neck (something that bikers wearing helmets and bike bags and trying to avoid getting strangled by rear view mirrors can appreciate).

And something a little punk rock happens when a woman wears cufflinks — perhaps like when women started wearing pants — it co-opts a bit of boardroom from the boys. For my pink shirt, I started with a simple pair of silk knots (the “training wheels” of the cufflink world). In branching out, I came across the Minnesota-based designer William Dean, more commonly known as “WMDEAN, the King of Handmade Cufflinks.”

WMDEAN makes handmade cufflinks (pictured above) from various materials such as gemstones, found objects like old coins and glass beads and metals like platinum, silver and recycled aluminum. They are edgy and playful — my favorites are the pink cameos, which are not your grandmama’s cameos, because the delicate motif in relief happens to be a skull-and-crossbones.

WMDEAN recently participated in a Q&A for Candy Cranks, excerpts of which follow.

CC: How would you describe your cufflinks?

WD: I like to believe that my cufflinks embody the spirit of Salvador Dali’s surrealism and Marcel Duchamp’s love of found objects. I also have a deep fascination for symbols and the meanings behind them. Put those three artistic elements together and you get WMDEAN.

CC: Which are your favorites?

WD: It really changes from day to day. I feel that wearing cufflinks can be a discreet way in which a person, can express themselves. Like many cufflink lovers, I own hundreds of pairs of cufflinks. When I wear cufflinks, it’s a reflection of my mood. Right now, I am really into a pair I made that remind me of Duchamp’s Anemic Cinema (pictured above). They are mostly orange, which I love! They have a brown metallic swirl that runs through them. They are set in a WMDEAN exclusive bezel cup with a button back in Sterling Silver. Best of all, they look FANTASTIC on men or women.

CC: What do you think of cufflinks on women?

WD: I find that many women are looking for cufflinks for that one french cuff shirt that they have in the closet. They love that shirt, but can’t find the right cufflinks to dress it up. The truth is that most cufflink manufacturers are not interested in making cufflinks for women. I disagree! I believe that women need cool cufflinks too! Besides that, if the cufflinks ROCK, then the woman will buy them for special people in her life too!

CC: Where is best to find your cufflinks?

WD: The best place to see my work, and participate in the madness, is on my Facebook fan page. The best places to purchase WMDEAN cufflinks are currently my website, eBay, Etsy.

CC: What’s next?

WD: WORLD DOMINATION! Totus genus flectus dementis Regis salutant qui sibi artifex dixit! (Everyone bow down to the MAD King… who calls himself an ARTIST!)

In closing, WMDEAN has a special offer for Candy Cranks readers. He says that if you become a fan on his Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/pages/North-Oaks-MN/WMDEAN/111600214935?ref=ts, and post a message on his wall saying, “WMDEAN is the KING,” his company will contact you privately to send you a FREE pair of cufflinks.

Can’t beat that. Thanks WMDEAN!

Electrik Sheep presents… Paralysis of Choice. A solo show of new work from Jon Bugerman.

“Paralysis of Choice” opens Friday 27th November at 6 pm with one of Electrik Sheep’s infamous street parties and will fun till the end of December.

For those who can’t make it to the show all work will be available to purchase and view online at www.electriksheep.co.uk.