Candy Cranks

Sunday Edit from Devan Mickell on Vimeo.

Nothing special. Just a quick edit of some Sunday riding.

Photos by Keef

Mick already has his next trip planned, he’s heading over to do the Paris Roubaix in France along with 15 other riders from around the globe. The riders will all be on fixed bikes and the route covers 260km, 53km of that being on cobblestones.

Good luck Mick! More info on the Roubaix ride.

Tarn and I dropped into Pony Bikes to say ‘Hi’ to Sasha and check out her bike shop in West Melbourne that’s been open for about a year now. It’s female run shop and Sasha has been working in the bike scene for over a decade. The shop looks great and Sasha’s work is ace, she specialises in custom builds, repairs and maintenance.

Pony Bikes leather jacket by 002.

Sasha at the helm. Thanks for saving us from the Hail Sasha, see ya soon!!

After the Bike show Keith, Andy, Candice, and I went to the RVA Trick Jam put on my Richmond Fixed and Trick Track. It had a fairly slow start, and maybe a fight, but it ended up being really awesome! All photos by Keith Gallagher, you can find more here.

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.

I will be recapping this past weekend at NAHBS in Richmond, VA in a few parts. The entire weekend was insane! There was constantly so much going on. Friday night Keith, Andy, Candice, and I got some sushi and headed over to the Carytown Bike Co Party. It was a really relaxed party and a lot of fun. And I finally got to meet up with Ben from Cinelli! Ben also introduced me to the frame builders. Every one was SO nice and Ben especially was way too good to my friends and I. If you guys didn’t already know, I love Cinelli! After the Carytown party cleared out a lot of us rode over to a house party that soon after got broken up by multiple cop cars and vans. From there we rode over to Mojo’s before finally riding back to the hotel where we ordered some pizza, rode around with some of the Philli and Milwaukee kids and some roman candles, and finally called it a night.

Photos via Andy’s cell phone - @ Carytown Bike Company

Looks of exhaustion at the end of the night

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

This is Rhys from Athens Georgia looking super cute on her Steamroller with some brand new hot pink tyres. Her Celeste deep v’s with black hubs/ spokes were custom built by Chris Tavel of Loose Nuts.

She loves her bicycle and we love it too!  See ya round Rhys!

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.

Primate Frames, maker of the lovely Candy Cranks frames and other bicycle beauties like The Wasp, has a new website. There’s an array of new bikes on display including mountains bike, 29′ers, single speeds, fixies, aerotube bikes, a 24″ as well as the monster downhill bike he’s building as a personal project.

Check out the new site here.

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

The man himself

Stefan with his bubble ensemble

Jay in his Best Dressed Luigi outfit and bike

Princess Peaches x 2

Lee, Sohpie, B (first girl on points), Oi

002 and Jewlz

Riders before the race

Mario impersonator

I had a great time at the Super Mario Track race on Saturday night, the moon was full, the weather was warm and Em and I were good to go in our matching Princess Peaches outfits. We rocked up to the usual haunt, The Cricketers in Surry Hills with Jay (Em’s boyfriend) who had the most superb Luigi costume and car/bike combo I’ve ever seen. Not surprisingly he won Best Dressed.

After much chat and bike perving Lewis (The Ringleader) came out with the manifesto in hand. After a couple of minutes Em had the route, check points and strategy sussed, she had her “I’m in the mood to kick some arse” Tiara on and I had a feeling the arse about to be kicked was mine.

Lewis gave the green light and it was game on, I looked around to find Em and she was already 10 metres up the hill and on a mission, “Shit!” I’d better get my pink sparkly skirt into gear. First stop, Harry’s Café De Wheels, via Kings Cross (Sydney’s red light district). I thought it may be interesting riding through that part of town dressed as we were, but all Em and I heard were yells of encouragement “Tutu! I love you!” “Go Pinkie!”

Next stop York St, via half a dozen flights of stairs that I’d much rather forget about and through The Domain avoiding concert goers on the footpath. Oops, “Sorry!” I got too close to the back of another rider and ended up kissing his back wheel.

Onto Wharf 10  at the harbours edge, this is where I lost Em, she was out of sight and I made the mistake of following another rider who was more lost than me. Quick call to Em, some general directions and we were back on track, up the hill to Broadway. Em was in fine form, she was up those hills like the Energizer Bunny, she was pushing me to my limits and I realised this wasn’t going to be my usual alley cat cruise around the city dropping into checkpoints to socialise and have shots of Vodka. After receiving lipstick kisses from the Three Point Turnz girls we were off to Hyde Park to pick up the secret checkpoint manifesto.

We were greeted by Susan who offered up a lucky dip that in my case was not so lucky, I pulled a ghost blooper which resulted in a shot of rum, yech. Collected the manifesto and away to the secret checkpoint to find the boys, once there we partook in a game of foot down to get our manifestos signed.

We were on the home stretch, Moore Park, Em was off in a puff of pink and blue. Screaming through the city, like horses that know they’re on their way back to the stables after a long ride. “Where is everyone?” It’s a decent sized park with not much light and a few hills. I was looking forward to flopping my ridiculously hot and sweaty body onto the hopefully cool grass when a child’s bike was thrust before me. One more checkpoint to complete, ride the kid’s bike around the 3 grassy hills, back onto the path and you’re done.

After a gathering and presentation on the grass we all made it back to The Cricketers for some drinks and tales of accidents and near misses. I have to say I enjoyed this alley cat the most out of all of the ones I ‘competed’ in. I don’t know whether it was the silly outfit or the full moon or whether it was because it’s the first time I’ve actually competed, and that was only because I was chasing Em. I’ve never been to an alley cat that has recognised female winners as well as male winners so maybe having that extra recognition made it seem more worthwhile competing. There were more girls than I’d seen before turn up to this one which was great, about 8 all up. B was the first girl in points and Em and I were the first girls across the line, the results show Emily + Meg tied but Emily definitely won, she totally kicked my arse and I’m happy for it!!

Check out Em’s version of the night here.

Some more pics here.

And a big thanks to Lewis and Le Pista for organising the event.

Veja and Cyclope, the first cycle shop in Paris to specialise in fixed-gear, have joined forces to create an exclusive fixed gear trainer.
- Made of ecological materials.
- Limited Edition: 384 pairs.
- Available in store from the 1st February 2010 at Offspring Neal Street (London) and Paper Scissors Stone* (Leeds)
- Pre-order at Paper Scissors Stone from Wednesday 27th January.
- £95

*Brainchild of Artist Si Scott and The Electronic Poet’s Steve Banks, Paper Scissors Stone is an eclectic mixture of concept store and exhibition space.

This is the latest Candy Cranks chainring design called Skelington. Simple, lightweight and super strong, available in 130BCD and 144BCD in silver or black. Seen here being modelled by a Primate Frame, Skelington chainrings are made in Australia, retail at $89 AUD, and ship worldwide.

- 144 BCD or 130 BCD
- 4mm plate
- 1/8″ tooth thickness
- 3/32 available on request
- Hand finished
- Designed and manufactured in Australia
- Custom sizes available on request
- $89 AUD, $10 worldwide shipping

More info here.

Turning Tricks - 20 - Nashville2009 from KrEEEstowfUr on Vimeo.

My Name is Chris Layda and this is my video series documenting my progress as a freestyle fixed gear rider.

Well… This footage is about 3 weeks old, and I have been wanting to put it out for ages. So here it is. I hope you like it.

All I can say about this video is that I had a GREAT time riding these spots and working on these tricks. Nashville is such a fun place to ride. Lots of room for creativity. I will definitely bring my bike and camera when I return. I feel like I didn’t even scratch the surface of what can be done there.

Now Its time to start putting in some work for 2010.

Another great Turning Tricks video from Chris!

hello!

my name is olivia, i live in nyc, and i’m new to candy cranks. i’m super stoked on joining this kick-ass team of international female cyclists. candy cranks is the absolute embodiment of the trinity of important/awesome things in my life - writing, feminism and cycling!

this writing opportunity came at the perfect time amidst a mid-january riding slump. it’s been crazy cold in new york recently, and i’ve been seriously lacking motivation to ride. getting the good news last night inspired me to get back on the bike, and it couldn’t have come on a better day. today was the warmest day we’ve had recently, with highs at a sweltering 44 degrees. knowing it was going to be beautiful outside, i decided to ride down to the brooklyn bridge - the only borough to borough bridge i never got around to riding.

semi-unfortunately, everyone else ever had the same idea. the bridge was packed, which made it pr-etty unpleasant to ride on. however, all wasn’t lost. since it’s so amazingly picturesque there (caught the sunset, awww!), walking allowed me to soak in the scene more than if i had been zipping by on my bike… which actually brings me to a mini-tangent…

a fair number of people WERE riding their bikes on the bridge. a small percentage of those people were riding cautiously, and ergo, respectfully. however, the larger percentage was going unnecessarily fast, cutting quickly in-between large groups of tourists, and yelling obscenities at couples who didn’t just *feel* them coming (okay, this last one was only one lady who really seemed to be having a tough time, but come on!) obvs i’m completely pro-bikes, pro-riders, pro-cyclist rights, but it’s really frustrating to see fellow riders treating pedestrians so blatantly like the “enemy.” also, as a disclaimer, i know speed can sometimes get the best of us. you’re in the moment, you luckily caught a tail-wind, you’re liberated, the world is yours!! it’s great. and sometimes speed is necessary, crucial to the mission. going to work, rushing home, making a delivery, whatever. i just think that as cyclists, especially in nyc, we’re used to dealing with jerks who feel completely entitled to every inch of the road (i.e, taxis, SUVs from jersey), and it would be a shame to present ourselves as just another species of self-entitled prickitude. ESPECIALLY when we need more recognition in the law! we need more bike lanes! we need drivers to treat us like people, not nuisances! let’s not alienate pedestrians, as well! right!?

but i digress. i’m SO happy to be writing here in a network of rad-ness. i look forward to continue posting and to talking with you all! safe riding,

xo!