Candy Cranks

Barista extraordinaire  Remy (Jeremy).

The lovely Lee

Remy and Lees is a super cafe in Surry Hills, Sydney. They have superb coffee, pies, cakes, home made treats, and a really friendly vibe, it’s a great place to hang on a sunny afternoon. The cafe features local artists, photographers and alike so there’s lots of interesting things to check out while you wait for a brew, including our very own Candy Cranks display. Thanks Guys!

Check em out.

FIXED FEST 2010 present by ROCKET

TRICK CONTEST (Quickstop/Trackstand/Trick Battle).MASH RACE.BICYCLE ART EXHIBITION.BICYCLE FILMS.DJ’s and PARTY

Everybody was having a blast!, many people from out of town are coming to celebrate this  first Fixed Gear annual event present by Rocket, in Jakarta, Indonesia. So many prizes, nice people, good food, and the most burnin’ is the trick battle contest, I must say that Bandung riders have many great potential to be the king of trick contest cuz their showin’ their hot stuff to the surface with full of soul and very entertaining, yeah! they really got their got attitude.. salute!. Yogyakarta got their own special hardcore tricks, rough and tough. And special from Jakarta you got a very promising young star, 18 years old Bari Sony Wicksono and 19 years old Herry Patriawan. That’s it for today folks, can’t wait for the next fixed gear events. Cheers!

Saturday, 24 July 2010
@ ROCKET Concept Store, Basement Bengkel Night Park (SCBD), Jakarta, Indonesia.

Supported by : San Mig Light/ID-Fixed/Cixie/FxFw/FuFuFu/Sumvelo/SSS/Woof/Cyclonesia/Arafix/WFG/Cyclo/SouthBeachQueen/Tremorz/Velodome/TLab/SatcaSash/SoberDen

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Portland’s Rapha has opened a pop-up shop in NYC at 352 Bowery for a few months.

I managed to squeeze in a visit during an action-packed one-week trip to the Big Apple. Though it’s definitely dude-centric, there was a (very) small selection of ladies cycling-wear to check out and lots of cycling eye candy. Rapha aims to build a community while they’re in NYC, and even though daily live screenings of the Tour de France are over, there are rides, movie nights and a cafe to help foster the Rapha love.

Small, but excellent women’s cycling-wear collection

Portland transplants can get their caffeine fix at Rapha’s coffee bar that serves up Stumptown coffee.

Uber-cool indoor bike parking

All Tour de France, all the time

Menswear - nice jerseys!

Vintage Tour de France van used for picking up stragglers

It seems like ages ago that my fella and I visited New York, but it was only a month ago. Now that I’ve had a chance to go through the scads of photos I snapped, I’d like to share a few of the ones featuring bikes of all shapes and sizes from Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Our indispensable foldies that made it a snap to get around the city. Greenwich Village.

Classic turquoise, Manhattan.

Union Square Market delivery bike.

New-old. Outside of Chelsea Market, Manhattan.

Eurostyle, Soho.

Oldie but a goodie. And check out that chain ring! Somewhere in Manhattan…

Political bike, with a sticker from Our Community Bikes of Vancouver! Chelsea. It’s a teeny, tiny world.

Bold blue bike outside of a Williamsburg shop

Rusty old charmer, Brooklyn.

Urban Rustic Grocery and Cafe delivery bike, Williamsburg.

Hey Sydneysiders! Head to Sydney Town Hall 6pm Tuesday 3rd August (today) to show your support for future plans to introduce a people friendly cycleway network.

It also coincides with an Alan jones inspired protest that’s planned for the same time.

If you’d like one of the super cute tees, check out the Three Point Turnz shop.

“If you’ve never seen footage of the Copenhagen people riding bikes during rush hour - get ready - it’s quite a site, as nearly 38% of all transportation trips in Copenhagen are done by bike.  With plenty of safe, bicycle infrastructure (including hundreds of miles of physically separated cycletracks) its no wonder that you see all kinds of people on bikes everywhere.  55% of all riders are female, and you see kids as young as 3 or 4 riding with packs of adults.”

Via Here

Yesterday morning I received the following email from a friend:

Hi,

So we were on our way home after pedaling the new pedal powered parade float through the big gay parade, when the master link on the drive chain from the back three pedalers broke.

So the float is parked in a 24-hour parking garage and we are putting together a new crew to pedal home when Colin replaces the master link today. Pedalers will get a Central Co-op gift card and love, in addition to slack-jawed stares and whoops from astonished passers-by.

BUT! i’m trapped in jury duty right now. i expect to be kicked out once they realize what a crackpot i am but who knows?

Please reply to me if you want to get on board and i will communicate soon.

Sounds like an adventure, right?! So of course I said “I’m IN!” The rest of the day at work was spent excitedly bouncing around the office and grinning, waiting for the adventure to begin. I’d seen some of Colin’s creations at various other events like the Dead Baby Downhill, but I wasn’t sure what to expect from the pedal-powered float.

After getting a cup of my favorite mango tea at Trabant, I set off for the parking garage at 3rd & Stewart. Upon arrival, I sighted the pedal-powered float on the 2nd story of the parking garage, but I couldn’t figure out how to gain egress without encountering a lot of very mindless drivers streaming up and down the narrow corkscrew ramps of the garage. Thankfully, the attendant gave me directions to the elevator around the corner, and my puzzle was solved.

My co-pedalers and I hung around, laughing and talking while waiting for Haulin Colin to arrive with a new Master Link to replace the broken one. He brought three, “just in case!” Finally, the broken link was replaced and we were ready to roll.

We loaded up our bikes on the back and secured them, tucked bags in, set up the cd player on full volume, and took our places. As the shortest pedalers, Kashina and I took the outer two front seats, and our co-pedalers filled in around us. Colin at the wheel: “It’s just like driving a regular manual transmission, but only 3 speeds, and the clutch is a little different.” I laughed hardest at this–I’ve never had a driver’s license, and I find myself very clumsy at the task of steering anything remotely car-like!

Each seat on the float is nicely set-up with toe clips/straps, a water bottle holder (or two!) and within an arms reach of a nice loud bell. Joe and I rang ours with impunity at first, then only when we were changing lanes, or to catch the attention of pedestrians, or just to celebrate…okay, we rang the bell a lot, it was fun!

After coasting down the corkscrew ramp, we paid the parking garage attendant and we were off. Pedestrians stopped in the middle of crosswalks to take pictures, giggle, and point. Other cyclists passed us, shouting encouragement and laughing. As we made our way up the hill, people were walking faster than we were inching along, so some folks would walk a few blocks up the hill in order to get a better picture.

One cyclist couldn’t believe his eyes, I thought he was going to crash as he looked over his shoulder at us again and again. Finally, he pulled off and took a picture without plowing his pretty grey and orange SS commuter into a line of parked cars.

I expected to get a lot of angry honks from cars, but people mostly just gave us waves and smiles and shouted nice things out their windows: “You’re awesome! You can do it! You’re almost there!” and gave us a wide berth, despite the fact that we were crawling through downtown/Capitol Hill at rush hour.

We passed two police officers and Web explained that we were just taking a Pride parade float home from downtown. They just waved us on, which was good–Seattle PD has been under fire recently for their use of unnecessary force, as well as overt racism, but I digress.

After getting over I-5, we started to get hot and tired, but we were only a third of the way there. We started imploring passersby, “bring us beer! cupcakes! ice cream! custard!” whatever we passed. Finally, someone heard our cry and brought us refreshment as we pedaled thru the tree-filled triangle park at Pike & Madison, nearly to the crest of the hill.

Coasting down the hill to the Union Street Farm we hit top speed, >30 MPH–that’s ~50 kilometres an hour! Colin deftly maneuvered us to landing without bumping into anything, and our exhausted and sweaty arrival was met with applause and shouts of congratulations.

All in all, an exhilarating and fun way to spend a Monday evening, and I giggled the whole exhausted ride home–tho Cheasty Boulevard has never seemed quite so long or steep. Much thanks to Web and Colin for the opportunity to wheel their amazing collaborative contraption! I’m already looking forwards to future pedal-float events. Sadly, my camera was at home charging its constantly-drained battery, but Byron over at Bikehugger was kind enough to upload a video. Maybe some other Seattle cyclists caught some pics? I’ll add them to the post if you leave a link in the comments!

Keep the rubber side down,

Nova*

Ever get that buzz after a ride where you head spins and your muscles twitch as you replay the details over in your mind? Me too… Channeling this energy into something constructive - other than beer infused conversations at the pub - has become a bit of a pastime for me. The obvious place for all these thoughts and recollections is my notepad, and a lot of the time that’s where they remain. Other times they migrate to the recycling bin, and every so often they end up here in a post, or in my zine, Open Mic. Open Mic 3, like me, is completely devoted to bikes of all kinds, be they the XC, fixie, downhill, vintage, 4X or indeed any other variety. The whole point of the zine, other than acting as a dart board for my reeling mind, is to keep a record of all the rides, races, and general bike shenanigans I have been privileged enough to be apart of. Open Mic 3 is now available on the Candy Cranks shop for $5 plus postage. Check it out.

Here’s one of the pieces from the zine, which is a poetic tribute of sorts to my beautiful 1970’s lady’s speedwell.

Cheers,
Em.

My Ladies Bike and I

Let me introduce my lady;
She upholds style while others are fading.
Ideal for cruising or promenading,
Sheʼs a mixture of chrome and retro-red shading.
I wouldnʼt part with her no matter what you paid me.

She is undeniably ʻclassicʼ, sleek lines with three gears.
Sheʼs more like Audrey Hepburn than Britney Spears.
A joy to peddle, a pleasure to steer,
You wouldnʼt believe sheʼs in her 30th year.
Nothing beats that feeling, the wind through my hair,
As she dances down the footpath like Fred Estair,
Her saddle, a thrown for my derriere.
If she was a car sheʼd be a Chevvy Bel air.
My ladyʼs bike and I make a hell of a pair.

My beautiful bike is ten times a car,
She ushers me through the spiralling paths
And delivers me safe to the front of the bar,
As I pity the drivers that search for a park,
Pollution and headlights illuminating the dark,
Drivers that curse, and engines that bark,
Cars swallowed by traffic, like fish enveloped by sharks.
And when I emerge, a little bit drunk,
She peers up from the footpath with nothing but love.
I straddle her frame armed with infinite trust,
And we bomb down King St. like crims on the run.
This is not transportation, but an act of pure love.

Now weʼre dodging cars, prams and drunks,
Each obstacle swerved is a victory won.
Cars try to pass, but we edge out in front,
Uptight drivers yelling ʻwatch where ya goinʼ, ya cuntʼ.
The ride is wilder than African tiger,
My inhibition is lost but I donʼt bother to find her.
My ladyʼs bike leaves the cars and the city behind her.

We slow down to a roll, homeʼs in our sights,
We surrender ourselves to the depths of night.
She caresses my doorstep, Iʼm still gripping on tight,
As I thank my beauty for one hell of a ride.
Love swells and mingles with admiration and pride;
We are a match made in heaven, my ladyʼs bike and I.

From Bmore Fixed, here’s a rad edit/profile of Christina. I love this video! The wreck footage made me realize it’s been a minute since I seriously ate it attempting new tricks. On that note, I’m going to suck it up and find some stairs to jump this week.

Name: Jess

Nickname: Lucy, Stooopid

Star sign/Blood type: Aries/B(?)

Birthday: April 3, 1981

Current city: Tokyo

What’s the bike scene like in Tokyo for females?
Pretty cool! You see all kinds of ladies looking cool on bikes. All scenes I have checked out (fixie, single speed mountain bike, some road touring and triathlon groups, and Critical Mass) have all been a nice mix of girls and boys. I have felt welcome and comfortable everywhere…

What’s your favourite ride right now? Only ride right now: KHS f20-something

Where’s your favourite place to ride? All over Tokyo, Komazawa Dori, Kamakura

Favourite riding outfit: jeans ‘n t-shirt

Favourite food: curry!

Favourite movie: Crooklyn

Favourite book: The Blind Assassin, Blade Runner, also Anne Rice, yyup!

What makes you laugh? being tickled, funny dancing in my apartment, people from Osaka, South Park

What makes you angry? messes

What are you listening to on your I-pod? Burial

Do you have any pets? no, just a pigeon on the window sill

Jess’ Candy Cranks posts