5ive Points double header: IF Royalty

It was only a matter of time before our 5ive Points series blew up. When we say Blew Up, we mean that all our industry friends would be clamoring to be profiled. When we say Clamoring, we mean that they, like all 5ive Points participants, graciously accepted our phone call/email and took a few minutes to address the points.

This week’s 5ive Points is special for myriad reasons, not the least of which is that we’ve decided to run the elusive Double Interview. We cornered a couple of our good friends over at Independent Fabrication, Tyler and Gary, and got a taste of the Indy Fab life.

Tyler is in charge of Special Ops at IF while Gary steers the ship, as it were. If you’re interested in learning more about Special Ops, Tyler will be on hand at the Rapha Continental event at the Rapha Cycle Club at 352 Bowery on Thursday night (8/5) at 7pm.

NYCV: What bike do you ride these days?

Gary: My bikes are like shoes, I have multiple usage occasions that call for different bikes depending on the ride and my mood. Practically speaking, given that we tailor each bike to individual customer preferences, it is part of my job to understand the ride differences between materials and configurations. Among my favorites, and I do love all my children, are my stainless steel city bike and an as-yet-unridden internally geared, studded tire, titanium uber winter bike. I built it for the North American Handmade Show this past year and for once am looking forward to snow, since I now have no excuse not to ride this coming winter.

Tyler: I ride many bikes. Currently in active rotation: Tungsten Electrode Full suspension MTB, belt drive singlespeed Corvid, SSR made out of XCr (Bella), XS track bike and a Steel Independence touring bike set up for the upcoming D2R2 ride in Western Mass.

NYCV: What’s your favorite ride?

Gary: That’s tough, since I live in the woods of New Hampshire and have so many road and trail options right out my door. It’s hard to beat riding along the Atlantic on Route 1A, and for organized rides, The Franklin Land Trust out in Western Massachusetts does this ride every August called D2R2, the Deerfield to Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee, which is in Rapha-speak, epic. It’s a 100K of scenic, mostly gravel roads, with covered bridges, orchards and insane amounts of climbing, all to benefit the protection of the area that you are riding through.

Tyler: Right now I’ve got a good off-road route in The Fells just North of Boston.

NYCV: What’s your favorite post-ride food?

Gary: One of the fruity breads from my local bakery, When Pigs Fly, loaded with almond butter. Right now they have a seasonal blueberry lemon bread that is just mind-altering (and waist-altering as well).

Tyler: Burrito if it’s an early or mid-day ride. Beer if it’s later in the day. (that’s food right?)

NYCV: What’s one thing you always carry on a ride?

Gary: Stuff to fix flats. Riders that don’t carry their own repair goods and mooch off of others suck, but I never leave them stranded, no matter how tempting!

Tyler: Money, ID, Phone.

NYCV: What’s next for you?

Gary: We’ve got a new Ti Factory Lightweight coming out any week now, and an all carbon cyclocross bike coming out this Fall, so things are busy at IF right now. At BaileyWorks I’m working on a new line of tool rolls and a limited series of country themed bags, so lots of new product in the pipeline to keep it interesting.

Tyler: Right now I’ve got to work my way through a bunch of bikes that need to be welded so I can get out of here and go mountain biking. But the real “next in cycling” big picture kinda thing is for me to buckle down and finish up these TiFLW prototypes I’ve been working on for months