NYC Velo is supremely proud to welcome our second (don’t call it a trend) video 5ive Points interview with (talk about going outside our sphere of influence) professional cyclist and 6-time US National Cyclocross Champion Tim Johnson.  While we’ve been lucky enough to host Tim and his Ride On Washington (RoW) crew two years running, we struggled to get him to sit down long enough for a formal interview (if that’s what you call our little sideshow).  Our solution was to break out the Applephone for a quick 5ive Points at the Pier 11 Sea Streak ferry terminal as Tim was making his way down to DC for some bike lobbying.

In addition to Tim’s National Championship titles (starting as a Junior in 1995, through his most recent win as an elite in 2009), he was the fist American cyclocross racer to stand on the podium of a World Championship event, taking 3^rd place in the 1999 race in Proprad, Slovakia.  Tim is now using the fame earned on the racecourse to fuel his Ride on Washington, a 500+ mile ride from Boston, MA to Washington, DC, arriving in time for the National Bike Summit and raising over $100,000 for the cause.  Once in DC, Tim turned his focus on Congress, lobbying for improved bicycle funding.

On the morning of their departure from NYC during the past two RoW events, Tim and his 25-strong crew of cyclists stopped by NYC Velo for a send-off breakfast.  Be sure to keep an eye out for next year’s event, as it’s a great way to get to know Tim and the team.  In the meantime, enjoy Tim’s 5ive Points interview in all of its unedited glory.

all photography in this post by Ezra Caldwell (AKA fast boy cycles)

This edition of the NYC Velo Bike of the Week series highlights our friend Cory’s fresh new bike from NYC’s own Fast Boy Cycles.  Cory describes the bike in his own words below:
I wanted a bike that I could scoot around town comfortably and quickly on. I’ve always appreciated Ezra’s more understated aesthetic, and really wanted a toned-down bike that was still awesome. A bike that someone who didn’t care about bikes would never really look twice at, but a bike geek could see was a really beautiful machine.

Ez and I had a great conversation a while back about different custom builders. He was saying that at NAHBS, so many people were coming in and looking at funky little bits on bikes. We both think a bike is beautiful when you can take a big step back and look at the whole thing. That’s where a bike can shine. Of course, all the little details are what makes the complete bike a great piece of work, but style for the sake of style isn’t at all what I appreciate about a bike. That’s why this thing, as cool as it looks, is pretty basic. It’s designed to be ridden. Hard. It’s not an art piece to hang on a wall.

The spec of the bike is as follows:
Paul Components 130mm rear fixed hub, Paul Components disc front hub.
Stan’s NoTubes Crest 29er rims.
DT Swiss spokes and nipples.
Schwalbe Kojak 700×35 tires.
White Industries 175mm crankset, 44t chainring.
All City 18t fixed cog.
Phil Wood bottom bracket
Formula The One disc brake up front.
Plastic platform pedals w/Holdfast straps.
Thomson Elite road stem and Elite seatpost.
Brooks Ti Swift saddle.
Kona Stubby riser handlebar (Proto version, because the spec one is silver!)
ESI cushy grips.
Fast Boy fenders, rack, and basket!

The bike even made it onto Cycle Exif!
http://www.cycleexif.com/corys-fast-boy-cycles

Also see Chris McNally Bike Of The Week + NYC Velo 5ive Points interview.

Our friends at Hastings Velo are organizing just such an event Saturday 9AM, May 19th at the Sprain Ridge Trail. Located in Hastings-on-Hudson, the trail’s rocks, roots, and twisty singletrack is just a short Metro North ride away (leaving from Grand Central Station).  A few of us will be in attendance, and we’ll be sure to get some riding in as well (weather permitting).

In an ongoing effort to bring our customers important, timely, and relevant information about the wares we offer, the NYC Velo team occasionally conducts a roadtrip-style operation.  We’ve all seen the good roadtrip movies, the ones that offer a bit of escapism, allow minds to wander out to the open road to stumble upon unforeseen adventures of dramatic proportions.  We’ve also seen the sh*tty roadtrip movies, the ones with the cheap laughs, the ones that arrive DOA to your flatscreen TV (you didn’t pay $12.50 for stadium seating did you?).   The NYC Velo New England roadtrip is none of these things, but it is an annual pilgrimage to one of the places in the Bike Universe that we hold dear.  New England represents the heart and soul of American bicycle culture, and is, conveniently, just up the road from our homebase in the East Village.

The plan had been laid out: the team (Andrew and Justin) had 36 hours from closing time Sunday night to get from Manhattan to Newmarket, NH and back, with a few stops along the way.  The goal of the trip was to continue to work on our ongoing photo project of New England bike builder work spaces, but as we infrequently make it to the Boston-New Hampshire area, we had to satisfy a few other needs along the way.
The first stop was in Hastings-on-Hudson, in Westchester County, to pick up Bob, the Service Manager of our sister store (cleverly named Hastings Velo).  Bob’s worked as a bike mechanic in the Tri-state are for over 30 years, and owns a few old Fat Chance mountain bikes.  He’d never been to the IF factory and jumped at the chance to spend 13 hours in a car with some of downstate bike nerd peers.  With our cargo loaded, sandwiches and seltzer water in hand, we hit the road to NH in earnest.  Luckily, the drive was uneventful, though rainy, and we made it to our destination with enough time to squeeze in a few hours of shut-eye before sunrise.

The first stop would be at the new Independent Fabrication factory in Newmarket, NH. Gary, the leader of the IF team, rewarded our traveling efforts with some high-caliber coffee and breakfast at Crackskulls Coffee and Books in Newmarket, right across the street from the factory, a perfect way to start the day. Our intention was to spend no more than 2 hours shooting the new Indy Fab space before heading off to our next appointment.

Six hours later, after tours of the Indy Fab and Bailey Works operations and long conversations about bike fitting, the state of retail, sourcing domestic frame tubing, Indy Fab frame #1, and Rouleur magazine, we finally got back to the car to head southward towards Boston. Our next stop would be Chris Igleheart‘s workshop in Wenham, MA.

We last visited Chris’ workshop in 2010, to photograph the space for the photo essay.  That visit was at dusk, and NYC Velo Brand Manager/Photographer Justin was less than pleased, after much analysis, with the shots that resulted.  Unfortunately for the team, Chris was out of town on the day of our trip, so we would have to visit his workshop without his always-entertaining commentary and insight on the bike building community.  It’s impossible to capture in words the experience that bike nerds have absorbing the contents of the Igleheart Custom Bicycles workshop, we hope that the photos do it justice.
Our time at Igleheart was brief as we still had a couple more stops on our itinerary.  Beverly, Mass was calling us southward, and the crew at Parlee Cycles didn’t have all day to wait around.

It’s difficult to compare the fabrication department at Parlee to Chris Igleheart’s shop.  While Parlee manufactures its custom Z1, Z2, and Z3 frames in a fashion similar to what a traditional framebuilder would use, the operation is much “cleaner”.  It turns out that mitering, wrapping, gluing, and heat treating carbon tubes doesn’t create the mess that cutting, filing, welding, and sanding metal tubes does.  The Parlee offices also house a Look bike frame, a carbon frame that suspiciously appears to have undergone a the familiar Parlee lugged construction process, and was raced by Tyler Hamilton in 2002 on his way to a 2^nd place finish in the Giro d’Italia — not the kind of bike you see everyday.

After leaving Parlee, we had one last stop to make before the drive back to the city: a meeting scheduled with Marty of Geekhouse Bikes at the Ride Studio Café in Lexington, MA.  Luckily, the last stop worked double duty as both bike shop and café/espresso bar (a venture we can all get on board with), serving much needed coffee from Stumptown, Terroir, and Sightglass.

Marty has just moved his operation into a new space, one that’s not yet ready for the photographer’s lens.  While there was no New England framebuilder workshop story to document with Marty on this day, he did introduce us to his first stainless steel bike, a steed he constructed of KVA’s new tubeset.

While Marty’s not yet sure of the future of Geekhouse stainless bikes, he’s definitely got big plans for the brand in general (which we intend to document here on the News page).

Thanks to the Ride Studio Café (and some tasty sandwiches from Panera Bread next door), the Velo crew was properly fueled for the return trip to the big NYC.  There would be no rain for the journey home, and an arrival time just shy on 1am meant that the crew would be able to get a bit of sleep prior to Tuesday’s shift.  We’re already planning another trip to the New England coast for June, though one involving actually riding bikes – how novel!

Brian Vernor is a busy guy.  He’s an accomplished photographer, a filmmaker, an adventure cyclist, and a Santa Cruz-er.  Not all of Brian’s work centers around bikes, though most does, from cyclocross films to documentaries covering the lives of European race commentators.  Brian’s cyclocross films (Pure Sweet Hell and The Cyclocross Meeting) caught our attention a few years back when they (respectively) were shown at the Bicycle Film Festival a few blocks from the shop at the Anthology Film Archives. Brian has worked on a number of interesting, and disparate, projects in the bike biz, making him a seasoned member of the national collective cycling community.  He’s as at-home chatting Red Hook Crit in a bike shop in NYC as he is discussing NorCal rail-bike riding in a coffee shop in San Francisco.

As an admittedly weak nod to Brian’s profession, we decided to conduct a video 5ive Points interview instead of our usual written version.  Readers will notice decidedly poor production value, though the answers are no less interesting and relevant.  Enjoy!

For those that love to race but can’t do so without including a picnic or some such diversion along the way, we have Rene Herse and the Brevet inspired bicycle. This style yearns to be ridden fast year round over challenging hill and dale carrying fuel along the way, maybe a little saucisson sec, baguette, fruit and pen knife tucked safely away in the purposefully designed bag.  Randonneur bicycles like this have been designed as a holistic system for fast touring and have been refined and refined by French Constructeurs to be self sufficient packages since the early 1900′s, though most modern takes look to the 1950s and ’60s for their inspiration.  The bikes are lightweight more aggressive than a typical touring bike, but still comfortable, are designed for the light front load of the elegant rack/bag/decaleur system and in this case, handsomely incorporated lighting system.  Fenders protect the rider from the rain of Brittany or Seattle. The higher volume tires provide a smooth fast ride over cobbles or dirt.  Starting in the late ’30s, Rene Herse produced some of the finest components and bicycles after left the aircraft industry; appropriate for a bike that shows off best under open blue skies dappled in white puffs, grass and leaves swaying in the breeze, and plenty of road to fly along.

Rene passed in 1976.  Today all of the designs and rights to the name (for the production of bicycles) belong to a Colorado man by the name of Michael Kone.  Consider it a heart transplant for what many say, are the finest Randonneurs ever made.  The hands that build have changed – Mark Nobilette constructs them in Longmont, CO – but the designs remain traditional and true to Rene and his family.

This Rene Herse comes handsomely equipped. Drivetrain duties are handled by a mix of Campagnolo 10-speed components in demure silver aluminum, with elegant Rene Herse three bolt cranks. Japanese Grand Bois tires are encased within hammered Honjo/Bertoud fenders, rotating around a White Industries rear hub and a Schmidt generator front hub. Powered by this hub, are Rene Herse-made front and rear lights with the wiring hidden within the tubes of the frame. Luggage provided by a finely crafted Gilles Bertoud handlebar bag, mounted with a clever “decaleur” stem mount. Rounded off with Grand Bois/Nitto rack and handlebar, this bike is purpose built with an eye for quality and style.

We’re not shy when it comes to singing the praises of our sponsored racing teams. At the same time, it’s always better when you hear about epic wins directly from the winner. This past weekend, Jayson Jacobs of W&D Racing/NYC Velo took the win in the cat 4 field at the Tour of the Battenkill.  Here’s his recap.  Congrats, Jayson!

Saturday’s Tour of the Battenkill category 4 (green field) race started off calm enough, with the occasional squabbling over the yellow-line rule as we rolled out off of the starting line. Teammate Adam Eisenberg set the pace for the field for the first 5 miles while the rest of us fought for position in the center of the peloton. Things picked up a bit heading into the first dirt section and onto the first climb of the day. At mile 10, part of the way up the first climb, we made a left onto the dirt where the gradient increased to 22% and I made my way to the front. We dropped 50+ of the over 100 starters. Talking to one of the other riders, I mentioned that we dropped half the field – his response being “only half?” I knew the rest of the race was going to be tough, to say the least.

For the next 30 miles I sat in the top 10-15 with teammates Erik Lavoie and James Horn with Erik throwing in a few attacks here and there to keep everyone on their toes. By about mile 40 we only had about 8-10 guys actually willing to do any work at the front of the peloton. Most of them being fellow NYC/CRCA teams – Sixcycle-RK&O, Arc Racing, Setanta and MTBNJ. In the days leading up to the race I knew these were going to be the teams to watch out for.

The 5ive Points Interview is breaking the mold again, creating a new paradigm in the uber-competitive world of oversimplified short-form bike shop interviews.  To say that Indy Fab #1 (rhymes with the nonsensicle Prince symbol, though hates to be called “Purple Rain”) is an inanimate object and thus not appropriate as an oversimplified short-form interview subject would be short-sighted, and missing the point at best. The bike frame in question is Independent Fabrication frame #1, the first production frame to come out of the Sommerville, Mass factory over 15 years ago.  IF #1, or IF1 as it prefers to be called, is a steel mountainbike frame, a hardtail in dirtbike lingo.  It wears a contemporary (for the mid ‘90s) triple fade paint job, and a wealth of component manufacturer stickers.  IF1 sports a one-inch headtube, a downtube gusset, cantilever brake studs, and the scars of a solid case of chain-suck.  IF1 will be residing proudly at NYC Velo (in a live-work capacity to get around 2^nd Avenue zoning regs) for the foreseeable future.  While not for sale (that would be wrong), IF1 is always game to crack open a beer and chat about New England bike building history.

NYC Velo: What bike do you ride?
IF1: Dumb Question

NYC Velo: What’s your favorite ride?
IF1: Mount Snow NORBA Cross-Country Course in Dover, Vermont

What’s your favorite post-ride food?
IF1: As a steel bicycle, I consume little other that J.P. Weigle’s Framesaver, didn’t you guys interview that dude?

What is one thing that you always carry on a ride?
IF1: A rider.  Are you sure you’ve done this before, these questions are ridiculously off-point.

What’s next?
IF1: Inspiring the hype-free production of hype-free bikes, hand-made in New England, and I think 1 inch headtubes will make a comeback.  And fade paint jobs.