Tag Archives: rapha

The Art of Britain's Bespoke Bicycle

It’s a bit last minute as today is the last day to see it, but our friends at Rapha put together a gorgeous exhibit on old English bespoke bicycles.  see below for the blog piece we lifted from their blog:

Tuesday evening saw the opening of a new exhibit in our gallery. Entitled ‘Speed, Style & Comfort: The Art of Britain’s Bespoke Bicycle”, the show features vintage bikes from the collection of Michael Lebron. With selections from P.T. Stallard, Dawes, Johnny Berry and more, the collection is a beautiful representation of 1930s to 1950s era British racing and touring bikes.

Included in the show is the unique photography of Bijou Le Tord. Ms Le Tord is a French artist who put together an amazing series of photographs – “Going the Distance”. For the show, she documented the 2009 Tour de France daily as she witnessed it from her studio in France. Each resulting frame was the culmination of both anticipation and split-second determination, then stylized to reveal the art within the image. They are truly haunting portraits of the glory, suffering, and pageantry of the Tour. We have 10 of her photos for sale.

We also gave over one wall of the gallery to our friends at Flat Vernacular who came up with a stunning damask/bicycle-themed wall covering. It sits behind the Le Tord photos – and alongside the vintage bikes providing the ideal canvas to link the past to the present.

The Rapha Cycle Club NYC closes for good on September 30th. Make sure to get in and check out these unique exhibits before they are gone. See the slide show below for more photos of the bicycles.

5ive Points: Mike Spriggs

In conjunction with the closing of the Rapha Cycle Club,  we figure it would be a great idea to cue up our good friend Mike Spriggs for this week’s 5ive Points.  A veritable “jack of all trades,”  Mike was the manager of the Rapha Cycle Club and played an enormous part in putting on the fantastic events throughout the summer.  Not satisfied with doing just one awesome thing, Mike is also the owner of Gage & DeSoto,  purveying wickedly cool t-shirts to the cycling community fairly regularly.  He’s truly a man for all (cycling) seasons.

NYC Velo: What bike do you ride these days?

Mike Spriggs: More and more I find myself going for my 2004 DeRosa Neo Primato w/ Chorus.
The steel ride is like a Cadillac (ok, maybe a Crown Vic), and in “Molteni orange” it just looks classic. My only complaint – the Italian paint job. If you look at that bike wrong, the paint chips off….

NYCV: What is your favorite ride?

MS: The Chinese Bakery Ride (TM). Brett, Andrew and I discovered this ride by accident one day. Brett was craving muffins. So, taking an unfamiliar turn off of 9W, we found a tiny asian bakery – like an oasis -with a seemingly limitless array of $1 pastries. The ride offers a great descent off of Englewood Cliffs, and a sharp, straight climb back up – AND can be done in under 3 hours. Perfect.

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

MS: Bananas and yogurt. And coffee.

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

MS: The key phrase here is “always”. Since I ALWAYS forget *something*, I can’t say there’s one thing I have with me all the time. In an ideal world, it’s my tube/lever/Lezyne pump combo. I can deal with forgetting money, or my phone, but stuck with a flat on a solo ride is just not right.

NYCV: What’s next for you?

MS: After the amazing gig of managing the Rapha Cycle Club for the summer…. REST.
And then turning my attention back to Gage & DeSoto, as well as helping out you guys (NYC Velo)!

Rapha Season Finale

Soon, and with a heavy heart,  we will all have to bid adieu to the establishment known as the Rapha Cycle Club.   As summer-season pop-up store  The Rapha club grew roots quickly and became the “hangout” for cyclists in the city.  Many of us have enjoyed the fantastic coffee, beautiful space, slick clothing, and impactful art that the club has provided since it opened three months ago.

As the store closes on Thursday, it is only appropriate that we all come together to celebrate the space, the people, and the experience we shared this past summer at the club.   We’ll be there with bells on (or at least Rapha caps)  and we hope to see you there as well.

BOTW: The Spriggscycle

This week’s Bike of the Week is our friend Mike’s townie. It’s a handmade bike from 20 years ago, when Mike’s buddy Greg decided to make track bikes with relaxed geometry for all his messenger friends up in Boston. This was Mike’s work bike in the early 90s, then it became a commuter, and now it’s Mike’s “around town” bike – as well as the official errand bike for the Rapha Cycle Club. Mike decided on a relaxed fit, with gentlemanly Nitto bars, a Brooks B-17, and a Shimano coaster brake for fun.  Couple that with an slick t-shirt from Mike’s Gage & Desoto line, and you can see why everyone says Mike Spriggs is the “cock of the walk.”

Rapha Film Festival

We love it when art and cycling intersect.  Be it through paintings, photography, or in this case, film.   More than other medium, a well made cycling film can capture the glory, pain, suffering, and enjoyment of riding or racing an epic course.  Our friends at the Rapha Cycle Club have decided to show the NYC cycling community just that, with their very own film screenings over the next three weeks.

For the next three Fridays, Rapha Cycle club will be screening three exclusive films on their site.  One film each Friday.  They will be screened at the club and each movie will remain on the site for 24 hours.

Did we mention they were all produced by Ridley Scott?

The first film, A Throw of the Dice, delves into three-time Paris-Roubaix winner Johan Museeuw‘s racing carreer.  A melange of current and past footage, Director Nick Livesey‘s film shows us the famed race through the eyes of the Lion of Flanders himself.  As you can see from the trailer below, it looks to be a visually stunning film.  we can’t wait.

We have also included the trailers for the other two films.  be sure you don’t miss these!

A Throw of the Dice: Premiers August 13th

A Throw of the Dice – trailer from RAPHA on Vimeo.

Two Broad Arrows: Premiers August 20th

Two Broad Arrows – trailer from RAPHA on Vimeo.

Of Steel: Premiers August 27th

Of Steel – trailer from RAPHA on Vimeo.

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

Events: Rapha Continental Project

Here at NYC Velo, we know when to call a spade a spade and give credit where it’s due.  Our pals over at Rapha Bowery have put together what will prove to be the seminal event of the summer in their quest to promote their Continental Project.  While we defer to the Rapha folks to describe the Conti Project in their own words, we are certainly fans.  Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the Conti Project is the focus on domestically fabricated bicycle frames.  Stop by the Cycle Club Thursday night after 7 to catch the action (and meet Tyler, Head of Special Ops at Indy Fab).

KWH

No, we’re not talking “kilowatts per hour”, we’re talking Kissing With Helmets. That’s the name of the wedding project site (is there such a thing?) of our very own Brett Cleaver and his fiancée Edie Perkins. The two shared their first kiss while wearing – you guessed it – helmets, and once they’ve tied the knot this summer they are embarking on a honeymoon bike tour across the country.

They recently contacted our friends at Independent Fabrication, and ordered up a couple of new bikes for the ride. Check out the pictures here on IF’s blog.

We have to say, they look fanstastic.

Then they reached out to other industry friends like Rapha, HED, Ortlieb, Tubus, Oakley, and Chris King to chip in merchandise and support for the ride.

We wish “Team B&E” all the best, not only on their bike trip, but in life as well!

You can keep track of their journey by following them on their site.

kissingwithhelmets.com

Grounded

The Rapha Condor team was in town for Battenkill this past weekend, and thanks to a little-known volcano in Iceland, they are still here. The squad’s head mechanic Andy Verrall was in the neighborhood the other day and stopped in to pick up some supplies.

Oh, and nice shirt Andy!

The Battenkill

Our friends at Rapha are descending on NY this weekend from all directions for the Tour of the Battenkill. The Rapha Condor Sharp Racing team will be in town from the UK, and the US-based Rapha gents Slate and Jeremy will be visiting from Portland.

Rapha has some very cool events going on that all you Europhiles should check out. A ride in Central Park with the Pro team on Thursday morning, and an official, luxury supporters bus up to Battenkill on Sunday to watch the race. We’re happy to see Rapha’s enthusiastic support of a unique, local event.