Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Matilda is Famous!


Yeah, that's my baby.

The guy(s(girl(s))) over at MyFixedGear.net posted pictures of my bike up on their site. The site is really cool. It's all pictures of fixed geared bikes from around the country (world??).

The site is really really easy to browse through which is one of the features that drew me to the site in the first place. I like sites like FixedGearGallery.com, but unless you like to click back and forth through pages they're kind of cumbersome to browse through. Also, I like the next bike button, which pulls up a random next bike to look at instead of just going to the next one down the list.

There's a pretty good mix of track bikes, road bike conversions, trick bikes, commuters, etc. Lots of stuff to look through. They get new bikes pretty regularly so its cool seeing all of the new stuff coming through. I like seeing the amount of character that come through on all of the bikes.

Anyway, its worth checking out. Thanks MyFixedGear.net for posting the pictures of Matilda.

-Chris

Monday, February 23, 2009

Custom retro single speed cruiser

So normally I just post about the races that we at Will Cycle for Charity put on, but I think this bike is really worth a posting.

I was browsing through the STL craigslist bike section wishing I had tons of extra money for bikes and I came across this:


The post has more detailed pictures of the bike.

Custom retro single speed cruiser, aluminum (Page & Midland)

Well, I need money to help replace a vehicle so I'm selling my cruiser. I'm asking $185 or Best Offer.

First off, I have absolutely no idea who made this frame/fork. I bought this bike used from someone locally who said it was perhaps a custom build show bike for the SRAM Corporation (since it originally had a SRAM internal gear system). But I never found out for sure. It does have a serial number which would suggest that it is NOT a one-off bike. The frame is a medium to large size. I am 5'11" and it fits me well. The bike's wheelbase is longer than most mountain bikes or SS bikes, so keep that in mind when considering it. The distance from the bottom bracket to the rear dropouts is a couple inches longer than average and requires buying a tandem chain or 2 standard chains!

Since I bought it, I primed and painted the aluminum cantilever style frame and chromoly 1-1/8" threaded fork in DupliColor "Ford engine block blue". The paint job is decent with only a few minor scrapes. I also replaced the stem and seatpost with black Kalloy parts and installed a 26" alloy Shimano wheelset with older HG freehub body and Parallax design hubs. The old 7spd cassette was removed and replaced with a custom single speed cog and spacers. The drivetrain still uses the Hyperglide chain and one of the original cassette cogs. However, this setup could easily be upgraded to a true single speed chain/cog system for less than $50 (including chain). The rear wheel is a bolt-on and the front is a quick release. Tires are in good shape but not matching. The short riser handlebar is painted black alloy and the black v-brakes, grips and saddle are no-name/nothing special (the saddle was taken off a vintage 70's Fuji racer).

This bike is in excellent shape, is light weight and definately unique. However, it does not have all high-end name brand parts. So if you want an light weight, eye-cathing SS cruiser but don't want to shell out big bucks, this might be for you. Please call Rick at (314) deleted or (314) deleted for more details or to set a time to come see it. Leave a message if no one answers - I will do my best to return all calls and e-mails!

When responding, please include the description of the item in the message.

I sell items on a first-arrive, first-serve basis. In other words, whoever sets and keeps a viewing appointment first gets priority over other verbal or e-mailed expressions of interest.

Thanks for looking.

I know I'm rocking the bikesnobNYC style of posting, but I figure if you're going to steal, steal from the best.

Anyway, I am not really into cruiser bikes all that much, but this one is absolutely beautiful. Some bikes look really great without labels plastered all over them. I'm not against labels, most of my bikes have the brand labels intact, but sometimes I feel like they distract from the overall feel of some bikes.

I especially feel this way about single speeds. I like the simplicity of a single speed bike and I think removing the labels kind of adds to the whole minimal look. I think that's one of the big reasons I love my single speed so much.

I also like the amount of detail and description this guy put into his post. He's very honest and open about the bike. There are a lot of very unique qualities about this bike and he does very well noting all of them. I feel like this is the sing of someone who really loves their bike and it makes me kind of sad to see that its up for sale.

I hope this bike gets picked up by someone who actually cares about bikes. I hate to think of a bike like this getting locked up and left outside to get torn up by weather and hooligans.

Anyway, its a bike worth looking at and I hope it finds a good home.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

WOG 2 Race Videos

STLbikegeek.com posted videos of the first 7 races on their websites. Check them out here.

Thanks Naomi!!

Friday, February 13, 2009

Wheels of Glory II Results!



Thanks everyone for coming out to the races!

We definitely had a much much larger turn out as far as a crowd for this race.





In the end we generated $270 dollars for the Compton Drew Dolphin Bicycle Club which is almost double what we made for the charity in the January races. The bike club will now have more than enough money to get reflective cycling vests for all of the kids. Thank you everyone for donating the money. Helping these charities are really what these races are all about.

We had a hardware problem towards the end of the first round which took out one of the bikes. Basically, someone in the crowd stepped in an area that was blocked off and took out a necessary computer cable. We had to finish the rest of the rounds with only one bike. This caused us to cut more people each round than we wanted to in order to get through the races. One of our big goals in planning this second race was to keep more people in through all of the rounds, so loosing a bike part of the way through was a big disappointment for me and I'm sure for the crowd.

All in all I think the races went well. A lot of people got to ride, a good sized crowd got to watch, and hopefully everyone had fun.












Once again, there are a TON of pictures! You can find them both on Sara's flickr and on the Will Cycle for Charity picasa page. Thank you very much Sara and Carrie for the pictures. Also, a couple of friends came out to shoot some video of the event. Once they get the video over to me I'll be posting it online.






In the end, Seth Wahlman pulled off the win.



Followed closely by Richard Breininger in second


and Jason Zoll in third.

The final results were increadably close. All of the racers did an awesome job. I'll be posting the official results tomorrow.

Once again, thank you to everyone who came out. We had a lot of fun and did a lot of good for this month's charity. If you have any suggestions or feedback please feel free to email me or Will Cycle for Charity. I know we have some work to do as far as improving and perfecting our races so constructive feedback is always helpful. Check back to the blog and visit our website http://www.WillCycleforCharity.com for future updates. We will be posting our calendar of events for this coming year and the flier for the next race on March 11th on the site shortly.

-Chris

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

!!!Races Tonight!!!

I hope you're ready! The second set of Wheels of Glory Races are tonight!!!



The Atomic Cowboy

Doors at 5
Registration at 7
Races at 8

See you there!!!!

Monday, February 9, 2009

Race Categories

We're expanding the races a bit for Wednesday night to even things out a bit for everyone. Here is the way it will break down:

Categories (in order of start time)

Masters – age 55 + men

Masters – age 55 + women

Men – ages 40-55

Women – ages 40-55

Men – ages 25-39

Women – ages 25-39

Men – ages 18-25

Women – ages 18 – 25

All categories will race each stage before the next stage begins. There are four stages.


So practically not a lot will feel like it change as far as how we call out riders. What has changed, however, is that there will be winners from each category and people will end up getting to race more than just once or twice. We want to make sure everyone gets a chance to ride a lot at the race.


Also, this time we will be trying out some track style racing. I'm currently trying to get a hold of two matching fixed gears that we can use for the velodrome track so we can do some track sprints. We will hold these races separate from the main races and see how they go.


As far as prizes go, first place winners will get a small cash payout, items donated by Big Shark and A&M, and entrance to the next races on March 11 waived.

The money we generate from the race will benefit Compton Drew Middle School Dolphin Bicycle Club, which is an after school bicycling program for 7th & 8th grade students. Their group needs reflective cycling vests for the kids so we're going to get them some (or give them the money to get the vests).


-Chris


Wednesday, February 4, 2009

WCFC Mailing List

So there are several ways to keep up on the events that Will Cycle for Charity puts on.

1. Check the Will Cycle for Charity website.

2. Check for updates of this blog.

3. Join the Will Cycle mailing list.

One email is sent out per event that outlines the events details (time, place, the charity being donated to, etc). All email addresses will be blind copied so no one will see the individual addresses. Your email won't be given out to any companies, its just to keep people in the know.

-Chris

Another blog posting for WOG2

Carrie gave me the the heads up on another blog posting for the race. Check it out here



Thanks Carrie!

-Chris

Monday, February 2, 2009

Hipster Nascar Posting

We just got a post in one of my favorite blogs, Hipster Nascar.


This is one of the blogs I follow daily so I'm pretty happy about him posting about the race.

Thanks Simon!!!

-Chris