2012 has been a great year and i want to thank all of my customers who have placed orders for bicycles and also all the people who have been patient over the years and are happily racking up miles all over the world. i recently finished a bike that headed to japan and landed just in time to do some cross racing. my friend daisuke was kind enough to translate and help out along the way and also puts on a hell of a cross race in japan. he has some good help and it looks like a lot of big names ended up racing this year. the bike that i built up was a great example of a classic lugged steel cross bike with a matching fork and stem to fit. i never got great photos of the frameset before it left portland but daisuke was kind enough to send me some photos via flickr.

a few notes on things i have discovered recently and have fallen in love with. one is a vintage cycling photo site called il dolore. it is f**king amazing! everything that i  have had a deeply romantic love affair with for over 20 years is distilled down to one website. (i love and hate the internet for this reason. information is so easy to access anymore that it take something away from the act of digging and finding things like this in old magazines and shoe boxes.) it keeps one of my feet firmly planted in our passionate past and in doing so, keeps my compass directed into the future of bicycles, racing and style. thanks simon.

the other thing i discovered was the lumberyard in portland. while i do consider myself to be a “roadie” at heart, i have always ridden mountain bikes and found myself riding my road bike where i shouldn’t be. building skills and feeling comfortable on loose and narrow terrain has never been my ace in the hole but i do love me some shredding every now and again. the lumberyard is a purpose built indoor mountain bike park made for every skill level and the best part is it’s dry all winter long. i don’t know what else to say about it other than i wasn’t able to wipe the smile off my face the whole time and i want to make a dirt jump bike. do it!

enjoy and happy new year to you.

d*pow at pdw helped me out with a fresh set of fenders this fall and they are the best yet. they are very solid and durable but still light and offer great coverage. i added my own special mud flaps to keep my toes and my fellow riders dry but otherwise, they are 100% great for a skinny tired winter whip. they ain’t cheap but from my experience, if it’s cheap, it will fall apart and these hold up on rough stuff.

the rapha overshoes are the best. i have used these for almost every winter ride over the course of 3 years and they are just now starting to show real signs of wear. retro-grouch alert! back in the day in iowa, i remember seeing riders showing up for winter rides with scuba gear approved booties that looked like they have been through the shredder. safety pins and duct tape were common sights. it seemed to be a goal to see who could go longer without buying new booties. putting all those ideals aside, i can say these are classic, understated and durable. i love them. a lot of what makes for a warm and functional shoe set up is using wool socks, making sure your shoes are dry and facing the fact that your feet will be wet but the trick is to make sure they don’t get cold.

speaking of wool, the little package winter riding is the best winter cap, period. it is thin, comfortable and made locally. it fits under a helmet and won’t bunch up. caroline uses wool panels on the front and back and cotton on the sides. (all wool is too warm for portland, trust me) the earflap is poly and won’t stretch out for years. the only downside is that i don’t have any left. sorry for all those people who have to have something right away. this ain’t burger king!

lastly, this has been one of the tougher parts to nail down and i figured out the perfect solution (this is for me and i know that everyone is different). in portland, it is more about being warm and not being cold even when you are wet (and you will be wet!). when i was a bike courier in portland years ago, i was dirt poor and needed durable gear for riding 9 hours a day in the rain. i found a military surplus store that sold all sorts of wool army gear. i bought a bunch of rag wool gloves for $5 and wore them out. they were cheap and warm but never really that warm. years later, i discovered boiled wool and i employed the same “technology” and boiled up a batch of cheap wool gloves. the key is to buy them a size or two too large. boil them for a couple minutes and have a bowl of ice water on hand. the shock of the hot and cold condenses the wool fibers and makes them tighten up. going back and forth until they fit and let them dry out. they are good to about 35 degrees and if you need full water proofing, buy some extra large yellow dishwashing gloves for another $5.

this is likely to be an ongoing topic and i will most likely mention other things that i like to use for riding and working. while the shop wear isn’t as romantic, i do tend to wear old military sweaters to stay warm and cozy at the workbench.

enjoy the ride.

left to right: d*pow!. ira, matt hall, j*pow!, india, ryan, rachel.

the modern era is dominated by facebook, twitter and instagram and, while i use social media, i try to balance it out with some older technology in my daily life. my shop and home stereos are from the era where you can weight quality by the pound, i like to read books and collect old magazines and of course i prefer lugged steel bikes with steel forks over the feathery carbon bikes of today. i find myself turning my head at old motorcycles and can say that the front end of a studebaker lark or an international travel-all are two of the best looking cars i have ever seen. classic style.

it is strange how the smallest details in passing can influence the way we see the world. i am fixated on the world around us and am confounded by the mix of high-tech we have in our hands and on our screens but then we also connect with people and our world in ways that can’t be replicated with an app or a video. this being said, i am guilty of spending hours watching world cup cyclo-cross or the latest rapha videos on my computer. hell, i have been looking at this screen for an hour to write this.

i have developed a reputation as a bit of a retro-grouch (i own this title as a testament as my years in the bicycle industry) and in the past year, i see the limitations to this perspective on my craft, my racing and my brand. this year i have looked for ways to streamline my building and have invested in some new tooling (if your reading this jeff buchholz, your tooling is build like a brick shit-house. thanks!), i bought some new carbon wheels (gasp!) for my cross bike and i have been taking my riding a little more serious than just pedaling around for a couple hours.

all of this new technology is dope. maybe it’s a sign of my getting smarter as i get older.

Ira –
Thought you might appreciate this. Here’s a shot of the bike south of Knowlton in Quebec, about 10 miles North of the Vermont border. Amazing ride — high 60s, no humidity and no cars over 40 miles and 7,000 feet of climbing.
Loving the bike. As I mentioned before, my only regret is not getting it sooner. Amazingly smooth and quick, fits like a glove. People who get it ask to look, and several have been caught stroking the lugs (not sure how i feel about that…)
Hope you’re well.
M

Ira,

Finally passed 4000 miles on the bike.  It has been enjoyable as ever.  Best ride this summer was 105 miles with top of Hurricane Ridge as the midpoint (pic).The best news is my four year old son Luca pedaled on his own today!  He went from Strider balance bike to pedaling, really fun to watch. Hope to get south sometime and have a beer.  I enjoyed the Andy Hampsten video very much.  Hope all is well.

-Mike

all photos are courtesy of dave roth here in portland. very hard race and i think a lot of people now realize how much running they need to add to their training. we all had good races and fought to keep pace. we rode to and from the race towing a bob trailer with all the team wheels on it. we are trying to make the most of the good weather before we have to race in the rain and mud in november.

]]> http://www.iraryancycles.com/2012/09/frenchmans-sand-pit-cx/feed/ 0 http://www.iraryancycles.com/2012/09/the-down-beat/ http://www.iraryancycles.com/2012/09/the-down-beat/#comments Fri, 07 Sep 2012 16:39:43 +0000 ira http://www.iraryancycles.com/?p=1811 Continue reading →]]> for anyone who has seen the jerk, you know the scene where steve martin is trying to find the rhythm for the blues and he just can’t seem to snap his fingers in time with the music. it is a classic scene and just one of a hundred hilarious moments from the movie that seem to be lodged into my brain only to come up every so often at the right moment. credit and props to matt cardinal for reminding me how great the jerk is. as i write this blog post on a caffeinated friday morning, i can’t help but feel that my timing is a bit off with the ways of the internets. knowing full well that the high traffic days and times fall on monday’s when everyone is checking out the virtual world on their lunch breaks. maybe i just need to find my special purpose.

as long as you have some time to spend in the digital realm of bike dork-dom, check out the new rapha story about riding with andy hampsten in santa rosa, california. i got a chance to ride the motorcycle down for a couple days and ride push bikes with the giro winner in some sunshine. it was amazing and there is so much that happened that didn’t make it on to the film. we rode northwest of santa rosa on king’s ridge where andy spent a lot of time training with the motorola team back in the day. surrounded with vineyards and twisting roads, it is easy to see how it reminded him of italy. at one point our group was flying down this narrow road to the coast and i was fearful of oncoming traffic. the road was like a corkscrew and i was behind andy. it hit me that i was following the wheel of the only american to win a grand tour. talk about a confidence booster. he remarked how great it was to be riding with such a great group of riders. i think all the rapha continental riders were proud.

in more local news, i stopped by caroline’s to pick up some caps last week and found out that she has broken her collarbone and can’t sew until october. for a self employed cap maker, this is a bit of a setback. the new caps that i have coming through are going to be delayed but they will get here eventually. she makes the best cycling caps in the world and they are the only caps i wear. (i am not a snob but i know quality when i put it on) i encourage everyone to buy one of her hats through the little package website and help her make it through the month of september. thanks.

the first cross race happened last weekend near portland. i did not race partially because i have been so busy building but also because i want to make the most of enjoying the summer weather in portland. soon it will be all cross all the time.