Air Italia Part 2: Know When to Hold 'em

As any good designer will tell you sometimes the best design is an older, original design. My Air Italia client and I looked over a few options and build ideas but in the end she chose a nice little vintage cruiser style bike for an extremely reasonable $100 price via craigslist. After giving it a physical inspection and my seal of approval, I told her it was safe to go forth with the bike as is and there was no reason for me to, almost literally, reinvent the wheel. I'm just happy to see someone on a bike they love.

little creamcycle

New request just came in from an out of town friend who wants something special but it completely defaulting to my taste and opinion. After having her out to visit recently we talked and looked at a few things bike wise and in the end she felt safe in leaving the rest up to me from here on out.

The above image is the inspiration for the whole thing. The only glitch is that she is very short and will need something in the 46-48 range which could be tough to find a frame for unless I go for something brand new, which if you know me is completely unheard of. As far as timing goes she's not worrying about it until the spring so I have time to hunt for parts, but if all goes according to my plan this will be the little track bike that could...

1977 Part 3: I Like Bars

Lovely original Nitto/Fuji bars and stem via eBay, some spotting in the chrome from age but nothing a little chrome polishing can't fix.

1977 Part 2: The Price is Right

A whopping $8.00 from Boxdog Bike shop!

Vintage Velodrome

I recently came across an eBay seller who has a huge stock of archival, mostly pre-1960, photography and managed to find this 1910 velodrome image that I got from him. There are not that many bike pics up there right now so sorry if you miss out, you can always come look at mine since it's now hung prominently over my kitchen table.

You're Not the Boss of Me Bike Part 1

My old boss now wants a commuter bike, he's a good guy and I know what he likes so we could do something really great, his wife just had a baby though... the cost of that bike could cover a lot of diapers...

Air Italia Part 1

Random request from a coworker, she wants something very Italian and she gave me hundreds of pics of bikes that she took on her last trip home. This could be fun!

das Bike Part 1

This will become a his and hers project actually for a German couple that I met through a friend. We met for a drink and they both are set on fixies, especially after she rides my bike around the block. I have some ideas what to do for her I'm definitely going to go with something that is very old school European with a modern twist, she wants a basket and I'm dying to do one but instead of a chrome on I want to powder coat it the same color as the frame to give it a nice old feel. Emailed over ideas for that today, we'll see if they are into it. He's tougher, he a Lambretta guy so I don't want to do anything too obviously mod, could look cheesy, might stay with the old European style but do his differently so that they tie nicely together but definitely do not look like his and hers version of the same thing.

1977 Part 1

After scouring eBay for a decent frame for myself I score a deal on this '77 Fuji frame and crank set, the next day I find forks and it looks my new project for myself is on its way.

le Peeg Part 5

Time to hand it over, we adjust tighten everything up and decide to take a ride, Megan's excitement over the bike is obvious and I'm very happy to see her happy on it but a little sad to see the bike go. Safe travels.

(Flickr gallery of the full build is here.)

le Peeg Part 4

The assembly goes well and I decide to add a houndstooth center pad because it completely rounds out the look, making the bike truly fit its owner. I snap a few pics and take her for a spin.

le Peeg Part 3

After she's dried over night I set her up for assembly... and yes my apartment does smell like spray paint.

le Peeg Part 2

Now that she's all stripped down and taped up I'm taking her over to my good friend Donny's to borrow his backyard (and an extra set of hands) for painting. Since she's going budget on the bike I decided to go for a good sanding and several coats of automotive spray paint in lieu of the usual powder coating.

le Peeg Part 1

Thanks to a very generous friend who needed to unload this Concord cluttering his basement I had a good base of parts to work with. Looks rough but has potential and once stripped down the potential seems even more obvious.

To Start

This is where it all began. This is my bike. It was made for me by a friend several years ago and has brought me a ton of pleasure. Aside from some small modifications that I made after the initital build it's still fairly much in its original form. I had asked my friend to build me something that was light, fast and efficient, that's pretty much what I got.

Fast forward several years and I was out riding my bike and another friend asked me where I got it. I told the story of it being built for me and how much I've enjoyed it since, then she asked, can you build me one? I had been toying with the idea and made jokes with a fellow coworker about quitting our jobs and opening a bike shop instead, we never quit but I did build my friend her bike.

The process was so rewarding for me on several levels, one I made something that was not only functionally suited to her but I made a bike that meshed with her personality. I put all ego aside, like any good designer should, and made the perfect end product for my client. The happiness I saw on her face when we took our first ride together was irreplaceable and I knew from that point on I found my new calling.

That leads me here, to this site. So far not much to post, I have the bike that started it all and will have others as they come to fruition, sometimes I find really cool things be it parts or random finds on the internet, I'll put all of those up as well.

Obviously if you like what you see, you can always email me and we can sit down and talk about a bike but I'm only really offering this to people that are in the SF Bay Area or people who are in someplace where we can meet for a coffee and talk in person. I don't like making cookie cutter messenger style fixies, some other dude can do that. I want to create truly unique bikes for unique people.

-j