Another Reason to Love All-City...

...They're always sweattin' the details. The amount of thought and customization that they put into their frames is so far beyond what other companies offering Taiwanese-made products do. Anna had some great posts recently on the All-City blog, documenting her design process here and here.

Ascari Bicycles

I don't believe I have ever seen as much dedication to the traditional/vintage style, attention to detail, or historical accuracy in any modern day custom build as that displayed by Ascari Bicycles out of Portland. Some very unique stuff coming out of their workshop. I'm afraid that, if I owned one of these, I may actually be too afraid to ride it...

NCC X MOOTS Custom Frame

North Central Cyclery recently teamed up with Moots to do a custom cyclocross frame with the rear end of a 29'er to make for a cross bike with tons of clearance. Neat-o. Some have given it the name "Minotoor". It is yet to be built up, but come in and check it out some time and order one for yourself if ya like it.

Custom decals and all.

Our good friend Mikey admires the frame while resembling a greek god with the most majestic hair ever. Also, don't mind that crappy seatpost. Just temporary in order to hold the frame in a work stand...

Japanese Custom Cross Check

I've always been very interested in the custom bikes that are built up in Japan, specifically the Surlys. The folks over there seem to put so much creativity into their builds, making them truly custom, with consideration for every little detail including custom paint and decals. You just don't see some of that stuff over here. At least not as often.

This particular bike was seen on the Surly blog. Check that out and an alternate photo here.

T.J.'s Custom Map Case.

Our dear friend T.J. rode 127mi from Bloomington to DeKalb, Illinois the other day. In anticipation of getting lost in the rain without mobile device reception, he built himself this waterproof map case out of PVC piping.



It is lightweight, watertight, and fits perfectly inside of his Revelate Tanglebag. Very clever, T.J. I just had to share this.



Here's a better photo of his setup for the ride: A fully loaded All-City Spacehorse, with Revelate Tanglebag and Gastank (all of which can be found at our shop), as well as a Velo Orange saddle bag. He made use of his GoPro camera too, and I look forward to seeing some photos/video of his adventure.

Custom SFCA Tool Roll

I've always like the concept and simple look of a traditional tool roll as opposed to a seat bag. There are plenty of them out there, some surprisingly pricey (Rapha, Mopha, Tracko, etc).  It's something that seems so easy to make, that I thought I'd give it a shot, even with my less-than-average skills with a needle and thread.



I grabbed some spare canvas material that I had from a 1970's military surplus duffle bag and turned on some tunes.



A couple hours later, It was finished.

Fastened to the seat rails with a toe strap.

Complete with S.F.C.A. branding. I'm curious to see how it holds up on the road, but I think it should be just fine. For my first attempt, I'm fairly satisfied.