While we’re all going on summer vacations, Heather Gardiner is spending her summer on her bike and building houses.
She spent Marathon Monday in front of our shop raising money for her trip with Build & Bike 2012, an organization that organizes teams of 20-30 young adults to ride across the country and build homes.
“There are eight different trips you can take. Im going from North Carolina to San Diego. Each rider raises $4500 and during the ride we elect which organizations we want to donate our funds to,” said the 23-year-old Northeastern graduate.
She will spend 13 days of her 10 week trip building affordable housing.
She’s been raising money a variety of different ways, from collaborations with restaurants to bar pub crawls. Today she decided to sell baked goods in order to raise her remaining funds. As of this morning she’s $780 from her goal of $4500.
To learn a bit more about Heather, Bike & Build and donating to her cause, please click here.
Finally. Our Linus preorder is in.
The same medley of down tubes but with a few color variations!
This year we are pleased to announce some new additions to the line up to compliment the series of Roadsters, Mixtes and Dutchis you all loved so much last year.
The Marine Dutchi Three Speed. Hands down our best seller last year, now in a new blue color!
Rosewood Mixte Three Speed. While in a flat light, the Rosewood masquerades as a black bicycle, wait for the light to hit it to see a beautiful, mahogany hue that seems like an obvious choice for the Linus bicycles.
This weekend is supposed to be a pretty one. Perfect time to stop by the shop and see what fun feels like!
Knog just came out with something pretty nifty; the Knog Blinder lights. We offer the regular, X and GT stripe designs.
These babies boast a 4 LED light source with four different settings: Eco flash, two different types of organic flash, fast flash and a steady light.
At optimal illumination the front and rear offer 80 lumiens and 44 lumiens respectively.
Anodized aluminum face, silicone strap with stainless steel clip.
Last but not least, these lights can last up to three hours of constant illumination! Wow!
Check out a tutorial on the Blinder flashing patterns!
The season for group rides and races is upon us!
Last Thursday was the first Black Falcon “Dirty Bird” Criterium at 1 Design Center. The training race starts at 7 PM weekly. Both Geared and Single Speed Bicycles are encouraged to race.
The race is approximately sixteen miles, or sixteen one-mile laps. So unfortunately flats (as pictured above) are an instant end to the race for you. But never fear, there’s always next week!
Despite the super chilly weather (I’m sure the racers would disagree, but many of the spectators surely contributed a teeth chattering rhythm section) there were about twenty three racers.
I was taking a bunch of video, I’ll post some stuff later this week. This week is Chainlynx, the lady bike ride, but I’ll definitely be back next week!
Thanks to the crew of talented, passionate cyclists who made this possible!
For more updates, check out the race’s Facebook page or Tumblr.
Hey internet, meet Kyle.
Photograph by Addison Post.
Kyle has been a customer and friend of ours for quite some time. He agreed to chat with us for a bit about his bicycle modifications and cycling inspirations.
“I think what inspires me about cycling is seeing people doing cool things on bikes or with bikes. Like kids hopping over hydrants on BMX, or sprinting all out with traffic, or just pictures and videos of the many great Boston area bike builders doing what they do best. I see this stuff, and think, maybe someone somewhere thinks that to some extent about me. It makes me ride happier, and try harder, with tricks or speed or making things or just in general.”
If you live in Boston/Cambridge/Somerville, you’ve probably seen one or both of these bicycles locked up outside of Toscanini’s:
“My love of bikes has basically become my art. I learned to weld decently by making bikes, and since they are already one of the most simple and elegant machines, I welded more on and did ludicrous paint jobs to make them more art then they inherently are. I don’t know…I only ever thought I was an artist until I went to school for engineering. Now I just make things that do stuff, but that look kind of pretty while doing so.”
So, how did you start creating these Frankenbikes?
“Ha frankenbikes…I love and hate that term. I had this synchronicity with my best friend sophomore year of college; he called me up and was like “dude, lets make lowrider bikes”, and I was like “dude, I was just drawing some up”. We used dude alot back then. Maybe it was just initially to get attention, but the feeling of cutting up metal and melting it together into something else was so powerful that I kept doing it every summer. My first was still my best though…it was like a long drawn out chopper motorcycle with this decorative “gas tank” that held two beers and a passenger seat facing back…probably one of my coolest moments at UMass was riding back from a party through campus with this girl I liked holding onto me from the back seat.”
What else does he enjoy about cycling?
“I’ve met some really good people through/on bikes. Like, people I maybe would never know or have run into, that I am happily now friends with (yourself included). Bikes have also been huge in terms of my mental and emotional state…there is something very comforting in knowing that no matter how sad or crappy or mad or whatever little mood is eating at me, I can get on a bike and cruise/sprint/trick around town and feel better. Ha, sometimes I am a moody crab baby.”
