We are stoked to present this guest report from Jon Woodroof (@twotoneatl)! Jon is a dad, bike racer/commuter and entrepreneur in Atlanta, GA. We hope to have more from him and others this summer so stay tuned.

Roswell, GA | April 28th 2013 | CAT 3/4 Criterium

Oh man. Why the rain? This was literally my second ride on my Speedvagen. Freshly dialed & prepped with the PRO service from Chris at Loose Nuts Cycles. I was ready to ape it. Or was I?

After some debate of wether or not to brave the weather, I stepped up to stage for the CAT 3/4. Strategy: keep it cool & see how the race goes. And save some gas for the 2/3 I had also registered for.

The whole ‘keep it cool’ strategy is a common one for me. I never follow through with it. Mid-crit I jumped & tried to get away, having had some success with that in East Atlanta last year. (By some success, I mean getting away & getting reeled back in) That happened today as well. So I sat back in.

More pain face. I ended up back towards the front with 3 or 4 to go. Tempo ramped up but my cohorts weren’t keen to pull so I easily made it to the front & with some great encouragement from my trackie bud Nathaniel Rowe, we made an attack getting several seconds up. We took turns pulling for two laps. I made this face the whole time.

On the bell lap I went berserk. Suddenly realizing I could pull this off I ape’d it full power & brought it home. Second ride on the bike, first crit of the season & I managed a win. SO. STOKED. I decided to not push my luck with two rainy crits in one day & went home already looking forward to Sandy Springs.

[Photos courtesy Mike Waine]

Sandy Springs, GA | May 5th 2013 | CAT 2/3 Criterium

Fueled by my glory last week & mid week success at the track, I rolled up to the staging are for the CAT 2/3 race feeling great.

Sandy Springs’ route is known for the final sprint’s climb. It gets more brutal each lap & got the best of me this year! My instagram caption below sums it up:

Doh! The @SandySpringRace #SandySpringsCrit was a tough one. The 2/3 field had some heavy hitters driving the pace. I had ended up towards the back. Worked my way back mid pack. Then founds myself tail gun’n once again. With 15 to go I got pulled. Bummer! Shout out to @rualrite for an impressive win. Looks like @danchabanov was right. ; ) Congrats to you guys on a solid #speedweek!

Lessons learned? My first two races on my Speedvagen span the spectrum of highs and lows on the bike: winning & getting dropped. I’m lucky to have such a reliable steel steed to carry me through the ups & downs of racing & training. Not to mention turn a few heads in the process. The bike felt exceedingly stiff compared to the alloy rig I rode previously. It is a great feeling to go toe to toe in competition with such a unique bike. It spurs confidence & is an honor to own such an amazing piece of craftsmanship. More reports to come!

Jon Woodroof | twotoneatl.com

Just in time for Summer! You can find the new Speedvagen caps at the Vanilla Workshop.

These caps are 100% cotton and made in the USA. They have a traditional bill and classic Euro-style 8-panel construction with cotton twill tape inside. The sublimated ribbon matches our team kit and says ‘Speedvagen Integrated’ with our unicorn on it to add a little magic.

A little bit of everything this weekend. Keep ‘em coming!

The response to the first Weekends post was fantastic so I’m going to keep the series going.

@archcloth completed the Flèche NW on her Vanilla rando rig. Congrats!

Our friends at @LeaveItOnTheRoad put in a ton of miles over the weekend. We’re getting their bikes together but @mtabtabai has been riding a Speedvagen since he got his 2010 Surprise Me! road.

 

I wanted to share this letter from a new friend of the Speedvagen family. Not only did it totally make my day, it reminded me why we do this. It’s about building relationships as much as it is about building bikes. I hope this gets you off to a great week!

Hi Sacha, Jenn, Scott, Ryan and all the special people at Vanilla that made my SV possible.

I finally unboxed my Speedvagen today and spent hours unwrapping and assembling it. I felt like a heart surgeon with shaky hands too scared to scratch the beautiful creation. My first thoughts were, are you fucking kidding me there is no way I am riding this, to be followed up with a mail to you guys showing you a picture of my machine bolted and padlocked to my bedroom wall, but then I remembered the conversation I had with Sacha about owning a dream bike that only gets out on special occasions and I realized that part of the privilege of owning a bike like this is the commitment I have made to you that this bike will get ridden as it deserves – anywhere, anytime. I look forward to sending you tons of pictures from the most stunning places with my dream bike.

Thanks for the care, attention and amazing creativity you put into this project.

Kind regards,

Jakes

I shaved my legs for the race this Sunday. More out of excitement than anything else but there’s always the practical matter of road rash and in the 4/5 race that’s always a real possibility. This is the race I’ve been waiting for. It was my first road race two years ago and though I had put a lot of time on the trainer it didn’t add up to much on the road in those freezing conditions. But I learned a lot by volunteering and riding along with some old timers. I never managed to finish with my group and vowed to return in two years, after my son was born. Those races were a bit of a last hurrah as having two kids in the house was going to take some work and time away from the bike.
So, now it’s two years later and time to give it a go. I’ve mixed training up a bit and been doing more riding, even lost 18 lbs. So I figured it was time to give the old legs a little attention. What surprised me was how much of a camouflage that thin layer of light brown leg hair concealed.

Theres a pretty good sized bruise on my right leg from a futsal match two weeks ago that I hadn’t noticed. I have a lot more freckles than I thought I did, thanks mom! And then there are the scars, some new ones likely thanks to a slip of my hand, but others relatively ancient. So many memories locked up in those misshapen spots of repaired flesh. There’s the ACL repair from getting hit by a utility truck as a messenger in Columbus, OH more than a decade ago. The nickel sized remnants of my first attempt at skitching (holding onto the side of a car on my bike) in high school, now 20 years ago; it didn’t end well. And the time in middle school when I jumped off the bridge into the Yakima River and hit something deep in the water, maybe part of an abandoned car or discarded appliance, probably just a rock. That thing looked worse than it was but it healed poorly and its still there, just below my right knee.
I wasn’t expecting a  trip down memory lane when I lathered up but I’m glad it worked out that way. It was nice to take a moment and remember where I’ve been, and look at my kids and know we’ve got a lot more living to do and scars to collect.

One of the things I love about Instagram is finding out what everyone was up to over the weekend. From what I can tell the sun was out around the globe and folks took advantage and put some miles on their Speedvagen. I love that the bikes are everywhere and that we hear from you all, thank you.

Here’s a little recap of what was going on this weekend. Tag us in your photos or send us an email and maybe we can do this every week! Or find us on Facebook.

 @twotoneatlanta won the Cat 3/4 race at the Historic Roswell Crit in Georgia on his freshly built up 2009 Speedvagen Surprise Me! road machine.

@jeffcurtes was in Portland on a lay over and got in a nice spin with Francesco Moser!

@velokitten was on the Moser ride with her 2010 Speedvagen road machine.

@jobunt took his 2013 road machine for its maiden voyage around Amsterdam after convincing the shop that built it up to let him have it back.

@ichicoblog put his 2011 road machine through the paces on the Rapha Gentlemen’s Race, Kyoto this weekend including a 15km gravel climb that he notes is incredibly rare in Japan. He also designed the limited edition cap for the event.

I’m having the wood floors refinished in the house that my lady and I have just purchased.  I know absolutely zilch about such tasks.  Despite this, the contractor, a super friendly dude with the best intentions I’m sure, asks me to make a lot of decisions.

In thinking about that, I’m reminded of the first custom bike I ordered. (more…)

We  had a lot of fun with Dean DePaco’s (@merckxy) Workbench Racing set on Instagram last week! Here’s the whole series in review, a look back at some turning points in the race and a few out takes as well. Thanks to everyone who cheered our racers on and participated. This won’t be the last time you see Workbench Racers at the Workshop.

Departing from Vice and making their way to the File forest and the first big climbs of the day.

A welcome sun break as they entered the File forest warmed their spirits and the breaks started forming.

An early break on the Col du Bent aka the Bastard.

Team Red protecting their man in yellow and pushing the pace at the front.

Blue challenges our leader on the final climb of the week and they separate from the safety of the peloton as they enter the Village of COAT.

The break is caught in the narrow streets of COAT.

(Obligatory aerial shot)

It’s on as they approach the 1K mark and the Park de Triomphe!

Yellow makes his move on the left with just meters to go!!! It’s going to be a photo finish folks!!!

Blue pushes through the line to take the stage! Yellow will be rewarded for his efforts with the overall win of the 2013 Ronde de Vagen!! Thank you for joining us for this week of racing on TVW. Stay tuned for more #workbenchracing from a shop near you. Special thanks to @merckxy for letting us kick off the season, it was a pleasure and a privilege. Have a great weekend and remember to take it to Eleven everyone!

The final sprint from our friends in the sky.

If you or your shop want to get involved just email Dean and he’ll get you in the game!

Next are a few moments that didn’t make it to Instagram but were pivotal in the overall race for GC. Enjoy!

The team time trial in the prologue really showed how tight this red team was early in the game.

High in the mountains of the Lathe range.

Racing through the streets of Tinté.

The infamously dangerous Tinté cobble sectors were lead out by the youngest of the peloton. Naive? Maybe, daring, definitely!

A welcome sun break in the flats allowed the peloton to refuel.

(This post is compliments of Speedvagen Team racer and all-around amazing person, Laura Winberry. Keep an eye out for more of her writing here this summer.)

Everything has a natural beginning, middle and end. I mean absolutely, everything. Relationships. Lifespans. Loves and lessons. Yesterday was the first time since Japan (November) that I got on my Speedvagen. That golden wink of a goddess. It’s funny, how memory works. It attaches itself to certain things. Or, vice versa. Smells. Sounds. Random pieces of daily interactions. Bicycles. Yesterday brought this to my attention, yet again.

Gliding towards the newly wetted trails, it all came rushing back to me. Everything from the previous ’cross season, my first with Speedvagen. Every mass start. Each corner taken with too much speed. All the bells. All the grit, travel, cheer. All the screw-ups and triumphs. The dropped chains, laughter. Every sprint. Moment of heartbreak, sublimity, effort. Of pelting rain. Of sun. Of silence. All the memories embedded in this golden ray of a bike just started flinging themselves at me. Like caked earth releasing itself from tubulars once they hit pavement, the memories flicked up and pinged at my glasses. The bike’s been through it all. My body’s been through it all. And when it comes down to it, neither one will let the other forget. Beginning, middle, or end.

And perhaps, it’s about knowing where you stand in the process. Pedaling around on this memory-absorbent craft, hearing the click of shifts, sweetness and precipitation invading my senses, a lot came flooding in. Mostly about where I’ve been, where I’m at, and where I’m going. The thing is, we have transitions within the transitions. Stages within the stages. Sometimes we think we know where we’re at. Then life reminds us we really don’t have the grasp we thought we did. And that’s fine. So long as we can ride our bikes. I’m kidding (sort of). Regardless, I feel confident in saying that things have only just begun. Call it a renaissance. Call it the middle of the beginning of something. Either way, I like it. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Perhaps that’s what it’s about. Thanks, life. Thanks, bike.

1. Invariably the guys on the steel bikes are A) Smart enough to ride together, B) Too smart to pull, C) Having more fun per mile, D) All of the above.

For the amount of bike loving there is here in Los Angeles, you’d be amazed how many guys don’t know bikes that aren’t from the big box. Always a thrill to see Peter on his Firefly, and I’m eagerly awaiting my new Speedvagen and looking to send this one in for some fresh paint. And yes, this is how I roll.

All kidding around aside, I hope you get a chance to ride enough at some point… that for a moment it becomes a focus, and being on the bike feels more normal than walking or doing anything else. Because this thing happens to you when you do… You lose yourself and you become part of something bigger than yourself. It gets cosmic. I’m certainly not doing that anymore, there’s too much other stuff foreground in life, but the bike still reminds me of it everytime I ride, even when my body refuses to take me there. I hope you get to have that too. It’s a joy. In the absense of being there, riding with pals who are clearly in the middle of that experience is the next best thing.