If you would like to know about new apparel offerings, developments, deadlines and events feel free to sign up for Speedvagen Notes. Or, you can just check back here, that works too.

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

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.

(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.

The Super Fans of the cyclocross world are the pits. I mean that in the most admirable way. The pit crews at events like last weekends UCI Cyclocross World Championships in Louisville, KY are a dynamic mix of personalities and skill sets but two things are constant; one, your crew is 100% there for you and two,  you will enter filthy and heavy and leave clean and light.
  

As I flipped through the photos I took last weekend I saw a lot of muddy national champions on run ups. The same photos we see all over the front pages and Instagram, and yes those are the athletes and the focus of the day. But, I noticed the anticipation and focus of the pit crews too and wanted to take a minute to recognize the unsung heroes of ‘cross without whom every national champ on the course would be carrying a heavy, mud covered bike with a jammed or sheered rear derailure over the finish line. Thank you!