Speedbloggen

Wednesday in the shop

Sacha — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:51:03 +0000

Mitering seatstays, drilling for head badges, Hot Pink, check-in with the paint(t) shop and the view out our front door.

xoxo,

Sacha

the woodsman

Sacha — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:43:01 +0000

A new cross bike that built for one of most well loved customers. I don’t know if he knows it, but around the shop, he’s known as “the Woodsman”.

See more on here

Cue singing angels

Sacha — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 07:40:48 +0000

Fabrication Marathon: Too much This American Life (though I never thought it was possible), lunches delivered to the shop so we can stay on task, Notorious B.I.G., Kanye West, Leonard Cohen, Pearl Jam (Scott had a hankering), routine maintenance in the paint shop to prepare for the tsunami of racing bicycles that will need hot pink and army green and Vanilla blue and *%$#% &#%@$&. Black tea with milk and honey, curving, mitering, fitting up and brazing seatstays, enjoying further refinement of our process, being slap-happy. Meeting goals!

Top tubes are in all bikes as of Tuesday. Seat stays, bridges, braze-ons, bottle bosses, stainless sleeves, etc. are on 5 bikes (4 covert army’s and one special edition). Those bikes are off to paint Monday. Things are going so well. I want to recognize my crew for being so focussed and dialed. These bikes are spot on! A term I don’t thrown around, by the way.

Have a good weekend!

-Sacha

The Orient Express

Sacha — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:20:36 +0000

Tina Brubaker has been a long time Speedvagen team rider (and Vanilla before there was Speedvagen). She has raced at the top level in cross and on the road for many many years both here in Oregon and nationally. Tina has been an ambassador for the sport of Cyclocross through mentoring youngsters, and being a positive force in general. She matches Speedvagen’s philosophy of tough, but not so tough that you can’t also laugh at yourself and be good to your competition.

Kind, loyal, foxy, knowledgeable, seasoned, fast. The perfect team member.

She recently went, on invitation, to Japan to race a handful of UCI races there. Here’s a note:

“Sacha,

Thank you again for giving me the opportunity to race and represent SpeedVagen in Japan.

Daisuke is doing an amazing job representing your bikes in Japan, their presence is very prevalent. As well, he and his family are truly generous and wonderful people. The public interest in Vanilla/Speedvagen is awesome. My bike was like a rock star over there….and THANKFULLY I made the podium in Nobeyama and go to stand next to the Japanese national champion, so the story has a very happy ending!

I highly suggest going there next cross season if you have a chance. What an amazing country. What amazing people.

You would love it.

Hope all is well for you.

Best,

Tina”

Photos credited to Hideyuki Suzuki. See more here

I asked tina for more photos and any stoties from the trip. Hopefully we’ll see a part two. In the meantime a little more SV contant. This is her racebike that we built in 2010. Di2, Enve, Speedvagen Integrated stem, King R45 hubs and king BB, Paul touring cantis in the rear and neo-retro’s up front.

It’s really happening

Sacha — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:20:52 +0000

In any given run of Speedvagen, there is about 3 months of prep time before the welding torch is finally ignited.

During the prep phase we are gathering info from owners-to-be, fitting those who are going custom, designing the bikes, ordering materials from 12 different vendors, preparing the worksheets that we follow during the build, 800 miters, thousands of email, millions of sandwiches, endless soft rock, all leading up to a handful of glorious days. These, my friends are those days.

Mike Desalvo, ladies

Top tubes mitered, fit-up, tagged, cleaned up and coralled

Top tubes should be in by the end of the day tomorrow. What else would you like to see?

It’s that time of year….

Noel — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:25:35 +0000

My friends that race masters are showing up on rides with brand new Venges, Madones, SuperSixes… And the newness is pretty cool (and great motivation). Nice to see masters racing so well supported with bikes fom the future.. and these guys train so hard (huge respect). And I think… shoot, I want a new bike too. I look at my 2008 Vagen… it gets ridden in some shape or form nearly every morning (no matter what it doesnt love me back.. so, days are skipped when the woman is up for hanging out). The paint isn’t even chipped in any real way. It looks newish. It feels amazing. I have love with it. And I’d only want another one for my next bike. I’m so screwed with this thing… 3 or 4 years old and we’re just really still playing with each other.

Hiring!

Sacha — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:31:02 +0000

The Vanilla Workshop houses three brands: Vanilla Bicycle Co., which specializes in one of a kind custom bicycles; Speedvagen, our limited production race bike brand; and Coat Paint Shop, painting and powder coating for Vanilla and Speedvagen as well as other independent bicycle framebuilders.

-We are hiring for a Front End Manager position-

The person we hire for this position will be responsible for both creative and administrative tasks, including:
-Coordinating schedules for multiple arms of the business
-Advanced graphic design
-Writing and publishing
-Photography
-Friendly customer service, both remote and in person
-Inventorying and ordering.

We’re looking for someone that likes challenges, is good-natured and is also comfortable being assertive; someone who knows when a project has not yet reached its full potential and someone who, despite having finely tuned skills, isn’t above chipping in to help with the dirty work.

The deadline for application is January 16th, after which we will respond to qualified applicants with a questionnaire as the first stage of the interview process.

If you are highly qualified in the areas outlined above please send a one-page resume and a one-page cover letter describing your professional experience and your background with bicycles to:

Sacha@vanillabicycles.com

Kit Blowout.

Noel — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 19:03:06 +0000

Word is from the mothership that they are blowing out all remaining stock of Vanilla and SV kit at 50% off, free shipping on orders over $100.00, and buy 2 get one free on all t-shirts.
The sooner this stuff is blown… the sooner new softgoods will come. Check the Vanilla website for order info.

TH does the thing right.

Noel — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:48:39 +0000

Another gem from Nigel

Noel — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:51:34 +0000

Nigel, where is this… Netherlands?
*anyone that has a nice beautyshot to share… hit me up here and I’ll give you my contact info. Nigel does a strong beauty shot and sets the high bar so far. Let’s see what you’ve got… or else its back to grainy photos of me and stuff. Don’t be afraid to put yourself in the picture. You are the bike too. Hell, tell me about the ride you were on…..