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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

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.

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.

 

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

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.

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.

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

It was (and still is) from Mercian Cycles, in the UK.  I chose them mostly because my mom has an old lugged Mercian race bike that I’ve always adored, and also the exchange rate at the time made it quite affordable.

It’s tough to see, but that’s her light blue Mercian.  My pops’ orange Pogliaghi was pretty killer too.

When I placed my order, there were lots and lots of decisions to be made; there was the usual list of things like frame model, fork type, paint scheme and colors, and then additionally I was allowed to pick tubing type, a few tube diameters, and I was given full control over geometry.  I was already deeply in love with bikes and racing, but I would say that, while I was fully qualified to pick out colors and pretty lug shapes, I didn’t really have much – if any – business getting into the geometry beyond asking for a specific stack and reach measurement, and for tubing type and diameters I was doing little more than flipping a coin.

A wiser man than 22 year old Tiny would have acknowledged this, and asked either for the decisions to be made for him, or at the very least some advice from the builders.  As it happened, though, I seized the opportunity to take full control and play the role of bicycle designer.  With every detail left up to me, every decision I made – no matter how small, unimportant, or uninformed it was – felt deeply personal.

Months later, when I received that huge and instantly recognizable box on my front porch, I assure you that what was inside was a very good bike.  It’s still my primary winter bike, I ride it throughout the year with and without fenders, and I’ve even chosen it over my old race bike to bring on riding vacations.  I keep it clean, and dressed in properly functioning Italian components.  When I cracked the top tube, I paid to have it replaced and repainted.  By all measurements, I love this bike.  Currently.  On the day it arrived, however, with a tape measure and calipers in hand, I tore open the box and found shiny, steel, lugged disappointment.

The bike did not match up to my order.  It was off by a couple millimeters here, 5mm there, and something like 10mm in one particular spot.  The decals were not exactly where I’d specified.  It had braze-ons that I wasn’t expecting.  The control freak that had sprouted inside of me completely and totally lost his shit.

Eventually I built the bike up anyway, months and months down the road.  I still remember the first ride, and god damn was it lovely.

 Please note, the ugly stem is temporary.  I just might have a more appropriate and much more custom steel stem on the way… 

I’m not sure if communications broke down between the builders and I in the back-and-forth-Tiny-takes-control emails, or if they just corrected what they saw as silly decisions by me (and weren’t expecting a fresh out of engineering school dork with a love of trig), but the end result was fantastic.  The differences from what I’d called out were largely for the better.  The extra chainstay length lets me get wheels in and out when I have fenders on (horizontal dropouts) and also probably helps with the delightful feeling of stability I have on that bike.  The lower than asked for bottom bracket is fantastic, because a crit-style BB drop on a skinny tubed, 1″ steerer,  lugged road bike would have been silly.  The extra bosses let me mount up my go-to-favorite SKS fenders without needing to use the rattle-prone metal brackets that they come with.  The altered decal position meant that my cable housing wouldn’t rub the head tube badge transfer off.  In short, it arrived on my doorstep a well thought out bike frame, no thanks to me.

And that’s where I’m going with this.  Since then, I feel that I’ve gained a much better sense for when I’m a helpful contributor and when I’m just some dummy getting in the way.  When the floor guys ask me to pick a wood color, I can do that.  When they ask me if I want a true stain or a tinted sealer, I tell them that I haven’t the foggiest clue, and that I trust their expertise.  When I ask a client if they’d like their drawings done in inches or mm, I’d like them to take part and give an answer.  When I’m tasked with designing my 15th IP68 sealed battery compartment for that same client, I expect that what I deliver will be trusted, and I won’t need to humor too much input during the process.  We hire the experts because they’re the experts, and for me it was a huge relief when I acknowledged that and learned to willfully give up control.

I know for certain that the Speedvagen crew will work with you if your fancy is gettin’ hell of specific, and they will most certainly steer your decisions to make for a sane bicycle design.  I also know that if you’re like me, you can go in for your bike fit, give a thumbs up to the proposed geometry, say “yellow,” “purple,” or “surprise me,” leave it at that, and the experts there will deliver a most excellent ride.

XOXO,

Tiny

PS:  While I’m on the topic of fun folks to give control over to, I’d feel incomplete if I didn’t mention cool Mr. Slawta.  Before my bodacious relationship with Speedvagen began, Slawta’s Landsharks were my go-to jam for race bikes.  He’s the exact sort of guy that can delight you if you just trust him to come up with something far out.  Thanks, John!

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.

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.