Jim Kish

Sent in by Todd H. in Amherst, MA, this is what I can only assume assume is him on his Kish cross bike.

I think I know that feeling. I certainly would had I stumbled into the ‘D2R2′, perhaps thinking on was on my way to a dyslexic Star Wars fan convention. Todd describes it:

“…the Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee (D2R2). In addition to 11,000+ feet of climbing, 109 miles if you don’t get lost, and several 20% grades, last year it was almost 100 degrees and tropically humid.”

Read more about it here, this is exactly the type of riding we build so many of our cross bikes for. (Sorry but I can’t bring myself to call them ‘randonneurs’, or worse, ‘randos’). No traffic, no giant banners, all the pain and none of the glory of racing…

I’m in the process of gathering links to such rides/races across the country since I know a lot of you are into the same thing. If you have a good one in your area, let me know.

My accountant would not forgive if I skipped this opportunity to mention that our production CrossMuters are on sale for a paltry $1000, with good deals on forks available too. Once they’re gone, they’re gone (or more accurately, once they’re gone they’ll be $1600, since they’ve always been available built custom),

August 31st, 2010 - By admin     Filed under : Uncategorized    No Comments »    

July 28th, 2010 - By admin     Filed under : Uncategorized    No Comments »    

When I was a kid, this is about the time in summer when I started realizing vacation wouldn’t last forever. Soon I’d have my ass parked in a school desk listening to some boring teacher yapping about something that, had I paid attention, might have been able to help me get a real job instead of my fake job I have now.

Now that we’re all *cough* adults, the sunny weather flies by even quicker, and before you know it we’ll be junk-deep in the muddy morass of cyclocross season.

Instead of trying to squeeze a knobby tire in your old Puch Odyssey, or ‘repurposing’ a mountain bike, why dontcha treat yourself to a real cross bike? And as long as your already here, there’s no need to look any further. We’ve got nice ones ready to ship!

Of course there’s this one, from the 2010 NAHBS and SDCBS shows: ON HOLD

It’s still available, and its misdemeanor-level criminally low price of $3700 is being reduced to a felonious $3400, which is what the frame and fork would cost if you just ordered that from me like a civilized person.

More info and pictures here.

Oh, but that’s not the end of it. Our ‘production’ CrossMuters are on sale for $1000, down from $1200. All three sizes are available as of this typing, but there aren’t too many left. I want to clear the shelves to make room for another steel production bike which will be discussed later…

We’re out of matching forks, but there is one Igleheart segmented fork that’s unpainted ($300), or we have Edge carbon forks on stock that are $500 with a frame purchase.

If you need more info, read about them here or here. More pictures here.

Call or email if you have any questions or want to snap one of these fellas up.

July 21st, 2010 - By admin     Filed under : Uncategorized    No Comments »    

The Off The Griddle Old-Time Stringband Orchestra (or OTGOTSO as our legions of fans refer to us in their highbrow cocktail lounge conversations) played last weekend at the shockingly-overpriced yet surprisingly well-attended Paso Robles Wine Festival. Fours hours of fiddle-schreechin’, washboard-scraping fun!

Everyone played well, sunburn was kept to a minimum, and we got what had to have been Paso’s oldest resident (no small claim) shufflin’ in her walker. Unfortunately, no photo documentation exists of that moment, nor is there evidence of the Japanese tourist couple photographing each other in front us as if we were zoo animals.

Multi-instrumentalist Gil tore it up on his “chosen peoples’ harp”:

Doug holdin’ it down on the 3/4:

Other people did stuff:

All in all, a big success, the tip jar was jam-packed, there was almost enough money in there to buy a NOS track hub (non-NJS)!

May 27th, 2010 - By admin     Filed under : Uncategorized    No Comments »    

Here’s another bike from the NAHBS and SDCBS shows, ti cyclocross bike with match painted Reynolds fork.

Spectrum did another fine job on this one, with a combination of etching and powder coating.

Having served its purpose as a bike freak magnet, it is now for sale. The frame measures 51cm center to center on the seat tube, 54.5cm effective top tube. 3.5 degree slope (fits like a 54cm level TT).  It uses Sram Force components, White Industries/DT wheels, WTB dirt drop bars, Paul brakes and lots of other nice stuff. Please email or call if you need any other info. Normal price for this bike is $5250, but it doesn’t fit me, so it’s going for $3700. More pictures on flickr, and on the main site. Hop on this deal, it’s already on its way out…

May 12th, 2010 - By admin     Filed under : Uncategorized    No Comments »    

THIS BIKE IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE, BUT I HAVE THE POWER TO BUILD YOU ONE JUST LIKE IT!

Got some nice pics of a couple show bikes, one is a titanium (don’t let the paint fool you) 24″ BMX, you can see all the photos at flickr, or at the main site. This is the same bike that was featured in the NAHBS report in Dirt Rag this month.

Why a BMX (-ish) bike?

Close your eyes and remember all the fun you had on a BMX bike when you were a kid. Remember all the cool tricks you could do, even if you were kind of a squid. Remember the jumps, berms, and whoop-de-dos.

Now, imagine it is 2010 again. Picture someone else doing a trackstand, or riding backwards for four feet and being very proud of themselves.

I think you see what I’m getting at.

BMX bikes have never been a staple of our lineup, in fact, I’ve never built one before. But I can tell you they are as fun now as I remember them being 30 years ago.

In case your memory needs another jog, have a look at this. It’s a shiny, new Cook Bros. crank. As in brand new. Made in the same shop in Arroyo Grande, California, by the same screwball who made them back in the day. They’re available again, in limited lengths (one) and chainring sizes (more than 1 , but less than 10). Buy them while you can, this may be the last of them , which is truly a shame.

This bike is for sale, although it’s becoming more of a ‘demo’ bike than a ‘show’ bike every day, and if no one buys it I’m fine with it hanging in the shop. If you are interested, though, send an email, and I will give you all the specifics. This bike is $3500 and worth every penny. You can’t buy back your youth, but you couldn’t afford a bike this nice back then anyway, so all is right with world.

I’ll have more pictures of a nice crosser later in the week. Please check back!

May 3rd, 2010 - By admin     Filed under : Uncategorized    No Comments »    

This post is about Mikkel, who I’m sure looks nothing like this, and his bike, which looks nothing like that one. But I’m reasonably sure both cyclists reside in Denmark. Does it really matter?

Mikkel also owns one of the limited SSWC 08 bikes and now he’ll have a nice titanium cyclocross bike to keep it warm in those long, cold Danish winters (which also may or may not be the case, fact checking is for wusses).

there’s a new set on flickr chronicling the construction of his frame in the half-assed way only a guy working alone 90% of the time, with his camera under a pile of junk can do.

Nevertheless, it’s at least some record of his new bike coming to life, before it’s sent of to ‘the Portland of Europe’, as I actually heard some myopic doofus call Copenhagen.

You can see the rest of them, and a bunch more stuff on the flickr page.

April 23rd, 2010 - By admin     Filed under : Uncategorized    No Comments »    

The San Diego show was great, thanks to the SDCBS crew for pulling it off, Sean W. for piloting the Suburban, Mo R. for his cultural insight into his rich Filipino/Mexican heritage, and Steve S. for the snack management. Lots more cool stuff to talk about from the show, and I’ll have pictures up soon. But first, a more painful subject…

Prices are going up! Sorry, it had to happen. This post will serve as a heads-up–on May 15, standard ti frames will be $2500, SL titanium frames will be $2900. 6/4 SL frames will be discontinued until more tubes become available, which may be never. I have no idea. Steel frames will stay where they are for the time being. Any deposits in before May 15 will pay the current ‘unimproved’ frame price.

Also, we’ve always offered complete bikes, but haven’t mentioned it much. I’ll be adding component kit prices to the site soon, but here’s the Cliff’s notes version:

We have two levels of road and cyclocross kits, mountain bikes will be added later, but complete MTBs have always been available, too. We will also be posting our single speed build kit soon.

All kits use Thomson stems and seatposts, Schwalbe Durano (road) or Racing Ralph (cyclocross) tires, and Selle Italia Flow saddles.

‘Level One’ kits are Sram Red, Shimano Dura-Ace and Campagnolo Record. These kits use DT RR1450 wheels, Cane Creek 110 headsets and Ritchey carbon WCS bars. For cyclocross kits, Paul cantilevers are used. Here’s the prices:

Sram Red: $3100

Shimano Dura-Ace: $3400

Campagnolo Record: $3700

Level Two kits  are Sram Force, Shimano Ultegra and Campagnolo Chorus. These kits use Reynolds Solitude wheels, Cane Creek 100 headsets and Ritchey WCS bars. For cyclocross kits, Avid Shorty 6 cantilevers are used. Here’s the prices:

Sram Force: $1750

Shimano Ultegra: $1800

Campagnolo Chorus: $2400

All the kits include everything but frame, fork, and pedals. These prices also include professional assembly by us. Since these are custom bikes, after all, you can make substitutions and we’ll adjust the price. These kits, though, use parts that we know work well, and represent a good value.

April 14th, 2010 - By admin     Filed under : Uncategorized    No Comments »    

We never got fully unpacked from NAHBS in Richmond, which I guess is a good thing since we’re off to the San Diego Custom Bicycle Show this weekend. So, if you were too big of a wuss to brave the tough Virginia winter to visit in Richmond, amble on down to San Diego and say hi. We’ll be deep in ‘curmudgeon alley’, alongside fellow California freaks Bruce Gordon and Soulcraft .

In case you missed this show last year, it’s a good one. It’s got a nice hometown feel, mostly due to the hosts, a crew of very dedicated local framebuilders. If nothing else, it’s worth coming to experience the psychedelic carpeting in the convention hall.

The show adds a day this year, so it’s open Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Since I never got around to posting a NAHBS wrapup, I’ll be closely monitoring the events of this show to do a later Coast vs. Coast Show-Off Show Shootout. Although since Don Walker is from Texas, and I’m pretty sure Brian Baylis owns like 30 guns, a real shootout is probably a bad idea. Instead, it may be worth considering some oft-ignored minutiae… Don ‘The Anvil’ Ferris‘ whiskey cellar vs. Joe ‘The Bruce Gordon’ Bell‘s tequila room for example. And the fight for Least Believable Lead Time and Worst Application of Edge Wheels is always contentious…

April 6th, 2010 - By admin     Filed under : Uncategorized    No Comments »    

While we were out scouting locations for the Kish World Domination Headquarters V.2, robo-cyclist and loyal Kish customer Juan S. was busy keepin’ it real and was kind enough to send a few pictures…

Lord help you if you try to keep up with this dude, I can tell you that he probably got up to this view point from sea level using half the time and at the resting heartbeat of mere mortals.

This photo also serves the purpose of proving that the hills in central California are not always brown and/or on fire.

Since I’m already winded just looking at this, I’ll let Juan take over the narration…

Headed down Powerline with Morro Bay, Hollister Peak, and the Estrero, along with the Pacific in the background

Secret trail contouring the ridge

A waterfall on Secret trail with “Damn Thing”, my steady companion beyond. I love that bike…

Lupines were everywhere

Cypress trees are starting to create a canopy again, more than a decade after the fire on the ridge

Singletrack dropping into Poly Canyon

 Green hills, singletrack and wildflowers along the rail line

And I’ll leave you with that descent into the work week…happy trails.

March 29th, 2010 - By admin     Filed under : Uncategorized    No Comments »