We appreciate
All the love letters
Which you sent to us
After the O article came out
They were so nice
And so sweet.
(Special thanks to WCW)
Archive for November, 2006
A few months ago, I found myself explaining to a few strangers what I do for a living – make bikes for women. One fella thought that I must build step-through bikes, you know, “girl bikes.” Not quite. I build bikes for women that are designed to fit them from the get-go, without the kind of heroic and graceless adaptations that make your boyfriend’s old mountain bike or even that new “women specific” bike almost, sort of, kind of, fit.
The two women in the group instantly got it – most bikes hadn’t really worked for them and in ways that they couldn’t quite explain. But you don’t need the scientific method to support the fact that your butt is sore or your neck aches fifteen minutes into a ride. What you really need is a change in your body’s relationship to your bike.
(Michael Sylvester’s Bicycle Fitting Services)
Bike fit can be approached in many ways. On one end of the spectrum is the popular method knows as the “stand over the bike and see if you can reach the brakes” approach. On the other is a highly theoretical set of geometric formulas based on male physiology and proportions.
The problem is that there is no formula for leg length imbalances, there is no formula for your old football injury, and there is no formula for muscle memory. Most bike fit methods just don’t do justice the relationship of a woman to her bike, and we aim to do better.
Every woman is different. Every bike should be too.
This is my starting point as a bike builder. For the last six months, I have been working with Michael Sylvester, former pro racer turned yoga teacher, and founder of the Serotta Fit Program. Each woman gets fit to a totally adjustable size cycle, which allows each rider to feel the perfect fit before the bike is even built. This process allows us to transform each woman’s unique body mechanics and alignment into a riding position that is comfortable and efficient; and then to build the bike around that.
What does this mean? You are closer to your best bike than you could imagine, because the design is as simple and elegant as the body you walk in with. Starting there, how could the bike be anything but beautiful?
A while back after Natalie had finished up for the day, we were walking down the hallway when we noticed this new painting on the door of one of our neighbors at the Towne Storage Building. The painting was of two exuberant dancing skeletons wearing huge smiles, playing instruments, and gazing deeply into one another’s eyes surrounded by Buddhist monks who were sitting in prayer.
This painting was unlike anything we had seen, so noticing the door to the studio was slightly open we knocked and introduced ourselves to the inhabitant of Studio 411: Michael Yeats, Bow Maker.
There are a lot of artists in Portland, Oregon. And there are a lot of craftsmen. But nothing quite prepared us for Michael Yeats. Little did we know at the time, but Michael is world renown for making some of the finest bows for the violin, cello and the viola. He makes them all by hand, and has been doing it for 35 years. And in his words: “It is just staring to get interesting.”
Looking around the dimly lit studio, we saw a lot of familiar tools: a lathe, hand files, drawings, and the tell tale wood shavings on the floor. He told us how each piece of wood is like a puzzle. How “you always have to be the student, or else you stop improving.” He explained how there was competition from mass producers overseas, and how his product needs to be exceptional in order to compete. He talked about how he is essentially crafting a spring, how every piece of wood has a different sound, and how the bow, the instrument, and the player have to all come together in order for it to really sing.
We were stumbling around the other day, and just happened to come across the secret to happiness. In video form. On the internet. Of course, we thought it our duty to share.
Topics include: Liver and onion ice cream, winning the lottery, an emotional immune system, and of course happiness. Runtime: 22 minutes.
This coming Saturday (November 18th) the Towne Storage Building (home to the Sweetpea International HQ) will be holding an Open Studios. If you want to see the shop, a couple of frames in progress, and learn how its done; swing on by! We are on the fourth floor right next to Bicycle Fitting Services.
Location:
Towne Storage Building
SE 3rd Avenue and Ankeny
Portland, OR
Fourth Floor
Time:
6:30 to 9:30 PM
I feel pretty lucky to be able to say: My wife built me a bike.
On one hand, it’s just a bunch of cold steel. But when I look at it, I see that it has about as much love as you can put into a bike with a set of handtools, a welding torch, and 1000 degrees.
We came across this the other day courtesy of the gang over at Swobo. The first couple of minutes will give you your RDA of cuteness. After that, it is all about the bike love . . . with a heavy dose urban planning. I know how strange that sounds; but trust me, its really cool.
