19.10.08

Delayed Blogging pt 2 - IFMA

Alright, pt 2; my last day of work before "vacation" (19 september) was spent on a day out with 5 co-workers in Köln for the IFMA (Internationale Fahrradmarkt [International Bicycle Trade Show]). So more bikes again, although not as big a show as the EuroBike that 4 other co-workers attended a few weeks earlier, which is the biggest one in Europe.

(Just a note, my highlights do tend to lean towards a focus on the fixies/singlespeeds, and newly - the custom cruisers.)



-track bike - despite the pink, I still think it's a sweet ride, nice wheels, nice bike (and of course since track bikes are fixies, I like them for that reason too)



-Bulls Titanium frame bike - sweet and no doubt expensive



-Schwinn Cutter - Nice, plain, simple, budget price singlespeed.



-Schwinn Madison - Another nice single speed, not so budget priced, reasons for the price discrepancy, I'm not sure yet.



-Hitchcocks Laid Back Bikes - very different custom design.



-Fixie Inc Peacemaker -note the handlebars are "car scratchers" from Fixie Inc.



-Katz Bike - interesting bike idea, for offroad occasions where you don't want to worry about your chain getting covered in mud.



-Katz bike - covered in mud like here.



-Another custom cruiser



-Sweet bikes at the Shimano stand (I think) - note: white is the trendy colour for bikes (and cars) right now, like it's the new black.



-Another fancy white bike - Looks singlespeed-ish, but I believe it's got a hub gear.



-Custom Fixie - A whole stand devoted to a company, or group of people, who've converted older bikes to fixies and singlespeeds, all done up real nice.



-Shiny red with winter camo taped handlebars - for some reason, I think this looks sweet, maybe I'm just drawn to it because its so damn shiny.



-Simple black fixie - damn those are low handlebars.



-Piece de resistance? - I think I've seen this black one with the red swath in a magazine or brochure or something before, or the web.



-Blue fixie - (1 fixie, 2 fixie, red fixie, blue fixie?)



-White fixie - white just looks real nice.



-And with the Brooks saddle



-Cannondale Badboy White Edition Solo Ultra- the Urban trend realized, and done so well (although I prefer the singlespeed version, it is cheaper).



-Custom Beach Cruisers - by Beastie Bikes



-Each bike, a work of art.



-Life guard bike? - I think they have fun with what they do.



-Beastie Bikes stand - I think actually one of the best stands, if not the best stand there, for really portraying the image/atmosphere of the culture of the bikes, and how they fit. Complete with 2 veedub minibusses, one surfer style, the other, more black/white-rock&roll.



-Surf culture, beach cruisers - actually reminds me of what I've seen at the O'Neil store in Amsterdam, where they have a matte black custom crusier bike complete with surfboard on it's side and a surf board. (note, must take picture of this).



-All black - love the details, notice the dice on the gear shifter.



-White custom cruiser



-Wheel detail - playin on the trends with the kinda graphic floral stuff.



-Another custom cruiser



-An unfinished work - I like the frame profile they chose, nice.



-Mad details - someone went to town on this job.



-Giant Escape R8 - nice urban bike with a nexus 8 hub.



-Giant City Speed Concept bike - this one won some award at Eurobike.



-City Speed - sweet details on this, a very 'designed' bike.



-Giant City Storm N8 - at first I thought this was also a concept bike, but noticed it is in the collection on the dutch website.



-Citystorm Details - another very 'designed' bike.



-More details - more design.



-Brooks Saddles of England - an interesting poster, for an interesting company. In their newspaper/flyer, they advertised the "Shoreditch Invitational" bike polo event. Looking into it, bike polo looks pretty cool, I think it should be brought (back?) into the Olympics.



-Classic Raleigh Fixie



-Elmoto HR-2 - 2 wheel drive, electric bike that goes 45km/h with a range of 70km. Pretty sweet idea, I think the design looks nice, but is a mix of hit and miss. some elements are harsh and painful, others, nicely detailed.

18.10.08

Delayed Blogging pt 1 - Fiets

Right, so its been a good long while since I last posted. (not sure if anyone noticed, or if there are even more then 2 people that read this)
Main reason/excuse; the prolonged absence of my laptop for the final round of under extended warranty repair, leaving me without and in withdrawal from early/mid August until my return to Canada on the 22nd of September.

Went to check out the "Fiets" (bike) show at the Design Huis in Eindhoven in on the 14th of september (I've decided I love the time stamping you get with digital cameras). Had to take the event in before I left, as it would be over on my return to the Netherlands in October.

Some of you may have seen some pics from some other person up at Core77, but my pics aren't as polished I don't think, remember, notoriously shaky hands.

Enjoy!



-bike - di cycle
-maker - gbo
(concept bike on the basis of sport meets form [giving])



-"Droomfiets" - some crazy bikes in a hall for the 'dream bikes'



-bike - lego was my first love
-designer - roel van heur



-wall-o-bells



-wall-o-seat saddles



-wall-o-bike bags



-bike - sqrl pro (left), tranza (right)
-company - nakoi nederland, gazelle
-designers - the people I work with



-stads fiets (city bike) - gazelle mpb (designed at van der Veer Designers) in a patriotic orange



-koeriers fiets (messenger bike[s]) - gazelle single speed against a backdrop of jerseys (I think from Alleycat races).



1 year as a cycle courier -
12500km of freedom and progress
3840 x taking off/putting on the bag
1440 packages delivered
1000 hours biked
768 L of beverage transpired
384 raisin buns as fuel
96 fried apple dumplings as (can't find translation)
12 flat tires
3 pairs of pants worn out
2 chains that have lost their proper tension
uncountable # of goodlooking women seen
1 life of freedom enjoyed
0 worn out brake pads

(the life of a bike messenger on fixie no doubt)



-cool displaying of cycle components



-transportfiets - transport bike section
-bike - babboe bakfiets
-company - de verhuisfabriek



-bike - feetz



-bike - cabby
-company - gazelle
(the new grocery getter of the cycle world? designed again by my co-workers)



-bike - brandweerfiets (fire dept. bike)
-designer - roel van heur
(the 2 fire extenguishers pivot up and attach to the frame above the rear wheel)



-bike - roadrunner
-company - springtime industrial design



-prof fiets - section on pro cycling



-more pro jerseys behind glass



-pro bikes - there was a 3rd bike in front of the row, but apparently the dutch olympian to whom it belongs needed it that day for something



-Koga track bike - oooooh, reminds me of my Koga singlespeed



-bike - 346
-company - suus bike shop
(I've never been a big fan of the beach crusier style bikes till as of late, they've definitely got style, and become individual street art, with loads of character)



-346 bike - ah the details

22.8.08

My 42hour 3 day work weekend

Week before friday past (the 15th), used up some overtime hours to take the day off. And clever me, I took the day off to work my part time gig ("catering" for special events). The venue was Lowlands (large open air concert), and I had to take the train there friday morning, leaving at 05:41. I worked 3 days of 0700-2000, and then got to take in some concerts after each day/on break.

Acts I caught while working the event:
-The Kooks
-Roisin Murphy
-Franz Ferdinand
-Underworld
-Sigur Rós

The highlight of the weekend for me was seeing Sigur Rós play.



-Jónsi (guitar/lead vocals) bowing his guitar



-5 piece brass ensemble - Apparently these guys have been touring with Sigur Rós for a bit, and this was one of (or) the last events that they're playing together for a while, them as well as the strings (which I think was Amiina).



-Cool snowy stage effect + lights



-One of the last numbers for the evening - If I had my laptop now, I'd be able to reference all the songs from my playlist, alas...

I tried to upload some video, but that was taking wayyyyy too long.

4.8.08

Perfect day to play hooky

It's that time of year, more then half the people at work are away on vacation, leaving something like 6-8 of us at work. Things aren't so busy at the moment, and since we've booked a decent amount of over time hours on a certain top secret project, which we get compensated for through extra time off, one of my colleagues suggested we take the afternoon and go windsurfing. The weather was perfect, at lunch we made the final decision that we would go.
In all, there were only 3 of us that went, but it was still a good time.
I haven't been windsurfing in... well... a while. So it took me a bit of a learning curve to get going, but considering we were only out for about 2 hours, and by the end, I was actually managing to surf, I was happy.



-Windsurfers at "Strand Horst" Ermelo - the view from the parking lot when we arrived

It was so awesome and picture perfect, there must have been like 50 kite surfers when we arrived, and between 70-90 windsurfers, and off in the distance you see the polder full of windmills churning away in the wind. Perfect.

It's great to be out doing things and keeping active. Last week I biked to work 4 times on the singlespeed, putting in around 280km. Tomorrow, biking again.

18.5.08

80+km on a singlespeed

Beautiful day today, made a family visit for a birthday, took the train part way, biked the remainder, and then all the way back, biking, against the wind, on my new singlespeed.



-These be the new wheels - one gear is all you need, really, it is. Um, current count now has me in possession of 3 bikes here, I thought storing all 3 downstairs in our storage just seemed greedy, plus the new bike looks pretty.



-Current state of my place - just to show what it looks like now that I've settled in (and a less zoomed in view of the new wheels).



-Panoramic view from my room - nice weather means more foliage, and nicer shots.

6.5.08

Long weekend in Praha/super-mini ID reunion

Woohoo, long weekend.
Last week weds/thurs were holidays here in the Netherlands, so I took friday as a vacation day, and rode the train to Praha (Prague) and back.
Since Christianne (LeBlanc) is currently working in Nürnberg, and also wanted to travel to Praha, I met up with her in Praha, and we had a super mini ID reunion/were travel buddies for the long weekend (May 1st was also holidays in a bunch of other EU countries).

Here's the highlights (over 500 photos were made).



-ID kids unite! - ... in a foreign country .... on the street



-Vltava River Panorama



-at Pražsky hrad (Prague castle) - beautiful weather made for a good time, and beautiful pictures



-Gold window - church at Pražsky hrad, there's a lot of nice gold detailing in Praha, and it's not just for bling' sake (I don't think) but seems quite beautiful and tasteful



-door of the church - Christi and I seemed possibly overly enthusiastic about this door, and the detailing



-Panoramic view from Pražsky hrad



-Národní Galerie (National Gallery Modern) - yes, we took in some culture too



-Lampa - Slovakian designed lamp, in the "Design Match 2008" design exhibit, which we conveniently caught there



-LIPI - Hungarian designed paper children's toy




-Sac à faire - make yourself a bag - Austrian design where the cutout pattern of the material also becomes the pattern on the finished product



-Singlebirds - porcelain ware, Austrian design




-Hot Chocolate Menu - something seems a little lost in translation with the idea of 'hot chocolate' or it's just a completely different thing here, culturally, as I didn't expect a hot cup of what's essentially Nutella the first time I ordered one (and didn't have this photo menu to go by)



-The Fred and Ginger dancing building - Frank Gehry



-view from Vyšehrad (old Prague castle)



-flock of sheeple on Karlův most (Charles Bridge) - so this seems to be the biggest draw in all of Praha, and was ridiculously busy pretty much all the time, we crossed it around 20:30-ish, when there was slightly less of a crowd



-Christi and I above the city - but not in that uppity sense



-Panoramic view towards Pražsky hrad



-very large statue - it looks like it has something of the communist era to it