As it’s ‘blizzarding’ here in NYC, and we take a much needed mental health day. Currently my girlfriend is baking cookies, and recharging from her week straight of work. I’m seeing how in tune my spotify discover weekly is at guessing my personality, and nursing a coffee I made way too sweet as I edit a handful of photos from some of my favorite sleeper bike photos, and sharing some good ones here.
If you remember Volume 1 of the True Love: Sleeper series, you remember the sick Bridgestone MB-2 we were able to shoot. Seriously so good. Not sure if you remember, but we also put up a short description of what it means to build a loving sleeper:
“Those of us that have been in the cycling community for a long time all know it, that one perfect commuter. That one bike that you absolutely love more than anything. The bike you try to convince yourself that you wouldn’t be too heartbroken if it got stolen. Because really, you just secretly dream of someone likeminded starting a conversation with you about it as you’re locking it up somewhere. Or secretly daydream of finding that note of bike-admiration tucked under a cable one day while it’s locked up. And deep down, you know you’d feel super heart broken if it ever disappeared. Like a true hole in your heart. But that’s the best part. It’s just deep symbology of life. Start with something you love dearly, maybe cram the wrong size tubes in from time to time, skimp on investing too much at times, skimp on certain parts, but then put those Campy cranks on, or those Shimano ‘servo-wave’ levers that you’ve been saving forever.”
As for this one, well we’ve always been in love with the bikes from the mechanics over at Harvest Cyclery here in Brooklyn. We were supposed to work on some stories with the folks over at Harvest, but unfortunately, that got halted along the way. Either way, we still love the shop, and love the breed of bikes that have been coming out of this shop.
Not too often you see an Iro on the streets anymore. Let alone in NYC. I still remember when they were the most affordable track frame-sets you could find practically anywhere. A handful of dedicated bike messengers in Boston on them during my hay-day as a messenger.
This Iro however, so many little things that would go undetected by the normal person. First being the very obvious, the scrappy home-made rack made with pieces of an old Schwinn. That ugly thing is beautiful in it’s own way, and can probably hold way more weight than the steerer tube or head tube can. Other little details like the crazy, Origin-8 carbon cruiser bars(?!) with bmx grips, that probably were on closeout with the shop’s distributor. The classic white Turbo saddle. The parts-bin stem. The mismatched headset spacers. The Little Skips head tube sticker, as a friendly nod to the coffee shop down the block. The reflector mount fender hack to attach full fenders to the seat tube. Such a solid hack. The random one off unpainted surly crosscheck fork, sitting in an FSA Pig lower headset cup. That cup being a remnant from a dead era of bmx, where literally everything was insanely overbuilt. And of course, one of the best parts, the Time ATAC’s that were probably new-old-stock when they were thrown on this build.
Such a chiller.
Oh, and I was healing from achilles tendenitis here, thus the beautiful ankle brace.
Enjoy!
