new “ira ryan” jerseys for sale!

as you may know, i have ridden as a member of the rapha continental for a couple years now and am happy to say that i was part of the original un-team to do some amazing epic rides in the pacific northwest. the other day i was talking to aaron erbeck as we were reminiscing about the “glory days” when no one knew about rapha and we were just five friends out for a double century with some gravel roads and maybe a mountain pass or two.

since then the continental has grown and changed a lot. now it is a little smoother and gets a lot more attention. the racing focus is a little stronger now but the core values of exploring and being smooth are still alive and well. in the coming month, i will be doing a couple rides in the northern rockies that i am looking forward to. they will be hot, long, hard and with a mountain or two. rapha has been a good partner to ira ryan cycles and afforded me to do some amazing rides with some amazing people (and also to be able to claim the most bikes under rapha continental riders than any other builder).

so i just received a small batch of rapha swift jerseys and am happy to put them out to the world for sale. they aren’t blatant ira ryan cycles jerseys as ira ryan is keenly written on the story in the jersey pocket. needless to say, i like the subtlety of this nod over a big nascar style graphic which isn’t rapha’s style anyway.

i have smalls, mediums and a couple larges left and they are selling like hot cakes at $150 each. medium weight wool blend with a three very usable rear pockets that actually fit a water bottle! the all black jersey is flocked (pun sort of intended) with swallows also in black. these are a limited run from rapha and i think they have sold out of their stocksey .

in keeping with my simple technology lifestyle, i do not have any pay pal type account so if you are interested, please send me an email or give a ring to see what i have left in your size. i can accept checks or money orders and will happily ship you your jersey where ever you are.

ok, back to building bikes…………………….

busy season……….

somehow the summer has gotten away from me before it has even really started. at the same time that i am passionately recharged from our trip to italy a month ago and stoked to be building some really beautiful bikes, i feel like i am running around with my head swimming with all the things i haven’t been able to do. an old friend of mine once said “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” and i can’t tell you how often this rings through my head. in the end, i am able to focus and get the business side of things taken care of and keep my head above water with bills and getting everyone their bikes without being too late. i am happy to have michael’s rohloff rando bike back from paint and it looks beautiful in orange and white. i dropped off another rando bike to be sprayed orange that belongs to steve and will be built up with sram force and be a nice mix of retro and modern styles. next up is juan’s light road bike with an edge fork and paul’s cross all rounder. the list goes on and on and i am happy to be so busy.

the riding and the racing hasn’t been as frequent this season and it is hard not to feel a little slow and outta shape. i miss the days of less responsibility but i am happy to be living the dream of sorts and able to direct my own rat race. the weekdays in portland are full of racing and i have done a couple p.i.r. training races and looking forward to some short track mountain bike racing on monday nights and wednsday night mt. tabor racing. to be able to ride to the race is a luxury that many folks in the country don’t have.

in bigger news that isn’t really bike related, rach and i are buying a house and with any luck, we will be moved in in mid july. the place is small and quiet but it has a big garage which will be the permanent home of the ira ryan cycles shop. from the back door of the house, you can see the st john’s bridge. i think it will be a good move.

back in the saddle or…………….italy, part two

i am back to the grind if you will of my morning routine of two espresso, oats, some riding and dirty hands from filing and sanding metal in the shop. i am happy to return to this life in p town for sure. the head spinning travel is good and fun but can only last so long before my hands and mind grow restless and need to make something. portland is a fantastic place to come back to this time of year and i am happy to call it home. the mornings are cool and the sun is out all day. temperate paradise.

i was surprised how many people thought i would stay in italy or read by my last post ( that was way too long ago, sorry.) that i was still in italy with rachel drinking beer and riding bikes. we got back a couple weeks ago and i picked up some sort of cold on the plane so by the time it had incubated in my head for 2o hours of airports, i couldn’t;t go to work for anohter 2 days when i got home. i finally made it to the shop to find the files all in order and a number or letters and bills. yay.it took a couple days to get back to full speed but i completed michael’s rohloff touring bike and got it to the paint shop the same week. stoked. i started steve’s modern rando bike the same day and am inspired to add some new touches to it. it is shaping up nicely.

when we were in northern italy, we made a day trip to visit dario pegoretti and see his shop. much like the whole trip to italy, i had no idea what to expect so at the end of our visit involving 2 bottles of good wine, some espresso and a demonstration of dario brazing a bb shell, my head was filling up with “inspiration” for what i want to be when i grow up. at the time it was just amazing to be in the shop and smell all the time that has yielded so many bicycles. seeing how someone has done it for so long gives me faith and also makes my filing strokes a little more steady every day.

i feel that this steady hand feeling is coming through in my building lately and it makes me feel that rachel and i’s trip to italy was worth every euro.

i have seen more of the giro here in the states than i did in italy and i am cool with that too. i feel a little guilty saying that the giro was not the high light of the trip but it is true that the giro was cool but it was more of the ugly commercial side of pro cycling. the crowds of drunk italians and old men on carbon bikes was too much. a lot of driving on some of the most amazing roads is hard to take as a cyclist who wants to actually ride the route.

i found out after we left the giro, that jason was racing and i kicked myself for not knowing sooner and trying to track him down but…….

i did find this quick interview with him after stage 12.

italy-part one

where to begin?

the food, the riding, the traveling troubles and the giro. we arrived in roma and were picked up by brian after waiting for our bags and bikes to arrive after our flight. right from the start, we felt right at home in italy. rachel and i spent the first couple days in ascoli just adjusting from jet lag and exploring the small town and the roads around it. we rode through the narrow cobbled streets and discovered the best gelateria’s and cafe’s in town before riding for a couple hours up to some mid-evil walled city where we would fill up our bottles at the fountain in the center of town.

the fact that some of these small roads and cobbles have been used for 2000 years is hard to imagine coming from the land of disposable everything. the town is 400 years older than rome and the road that connects ascoli and rome is the fourth road built in the roman empire to transport salt from the adriatic sea to rome. every road leading into and out of the valley town is full of hairpin turns and climbs.

before i left for this inaugural trip abroad, everyone kept telling me how much my mind was going to be blown but i insisted that i was approaching this trip with no expectations and an open mind. from the first day until we left my mind continued to be blown from the riding and the situations we found ourselves in. traveling is hard sometimes but it all works out eventually. the region around ascoli is less populated than the rest of italy and we ended up riding in or around some of the biggest national parks in central italy. i mean it’s not the dolomites but……..

brian and his wife, tiziana’s, shop in ascoli is top notch. the only pro mechanic in ascoli to be able to work on mountain bikes with suspension and disc brakes. some of the most beautiful and epic mountain biking exists around this area. brian has races la ruta, two trans iowa’s and countless mountain bike and road races since he was a junior in iowa. on top of this he was a welder at moots, spot and rewel in italy. in the pal mares of pro bike mechanics, he has it all. if you are in ascoli, stop by the bike lab for a espresso and some good old fashion english language.

our friend dan sharp from portland was also in italy to photograph the giro so we headed north to meet up with him for a couple days and catch some giro action. pro bike racing is such a spectacle and over the top with merchandising and commercial caravans long before the racers flash by. to be honest, it was hard to chase the giro everyday in a car with all the crazed italian fans getting drunk especially from the perspective of a cyclists wanting to ride those amazing roads.
got a photo of cavendish in pink in stage 3. even 7km into the long days ride, they were flying along. maybe there IS something to riding 7 hours a day. the real great stuff started in the mountains stages of northern italy. watching the break of three fly up the steepest pitches of the pass to croce d’aune gave me goosebumps. the crowd erupts as they ride by with the roar of 2 helicopters in the background. AMAZING! even with all the traffic and drunk fans.

to it’s credit, the italian cycling fans are what makes a sport like cycing so great in this small country. it is no different than seeing a baseball fan in america. cycling is a vital thread to the national fabric. a strong sense of pride about coppi, gimondi, tafi, pantani, di luca and petacchi to name a few is what gets people into riding here. i can only dream that someday america might have something close to this but it is hard to see this mixing with nascar and the nfl.

until then, i will think italy with a fondness and raise my glass of red.

ciao.

ready to go…..maybe.

i have never been off the continent and rach  and i leave for italy on monday morning. we found tickets that were too cheap to pass up and decided that life is too short not to see italy for ourselves. i remember opening up my passport last year and feeling like i had won (or paid for in this case) some sort of golden ticket that would allow me to go anywhere in the world. i had never really had a travel bug but in talking to people who have been to some amazing places, i can see now that it is an infectious habit. our plans are simple, take bikes, visit brian hannon who lives in ascoli-peceno where he runs a little bike shop, drink lots of good espresso, ride bikes, watch some giro stages with daniel sharp, drink wine in the afternoon, try to soak up as much bike culture as possible, visit dario pegoretti, try to find some of these shoes and relax. the time leading up to this teip has been really busy and i feel like i am making the best bikes i have ever made in a way that is efficient and beautiful at the same time. in short, after a handful of  years  being a frame builder, i feel like i am hitting some stride and it is hard to pull away from the bench to do something like take 2 weeks to go to italy.

the summer is just around the corner and the weather is breaking into sun and shorter bits of rain but i am not riding as much as i have in the past years. the balance of riding and working is tough sometimes. i have been mountain biking with tony and rachel a bit over the winter but i haven’t been logging the long tran iowa style miles that are soo good later in the summer. we’ll see how this works out.

i dropped off a couple bikes at coat this week and they will be done and ready to build up when i get home. brooke’s bikes is a 650b urban bike with sliding dropouts and a front rack. lugged and baby blue with chocolate brown accents. i am kind of hooked on the baby blue and am happy when other people choose it for the color of their bikes. the second bike is a large touring bike for pat. classic lugged number with all the rack , fender and waterbottle mounts. dark blue with light blue accents. exciting. my favorite bikes still have the simple and elegant lines and aren’t too fancy or have complex features that might over complicate the use of the bike. keep it simple and clean. i also picked up rawl’s road/rando at the paint shop and am planning on having some pics this weekend before we leave, maybe.

promotion.

the sounds of a tuesday

all i can think about is riding off road lately. i have been calling it the “christmas in july” feeling of being at the oppisite side of the season from cyclo cross. maybe it’s the weather. grey and cold then hail then sunshine that blinds you before the hail and rain again ten minutes later. puddles and mud just calling to be ridden through. the trails and logs are like sirens beckoning some bunny hopping practice. rachel and i have decided to practice doing wheelies.

drink coffee……………

build bikes………….

love life!

blog on blog

i wonder sometimes if all my friends and “colleagues” that sit down to write in front of their glowing screens are as doped up on espresso as i am.

to be honest i am a little jealous that some good friends and fellow riders seem to turn out some of the most well written and smartest writing pieces i have read with the purpose of telling the world (or a tiny sliver of the world) about their own perspective and experience during crazy adventures or even just the routine of the daily grind. i love reading about friends traveling to the greatest cycling lands in northern france and then also being able to check in with cycling friends who live across town that i never ride with any more. molly’s post about an open letter to the racing community regarding local bicycle shops is one of the most eloquent and directed letters i have read in a while. thanks molly. on one hand it it hard to think that in some ways we are all drones hooked up to our i phones all the time unable to pull ourselves away from a missed youtube video but it is the fact that this is how we communicate nowadays.

i don’t have a computer at the shop but this is the shop and sometimes it is frustrating but in the end i want to be present and aware of my craft and not feel like i am distracted by the facebook or flickr vortex that i seem to fall into sometimes. cycling and building keeps me focused on what is important.

this post is inspired by all the folks doing great things in the world. jeremy’s coverage of another trip to belgium with bill strickland and g. pickle and cody’s bike shop adventures in iowa city. talk about fighting the good fight.

to radio freddy and  belgian knee warmers and all the folks writing about the age old races covering northern europe this time of year (or anything related to classic cycling), thank you for being so thorough.

off to work…………………………

ouch-fest!

photo is from kevin wagoner's flickr.

i have a lot of small things to tell the world on this sunny portland day. today was the 3rd ronde van oeste portlandia (tour de flander’s, portland style) under mild conditions and sunny skies. it was tough. evil ryan and mark and i all met for a quick pre ride coffee and headed over to find the last of the group just rolling out highway 30 towards saltzman.

the mass of riders was ah-mazing. i didn’t count real careful but it looked like about 500 riders all filing onto the muddy climb of dirt. the group broke apart quickly and everyone was able to make their single serving friend for the day. with 47 miles in “town” and 5400 ft of climbing some of p-towns burliest climbs, it took it’s toll on many a rider without a 30t. cassette.

something i am completely excited about is rachel’s next big adventure. she and a good friend who is also another shredding mountain biker are staring to do riding clinics for women interested in learning to mountain bike or hone their technical skills. i have always thought the world needs more ways for women to be exposed to mountain biking and a way to teach technical skills in a climate that isn’t intimidating. their company is called trail-zen. the classes are small and flexible so please give a shout if you are interested.

bikes to rwanda is working on a couple events in the upcoming months to raise a little money for a solid 2009. we are working with buy-olympia to sell out btr shirts and soon we are expecting to have some killer cycling caps too.

i have been talking to g. pickle and cody in iowa city who are plugging away with their new bike shop. it is a ton of work to get every thing up and running but they are making some good headway and i am excited to see a rad commuter oriented bike shop in my hometown. if i were there right now, i would squeeze their cheeks and tell em how proud i am.

last but not least. though a series of internet hunts and a deeper sense of wonder, rachel and i have found a pair of cheap ticket to italy for a week and a half in may. i have never been over seas and i am excited and nervous about this trip. a good friend and former trans-iowa racer opened a bike shop in the tiny town of ascoli-piceno called bike lab. he has offered for me to visit for the last couple years and i a stoked to be going.

i am keeping my head down and jamming out as much work as i can before i leave and it has been super productive in the shop over the last month or so but i am still super nervous about leaving work before filling all the orders that are due in may. the trip will be super budget but we are trying to figure out how to see a couple giro stages. on a business note, i am hoping to visit dario pegoretti’s shop and soak up as much bike culture as possible while in italy.

until then, i am looking to finish rawl’s, brooke’s and pat’s bikes.

cheers.

spring training, dutch style.

dutch canyon or otto miller? whatever you wanna call it, it hurts when you are following jame’s wheel all the way up the hill. the sun came out a little and the debris on the shoulder of hwy 30 headed all the way out to scapoose wasn’t the full pave effect but it defiantly kept everyone on their toes. we had two flats before we even hit the gravel but we soon were all patched up and rolling again. the group was pretty big by friday ride standards. we had 9 folks rolling including framebuilders, an ex-pro, a really fast mountain biker, a teacher on spring break and a couple local celebs. official reports from the gravel section of the ride are very good with smooth sections and minimal potholes all the way up. i can say i was more than a little cooked after the ride and went to bed early that night. i had intended to get up early and do the birkenfeld brevet this morning but the idea of 200k in the cold rain after a slugfest like the rapha ride, was less than appealing. call me soft, i don’t care. i choose to roll into the shop and get some work done this morning instead.

work has been steady and i am slowly wittling away at the long list of folks who have charged me with building them a bike. to all those patient folks, thank you for allowing me to take the time to build your bike and help you enjoy cycling for a lifetime.