Category Archives: Bike Industry

Tara Alan and Tyler Kellen Came Slowly Home


Tyler and Tara cruising San Francisco their first week back in the U.S.

In April 2009, Tara Alan and Tyler Kellen set off from Scotland (via Minnesota) to spend two years pedaling their way around a sizable chunk of the Earth on a bike tour they named Going Slowly. In December 2010, after the duo had ridden through Europe, into north Africa, back up through eastern Europe, and driven across Russia, I interviewed them for The Bicycle Story. Since then, Tara and Tyler finished their tour in Southeast Asia and made their way back to the United States. I spoke to them again now that they’ve started to settle back in to see how the rest of the tour went, what it’s like to transition back into the “normal” world after two years of travel, and what their plans are for life off the road. They responded with both words and an amazing array of photographs that do a wonderful job of complementing the stories they tell.

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Lowell Smoger: the Mechanical Engineer’s 5,000-Mile Job Hunt


Lowell and his Troll. Picture stolen from Facebook.

Fall 2010, Lowell Smoger finished his masters program in engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology and found himself–like many young Americans–high on smarts, degrees, and skills, but low on that all important, job-landing element, experience. Unlike many young Americans, however, Lowell didn’t move back in with his parents and start scouring Craigslist for job openings. He started planning a bike tour that would introduce him to America and maybe introduce him to a few bike industry folks along the way, as well.

I met Lowell this Labor Day weekend while he was stopped in Seattle. A college friend of mine, Hannah, had ridden with him for the first few weeks of the tour and had sent me a message telling me to meet up with her tour partner when he got to Seattle. Lowell, my girlfriend, and I spent an afternoon exploring nearby Bainbridge Island by bike. On the ferry ride over to the island, Lowell and I talked about his reasons for touring, his life on the road, his take on the kindness of strangers, and more.

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Rick Smith & Brian Griggs: The men behind Yehuda Moon


The very first Yehuda strip (and one of my favorites)

If you’re into bikes and the Internet (as one would assume you are as a reader of this bike blog), you’re probably more than a little familiar with the webcomic Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand Cyclery. The comic, started in 2008 by Rick Smith, centers on bike shop co-owners Joe King and Yehuda Moon along with a wide cast of bike-world characters. Through the character’s daily lives, the strip explores subjects like bike politics, the follies of bike commuting, the ups and downs of shop life, racing, and the many archetypal bike people we’ve all encountered as cyclists. I spoke to Rick Smith and Brian Griggs (who joined the comic in 2010 to help write) about their backgrounds as bike people and artists, the inspirations for the characters and stories, their bike politics, and more.

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Who Knew Chains Were So Interesting?

Alright, chains alone aren’t terribly interesting despite their importance in every cyclist’s life. But this clip from the show How It’s Made showing the factory production of a new chain is surprisingly interesting. Have patience when you start the video. The first few seconds are a little off.

Framebuilding Porn

I love finding new blogs, especially when they’re already well established and I can spend hours sifting through the archives. This morning I came across Yoshi Nishikawa’s Builder’s Life and spent more time browsing than I’m sure my bosses would care to know. Yoshi left his job as a frame builder at Japan’s Level bikes several years ago and started work as a Ti and steel welder for Seven Cycles in Boston.

Yoshi’s blog mostly centers around the work he does at Seven. The picture-heavy posts feature a lot of detail shots of his amazingly clean welds as well as other interesting shots from around the factory, of complete bikes, and occasionally from his personal life.

His writing is sparse. Each post contains just a few sentences (in both English and Japanese); enough essential details to give the reader an idea of what they’re looking at. But, the pictures alone provide a fascinating glimpse into the life and work of a high-end bike builder.