Thursday location: Seven | Studio || 7:20 am – 9:40 pm
Interview: I was interviewed today at Seven Cycles for an upcoming project that I’ll post about once it’s live. It was an unusual interview because it focused on Seven’s employees and bicycle riding. A nice and unexpected change from the average. I loke talking about Seven’s employees when the person with which I’m talking seems legitimately interested.
Exhibition: Seven Cycles was invited to participate in an exhibit at the Bicycle Museum of America. We’re excited to have been thought of. We’re deciding which bike would be most appropriate. Too many options.
Word of the day: Dysphoria. Thanks to L.R. for this. I was surprised that I’d never heard this word before. The opposite of euphoria.
Patria of Ride Studio Cafe hosted a great event at RSC this evening. Bob Wolf talked about ridewithgps.com: how to get the most out of this very helpful program. We also had Zack Ham – co-founder of Ride With GPS – live via video feed. Zack was able to answer technical questions. It was enlightening to have them both at the Studio.
“RideWithGPS.com is the online treasury of all of the fantastic riding routes in New England and beyond. Every time someone comes to us interested in a route, we jump right on RideWithGPS.com and find just what the rider is looking for. Want to go off road to some of the hidden dirt paths in the area? Or maybe you want to ride a century without seeing much traffic. Or select a route with a particular level of difficulty. Or even create your own route from scratch.”
Design: Last two days for Seven Cycles’ 2013 brochure. Wrapping up bios, some design details, final text editing. Final proofing tomorrow and Friday. Too many words – nearly all of them really good.
Production Management: Working on flow leveling at Seven Cycles. So few people I know are interested – or understand – the importance of flow leveling. At Seven it’s particularly tricky because every single frameset is completely unique; this tends to defy the directive of flow leveling. Examples: we’ll build a titanium/carbon ‘cross frame and then a titanium tandem and then a belt drive steel mountain 650b, and then a tri-specific Diamas SLX and then a… All of these bikes wreak havoc on systems that prefers consistency; nearly any system prefers consistency – that’s embedded in the definition of a system, in some ways. Endless variables for which to account:
Martin Klimas’ photographs of figurines in mid-destruction. Klimas explains:
Porcelain Figurines
From a height of three meters, porcelain figurines are dropped on the ground, and the sound they make when they hit trips the shutter release. The result: razor sharp images of disturbing beauty – temporary sculptures made visible to the human eye by high-speed photography technology. The porcelain statuette bursting into pieces isn’t what really captures the attention; the fascination lies in the genesis of a dynamic figure that replaces the static pose. In contrast to the inertness of the intact kitsch figurines Klimas started out with, the photographs of their destruction possess a powerfuly narative character.
Quote: Graeme Fife mentioned in an email to me: “When we do not live, we are walking to our own funeral.” I thought it was a quote by someone else but I searched and I can’t fine any quote similar, so I’ll credit him. Every email from Graeme is poetry.
Product Design: The Ockham Fender Mount. Just renamed to be the 780. Now in production. $20 per pair. $40 per bike. Ride Studio Cafe has a need for many. Supply and demand.
Graphic Design: Ride Studio Cafe rider kits are in the mail. Capo has been great to work with. I can’t wait to see the final product. And I know some other people are anxious, too. I’ll post photos soon.
I feel like I’m betraying a trust with Graeme Fife but my interactions with him are so great that I can’t help but share his writing. I don’t think Graeme is much of an internet guy so I think our secret is safe.
If nothing else, I like to reread his emails. Here’s where I’ll keep them. An excerpt from his last email – which I’ve edited for some privacy concerns:
Dear Rob
I am just back from Norfolk, where I used to live. […] I took the opportunity to visit some dear friends of long date, bike on the train to Norfolk and then off into the lanes I know so well, a residual memory.
The sun shone bright and warm on Thursday evening, I rode past stubble fields, clamps of harvested crops, quiet villages and a sign warning motorists SLOW YOU DOWN which is how they say it in Norfolk. I rode some hard miles, too, out of my skin and then into that depth of fatigue where you can barely think, a weariness aggravated by three punctures – they were cutting hedges and tiny thorns like panel pins scattered about the roads. I knew I was in for trouble and got it, but, hey, it didn’t rain, although the roads were grimy with muck and mud, grit and gravel from the overspill of the drainage ditches.
Time Marker: Big tour at Seven Cycles today. Thanks to Patria of Ride Studio Cafe; RSC sponsored the event. The tour brought a lot of kids. That’s always fun. And the kids seemed to really enjoy it. We had at least 30 adults on the tours, too. I saw a lot of friends and some new faces. Looking forward to seeing more of these folks.
Design: Paint displays for a few of Seven Cycles’ top retailers. These are way more work that you’d expect. They will be cool though. It’ll be worth it.
Sunday location: Studio || 7:40 am – 7:25 pm – homework
Riding: Pulling together my 3,000 random bike parts, gear, clothing, and stuff to get back to commuting. Now that the weather is turning it’s time for me to start riding again. “Funny” how that happens.
Management: Working on RSC organization, customer management, and systems development. Not the wisest idea when sleep calls.
Initial concept sketches for the Fall Five trophies
Hey, it’s the speed project of the day. For some reason I thought it’d be a great idea to make winner trophies for the Ride Studio Cafe’s Fall Five Solo Stage Race series.
People helping with this project: Me, Tim D., Lily R., and Skip.
Of course, given that I don’t have enough time to do anything extracurricular right now, it sounds like a great idea to design and fabricate unique trophies.
Fall Five trophy study
It looks like I’m making six trophies: top three men and top three women.
Thursday location: Seven | Studio || 7:20 am – 9:40 pm
