Hiatus over, and so it begins

It has been a while since I sent out a broadcast about the Richard Sachs Cyclocross Team. This pre-season has been a full one for me personally and professionally, and this email will speak to that. I have spent the last three months or so on a kinda’ sorta’ hiatus from work, and that personal time has recently ended. After the long schlep from there (Connecticut) to here (Franklin County), followed by the breaking in period of settling into new environs and also a new made-just-for-me studio, it has taken longer than anticipated to find a balanced routine atmo.

The first several months of 2010 were consumed with the NAHBS show, and after a small break, the MAD show. By the time May arrived, the groove I expected to finally stay in was derailed and I concluded that some much needed down time was the antidote. It’s not that I was on vacation or didn’t come in to work, but the productivity was more apparent elsewhere than at or from my workbench. So – this is all behind me now. As of last week I got back to the 24/7 framebuilding lifestyle of my past. It was good to detach for a few months, and even better to reconnect atmo.

I am very proud to be part of the aforementioned show at the Museum of Arts and Design and would like to thank Michael Maharam and Sacha White for their huuuuge efforts in making this a reality. The show is named Bespoke: The Handbuilt Bicycle, and it runs through the end of August. For anyone near to the New York City area and interested in ‘cross, or bicycles, or handcrafted items, or any combination thereof, you must see the exhibit. I have been culling the search results to the show and will paste in some decent reviews so you can get a feel for what is on display. Click through these, huh:

Design/Applause
Commute By Bike
Wallpaper
Wallpaper Redux
Cool Hunting
the washingmachine post *

* I have a particular affinity for this site no matter, but the link takes you to a nice story that’s related to the show in as much as it’s about the collection of New Yorker magazines I have, all of which contain images of bicycles in the cover art, some how, some way. There are over 110 variations since 1928, and I have all of them atmo. To wit, here is a direct link to a Flickr gallery I started to store the scans I have done to date. (Note: the gallery is a work in progress and only has a sampling of my collection so far).

The New Yorker Gallery

On the framebuilding side of the table, I want to connect all who read these missives with another project I am involved with. On the famed online salon, Velocipede, we have started a new board called Smoked Out. In a nutshell, the raison d’etre (that’s french for the reason of the etre...) of the place is to introduce framebuilders of renown to a wider-than-normal audience and to allow all of them to hold court in their own unique threads. The cats speak to their beginnings, muses, tools, methods, riding experiences, and a trillion (not really) other things. Readers of the board are encouraged to post to the framebuilders and ask questions about their work. So far at least eighteen folks have had the light shined on them, with many more to follow. The link to all of this is here:

Smoked Out

So, find a pal builder or two from among those outed and ask them about your last (or next) frame. These are the best of the brightest in our field, and all deserve your support atmo.

The last link I want to paste in contains a wonderful read about our pal, Dan Timmerman. As you must know, Dan raced with the team in 2009. Over the winter, Dan decided that the rest of life was calling and, over the winter, retired from almost a decade at the top of the sport. He gave a killer interview a month or so ago and I want everyone to know about it and to read it. We all wish Dan the best of everything atmo.

Dan T Unplugged

Oh I guess there’s one more to add. Paul Weiss recently sent me a video shot at the end of 2008. It contains an interview he did with us at the National Championships in Kansas City. If I recall, it’s about twenty minutes long and is a basic Q/A format between me, Amy Wallace, Will Dugan, Matt Kraus, and Justin Spinelli. Paul has left it online in its raw footage state and I hope it’s cached for a long time. In watching it I am reminded why the Richard Sachs Cyclocross Team lives for autumn and why ‘cross fukingc rules atmo. Have a look and listen:

The Dear Hunter

Hey – thanks for reading. I’ll be back in another couple of weeks.