"This past weekend we went down to Indianapolis for some racing and to attend the grand opening for Don Walker's new shop, Speedway Handmade Bicycle Works, right down the street from Zipp on Main Street.
It was a pretty low key event, but the space was amazing. A giant shop with a showroom up front displaying some gorgeous bikes. Some I'd seen before, like Don's daughter Julianna's dual downtube polka-dotted 650c track bike, and others that I couldn't possibly imagine, like the incredible track tandem with one of the most complex paint jobs I've ever seen.
A photo of Don competing at the Olympic trials back in the day, and one of the gorgeous Della Santa frames he raced on. Dude was and is a badass. Photo by Aaron.The next room was a fit room equipped with a Waterford fit-cycle and a giant printer for printing life-sized CAD mock-ups of your future custom frame. Further into the shop there was a great mechanics area complete with all the tools you'd ever want, a comfy couch, flat screen TV and kitchen.
The real shop is hidden a little further back: the garage where the frames are made. Don has some great equipment. Most impressive (well, to me at least) was the new Anvil "super master" custom frame jig. A large near-by shelf had a pretty amazing collection of lugs and track ends stored in cigar boxes (naturally). It was quite a sight! Don showed off all of the tubing he uses including the new amazing Columbus Max LIFE (Don is the only builder with this new prototype tubeset in American right now- it's pretty revolutionary as far as steel is concerned.
Some kind of machine thing which obviously impressed Aaron. Again, one for the nerds. Photo by Aaron.
After the tour, we sat in the mechanic area drinking beers and listening to Don tell stories (which was great, as he is quite a story teller and has been around the industry long enough to know some good ones).
The Amazing Tristan from Team Pegasus and Don himself looking at a robot... or something. Photo by Aaron.I got to pick his brain a little concerning the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, the newer builders (and the surprising news of new to the industry builder Whitney Moyer shutting his doors already), and the industry in general. It was really a distinct pleasure given the fact that I want to follow a similar career path and I'm just taking the first steps. (Can't wait to get one of your frames, Aaron! - Simon.)
The Major Taylor Velodrome was only a few minutes away from Don's shop, and is a pretty incredible facility. There are grandstand bleachers and an underground tunnel for entry into the infield. This is probably one of the best spectating tracks in the US. It's a relatively short track at 333 1/3m and has pretty steep 28 degree banks. It made for a much faster track than the mellow Northbrook Velodrome we're used to.
Michelle was a bit nervous, but ended up doing fantastic coming in 4th in a 3 lap scratch, 5th in a miss 'n out, and 3rd in a 18 lap points race. Val Brostrom of Team GetAGrip was also down from Chicago and killed it, coming in 2nd, 1st, and 1st. The best part about the whole experience was Don Walker coming out to the track and sitting with us in the infield and coaching Michelle (well that and the push-bike racers- WTF?!). Don really knows what he's talking about and gave her some fantastic advice between races and in turn 2 from the skirt. It was really great seeing spectators at the track. Towards the end of the night, there must have at least 500 people there watching. At the end of every bell lap, the folks watching from the sides would start slapping the boards in applause. It was really cool and gave me cold chills at one point.
The announcer was encouraging the spectators to come up and give cash for primes and quite a few people came forward. There must have been a couple hundred dollars given out from the crowd. It was really a great night of racing and we'll definitely be back soon!"
Again, thanks to Aaron for the great report and the photos, and congratualtions to both Michelle and Val for killing it at Major Taylor. Everyone in the area needs to get down to Speedway, Indiana and check out Don's shop, Speedway Handmade Bicycle Works.
10 comments:
Great read man! awesome pics too....major taylor looks fun as hell.
Whitney posted this a few days ago...doesn't say much, but I think it was as much of an announcement he made.
eh...the read was so-so. i say start looking for better authors...ha!
graw!! stuff like this makes me so awesomely stoked to go to UBI. i really want to check out DW cycles and SHBW
one small correction. The tubing wasnt XCR, it was Max LIFE. I was given the first prototype set to do a sample and its on the build list. Later this summer it will get built.
DW
Excellent stuff! Good job ladies!
I would recommend for those interested in visiting other velodromes to check out Encino in San Diego. I guess I went on a super fun night but it had a live band, beer primes, ecstatic crowd and the best was that pass the hat for cash prizes. Sounds like they know to have a great environment by doing much of the same spirited things at MTV.
Sounds like a great trip! Good luck to Mr. Walker.
finally - a post about cycling and not on ridiculously overpriced, trustfund clothing. ha!
this is great review of DW, his shop, and MTV in IN.
As far as Moyer, it's not like he went out of business. i am sure he'll be back, or pick up side work again. in the meantime, there are more than enough experienced builders out there from which to choose!
nice work on the article.
Ben: thanks for the Moyer info.
j.dot: I'm working on it.
Don: thanks for the correction, I'll make the edit today. Good luck with the shop.
Josh: thanks for your kind words, jerk!
great read. and wow, rebecca nor i knew about this moyer thing. she is pretty lucky to have her frame.
Sean, looking at Whitney's flickr it seems like Rebecca's bike might have been one of the last, if not the last, that he made!
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