My New 611 Cross Bike

If you were at NAHBS then you've probably already seen my new cross bike, sitting proudly in the excellent Six-Eleven Bicycle Co. booth as one of the five amazing bikes that Aaron brought to the show. If you weren't there, here are a few pics:











I can't wait to race this thing next ChiCrossCup season! It's way more bike than I deserve, and I can't thank Aaron enough for making me such a beautiful frame.

Photos are from the NAHBS page.

New Six-Eleven Bicycle Co. Cross Bike

Sage just got this ridiculously nice cross frame from Aaron at Six-Eleven Bicycle Co., and I am jealous. Aaron won Rookie Builder of the Year at NAHBS last year, so definitely check out his booth in Austin in February, it's going to be great!

More photos of Sage's bike here and check out Six-Eleven Bicycle Co. here.

611 and VeloCity

These are the bars that Aaron made as one of the main prizes for VeloCity Chicago 2010. They're even more beautiful in person, and everyone at the track wanted them, but they were won by Al Urbanski of WDT. Well done, Al! I'll have a full report of the day with more pictures up soon. Julio and Ben and Squid and everyone did a great job organizing it this year. The bars got their great paint-job from ChesterCycles.

Photo by Sage.

Flyer update and sneak peak...

There are a couple new sponsors for the Velocity tour:

Also, this gives me an excuse to show a little sneak peak at some bars I made for a prize:


They're off getting painted right now, but be sure to see (and possibly win?) the final product next weekend!

Urban Velo

As I previously mentioned, Urban Velo were the kings of NAHBS coverage. In the off-hours, while the rest of us were out riding, partying, and resting (ha!), Brad and Jeff worked tirelessly taking awesome photos and updating their site with coverage and massive photo-dumps. It was so cool of them to come down and put so much work into covering the event. Even above and beyond the awesome pro photography he was cranking out all day, Brad took a couple photos with a vintage 35mm twin-lens reflex camera that really turned out great. I was fortunate enough to be one of the guys he shot:

of course, photo by Brad Quartuccio of Urban Velo

Thanks again guys!

NAHBS recap

Ok, I won't go into great detail about the coverage of NAHBS. I didn't really get a chance to even walk around and take many photos, so I'll leave that to the folks who have been doing so well with the coverage. Of course, Urban Velo killed it as always. Tracko's recent post had some great videos that gave a good sense of the event. Also, the guys from Outofprintmag were there and really did some good coverage/wrap-up. Check it out here. However, I would like to take this opportunity to say what an honor it was to have won the "Rookie of the Year" new builder award. I was up against some really tough competition and it was really amazing to have been selected by such and incredible panel of industry experts.

Photo by OUTOFPRINTMAG.COM

It was such a great time. I couldn't have asked for more. I can't wait for next year, which if you haven't heard, will be in Austin! So good!

Six-Eleven Bicycle Co. at NAHBS

Check Aaron out with his gorgeous NAHBS show bike! It looks amazing, I love the details. Great work, buddy! Visit the brand new Six-Eleven Bicycle Co. page for details. [UPDATE] Aaron won Best New Builder at the show! HELL YES!

The photo, as you can see, is from Urban Velo, who always have the best NAHBS coverage. I love the professional photo setup and the speed with which they put the photos online. Thanks, Urban Velo!

Hipster Nascar Shirts at NAHBS

The first five people to go to the Six-Eleven Bicycle Co. stand at NAHBS and ask Aaron for a shirt will get one of these Hipster Nascar items FOR FREE, as demonstrated above by the lovely Kyle. Don't sleep!

Custom Ergo

As I sit here fretting about my NAHBS entry coming back from paint in time (and as I'm envisioning it), I thought I'd post a little mod I made for the bars on my show bike.

I took a pair of Cinelli's new track bars and brazed in an insert, creating the most comfortable hand position ever.

I've run this set-up for a while now on my old race bike, but this is the first time I've made it permanent. Previously, I've done it with carefully carved wood inserts with lots of metal foil HVAC duct tape. This feels so much better and more solid. Right now they're getting painted to match the frame. Be sure to stop by my table at NAHBS to feel for yourself.