Been Busy

Have been busy with plenty of saddles on the go Here's one of the latest, a birthday present for Adam who apparently treasures other people's trash. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Sounds similar to the five frames I've just managed to clear out through ebay, some nice ones amongst them but too big for me, shouldn't have collected them in the first place.

The recent silence has been in part because Uni has started back, it has nearly been a whole month. I'm running a fashion design studio titled 'Cycle Craft', the same name as the Craft Victoria urban Interior Occupation in September 2008.

Off to London next week, 8 or more saddles currently on the go. So hopefully the next post will include a bunch of nice fresh saddles.

Scenes From The Studio

Who'd think this is the studio where bike stuff happens? There are some saddles on the verge of happening, but the project at the moment is Thuy's wedding outfit. A pair of wool tailored shorts and white half placket shirt.

Sewing has been known to do my head in, often resulting in exhaustive strings of obscenities at full volume. Didn't happen this time, mostly because I took regular breaks. It's stressful business, sewing.

The last break I grabbed the camera and snapped some micro scenes of the studio, the details. Though there's not much bike stuff (only in one image) in this post there a detail from Malcolm Peels drawing, Vahit Altinay's 'French Curve' from his University days in Ankara and an X rated birthday card drawn by Tri.

Thuy's shorts are almost complete and then there's four saddles to do. On top of all that University started back today. Tomorrow I'm starting off my studio class, Cycle Craft, a fashion design studio dealing with the conjunction of the bicycle and fashion.

Tan Classics?

Here's the latest series of saddle recoveries. Tan, kind of classic, kind of not. We've got skulls, hearts, Japanese family crests and an abstract cathedral like dot pattern. The dark brown one is off to London tomorrow while the the tan trilogy is destined for the S!X store opening up at Von Haus, Melbourne around mid March.

A tricky bunch, trying out some new techniques and working on perfecting the old ones. The biggest challenge is that "cleft back' saddle.

Handcrafted bicycle saddle: The Purple Cookie Monster

The "cookie monster" components as photographed by Fyxomatosis at the Skin Grows Back headquarters in Ulla Dulla.

Still really looking forward to seeing the project complete. But gee, the gold and purple certainly looks rich. I did the double straps too, unfortunately couldn't get my hands on gold buckles at a reasonable price (could have gone gold plated).

The Mixte is Done

The old Shogun Mixte is finally done. It's been about a week now, has just been waiting on the final touch of the white leather saddle. The saddle is a softer friendlier white version of an earlier one I did for Thuy, with detailing that reflects the lug work on the head tube. The frame, forks, headset, bottom bracket and seat post are original from the side of the road in South Melbourne. The saddle came from the back shed of Fyxomatosis, rims were reclaimed from another old road bike and polished up, wheels built by Shifter Bikes, cranks from the free Repco Superlight from Carlton (fixed.org), bars from the tip at Phillip Island, pedals from another old bike sourced from Phillip Island. New chainring, cog, 1/8 chain and tyres. Why did it take so long? Because I had the forks chrome plated by a factory with a lot of work on which also closed down for a month over Christmas. Anyway it's done, it's fun and cruisy to ride and I'm happy with the outcome. This one is for Feride, I feel inclined to do a similar one for myself now.

Tri's Katsura

A testimonial from a satisfied customer, he is a good friend so he may be biased, but the bike looks pretty nice regardless. Also thanks to Feride for her expertise in devising colourways. Tri managed the project and built the bike, I did the saddle, you may recognise it from "The Art of The Bicycle".

Tri says:

"Been working on my second bike, it's nearly there only missing a head badge
and a "Katsura" scripted on the top tube. It's named after prince Katsura
from the Japanese royal family.
The Frame is a Royal Harbour?????? (tried to look this up but no luck) from
Japan made from tange 2 tubing. The seat is a one off custom from Mick Peel
and to me is the real highlight. It makes a totally unique bike that has
it's own personality that I love cruising around on."

Looks nice Tri!

Off The Shelf: Jaffa Mocca Latte

The brown and orange bike is finally finished. I managed to pick up a set of Miche 36h track hubs at a very reasonable price. The set up on the fixie conversion includes the following:
- CroMo Frame (top tube 57.5, seat tube 55.5), powder coated
- Tourney 170 alloy cranks
-52t chainring
-20t Roselli cog
-1/8th inch 1/2 link chain
- Powder coated alloy rims
- Custom covered leather saddle; Selle Italia
- Alloy pedals powder coated to match
rims
- Miche low flange track hubs
- Alloy seat post
- Custom leather bar wrap and toe straps
- MKS toe clips
- Alloy stem and drop bars

Now I need to sell the bike so I can afford to finish the next one, the red Mixte. Drop me a note if you're interested.

Padded Pants: Bent Frames: Nice Cranks

Cycle Shorts #1, the first prototype of a pair of pedal pushers in wool lycra with a padded seat. Here are a few images of the work in progress. I guess I'm a tailor too. Not just leather saddles and bikes but pants as well.

I've been contemplating some trousers such as these for some time now, but the final inspiration was this:

Just before Christmas Ged and I joined a small group of riders for a 70km ride from South Morang to King Lake and back. There was a serious climb and a serious descent and plenty of km's in between. When we arrived at the designated place TC asked "you guys have free wheels on those bikes don't you? I should have advised that it was a long rod ride." So we managed to finish the ride but with a pretty sore butt.

Pants will be finished today (I keep telling myself).


The Mixte project make slow progress. Most difficult and painful was the re-spacing of the rear dropouts. With the extra set of seat/chain stays it becomes extremely difficult to manipulate the frame. In the end I managed to get the exact spacing for the coaster brake hub, 110mm, but in the process managed to seriously buckle the middle stays. Never mind, everything else lines up nicely.

These Sugino VP cranks have polished up nicely with a bit of extra elbow grease and emery paper to cut back a lot of pitting. Feride says "they look like cranks", Ged, Simon and Thuy all say "the cranks look really nice"..... The cranks presented another problem, the first set I fitted with a shorter BB spindle had a completely stripped thread on the right and the chain line wasn't straight. So I spent most of the day trying to fabricate an alternative crank removal tool, but in the end the angle grinder and the rubbish bin were the only answer.

51t Chain ring and 22t cog from Abbotsford Cycles, Wheels built by Shifter Bikes, forks still at the electro platers. The tyres will be white, along with white leather saddle and bar wrap with red stitch detail. Incidentally, I found a nice set of rusty bars on a bike at the Phillip Island Tip that will be used on this bike.

It's not just bikes and saddles I make.

Check out the Dolma (Turkish) also known as Dolmades in Greek. But we do the Turkish version in our house. I guess I just like making stuff, including food. In the third image you can see MDF, the happy (I hope) owner of the yellow machine from an earlier post.

Plenty of other delicious Turkish dishes where this one came from. I learned it from Feride, one of the toughest food critics around. If she doesn't like it she'll let you know, and forget about messing around with the traditional recipes, no surprise ingredients.

What's With the Skulls?

The sequence of images is not really chronological (having a bit of trouble with the blogger interface). In any case, here's a little bit of an out of sequence pictorial story of the skull saddle. The latest is at the top and everything else is scattered randomly thereafter. There are trial swatches trying to figure out how to represent a skull in pink, in leather whilst keeping it functional as a saddle. That means durability and comfort. The machine embroidered option wasn't really under consideration because the stitching would disappear in no time with the abrasion of the cyclist's back side!

I'm starting to wonder what will come next in the skull series or whether the skulls have reached their logical conclusion. Maybe something like family crests?