Danish Kangaroo Casino

This pair is on its way back to Hans at Larry Vs. Harry in Copenhagen. Hans sent over an old Kashimax Aero and Ritchey Bassano Ti for the busyman treatment. Reworking a couple of my prevoius perforated pattern designs in Kangaroo leather, hand dyed yellow, the saddles will be featured on a couple of L v H cargo bikes.

Motor Spares: Again

The catalogue page

Received a scan of this catalogue page in my email today. Thanks Curtis for sending it through, I'm still intrigued about the origins of my Motor Spares built Master Sports. One of Curtis' work colleagues found the catalogue in a mate's shed.

My Motor Spares built Master Sports

547 Elizabeth Street

Fleur de Lis: Wilier

Selle Italia Gel saddle recovered for Matt's new Wilier. The fleur de lis, or Florentine Lily in Italian, motif is adapted from the Wilier logo. The bike has the Italian green, white and red as a small detail near the fork tip as do Matty's new shoes. He's going to be nicely (but subtly) coordinated.

Success Twins

A nice pair of Selle Success Turbo F1 saddles restored with black leather. A basic recover replacing the cracked old vinyl.

Two Tone Leather & Wood

This set is for Dick's new two tone hardwood Renovo build. I'd never seen these frames before but there's something kind of enchanting about them. The build will include Ghisallo wooden rims and of course these matching busyman leather finishing touches. The leather was selected to match the timber colours as accurately as possible with the aid of digital photos. The base is a very nice and light braided Fizik Alliante. Happy timber riding Dick.

Split Tape

Just finished this custom order bar tape for Richard in London. Destined as the finishing detail on his soon to be completed Baum. Custom Aussie frame, custom Aussie bar tape. Black full grain leather tape split through the centre and then double stitched with purple thread and backing.

Casino Concor MKIV - color matched for re(wind)cycle's latest Merckx project. A more refined and streamlined version of the Casino perforation pattern. Feels like I'm getting there. I love doing the handmade, the process of making yet I'm always striving for perfection, to eliminate any tell tales signs that indicate hand made.

Shiny Red Italian

Basic re-cover, complex shape,hand stitched, retained badge, simple, organic... For Louise...

Black Cherry Cross

Some black leather bar tape for Frank's new Parlee z5, it's a slow project build but he's promised to show me the bike when it's done. The plan is to lay the tape over some gel pads for added cushion cumfort. Fancy cross stitch tripple perforated, the fanciest bar tape I've done, and each piece measures in at around 95", that's a lot of individually punched holes. Single layer of bag nappa cow hide, 1 join on each piece but potentially the bar will be fully wrapped before reaching the join.

I ought to do some nice tape for my Hillman.

Frank found me in Bicycle Victoria's Ride On Magazine.

Arena Bikes

All different but all the same - soon to be revealed at Arena, Melbourne Park.

Thanks Thuy Vy for the amazing photos.

Folksy Tape

Inspired by my Master Sports/Motor Spares bike, I recently completed this fancy stitched and perforated tape. The leather is quite soft and fairly thin so no need to skive the edges on this one, they will just mould and blen with use. The underside has an added layer through the centre for extra cusion, so at any point there will be three layers of leather once wound onto the bar.

First Bike

I remodelled the former Shibori Animal bike for my father inlaw. At 60+ it's his first bike and he couldn't be happier. Complete with monogram saddle and thumb shifter for rear derailleur. I hope you like it Baba.

Honey Doubles

These hand stitched double toe straps were custom made for a De Rosa fixed conversion coming out of Saint Cloud later this week. Copper rivets to match the rails and rivets on the Brooks B17 Special. Hand stitching - sometimes I think I might be a little crazy. It's a little more distinct than machine stitching though.

Customised SMP 209s

I recently recovered this pair of SMP 209s for Peter at The Cycling Edge. Both were recovered because the customers wanted a sleek saddle without embroidered graphic embellishments.

The 209 has more padding and therefore more dimension which made it quite a challenge to recover. It took a couple of iterations to get the pattern right, to achieve a smooth finish over the saddle shape I added an arched dart hand stitched across the back section. Another pattern for my library.