Another Classic Saddle Another Classic Day

This recovering of a San Marco Rolls in Navy was for Southside Bikes in navy blue. A little bit of stitch detail to to bring out the signature and a matching set of stitched leather grips on the Soma El Toro bars.

Did the Easey Street Swap meet this morning so I could meet some of the folk who regularly check up on my work through the blog. Great to meet everyone and put a face to the name with some. Shame about the weather, it could have been a maginficent event. Most persevered for a few hours but were eventually chased away by the cold, windy and wet weather. Two new saddles only to add to my collection of bases.

The Ultimate in Riding Low

Busyman's Billion Dollar Banana for Bertie.

Yellow Leather Fetish and Chesterfields?

Busyman thanks Fyxomatosis for these sharp images of the new single straps. Check out the full story on their website.

RIH - Riding with Sparklers

Here are some more pictures of the RIH itself, not so much the activity of finishing off the assembly on Wednesday night. This time we have the detail of the Rolls Due and you might vaguely be able to see the busyman toe straps.

In the last post I neglected to mention that Shifter Bikes assisted with the final assembly (moving bits, bearings etc...). We polished the Nitto stem and Ged polished up the cages of the MKS pedals. It's so shiney that when you ride in the sun it looks like you're carrying a bunch of sparklers.

RIH-Sport Ged's Fixie Finished

After about four months we've finally completed Ged's new fixie. I picked the frame up at Tour de Ville in London's North East back in April, complete with Campy headset and Shimano bottom bracket. It's an old Dutch frame made by a small Amsterdam establishment called RIH. Tubing is Reynolds 531 and the fork has a really nice double crown, un-drilled with chrome detailing. Decals seem almost hand painted and the stamp on the head tube would suggest the frame was made in 1979. Sourced NOS Campy Record Pista crankset from the US, Record Pista bottom bracket from a friend, seat post from the box of parts Thuy picked up at a garage sale for $10. Wheels built by Shifter Bikes using high polish Velocity B43 rims, record hubs and fine bladed spokes. Rims polished by Fyxomatosis to match their highly acclaimed chain ring. Saddle is a re-covered San Marco Rolls Due by yours truly along with the natural leather straps you can see me stitching together here. Nice stuff Ged, already turning heads in the streets of Melbourne. Hopefully some nice detail images of the whole bike coming soon.

Shibori

Here's something different from Busyman and S!X and Melbourne's State of Design Festival. My contribution to the "Sculpted Packages - Reshaped" exhibition on show at Von Haus next week: Upstairs 1A Crossley Street Melbourne, across the lane way from Pelegrini's near the top end of Bourke Street.

Shibori is range of traditional Japanese resist dyeing techniques that work through compressing the material to prevent the dye permeating beyond the surface. Methods include folding, clamping, tieing, bunching, stitching and capping. Applying shibori to leather is a whole new ballgame when it's usually used on linen, cotton and silk. I'm happy with the outcomes, quite experimental without a definite idea of what might happen when I began. I'm inspired to develop a new collection of saddles around these ideas.

My First Banana Saddle

My first custom banana saddle flies out of the country tomorrow bound for the United Arab Emirates. To be united with Albert's fully custom bling bling pimped chrome and gold low rider pictured here. This one was an exciting adventure into the unknown of new materials and techniques. The base is a Lowrider brand banana saddle, that is the pressed metal shell only. Thanks to Clarke Rubber I completely re-padded the frame to give a much sturdier and more plush seat. Adventure all the way right down to the final touch of the eyelets for the sissy bar bolts.

I hope you enjoy it Bertie!

It's In The Mail!

The Casino Royale now comes in British Racing Green on a Turbo. Special order for James up in Gloucester, North of Newcastle. There are a few more on the way including my first banana seat for a fully pimped up blingy low rider in Dubai. The full story on the banana saddle coming soon.

This one's going on the recently repainted frame pictured. I hope I've managed to match the colour OK.

Garth's Ride

The orange Casino Royale MKII at home on Garth's new fixie. Well done Garth, looking good.

Stolen Last Night

If, during your rides around Melbourne, anybody chances upon my rubber tree with purple(ish) leaves planted in a tall cream coloured rectangular pot please let me know. Some scumbag stole it from my front doorstep last night. Seems to be the thing to do in Carlton, a few months ago someone uprooted and took a plant from my front garden. Of course I reported it to the police with an accurate description for identification. I don't want to live behind bars but may be compelled to fit them to the front of our modest terrace house, for the garden's sake. Strangely one tends to feel violated. The picture is the front of my house, the rubber tree sits to the left of the front door, or rather it used to.

Exhibition: Cycle Craft

If anyone is interested my class of 2nd year fashion students are exhibiting their work at the Knog store in Chapel Street, South Yarra. Opening tomorrow night at 6.30, the work will be up till Thursday July 2, normal business hours.

The project was to explore the design possibilities in addressing the sartorial needs of the urban cyclist.

Next semester it's tailoring all round.

While you're online and doing the blogs check out the lovely things the Bike Snob NYC readers have got to say about my work. Here's my version of the silver foil saddle, christened The BSNYC Saddle.

Gloves?

He we go off on a new adventure in designing and making with plenty of integrated technical challenge. The completely hand stitched leather glove. It started out as a project to replace Feride's favourite leather gloves she ruined when trying to clean them and has somehow ended up with me having a go at making some stylish cycling gloves.

Actually I haven't done the cycling ones yet, here's a picture of the first prototype. The cycling ones will initially be based on this design, then we'll see how they evolve. Fingerless, perforated, plain, multi-coloured.......

Casino Royale MKII: White with Orange

The White and Orange Casino Royale took a bit of work to get it looking nice. The base saddle, an old Cinelli Suede Unicanitor (I think), was a bit beaten up and needed a some repair work to the foam padding before covering. Turned out pretty nicely though. It's to go on Garth's new build, blue frame (light blue would be nice) and orange deep V's. Not sure what he has planned for the bars, grips, tyres etc but sounds like it should be a looker.

I have recently started twisting my own thread with bees wax so that I can get the variety of colours needed in the right weight for this kind of work. Both Casino Royales and the recent purple bars have the home twisted thread.

Stay tuned for some more hand stitched leather lunacy.

Custom Made: Grips, Pants and Bras

Despite the long silence things have been happening in the Busyman studio. I've been making some made to measure stretch wool 3/4 trousers for a tall fellow in Sydney. I've covered a couple of sets of handle bars for a couple of lads in Windsor and my dear wife has been assessing the handiwork of her young students in the form of 18 brassiers. That's right, bras not bars.
Currently looking into doing a small quantity production run of the trousers, so keep posted for details.