Custom Bicycle Saddles: Busy in Melbourne

Here are a couple of saddles I managed to finish the week before heading off to London. Included, in order of appearance: Sheybeler Two Tone Tan Rolls; The Red Cross Stitch; The Navy and Gold Argyle; The Mottram Two Tone Tan Rolls; Sam Fisher's Japanese Family Crest (featured earlier, but I visited Sam in London so thought I would re post); Nghi's Reverse Japanese Family Crest (on the green Specialised Langster Seattle); and finally Boris' Skull and Cross Bone Black Concor Super Corsa.

Now that bunch keep me busy for a week or two, I also managed to make Sir Paul Smith's bunny saddle the day before I left.

I have a few more almost complete, full of inspiration from the UK trip. They'll be posted soon. And I'm thinking of making a nice new red number especially for the Melburn Roobaix.

Busy in London

Just returned from a week in London, attending a conference at the London College of Fashion and doing all kinds of bike and fashion stuff. I met Luke from Rapha who introduced me to Jos and Keith at Tour de Ville where I purchased a beautiful old Dutch track frame for Ged. No Pics of that one yet. I met Vivienne Westwood when I went to the Westwood studios to meet up with Sam after work. A touch of shopping at Westwood with much thanks to Sam and his staff discount. I hired a bike for a couple of days and rode for miles in circles and spirals and evenyually to my destinations in the north east and the south west. I came across two ghost bikes, some orange DKNY bikes and more fixies than you could poke a stick at.

Saddles for Paul Smith

Wife said "The Busyman also managed to do a Bunny saddle for Paul Smith on the day he left for London. He has also given him one his earlier saddles. Sir Paul Smith loved them & invited him over to his studio. I am very proud of him."
Busyman is back from London adventures with an update on the saddles for Sir Paul Smith. Here they are insitu, amongst the millions of books and other artifacts in the maestro's very own office.

Busyman saddles on Paul Smith's blog & twitter.

Before going to London

Mick is in London now, but just before he left, he managed to put Nghi's new custom made saddle & handle bar grips.  He can elobrate on the details when he gets back.

Wife

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.