For Southside Bikes

Some of the work I've been doing for the boys at Southside Bikes. Some saddles and stitched bar wraps along with a bit of polishing.

Paper Anniversary: Concor Super Corsa

I started and completed this Concor Super Corsa last Friday night for a former student of mine to give to her husband as a first anniversary gift. I just hope he likes it, that it fits with the vision he has for his new fixie build. Apparently he has recently caught the contagious fixie virus and is working on his first bike. So, does it fit the vision? Is it silver or paper for the first anniversary?

Tiger Wood's - White Leather Concor Super Corsa

Tiger face for a young fellow named Wood. Couldn't add much more than this, no space left on the surface of the saddle. This Concor Super Corsa could also have had a sprinkling of red dots and a couple of Japanese crest symbols. I hope you like it Wood.

Rolls Titanio Restoration

Recently completed this Rolls Titanio restoration for Fyxomatosis. Again great photos by TC. As he eloquently explains the leather is a soft lamb, the rivets were salvaged from the original.

Delaney's Turbo

The first piece in a new three piece 'group set'. The recovered Turbo features an abridged version of the Delaney family crest. Toe straps and stitched pursuit bars to follow soon.

Embossed Fancy Regal?

It's an M not a shape representing an internal organ.

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.