Categories: Awesome Belgian GuysDefining MomentsIl ProgettoKeepers TourThe Bikes

The Torch Song

That's not a robot right there.

Live music is better than recorded music. It’s a given. Having that connection, where you’re sharing the same space as the artist is a unique experience that can’t be replicated on a plastic disc. To receive the gift from the giver personally is a moment of intimacy not possible if it arrives in a package in the mail. To be able to garner instantaneous gratitude, be it by applause, cheers or a smile is the reward that the artist lives for, else they wouldn’t be there. Showing appreciation for the gift returns the favour in kind. The performance feeds the audience, and vice versa.

Vinyl records hold the same sort of appeal that steel bicycles do; both materials revolutionised their respective industries and held the mantle of the best, the only choice, for decades. Then both were usurped by smaller, lighter composite materials and while the convenience and perceived performance they offered took over on a wholesale scale, a handful of purists held on to their Electric Ladyland limited edition LPs along with their Colnago Masters and Merckx Leaders. Vinyl may have been suddenly deemed cumbersome, inconvenient to use and harder to source, but it still offered a timeless sound quality that just had something about it, something that CDs and MP3s would struggle to achieve.

Same with steel bikes. There’s an indisputable and indescribable feeling that comes in the first few pedal strokes on a steel bike, and like pulling out that dog-eared copy of Hunky Dory, you know exactly what you’ll be getting, and you’re gonna like it. Picking up a hand-built bike from the person who made it is like going down to the studio to grab a signed slab of wax that Nick Cave hands to you himself. Straight to you.

Where the vinyl record remains round, grooved and black, the steel bicycle’s tubes remain round, straight and flat. You can’t improve on what’s proven. What’s perfect. Only the touch of the hand of the artist can make each one unique, where things that are really just simple things (a record, a bicycle) can be themselves set apart by the signatures laid upon them by their creators, curating originality (Jagger, Jaegher). To say it’s pretty special to see your own bicycle being made, your name on the tubes as they come together to be joined forever by the heat of the torch and the deft touch of the electrode, would be a modest assessment. To finally ride it, might be impossible to describe.

Brett

Don't blame me

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View Comments

Chris says:

Feb 24 2015 at 11:02 am

@wiscot

@unversio

@wiscot

Hear Hear! Next thing someone will start the helmet debate again . . .

There was a helmet debate ?? Thought it was a glove debate ?? Toe covers ??

You’re just a troublemaker you are. Stirring things up with your talk of toe covers and gloves! Next you’ll be advocating that in hot weather we cut the sleeves off our jerseys, roll up our shorts and wear those no-show socks!

How nice it is that we’ve all settled into the old groove so quickly . . .

I don't remember a toe cover debate but someone did roll out on the morning after the Roubaix ride at KT13 sporting a pair. They'll remain nameless only as a result of my failing memory rather than any sense of decorum. Have no doubt though, there wasn't a debate about the subject.
wiscot says:

Feb 24 2015 at 11:07 am

@Chris

@wiscot

@unversio

@wiscot

Hear Hear! Next thing someone will start the helmet debate again . . .

There was a helmet debate ?? Thought it was a glove debate ?? Toe covers ??

You’re just a troublemaker you are. Stirring things up with your talk of toe covers and gloves! Next you’ll be advocating that in hot weather we cut the sleeves off our jerseys, roll up our shorts and wear those no-show socks!

How nice it is that we’ve all settled into the old groove so quickly . . .

I don’t remember a toe cover debate but someone did roll out on the morning after the Roubaix ride at KT13 sporting a pair. They’ll remain nameless only as a result of my failing memory rather than any sense of decorum. Have no doubt though, there wasn’t a debate about the subject.

I'm sure if you could remember what kind of bike he rode and his nationality that would narrow it down considerably! If I ever had the cash to go on a KT, I'd spend months of preparation in making sure I was rule compliant. I'd even eliminate my beloved EPMS.
Teocalli says:

Feb 24 2015 at 12:28 pm

@Chris

@wiscot

@unversio

@wiscot

Hear Hear! Next thing someone will start the helmet debate again . . .

There was a helmet debate ?? Thought it was a glove debate ?? Toe covers ??

You’re just a troublemaker you are. Stirring things up with your talk of toe covers and gloves! Next you’ll be advocating that in hot weather we cut the sleeves off our jerseys, roll up our shorts and wear those no-show socks!

How nice it is that we’ve all settled into the old groove so quickly . . .

I don’t remember a toe cover debate but someone did roll out on the morning after the Roubaix ride at KT13 sporting a pair. They’ll remain nameless only as a result of my failing memory rather than any sense of decorum. Have no doubt though, there wasn’t a debate about the subject.

I beg to differ I do remember it coming up on one thread. Damned if I'm bored enough to try to find it though.
VeloSix says:

Feb 24 2015 at 12:28 pm

@Gianni

@Haldy

@brett

@Haldy

Ok, I’ve probably missed this somewhere, but what is goin on there my friend?

What we have here is my stainless steel( KVA MS3 Tubeset) sitting in Don Walker’s jig getting ready for him to braze together after mitring up the tubes. I have a long, long standing love of custom frames( I have 5..above will be 6..) and Don has been the provider of 4 of them( once I get the above frame from him next week). I met Don at the 2008 North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Portland, ordered a track frame from him,and a great friendship has blossomed as a result. I’ve gone to several shows since then and helped him run his booth as he is too busy running the whole show to spend alot of time in his booth.

You are the man. So is Don Walker by the look of his work. Supporting the frame builders, like you and Brett are doing is important. I always spend too much time drooling over Cyclingnews’s yearly photo-fest of the NAHBS bikes. There a lot of talented people making beautiful who might not be making much money but love the work.

I used to work for a boat builder who would swear, at every launching, when he realized how little money he made or how much he lost, this was the last one, ever. And of course he is still at it, thirty years later.

I seriously find this simply awesome. Hand crafted awesomeness. I have no idea where these guys are, but I'm going to find out and investigate getting myself one of these. I might just put off every other n+1 project until I have one of these to ride
Haldy says:

Feb 24 2015 at 12:39 pm

@VeloSix

Well..Don Walker is out of Lousiville, Kentucky which is where the Handmade Bicycle Show will be taking place next week. Watch all of the cycling news sites..Bikeradar, BikeRumor, Cyclingews..etc for all kinds of photos of hand crafted goodness.

@brett is having a frame made up by Jaegher who is a custom outfit out of Belgium. There may be one those in my future...
VeloSix says:

Feb 24 2015 at 12:43 pm

@Haldy

@VeloSix

Well..Don Walker is out of Lousiville, Kentucky which is where the Handmade Bicycle Show will be taking place next week. Watch all of the cycling news sites..Bikeradar, BikeRumor, Cyclingews..etc for all kinds of photos of hand crafted goodness.

@brett is having a frame made up by Jaegher who is a custom outfit out of Belgium. There may be one those in my future…

Louisville KY?? That's just a tad over 4 hours from me.... This is getting more intriguing by the minute
Haldy says:

Feb 24 2015 at 12:49 pm

@VeloSix

The show is the 6-8th of March, if you come down...stop by Don Walker's booth...I'll be there running it for him
Chris says:

Feb 24 2015 at 12:50 pm

@wiscot

I’m sure if you could remember what kind of bike he rode and his nationality that would narrow it down considerably! If I ever had the cash to go on a KT, I’d spend months of preparation in making sure I was rule compliant. I’d even eliminate my beloved EPMS.

He may well have been Canadian and might have been riding a brand of bike that features a nasty spelling mistake in its name. As I said, my memory is hazy.

@Teocalli

I beg to differ I do remember it coming up on one thread. Damned if I’m bored enough to try to find it though.

I think you might be right. There was no debate on the road in Belgium though.
VeloSix says:

Feb 24 2015 at 12:55 pm

@Haldy

If I can pull that off, I certainly will. I have a race in Nashville that weekend, maybe I go home the (really) long way....
Pedale.Forchetta says:

Feb 24 2015 at 1:37 pm

@brett, this will be (for sure) a 'bel mezzo'.