Some of the best bicycles that roll out the door of any bike shop are not the ones you see reviewed in magazines, or linked between many of the velo blogs. They are the bikes that bring people(and whatever else you can fit on them, or on you while riding them) to their destination in a healthy, environmentally conscious, sometimes quicker, less stressful.........the list goes on..... way. More importantly(at least to me), these bikes give people a better understanding of their environment and perhaps along the way a better understanding of themselves and those around them. Obviously the whole peace and love via biking thing could be a stretch and is certainly a bit nauseating at times. Sill while few would call me the optimist I imagine some sense of solidarity with my fellow cyclist and have made many fast friends, a few worthy rivalries, and only the occasional nemesis.

If a bike is to do any of this, the least it must do is work. If it is even possible for a bike to do all of this, then it must be a bicycle that you want to ride. Obviously the bike we all want to ride is different from person to person, and sometimes different from day to day(me thinking about the next project before the current one even has wheels on it). Whether the thing you need and let us not importantly forget want... be brightly collered parts that you don't need but definitely want, or a front rack that you need to bring home groceries(and a 6...make it 12 pack), a custom built frame, or even despite our namesake a brake, we not only make it our business to hunt the parts down and put it together, well we also enjoy it.

Alyson's bike is a prime example. And the rickshaw I am still working on is another but I don't even have a picture of it.



What started out as a "art bike" from sopo that was the bike that Alyson wanted to ride, soon made it to our doors in the form of a frame and a fork and some other parts haphazardly assembled to it.
The fork steer tube was and still is too short, the bb needed retapping, the rear triangle was and still is bent, her original headset was missing the bottom bearings which was the only way for the "artist" or "mechanic" to cover up the real problem that the fork was too short, the quill of the quill stem was dysfunctional......at the begining and the middle and the end it was apparent that a new bike could and would have been cheaper, which is either the testament or the fallacy of french threaded peugoets and conversions everywhere.
Either way she is riding the bike she wanted to ride.