Very little rabbit was wasted in the construction of our Easter Edition Brooks Peter P13‘s.
And so, the British winter continues apace. As we find ourselves in the middle of laughably named Spring Classics season, the R&D department at Smethwick has come up with a Special Edition to commemorate the first snowbound Easter weekend in living memory in the Midlands.
Only three years in business and already rated by many the finest bike shop in the American capital, Washington’s Bicycle Space is set later next month to be third port-of-call on the gin-soaked magical mystery tour that is our Brooks Dashing Bicycle Show.
And as if the prospect of free booze in such salubrious surroundings wasn’t sufficient inducement, on the opening night of 20th April, guests will be joined by the prominent American blog- and bookwriter Eben Weiss, who has kindly agreed to bring along a few advance copies of his latest offering, Bike Snob Abroad.
In Germany, riding with no hands will cost you €5 if a member of the force wishes to pull you on it. As will allowing a friend to hitch a lift on your rack.
Sir Hubert Opperman getting the knots in. Photo bicyclehistory.com.au
Scott Dickson will be known to regular readers of the Brooks Blog as one of a trio of Tasmanian tourers who like doing things the hard way. In 2011 they tackled Paris-Brest-Paris on machines which in their overall build largely pre-dated the Second World War.
Since that time we have heard from Scott in regard to their next project. A Land’s End to John O’ Groats ride in 2014, featuring the three once again on period machinery to mark the 80th anniversary of the 1934 LeJog record finishing time set by Sir Hubert Opperman (“Oppy”). We let Scott take up the story…
Berlin’s annual Berliner Fahrradschau returned to the halls of Kreuzberg’s Station venue at the weekend. Harsh, snowy conditions prevailing in the German capital proved no obstacle to thousands of cycling enthusiasts who showed up to drool over a near-infinity of fine bicycles and sundry bicycling accessories, each one of them snowflake-like in their uniqueness.
This one was there, fresh from hosting its own personal Drool-athon at the NAHBS last month.
And of course, so were we.
Click the pic to browse through the entire first edition of Bunyan Velo in fullscreen
The past few years have seen an ever-growing number of new publications vying for the attention of people who like to read in-depth stories about cycling. And the fact has not been lost on most editors that these readers also tend to like looking at well taken cycling photos as well.
A Spanish advertising agency is overseeing a new project to produce bicycles built largely out of materials scavenged from scrapped Barreiros, Kapis and SEATs.
Works Manager Steven Green presents Phil Webb with his Employee of the Year trophy.
Last week at the Smethwick Works, a small ceremony took place to honour our 2012 Brooks Employee of the Year.
Since his initial short spell with us way back in 1971, Phillip Webb has found himself at times elsewhere employed, but like the proverbial bad penny, he always come back. This, of course, is the only tendency which Phil shares with a bad penny. In all other respects he’s an excellent guinea, so to speak. And fortunately, his most recent stint has lasted thus far since 2004.
On your own. This year’s Transcontinental will demand much independent thinking of its riders.
If you were one of the thousands who avidly followed the heroics of Mike Hall et al last year in their race around the globe during the WCR Grand Tour, then we have news of a very special forthcoming event that should be of interest to you.
Two weeks of two-wheeled, human-powered, sleep-deprived talking to yourself, with little but Mother Nature and the purr of chain sliding over cog to keep you company along roads sandwiched by the Thames and Bosphorus. “Unmatched… Unconstrained…”, but perhaps most importantly, “Unsupported.”
Welcome to the Quick Energy Transcontinental Race.
We mentioned here recently how we have been lucky enough to have Rivendell’s Grant Petersen contribute a piece for our forthcoming edition of the Brooks Bugle.
The excellence of the machines designed and assembled by Petersen and his team in Walnut Creek, California has long since attained Article of Faith status among aficionados of lugged steel frames around the world. Not forgetting that before setting up on his own, his work as a designer at Bridgestone in the early 90s had already spawned the iconic X0 series.
