this bike is full of controversy. Steve gave me this frame to build up and ride and somehow along the way it ended up as a show bike for NAHBS 2016 in Sacramento. i needed a fast bike to ride first of all, since i arrived in Philadelphia with only my beloved Burco dutch city bike. Quickly realizing that i needed more of a war machine to ride through the rough and narrow streets of north philly, with the fattest, sloppiest, ugliest, worst drivers i could have ever imagined, driving the most beat up, barely functioning automobiles ive ever seen (most cars are missing a mirror, have many dents, and clearly running on half their cylinders) and its quite normal to see cars driving on sidewalks, driving with completely flat tires, running redlights, stopping in the middle of the street, etc. so it was time for me to go single speed and flat bar again, –essentially a bike i could ride like a mountain or bmx bike on the streets in traffic, at or above traffic speeds. i never thought i’d ever be riding a pink bike but it was already painted, so i adapted the Philadelphian mentality called "FUCK IT". so the basic specs: 28c Vittoria revolutions, 28 hole deep Vs, ENO rear hub (bike was originally a road race bike which was raced in RAAM) vintage topline cranks, (my all time favourite cranks) 90mm steel stem, flat bars with lots of sweep, flight saddle, crank bros candies, 47 x 17 gearing. Now for the "Show Bike" elements….Steve gave me complete creative freedom on this bike, as well as the slightly involved display stand, lamp, and sign design and construction. I didn’t start with any plan other than I wanted to build something up that was sarcastic, funny, well executed, and real world, as in the bike is purpose build to be ridden. I wanted to stir things up, send out a good "fuck-you" to the show-bike world and NAHBS in general. I had a potential image in mind which basically fueled the whole aesthetic journey of this bike’s creation, that of a bearded working-class metalworker with dirty hands, blue dickies, and steel toed boots hauling ass through the shithole called north philly on a pink bike. i wanted to give some of the fat ass retards up there something to choke on. even though I invented a fictional character as part of this bike’s story, it was based in reality since i did ride the bike everyday in rolled up blue dickies….(i’ll admit that i just couldn’t handle riding it in boots and with a freewheel tho)———–will finish later err stay tuned~~~~~~~~~~
