Moth Attack

[mothattack]

Traveling in Melbourne for Messenger World Champs for the week, but I brought a new bike. KVA Stainless, Enve carbon ST, all fun.


[url=https://flic.kr/p/rUHZbR]

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I dug up some older photos for someone and some photos I pulled from customers. Just back in to the swing of things post-vaction so it's been all work and little computer.

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I also put up an offer to donate 25% of anything sold on the store to the South Chicago Velodrome Association to help save the the track down there from being removed in May. I'm track-homeless at the moment, but would hate to see another put out of commission.

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[Too Tall]

Righteous work as always Megan. Veldromes are worth saving, thanks for that.

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and they always seem to need saving.

[Mark Kelly]

Did you get to visit the ones in Melbourne while you were here?

I believe we're the only city in the world with two indoor velodromes (plus six outdoor).

[mothattack]

I spent a day at Brunswick, but that was it. I'll be back though! I had an amazing time out there.

[Too Tall]

Megan, riddle me this. I have in the past done some track racing at Trexlertown and really love it. The most appealing bike to me are good old steel track bikes with nice compact headtubes and (wait for it) threaded steerers so that I can quickly and easily swap out bars for pack racing or TT events. Threadless is "OK" but threadless is the business or it was the business ;)

I'm not advocating a throwback in time to satisfy some reenactment of days gone by. I would like to talk about how modern track bikes have evolved and deal with heavy use by modest consumers who are not going to amateur races with two bikes....for instance.

What do you see or have you seen in track bikes that makes you happy as a builder and rider and what design elements most excite you and why?

[mothattack]

Megan, riddle me this. I have in the past done some track racing at Trexlertown and really love it. The most appealing bike to me are good old steel track bikes with nice compact headtubes and (wait for it) threaded steerers so that I can quickly and easily swap out bars for pack racing or TT events. Threadless is "OK" but threadless is the business or it was the business ;)

I'm not advocating a throwback in time to satisfy some reenactment of days gone by. I would like to talk about how modern track bikes have evolved and deal with heavy use by modest consumers who are not going to amateur races with two bikes....for instance.

What do you see or have you seen in track bikes that makes you happy as a builder and rider and what design elements most excite you and why?

I used my Guchi-built lugged, threaded track bike to get me to Nationals years ago, so I'm with you there. Though I had more than a couple people tell me 'you need a new bike, that's heavy' without knowing where it came from. Good for a laugh.

I started building for a lot of big sprintery types who were breaking and flexing aluminum and carbon frames to scary points so that's how I ended up with a lot of overbuilt frames in the world. We were to a point of watching sprinters flex their steerer tubes and gluing steel inserts and tapping in 1" starnuts to stop it. I had to wait about a year from the moment I put the request out in to the world to getting my hands on a tapered track fork.

I run across few people that fit that category these days though, so most track frames are seeing the occasional pair of aero bars. Mostly it's been about stem choice. Slightly shorter head tubes seem to accommodate the aero bar with a slightly less aggressive stem on drop bars.

My source on tapered track forks a few yeas back had me doing backflips. It's a great fork, 37mm offset, and looks clean with larger steel tubes. The thing that really keeps me stoked on track bikes though is that they don't really need to change much to stay relevant and there is so little to hide behind with so few parts. I remember sitting on the infield at an Elite Nats with a friend pointing out the massive number of steel bikes. No one is worrying about grams unless they're under weight.


This is probably about your size....

[Too Tall]

THAT would work. Heck of a bike. I like how you think about this M.D.
This Spring I'll be back at the track and with any luck helping a pal get ready for Masters Track Nats by serving as his moving target / human motorpacer.

[mothattack]

Nice! I'm about to visit with my track bike in CO. Considering bringing it to Vegas so maybe I can drop in to at Encino in the next couple months while I'm on the west coast.

When I fit that bike, I didn't trust my own inseam measurement at first. He is pushing 7ft so his bikes tend to look like they're all on 650's.

[mothattack]

Sometimes I get to ride too.



Getting ready to build some team bikes in May. Still stoked on my sponsorship choices!

[sk_tle]

Your smoked out thread makes me miss track racing.

[steve garro]

How was brazing up a whole stainless frame?

That's something I've never done.

- Garro.

[mothattack]

This was my 4th fillet brazed, and first with the Fillet Pro. It makes me a lot less anxious now and I think I'll stick with the FP. It's a little easier to work with and builds up a little better than the Harris 45.

I wouldn't consider it if I wasn't a big fan of the ride though.

[Amaro Bikes]

Come on Megan, tell us something, either girly broken nails or dog hugs, keep the Smoke up!

[mothattack]

Just for you Aimar!

Survived the building part of the team bikes, so now we're on to all of the fun stuff. Super looking forward to the year and I still don't regret it, so there's that.

They even got a little logo rebranding...



This made it safely to Denver...


And the injured pair is slowly recovering both physically and mentally.



About to head to Denver for a week for the North American Cycle Courier Championships to sponsor and help out and get some coffee rides in with some lovely folks.

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oh yeah, my nails look awful!

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That first photo should look like this....

[Amaro Bikes]

the injured pair is slowly recovering both physically and mentally.

Body follows mind!

Great news, keep it going