Drawing: Westin Macau

This weekend past was full of dancing with the showgirls in Macau whilst staying at the old Westin- a strange mix of 60s Brutalism and Po-mo Spanish. I focused on the former in my attempts to capture. With a little help from my friend....

Regal

I'm trying out a white Selle San Marco Regal saddle at the minute. Quite different to my usual Selle Italia road bike perch penchant- much rounder over the top, but not disagreeable at all. Now all I need to do is grow a foot taller, add a beard and my Tom Boonen 2005 look will be complete.

Landmark

Look Up.

Tai Hang Textures

/ Cat on a hot tin roof.

The Ridge

Enough to give me vertigo...

Lombardia

October is upon us...

https://www.etsy.com/hk-en/listing/126583043/cycling-art-print-tour-of-lombardy?ref=shop_home_active_10

Bombay

I could forego my Hendricks for a drop of Sapphire in here.

http://www.heatherwick.com/distillery/

Tom's XCR

This build started from the archives of our late departed ColinR. In amongst the treasure trove of bike parts we were tasked with selling off to generate some funds for Colin's son was this unused custom built XCR frame. The geometry is a bit unusual in that it needs someone with long legs relative to their body, and obviously they need to be tall. I managed to find a buyer close to home in my brother in law, for whom I completed the build with a new 10 speed Dura-Ace / Ultegra mix, some used Easton wheels and white Cinelli finishing kit. The result is a nice understated bling look that should be gracing the streets of London any week now. May the spirit live free.

Bowring

Street style in Jordan.

2002

Blood Oranje for this Bimmer as seen on Tin Hau Mui Doh.

Pegoretti

Nice interview with the Italian frame builder:

http://www.cycleexif.com/interview-dario-pegoretti

New Addition

This one was born with cleats.

Mondial

Some cars just have to be red.

Drawings: HK Man Cave Mk.III

The process of going from my mind's eye to the above (get it drawn), then to the below (get it built) is always a fun one. In this case the 'brief' was to provide a two in one partition wall that would split our rather odd spare bedroom into half bike room and half utility / helper's room. Without fixing into the floor, walls or ceiling...

This brief dictated some a slightly slimmed down bike storage footprint (if I was to maintain the workbench from man cave Mk.II), which all led towards suspending my bikes vertically from the partition wall to both save space and use the dead weight of the bikes to stabilise the wall against an effective ground up trussed cantilever. A bit of a gallows aesthetic allows me to lift two bikes up suspended from hooks and stagger in elevation. The other three are then secured with back to back angles fixed one tire width apart with their back wheels on the ground. This allows me to fit five bikes in a space three road handlebars wide and one bike deep, with an extra row of wheels up top / some spare frames above the door. Trust me when I say it is better to work these things out on paper first before committing the saw to wood.

The extra good news is that I did all this for less than 1000HKD (about £75), and it only took two weekends to build, with time for riding either side. I make that less than one of those silly Topeak poles that only store two bikes on top of each other, and I got a free partition wall in the process! Vive la DIY / forza mia man cave.

Torre David vs Walled City

I'm a big fan of 'City of Darkness', and once I'm done with Gina Ford I'll be more than happy to switch onto 'Torre David'- the story of the crazy Caracas Tower featured in Homeland now in the process of eviction. This article has an interesting comparison of sorts between the two:

http://archidose.blogspot.hk/2014/08/book-review-torre-david.html

Bamboo Opera

Some blue skies and an out of season Chinese Opera bamboo pavilion at Sha Lo Wan village, Lantau.

Proun Room

Quite different to a prune room.

http://www.designishistory.com/1920/el-lissitzky/

Samui Style

A bit of an alternative take on Tour de France race tech- here's some Tour de Koh Samui local Thai tech. The juice may be similar.

Tour de Yorkshire

As we all prepare to go down 'tut Eurosport sofa pit, I predict an Iberian peninsula jambon renaissance at the top of tree this year:

Première moutons - Contador

Deuxième moutons – Rui Costa

Troisième moutons - Froome

Roi des moutons de montagne - Rolland

Moutons Points de classification - Cavendish

Jeunes moutons - Kwiatkowski

On The Roofs

A pictures says a thousand words, therefore I need only add a vertigo warning to the below links:

http://ontheroofs.com/hong-kong-2/
http://ontheroofs.com/shanghai-tower/#more-5170

English

Well, actually, quite American, but still one heck of a nice road bike...

http://www.englishcycles.com/custombikes/giless-v3/

Mac

I'm obviously as keen as the next GSA alumni that the Mackintosh School of Art be restored to it's former glory (albeit with a sprinkler system in place). However, I can't help but wonder whether the UK government would give 5 big ones to a Scotland that had just decided to vote for independence. Curious how politics can work in these situations...

http://glasgowschoolofart.cmail1.com/t/ViewEmail/r/0CC7CB0C3B56AE272540EF23F30FEDED/42CB3B35CBB0A8AC1726EA5DA1051479