Austin Bike Industry
Austin Bike Shop Reviews
Bike Shop Review: VO2 Triathlon & Cycles, Jan 15th, 2010No question Austin is a triathlon town. Our summer racing calendar is littered with races from short Sprint distance to ironman distance with races like the Capital of Texas Triathlon pulling national talent to race in our city. Go on any road ride, and more than likely you’ll see at least a few riders riding [...]
Austin Bike Shop resource page updated plus new sidebar links, Aug 25th, 2009Back in March, we started a resource page for the cycling community to make it easier to find local bike shops in one spot. We created a comprehensive list of all the bike shops in town with an interactive map to make it easy to find the place you’re looking for. In that time, we’ve [...]
Austin Bike Shop Review: Nelo’s Cycle Shop, Aug 18th, 2009For the dedicated roadie, Nelo’s Cycle Shop is a little slice of heaven. Whether its the Italian racing frames, pro-cycling posters and banners, or the expert coaching and bike fitting advice of owner Nelo Breda, there is plenty to like if you run with thin wheels whether solo or tandem.
Pro-Racing to Pro Shop
When it comes [...]
I stopped in for a bit at the Eastside Pedal Pushers party on Sunday evening. There was a good crowd of around fifty there having a good time and rocking out to some REALLY loud music (nice job, I just felt too old there). Here’s a slideshow with a few pictures from the event. To [...]
Bicycle Shop Review: The Peddler, Feb 25th, 2009When you step into The Peddler, you immediately feel comfortable. There’s something about their space on North Loop that just feels “homey” and inviting. They opened in 2005, and got just a little bit more space in their admittedly tight shop in the heart of the North Loop area about six months ago. The [...]
Archive of all Bike Shop ReviewsTexas framebuilders
Framebuilder Profile: James Flatman of Alchemy Bicycle Company, Dec 18th, 2009Economic woes be damned, business is good at Alchemy Bicycle Company these days. Framebuilder James Flatman is weathering the storm fine with a traditional build-anything-you-want full custom approach that has yielded a surprisingly steady customer cue for one of Austin’s newest hand built bicycle companies. Still, Flatman is anything but new to the industry offering [...]
A Series of Tubes: Ferguson City Bike with Carbon Belt Drive, Nov 24th, 2009“Bike building is a lot like the Internet. They both involve a series of tubes.” Elliott McFadden,Violet Crown Cycles
This fall, I was contacted by a customer wanting a Ferguson city bike as a possible replacement to his car. He lives and works downtown and was ready to give car free living a try. The problem [...]
The second annual Texas Custom Bicycle Show wrapped up on Sunday in Dripping Springs at the finish line of the LiveStrong Challenge. The show saw a large number of attendees in addition to the LiveStrong participants with folks coming in from Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Conroe, and Fredericksburg just to see custom bicycles made by [...]
Texas Custom Bicycle Show rolls into Austin this weekend, Oct 21st, 2009This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the finest custom bicycle builders from all over the Lone Star state (plus one honorary Texan from Philadelphia) will converge on Austin for the second annual Texas Custom Bicycle Show. The show is free and open to the public and will be a part of the Expo at the LiveStrong [...]
A Series of Tubes: Xtracycle Long Tail with Stokemonkey Pedal Assist, Oct 12th, 2009“Bike building is a lot like the Internet. They both involve a series of tubes.” Elliott McFadden,Violet Crown Cycles
In April during one of my first ventures to the Sunset Valley Farmer’s Market with the Violet Crown Cycles tent, I met an individual who loved the look and functionality of my Ferguson city bikes but really [...]
Bike Industry Personality Profiles
Bike Industry Profile: Brad Beneski of FlashBak, Aug 11th, 2009If you’ve been on any of the Thursday Urban Night Rides, you’ll have seen Brad Beneski. Well, you may not have seen Beneski., but you certainly will have seen his flashing back, lit up like a helicopter landing pad. The lighting system that he is sporting, called the FlashBak, was developed by Beneski in the [...]
Chronic Cycling Wear – Locally Grown Technical T’s and Jerseys, Feb 12th, 2009Nando Caban-Mendez is just an ordinary cyclist, with an ordinary day job as an environmental designer. “I’m not a racer,” he said. “I just love to ride bikes.” And he has designed cycling jerseys and technical t-shirts that fit that same love for bikes. He started Chronic Cycling about a year ago, and has collected [...]
My ride with Independent Fabrication, Jan 30th, 2009Today, I joined Gary Smith and Joe Ingram from custom bicycle framebuilder Independent Fabrication for a Tour of Austin ride sponsored by Bicycle Sport Shop. This ride was part of a roll out of Independent Fabrication as an offering at BSS which now joins Freewheeling as part of the IF dealer network.
Gary Smith is former [...]
Editor’s note: This article is the first in a series of articles we are doing to profile Texas handbuilt framebuilders.
Life is good right now at KirkLee. In just over 12 months, framebuilder Brad Cason has taken a framebuilding business that was just an idea and generated a tremendous amount of buzz as an up and [...]
Jobs Listings
Now Hiring: Part-Time Mechanic at Hammerhead Bicycles, Jan 14th, 2009Hammerhead Bicycles, a bike shop in North Austin that specializes in boutique high-end mountain bikes, road bikes, parts and accessories, is looking to hiring an experienced, part-time mechanic.
According to their Craigslist posting, they are looking for someone with lots of experience. In addition to standard service you must be able to do custom bike builds, rebuild forks, [...]
