Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Steel Deluxe catalog bike for sale

A rare opportunity to purchase a complete IF from us. This bike was featured in the 2008 catalog, and has served us well as a showpiece since then, but it's time for her to actually be ridden, so we are looking for a good home.

Specs:

17 inch ST, 23.75 inch TT, 71 degree HT angle, 73 degree ST angle, 13 degrees of TT angle. 80 cm standover, 107.9 cm wheelbase, 73.8 mm trail.

Components:

100 mm Rock Shox SID fork, Chris King head set, SRAM X9, Truvative cranks, Avid mechanical disc brakes, Mavic Crossmax wheels, Hutchinson tires, Thomson stem and seatpost, Synchros bar, WTB Rocket-V saddle

Click on any of the pics for high res detail.
Custom tree paint job


Slider dropouts

Price: $4300 complete. Contact us at sales@ifbikes.com or give us a call at 617-666-3609 if you are interested.

Focus: Machine Signage

Imagery from around the shop of words & letters on machines.










Monday, December 21, 2009

Secret stash of Rapha/IF cross kits discovered...

We've come into a secret stash of Rapha/IF cross kits just in time for that last minute Christmas gift to either yourself or a favorite cyclist. Modeled above by Kevin "Sparky" Wolfson, giving his best Blue Steel.

This kit features stash pockets on both the bibs and the jersey and a padded shoulder for portaging your cross bike.

They can be found and purchased from our online store in the apparel section: HERE

We have also been loading up our IFstore with a whole bunch of other new IF items:

A couple of new bags...

Some new team gear:

A couple of new styles of socks...

A cap:

And a sweet IF/Cateye computer.


Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Cycle Mode Tokyo 2009

Our Man in Japan Daisuke Yano just finished doing the 2009 Cycle Mode Tokyo trade show representing Independent Fabrication as well as the Rapha line of cycling clothing.

Daisuke and his crew always do an amazing job of representing us.

Daisuke had many of our bikes professionally displayed.

He also had a couple of special bikes for the crowds to check out.

The limited edition IF/Rapha cross bike (sold out of the bike but we just unearthed a few of the custom IF/Rapha cross kits from our archives and put them up in our store HERE).



Thank you Daisuke for all of your hard work! We wish we could have been there but we were too busy making bikes for you..... let me know which rack you want to use on that fork, you know the one...

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

On/off, in/out, up/down, faster/slower, and side to side: Handles

These handles get a lot of touching.

They start the day cold but are warm by sundown.


The machines themselves develop a surface patina, whether it is dust, oil or some other type of grime, but the handles are always gleaming.

Everything is so solid in these machines that you would be surprised how much you can actually feel through them.

When operating them by hand you can actually feel the metal being cut.

On/off, in/out, up/down, faster/slower, and side to side: handles make it happen.



Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Bike, Bag and Beer... trifecta

I had a thought a few weeks ago on my commute home. I knew I didn't have any beer at home and it was a long day of welding so I stopped by my local packie to get a some. As usual, I had a bunch of stuff in my bag and had to maneuver an unwieldy six pack into my bag.

The shape of the cardboard six pack carrier made for an uncomfortable situation for the rest of my ride and I thought: "if I had some sort of padded insert in my bag that lined up all of the beers in a single file things would be a little bit more comfortable."

Enter my pals over at BaileyWorks....

I had just completed a photo shoot of some prototype bags they were working on and in exchange they said I could have the bag of my choice.

Being the pain in the ass that I am I came up with a bag design that matched my "steppin' out bike", but I didn't stop there....

I requested a large Baileyworks SuperPro with six pockets sewn into the back panel with a thin foam pad hidden behind it. Each of these pockets needed to fit a bottle of beer.

I called up our buddy Seth over at Harpoon and asked him if he would like to stuff my bag with beer and he obliged. He brought over a case of regular sized ale bottles as well as another case of big 22oz bottles, which, to my surprise, also fit in the bag, due to the elastic cinching sewn into the top of the pockets.

I stuffed the bag full of all of my goods, loaded it up with the bottles, put it on and was amazed at the high level of comfort I experienced. I think we have a winner! Call it what you will... the beer-do-leer, the booze-bag, the alco-hauler, that is for BaileyWorks to decide. Regardless this thing is the shit!

Toni and Jenn over at BaileyWorks were also kind enough to send me some process shots of the bag while it was under construction.

Thanks for making my dream a reality.

Lookin' good and feelin' good, that's the way it should be. XOXO, Tyler.