Leave Lance Alone

Erik Jonsson's Pinarello Stelvio

If I had the means to build a road bike right now, it would definitely look a lot like this.  Old Steel, primarily modern components and zipps; such a killer combo.  The bike belongs to Erik Jonsson of The 5th Floor, for more images and a complete parts list, check out their site.

Road To Paris

Although, I haven't watched it yet, I patiently await the arrival of Lance Armstrong's "Road To Paris", a 27 day chronicle of Lance and the US Postal Service cycling team at the time (2008). There are always haters but it is really undeniable that Lance is one of the most driven people on this planet.  Even if you have no interest in the film, I highly recommend watching this clip of his trainer talking to him during a ride about the treacherous roads ahead.  It just shows you how insane he was during the peak of his performance

2012 Philadelphia International Cycling Championship

Although I wasn't in attendance myself (I had the pleasure of soaking up some rays at the beach) one of my good friends Cat Powers was able to snap a few shots for me.  I'm really digging these two, it's crazy how close to the action she got (the perks of being a Comcast Sports intern).  Next year I'm definitely going to try and make it out, if you missed the race too, check out the Pro Cycling Tour website for more info.  Thanks again Cat!

Ritte Van Vlaanderen Overload

Ever since I saw the radical Ritte window display in Cadence Cycling and Multisport in Manayunk, I fell in love.  The style, craftsmanship and standard colorway are unbelievable,  the team is awesome and who else comes up with ads like this and this?  Fabrication videos are some of my favorites and this is no exception. Plus, the music is dope, which is always an added bonus.



In going with the Ritte theme, this is the best tattoo of all time (sorry for the lack of photo credit, it's an awesome shot that has been sitting in depths of the "random junk" folder).



I'm on Ritte overload right now, too bad I'm a starving college student.

BMC Dream Machine

So I have been admiring this 08' BMC SLX01 for quite some time now, waiting for some photos of it built up but honestly, I just can't wait any longer so I am going throw up what was available.  This repaint bumped BMC up significantly on my "one day I'll get one of those" list.  For a full component rundown check out his Velospace. Still hoping that one day there will be some rad photos of this machine in my inbox, but until then...I can only dream.

2012 Fraternity Row Criterium at Penn State

Today I attended the annual Fraternity Row Criterium here at Penn State, which was pretty rad. Although the weather wasn't perfect it was much better than last year (it rained the whole time). I'm always blown away by the Penn State course, with so many sharp turns and crazy sprints, there is never a dull moment. Overall a ton of unbelievable bikes, lots of talented cyclists and Penn State took first place in both men's and women's class A races; whoot whoot!

1983 Raleigh Lightweight Series Catalogue

This time of year is always the worst, balancing life and obscene amounts of school work means not so much time for Crank It.  But anyway I"M BACK and I was digging through a stack of papers in my basement over Thanksgiving break and came across this rad 1983 Raleigh Lightweight Series Catalogue that came with my dad's 1983 Raleigh Olympian.  I was looking through the catalogue and it is really awesome to see how some of the older parts and frames are still in such high demand.  The special order 753 with aero breaks, Of Mega crankset and campy deraileurs is simply out of control.  Only 100 of these bad boys made in '83  Steel is real!

If you have any specific questions about anything in the catalogue feel free to email me.

FNG Presents L'Eroica 2011

Spotted on FRESHNGOOD

 I'm no expert when it comes to Italian and Google translate can only get you so far, but as they say a picture (or a whole slew of them) is worth 1000 words.  I spotted this awesome photoset on FRESHNGOOD's website of the 2011 retro cycling L'Eroica event.  From what I have gathered L'Eroica is a retro themed bike race that follows an unbelievable route through the Tuscany countryside (who wouldn't want to do that?). Above I picked out a few of my favorites and you can check out more on FNG's website linked above. Crediamo in te bici!

Tommasini Strada "The Drooler"

Spotted on CycleEXIF

I am a HUGE fan of vibrant colors and an even bigger fan of steel bicycles so when I laid eyes on this beautiful Tammasini Strada built by, the ever impressive, Shifter Bikes in Melbourne Australia, I pretty much died and went to heaven. The color combo on this thing is breath taking and all the black Campy Super Record components are just icing on the cake.  Everytime I look through the original pictures on Fame & Spear's Flickr I notice something new; beautifully stamped lugs, internal cable routing, the blindingly awesome paint job, the list goes on.  I could honestly ramble about this bike for pages.  A man can dream can't he?

For more awesome pictures of Shifter Bikes' UNBELIEVABLE shop check out Prolly's coverage.  I need a road bike badly.

Cadence Cycling & Multisport Center: Visit

Today a friend and I hopped in the car and rode down to Manayunk to check out the Cadence bike shop on Main street and it was unbelievable to say the least. The store was FILLED with top of the line Cervelo's, Canondale's, Wilier's and so many more. I forgot a camera so these less than satisfactory phone pictures will have to do for now. A guy can dream can't he? I have to say, walking through that shop felt like browsing around in a Ferrari dealership. The visit also helped me realize that I would give my left arm for a black and green, 2011 Cervelo R5.

ECCC Nittany Cycling Classic: Frat Row Criterium

Two of my friend's teammates had these Lynskey Helix frames. They are SO DOPE. The twisted titanium is out of control and probably bomb proof too.


Before It really started raining.

Today was the Frat Row Criterium, which is the second half of the Nittany Cycling Classic. Although I did not participate it was undoubtedly an exciting event. The course had an obscene amount of sharp turns and seeing how it is always raining in State College there were way too many crashes. Racers were sliding all over the road with more wrecks than I could even count. Unfortunately I didn't see the end of women's A/B or the men's A because one of my good friends was one of the riders injured in a crash. Honestly I think they should have postponed the race. When people start breaking bones left and right it seems reason enough to me.  Anyway I'm glad I got to check out the race and my brain is still on bike pron overload.

Major Drooling Material

Trek 1200, Colnago Master,  Zunow Rainbow, Rossin RLX

Recently I have been sifting through thousands of road bikes on Velospace and here are a few that I found myself staring at for way too long.  Grab some paper towels...to wipe the drool off of your keyboard of course.  I love fixed but I need some gears!

If it wasn't ridiculously obvious,  I love steel (I know, I know the 1200 is aluminum but I would still kill a man for that bike).

Mr. Pink

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Spotted on All-City's Blog

I have been riding fixed for over two years now and for the past few months I have been searching for the perfect road bike.  In the words of All-City "no one out there is doing a high end steel frameset anymore" which to some extent is true.  Bianchis and Cinellis are over priced and everything else comes with a Tiagra groupset at best.  Although it is only a prototype, the Mr. Pink might just be the dream bike I have been waiting for! Between the Zona tubing, internal cable routing and mid reach breaks for extra clearance I can't think of anything they missed.  I'm super stoked on this frame and I can't wait for more details on the final release.  STEEL IS REAL!

I Want.