Stratons Raleigh Royal

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Mark Skulls

Heres Straton aka Plagways everyday comuter townie and now tourer he’s been slowly dialling in with some sick bits.

Set up now for his epic ride through Morroco over the atlas mountains and into the sahara desert for a world music festival.

Parts rundown

Renyolds 531 Raleigh Royal

shimano hubs 105? laced to open pros

Panaracer Pasala tyres (mudgaurds are off for morroco and bigger tyres on)

shimano triple and 9 speed MTB 11-32 cassette

dura-ace bar end shifters

time atac pedals

Nitto albatross bar

TF imports stem

Paul cantilever brakes with kool stop salmon pads

VO grande crue seatpost with Brooks B17 saddle

Brooks bar tape with jelly tape underneath

Topeak XL bottle cage

Soma front porteur rack

Nitto rear saddle bag support

Carradice camper? saddlebag

Prologic carp fishing bag front

Worth a read

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Mark Skulls

Euro Asia Imports

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Teva

Hi everybody!

welcome to an exclusive little post i have been meaning to post in the past four frecking months.

Last October, i got the opportunity to visit one of the most amazing bicycle wholesaler while Visiting the United States of America with my beloved girlfriend Sarah.

I mention Sarah because while i was doing my little visit i had lost track of time and spent 3 hours taking photos and getting my mind blown away by the sheer amount of cycling history that those dry californian walls are hiding.

Anyway, the whole visit is all thanks to Twhites Bikes and our ‘amazing’ communications skills and professionalism. Actually, we just asked them if i could come check the place out and they said yes.

It took a while to find the place as it was so inconspicuous and bare of any big signage. For all you bike nerds out there, that’s how you recognize quality in the business industry, not via tons of hype and colours and showmanship, except the japanese, they can do whatever they want. i’m talking crap right now.

So! let’s get going with this visit. i’ll keep it short and succinct in order to appreciate the images. they’re not really in good chronological order but bare with me.

their offices are sitting above a chiropractor ( just in case you guys try to look it up on google maps)

that’s their main entrance door. minimalistic to the bone

The man in charge: Dave Lundegard

He showed me around and made sure i got to have a view of every tiny corners of the place.

the view when entering

they still use punch cards, crazy cool!

Memorabilia everywhere!
sweet shwinnn clock (not for sale)
This is the view of one the 3-4 warehouses they have filled with New Old Stock parts. they also have a couple of containers sitting outside packed to the rafters because they needed more space. the amount of stock was acquired sometimes via bike distributor closing down and getting rid of their old stock. EAI would get told and they would just buy it.
the way it works is that the office has a small warehouse with most of the parts. the other warehouses are like ‘back-up pantries’. if the main warehouse run of an item, they just waltz to the other building and re-stock the main one. you wouldn’t believe the quantity i’m talking about.

Hubset especially made for Eddy Merckx when he was destroying the hour record. Dave believes that there are only about 6 or 12 pairs ever made of those and euro-asia has 3 deadstock of them! stilll in box with seals still on. be prepared to pay the right price for those.

Yes people! i did get close to their gold pro chainring. still in production but good things take time. the finish on them is insanity.

Oh! that? it’s the office tarantula. no big deal

and his leftover skin

DSCF1883 You want Cinelli lazer? they might have a few NOS frames lying around getting built up.

How about a track Lazer? those were just pristine to the max. drooling material indeed.

couple of panorama shots for the sake of it.

Lunch time in the warehouse.

Drawers full of cogs

just plain cool

anyone for a campy 60t track?

or maybe a taste of the ultra rare campy -i don’t know what they’re called- chainring. double pitch? skip teeth? i should ask Dave Benson.

EAI were the 1st campagnolo distributor in the USA in the 70s and they have kept a super strong relationship with the italian brand over the years.

Anyway, nothing beats a tequila shot while visiting the warehouses

it’s a fax machine.

If you want to see more mind-blowing stuff click on this link. it’s my flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/t_tchong

Sayonara Tokyo

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Mark Skulls

Heres a few pics I took before I left.

Crazy concept Cheribum show bike at the new Cheribum shop opening in Aoyama

You wouldn’t lock your cherubim out on the street with that lock in london.

Hirojuku girl

Vegan Ramen!

Thats it. Japan is totally awesome and rad and everyone is super nice. Its very flat and easy to cycle as long as you know your way around. Theres not really much crime so it feels very safe. The food is great especally for the carnivores and its crazy so if you get a chance try and make it there. Im gonna go back for sure.

Even more tokyo!

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Mark Skulls

Today was the best.

We went to 3 awesome shops and ate the best vegan food of the trip.

We started at Sexon super peace to check out brand new cheribum lowpros and ridiculous njs bikes with loads of mods.

Great brake mods. Amazing frames but everything was super expensive.

Next we went to a shop I was really excited about. CPW skate shop where they build F@$! crazy bikes and are generally rad.

The dude on the left runs the shop and was super nice guy. The shop is small but full of rad nos skate and bmx bits, cool boards and t-shirts.

Down the road a bit is ABOVE bike shop. I was really excited about this one too but it blew me away!

The shop is big and jammed with beautiful displays of pimp parts and amazing custom bikes.

They have there own paint booth with a in house painter “swamp” doing custom spray and pin striping.

After a amazing vegan feast I saw some cool polo bikes outside.

More Tokyo

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Mark Skulls

Some more bikes off the streets today.

Some cool motos

bike parking

I headed back to blue lugg (couldnt help myself) to pick up a couple of things for myself, (got your lever mike and pump head teva)

Always a good day when you see a giant pin in the sky and get to bowl somewhere new.

Tokyo MEGA post

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Mark Skulls

So Ive been here two days now and taken maybe 200 photos so I thought I better do a post.

Just as we arrived in tokyo it started to snow, REALLY heavy. It dumped about 5 inches that night. We dragged our suitcase through the snow to “mark city” and onto our next train.

We got to our place and kipped down for a good 12hrs after being up 24hrs.

Next day we ventured out to shibuya which is the hip part of town and I saw a few cool bikes on the way.

And this shop that sells skull shit

saw some weird plastic food stuffs

Went to Tokyo Hands which is a big department lifestyle store it has a bike section which was really awesome.

That yeti was sick!

They also had heaps of other rad things like tiny cyclist models

Then walked around and saw some njs in the snow.

and some other awesomeness

We found W-base and found most of the best bikes outside.

small shop but the pimpest shit REALTREE profiles yo!

PFO!

This was a shop near where were staying, it was sort of cheaper bikes but they were still crazy.

this cool cruiser shop was round the corner

in a clothing store.

mental?!

Super potato! Retro video game heaven.

This vintage toy shop was awesome. I bought a rad Bandai Ultra Kaiju.

more bikes on the street

Last thing we went to blue lugg

its was BIG and FULL of AWESOME everywhere.

The best bikes were again there own ones sitting out side unlocked. Each one was an awesome pile of crazy paint, pimp parts and sweets mods, but it was dark and hard to take good pics.

cool modded mudguard.

Then we went back to shimokitaza where were staying and had a beer at this cycle cafe.

They were nice and playing old stages of the tour on the TV.

Few cool bikes outside

Thats it for now. More too come.

They don’t have mince&cheese pies in australia.

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Teva

You might have noticed but i was in the affluent and creative city of Melbourne recently. Evidently my inside bike nerd pushed me to check out the cycling landscape and ‘test’ out the different bike shops around whilst riding Rowan’s bike of Pavement Destruction. So here I am at fancy “Saint Cloud” checking paintjobs on Somec and all. Having a Chat with moustachy dude (Rowan knows who i’m talking about) and perving at parts as per usual.

However when it was time for me to leave i thought of going to check out Anchor Bmx. And whilst i proceeded to find the place on the map, a interesting chap on a kmart mountain bike (let’s call him Chris because i can’t remember his name) started to chat with moustachy dude about random stuff (and i mean random, Brian mckay style).

The moment the talk started to get a bit to jazzy for my liking i took it as a cue for me to leave. But that’s the moment Chris thought of taking me to Anchor Bmx. Just my luck! as i thought sarcastically to myself. Anyhow, i had nothing else planned for the day and i could always bolt away if it got a bit awkward. Nonetheless, here we go riding around checking out the side streets for street art and random galleries that Chris wanted to show me.

After about 20mins, he took me on this small street where arty kids were hanging out in an empty lot with a veggie garden. Across the road from the organic children was an industrial building with metal and wood junk lying about. Chris proceeded to knock on the door of 47 Chapel st and a gentleman in a engineer’s overall came out and had a wee chat.

I found out that this Chap in question is Jesse Geisler and has been making bike frames and tools for frame builder for the past 20years! His brand is called ‘Bike Bar’ and from what i have seen he used to lived in Sydney a while back.

Having only a few mins to ask questions and take pictures (chris was rushing me a bit), here is what i got from the amazing workshop.

Apparently Jesse does not use much of the internet medias to get known. He mostly relies on word of mouth and business doesn’t seem to stop for him. However, If you want to talk to him or contact him he does have a website http://www.bikebar.com.au/

Rock Lobster

Posted on November 6, 2012 by Teva

So the other day i visited Rowan and Shanelle in Melbourne. Did you know that you have to a plane to go to melbourne? can’t even ride there. Evidently, we decided to squat their apartment for handful of evenings. His pad is Big, and i’m not talking Tom Hanks in ‘Big’, I’m talking Mr. Big from Sex and the City BIG. there is so much space that you can stumble drunk around the whole place without hitting anything. love it. And if you bring some, you can do lines in the bathroom because they have a bench in there, a bench i tell you! Quite Miami if you ask me. But the place has so much flair and style which is not shocking given the people who live there.

Then proceeded to visit Browan at his job and check out the hype. The place is a room tucked away on the ground floor of a 50′s building (i’m guessing it’s from that era, don’t quote me on it). They have a choice as set up, a maître d’hôte (aka mason), a show Colnago kitted out with Dura Ace ax, stuff in a cabinet, barber chairs, a tv cranking sports, toys, a beer fridge (surprisingly full). So they do fades, shaving, conversations and drinking. The Nec plus Ultra is that those son of a guns are sponsored by Rapha! casual

The Maître d’hôte

Obviously i couldn’t turn up in melbourne empty handed. notice how Rowan’s love for camo extends to his bench seat.

Once again, thanks Rowan and Shanelle for putting up with us, especially when Shanelle was a couple of weeks from finishing her semester at school. Sleep well you two.

Wales

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Mark Skulls

Here some pics from wales. Some really nice trails and pubs with a few badass hills.

Things I learnt on this trip.

Pack light – Sounds kinda obvious but when your crawling up that 20th bigass hill fully loaded up you’ll be glad you didn’t pack your full ninja weapon collection.

Drink top shelf – Light weight related. When your picking up food and booze for the evening hit up the top shelf and decant into your water bottle so you aren’t hauling heavy ass glass bottles up the hill to your camp. Also means if theres some left over the next day you can hit it as soon as your on the road again.

My boots are awesome – Shimano goretex boots ain’t vegan but there totally waterproof and perfect for camping and stomping around in the mud. First trip riding in spds too. Some of the muddy sections where sketchy, I wouldn’t wear them mountainbiking but for the road and especially the hills they’re good.

Better to be too hot rather than too cold – Took my lightweight summer sleeping bag on the last trip and even though it was hot during the day it got pretty cold at night. My new snugpak bag is made in the UK and is used by the military. Its super warm and vegan too.

Biolite rulz – This little guy is super fun. I had doubts about being able to use this after the rain but finding dry fuel for it was easier than I thought. I’m definitely getting one.

Off to Wales

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Mark Skulls

Got new sleeping bag and shoes to test. Report when I get back.

Gravel and Fire

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Mark Skulls

Went camping in surrey this weekend
Found some green about 65km outside london and lit some fires.

The LHT with new tires and front panniers. Heavy as fuck.

Flat tire pit stop

Campsite.

Dinner time.
Ashas friend had this rad Biolite stove. You throw some twigs in it and itll charge your phone while you cook your dinner!

I was into it.

Works sweet! once you get it going its like a little incinerator, it’ll burn up a whole branch you just gotta keep feeding it little bits.

Now for the real fire.

Burn baby burn

Also went to a country fair and saw ferret racing!
Ferrets seamed pretty rad.

There was a dog show too and I saw the biggest dawg eva!

We took the long way home along some bridlepaths. Its was about 20km longer but 100 times nicer than the road.

Gravel n fire is weekend win.

Super Normal

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Mark Skulls

Super Normal is a small hippy noise festival in Ipsden Oxfordshire.
Watch the video from last year you’ll get the idea.

So me and Asha and Jamie and Bobby from Tokyofixed headed out there.
Me on the LHT, asha on her cannondale, jamie on his Kona and Bobby on his new Pugsley!

We rode about 90-100km? getting a bit lost and taking our time trying to stay off the main roads.

The pugsley was blowing minds the whole weekend. All I heard the whole way was chris king and “Oh my god look at those tyres”. (full bike check soon)

camping vibez

chillin vibes

food vibes

Coffee vibes

more chillin vibez.

So we saw some crazy bands and drank loads and ate great vegan food and free bread people and drank bloodymarys and lazed around and watched weird films and drank more and saw more crazy bands and drank espresso Martinis and it was awesome.

The guys headed off early to get the train back for work, but me and ash stayed till the end and had an extra day staying in a campsite in Henley before riding back to london.

Then………………………………… it was time to bowl.

Amsterad

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Mark Skulls

Heres some pic from the weekend, went to Utrecht in the Netherlands for MASSIVE record fair, saw loads of weird “collectable” junk and a billion records and a bunch of nerdz and brown food, a dj on a bike, skulls and a couple of ventures records I didn’t have. Ate AWESOME ethiopian food.
Then we went to amsterdam for a couple of days and just walked around, saw a shitpile of dutch bikes, massive bike parking lots, cool cargo bikes, dogs in bikes, bamboo bike shit, some boats, a massive warehouse artist space with heaps of cool studios, tiki’s, graffiti, trains and a skatepark in the roof, and spotted a purple lady.

Was a rad trip, go to amsterdam if you can! Bike OWN there you can ride whatever however you like no rulz! Everyone rides and most people are one the phone running red lights with their girlfriend or kids on the back riding with just a rear coaster brake. Its a rad city.

Anyway check out the pics….

IM OFF FOR A BIT.

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Rowan Duley

Sorry for the lack of posts but the rest of auckland has been holding it down for me. i have a few gems saved up and im off to melbourne in 8 days. so off goes my little green key to the shop. it is now mikes. Then im off for a while the term is undecided but i got me some stickers and i can mostly ride a bike with a beverage. i seem to be more damage on my feet. haha. teva has the evidence of this. and i shall take a little bit over there. lets hope shit gets RAD. Come visit.

{edit by teva}

evidence (you don’t want to know how he did that, all i can say is that it took a couple of drunken fags that rowan smashed down)

#SKULL BIKE CLUB#

bikes, beers, burrittos and brian

Category Archives: travel