New to the T&H catalogue is Cyclepedia – A Tour of Iconic Bicycle Designs. A wonderful book of Michael Embacher’s incredible bicycle collection. his online archive is really great too. buy the book here.

…beautifully shot short to accompany Rapha’s recent collaboration with Paul Smith.

This is the latest collaboration from Italian cycle company Montante.

Producing mainly town bikes that opitimise the Italian ethos of style, colour and generally making thigs look good, Montante have teamed up with fellow purveyors of cool, Maserati, to produce a single speed worthy of them both.

The frame is reminisent of the classic british lightweight builder Hetchins, with the elegantly styled seat post and seat stays.  Attention to detail that sets this out against the rest.

I want, i want, i want….

THE BADGER: TAKING PEOPLE TO THE PAIN CAVE SINCE 1977.
THIS MAN SPENT HIS ENTIRE FUCKING CAREER IN THE BIG RING, EVEN WHEN HE WASN’T ON THE BIKE.

yes, that’s ^ Bernhard ‘The Badger’ Hinault decking a spectator…

more bigringriding culture here

photo from cycling news © James Huang

Dubbed the ‘Hell of the North’, Paris-Roubaix will see its 108th running this weekend. It’ll be on Eurosport (and probably streamed elsewhere on the internet). If you’re a betting man, my tip would be current hardman-in-form, and winner of recent monument – Ronde Van Vlaanderen, Fabian Cancellara.

a clip from Jorgen Leth’s ‘A Sunday in Hell’, docu feature of the 1976 race:

highly recommended. go get it > ride journal

FIXED is the first book to document global fixed-gear culture. It joins the dots between the bike’s design, its racing heritage and the customization that marks its appearance on our city streets. It meets the track stars, tricksters, messengers, hill bombers and polo players the world over, linking them to the artists, designers and framebuilders whom the bike has inspired.

It tells the story of why these bikes are special through interview, image and archive – exploring the form, function, style and culture at the heart of the obsession.

Long used in the velodrome, they were adopted by New York cycle messengers in the 1970s, and are now seen on city streets worldwide. A global fixed-gear culture has come into being.

I’m proud to say it’s now available to buy from all good bookstores, and available from amazon here of course!

There’s a blog on the FIXED site which contains a few more of my bike-related bloggingss

there are quite a lot of companies springing up to cater for the new cool side of cycling, but these guys have been around for years (no diss). they race track, road, cx, mtb, even hill-climbs and they’re doing some really cool tees and some very desirable cycling kit too. is lycra getting cool now!? maybe not, but this is probably the coolest team kit i know of… good work guys, and i look forward to the restock!! check the morvelo website here, and their online store here. btw – these guys put on the excellent Big Dog race in Brighton back in August, probably the most fun race i’ve done this year!

the bartape.net has uploaded a new ‘beyond the peloton’ video of Cervelo Test Team at the Tour De France. As per the last ones, it’s beautifully made. Enjoy!

this so very nearly made me late for work this morning. so much good footage. on recommendation, i searched ‘herne hill’ to see some old motor-paced, tandem and ordinary bike racing.

British Pathe