Yes, we love bikes, and we also love people who build bikes, like our friend Tony Pereira. In just six years, Tony has built everything from utility and transportation bikes to randonneuring and touring rigs, road, mountain and cyclocross bikes. Inspired by the French Golden Age, his sleek, fillet-brazed steel bikes have won him awards at the North American Handmade Bike Show and, most recently, at Oregon Manifest’s Constructor’s Design Challenge where he took home top honors for building the ultimate utility bike.  He’s been called a “master of his craft.” And not only by us, but by Rapha who recently selected Tony to craft a one-of-a-kind bicycle for their master framebuilding collection.

We were lucky enough to catch up with Tony at his small shop in Portland to talk about—you guessed it—bikes.

OTG: You’ve been building handcrafted bikes for over 6 years now, everything from single-speed bicycles and randonneuring rigs to touring, road, cyclocross and transportation bikes. With all of these different styles of bikes, what is your overarching design philosophy that ties them all together?
Tony: My design philosophy is informed by two totally separate worlds. One is the early mountain bikes. I started mountain biking in the 80s, and the high end bikes at the time were out of California made by Tom Ritchey and sold by Gary Fisher. Those were all built using fillet-brazing. So when I started building, I was drawn to that technique. But on the other side—the road bikes, city bikes, touring and randonneuring  bikes—they’re all informed by the French Golden Age, the bikes of the 40’s and 50s. They established the form and style of bike that I’ve been so drawn to. And it’s a form that still works. I can build bikes in a style that is still useful. But if I was drawn to bikes of the 1890’s, they wouldn’t translate because the geometry and components have evolved. But by the 40s, geometry had stabilized, and they had figured out what worked well for riding quickly over long distances.

So fillet brazing is a kind of seamless process?
So the fillet is the shape of the joint. I’ve seen it used in manufacturing where there is a rounded edge on a surface which is what they call a filleted edge.

As opposed to lugs?
Right. Lugs are fittings that the tubes slide into. Then it’s a lap joint where you add filler between two pieces. So it’s a dissimilar metal that melts at lower temperature than the parent metal. You’re heating up the main tubes to the melting temperature of the filler, and just the filler melts. That’s what I like about it. It gives you that kind of sculptural flow between the tubes. The other more common lugless joining method that you see today is called TIG welding and that’s how most bikes are built. In the 80’s and before that, TIG welding was expensive. Then in the late 80’s, the cost came down enough that it started to be used in bike building. And ever since, it has taken over for steel and aluminum bikes. But a really good TIG weld, to a trained eye can look good, but to me it never looks as good as the fillet brazing. That’s why I have stuck with fillet brazing as my primary style of building.

In just six years, you’ve already earned a lot of accolades and recognition. You’re doing this collaboration with Rapha, and you won Best of Show this year at Oregon Bike Manifest. But I’m curious about the bike you built for Oregon Bike Manifest— the electro assist, sound system, lockable storage. Where did you find the design inspiration for this bike?
That’s a bike I have been thinking about for a few years. I’ve been intrigued by electro assist for about four years now. I thought that most of the electro assist bikes that have been made so far have been pretty ugly, and I wanted to try and make one that resembled a motorcycle. I also wanted lockable storage on the bike, so you could leave stuff with the bike and walk away.

Sweet.
Yeah, I think that’s one of the limitations of the bicycle. You show up somewhere and you have to take all of these bags off your bike and walk into your meeting or the store or wherever you are. You see bicyclists around and they’ve a helmet and a couple of bags, and they’re sopping wet dragging their things around with them wherever they go. With this bike, you can take your helmet off and leave your stuff behind on the bike. And it locks. With the sound system, I went with this idea of a car replacement. We’re used to having stereos in our car. It’s a little bit goofy— you’re riding down the road and your radio is blaring and people are looking at you funny.

And you had some statistic you threw out about bike commuting….what was it?
So 85% of all of the trips made by car in the US are under five miles.

Wow. That’s a lot.
Yeah, and it’s something like 50- or 60% of trips made by car in the US are under TWO miles. And I’m not the biggest environmentalist or policy wonk, but it just makes sense to me, that if we’re going to change the way we use fossil fuels, then we need to change the way we look at transportation.

Well, that leads me into my next question. I like this quote that you had on the Oregon Manifest’s website: “Most of the products being manufactured today are not meant to last very long. They are made in factories far away by people we will never meet. The modern craft movement —and I do think it is a movement— can help change what people expect from the tools they use and the items they adorn their life with.” So what do you mean by this and how is it going to change things?
Because the internet has made the world such a small place, we are all able to communicate with each other so easily that you can get exactly what you want no matter where you are. Prior to the internet, in order to find a hand-made anything, you had to seek it out. Now everything is more accessible. And it has spurred this modern craft movement. I don’t know if it’s widely perceived as a movement. But there are a lot more craftspeople out there who are able to exist because of things like Etsy. Hopefully it will keep some of the old techniques alive. Fillet brazing is sort of dead in manufacturing. I see it used randomly in things out there and I’m usually surprised

And that’s because?
Stuff is usually welded because it’s faster and cheaper. It doesn’t require as much skill. There are certainly some applications for brazing still, but it’s sort of obsolete.

Ok, one more question. So, let’s say your garage is on fire, and you have to save one bike from your entire collection, which one would it be?
The bike I call the roaring 29er, a single speed styled after a 1920’s cruiser bike. I feel like it’s the bike that got things rolling for me. It won two awards at the 2007 North American Handmade Bike show: best off-road bike and best fillet-brazed bike.  You know, I’m still proud of all of my bikes, but that bike, it’s kind of different.

Around here, we’re big fans of people who push boundaries and challenge conventional thinking. That’s why our sponsorship of the Gates Center Track/River City Cyclocross team was a no-brainer; they combined single speeds and belt drives and introduced the duo to the world of cyclocross racing. And they did it with style. Here, in the third and final in a series of dispatches from the team, John Walrod takes the Succinct Trench for an unexpected ride.

Innovation is born from pushing expectations and refining design – two things that, I believe, NAU does while the rest of us sleep. In an attempt to match their constant innovation, I took it upon myself to do a little field testing of the Succinct Trench while on a recent rainy trip to San Francisco.

Here are a few images and my impressions of what turned out to be a superior garment:

I was in town with my crew for the Single Speed Cyclocross World Championships and to fly the flag for our Gates Carbon Drive/ River City Bicycles Team. After a few nights of heavy shenanigans that turned out to be less than performance enhancing, I was ready to go. An hour before the start I realized that I wasn’t exactly on the start list for this event, so I stole this guy’s number at registration and smeared my face with fake blood so nobody would ask any questions. The trench concealed my stolen number (666 – not kidding) long enough for me to negotiate a semi-sanctioned 667 (under the stage name Chet Texas).

It was finally time to start. The promoters had decided to do a “Le Mans” style start in which the bikes get left on the start grid and the riders march 1/4 mile away for a running start. While the other riders were forced to parade around in their lycra and look like racers, I was able to cloak myself in the woods and gain the holeshot:

Now, cyclocross is a brutal sport – aerobic, anaerobic, skills, variables, booze, all of it. After demonstrating dominance in both tactical and race situations, I chose to spectate for awhile :

Luckily for us, an astute spectator observed this and was able to collect some footage.

Overall, the NAU Succinct Trench Coat performed extremely well. Its split tail allowed me to run, jump, pedal, drink, and commentate all without a hitch. Believe it or not, it escaped the weekend without a single blemish (unlike me). I cannot say enough about how well it worked for concealing my identity when needed, acting as a dry seat, keeping the elements out, and adding that bit of stylistic flair that more traditional cycling clothing just can’t offer. Well done, Nau. Well done.

Yeah, we know, Halloween has come and gone. But some of us like to think that feather boas and vampire capes should be an accepted clothing option every day of the week. Our friends at River City Bicycles think so too. In the second of our series of dispatches from the River City/Gates Center Track Cyclocross team, John Walrod and his crew show the cycling world that fat suits and pumpkins are nothing to mess with.

A road trip to Bend, more costumes than we needed, a few trench coats and our hotshot Carbon Drive Raleighs: Cross Crusade is all about the Halloween bash. Some would even say that the early races in the series are meant to build up enough fitness to be able to race in a costume on Halloween. And the post Halloween races are nothing more than victory laps meant for dominating crappy, store-bought costumed racers.

But Alex, Ryan and Seth think that every race is meant for racing.  I —aka RadBot 3000—am of the costumed school of thought. Luckily we balance out quite well. They get results; I get the hot media: (yep, that’s the front page of the Bend Bulletin, the local newspaper).

Long story short – too much dust, too much booze, too many flats, too many costumes, and not enough rain for trench coats.  Seth, Ryan and Alex posted actual results against dudes who get paid to race.  I grabbed a ton of facial lacerations from my huge pumpkin head and sheet metal cuts on my thighs from the RadBot 3000 legs, but I also distracted the competition while the boys stole the glory.  Teamwork.

-John Walrod

Last month, as part of our House Mix: Bikes featured picks, hundreds of Nau customers joined us in supporting Bikes Belong, an advocacy group whose work helps to promote cycling nation-wide. In getting to know the Boulder-based organization, we also got exposed to their trove of thought-provoking data. But while the numbers are great, a picture is better. So we made one:

Find tons more information, and support the work of Bikes Belong to get more people on bikes more often, at BikesBelong.org.

[Here at Nau, we like people who are challenging paradigms, trying out new technology and pushing their chosen area forward. We also really love bikes. So when the River City Cyclocross guys asked us to sponsor their team, it was a no-brainer. The Gates Center Track/ River City Bicycles Cyclocross Team has been formed to show the cycling world that single speed and belt drive are both more than viable options for riding and racing. Based in the Pacific Northwest, with exposure to the largest body of cyclocross racers in the country, they're poised to showcase and advocate for the virtues of belt drive single speed bicycles. Here, in the first of a series of dispatches from the team, John Walrod introduces the single speed rocket ships bikes they ride.]

“Single speed – really? Belt? Why would you do that?” Those are the questions that precede the inevitable – “Can I try it?” That’s followed by “Holy @)#(!, that thing is a rocket!”

This summer I was invited by my good friend Dave Guettler to join Alex Criss, Seth Patla, and Ryan Weaver on a cyclocross team co-sponsored by his shop – River City Bicycles (super shop of the country and shining star of Portland, OR). I have raced for Dave for about 10 years but this idea was different, we’d be teaming with Gates Carbon Belt Drive to do the drivetrains on our bikes. Long story short – we recently took delivery of 4 Carbon Fiber Raleigh Hodala frames and built them up with the Gates Carbon Center Track belts.

Cyclocross Magazine did a review of this very bike earlier this year. The bikes are flashy and really light (belts/pulleys end up a fair bit lighter than a chain) and they garner tons of attention. Riding in the first few races we dialed in the fit and waited for a true test to come. That came a week ago in the form of unexpected rain at the CrossCrusade season opener. Thank you Nau for the super dope trench coats – they are gonna get some high mileage this year!

Single speed bikes are counter-intuitive: Gears are supposed to make you more efficient, right? Not always. On many cross courses, as well as mountain bike tracks and urban adventures (just ask any messenger), some of the best riders sport one gear. Why? Because there are no derailleurs to fail, there’s much less friction in the drive train—a big efficiency savings—plus much less weight. A reliable bike that weighs a lot less and is more efficient sounds good huh? Yeah, it’s really good.

In the mud, which we got in spades last week, single speeds shine: no parts to argue with, and nothing to fail you when you need it most. Just one gear, and you, both agreeable to the task at hand.

Single speeds are better in the mud than gears and the Gates Carbon Center Track makes my old chain single speed feel like a donkey. Chains, even single speed chain bikes, clog up. I won’t bore you with more words – look at this: I couldn’t get into my pedals, and somehow my drivetrain was as clean as the day it was installed!

- John Walrod

Way back in 2006, pretty much the first thing I ever heard about Nau was that there were these crazy people making a blazer out of technical fabric. I was working at a climbing magazine at the time, and people literally shook their head at the idea of using buttons to close a coat. But fast-forward, and the Riding Jacket has become an icon for Nau, and one of the most popular pieces in the Fall Line. I sat down with Creative and Design Director Peter Kallen to talk about the Riding Jacket, its inspiration, and how it’s changed for Fall 2011.

Alex: Why do you think it is that people have responded so well over the years to the Riding Jacket?
Peter: We’ve always positioned our brand as the alternative to what’s already out there. We wanted to challenge the idea that a blazer is only meant to be at a wedding, or a job; that’s really not the case. It’s just a great silhouette that can have a lot of versatility if done right. So I think that people were ready to see a less serious blazer that had a lot more versatility, and that’s why it shines so bright.

You mean people were ready for buttons.
You’re in Chamonix and the whole playground there; look at old vintage photos: everybody had a blazer on with buttons. I think the Riding Jacket is maybe a present-day version of what was available to guys mountaineering back in the 1800s. It’s taking yesterday and bringing it to today.

You talk about that historical context of people wearing blazers in the mountains, but clearly another big inspiration point is the bike. Are there features of this season’s new design that draw on that, or that lend themselves particularly well to the bike?
Well, I’m on my bike all the time. So it’s just sort of a given that my design is influenced by the bike. You know, it’s so funny, it’s almost like I overlook that portion of it because it’s so inherent—it’s like the ‘go-to’ for me—that it becomes the other references that are more considered. But you’re right: it’s really crafted to be in the drops. It has the cross-over collar, it has the extra length in the sleeves. It’s cut for that bike-prone position, and that sense of movement.

So what’s changed for Fall 2011?
Because we really pioneered this ‘technical blazer’ category—or maybe the right terminology is a ‘useful’ blazer—we’ve had a lot of opportunity to explore other blazer silhouettes, like the Vice, or the Transporter, or the Shroud of Purrin. So what we’ve brought this season is really a more simplified, more stylish approach to the classic blazer that compliments all the other blazers that we have in the collection. And it updates a new sense of style too: the pocketing, the tailoring, the collar – it has all the same spirit but a little more modern style than the previous one.

And there’s one for women.
For sure. The intent was derived from the idea that women used to climb and ride in various “blazer like” jackets back in the day, not unlike men, but it was executed differently. The cut and silohuette was more fitting to a womens physique, and did not try to mimic the men’s style other then it being a jacket of sorts. The overall intent of the piece is about how the jacket fits and is styled , and what the fabrication is that makes it so easy to care for and use in a variety of situations. It’s meant to be flattering and very useful in ones wardrobe and also meant to blur the lines of performance and fashion.

When you say that designing for the bike is integral to your process, it reminds me of a lot of the thinking that Nau puts into sustainability: it’s not like you stop and say, ‘ok, now we’re going to do something different and make a sustainable jacket.’ You do it everyday, so it just becomes part of the design process, and how you define ‘quality.’
Exactly.

So if those are the givens, what do you focus on?
I love the process of minimizing. I love less-is-more. I love taking away as much as you can without subtracting the essence and the intent. It’s a subtractive process that I go through, and I think the Riding Jacket represents that; it’s a study in subtraction. It’s the perfect weight of fabrics, it’s the perfect pockets, it’s the perfect cut, it has the perfect number of buttons.

It lands gently in the wardrobe of a person who does a lot of things on the move; if they travel, or just for getting around the city, it’s a really great versatile piece that translates into your wardrobe that way.

So it’s not a piece that adds to their wardrobe, but that integrates with their life.
Yeah! It becomes a little heady, but it’s exactly that: it’s not just real estate in their closet.

In New York City, a cyclist got a ticket for riding outside of the bike lane and decided to make a movie showing why it’s often necessary to do so. He was fined $50 for his infraction and he really, really wants his money back, so much so that he decided to smash into anything blocking the bike lane to prove his point. This guy has got to be a stuntman because there is no way that anybody in their right mind would pull these kinds of shenanigans without wearing a helmet.

As a side-note, according to the video, it’s not even illegal to ride outside the bike lane anyway. Did he prove his point or simply trash his body and beach cruiser for internet views?

Weigh in!

This clock we found on Etsy is absolutely perfect. Elegant, modern, and understated, it’s one of those simple things that makes you say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” This is probably the best use of bike parts for home decor since Picasso put together some handlebars and a bike seat and made his famous bull’s head.

This particular one seems to be sold, but browse through Pixelthis‘ other recycled items (the bike crank clocks are also pretty nice) and there’s a good chance you’ll find something that will make counting the minutes until your next ride a little easier.

I’m kind of obsessed with porteur bicycles, simply because they are so damned beautiful in their simplicity. Though variations of this style of bike have been used around the world for transporting goods on the flat rack over the front wheel, Parisian newspaper couriers owned these utilitarian rides in the mid 1900s, the Porteurs des Journaux.

This obsession, along with the need for a commuter bike, resulted in my buying a plug-and-play version of a porteur last year—a basic Linus Roadster with a Velo Orange Porteur rack. The bike has served me well for the last year on my 10-mile daily commute. I just strap my laptop to the rack and go, no need for a sweaty backpack or unbalanced panniers hanging over the back tire.

But recently I have become interested in the modified, motley porteurs I see around Portland that are jimmy-rigged from old bike frames and clunky racks, and the one above is my favorite of that style. I first saw it parked in front of Whole Foods on Sandy and 43rd and I had to drive around the block to get a second look (and to snap this drive-by photo). I love its garish colors, hot pink heavy-duty rack and mismatched rims, not to mention the green seat and pink break lines. It’s a complete 180 from the precious porteurs I had been fetishizing before—those hand-made versions that take years to actually get underneath you (and to pay for).

A month or two later, I saw the bike again. It was being pedaled down Sandy Blvd. by a guy in lime green coveralls. I think he had dreadlocks. He may have been wearing a pink hard hat. Anyway, we’ve been doing series of posts here called “This Is My Bike” for a while now, and what I loved about that was how it showed how bikes can be a reflection of the rider—in the same way a dog and its master strangely resemble one another. This was one of the most overt expressions of that. It reminded me that we need to resurrect our TIMB posts. And that I should have been on my bike next to him instead of in my car.

Time to clean off my desktop. Seems like I’ve been stockpiling a lot of brightly-colored fotos lately. Must be a spring thing.

Happy Earth Day, everybody!