Se Vende

Our new website has absolutely been taking forever to get finished.

Howie specs are:

Price: $700
BB: Mid
HT: Integrated.
TT length: 22.25"
HT Angle: 69
ST Angle: 72
CS Length: 15.25"
Seat Tube C-C: 10"
Seat Post: 27.2
Weight: 5.25#
Colors: Mint Green, Baby Blue, Grey. Or Custom (Contact Me)

Every bike company says something like "everyone loves this bike." And yet there are plenty of unloved bikes out there. Why is that?

In a couple of weeks, the basic design of the Howie will be one year old. In that year, we've had 6 prototypes rolling around under various people. Team riders, friends, and another person we didn't know very well to get an honest opinion about the bike. The feed back has been excellent. Looch mentioned the Howie is "real" and I'm going with that. The design of the original Fall Guy is now 5 years old and I expect the Howie will also age gracefully.

The geometry of the Howie is intended primarily for fast and flowing trails and park riding. It's what we like to ride in the NW, and this bike reflects that. It's roomy and slack enough that people coming from MTB's will feel right at home. If you want a more "BMX" feel, I suggest going with a Fall Guy.

The Howie is not an easy bike to build. At all. We put a great deal of effort into making these frames beautiful and functional, and that simply can't be done cheaply. Maybe you can afford one, maybe you can't. Maybe you just have save up for a little while.

I regret having to sell frames like this again, but this is where we are at. We don't build many of these bikes, so if you want one, I'd suggest acting quickly.
I can also supply some Thomson and Profile bits with the frame. Contact me for details.

If you'd like a Howie, I need a $200 deposit and a color choice. The colors are the same that we've run with. Baby Blue, Mint Green, and Grey. If you really want a custom color, we can do that too for an upcharge. We are still getting the new coating process dialled in, and I don't want to offer that untill it is dialed.



These should be back from the annodizer soon. The Spanglish BB.

Soil Saloon / Mud / Deposits

Billy Spaceman organized an in-town MTB race in San Francisco, and it looks like fun. There's another one going on late Febuary that I'm going to try and hit. On my Fall Guy.


The Baaron, Chaz y PFunk put this slimey video together:


I'll be taking deposits on Howies after Wendsday. Fall Guys are sold already. Sorry.
Warm up those paypal accounts...

-L

Bleach Box

P-Funk keeps his Fall Guy protected in a sort of Bike Dungeon.



KHE's. If you are going to ride anything but loose dirt..these are The Joint. Apparently the Dirt Version and 26's are planned.


Tying together two driveway cuts with a manual isn't the raddest thing ever, but it sure is fun for a recent gimp like myself.
2 things:
1) The new Fall Guy is incredible. Riding P-Funk's 24# rig is something else.
2) The new KHE Tires are very fast, quiet and grippy.


-L

Wisley King of Dirt 07

Those UK guys can really ride....


-L

Mountain Bikes Are Fun

Two summers ago..a little singletrack table. XC is so fun.


-L

KHE Tires / Ski Dance.

First off, Billy and Nick Brandeth got Photo of the Day on Pinkbike today...word-up!

A little more info on these pre-production tires KHE graciously sent Tonic Fab...

These are light! A hair under 500 grams according to my scale.


Very nice size. Labeled as "55" which is about 2.125", which is perfect. A little skinnier than a Schwalbe Table Top or Kenda K-Rad. Closest to the Tioga FS100 2.1 in girth.


KHE maintained a fairly low "height." For reference, the tire on my back wheel is a 1.85" Primo Dirt Monster. I find most "MTB" tires are too tall andsquirmy feeling in high traction situations. They seem more suited to flat landings than carving fast transitions and berms.
Not the KHE's. Between the lower profile and 120PSI pressure rating..these tires should be perfect for park riding.


What do they ride like? Well, they are very light and very smooth. However, I'm passing these to a better group of riders for better results.

Now for the tough stuff:
Rarely do imagination and budget overlap at this level. Whoever made this has created something so absolutely bizzare it is simply without precedent. From the PDX company, Hecklewood's blog. Stump503 Erik works with them. How cool is this T-shirt?


Prayers have been answered. Chaz discovered an indoor riding area.


Kinda reminds me of this Andy Jenkins print. At least in spirit. From Bend Press.

Cover of the new issue of Dirt. Dirt and Spoke magazine out of New Zealand. These guys get it.


-L

Crash the Market.

It's hard to ignore America's shrinking international clout.

I propose our next president spends their first year on an around-the-world bike tour. Completely unsupported. Make them depend on the kindness of strangers. Give them a digital camera, a blog, and an endless supply of the following albums to distribute as they see fit:

The Stooges, Funhouse
Funkadelic, Funkadelic
Velvet Underground, Live in 1969
Beastie Boys, Paul's Boutique
Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation
Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
TV On the Radio, Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes

Who knows what would happen?

Tim from NY sent some great winter fun photos in...


Howies..on the way. Please be patient Howie Wanters.


Tonic parts inventory system..simple but functional.


Howie seatstay cut fixture. When you've got 12 years of bicycle tooling experience to draw on, this is the result. It may not look like much to the layman, but there's a lot going on here. A lot that is accurate and repeatable. Tony. Tooling genius.



The Tiniest Tonic:


Deciding between a Fall Guy and a Howie just got a lot tougher..Got a few of these in the mail today. KHE folding 24's. They are very light. Full report and better photos shortly. Thank you KHE.



A week after her 57th birthday, here's my Mom. This was an incredible hike.


Here I am..cruising around on my Fall Guy. 15 years ago, I may have had my leg amputated for this magnitude of injury. Yesterday..I was out on my bike, jumping curbs and manualing. Sweet. Who knows if I'll ever ride Dart, or a big spine, or Aaron and Charlies trails. I'm riding, and that's all that matters.




Found a very interesting bike, here.


-L







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Some Music / D.Lynch

Have been listening to KEXP and have gotten hip to some amazing local music.

The Valley. Out of Seattle. These guys rock.

If you like Funkadelic, you'll love this little documentary.


David Lynch goes off: (from this Guy's blog..)

Abbitt, Elevated / Summer of Fit/ Foyer Clothing

It's the middle of winter. Here's something cool from last summer. Abbitt floating the final, and rather large, jump on the Elevation course. Shame this event won't continue..To see one of our bikes ridden on this course is pretty exciting.


Bike Movies. The Summer of Fit. I think this movie was a little overlooked; Fit Life is a pretty hard act to follow after all.
Stand-outs to me are Aitken, and Dakota Roche.
Aitken's riding is just on a completely different level. He's obviously gifted and even more importantly, he's really pushing himself. If you haven't seen this video yet, do it.


Foyer Clothing. This is a clothing company out of Portland. I don't know much about them, except they sponsor one our favorite PDX area riders, Little Jeff, and have some very creative artists they work with.
Here are a couple of quick Foyer Web videos with Jeff:

-L

2008 Hand Built Bike Show

Billy from Supersession. Photo from Nick Brandeth.




I took this photo earlier this year, doing some errands around town on my Fall Guy. It's a some kind of Vanilla Extra Cycle.


The 2008 Hand Built Bike Show is in Portland this year, and less than a month away. I really don't like the term "Hand Built" because all bike frames are built with hands, and this title implies that bikes are built with something other than hands. Like feet? Armies of robots? Sometimes those hands are in a large factory overseas, sometimes those hands are operating a machine tool instead of a file, but all bikes, to my knowledge are "built by hand."

I'd like to offer the name "Craft Bike Show." This is a show for small builders exclusively, and I think craft more accurately describes this end of the bike industry. Far more so than hand built or even "custom."

Anyway, Tonic Fab won't be at this show, and that's kind of bummer because we've got a couple bangers we'd love to have ready to show-off, but the beginning of Febuary isn't a good time for us to show-off.

It just doesn't pencil out for us this year. Our most significant business challenge is quite simply staging ourselves to build more bikes, not name recognition, or creating demand.

The good news is that some real changes are happening at Tonic. And, we will probably have an open-house of sorts after the show. Open the shop up for people to check-out. See some frames/bikes/weird tooling/machines/Tony's Sideburns.

Find details here, and dress warmly. Very warmly.

Cheers,

Landon.

Looch's Indoor Activities

Amazing shots from Cory.

Here's Looch in a Barn that houses radness. We've got to do a Looch Bike Check soon.

Dirt and Water

Brett from New Zealand sent this in:

"Hey Landon, saw u had snow and I thought I would let u know we got dirt!
We had the Farm Jam on 28 dec and it was awesome! We had 300 odd people to spectate and heaps of funny shit went down.
A couple pics attached and NZ mtb mag Spoke, is running 5 or so pages so I will let ya know what thats like...

The dirt quarter was mint as,11 foot tall and we have just started to ride it coz we live 2 hours drive from the Farm at the mo."

Thanks Brett!

Here's Brett on the quarter..


Brett 3'ing the 17ft jump.


"robbie brown superwhip on a beemer"


Nelson Reef Big Wave Tow-in Classic is this Friday in Linclon City, Oregon. Somehow, I doubt there is an amateur class for this one..
If anyone reading this is going, send me an e-mail. Would be cool to car-pool-it.

Indoor Riding Season/ Public Enemy

This is what my street looked like this morning. For some, this is the start of the indoor riding season.



Here's Billy at Tim's incredible Bowl.


Billy at a secret Barn. This place is also incredible.


20 Years Later, Public Enemy is still amazing.

-L

Billy Lewis on Point

Billy Lewis knows how to ride a damn bike. I can't pick out my favorite clip, they are all so good.

Enjoy...

Manufactured Landscapes

If you've got some time this week-end, this movie is excellent. Manufactured Landscapes. It's about the work of Edward Burtysky, a Canadian photographer.

A Look Back, and Forward..

I heard that only one in ten follow through with new year's resolutions.

Who else resolved to eat more Spotted Dick this year?



Hopefully more than a handful of people will resolve to get rid of their Euro BB's this year..hopefully...



P.Funk decided to buck the trend, and "Drive More" this year.


And now, a look back..
Pierre Rocks.


Pro road racers typically travel with up to 5 complete bikes. Even the guys who haven't got a snowball's chance in hell of winning anything but an appetite. BMX pros..one bike. And when that bike breaks..surprise..you ride a competitors bike.


My lousy attempt at a Vice Magazine Do/Don't from Whistler..


Seeing Chris Doyle ride was pretty cool. Again, borrowed bike...


This is Brian Foster 3 tabling the last jump on elevation. Abbitt jumped this monster too. I'll find the photo..


-L

New Year

Howdy. A new year is upon us. I hope you'll stick around.

Here's a few photos from my good friend Hiram. Hiram and I both worked in Antarctica a few years ago, and he recently went down again.


Yeah, the base pretty much looks like Project Shanty Town constructed by the lowest bid contractor. The history of Mcmurdo is interesting; changing hands between the Navy and the National Science Foundation. The Navy used to dispose of the bases' waste by setting on the ice and waiting for it to melt through. Things are a lot better now; it's pretty much closed loop system. Everything brought in is taken out.


Way to go Hiram.


Here's a custom trike built by Indy Fab.


Good Stuff.


Chaz gets busy on a bank..this time with a fakie hop. Word.


Jermey whips his Fall Guy through some red-dirt trails in North Carolina.


-L