Morning everyone! Can you believe it, another weekly blog that's actually happened. There must be something in the water, or at least our antidepressants! This one is a little different as there's not a massive amount of bicycle or wheel-related goodness, but we still have some fun to discuss. So let's get cracking. Or should that be crapping, if you're reading this in the bathroom?
THE WHEELS ARE GONE! It took some seriously olympic-level van packing, but we got 40 pairs of wheels in the Caddy and hit the road for a long drive, with snacks in hand and a Star Wars-blaring iPad in the back for the small person. We haven't made the trip to Bristol for a few years now, mostly because we don't attend Bespoked anymore, but it was worth the M4 roadworks grief to go see good friend and esteemed colleague Noah, down at Temple Cycles.
We don't do a lot of sub-contracting, but when we do, it's for great peeps and the guys at Temple are exactly that. It was brilliant to see how much the set-up has grown and as Noah came riding into the car park, hair blowing in the breeze like a glorious Afghan hound, carrying decaf coffee for us, the drive down was instantly forgotten. Our daughter definitely fell in love with his Saracen townie conversion too. Nice to know she's a fan of the old school stuff.
We've made a few tampers this week and these two are still available. If you fancy either of them, it's the normal drill of £80 shipped in the UK and machined to your custom size. If we put them in the shop, we need to add a couple of quid to the price to cover the shop fees, so snap them up now if you're on the fence.
It was with a heavy and joyful heart that we collected all of my late pops' vinyl. He spent his life just picking up records at charity shops and fairs and loved nothing more than listening to them whenever the mood took him. He was a jukebox engineer back in the day, so there are still a couple of big jukes to come over, all filled with records too, but for now, we have thousands to sort through and alphabetise. His collection is amazing, not the standard classical and rubbish-filled haul at all. It's all good rock, Motown and even some wild cards like Alice Cooper. Plenty of Prince in there too and all the early and rare Beatles stuff you hope to find in a garage sale. We sacrificed the biggest bedroom in the house to turn it into the record room and thank goodness we did because we wouldn't have stood a chance anywhere else. The old man was a weapon when it came to hoarding, so it's a good job Mrs A is a vinyl fanatic too or I might have been issued with divorce papers...
Ah. Now then. THOSE pipes we keep making. We are going to make a little batch of them, so if you keep thinking that you'd like something unnecessarily bling and ridiculous for your recreational enjoyment, get in touch. We've made a few for good people in the industry, as a thank you for not being douchebags, and we'd like to be able to share the non-douchbaggery with the rest of you too.
We've called the pipe The Enabler, because we don't partake, but are happy to assist you with yours. We will pop a pre-order on the website in the next couple of days, so look out for an announcement on Instagram.
Badge packs are being finalised, hopefully our t-shirts will be finalised in the next few days too and open for pre-order and apart from that, theres not much else to talk about. Apart from the fact that we've decided to have a few days off. We never take time away from the workshop, not properly anyway, and as it's my birthday today, we are going to enjoy a few days of doing things around the house. Well, Mrs A is, I'm going to be useless as I plan to just sit around looking at and planning the build for my birthday present...
Just call me a cliché and a mid-life crisis if you want, but I'm planning to have a lot of fun on this at the pump track, with our daughter. Thanks Pooks. You're fucking ridiculous, but in the best way.
Oh and Mrs A apologises for the delay in snack recipes, but we forgot we turned the Aga off for the summer, so we can't actually bake anything right now! Whoops!
Rad peeps of the week:
All our Buy Me A Coffee benefactors. Mega appreciated and it means we can keep taking time for blogs and developing smaller things that let more of you be part of our brand story. You don't need to order a bike to be part of August and we are always making things that reinforce that.
Noah. Because we love you dude.
Loo. Always Loo, but especially this week for helping Mrs A buy me a Hoder S&M frame as an insane birthday present.
Mike Hoder. Cool frame man and I'm still a bit shocked I have one.
xjacobx for being a rad Insta-bud.
LugsnotDrugs for making mrs A's day.
Roger Murtaugh for summing up how I feel about getting back on a BMX at 41...
See you next time!