Hole in the street? Put rocks in it. There, you’ve fixed it. Nice work, Brooklyn!
-
1. Undercurrent
-
2. Smart People
-
3 Smart Places
-
4. Family
-
Archives
Bike Porn 3 – Trek’s “Stages” Bikes
Jul 23, ’09
3:09 PM
Trek and Lance have been doing a lot of big things lately, from staging a massive comeback in the Tour de France (latter) to being the ride of choice for this year’s tour favorite, Alberto Contador (former). And now there’s The Bikes of Stages, a collaboration between Mr. Armstrong, the kind folks at Trek, and a bunch of highly-talented artists. From top to bottom, there are collaborations from Damien Hirst, Shepard Fairey, Marc Newson, and Yoshitomo Nara. Lance rode Nara’s take on the Trek Speed Concept today in the individual time trial of the TDF. Pretty cool to see a big(ger) bike brand like Trek playing around and doing cool stuff. I hope Lance takes the Hirst bike up Mont Ventoux.
My favorite, though, is this one-off by Barry McGee for the introduction of the Stages project.
So bad-ass. A top-end (admittedly, not in the components, which look to be SRAM Rival) Madone with a flat bar and platform pedals? With gold chainring bolts and a painted-on fork crown? Rad.
Sign me up. Nice work, Trek.
Engagement DB – Connecting the obvious
Jul 22, ’09
10:58 AM
A few days back, Wet Paint and Altimeter published a report called “ENGAGEMENTdb: Ranking the Top 100 Global Brands” where they’ve managed to connect engagement in social channels with financial performance. Interesting stuff, if not particularly revolutionary.
It turns out that, based on some regression analysis of these brands’ activity on blogs, forums, distributed connections, proprietary customer communities, twitter, etc., there are four clear, rather cheekily named categories of “engagement”:
Wallflowers: Relatively inactive in few channels
Selectives: Slightly more active in few channels (isolated)
Butterflies: Moderately active in many channels (spread out)
Mavens: Highly active in many channels
Pretty easy to suss out that data. But it gets interesting when you start looking at the correlations between this sort of activity and how much money these companies are making. Turns out the ones that are more engaged are making more cold hard cash, and they’re not only raking it in, but doing it profitably. And it’s fairly clear that if you just sit there and do nothing online, you’re a big loser.
At first, I said to myself, “Where was this a year ago?” Would have made my life a lot better back then to be able to point to something and say, “SEE!?”
And then I started thinking, “Well, that’s obvious.”
If you’re more engaged—whether in social media, in business, or in life generally—you’re going to do better. That’s it. And it’s no surprise who’s on top, really. Lots of techy companies up there, as you might have figured, but also some luxury brands like Ferrari, Gucci, and Pizza Hut (ha, kidding).
And while the tech companies certainly have a leg up, as their products are inherently more digital, testable and tweakable than, say, shoes or food, it seems that companies that have always done a good job at connecting meaningfully with their consumers are doing a decent job of the same in digital spaces.
Go figure.
Nothing revolutionary, I guess, but if you’re “the digital guy” or “the digital girl” at a traditional agency, maybe print this out before your next meeting where 2010 budgets are discussed.
Want the graphic above? It’s here, full size.
Bike Porn 2
Jul 20, ’09
7:07 PM
It’s not that often lately that you see a fixie with box-section wheels that looks so damn stylish. And that’s a shame. While deep-section rims just look plain ‘ol bad-ass, there’s an art to classicism. Whoever put this one together got all the pieces right. The San Marco saddle has a subtle print on it, I dig the smallish chainring, and the ITM quill stem (into a Time carbon fork) is decidedly old-school without going too far. And the radial lacing up front is a nod to modern, if deviant, wheelbuilding practices. I’m totally digging the full-drop ergo road bars (and hoods), especially given that this is a traditional road frame, with derailleur-ready dropouts and shifter bosses. Nice work. Crosby & Prince, NYC.
Apologies for the blurry picture, but I didn’t want to be “that guy” holding up foot traffic. A couple things here: large-diameter aluminum frames look better on larger frame sizes, and this is a monster of a bike. And I’m feeling the modern/classic component mix, from the San Marco saddle to deep-section rims. Dare I say…dope fenders? Outside Equinox, NYC.
Bike Porn
Jul 17, ’09
3:48 PM
Totally rad. Old-school OCLV fork, stripped steel frame, gears, and a super clean King headset. Nice work, whoever this is. Outside Gimme! in Manhattan.
UPDATE! This bike is owned by Gimme! barista Theo, and now features sweet clear platform pedals.
A little more affected here, but the Paul brake lever, straight purple ano bar and grey paint kill it. A King headset, this time in gold, and a Mavic front wheel skewer, really bring the room together. Digging the SLR saddle and the American Classic post. I bet a girl rides this, and I bet she looks super hot while she does so. Outside Equinox, Manhattan.
UPDATE! I was right! A girl does ride this. She has curly blonde hair and a white Specialized helmet. I like being correct. 
A steel Colnago with a basket? Nice. And everything, down to the hubs, is vintage Campy. While my uncles used to call that stuff “Cramp and go slow” (instead of Campagnolo), it’s still totally perfect on an aging classic frame. Outside Equinox, Manhattan.
This bike oozes style, but in all the non-affected ways. Celeste is beautiful.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, there’s this totally affected, totally hipster machine found in SF, at the Blue Bottle Coffee. Cool hubs, cool rims. But the cork grips and freewheel are pretty lame on a bike like this. Best part? The re-painted Felt frame: cool tube shapes, fatty chainstays, very cool.
My ride is lame in comparison. But I’m fast on it.
Beware the Underpants Gnomes
Jul 6, ’09
2:12 PM
I hadn’t heard about the underpants gnomes’ business plan until today, in a status meeting: “It was a total underpants gnomes presentation”.
Beautiful.