MADE 2024
MADE BIKE SHOW 2024
The last week has been a blur. MADE 2024 was a success. Lots of friends, old and new. My brother, Kevin was so helpful and it was great to hang out with him. I am still processing everything. I thought I would be able to pull together some nice clear thoughts about the show, the bikes and the people but that’s not in the cards right now. So, here is a collection of some ramdom photos from MADE.
Green & Brass
I get so excited every time I see a picture of a beautiful custom build with some YellowBird touch. My buddy Craig first sent me a teaser shot of a dark metallic green stem with a Hadlyme Nightcap on it. I was in love! That green against the brass couldn’t be better. Then, after some time I finally got to see the complete, finished bike. Now, anyone who knows me will know that I place a huge value on design and aesthetic. Lines, colors, weight, feel and so on. It all needs to work. I am going to go ahead and make the assumption that your brain probably works in a similar way if you are here reading the blog on my website. So, you know the feeling when you see a bike and it’s just right. Yeah, this bike is one of those. It’s practical, It’s functional and there’s nothing out of place. I love it. Here are some pictures and below are a few words right from Craig about the bike.
“It’s a fillet brazed all steel bike by Mike Pofahl out of Minnesota. Matching fillet brazed stem. Internal routing for dynamo lighting, hard mounted Paul centerpull brakes. A mix of some old tech parts, some new. Designed and 3D printed that front light mount myself because no one offers anything close to that.
Loosely based off of the geometry from an All City Macho Man. Fits huge tires even with fenders (45mm)“
Camera fun.
As some of you may know. I like to take pictures. I am not a professional photographer in any way. Nor do I strive to be. There is something about “professional” that is inherently work and not play. At least in my view. With that in mind, I do love real cameras and nice equipment. But for the sake of having fun I find all cameras do the trick. I tend to use my CampSnap camera more than you DSLR. The DSLR takes good pictures but that’s not always what I care about. It’s an experience, a process and a feeling. The picture is a result. Ok, that’s poetic enough for now. So, really, I really get a kick out of trying new things and having fun. My most recent addition to my camera bag is a cheap kaleidoscope filter. It’s cheesy and I’m not sure how long it will hold my ADHD attention span but here are some fun pictures that I took with it.
Winter Solstice 100K.
2023 was a good year for me and for YellowBird. There was plenty of chaos and stress. Balancing a schedule with a family (Kiddo started kindergarten this year) and a day job and YellowBird has been a struggle but I feel like I am getting better at it. I made a career jump a few years ago from bike shops to aerospace machine shops. The learning curve has been steep and exciting. That has been my biggest focus and now I am letting YellowBird overlap with that. I decided to make a topcap simple project to play around with some of the machines at my disposal. I had no idea that people would respond so well to them. So, that’s been amazing. I even made a trip out to Portland, Oregon for the MADE show. That was an experience. Anyway, it’s been a busy and positive year. With all of this on my plate I didn’t manage to ride my bike nearly as much as I would have liked to. I also didn’t let that fact be a point of frustration. This is a big deal if you know me. I did manage to do a few bigger rides this year with very few small ones in between. Not my typical way, but I made the best of it. Some highlights were a three day bikepacking trip in Vermont, the Higher Ground ride in Pennsylvania and the Nutmeg Nor’easter. Each one was a treat. I was hoping to get one ride in before the season was over that would be solo and challenging. I settled on a Solstice 100K. I chose a short route that I ride frequently and decided to make laps out of it. I could stay close to home and get mostly dirt. When the shortest day rolled around I ended up with some unplanned family stuff. That’s just how life is. Then I found a day in between christmas and new years that worked. So, with a few bottles of water and some snacks I headed out. It was a warm day for late December and we had seen a lot of rain the few days prior. This made for some real spooky fog. I love it. You may have also noticed that I love taking pictures. I decided it would be fun to take my Camp Snap camera along for the ride. I currently have it set up so that it shoots in black and white. I am very excited about this silly camera. So, i decided it would be a fun challenge to see how many shots I could take over the course of this ride. I ended up killing the battery at mile 25 out of the 62 I rode. But that’s fine. The pics I got do a beautiful job capturing the mood of the Connecticut woods on that day. Here they are. Unedited. 2023, one final adventure.
International Coffee Outside Day
Anyone who knows me knows that I love bicycles and coffee. Currently, there is a trend in the bicycle world know as COFFEE OUTSIDE. It is generally a ride to a spot with friends. Once at that spot, you make coffee and have some time to relax and enjoy the company. To enjoy the moment. Talk about bike and life. It is an opportunity to be deliberate and mindful of the bigger picture of who we are as community members, as cyclists, and as individuals. Personally, I have been practicing the art of COFFEE OUTSIDE for a long time. Although it tends to be a solo ritual. I choose my location based on how much or how little time I have available. It is always a casual ride pace to the spot. Then the ritual of inspecting and setting up the coffee apparatus. Grinding the beans. Brewing the coffee. Waiting for it to cool a little. Then the peace and quiet while drinking coffee and listening to the noises that the woods make. It really is a meditation and a ritual for me. This act brings me a sense of calm and clarity. I love it. So, as I mentioned earlier, this has become a trend in the cycling world. This past Sunday was the second official International Coffee Outside Day. Initiated by RideWithGPS and with support of a bunch of other brands. They made an official day to celebrate this ritual. Although I tend to treat COFFEE OUTSIDE as a solo action, I was delighted at the idea of inviting others to join in. I put out a last minute invite. I was delighted to have a small group show up at the start spot. We rolled along the quiet country road past the first lake. Then we dipped into the woods along a dirt road to the spot. A perfect place to unload the coffee gear and to look out over the quiet water. The sun slowly cooking off the cloud cover left over from the previous days rain storm. We talk about bikes and the changing seasons. Slowly we pack up our bikes and start to pedal back to the start. Mission accomplished. As we prepare to say our goodbyes, we all decide to ride a few extra miles down to the farmers market to grab some lunch. Bonus ride! We eat some good food. Cross paths with a few more friends and then we all slowly head off to get back to our normal weekend routines.
Another successful coffee outside
It’s been a minute. Today was gloomy weather and I could only get away from the house for a little while. Shortly after I got home it started to rain really hard. So, that worked out pretty well for me.
