Category Archives: Interviews

Bina Bilenky: Framebuilding Shows and The Family Business

Posted on October 26, 2011 by josh| 2 Comments


Bina and Stephen Bilenky. Photo from Embrocation Magazine.

Bina Bilenky is a busy woman. She helps run the family business (Bina is the daughter of noted framebuilder Stephen Bilenky), writes a column for Embrocation Magazine, is the co-founder and organizer of the Philly Bike Expo, founder and organizer of the Heartland Velo Show, and helps organize the San Diego Custom Bike Show. We talked about her experience growing up with an important framebuilder for a father, her work at Bilenky, and her notable attraction to bike shows.

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Posted in Bike Industry, Frame Builders, Interviews

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Tara Alan and Tyler Kellen Came Slowly Home

Posted on September 21, 2011 by josh| 1 Comment


Tyler and Tara cruising San Francisco their first week back in the U.S.

In April 2009, Tara Alan and Tyler Kellen set off from Scotland (via Minnesota) to spend two years pedaling their way around a sizable chunk of the Earth on a bike tour they named Going Slowly. In December 2010, after the duo had ridden through Europe, into north Africa, back up through eastern Europe, and driven across Russia, I interviewed them for The Bicycle Story. Since then, Tara and Tyler finished their tour in Southeast Asia and made their way back to the United States. I spoke to them again now that they’ve started to settle back in to see how the rest of the tour went, what it’s like to transition back into the “normal” world after two years of travel, and what their plans are for life off the road. They responded with both words and an amazing array of photographs that do a wonderful job of complementing the stories they tell.

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Lowell Smoger: the Mechanical Engineer’s 5,000-Mile Job Hunt

Posted on September 7, 2011 by josh| 1 Comment


Lowell and his Troll. Picture stolen from Facebook.

Fall 2010, Lowell Smoger finished his masters program in engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology and found himself–like many young Americans–high on smarts, degrees, and skills, but low on that all important, job-landing element, experience. Unlike many young Americans, however, Lowell didn’t move back in with his parents and start scouring Craigslist for job openings. He started planning a bike tour that would introduce him to America and maybe introduce him to a few bike industry folks along the way, as well.

I met Lowell this Labor Day weekend while he was stopped in Seattle. A college friend of mine, Hannah, had ridden with him for the first few weeks of the tour and had sent me a message telling me to meet up with her tour partner when he got to Seattle. Lowell, my girlfriend, and I spent an afternoon exploring nearby Bainbridge Island by bike. On the ferry ride over to the island, Lowell and I talked about his reasons for touring, his life on the road, his take on the kindness of strangers, and more.

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Posted in Bike Industry, Bike Touring, Interviews

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Brian Vernor: Santa Cruz’s Adventurous Filmmaking, Photo Taking, Native Son

Posted on July 18, 2011 by josh| 3 Comments


Brian at the Tour d’ Afrique, the subject of his film Where Are You Go? Photo from Good Problem.

Brian Vernor has a cool thing going for himself. The fourth-generation Santa Cruz, CA resident is a photographer, filmmaker, and adventurer who travels the world using his cameras to tell stories (and very frequently, ones about bikes). Sometimes it’s companies like Rapha or Jamis who send him off on a job. Other times its for his own projects like The Cyclocross Meeting and Where Are You Go, films that he shot in Japan and across Africa respectively. I spoke to Brian about his start as a filmmaker and photographer, his love for cyclocross, his adventure on a “rail bike,” the subjects currently catching his eye, and more.

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Posted in Art, Cycling Media, Cyclocross, Interviews, Racing

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Rick Smith & Brian Griggs: The men behind Yehuda Moon

Posted on June 22, 2011 by josh| 3 Comments


The very first Yehuda strip (and one of my favorites)

If you’re into bikes and the Internet (as one would assume you are as a reader of this bike blog), you’re probably more than a little familiar with the webcomic Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand Cyclery. The comic, started in 2008 by Rick Smith, centers on bike shop co-owners Joe King and Yehuda Moon along with a wide cast of bike-world characters. Through the character’s daily lives, the strip explores subjects like bike politics, the follies of bike commuting, the ups and downs of shop life, racing, and the many archetypal bike people we’ve all encountered as cyclists. I spoke to Rick Smith and Brian Griggs (who joined the comic in 2010 to help write) about their backgrounds as bike people and artists, the inspirations for the characters and stories, their bike politics, and more.

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Posted in Art, Bike Industry, Cycling Media, Interviews

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