Fine Art

DT Swiss Red, originally uploaded by mobiuscycle.

I love this color. Or maybe it's the color of love. I definitely feel a heightening of the senses. Something about this photo really strikes me. The angles, captured. A wheel is a delicate balance, a suspension bridge. I often try to capture this tenuous quality when I photograph my wheels. "What doesn't bend breaks." -Ani DiFranco

This need for flexibility is one of the many reasons I only build with DT Swiss Revolution spokes. They are butted to be thinner than other spokes. Through this process, "work hardening" reorganizes the metal lattice on the molecular level. In other words, the spoke becomes denser and stronger as well as lighter, but most importantly it can hold more tension with less material. A wheel needs tension to suspend. I've said it before, my new wheels fly. Any bicycle wheel is a beautiful machine, but this is Fine Art.

Fusing craft spirit and vision.

Feather Dream Mural

Feather Dream Mural, originally uploaded by Taylor Hurley | Grain Studios.

I love night photography, especially in black and white. Today and yesterday we are under a Harvest Moon. Last night, about midnight, I was about to go to bed when Sarah pulled me onto the porch and said, "LOOK!" and pointed at that big beautiful luminary. I got out my Nikon FE2, loaded it with 3200 ISO Ilford film and drug my setup out to the street to minimize light pollution. I found my longest lens for said camera (a macro zoom lens) and fixed it to the camera and Voilà, the moon was nearly full frame, it was HUGE! I took most of the roll, experimenting with different shutter speeds, the moon would meter bright enough to blowout so I sped up the capture. I can't wait to finish this roll so I can see the photos! Thank you Harvest Moon for being so big and so beautiful. I really wish our way of life meant we would never miss the moon's dance across the sky. Sarah and I lived on a beach at La Push for a week once. The moon's cycle was ours and the waters' cycle too. Don't forget to look up, even mobius is hard to find without looking up!

Lead

Pentel, originally uploaded by mobiuscycle.

Pencil lead is beautiful. A well crafted mechanical pencil is a joy to hold. I wanted to be an architect when I was younger just so I could draw plans. Amanda works at an architectural firm. From her description these architects have more pens and pencils than a University Bookstore! My grandfather gave me my first Pentel mechanical pencil while we played Parsec on his Texas Instruments computer. He was an Engineer for Bell Systems, back when Bell was the ONLY phone company in the country! He therefore had the leading technology of the time. Amazing how things have changed since that side-scrolling space shooter. I can't wait for Virtual Reality games. Nintendo's Wii is pretty close. Who knows what's on the horizon, pocket computers are a dime a dozen. Not like my grandfather's day when a computer was the size of a large room. Welcome to Twenty Ten!

Orange peel buddah

Orange peel buddah, originally uploaded by mobiuscycle.

My best friend just made a trip to Seattle just to see me! I feel so full! It was as if she had never left. Five years erased instantly. We're like sisters that get along because we weren't forced to grow up together. I've been telling her all about the food I've been cooking lately and she was most excited about it. So, Sarah and I prepared at the Farmer's Market Sunday. We got lucky, the guys at Loki were able to bring home one more week of fresh salmon! That's right, never been frozen. I pan fry it on the skin with olive oil under, lemon and sea salt on top. Lid the pan on medium, make sure the pan is hot before you put the salmon in. If you pull it right when the center goes from dark to light pink it will melt in your mouth. Like lobster. Frickin unbelievable! Hearth and home with the best of friends. One of the nicest things about being a homebody is having your best homebody friend over for a couple of homecooking days!

Mountain Goat

GT ala mobius, originally uploaded by mobiuscycle.

I always forget what a roadie I am. Then I get on my road bike and WHAM! I'm hooked. Speed, agility, climbs like a mountain goat. I think part of me knew Mad Market was closed at 11:17pm last night. I think I just wanted to climb straight up pike from downtown. My favorite part was when my front wheel glowed in the shadows (it's phosphorescent blue on white paint). Baby got a new pair of shoes! These are my first deep V road wheels (DT Swiss RR585 rims, front painted by SIK Werks). I've always had low-profile rims before. What a difference! Holy stiffness Batman! Snappy everywhere! I think I just blew a gasket I'm so stoked! Too many exclamation points!

Fall into a raindrop.

Cafe Presse, originally uploaded by mobiuscycle.

Brisk Bisque
Surface tension
Beading droplet drupe.

Embrace the imminent
Our bones need rest
From all this business
(busy ness)

Lava Pit

Lava Pit, originally uploaded by Taylor Hurley | Grain Studios.

Taking this photo took my breath away. A Leicagasm. This is my playground from 5th-6th grade. I wasn't a junglegymmer, more of a kickballer. This was one of those mysterious places for me. There was a bit of a longing, the lava pit was foreign territory. I didn't speak the language, didn't have the strength to cross the pit without falling. I remember once falling from the third rung, landing on my arm and knocking the wind out of my lungs. That moment was different from the Leicagasm but somehow they are distinctly related. Experience is a spectrum. We invoke both the beauty and the grotesque just by breathing each breath.

Temporal Splice

Rasberi Bertoni - Pimp, originally uploaded by mobiuscycle.

This is a meeting of the minds. The near, the far. The new, the old. Technology meshing across a gulf of time. Old doesn't necessarily mean crap and new rarely equals good. Why? I've been asking myself this question with regard to bikes since my mom bought me a $10 Schwinn from a consignment store in ~1986. She said, "It's a Schwinn!" when asked if this was a nice bike, of course it was, the name said so. Things have changed since then. With the advent of internet bike sales, and increase in planned obsolescence, there is less accountability in bike production. It used to be that you could ONLY buy a "bike shop bike" in a shop. A "bike shop bike" was something you could trust for 10+ years. The major brands insisted, in order to honor your warranty, that a bike shop assemble your bike. Now even the major bike companies are building for that internet/disposable market. Wheels last months instead of years. First ride on the street, fixed cogs strip to freewheels. Besides, the gear ratios the bikes come with are practically unusable. Nowadays, the best way to be sure your bike is well built is to build from scratch. Hand built wheels, holistically chosen parts and the personal touch. Some components on this build are from the seventies, the frame is possibly 80's/90's and the other parts are 9/02/10...(hehe 90210 that's today). Each person needs a very specific bike to meet their needs. This is the goal of each build. The Rasberi Bertoni pictured here is Greg's dream, pure and simple.

Revel

Revel, originally uploaded by Taylor Hurley | Grain Studios.

A reminder to celebrate life. REVEL! Too often we are duped to believe that we don't deserve to enjoy ourselves. But inspiring through beauty in all its forms is the essential meaning of life. That meaning so many spend so long searching for. Enjoy! That's the message stitched into the fabric of the universe. No matter how bad it gets there is always some positive to be found simply by the act of looking.

Shug: More than anything God love admiration.
Celie: You saying God is vain?
Shug: No, not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off when you walk by the colour purple in a field and don't notice it.
Celie: You saying it just wanna be loved like it say in the bible?
Shug: Yeah, Celie. Everything wanna be loved. Us sing and dance, and holla just wanting to be loved. Look at them trees. Notice how the trees do everything people do to get attention... except walk?

The Color Purple by Alice Walker