The Staufenberger Repository

Amsterdam highlights

It wasn't all work, work, work in Amsterdam. We did a bit of cruising round on the Sparta, pretending to be locals. Here are three retail establishments that we visited along the way.

1. Nijhof and Lee is a lovely bookshop that specialises in design, typography, architecture, advertising, new media, that sort of thing. They stock out of print titles as well as new.

And, for fans of graphic design from the Netherlands, they have a well stocked line of posters by dutch masters such as Wim Crouwel. Here's one of his earliest efforts for the Stedelijk Museum from 1964.

If you fancy getting your hands on one of these posters, it's well worth making a detour to their shop next time you're in Amsterdam as only a fraction of their stock is online.

2. Suit Supply have just opened in London, but we thought we'd take the opportunity to see the dutch chain in its native habitat.

It's an interesting and energetic brand: you can get an off the peg suit for £200-£250 and made to measure for a bit more, depending on fabric.

And to underline their tailoring credentials, each shop has a chap doing alterations on the spot.

If your alteration isn't completed within 30 minutes, it's free. Not bad.

3. Star Bikes is where we hired our bikes. It's where our visit began and ended. Except for the train trip to and from the airport, but that doesn't really count. It doesn't look like they sell bikes, it's just rental all the way.

They'll also do you a picnic to pack on your bike if you want to make an excursion somewhere. The staff are super nice and super chilled. Very Amsterdam.

The School Run, Netherlands Style

via Velorution

In Amsterdam

We're in Amsterdam for a few days to do some research.

Obviously, there had to be bikes.

Staufenberger Tweed

So things are progressing on the Staufenberger Suit.

With its moisture resistance and durability, tweed was always going to be our fabric of choice. But which tweed? We spent hours flicking through endless swatch books...

...debating the merits of Harris vs. Donegal, check or herringbone...oh, the choices.

In the end, there was nothing for it than for us to commission our own tweed. And who better to work with than John G Hardy, who hold a couple of Royal Warrants (apparently, they supply Balmoral tweed to the royal household).

To be honest, we could have picked one the thousands of tweeds already in existence but we wanted ours to reflect cycle culture in some way (even if very subtly). So we set ourselves the task of incorporating the colours of the rainbow jersey into our design.

For the few readers of the Repository who are not bike nuts, the rainbow jersey is the top that the reigning world champion (across the numerous cycle racing disciplines) gets to wear during his/her year at the top of the pile. It looks like this:

So from here the process began.

First, the search to find the yarns that best matched the red, blue, yellow and green of the world champion stripes (we'd already decided the black stripe would be represented by the ground colour).

Once the yarns were selected, a few tests swatches were woven, featuring the colours as flecks:

These we rejected. Not enough colour. Too recessive.

Then we switched to stripes, rather than flecks, for the colours. We ran a few more tests. And then we got it...The Staufenberger Tweed:

We've pushed the button on production and are expecting a delivery of about 60 metres of the stuff in January.

The Staufenberger Suit

(Photo credit: Brian Wilson. See also A Taxonomy of Amsterdam Bicyclists.)

Regular readers will be well aware that we're a bunch of bikeheads here at Staufenberger Towers.

In addition to the occasional weekend jaunt up Mill Hill and beyond, and the odd spot of bike polo, we cycle to and from work. It goes some way to offset what is probably a pretty shameful carbon footprint.

And seeing as we have the bikes at the studio most days, we usually cycle to meetings. Which has been known to create confusion at our destination: our willfully scruffy attire means we often get mistaken for couriers by our clients' receptionists.

This in itself isn't that much of a problem. The messenger - or fakenger - look is very now for many urban cyclists.

But when combined with the fact that dressing down has lost its rebellious edge - let's face it, most of our clients wear jeans and ironic t-shirts to work - we thought it might be time for a change.

So we've decided to go smart. More precisely, we've decided to make our own cycle-friendly suits.

Obviously, when I say we're making them I don't mean we've invested in a sowing machine and a tin of pins. We're partnering with an established tailor, so they'll look like suits and won't fall apart, and we're spec-ing the cut, detailing and fabric.

We thought we'd document the process in the occasional post. So watch this space for more suit related ramblings.

A Taxonomy of Amsterdam Bicyclists

Given the amount of people who've delicious-ed this, I'm not sure how fresh it is. But it struck me as a lovely piece of content; so simple, yet really engaging. And it enables me to use the word taxonomy, so it has to be good.

Returning from a trip through Europe, Brian Wilson snapped 82 pictures of cyclists during 73 minutes sitting outside an Amsterdam cafe.

Then he classified them and posted the lot on his site. Simple as that.

The picture above is from my favourite group, number 4. Dogs on Bikes.

Genius.

Riding the fashion wave

We've commented before on the fashion component that has crept into the bicycle market. We've also tirelessly documented the worldwide spread of one expression of that fashion dimension: the fixie hipster.

In our original post back in June last year, we wondered how the manufacturers who were beginning to produce off-the-shelf fixies - such as Specialized, Bianchi, Lemond and Ridgeback - would manage this new dimension to their market. After all, it takes a lot of effort and a bit of luck to remain fashionable year in, year out.

Recently, Specialized have valiantly - though misguidedly - copied the sneaker manufacturers by releasing limited "city" editions of their Langster rig. Hence you get the London, Seattle, New York and others (though these others do not, strangely, include fixie-loving San Francisco).

There is some logic to this move. Fashion is a cycle of new news and demand is usually fueled by some form of limited availability. So new variations, of an existing product, available in limited numbers or for a limited time ticks a number of boxes. It's certainly worked for adidas and Nike for a while.

But therein lies a problem. The sneaker and other streetwear sectors are awash with limited editions: sites like hypebeast provide an almost daily stream of limited edition collaborations between so-and-so artist and such-and-such brand. It's getting a bit, well, tired.

There's also a more bike-specific reason why these Langsters don't work: they misunderstand the culture they're trying to engage. The city angle is clearly a nod to the urban centres where fixie culture has grown. Yet those urban roots are in self-built bikes not off-the-peg numbers. Just take a look at fixed gear gallery: they might not all be pretty, but the majority are home built and therefore unique.

For this reason, the Langster city editions haven't got the sector's opinion formers excited. True, there's been a bit of discussion on fixie forums. But local (London, UK) reaction started at mixed and got worse. Which makes the whole thing a bit of an own goal as the reason for these initiatives is street cred rather than (direct) sales volume.

So what should they have done? Well, if we were launching a bike range (and heaven knows we've considered it at length), here are a couple of things we would do.

Firstly, acknowledge the DIY roots of the trend by incorporating a degree of customisation. Mini do something like this with their paint options.

They should also tap into the retro aspect of fixie culture. The DIY approach means that many home-made rigs use old parts. For this reason, steel track frames from the 70s and 80s tend to be valued more than the newer aluminium.

So why not reissue a past classic, in the same vein as adidas Originals, say? Specialized have been around long enough to have some interesting things in their back catalogue. In fact, here's Ernesto's early 80s Allez (full details here):

That's better, isn't it?

Bike Polo

I went down to Brick Lane on Sunday for a bit of bike polo, the sport of urban kings.

Back in the saddle

The sun is finally out. I'm back on the road with a new bike. Patrick's tackled a couple of hills in France, read a Lance Armstrong biography and is now ready for the pro tour (after he gets some new shorts). So what better time to post random cycling footage.

Inevitable Tour posts

As you would have struggled to miss - if you live in the UK, that is - this year's Tour de France started in London this weekend. It was the third time the Tour has visited Britain and the first time the whole thing started here. That's a big deal.

As regular readers may have spotted, we're a bunch of bike-heads here at Staufenberger Towers. So, obviously, we weren't going to miss the atmosphere and spectacle of one of the biggest and maddest sporting events humans have invented. Here are a few observations from Saturday's opening Prologue stage.

(My camera is out of action and the shutter on my N73 is not the fastest to respond, as my attempt - above - to anticipate its delay demonstrates. So I've relied upon the efforts of others on Flickr. If anyone has any objections, please vent your anger here.)