Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - a lament for momovelo

i know that many people ultimately ended up upset with momovelo due to it's poor execution, but i find that it filled an important role in the healthy spectrum of relatively inexpensive bikes.

they were artful, unique, inspiring, utilitarian, and now it's all gone.

what has happened to the tradition of the artful bicycle? it seems like all of the homage to the french tradition has fled to japan.

i sincerely hope that someone launches a new business in the form that momovelo began. peter white and rivendell can hardly do it alone.

not familiar with momovelo. care to give some background?

I was/am under the impression that Kai has a new storefront in Berkeley. He's not doing mailorder anymore, but he's still kicking around. Unless that situation has changed in the last little while...

I was/am under the impression that Kai has a new storefront in Berkeley. He's not doing mailorder anymore, but he's still kicking around. Unless that situation has changed in the last little while...

As far as I can tell both momovelo and omafiets are gone. The last storefront I knew of has reverted back to an antique store.

Bummer, that was a shop I could just geek out in for hours.

Mo, et.al. :
Momovelo (and then Omafiets for a few weeks) was a beautiful little bike shop in the classic french tradition. Kai Matsuda was the proprietor and had an incredible eye for velo-beauty. Traditional styles, beautiful parts, great colors, everything done just right to make mid-priced commuter bikes works of art. He sold bikes and parts and also did consulting and repair. His shops were some of the greatest places to stop in and look around. They didn't have much stuff in them, but everything was beautiful and Kai himself was always very friendly and very knowledgable.

Problem was that his passion wasn't making money. It was making bikes beautiful. He started doing some online stuff and had a few bad experiences (missed shipments, general confusion, etc.) He also wasn't super-quick with the turnaround on repairs. His wasn't a shop you went to if you broke a cable and needed it replaced for your race tomorrow. You went to him if you wanted him to find a NOS campy something or other or the perfect chainguard for your 1955 stingray. Lots of folks also didn't know that he had a full time job 'on the side' and was essentially running his bike shop as an after-hours super-hobby.

He sold the Momovelo name/style to a (i think) Japanese company and closed that shop. A few months ago he opened Omafiets on Milvia/University in Berkeley in 1/2 of an old antique shop.

I stopped in and saw him a few times and he was doing repair work and selling omafiets (basically the standard grandma bike.) He was done with internet sales, and was focussing on local work only. He preferred to work only with folks within a 5 mile radius of the shop (he would refer you to another shop closer to your home) unless he had something exclusive, and he started carrying an assortment of locally produced cylcing-related items. I went away for a couple weeks and when I returned (this was maybe 3-4 months ago) the shop was closed.

I hope someone on here knows what happened or where Kai is. He and his shops were small but very significant assets to the local biking community, and he championed an aesthetic that is sorely missing from most of the modern bike world.

well said.

As far as I can tell both momovelo and omafiets are gone.

That is a bummer.

I loved Momovelo when I was living in Berkeley. It was an eclectic mix of awesome stuff.

I loved the looks of his bikes. He shot great photography of them also. I just hated the reputation he got for his mail order practices.

I loved the looks of his bikes. He shot great photography of them also. I just hated the reputation he got for his mail order practices.

Agreed on that one, ordering something being told it had been sent, then the place closing, and being told it had never been sent and no comeback since it was closed :mad:

so the moral of the story is, we need someone with better business practices to open a similar operation. surely there's an entrepreneur or two reading this.

Kai had a great philosophy regarding bikes and if anything, I miss reading his thoughts and approach to bikes.

Anyhow, for those who never saw the site, here are a few photos showing the kind of stuff he'd build up. These were not his best work (there was a cream bike that was gorgeous) but demonstrate the kind of aesthetic he went for.

http://dcc.absenter.org/foto/misc/momo_01.jpg

http://dcc.absenter.org/foto/misc/momo_02.jpg

http://dcc.absenter.org/foto/misc/momo_05.jpg

That cream bike he photographed with a pumpkin on the front basket was hot. I wish I had the photo.

those are tremendous builds.

Found it.

http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/matsuda2.jpg
Not really something I usually go for. But I wouldn't mind cruising around on this.

Here's the cream one I'm referring to, he called it "Royal Milktea", courtesy of archive.org. Not all the photos load but you get the idea and some text.

http://web.archive.org/web/20050320025552/www.momovelo.com/atelier/royal_milktea.html

And here's archive.org's cache of momovelo:

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.momovelo.com

It is sad....he had the coolest stuff. I only saw his online shop. Tre boutique. I wish someone would step up and fill the niche. Hell, I'd do it with some partners!

http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/matsuda1.jpg

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=2311&stc=1

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=2310&stc=1

absntr beat me!

It's an interesting idea, to buy old bikes strip them completely and start over from powdercoat on up. This is sort of what he did right? *edit - looking at the webarchive it looks like he had a source for new frames -anyone know who made them?* To a certain degree I do that in my basement, less the powdercoating, and I wager alot of others here do it too. The key for me doing it was, for a time, having a cheap source for great old frames and parts. Since that place (Portland's community cycling center) changed thier business strategies, elimitating the occasional $5 lejeune and $10 centurion, I'm trying to reclaim my basement and get back to woodworking. I'm left with a basement full of complete bikes that I rarely ride, but which look great.

It's interesting to try to identify what makes a good looking bike from an ugly one. A quick scan of FGG shows that some people have that innate ability to create a beautiful bike and some people just don't get it. Tall people are a bit luckier with their graceful steep frames and us short guys have a bit of a harder time, a betrayal of geometry and the standardization of wheel sizes, but it's always great to see a bike on there that just knocks you over, not with tech or bling but with subtlety and grace.

There are certainly stores around here that fix up old bikes, in a slightly less artful manner, and sell them for more than you'd expect to pay on craigslist or ebay, with warranties and service, I saw a guy buy a really cool cargo bike the other day made from a mtb with a 20 inch front wheel, extended head tube and the 'top tubes' from a mixte shooting from the BB to way out front to carry a platform and I thought, well, this is a pretty good town i live in. I think it was three or four hundred bucks.

But I think without an asthetic or an artsy overtone like momovelo had, you be hard pressed to sell that milktea bike for a grand with any regularity, not that the parts don't warrant it, infact most of his offerings were pretty solid values , I just think that's just a really tough pricepoint. You go a little lower you get Kogs or IRO, a little higher and you may need to start building frames. That's a tough middle ground, the thousand(ish) dollar bike.

I don't know much about 'the french tradition', but like a few people have mentioned, it takes money to run a storefront, or even a website. I think we'd all like to have a shop where we could go in a shoot the **** with the owner for an hour or so over coffee and then buy some tires (what;s the margin on a pair of tires?), but man, who can pay rent on that sort of great customer service? Unfortunately, that's a business model for someone who has retired with means, or it's a side job and a money loser.

Sorry, lost track of what I was saying.

It's an interesting idea, to buy old bikes strip them completely and start over from powdercoat on up. This is sort of what he did right? *edit - looking at the webarchive it looks like he had a source for new frames -anyone know who made them?* To a certain degree I do that in my basement, less the powdercoating, and I wager alot of others here do it too. The key for me doing it was, for a time, having a cheap source for great old frames and parts. Since that place (Portland's community cycling center) changed thier business strategies, elimitating the occasional $5 lejeune and $10 centurion, I'm trying to reclaim my basement and get back to woodworking. I'm left with a basement full of complete bikes that I rarely ride, but which look great.

It's interesting to try to identify what makes a good looking bike from an ugly one. A quick scan of FGG shows that some people have that innate ability to create a beautiful bike and some people just don't get it. Tall people are a bit luckier with their graceful steep frames and us short guys have a bit of a harder time, a betrayal of geometry and the standardization of wheel sizes, but it's always great to see a bike on there that just knocks you over, not with tech or bling but with subtlety and grace.

There are certainly stores around here that fix up old bikes, in a slightly less artful manner, and sell them for more than you'd expect to pay on craigslist or ebay, with warranties and service, I saw a guy buy a really cool cargo bike the other day made from a mtb with a 20 inch front wheel, extended head tube and the 'top tubes' from a mixte shooting from the BB to way out front to carry a platform and I thought, well, this is a pretty good town i live in. I think it was three or four hundred bucks.

But I think without an asthetic or an artsy overtone like momovelo had, you be hard pressed to sell that milktea bike for a grand with any regularity, not that the parts don't warrant it, infact most of his offerings were pretty solid values , I just think that's just a really tough pricepoint. You go a little lower you get Kogs or IRO, a little higher and you may need to start building frames. That's a tough middle ground, the thousand(ish) dollar bike.

I don't know much about 'the french tradition', but like a few people have mentioned, it takes money to run a storefront, or even a website. I think we'd all like to have a shop where we could go in a shoot the **** with the owner for an hour or so over coffee and then buy some tires (what;s the margin on a pair of tires?), but man, who can pay rent on that sort of great customer service? Unfortunately, that's a business model for someone who has retired with means, or it's a side job and a money loser.

Sorry, lost track of what I was saying.


The three frame set above are all repainted Steamrollers.

And the milktea frame is a Crosscheck.

No one repainted Surly frames like Kai.

Milktea's a beautiful color. I wish I'd thought of it. Oh, wait, I did:

http://www.kogswellowners.com/pics2/albums/album10/kog2.sized.jpg

Kai IM'd me one day and we had a nice chat. He asked me what my 'value proposition' was. Golly, I don't know. Making stuff that people like and shipping it to them when they pay for it? I asked him if I could come by his shop. He never could give me a time when he'd be there.

Must be nice.



-

matthew, i love your bikes. really i do. but it's a totally different operation. you sell frames. he sold interesting setups that looked pretty.

i don't mean to suggest that someone couldn't make a pretty, interesting setup out of a kogs frame, but thats the difference, from my meek, bicycle consumer standpoint. (aka your target market)

i have, at multiple times, been very close to buying a kogswell. currently i own a crosscheck with the decals stripped and a "momovelo-esque" build. i guess that says a lot about how i shop. my bicycle is my "third place".

I never bought anything from him but i used to just look at his bike pics, not just once, like once a week.

he nailed what i love about bicycle aesthetics and i miss that site. i'm suprised nobody has taken his place with the way the market is now. i would buy from somebody online if they had a fun, well designed and interesting site that wasn't too "busy".

Matthew -

I almost bought one of the original kustard models when you first had them. But the 135mm rear spacing turned me off. I was excited to hear about the G's but when they came out they were a lot less trackier than I thought they might be.

That said, I am looking forward to the next (trackier) batch, and please, please, please, bring back that kustard.

sorry but these bikes don't really do anything for me. reminds me of most of the stuff on FGG. they're just decent frames repainted with subtle colors, brooks saddles, silvery components and very senic backdrops.

put any of those bikes in a "city scene" and half of you would be *****ing about the slack geometry.

Half would be, but im not in that half.

put any of those bikes in a "city scene" and half of you would be *****ing about the slack geometry.

Yeah, but the good half still likes 'em.

Yeah, but the good half still likes 'em.

har!

my track bike gathers dust.

Kogswell

I know you have a business to run, but please stop diverting threads into adverts for that businees. This thread is about momovelo, not kogswell.

Kogswell

I know you have a business to run, but please stop diverting threads into adverts for that businees. This thread is about momovelo, not kogswell.

Maybe I'm just naive, but that didn't look much like an advert to me at all.

matthew, i love your bikes. really i do. but it's a totally different operation. you sell frames. he sold interesting setups that looked pretty.

i don't mean to suggest that someone couldn't make a pretty, interesting setup out of a kogs frame, but thats the difference, from my meek, bicycle consumer standpoint. (aka your target market)

i have, at multiple times, been very close to buying a kogswell. currently i own a crosscheck with the decals stripped and a "momovelo-esque" build. i guess that says a lot about how i shop. my bicycle is my "third place".

Exactly.

I teach special ed during the day (when my friends in Taiwan are asleep.) My favorite moments as a teacher are when I'm in an art class and I can coax a kid into learning to express himself for the first time. That's the best. When you see that look on a kid's face that says: 'Hey, that's me on that canvas.'

What Kai does is show people his interpretation of beauty. And that's fine. It's like going to an art exhibit. You learn from others.

What I object to is people going home and making momo-esque bikes.

I don't want to see your interpretation of Kai's interpretation of beauty.

I want to see YOUR interpretation of beauty.

It isn't easy.

I watch young people and old struggle with it.

But once they get over the initial hump, the payoff it spectacular.

Here's a photo of a Kogswell D model that some guy in Staten Island named Tony bought and painted:

http://www.kogswellowners.com/pics2/albums/album05/IRO_Kogswell4.sized.jpg]

When he sent it in, he mentioned that the orange was Mopar Orange, the color of a '68 Dodge Roadrunner. That's what I'm talking about. Tony knows himself and expresses it through his bikes. In my book that make him a perfect Kogswell owner. I think that shows in Tony's other work. He's not afraid to take his own lead and run with it.

Maybe you and Kai are the same person. Maybe everything he is is everything you are.

But on the odd chance that you have something inside you that needs to be expressed, I'd rather see a ink1373-esque Crosscheck.

I know you have a business to run, but please stop diverting threads into adverts for that businees. This thread is about momovelo, not kogswell.

Does anyone else feel as momentum does?

Have I hijacked this thread?

My intention was to expose the underlying abstraction of what powered momovelo to those who might not have had a chance to see or recognize it.

I do have a business to run. And part of running that business involves legitimizing online outfitting. When someone comes along and builds on the foundation of trust that's been formed by the sweat of thousands of competantly handled transactions, I think those of us who've actually turned the cranks and manned the levers have every right to scrutinize his use of that foundation. And when he undermines our work and wrecks havoc with that trust then it should come as no surprise to find out that we're taking an active role in seeing to it that the curtain is drawn back and the All Powerful Oz is seen for who he really is.

Call me Toto.

I am with you Kogswell - I can`t understand all this sentimental nostalgic hype for someone who has ripped so many people off

Matthew -

I almost bought one of the original kustard models when you first had them. But the 135mm rear spacing turned me off. I was excited to hear about the G's but when they came out they were a lot less trackier than I thought they might be.

That said, I am looking forward to the next (trackier) batch, and please, please, please, bring back that kustard.

I'd like to tell you that I will, but then I'd be hijacking this thread.

Does anyone else feel as momentum does?



I apologise for the late night posting - I think I jumped to conclusions about your post.

I have no sentimental attachment to momovelo - nice bikes but not my thing and a nice bike that isn't delivered isn't quite as nice. Plus over here in the UK we can get the real thing :)

I am with you Kogswell - I can`t understand all this sentimental nostalgic hype for someone who has ripped so many people off

I pray that it's powered by foregiveness and a devotion to art.

The time to make your mind up about people is never.

Please be clear on this, one and all: I'm always ready to give Kai another chance.

But I reserve the right be vigilant.

I apologise for the late night posting - I think I jumped to conclusions about your post.

I have no sentimental attachment to momovelo - nice bikes but not my thing and a nice bike that isn't delivered isn't quite as nice. Plus over here in the UK we can get the real thing :)

Don't be so hasty.

I'm a convicted thread hijacker who's on probation. Ask anyone here. I've been doing better lately but I defend your right to keep an eye on me and call the foul as you see it.

And speaking of UK bikes, you're right. You guys do have it good. I'd take a chrome Bob Jackson off the peg in heartbeat. And then there's the jumbles. I'll bet they bring out a gem or two.

Actually, mathew, i think you get to be here because you like bikes just like the rest of us. Just because you run a business doesn't mean you can't like singlespeeds and fixed gears.

Do you have a pic of any personal rides you would care to post in a thread about bicycle beauty?

those bikes are sad specimens, indeed. blah.

Mathew,
I really don't agree with "What I object to is people going home and making momo-esque bikes," there is nothing wrong with paying homage to a some one whose art you love. My current bike project is very much inspired by both momo and rivendell, but it's my interpretation, my homage, my art.

the whole bike industry is based off of copying others' designs. kogswell is clearly influenced by rivendell as much as momovelo was.

i didn't go buy each part off of the milktea page and build a clone, but i certainly took a few pages out of the momovelo book when i chose how to build my crosscheck. just as i took a few bits of inspiration from rivendell, ANT, matt chester, and many FGG submissions.

it would be a bold faced lie to say that the bike industry would be ANYTHING like what it is without this sort of behavior. take that as a positive or a negative, but i think we all know that the pista wouldn't have existed without a whole lot of track bike heritage.

art minus imitation = nothing

the whole bike industry is based off of copying others' designs. kogswell is clearly influenced by rivendell as much as momovelo was.



Hmmmm....

Kind of.

For folks who don't have a lot of contextual background, our frames may look like Rivendells. The model P is admittedly a Rambouillet copy because customers asked for it to be. So from my perspective the customers are influenced by Rivendell.

If you want to see what I think frames should look like, see a Model D, F, G, M or Portuer/Rando.

Personally my biggest influence is M. Eisentraut, stylistically. Understated elegence works for me.

Peep a cherry, all Super Record Eiisentraut in polychromatic fawn some time.

i have a friend back in mpls who has a beautiful eisentraut. username deathintransit. he doesn't post much though.

i have to agree that the eisen frame is amazing. the fork crown is quite the sight.

I'm with the other guy, Matt, bring back that sweet Kustard! Meanwhile, folks, keep in mind everybody's influenced by everybody. Heck, I'd build myself a beautiful Royal Tea fixie if I could paint worth a s##t...

Grant's RBs where influenced by 1970s race bikes, 1970s race bikes were influenced by...well, you get the point.

I can honestly say I drooled over Momovelo's site once a week, too,(more for the photography than the bikes themselves,) and it was pretty upsetting finding out about his shady business practices right here on Bikeforums. To say that I don't like his bikes and photos of his bikes because of his business practices is a little silly. I'm fully aware that Dostoyevsky was a butthole as a human being, but he's still my favorite author.

Kogswell definitely has a point about how Mr. Matsuda betrayed the trust of reputable online bicycle merchants everywhere, but now I just go to the Kogswell site once a week and drooool. :beer:

As far as the whole "copying an aesthetic"-thing goes, well, aren't pretty much all lugged steel manufacturers, and a few TIG bikes, copying older touring- and audax-type bicycles? I mean, I'm a total drinker of the retrogrouch kool-aid, but to say that Rivendell, Kogswell and Momovelo are more derivative of each other than older high end European bikes is kind of silly. It's not like these are companies who are trying to make the most aerodynamic recumbent on earth, they're copying older bikes. Artfully, beautifully and with great tubing and components, but none of it is anything very new.

I can honestly say I drooled over Momovelo's site once a week, too,(more for the photography than the bikes themselves,) and it was pretty upsetting finding out about his shady business practices right here on Bikeforums. To say that I don't like his bikes and photos of his bikes because of his business practices is a little silly. I'm fully aware that Dostoyevsky was a butthole as a human being, but he's still my favorite author.

Kogswell definitely has a point about how Mr. Matsuda betrayed the trust of reputable online bicycle merchants everywhere, but now I just go to the Kogswell site once a week and drooool. :beer:

As far as the whole "copying an aesthetic"-thing goes, well, aren't pretty much all lugged steel manufacturers, and a few TIG bikes, copying older touring- and audax-type bicycles? I mean, I'm a total drinker of the retrogrouch kool-aid, but to say that Rivendell, Kogswell and Momovelo are more derivative of each other than older high end European bikes is kind of silly. It's not like these are companies who are trying to make the most aerodynamic recumbent on earth, they're copying older bikes. Artfully, beautifully and with great tubing and components, but none of it is anything very new.

E X A C T L Y

I'd like to collaborate with Matsuda the way that I've collaborated with Heine. Kai's a visual genius.

And your point about our stuff not being new is dead on. Design wise, stylisically we're more retrograde than ever. We've gone from 1982 to 1952. But the materials and the process fully modern. Is the Mazda Miata a better Lotus Elan? No. Well, maybe. Yeah, in a way.

Ooops, I'm hijacking.

Kai, call me.

On a side note, does anyone know where I could *buy* the milktea color, either for the bike or even -- gasp -- for my room? it's really a beautiful color

Well if you're looking for wet paint, just take a printout and head down to your local paint store. Hell, they'll have swatch books you can look through and will be able to mix a custom color if it's not in there.

For powder coat, they're probably using Drylac, so look through the Drylac swatches online. On the other hand, unless your display's color profile is properly setup, that's a pretty subtle tint and you may very well end up with something that's not quite right. Again, your powder coater should have a swatch book to pick it out of.