I tend to disagree w/ stevo and flythebike. A bike at this level (imo) is more than just utilitarian. Part of why I'm doing it is an appreciation for fine craftsmanship. Pushing a builder to the extreme and admiring his work. However, mine at least, will not be hung on a wall only to ridden on Sundays. Frankly, I intend to ride the daylights out of it. If it gets a scratch or whatever, so what. In the end it's just a bike. It will be my pride and joy, but it's still what it is. And bicycles are meant to be ridden. Granted, I will take good care of it. Raining days and dirt roads, no. I'll just exercise reasonable caution with it to protect my investment. But it's gonna get a lot of miles.

It better. You, my friend, are in deep. Game recognize game. Get those tiff's resized and transcoded ASAP.

hot, oh sooo very nice.... 3 large for the frame alone though.....youch.

where abouts in Canada do ride it?

Okay, I will continue my story of dinner with this guy further. His father, an even bigger and richer Sheikh, at one point bought a nice rolls royce, something hardly anybody in the whole world could even think about buying. About a week after he bought it someone walked by his window and complimented him on the car. In Arab culture if someone compliments something you own, it means that they covet it. To be a good Muslim you must give the person that which they covet. So he got out of the car, handed the man the keys and walked home. This is not exageration or made up in any way. This is how their culture works. He and his family are extremely generous to the people who live around their oasis, and as Muslim scripture and culture decrees, it is your responsibility to feed anyone who is hungry, house anyone who is homeless and clothe anyone who is naked. It is a supremely generous culture, but there is just so much money and only a finite amount of time these guys have (the Sheikh I had dinner with was in Paris for 2 days, heading to Toronto the next morning, and had been away from home for about a 3 weeks travelling non stop). You can't expect him to feed everyone, and despite his lavish life he gives more than almost any rich American.

Similarly, most Arab men wear a Khanjar, a ceremonial dagger. They come in many different qualities and prices. A very rich man will wear a Khanjar made of silver, encrusted with jewels, while a poorer man will wear a very modest Khanjar of leather, pewter and cheaper craftsmanship. When a man with a lavish Khanjar gets his hair cut, he will be charged a high fee, because he can obviously afford it. A man with a modest one will be charged much less, because he obviously does not have as much. This is how it works, and no rich man would wear a cheap Khanjar to save money. It is the same with cars, bikes, houses, food and pretty much everything. This isn't to say that they buy everything expensive, but they appreciate quality and craft. A 20,000 dollar bicycle better be damn good, but I could see a Sheikh riding no less.

Ok. Just sent HereNT the first batch of photos of the original carvings. It's up to him now to post them. As a side note: tip length is kind of hard to gauge in the photos. If you look at the uppermost (longest) tips, you can tell that they are roughly twice the length of the diameter of the headtube or more. Looking at Vanilla's website, the longer of the lugs are roughly the length of the headtube's diameter. That's the only way I can try to explain how long these tips are.

"He and his family are extremely generous to the people who live around their oasis,"

I certainly didnt mean to imply the man (or anyone else here) isnt generous; I just believe, for myself, there are better ways to spend cash, personal wealth notwithstanding.

On the other hand,,,,if your sheikh friend would like to generously provide me with a 20,000$ bike....

Go to his oasis and compliment the hell out of everything. It will all be yours.

mostly-ready-to-ride trek conversion: 395
chain: 15
front brake: 0 (prps to pioneer cycles!)
brake cable: found in basement (ex-roomie's detritus)
brake lever: 27 (had to buy a set)
pedals: stolen from my cargo bike
rack: found in basement (a different ex-roomies detritus!)

total: 437 USD

and rides like a dream (now that i put my favourite pedals on). Still Not Ready For FGG, and will probably get a full set of front/rear brakes (mostly from basement) and a freewheel(18) this weekend. fenders come winter. someday i'll upgrade the wheelset. for now it's a superlight (to me) easy-ridin' fixed gear bike and golly, it didn't cost me that much! thanks to ebay, tlupfer (his trek), and all my ex-roommates who left bikes (!) and parts in the basement.

do you think he and a friend can come to philly first so i can compliment the hell out of his friend's plane ticket to the oasis?

"do you think he and a friend can come to philly first so i can compliment the hell out of his friend's plane ticket to the oasis? "

I'm already here; I was just waiting for his private jet and flight harem to land in PHL so I could compliment them.

Here's the test: https://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/chimay...d8.jpg&.src=ph

Don't know how to do thumbnails on here, but here's a link to the first photo.

He's only got one wife right now, still room for 3 more. He is still a youngin at 30 years old. In fact he was going out after dinner to a club to score some tail and drink more (he's not really a 'by the book' muslim!) Also no complimenting wives. That is a MAJOR bad move. Not that they are even allowed outside of the country, or in public without full shador and a chaperone. If a women wants to go somewhere you need a chauffeur (male, because women can't drive), and a chaperone because a wife can't be alone with another man, meaning theres 3 people needed to do one thing. Its another world.

Nevermind...

On the its another world comment.

I saw the four hour Lawernce of Arabia this week. Sure, its Hollywood and not accurate, but it does give you a sense of that.

Pretty Lugs.

The frame and fork normaly retail for $5,000 US, so this was a really good score for me. It's a track specific machine, although i have taken it out on the road, riding from my house to the university here where my former coach works. The detroit track and hopefully the new tack in London, Ont will be it's playground.

Because you have good taste!

Just got deeper and looks like I need a life jacket.

S/F<
CEYA!

If you've got a lifejacket, then you must've come prepared. Even I could not see that far ahead.

Chimay...You're disgusting!!! That's going to be one seriously schweeeeet bike once Sacha is finished building it up. Any new updates?

bikes are expensive. nice bikes are very expensive.

if you're going to go hard on your stuff and want it to last, the extra money is far better spent up front.

i own 4 bikes right now, i've owned others, they come and go, get rebuilt, get broken and fixed, changed, upgraded, etc.

i have no idea how much i've spent over the years, but it no doubt totals tens of thousands of dollars. i'm far from rich or even moderately well off, but i love riding and everything about bikes and it's where my priorities are, so i'm fine with that.

since leaving road racing behind (for now, at least), things are much cheaper.

now i covet $40 nitto B-123s, where it used to be $250 easton carbon bars.

the best pair of fixed wheels i could build for street riding pale in cost to $1500 mavic cosmic carbones (and probably even to $850 ksyrium ssc sl).

and not having to worry about carbon cranks, forks, levers, deraillers, saddles, posts, pedals, hubs and whatever else, is nice, too. (i mean, i know some of that stuff is used on the track, but not really on the streets of nyc).

I can stop at any time!