Circle A Cycles
 

probably the prettiest bikes ever. does anyone know how their pricing is? as far as i can tell there's no info on the website, but...damn. i might have to start saving up.

heres why.

http://www.circleacycles.com/gallery_detail.asp?id=15

custom fixed frames start at 800, a really good deal.

yeah. a friend of mine talked to one of the members and he said expect to pay somwehere around $1000 or so, depending on what you want. But be ready to wait. they've got something like a 4 month backup. and they just got a write-up in Dirt Rag so it'll probably be a 8 month backup before long.
damn pretty bikes though. I love those Paul fork ends.

tim

Wow, an 8 month backlog, sound like business isn't hurting. Guess you can succeed with quality made in America.

Yeah, I found these guys a while ago. DAMN nice frames. I e-mailed them at the time too and they were very helpful. Might be a while before I can afford one but definitely on my wish list.......

check out vanilla cycles from portland.

yeah, these are super nice bikes. and everyone i know who works there is great.
the hardest part about living in providence is seeing all these nice circle a's around town and not having one myself!

How can you pass up sweet frames with good politics? (I just hope that after capitalism has been brought down they'll make frames for free...)

Oh yeah and I live in Portland, my LBS constantly has Vanilas up in the windows *drool, drool* and old Strawberries! (hurray for tasty bike name themes)

(Strawberry, Vanilla)

After someone posted the vanilla link a while back I've been lusting over one. Now...can I justify taking out 1500 in student loans just for the frame?

I would take out those loans.... :D
You'll just be working for the rest of your life to pay off the bike and the rest of your education/tuition :D

http://www.vanillabicycles.com/bikes...ke_b/lrg/1.jpg

Beautiful.

its a sad day when I realize that adding $2000 to my loans to get my dream bike isn't going to make that big of a change in the total that I owe.

Maybe I'll just sell my soul to the corporate devil to pay it back. Either that, or I never leave school and they can never make me pay it all back. hehehe

If you don't pay they'll repossess your bike! :eek:
you don't want that!! :eek:

ahh...but payments don't start until six months after I leave school, and if I never leave school.....

you beat the system.... heheheh :p

I just saw a Cirle A at the Powell's coffeeshop on Hawthorne tonight. Pretttty. I think it might have had gears, though I was too busy staring at the frame to notice such things.

To think... Once was the time it would have occurred to me that a guy (or gal) could take out student loans to pay for consumer goods.

Welcome to the real world, ladies and gents.

Well... with grad school looming around the corner, I think I'll live with my pos and wait until my net worth is back in (or near :D ) the black to buy a nicer bike.

New wheels ought to make it a better (read:safer) ride. $60 for a set with a real track hub isn't going to break me, but another stupid accident from stripped threads might.

I use to live in Providence, RI and I use to know the guy who runs Cycle A Cyclery. He actually taught a really good basic bicycle mechanic course at a local co-op/free bike program.

He's really smart and knows a helluva lot of bicycle know-how. I got most my bicycle bicycle knowledge from the dude so I really owe him this one good recommendation.

In one of the free bicycle classes we all went over to tour his Workshop and it was the first time I saw a custom bicycle workshop with all the specialized machines like jugs, sandblasters, and even a really cool old-school Chopper.

He really loves bicycles and it show with this work.

Joe

to bring this topic back to life, i have been looking at their website because me and a friend are setting up a bike coperative here in manchester UK. we've been involved in anarchism/activism for a while, so the bike project is an extension of our beliefs. weve got funding and are looking for spaces now, its all very exiting.
anyway i was looking at an old topic on circle a cycles http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-48597-p-1
and i was wondering what people thought of their politics.
I agree of course with their basic anarchist principles, but as some people stated in the old thread, they complain about the market yet sell things. but i dont think its right to complain about this, projects need money in society's current state..people cant just volunteer, as they need money; so we need money as it stands. an anarchist cooperative is the best way to make a living though i rekon.
oh and 'dminefield', when we live in a better world, people like circle a will be TEACHING us how to build frames for ourselves! :D how cool would that be :)

Can the wheel survive without the spoke? In other words, don't bag the system when you need the system to survive. Come to think of it, I think I'll go down to the coffee shop and see if I can trade my roll of breath mints for a cup of coffee. Should prove interesting......

A friend of mine with a Masters in Political Science once said to me "Anarchism is stupid". "Oh yeah, why's that" I replied. "well" he said, "Anarchism is a guy holding a gun to your head while he rapes your girlfriend".

Interesting point.

What he was saying I guess in essense, is that people grossly misuse the term. When people say they are Anarchists, they've actually made up their own definition of what they 'think' Anarchy is, but have basically stuck their fingers in their ears and covered their eyes to the potentially negative aspects of the term, yet adopted it anyway.

Thankfully, just because you misuse a term doesn't mean your heart isn't in the right place, nor does it prevent you from making some sweet bikes, which Circle A clearly do. :)

What he was actually doing was grossly misusing the term. I guess an Australian masters in poly-sci isn't all that valuable if this is the sort of statement it produces.

Now I'm not naive enough to believe that the human race is advanced enough to try anrchism, hell, we aren't advanced enough to try capitalism or communism either without thouroughly screwing up each one.

Anarchy has alot more to do with people being socially responsible than it does with some sort of economic system. There's nothing anti-anarchist about trade or recieving value for your labor. These guys aren't getting rich. They're engaged in responsible trade, where in (I'm guessing) the people that build these bikes don't have to live in poverty. There's no contradiction there.

ummm anarcism is actualy far right politics, so far right it is almost left. read about the cnt, it is acctualy a viable form of politics and economics, as long as the communists will stop assassanting them. By the way, anarchy and anarchism were a political system before they ment 'no government" it dates to the mid 19th century.

Actually, he's American. *points metaphoric gun to 'thechamps' foot* :)

Look up the term - what you and the Circle A people are describing is a self defined modernist definition of 'Anarchy', which has very little to do with the actual definition. There's nothing 'anarchistic' about being a humanist with idealistic philosophies. In a way it's ironic that people with such leaning inappropriately use the term 'Anarchist' because it does nothing except marginalise them and send the wrong message to the general public. But hey, why destroy a perfectly good little niche by making it popular, eh?