Check out the latest podcast featuring the Lazy Susan. Filmed and edited by Georgi Banks Davies.
Charge Bikes_Lazy Susan from Charge Bikes on Vimeo.
16 December 2009
14 December 2009
Plug Griffin and Cycle Mode, Tokyo
Check out the customized Plug Griffin that our Japanese crank supplier Sugino had on display at the Cycle Mode trade show in Tokyo, Japan this past weekend.
11 December 2009
07 December 2009
Ben over the Alps
So here's an adventurous Plug owner. Ben Wright took a trip over the Alps earlier this year and his bike of choice was an obvious one, it always gonna be his Plug Racer, I mean why would you even want the hassle of being able to change gear in the Alps!?. Check out his write up and pics on the web feature here.
http://www.chargebikes.com/projects/project/files/pluginthealps/
03 December 2009
Fixed for Christmas?
Check out this book all about fixed gear culture. It encompasses the whole lot from olympic track racing to bike messengers. Inside you'll even find our very own team riders Tom Lamarche, Superted, Juliet and Posy.
Buy it here http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/1856696456/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
02 December 2009
Manuel's big day out.
Manuel from our German distributor Traffic has made it out of the office and on to the track it seems! Check out this picture of him on his Plug, I'm not sure where this track is but it looks like a pretty cool venue.
26 November 2009
London to Paris - Premiere
If you're in the area, go check out this film directed by Grace Ladoja, ‘London to Paris’ documents 10 riders from all over the world making the track bike journey from London to Paris to meet Lance Armstrong as the Tour De France 2009 comes to a close. With beautiful cinematography from David Procter. Including our very own Super Ted!
25 November 2009
Tom in Japan - Back home
I'm back in the states again and couldn't have asked for a better time in Japan. The hospitality that I received was unreal. I could not believe how many riders showed up for Shiba Friday, and the BFF block party. I hope that you guys can make it to the East Coast soon, so I can return the favor. Thank you so much to everyone that has helped me out during this trip. you know who you are!
24 November 2009
23 November 2009
2010 Dirt 100 - Blender
A special edition of Dirt magazine has just been released, the now annual Dirt 100 issue features the years 100 top products as chosen by the team at Dirt magazine. Check out the Blender on page 61.
18 November 2009
Tom in Japan - Day 2
It rained all day here on my second day in town. Since we couldn't ride, It gave me an opportunity to check out a lot of the shops around Shibuya. The bike shops here are so packed full of stuff that there is barely room to move.
One of the craziest stores I went in was a large department store called Tokyo Hands. It's basically the equivalent to Walmart for us. The store was about 5 stories with anything you could possibly want ranging from home furnishings to bicycles.
Finger track bikes at Tokyo Hands
Decent bikes in a department store?
Japanese Santa
Fixed gear videos in Tokyo Hands
OnceW-Base closed up for the night we all went out to dinner and then to the arcade/bowling alley.
I found out that I suck at bowling.
Enough blogging for now. It's nice today, so I need to ride.
17 November 2009
Tom in Japan - Day 1
Following in the great tradition of Charge team riders visiting Japan it's now Tom's turn! Check out his blog for more or read it on these pages right here.
Almost missed my flight due to Amtrak not allowing me to bring my bike box on the train to my connecting flight in Newark. We had to rush to the Newark airport to make it there in time. They wound up not charging for my bike, because they thought it was undersized. $100 bucks saved.
The flight was a grueling 14 hours, then another 2 hour bus ride to Shibuya. I've never had my legs hurt from sitting until now.
Finally I got to W Base. Wow. One of the craziest bike shops I have ever seen. They have an insane amount of old school bmx frames and components, as well fixed gear and track bike stuff in any color you could possibly think of.
After meeting up at the shop and getting my bike all together we went out to dinner. Bikes don't get stolen much in Japan, so no carries locks with them. What a difference from Philly and NYC...
Japan is insane so far. I'm going to try and update this daily with photos. I made a flikr for all my photos during the trip. Check it out here.
16 November 2009
12 November 2009
09 November 2009
03 November 2009
Big Rocks and Groping
Latest news from Cunny below. He's got some great coverage in the latest issue of Dirt Magazine. For more, check out his blog on the team pages of this very website!
I got a shot in the latest Dirt magazine which as ever is all lovely and glorious. We shot it what seems like ages ago and it was mega sketchy. I wasn't really feeling confident but went for it all the same. Good to see a shot from that day has finally surfaced after nearly nailing myself. I've been scoping plenty more dodgy and unique spots at the moment that I can't wait to get shooting and riding. In case you didn't see the film from that day's shooting when it was out a while ago here it is again.
More Mountain Biking >>
There's also my monthly column which this time was inspired by the lewd activities of the 16th century, me and my good mate Jon Peeler went down a dark alley to take some night shots for it in the very place where all that filthy indulgent carry on would have been happening all them years ago.
21 October 2009
Duster SS - Trail Tested
What MTB magazine have had a Duster SS on test for a little while now and in the latest issue theres a trail tested, first ride review. We get a solid 4 stars out of 5. Check it out.
19 October 2009
Portland
I've been super lucky with the weather in Portland. It was meant to rain all week - in fact I almost didn't come when I saw the forecast! I'm glad I did though as I've been having a great time and hanging out with an awesome bunch of people.
They feel really good - a bit higher than the ones I had on previously. Feels nice for wheelies but the slightly different position has thrown my barspins off a bit and I keep banging my left knee on the way round! The Chicago Wig straps with Starfuckers pedals feel ace too! The straps stay rigid unlike some other similar ones which means you don't have a problem getting your foot in if you stamp on the strap by accident. The large pedals feel nice for doing tricks and for hauling ass. I'm gonna see how this set up goes in SF when I get back there tomorrow - I wonder how I'm gonna like this more trick orientated set up on the big hills! I kinda like having cages and doubles for security when I'm going fast down hill!
We've been riding down by the waterfront quite a bit where there are some little steps to jump and sheltered areas for when it starts drizzling. Brenton and I shot quite a few pictures which I'm really looking forward to seeing! I'm gonna post those as soon as I get them.
I managed to jump off a loading bay and ride straight into a truck one day but other than that I'm not too battered and bruised thankfully! On the way down to the river near Burnside there are a lot of railway tracks which get super slippery and have taken out four of my friends since I got here!
On Thursday night we met up with my friend Sara, an English girl who saw the light and moved to Portland a few years back. We went to psychedelic bingo at some bar somewhere (I haven't really got to grips with where I am/where stuff is here yet) and Tim won this amazing prize....which is lucky as we were worried that the prize might actually been psychedelics which funnily enough we were not really up for! It was pretty awesome - accompanied by a fuzzed out guitar and the best MC ever.
On Friday after starting our day with a good breakfast and some riding, we headed over to the Humane Society where Brenton and Jerry adopted two of the cutest kittens! Brenton's is called Count Dracula and weirdly ended up biting his girlfriend Ryen on the neck last night!
This morning we went out for breakfast and I decided that I had to order biscuits and gravy, just to check it out. I'd had one bite of someone else's in SF but I'd been told that this was the place to try it. I knew I wasn't going to like it as the mouthful I'd had before had kinda weirded me out... Biscuits and gravy is basically like scones with white pasta sauce on it. Why would you want that for breakfast? Or at any time for that matter? It literally made me nauseous.!
Juliet x
15 October 2009
Mens Health - Grinder
The Plug Grinder made it into the latest issue of Mens Health magazine. Check it out!
USA trip continued.....
After a final breakfast in SF (love breakfast in America - its the best!), I jumped on a plane to Portland. Posy had to fly home for various reasons so from now on it's a solo mission!
I was thinking of getting the train from SF to Portland but apparently it takes 8 hours and runs over night so I decided to get a plane. It wound up costing me quite a bit more than I ha hoped it would so I will be eating beans on toast for the rest of the year once I get home!
When you take an internal flight in the States you have to pay about $150 EACH WAY to take your bike with you which totally sucks as it was free on the way out here as we flew with Virgin. Chris Fonseca told me to bullshit the lady at the counter and see if I could get away with saying my box didnt contain a bike. According to him it works 9 times out of 10, so I told the sceptical check in clerk that I was a tattoo artist and the giant case contained my 'work bench'. She went for it so I got away with paying $50 for the oversize case instead on $150. I hope I can get away with it on the way back to SF.
Yesterday I went for a ride with some new friends including Brenton Salo who shot the book, Rose City Fix and checked out some record stores. The record shops are SO good here plus there is no sales tax on anything so I spent a bunch of cash on 7 inches. Whoops.
Patrick who writes the site Pedal Consumption has been kind enough to put me up for my trip so we are gonna try out some great new products he's been sent to test. I'm gonna switch up some things on my new Scissor and see how I like it. Hopefully if the rain holds off a bit we can go out and get some good riding in!
13 October 2009
12 October 2009
San Fran day 5
the city adventures continue on Saturday ... feeling a bit better today for actually having some sleep.
so I busted out early to pick up this camera I wanted to buy... only to ride straight pass the shop, up a massive hill and get a flat tire. total waste of time were it not that I stumbled into the Burning Man HQ out in some warehouses on 3rd.. I went and had a chat with some pretty trippy people (tweakers as I call them here) and now I really want to go next year... basically a massive weirdest arts and music festival in the desert where they build up a temporary 'village' for a week and everyone gets around on bikes... plotting the 2010 Burning Man Charge trip already.
check out some of the steeds from previous years. I can imagine Ted liking this place.
so after that little adventure I headed up to the now familiar turf of the Mission, fixed my bike at Valencia Cyclery and went to meet Juliet and her buddy Tim at the Phoenix Bar for a bad ass Bloody Mary. I'm a bit of a connoisseure of cold lumpy vodka soup and this one was excellent... garnished with asparagus, olives and pickled onions. yum.
so Tim works helping out with filming and that for the SF Mash crew, and has one of those Cinelli Mash SF collaboration bikes... goes pretty fast. We met up with another friend and headed up to North Beach, which is where the City Lights bookshop is and the area that Kerouac used to cruise back in the hay-day. Super nice bit of the city, lots of steep hills, cool bars and bookshops, colourful houses, good vibes. After some pretty hefty sandwiches (egg, cheese, ham, slaw, chips, sauce... god-bless america style) we boosted down the Stockton Street tunnel into the Tenderloin area.
The Tenderloin district is famous for hookers, kinky gar bars and getting shot, but also has a really great gallery called Ever Gold - we went to check out a metal inspired art show called Von Doom... when we got there the people running it had disappeared for lunch, so we went to a freaky deeky gay club for a beer (why not eh?) ... you get an idea of the place from the flyer. I think they thought we were nuts the four of us having a casual drink in there at 3 in the afternoon.
So after a bit of doomy art and few more drinks, we left Tim (who was pretty wobbly on the old Cinelli by now) to go home and be a rad dad with his two kids, Juliet and I rode back down to the Bart Station and headed back over to Oakland to meet one of Juliet's friends from Temple Tattoo.
Stasch and his buddy looked after us well, we had some food, then some drinks at Radio, followed by a late night adventure to a speakeasy bar in some basement in downtown Oakland. Another great day; a motley collection of adventures that you only get to experience when rolling with the locals.. oh and I think I beat Jules at pool again... woo hoo... AND - woke up without any new tattoos... which is a fair achievement after staying the night with an artist.
Thanks everyone again... look out on Juliet's Blog for the final San Fran post.
11 October 2009
San Fran Day 3 or is it 4?
Yesterday we woke up at a random house in the mission where our new friend had been kind enough to put us up so we didn't have to ride bike to Bay View in the dark after several whiskies.
We headed out to this great breakfast place, St Francis on 24th st where we started the day with a few mimosas. I love mimosas!
After eating we headed down to the skatepark which is kinda down the end of 24th somewhere. I'm not sure where exactly but it looked like a nice place to skate. My skating days are well and truly over now though so I just sat in the park, made some new friends and got myself some sunburn. Looking kinda pink today!
After soaking up the sun we hopped on the BART to Oakland. The BART is the Bay Area Transit system and it's a but like a subway system I guess but unlike London's Underground, you can take your bike on it. It takes about half an hour or so to go under the bay to Oakland.
Once in Oakland we stopped by a secret skate spot which our mystery tour guide has been building before heading over to said mystery guide's house which had a ramp inside it and was a super nice.
We rode around Oakland a little bit, heading up to Berkley and the university campus but then tiredness overtook us and we bailed, heading back to SF. We were meant to be going on a night out with some friends from Temple Tattoo in Oakland but tiredness won. Might head back there later today instead! But then again, really want to go to Frisco Freakout! Look awesome!
10 October 2009
San Fran day 3
Kind of loosing track time in San Fran already due to the fact that we've slept in a different house every night since we've been here... but if you want to check out day TWO .. and other San Fran blogs - have a look at Juliet's as we're doing alternate days here...
so .. day three, I think... and we are both HURTING from riding up and down hills after Cardiel the day before. Woke up on a couch at our friend Josh's house getting humped by his cat... so got up pretty swiftly and hit the road... needed coffee. Coffee here is good and plentiful.
shot back through San Fran down Haight street and had a browse through the epic Amoeba Records.. which is amazing, they seem to have every record in the world in stock and keep all their second hand and used records together so you can find everything you need. I am totally taken. Going back for record binge on my last day.
On from there I rode all the way downtown again.. and back to Bayside where we're staying. The whole of San Fran is only 7 miles square, so you can everywhere pretty fast as long as you avoid the hills. Hit the wrong wrote and you're up shit creek. Sans gear. After a quick wash and change I rode back out to the Mission to meet Juliet who was asleep face down in our new home from home Dolores Park - aka London Fields in San Fransisco.
We met some friends there and saw some pretty awesome dogs...
before heading to a 'free beer Thursday' party at the Mission skate shop, which is also home to Pushbikes. Frieght Baggage were having a launch party there for their new line of hand made courier bags which are actually super nice... there were loads of bike kids, skate kids, free but WEAK - American beers (I hate American beer) - we even managed to bump into some girls we'd met in New York - Gina from King Kog and a few others. The vibe was super nice and Freight raffled away a few bags and that... I think between us we bought about 30 raffles tickets but of course managed to loose.
Look how Mission Skate encourages the kids to get smart and get rad at the same time. Good shit.
After lots of watery beer consumption we went for stupidly good vegan Japanese food around the corner, before heading to Pops bar for more beverages and pool. I am proud to end this blog with the fact that I whipped Juliet's ass at pool TWICE. We then slept on another random mattress with a collection of random household pets. Ace is my favourite - very warm bed friend.
The people of San Fran are nothing but hospitable.. thank you all.
09 October 2009
San Fran day 2
Posy and I are taking it in turns to blog so head over to her page here to see the first post on on our San Fran trip.
The second day in San Fransicso was epic. We started off by heading down to The Mission which is kinda like Shoreditch/Dalston, which you'll understand if you are from London but probably won't if you aren't from there. To explain - it's kinda like the latest hipster area where cheap rent brought in the young skintflints and trendies who now live side by side with the people who originally lived there. It's resulted in an area which is pretty diverse and full of people whose salaries, backgrounds and interests wildly differ.
We met up with our friend Josh who took us for burritos at El Farolito at Mission and 24th. I stupidly went for the 'super burrito' which turned out to be more food than I usually eat in a week and subsquently made my belly ache and swell for the rest of the day. Man, I was like a snake who'd just eaten a human and seriously uncomfortable for the rest of the day. It was tasty but portions in America are out of control!
After eating we went and soaked up the sun at Dolores Park before riding down a few block to meet up with John Cardiel for a ride.
We started off riding up Height - the hippy district, before heading heading into Golden Gate Park and riding down to the ocean, we hugged the coastal road and went up some serious hills... all the hard work was worth it when we got to burn down the hills on the other side... a totally epic ride.
Me, John and Posy were all so hyped on burning around the city; we had such a good time. There's no better way of seeing everything, getting over your jet lag and just generally making yourself smile. Thanks for being such an epic tour guide, John!
Following a few beers at some amazing Tirolean themed restaurant that brewed its on beer (how wierd is that; we came all the way from Europe and end up drinking in a German theme bar) we headed on over to the restaurant where our buddy Josh works - Bar Crudo. Bar Crudo serves up a lot of fancy raw seafood and seemed like a nice place but the first thing Josh gave us was bone marrow which I have to say I was not overly keen on. Posy suddenly became more strictly vegetarian than she had been previously and didn't have so much as a nibble. Wuss. She managed to avoid tasting scrapple when we were in NYC too!
At some point the jet lag overtook us and Josh kindly gave us his key and directions to his place which was nearer than where we were meant to be staying. Unfortunately we managed to both lock him out and lose the key. Whoops...
Charge Bikes wins "Manufacturer of the Year" and "Bike of the Year 2009" Awards.
Charge Bikes wins "Manufacturer of the Year" and "Bike of the Year 2009" Awards. October 9th, 2009. London, UK.
The annual Bike Biz Awards were hosted last night at the Cycle Show in London, and Charge Bikes had been shortlisted as a finalist in the "Manufacturer of the Year" category. Up against some pretty formidable competition in the form of brands Cannondale, Giant, KHE, Hope, Brompton, Giant and Merida.
Charge was summarised by Bike Biz as: "Not content with launching a host of new bikes at Eurobike, chic Charge is also launching a completely new clothing brand, dubbed Surface –featuring a strong line of products for both casual and keen cycle enthusiasts. The zeitgeisty brand’s cult following shows no sign of abating, with a packed out press launch in London in July this year, and a strong export market stretching all the way to Australia, the USA, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Taiwan."
Nick Larsen of Charge Bikes who received the award cited UK distributor Hothwheels as key in the success of Charge " It is undoubtedly the unfaltering support of Hotwheels that has enabled Charge to flourish against the odds. It's this faith in my tunnel-like vision that has enabled me to construct things like a run down Launderette as a booth at the Cycle Show here last year and this year enabling me to reconstruct a massive old English Pub in Germany, not to mention some of the products I have in the pipeline for the forthcoming years."
Nick Larsen also made specific mention to Hotwheels employees David Jones, James Hoppe and James Champion who he said, " Have been a massive help to me, and considering that they have had to put up with my obsessive attention to detail and constant bossing around, which must be pretty annoying - they have been invaluable."
It was also revealed at the Cycle Show that Charge had also been awarded overall "Bike of the Year, 2009" by Bicycle Buyer Magazine for it's 8 speed internally hub geared bike called the Mixer. Bicycle Buyer Magazine described the Mixer as being, " innovative but stylish, cool but utilitarian: it's a sensible bike that represents the best of both the now and the then".
Nick Larsen said, "I am particularly proud that we won this award, as the Mixer is probably the most unique product in our current line-up and it is my favorite complete bike, in terms of it's design."
08 October 2009
San Fran day 1
Tuesday morning. 7am. Dragging bike bag through stinky Whitechapel in the drizzling rain.
Tuesday afternoon. 4pm. Driving through California in the blazing sunshine... wondering why the hell we live in London?
Yep, San Fran is beautiful, Chris Fonseca (who we'd never met in our lives but has offered us beds for the week - legend) came to pick us up at the airport and we headed back to his place at Bayview, stuck our bikes back together and went for a warm sunny evening explore.
(Juliet... characteristically ecstatic on the bike / sunshine / Cali combo)
People do a lot of putting their bikes on racks on the backs of their cars here - and then driving to a place - and then riding around - which is kinda weird to us London people - but hell when in Rome...
So after a little drive, we parked the car in the state police centre (Chris' dad is like king of all the cops in San Fran cool eh?) - we headed down some big road called Market - trying not to get killed. Seeing we'd just stepped off a 10 hour flight and by this point had been awake for about 20 hours.. there was a lot to keep an eye on. Buses, trams, tram LINES and multiple lanes of traffic. All good though.. there's tonnes of people on bikes in the city and its a pretty friendly place to ride.
We stopped off at Box Dog Bikes to get some bits and bobs ... the guys in there had one of Juliet's Hell Yeah shirts already... small world.
We ended up at the Clock Tower - a spot where heaps of fixed riders, skaters and BMXers hang out... messed around. Juliet made some GOOD progress on riding backwards (she'll totally be going everywhere backwards by the end of this trip) and we got hold of some cans of the mighty SPARKS.. which kept us all awake..
(Riding at the Clock Tower with the boys..)
I went for a little cruise around on my own to check out the seafront, saw the mighty Alkatraz AND went for a ride with these dudes for a while.. but you know.. they were a little slow..
Later that night we had a few more beers... watched some REALLY silly horror film (well I slept through most of it actually) and then passed out. 32 hour stint. Not bad eh..
This morning we've actually had some sleep to off to explore the city properly... will post what happens tonight
07 October 2009
05 October 2009
Mixer wins big! - Bike of the year.
The Mixer has won two tests this month. The first win came in Bicycle Buyer magazine's Bike of the Year competition where it beat over 100 different bikes from dozens of manufacturers to win the coveted urban bike category and Bike of the Year.
You have the chance to win a Charge Mixer at the Cycle Show (Earls Court, London) this coming weekend. Bicycle Buyer will be showing and giving away the bike photographed for the feature on their stand at the show.
The second win came in Cycling Active magazine where it won their flat bar road bike test beating 6 others from Cannondale, Kona, Felt, Bianchi, Scott and Fuji to take the top honours.
Bicycle Buyer also featured the Plug Grinder and the Lazy Susan in two other features.
Health and Fitness - Lazy Susan
A little bit of press from Health and Fitness magazine. The Lazy Susan is alloy rather than Titanium but still a steal at £499.99. Theres a lads model too called the Steamer. Both available soon.
29 September 2009
22 September 2009
Juliet's new bike
I got the Scissor frame and Nozzle forks delivered last week and built up my new bike. Every time I build a bike, I always think 'well I must have all the necccesary tools THIS time' but there always seems to be something you are missing and it always takes longer than you think. This time I realised I need a star shaped allen key for the torque nuts on the Charge bolt on hubs. And I had to enlist Keith's help to cut the steerer tube down but it was ready to go by Friday evening.
It feels great! The minute I got on it it just felt 'right'. Super sturdy, well balanced and dependable. It felt like an old friend coming home.
Dings Trapt af - Eindhoven
As part of Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven there's a bike exhibit showcasing the modern function of the racing bike & trackbike in a mash-up style exhibition!
So if your in Eindhoven from the 17th-24th of October, go and check it out, its free!
21 September 2009
17 September 2009
Cycling Weekly - Bucket saddle
Check out the latest issue of Cycling weekly and on the "Just Landed" pages you'll find our new Bucket seat. Have a sneak below.
15 September 2009
Plug give away!
As part of our celebrations for stage 6 of the Tour of Britain, which starts from Charge hometown Frome! We're giving away a Plug Freestyler at the Frome Velo Jam tommorow night.
Between 6pm and 9pm at the Market Yard car park you'll have the chance to win the bike by taking part in an impromptu track stand competition. The winner will walk away with the bike that evening!
14 September 2009
Pen magazine - Japan
Japanese mens fashion mag "Pen" came to the London press launch of the new 2010 range and have featured a few of our products in their latest issue.
10 September 2009
09 September 2009
Duster Ti - Best Performer
Of course we already knew that the Duster Ti was a great performing hardtail but now it's down in writing! The latest issue of Bicycle Buyer magazine has a Racing MTB Test and although the Duster isn't purely a race bike but ideal for trail riding too, it still beat the Scott Scale, GT Zaskar and BMC Team Elite 01 to take the title of "Best Performer"
