Talk about HIP! There we were at the W+K Pearl District offices, carrying cameras in a multi-layered party, surrounded by life-sized black-and-white (yeah!) photos of people who make the kind of bike frames that we'd make if we could. The poor souls handing out free beer couldn't move their hands fast enough. The short films upstairs drew hoots and cheers. People got down on their knees in front of each builder's bike to pay respect and to get close enough to see the details in the handworked lugs, bottom brackets, pump pegs, dropouts, and such. These bikes added information to the photos of the builders; parked in front of each builder's picture was the bike that builder created as a personal ride. How cool is that? Way cool, we think.

All night, hands gently reached out to touch the bikes, as if they were as delicate as they were beautiful. On Sunday, a whole mess of riders flung every once of energy into bikes built by the builders featured at W+K. The hard, bumpy course  claimed a few body parts and a fistful of components. We saw no broken frames. Neato.

-torsten