So without further ado let me just say that in this case, I am pleased to be wrong! On Thursday I had the pleasure of meeting Lance Mercado of Squarbuilt cycles at his shop in Brooklyn, and he was everything but unapproachable.  On entering his space one cannot help but admire the sheer beauty of having your workshop directly beneath your apartment as well as accessable from the street via its own discreet doorway. Now, just to clarify, when I say workshop, I mean studio complete with huge compressor, welding rigs, sandblasting cabinet, oven, powdercoating and the list goes on! Squarbuilt was a medley of cycling projects old and new laying about the shop in various states of the process.  The apprentice was busy sanding fillets on a current customers frame in the corner. Lance was prepping tubesets for the nights TIG activities.

* let me take this moment to go on a little applicable tangent. Smell for me is one of those senses that when assocated with a memory, lasts a lifetime and I love the smell of steel. The fragerance of raw steel, fresh spray, hot torches, and oily rags blending in the air just conjures up a fantastical image of a by gone era in my head! *

Lance has just finished putting 6 sets of tubing together, they must be assembled that evening to stay on schedule.  He is the chosen builder for another brand of frames, who I will not name in this account.  Mr. Mercado has his plate full.  A few short years since its inception, Squarebuilt cycles is on a roll, busy and growing! His technique is solid and as such, demand has increased.  I cannot help but attribute some of that to the attention to detail that is in these frames right down to the beautiful headbadge that is handcut and carefully brazed to the headtube.
You will find no sticker there!

I have made this dish in at least 50 different variations. I never grow tired of it.  Though it is meant to be spicy, you can make it milder with ease and the flavour is just as good. Fresh cilantro is essential so make sure you have it on hand.  Enjoy.

Serves 4

Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 cups filtered water Vegetable Stock
• 10 Organic scallions diced in 1/4 to 1/2″ pieces
• 1 to 2 Organic Leeks sliced thin (I use some of the green part as well)
• 1 1/2 cups diced Organic Bok Choy
• 1/4 cup chopped Organic Cilantro (or to taste)
• 1 teaspoon Spicy Sesame Oil
• 3 tablespoons Mild Red Miso
• 1 to 2 tablespoons Fish Sauce
• 1 tablespoon of Organic Tamari
• 1 tablespoon of Organic Thyme
• 1 teaspoon of Organic ground Coriander
• 1 tablespoon of Organic Rice Vinegar
• 1/2 clove crushed Organic Garlic
• 1 tablespoon fresh grated Organic Ginger (or more if you like a stronger ginger flavour)
• Sea Salt to Taste

Prep Cut up all of your vegetables and set aside.  Bring 4.5 cups of water (1/2 cup will boil off) to a boil, and add your vegetable bouillon. Once it is dissolved, turn the heat to low.  Take out a cup of vegetable stock and begin to dissolved the miso in the cup by mixing a tablespoon in the stock.  Return it to the stock and take another cup.  Keep doing this till all of the miso is dissolved and returned to the stock. Add the fish sauce to the stock and place the Bok Choy (except for the leafy parts) and the leeks into the stock, let it simmer for 5 minutes. In a mixing bowl combine the ginger thyme, coriander, garlic, rice vinegar, tamari and sea salt.  Mix throughly and add into the stock.  Just before you are ready to serve add in the leafy parts of the Bok Choy and the scallions.

Place 1 cup in a bowl and top with the sesame oil and the fresh cilantro to taste

Enjoy

There is a unique bike show up in Brooklyn featuring the work of major Graf artists exhibiting their work on, you guessed it Bikes.  This should be well worth taking a look at and I intend to do just that tomorrow evening. anyone interested in checking it out with me drop me an email at stosh@stoshcycles or DM me on twitter/aaronmalys. Should be a lot of fun and expect a review complete with photos later this week right here on stoshcycles.com!

Info @ this link www.martinezgallery.com

RE: CYCLES is on view 13 November – 31 January 2011,
Tuesdays – Sundays 9AM – 9PM / Martinez Gallery

c/o Brooklyn Bike & Board, 560 Vanderbilt Avenue,
Brooklyn, 212-619-2149, staff@martinezgallery.com

• exhibition and bike designers: Kaptein Roodnat
• graphics: Harmine Louwé

ARTISTS:

CASE 2 (NYC)
FLINT 707 (NYC)
GIZ (NYC)
MOSCO (Mexico City)
RATE (Boston)
SINER (Los Angeles)
SKUF (NYC)
Tattoo Eddie (NYC)
VFR (NYC)
WITNES (Los Angeles)

So i got up on Saturday after a long week, grabbed a quiet hour of quiet coffee time at Cafe Madeline in Brooklyn then waited for my co traveler Mr. Todd Margolis to arrive.  He also happens to be my gracious host with the car to make this little day trip possible, thank you sir!

A little under 2 hours late we descend the Ben Franklin bridge into the City of Brotherly Love into almost immediate and complete gridlock.  Word in amongst our fellow traffic jam attendees was that Obama was attending Temple about 8 blocks from where we were trying to get to!  Needless to say we were quickly losing our high hopes for this little excursion. I might ad at this point that the Philly Police are all but inept at handling situation like this with nary a Blue Coat seen to be directing traffic!  Way to go Philly, really on top of your game.

So after much ado about nothing we finally made it to our destination at the Armory on 23rd Street.  I have been to this building many times before during some of Philly’s famous antique shows.  It makes a quaint personal space in which to mingle with vendors.  A $10 entrance fee (ooo cheap!) and we were in.  I knew who I was there to see but wanted to chronicle this little adventure in photograph so I just went at it via the grid.  First stop was the infamous supplier to Frambuilders, Mr. Bringheli.  With a myriad offering of beutiful Italian tubing his booth was nodissappointment. Directly across from him was one of my unspoken favorites Bishop cycles from Baltimore.  I ran across Bishop cycles when I was emailing owner Chris Bishop to take me on and teach me framebuilding. Today I got to meet him in person and see his fantastic frames.  It is no secret that I have a weakness for superbly built understated steel frames, Chris’s frames were exactly that!  Both Chris and his apprentice were extremely friendly and forthright about their shop.  I will take this opportunity to give huge props to an very respectable, hip upcoming shop. By the Way, just look at that trackstar in the foreground!  Can you say Velodrome damage!

On we traveled.  Of course I made the obligatory stop to the Cyfac booth.  You all know about Cyfac, beautiful handmade full carbon custom frames.  But as beautiful as they are, don’t we think there is a market for handmade old school artisan quality lugged carbon frames built in the states?  Regardless of your take on this topic, keep your eyes open, it is coming.  Slowly but surely we are starting to see a shift toward local craftsman products that stand the test of time and exist as a one of the kind unique piece that there are no duplicates of.

But I digress…around the corner from Cyfac were just rows and rows of fantastic knickers in wools, tweeds, herringbones courtesy of Hell Yes.  Turns out that Hell Yes sources much of their fabric from Thrift stores, buying up the very large sizes that are always available and taking them apart and re:using the fabric in their creations!  Very diverse stock and completely respectable  re:use model. She was a pleasure to talk to as well.

All this already and I hadnot even met any of the famous craftsman of the custom world!  The next exhibition row yielded numerous encounters with builders and gorgeous metals alike.  Masterbuilder Doug Fattic (who will be teaching me more in the near future) was exuberant, down to earth and more than available for questions. Igleheart, yes that Igleheart was as enthusiastic as ever running to and fro demonstrating his absolutely stunning work! And Bilenky! The man who helped to make the show possible and a native of Philadelphia, had a plethora of current rides on the floor.  He also invited any show attendees that ride his frames free parking of their bikes in his booth!  Both a kind gesture and a rather clever marketing move that gave would be buyers the opportunity to see his bikes after some use.

All in all is was a pleasure of a day full of important industry information and some real cyclist community conversation.  I came away very impressed by the accessibility of all of these little companies as compared to you typical nose in the air better than though shops where most normally go to buy overpriced knock off Chinese crap.  It definitely makes one wonder how we, the cycling community at large, can leverage the beauty that are these local organizations into the publics eye so that they take notice.

Ciao for now, enjoy!

Rouleur represents the very best in cycling journalism.  Hailing from the UK and built by a highly skilled staff, this publication has no equals.  It reads like a labor of love and exudes beauty from every flip of the page.  The topics are wide in scope but all firmly rooted in their love of one thing: Cycling.

With each issue I am just captivated by the skill of the writing and the imagery that immortalizes their subjects.  Each focus in each issue becomes a story of epic proportions.  Their subjects are giving the great credit they are due in their fields.

A large array of writers and photographers are used with each new issue lending fresh perspective and proving a captivating strategy for their vast reader base.  The quality of the coverage is nothing short of fantastic!

Subscriptions can be had worldwide though be forewarned, a yearly subscription to the States runs around $120 or $20.00 an issue.  Not so bad when you consider the level of quality your getting, for they truly are keepsakes.

Hello NYC…here Comes Stosh!  We have landed so stay tuned as we become your go to spot for all of your cycling related needs.  Stosh Cycles Collaborative will bring together a myriad of ideas that we have been playing with for some time.  Though always related to cycling in some fashion, the shop will slowly add more offerings as 2011 arrives.

We have an extremely strong commitment to sustainable products and practices so expect exceptional products made from exceptional raw materials.  Stosh Collaborative is not interested in the throw away culture that is so prevalent in this country, but rather we believe in and stand behind the products we will offer.  Every new product we offer will be handmade locally in NYC, by New Yorkers!  We will also attempt to use local raw materials wherever possible, but our standards are high so some items must be sourced elsewhere to bring you the quality we are willing to put the Stosh name on!

Stay tuned as we add new services and products to make your 2 wheeled exploration of the greatest city in the country that much more enjoyable!

The Stosh family

Today was rather inspiring, so I felt that I should share this little tidbit.  I am at the shop on what I would call an agonizingly slow Saturday, and in walks this old man, with a beater bike, an Italia Cap and a very strong accent.  He turns out to be a 97 years old and still actively cycling.  He moved around like he was but 65 and in strong Italian laden English asked me to fix his brakes.  He then announced that he had been coming to the shop for over 40 years now.  He explained that even though the owner makes fun of him for riding a girls bike he is still riding and he rides the womens frame because his legs just don’t swing up that high anymore.

La Gazzetta Della Bici could very well be the most popular cycling blog on the internet.  It is a fantastic resource and meticulously updated daily by a well known european cyclist, Simon Lamb.  Everything Euro, Italiano and Classic in the history of cycling can be found amongst its pages.

This spring, the writer of La Gazzetta Della Bici has endeavored into the the realm of a cycling oils product line.  Stoshy has been fortunate enough to receive a bottle that he and i have used all summer and  by now I can confidently say, it sure does live up to its namesake! As cyclists, we are always on the lookout for products that sooth the soreness or keep the muscles loose. As health conscious cyclist, Stoshy takes it one step further and looks only for products that are not full of chemicals and ingredients to deadly to write.  These oils are a lovely godsend and they do the trick the natural way.  So big props up to Mister Simon for these blends!

The stosh family is currently in disscusion with La Gazzetta Della Bici about becoming the U.S. distributor for these oils and will let you know when they become available. We assure you, you will not be disappointed.

Your editor,

lil stosh

STOSH is busy packing his bags, tools and cycling goodies to get shop setup by October 1st. We expect to be using a space in the heart of Times Square due to the generosity of Todd and Evan of Daymar Communications.  If you need anything high end audio / video related please give them a call at 212-541-6100 as I am forever in their debt.

We will soon be listing preliminary price list and base product offerings.  We will also be immediately available for repair services and will gladly travel to your location (price dependent on address) to preform any bicycle maintenance you require or drop off your order.

We look forward to working with you soon!

Thanx!

Mrs.stoshette

The STOSH family will be heavily involved in the racing season. Besides racing himself, Stosh will be available at all of the local NYC races with tubes, Tires, Tubulars, Glue, Nutrition, Free Air and hopefully, with a stand to offer repair services before, during and after the races.  Mrs. Stoshette will be spending the Winter months carefully perfecting her Vegan recipes of favorites like Belgian Cake as whole healthy Organic replacements for convention cycling nutrition, as well as having Organic coffee on hand to take care of your caffeine needs in the early AM before the race.

We hope to see you there!