Posts Tagged ‘all my bikes’

All My Bikes: 26, AllCity Dropout

All-City Dropout illustration

At the moment, I have three complete bikes that I ride on a regular basis. The All-City Dropout is my current all-around, everyday bike. I was a big fan of the Dropout from the first time I saw a sneak preview on the internet. Here’s All-City’s description: The Dropout is a platform for pretty much anything you want to do that involves big wheels and hard riding. It can handle trails, jumps, hardcourt, messengering, whatever. Ride it for transport, ride it for tricks, or do tricks while riding it for transport, or ride long distances between doing tricks… you get the idea. The only limit is your creativity. Sounds perfect to me! I was lucky enough to snag one of the limited edition frames that has no brake mounts or other braze-ons. The Dropout is definitely one of my favorite bikes ever.

Previously:
All My Bikes 25: Volume Cutter
All My Bikes 24: Milwaukee Bruiser Production
All My Bikes 23: Area 51
All My Bikes 22: WeThePeople Trust
All My Bikes 21: Milwaukee Bruiser Prototype
All My Bikes 20: Chubby Waters
All My Bikes 19: Soma Rush
All My Bikes 18: Standard 125R
All My Bikes 17: Mercier Kilo TT
All My Bikes 16: Dawes
All My Bikes 15: Panasonic
All My Bikes 14: DK General Lee
All My Bikes 13: S&M Holmes
All My Bikes 12: Huffy TL-88
All My Bikes 11: Huffy MJ-12
All My Bikes 10: Specialized Fatboy
All My Bikes 9: Haro Group 1
All My Bikes 8: Balance AL550
All My Bikes 7: Lotus Cobra
All My Bikes 6: Schwinn Predator
All My Bikes 5: GT Interceptor
All My Bikes 4: Robinson SST
All My Bikes 3: Diamondback Viper
All My Bikes 2: General Hustler
All My Bikes 1: Huffy

All My Bikes: 25, Volume Cutter

Volume Cutter art work

For those of you who are wondering, “How many %$&* bikes did this guy have?!”
…We’re finally reaching the home-stretch. There’s only a few more left (as long as I don’t get anymore in the meantime).

I got the Volume Cutter very used as a quick and cheap frame to ride since I needed to sell the Bruiser. This frame and fork saw a lot of action in it’s day from quite a few different people. I wasn’t expecting much from the Cutter though I was surprised by how much I enjoyed riding it. It certainly didn’t live up to my Bruiser—but I liked it. It had a distinctly different feel all together, the frame was tall, but not very long. The 26″ S&M Pitchfork made the Cutter feel very laid back which was strikingly different from the steep headtube angle on the Bruiser with it’s matching fork. I also had to switch back to skinnier tires which was a bummer. The paint on both the frame and fork had seen much better days. I covered the frame in stickers and then drew all over the fork with a Sharpie. I’m pretty sure a college student in New Haven is still riding this frameset in all it’s punk rock glory.

Previously:
All My Bikes 24: Milwaukee Bruiser Production
All My Bikes 23: Area 51
All My Bikes 21: Milwaukee Bruiser Prototype
All My Bikes 20: Chubby Waters
All My Bikes 19: Soma Rush
All My Bikes 18: Standard 125R
All My Bikes 17: Mercier Kilo TT
All My Bikes 16: Dawes
All My Bikes 15: Panasonic
All My Bikes 14: DK General Lee
All My Bikes 13: S&M Holmes
All My Bikes 12: Huffy TL-88
All My Bikes 11: Huffy MJ-12
All My Bikes 10: Specialized Fatboy
All My Bikes 9: Haro Group 1
All My Bikes 8: Balance AL550
All My Bikes 7: Lotus Cobra
All My Bikes 6: Schwinn Predator
All My Bikes 5: GT Interceptor
All My Bikes 4: Robinson SST
All My Bikes 3: Diamondback Viper
All My Bikes 2: General Hustler
All My Bikes 1: Huffy

All My Bikes: 24, MKE Bruiser 2

Milwaukee Bruiser S700 drawing

After riding my Milwaukee Bruiser prototype nonstop for the better part of the year the good folks at Bens Cycle helped me out with a production model frame. The differences were fairly minor but enough to make a difference. The current model is a bit smaller and quite a bit lighter—I welcomed both of these changes. This bike was outfitted with a pretty incredible set of parts thanks to some design barter work with Open Bicycle (namely their logo design). The Bruiser was a fantastic all around bike. I ended up selling it to pay some bills when I was laid off from my job. That’s really the only reason I’m not still riding it.

Previously:
All My Bikes 23: Area 51
All My Bikes 21: Milwaukee Bruiser Prototype
All My Bikes 20: Chubby Waters
All My Bikes 19: Soma Rush
All My Bikes 18: Standard 125R
All My Bikes 17: Mercier Kilo TT
All My Bikes 16: Dawes
All My Bikes 15: Panasonic
All My Bikes 14: DK General Lee
All My Bikes 13: S&M Holmes
All My Bikes 12: Huffy TL-88
All My Bikes 11: Huffy MJ-12
All My Bikes 10: Specialized Fatboy
All My Bikes 9: Haro Group 1
All My Bikes 8: Balance AL550
All My Bikes 7: Lotus Cobra
All My Bikes 6: Schwinn Predator
All My Bikes 5: GT Interceptor
All My Bikes 4: Robinson SST
All My Bikes 3: Diamondback Viper
All My Bikes 2: General Hustler
All My Bikes 1: Huffy

All My Bikes: 23, Area 51

Area 51 track bike illustration

The Area 51 came from my friends at Open Bicycle. There is something about this frame that I really like. Structurally it’s not that special, it’s welded and not lugged yet it has some nice details including decorative fake lugs. That said, the Area 51 was always one of my favorite bikes to ride. It has aggressive geometry and is quite stiff for having such thin steel tubing. Each Area 51 frame was hand built by John Knox (in Los Angeles) around 1999/2000 using NOS Columbus tubing supplied by Euro-Asia. They supplied John with 50 to 75 sets of tubing and he developed the name, graphics, and paint colors and that was the end.

I still have this frameset and I keep going back and forth about whether I should sell it or rebuild it. Today’s my birthday—why don’t you all send me some parts so I can get it out on the road again!

Previously:
All My Bikes 22: We The People Trust
All My Bikes 21: Milwaukee Bruiser Prototype
All My Bikes 20: Chubby Waters
All My Bikes 19: Soma Rush
All My Bikes 18: Standard 125R
All My Bikes 17: Mercier Kilo TT
All My Bikes 16: Dawes
All My Bikes 15: Panasonic
All My Bikes 14: DK General Lee
All My Bikes 13: S&M Holmes
All My Bikes 12: Huffy TL-88
All My Bikes 11: Huffy MJ-12
All My Bikes 10: Specialized Fatboy
All My Bikes 9: Haro Group 1
All My Bikes 8: Balance AL550
All My Bikes 7: Lotus Cobra
All My Bikes 6: Schwinn Predator
All My Bikes 5: GT Interceptor
All My Bikes 4: Robinson SST
All My Bikes 3: Diamondback Viper
All My Bikes 2: General Hustler
All My Bikes 1: Huffy

All My Bikes: 22, WTP Trust

We The People Trust BMX bike drawing art
Buy a print of this at Society 6.

In early 2009 it had been a while since I had a BMX bike, and I thought I was over it. I had been riding the Bruiser everywhere—it was fast and I could jump on and off whatever I wanted. That was all fine until the guys at Open had a random BMX bike hanging out in the shop. Ripping around the neighborhood and remembering what it was like to bunnyhop so high you hit yourself in the ass with the back tire quickly rekindled my desire for another BMX. It just so happened that my good friend Clarence had purchased a really nice We The People complete that he was not riding. I more or less hijacked the bike from him and put it to use—thanks Clarence!

The WTP took some getting used to. BMX bikes have drastically changed from the days when I was more seriously into riding. BMX bikes are MUCH lighter and way less overbuilt. The bikes I rode in the late 90′s easily weighed 35+lbs—the stock WTP complete was about 25lbs. That is a huge difference. Current setups involve no seatpost, sloping-compact geometry, very short back-ends, steep headtube angles, compact ratios and massive handlebars. Some of it I like, some of it is a bit too extreme for my old school BMX sensibilities.

Previously:
All My Bikes 21: Milwaukee Bruiser Prototype
All My Bikes 20: Chubby Waters
All My Bikes 19: Soma Rush
All My Bikes 18: Standard 125R
All My Bikes 17: Mercier Kilo TT
All My Bikes 16: Dawes
All My Bikes 15: Panasonic
All My Bikes 14: DK General Lee
All My Bikes 13: S&M Holmes
All My Bikes 12: Huffy TL-88
All My Bikes 11: Huffy MJ-12
All My Bikes 10: Specialized Fatboy
All My Bikes 9: Haro Group 1
All My Bikes 8: Balance AL550
All My Bikes 7: Lotus Cobra
All My Bikes 6: Schwinn Predator
All My Bikes 5: GT Interceptor
All My Bikes 4: Robinson SST
All My Bikes 3: Diamondback Viper
All My Bikes 2: General Hustler
All My Bikes 1: Huffy

DD-23
Selected Drawings
MH-poster
Mayer Hawthorne
MT-Grid-Big
Good Habits, Clean Living
20120430-chrispiascik-0002-final
All My Bikes
20120430-chrispiascik-0237-final
1000 Days of Drawing

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Who is this guy?

Chris Piascik is a New England artist, graphic designer, and illustrator. With 8 years of professional experience at award-winning firms in New England, he is currently working as a freelance designer and illustrator, and just presented his 6th solo exhibition. He holds degrees in Visual Communication Design and Art History from the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford, where he has moonlighted as an instructor of design courses. In 2008, the American Institute of Graphic Arts selected his poster design as a winning entry for its Get Out the Vote campaign. His other recognitions include Gold Awards, Silver Awards, Excellence Awards, Judges Award and the Spirit of Creativity Award from the Connecticut Art Director’s Club as well as a BoNE award from the AIGA. In addition his work has been published in numerous books and publications including Print and Communication Arts, the Logo Lounge series, Typography Essentials and Lettering, Beyond Computer Graphics and Bike Art: Bicycles in Art Around the World. Previous clients include: Chronicle Books, Nike, Goodbyn, Mayer Hawthorne, Odyssey, Gnarls Barkley, Monolith Music Festival, Eat Boston, and Theaterworks.

Represented in France by: Valérie Oualid

Check the full bio here.