Bicycle Tutor

Up until now I’ve been using a $400 camcorder I bought to start this site. At the time I thought it wouldn’t matter, but after working with it for a while I got frustrated with the lack of features and quality. As for lighting, I’ve been using a few tungsten house lamps which don’t provide enough light at all. So I recently invested in some fantastic upgrades…

I’m really looking forward to making new tutorials with this stuff! I’ll try to get one done before I go to Japan to cover fashion week for String Magazine next week, but you can look forward to new tutorials in November!

Thanks to Urban Velo I just heard about this fantastical website called Pedal ID, where you can drag around bike parts and create your own bike! As a child I spent countless hours sketching my dream bikes and I would have loved to have access to this. I think there is a lot of potential for this project to evolve into something really, really cool… somebody give them funding!!!

I’d like to see the ability to change the color of each component, maybe using a palette or flash-based editor. If you could also edit each item there would be no end to what you could come up with!

What do you think… just how cool is it? Or how much of a geek am I?

I really appreciate all of your patience this past month as I upgraded the site. There were a lot of twists and turns along the way, but all of the glitches have now been solved (as far as I know). I hope you all enjoy the new site layout, it was a long time coming. The old site template worked well when we just had the tutorial videos, but adding the blog, requests, and forums sections got to be too much. I hope this new layout helps to tie it all together in a way that makes it easier to navigate.

I’d love to hear what you think about the new site… if you notice any problems or have any suggestions please let me know. I’m excited to start putting out some more videos and I’m now scripting this week’s tutorial. Thanks for your patience

Two lowriders in Kensington Market, Toronto. Photo by Alex Ramon

This past weekend I visited Toronto for the first time. I was blown away by the amount of bicycles… they are everywhere! I guess the flat terrain helps, and the city seems to be working hard to promote bikes. Way to go Toronto!

My buddy ronatron lucked out and got us more media passes for the virgin music festival, so I’m off to take some photos. I’ll be back Wednesday Sept. 10th. The lovely and talented Maria José will be processing the download orders. I’ll respond to your comments and forum posts as soon as I get back to the computer. I hope you all have a great weekend

Lately I’ve been overwhelmed with email questions from visitors. In an effort to save time so that I can continue producing videos, I’ve now set up forums where you can register and ask questions. That way everyone can contribute and benefit from the answers in a community-style format. Once registered you can add a profile icon and website link (which will show up on all of your posts), subscribe to topics, and send other members private messages… enjoy!

With 36 tutorials online I’m feeling the need to let loose and go on a short vacation. I’m going to check out the Pemberton Festival this week and do some photography for my buddy Ronatron. I’ll be back on Aug 4th and the next tutorial will be posted around Aug 8th

I was blown away yesterday when Sree Sreenivasan contacted me to let me know he’d be covering BicycleTutor.com on the 5:20 evening news. You can watch the original video on NBC, and be sure to check out Sree’s technology page while you’re there… thanks Sree!

I haven’t got any 3-speed tutorials done yet, but there have been a lot of requests. I thought I’d share some of Vin Vullo’s great videos in the meantime. Vin has been buying and selling vintage bicycles since the 1960s. He’s got an excellent resource for vintage bicycles over at OldRoads.com. He’s also made 16 videos introducing all aspects of 3-speed bicycles, from sizing to accessories. Check out this playlist of his vintage 3-speed videos on YouTube!

This section of the site for posting important site updates, share useful cycling information, and discussing other bicycle related stuff without interfering with the tutorials. All posts in this section are separate from the main site, feed and email notifications.