old man mountain

My brother- Jon, the bike guy in Portland- used to work for a custom frame builder when he lived in Santa Barbara: Channing at Old Man Mountain. I did a shoot for them a year or so ago and they liked what we got so they called a few weeks ago to shoot their newest creation: 'Frequent Flyer' commuter/ citybike. The images will be submitted to Shimano as their contest entry. The winner of the contest will have built a custom bike around a new groupo (a set of bike components) for urban bicycle commuters.

The groupo features disc brakes, an internal hub three speed, and the front hub generates power for a little headlight.... so cool.

Channing's creation totally blew me away- this guy has a passion for building frames like I have for making photographs. I could go on and on but all you non-bike geeks will just be bored.... if you're not already.

We were discussing the goal of the shoot: what feel the images would have, what we were going to show off, etc. When they mentioned the bike had a bit of a vintage airplane flair. I instantly thought of the Fullerton Airport as the location... and that was that. One problem: how in the world would some regular guys like us get access to shoot at the airport since 9/11?

We weren't sure where to go and decided on a little flight school office. The guy there was the coolest in the world. It is rare these days to find someone that will help you out not expecting anything in return. He said he welcomed the interruption as he was studying for some big test...

He took us to their hanger and to our surprise there was a classic Beech Bonanza. I didn't know what I was looking at other than it was a super clean and very cool older plane (notice the 'V' tail wings). Turns out it is a classic- Channing knows all about it- and every other plane. We got schooled about them all- he grew up around planes: His great grandfather was Lindberg's mechanic, yes, Charles. Channing's Great Gramps helped build the Spirit of St. Louis!!!! Hi grandfather had an airstrip right on the sand in SB- where the Biltmore is now..... so crazy!!

The flight school guy was totally trippin' out when he found all this out- as was I.

Here are a few of our faves:check the little pulley where the brake cable goes by the seatpost.....

yes, those are little custom teardrop 'hub caps' with a one-of-a-kind security nut (the circle with two little holes) so no one can steal the wheel.

Channing fashioned these bars from a solid brick of aluminum!!

I love this stuff- Not only am I extremely fortunate to shoot what I love for a living: weddings- Photo has also given me so many amazing experiences like this... someone pinch me!