Hiut Denim open day

This time yesterday I'd just ridden through some fabulous countryside in the warming morning and arrived outside an innocuous Unit 2 on an industrial estate just outside the coastal town of Cardigan.
A good number of people milled about outside with the open space behind a roller door enticing and welcoming us. This is the manufacturing home of Hiut Denim. There are many explanations of the brand elsewhere so to me this is the company that makes the best jeans I have found, makes them 110 miles from my house, stands by their products and knows how to make the small be big.
"Come and get a tea or coffee" sounded out from inside the building, and in we went.

The day was a great relaxed affair, we queued for coffee and tea, patiently handed out by whomever was by the machine (thanks Steph) then David ran through what was going to happen. The first of the things was Norman talking about pattern making and how to be efficient at it followed by Claudio (more later) demonstrating the cutting of the denim.

Onto the Grandmasters; the ladies who with great charm had fielded the tens of staring faces and accompanying questions from our attendance. I'm sure there are many synonyms for describing what these ladies do, and how they do it but to be blunt they're bloody good at making jeans. That's Jean by the way, she made my jeans. She's lovely.  Elin (2nd right) provided us with a blow by blow narration of the process and kept us in order

Here is one of the machines which does one of the many processes that go into making the jeans. Amanda is just out of shot here working on sewing the yoke into the jeans. Two things occur on this machine as firstly the denim is folded and then sewn. Amanda has to get things lined up correctly, modulate the speed of the stitch and then snip the free off. All I could focus on was the thread oscillating as I was astounded by the skill involved.

Paul gave us a demonstration on how the jeans were repaired when we, the customers had holed them, torn them or just plain worn them and then it was lunch. Still reeling we descended on the delicious empanadas, falafels and custard tarts. None of which are Cardigan native I believe but frankly I've not tasted a nicer tart or empanada so couldn't care less.
There was limited clearance stock to be purchased if we so wished and I took fancy of a pair of raw organic jeans and decided they'd make nice shorts for summer so planned to cut them off once home. Word of this spread (thanks for dobbing me in, Emma) and Claudio volunteered to do them properly. After a quick measure they were marked up, checked and cut

then I had some shorts. Pictures of my pasty white legs will not be shown, no worry there.
Clare handed out maps and we wandered down to the Theatr Mwldan for some outstanding live music from a 14 year old lass (edit to add, her name is Hana Evans ) followed by David describing the plans ahead for the company. Ladies, your time is coming with stretch denim. Other plans were presented and the ambition of the company is both measured and also bounding.
It was a great pleasure to meet the people who made my jeans, other customers and in total a great quality company with real full vision of making small big. The lure of the pub for discussions was strong, but the lure of the evening road back was stronger.

The three month wait

Last year the decision was made to go titanium for a road bike. I wasn't gelling with my carbon bike. Don't get me wrong it is light, efficient and very effective but there doesn't feel like there is a connection to it. After quite a lot of thinking, and searching, and more thinking, and speaking to people, and riding bikes I settled for a Burls. Although Justin Burls is based in the UK, Essex to be precise, the titanium frames are made by a small (4-5 men) team in Russia. Ex-Colnago pedigree.
Justin was a nice, affable guy to deal with and the email string demonstrates his patience! My order was placed early in December and the wait began. After some hold ups due to Russian customs and UPS I was told the frame was on it's way at the mid-end of February. It arrived with me last week, having come via Justin for quality checking and final touches such as head badge and decals.
So, here it is.

Weight according to my scales is 1547g
It is currently with a guy I know who does signwriting, to have some brush strokes applied to it, then I can build it up. Pictures to follow once complete.

Just lovely

Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you I love fire. as well as loving fire I like tools that you use to make fire. One of those tools is an axe. I have a lovely Granfors Bruks hatchet that I take pleasure in wielding when necessary.
I spotted this cracking video of John Neenan making a hatchet elsewhere.
It's really nice to watch the process.

The Birth Of A Tool. Part I. Axe Making (by John Neeman) from John Neeman Tools on Vimeo.

Interlude

On the final day of our Canadian jolly I stopped the truck at the side of the road opposite Halifax Cycle Gallery to dive in and see what loveliness they had on display. Truth was I was drawn by the tandems outside, unfortunately it was too late in the day for us to rent one.
Anyway whilst in there getting a souvenir tee shirt I spied some copies of Boneshaker magazine on the counter, and I'd not seen it before so grabbed issues 3 and 4, along with the tee and a snazzy magnetic business card, which I think is genius but will probably kill your bank cards.

I was eager to read the magazines but such was time and travels that it wasn't until I got home that I was able. I wanted to know where the magazine came from, and if I would be able to get it over here in the UK.
Surprise Surprise then when I found it was produced in Bristol, just over the frontier...
Even more of a surprise was an article in one of the issues I had bought covering Nick Hand's trip Slowcoast. I'd not long read about this in the book I mentioned a month ago, One Man and His Bike, and here was an article on it.
Further perusal was necessary so I went onto the Boneshaker site to find out. There was the book for sale along with more copies of the mag. So I purchased a few.
The book arrived and is almost to lovingly presented to open.

The other issues arrived also.

Whilst on the boneshaker blog I was interested in a post on photography, and even more so when reading that the trigger had been a photographer by the name of Mike Lusmore whose name I remembered as he was/is friends with my girlfriend's brother.
Sometimes it's a bloody small world.