I took a break from Canootervalve last Friday. Sorry about that. My parents are in town from across the country and we had no fewer than three birthdays to celebrate. Part animal that I am, I spent most of their time here with the laptop on the lap, tapping away at any number of jobs that just never seem to sleep.

While I’m handing out apologies, I also owe one to Helio Ascari, model, nephew of Formula One Champion, and–it turns out–bicycle designer. A while back, I’d kicked Helio in the nards a little over a Wall Street Journal article about his bicycle designs. In fairness to me, in the article, Helio is riding a Pashley Gov’nur, lending an air of confusion to the proceedings.

Turns out, Mr. Ascari really does design bicycles. And they’re actually pretty bitchin’ for high-fashion bespokey bikes–especially the fixed gear.

Better still, Helio’s working with bike builder Gary Mathis out of Ashland, Oregon. I don’t know Gary, but his fashion sense seems decidedly more “I’m the guy who welds.”

So I apologize to Helio. Pretty cool looking bikes.

Design-wise, though, I’m thinking I need to celebrate some hard-core bike nerds this week. Engineering types. That’s on my mind a lot right now, and there’s a new character on the scene that’s done some pretty cool stuff.