I’ve been taking the long way home these days. From Newton up through Watertown, through Cambridge, Allston, then back to Brighton.

The route manages to pass by all my favorite bike shops too. When I dropped by Cambridge Bikes the other day – my future riding/training partner had promised to be there but had called in sick – Kip told me how he liked that I posted pictures of scenery and the outdoors.

Despite all the added mileage I’ve been doing, though, this week has been severely lacking in any pictures of the outdoors. It’s a poor excuse, but going as fast as I can while dodging potholes and cars is making the whole “picture taking” thing sort of difficult. Add to that a hectic week at school and I’ve mostly been blogging off the weekend…for a week.

But never fear, I have my readers’ best interests in mind! Because it would be downright criminal not to share this:

That’s right. It’s a Rapha-Indy Fab bike. Chris King headset and hubs. Pure deliciousness in bike form, it walked in with some choice members of the Embrocation Cycling Team this past weekend as I shamelessly stuffed my face full of cookies at IBC. As soon as the team parked their bikes, we gathered around them shamelessly, pointing, taking pictures, and ooh-ing and ahh-ing like a bunch of pimple-faced Star Wars nerds around the newest Princess Leia figurine.

Okay, we were a little more suave than that. I actually managed to form words when I spoke to the team, not that red faced googly-eyed stuttering I usually do…okay, there may have been some stuttering. But seriously, can you blame me? Do you have eyes? Can you see these bikes???

Jeremy of Embrocation Cycling Journal seemed to understand what I had to stutter out, and even gave me a tip to save the Embrocation poster hanging up at IBC. Using the ever-useful Facebook, I called dibs on the poster and asked friends who are real employees there to save it for me. And because they are all kinds of awesome, they obliged:

I’m still kicking myself for not making it out to the party [I'm really sorry, Jeremy!]. I blame my Constitutional Law reading: after two cases on partial birth abortions, my uterus decided to scream in terror and started spitting out chewed up placenta in protest. Yes, that’s right, I just put that out on the Internet. I even bolded it. And yes, that is my lame excuse for not going to the Embrocation party.

But think of it this way. I’m confident that there will be many, many more Embrocation parties. And even if I can’t keep my stuttering under control, I definitely plan on being there.

Want to see some of the hottest bikes ever made? Go check out this fine show. Not everyone can get in to the after party…but maybe you can put a good pretty please into an email.

Independent Fabrication, a Somerville based custom bicycle manufacturer will be showing some of their creations on February 21st and 22nd from 12 to 5pm at the 4th Wall Project, 132 Brookline Ave.

The show will consist of some new concept bicycles, some recent incarnations of 2009 models, and some famous award winning bicycles from their archives. This will be a rare opportunity for the public to view these bicycles in person. The show will also serve to release of the latest version of the record album formatted 2009 product catalog, many of which will be on hand.

Independent Fabrication began building bicycles in 1995 and continues to combine fine American craftsmanship with state of the art materials and finishing techniques to create some of the world’s most sought after
bicycles.

On Friday February 20th there will be a will be a preshow from 7-8pm followed by a party from 8-10pm. Both are invite only. Members in the Boston area can email Independent Fabrication to request tickets and the staff have promised to do their best to accommodate requests. Ticket requests should be emailed to: freshrides@ifbikes.com(via)