Busy Summer :: New Product Sneak Peek

We’ve had a busy summer coming up with fresh, new bags for the holiday season. We have two – the Swift and the Roadrunner - that will be ready for purchase in the next few weeks. Both are two strap bags. Think of them as a cross between a 253 Courier and a Citizen Pack. The first bag you’ll see is the Swift:

The Swift



Swifts are speedy little birds that spend most of their time on the wing (their family name derives from the ancient Greek word meaning "without feet"), and can cover well over 100,000 miles in a year. If your feet rarely hit the ground and you travel fast and light, the Swift is for you.

This super durable two-strap pack has a weather resistant 1,000 denier Cordura outer shell and is lined with polyester coated nylon to keep your things dry all day. The front bellows pocket, complete with pen/pencil/phone holder, secures smaller items while the roomy interior, with an additional zippered pocket carries everything else. The Swift can hold nearly 700 cubic inches of your important things. Overall, the bag measures 15” high, 9” wide and 5” deep (front to back) and weighs in at a very reasonable 20 ounces. The padded back panel and adjustable, padded, shoulder straps create all-day comfort.

The Swift I’m testing currently holds all the supplies I need for a weekend of teaching in Seattle: the MacBook I’m using to write this post, a 1” 3-ring binder that holds a small stack of cases and notes, two paperback books (Return on Sustainability by Kevin Wilhem and The Prism and the Pendulum by Robert Crease), a couple of pens, an iPhone, an iPod (with chargers) my wallet, a water bottle, a Koka Moka ProBar and an IF catalog. At this moment, seated on a plane somewhere over Iowa, I offer a silent word of thanks to Jenn for making this very portable, extremely robust little bag!

(The other bag that I have to see me through this four-day, Pacific Northwest weekend is an extra small Whalemouth Duffle. Packed well, it holds more than you might have guessed. More on that later.)

Paper Labels: Design Collaboration: The Event

The Paper Labels Design Collaboration between BaileyWorks, Independent Fabrication and The Bodega was unveiled this past Friday at a party at The Fourth Wall Gallery on Brookline Street in Boston.
Our friends and guests were greeted by an incredible tag painted fresh by Dan from Bodega on Thursday.
The were also beckoned in off of the street by the warm glow of reflective safety strips on a rainbow bank of SuperPros.
There are three "packages" to the design collaboration; each featuring a bag, bike and t-shirt combination that personify urban bike life. The color scheme for each was inspired by classic spray paint colors; hence the name, Paper Labels.
The first package features a fender bike known as The Duck Hunter. Equipping this bike for the urban hunt are leather wrapped sweep back bars, a front Nitto rack featuring an olive Bailey D-Rack bag, Brooks saddle and Velocity wheels. A matching 253 Courier bag with a padded computer sleeve ensures that your goods make it through the hunt as well. (click on the images to enlarge)
The second package is built around a classic city commuter called the Mellow Fellow. Why start and end your day fighting stress inducing traffic congestion and road rage when you can glide along comfortably on a bike? The Mellow Fellow has leather wrapped classic drop bars for a range of comfortable hand positions. Polished brakes and front and rear racks, along with silver fenders and wheels make this elegant cruiser the more civilized way to get around town. A custom Citizen Backpack keeps all of your necessities secure and dry on your back as you make your way to and fro.
The last of the three collaborations is to feed your inner rebel. Perhaps you aspire to be a bicycle courier, or just remember your halcyon days of being one, or maybe you just want to experience the thrill of threading your way through the urban maze... if so, the Higgins is your steed. Fast and sleek with it's Aerospoke front rim and deep profile rear Velocity fixed hub wheel, along with narrow flat bars, this bike is built for purpose. Add in the SuperPro bag featuring a custom printed liner and BaileyWork's class leading split-strap, and you've got all the mojo that you need.
All of the bags feature custom vinyl liners printed with a montage of vintage spray cans.

These packages, or individual components, are all available for purchase, so if you see something that inspires you, please give us a call.
We also displayed a number of vignettes to showcase the range of things that we've been putting together here in Portsmouth in recent months. This is a Whalemouth Duffle custom labeled for James and Jeremy, the dynamic duo behind Embrocation Cycling Journal.
This is the David Byrne, of Talking Heads fame, bag. It features David's original cover art from his recently published book, Bicycle Diaries, which shares his experiences riding bicycles all over the world. We made the bags to benefit Transportation Alternatives in NYC.
Here is a favorite bike from last year, the Ox. 2009 was the "year of the ox" in the Chinese calendar. Jenn recently made up this one of a kind bag to compliment the bike, complete with a built in beverage bandolier, or alco-hauler, as some have taken to calling it.
We also took the opportunity to display a range of SuperPros and 253's made from re-purposed vinyl architectural banners. The banners came from the design project to upgrade Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn. Each one is a true one of a kind, and if you are interested in purchasing any of them, give us a call.
Finally, none of this would be possible without a dedicated team behind the seams, and they are literally all about seams... stitching them that is. It was great to have Jan and Jenn make the trip down to the big city to join Toni, Jon and I to see the fruits of their labor, even though Jan would not let me take her picture (she's doing the rockstar look-away-from-the-camera-and-act-disinterested-pose).

Cheers,

Gary

Paper Labels: Design Collaboration Friday February 12th: Boston

Paper Labels is a design project uniting Independent Fabrication (Somerville, MA), Bodega(Boston, MA) and BaileyWorks (Portsmouth, NH)- three local DIY crews hellbent on creating the best in their respective fields.
Paper labels of vintage and dead stock spray paint serves as the palette upon which the three concept bikes, four cycling bags and three graphic t-shirts were created.

The color scheme and iconography of Paper Labels was derived from Bodega's archive of discontinued vintage spray paint which is heavily sought after and hunted for by collectors. These colors were popularized by the 80's graffiti culture. Krylon Aqua Turquoise #2008, Krylon O.D. Khaki #2301, and Krylon Metallic Blue #1903 serve as the foundation for the bikes color schemes.
Additional graphics for the bikes were created referencing some designs from other old vintage can labels, such as Diamond Finish and Smooth Coat. Only 15 of each model will be made and will include the matching bag(s), t-shirt and a can of spray paint mixed and labeled just for each bike.

So... introducing: The Duck Hunter:






The Higgins:







and.... The Mellow Fellow:




The project will be unveiled on Friday February 12th at 8pm at the FourthWall Gallery, 132 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA.

Items from this project can be purchased by contacting us here at BaileyWorks.

Download PDFabout the project HERE.

P.S. also expect to see (at the FourthWall) a preview of some of the bags that we are working on for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show which takes place in Richmond, VA on February 26th-28th 2010.

We will also have on hand for sale a number of limited edition bags made from banners re-purposed from the Brooklyn Grand Army Plaza architectural project:

See you there!

We love you too, Back Alley Bikes

We can't say it like they do...

a recent blog post from one of our beloved dealers...read the original here.

Bailey Works Messenger Bags

By backalleybikes

My XL Bailey Works SuperPro messenger bag is six years old and feels like a favorite hoodie. Over the course of my three year stint as a bike messenger, this bag hauled loads in excess of 60 lbs. more often than any bag should. A bag that can comfortably fit 8 reams of paper, extra clothing, bike tools, lunch, and coffee is a good bag. One that can keep all this stuff dry through a torrential downpour is a great bag.

I paid $150 for my bag in 2003. At the time it felt like a small fortune, but this bag has outlived several of my bicycles. My bag doesn’t endure the same abuse it once did, but it’s still there when I need it.

There are lots of messenger bags on the market, and most of them are very high quality and share a lot of the features of the Bailey bags, but in my experience the Baileys have the most bag for the buck, which is why we stock them. There’s lots of sizes and colors, and we always have a few at the shop.

Bailey Works Messenger Bags are excellent bags for the year-round cyclist. Waterproof, comfortable, voluminous, durable, American-made, and modestly priced, what’s not to love?

WMD's in Action

Christmas is almost upon us, and the domestic cyclocross season wrapped up this past weekend with Nationals in Bend. Throughout the season, we had Whalemouth Duffels, affectionately known as WMD's, in action with both the Embrocation Cycling Journal and Richard Sachs cross teams.
The WMD is the perfect race day bag, holding your most important stuff, like... pants. Pants are good, we generally encourage folks to wear them, unless of course you are racing cyclocross.
The WMD is also the perfect platform to display your logo, or your mantra, as in the case of Richard Sachs' "ATMO", which is short for "according to my opinion". According to Richard, cross rules, and judging by the banner year that his team had, they did indeed rule.
Red bikes and red bags, it doesn't get much better than that.
So, the cross season is over, and the cycle begins anew, but you can buy your very own WMD, either from us, or the good folks at Embro, IF, or Richard Sachs. We'll pause to celebrate the holidays with friends and family, and then get back on the road to peddle our wares. In February we'll be at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Richmond.
If you do happen to see one of our WMD's or other bags lying around the lobby of a highway hotel somewhere down the road, fear not, they are harmless, probably just stuffed with pants.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's that time of year when we break out the Turkey Bag, pick our heads up from the sewing machines, and pause to give thanks for all that is before us.



As The Great Recession grinds on, the trepidation of Thanksgiving 2008 has given way to a firm resolve that real value and values will prevail. For us, that continues to be about making an honest, durable, and functional product right here in the United States. We'd all like business to be a bit more robust, but we can be thankful that we still have a loyal fan base and continue to attract new customers to our brand of ingeniously simple bags.

Thanks to all of our customers, suppliers and supporters; and here's to a joyous holiday season with family and friends.

Why Hello, Mr. Byrne!

Hello Nation,

We just did a big run of SuperPros for our friends and idols at Transportation Alternatives.

They are the largest and smartest of the big city bike and ped advocacy groups - a close working relationship with the city gives them wonderful influence. Instead of the city inventing policy on their own they have a very engaged and informed partner to work with. The Bloomberg administration several years ago worked to introduce a congestion pricing system to Manhattan (Read: Charge cars admission to drive downtown and reduce congestion and pollution). Trans Alt built that plan - it didn't pass, but it's not dead yet. We have been donating custom printed bags to them for four or five years now. They give them to volunteers and auction them off to raise funds.

David Byrne is also a fan of theirs (as we are of him). He just wrote a book, "Bicycle Dairies," full of his musings about riding in cities all over the world. Mr. Byrne is no Lycra-clad, heartbeat-monitor-wearing newbie to riding bikes. I understand his mount of choice to be an old English three speed (mine too). He seems a man who rides the same way a 12-year-old rides. BECAUSE IT IS SO FUN. Anyway, he helps out the Dept. of Transportation when he can and is also a big supporter of Transportation Alternatives.

So here we are. TA generated art work that took the book cover and put it onto our bag. We built a big run of them and they will go along to readings and book signings in other cities. The proceeds will support the work TA does. Everybody wins.

-Jon B.