Bike Hugger 

Would you wear Google glasses on your next ride? The tech is not that far off, considering we’re riding with smartphones on our bikes now and Andrew just tested a HUP with his Garmin.

Spotting locations for the photos – Photo: Dan Holtz Photography

After posting the latest D-Plus photos, reader Brian Fung asked

Diggin’ your new ride. Curious – besides, being a custom project, were you looking for certain ride qualities when you approached Davidson? You planning to rock it come this fall for CX season?

Yes, rock it! Also, now that I’ve got more time to write about the topic, the D-Plus is a pursuit of passion. It’s the result of a decade of thinking about modal/cross bikes by Mark V, with the work of a Bill Davidson and his crew.

Like the music a band plays, the influences are many and when you combine the talent of a master builder with someone who’s obsessed with the bike, good things happen. As another trusted source on the project said

Master Builder and OCD types were made for each other. Like Internet dating in 1989. If you were there, it was a guaranteed a match.

And the D-Plus is one hot date, in materials, and build. Check the annotated photo below with a full-rez version and more notes on Flickr.

Annoted with notes – click through for full size.

If you’ve followed us for a while, the D-Plus is a progression from the Modal and Hotspur. The Modal is an S&S coupled Ti bike with Paragon dropouts that toggles from fixed, single, geared, and internal. The Hotspur is a Ti racing bike made with Feathertec tubing and a Reynolds carbon rear. Both bikes were intended to prove Ti is a relevant material, in a market flooded with carbon.

We’ve been discussing a Cross version of the Hotspur with modes like the Modal since I got back into Cross 3 years ago. The D-Plus has even larger diameter Feathertec tubes and Paragon track tips with a derailleur hanger.

In an earlier post, I said the bike is built to fight.

It’s also has soul. It’s made here in Seattle, a city of makers and those that believe in what they do.

Front end

In Bend there’s a street called Morningwood where bikes like this roll on by…

Uploaded by Woodys Fenders | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

On Sunday, after Boonen’s win at Flanders who blows past on Mercer Island? Boonen with a soul patch and steel bike. How’d we know it was Boonen? The wool jersey with the Belgian Tricolors on it!

After hearing the unmistakable sound of a catch about to happen from behind, it was “on.” I countered with a strong indication I wasn’t going to get dropped on the next riser and after a few more accelerations, we stopped to chat at the next stop sign.

An 80s steel bike was all this Boonen needed. A Grandis.

Stopped for a piss on Sunday’s ride and what was all this? Pieces of plastic strewn about, copper wire everywhere, and then I figured out I was standing in the remnants of a television. A tweaker had smashed it apart for the copper wire.

Copper wire strands

Not sure how much Tweak got, doesn’t seem like a lot, and there was a trail of copper strands on the path where he must’ve ran away. Of all the strange things I’ve seen when riding, this was one of the saddest. A life reduced to this. Nearby, a few pedal strokes away is a homeless camp. They probably kicked him out of there.