Some time ago I found an old wiro notebook in a drawer. A scruffy wiro bound notebook with a photo of 2 men in a kayak with a bear on the front cover. In that notebook I found terrible sketches drawn in pencil made while travelling in 1991. One sketch leapt out at me. It was a rough pencil sketch of Mt Ararat from a backpacking trip to eastern Turkey. The sketch really surprised me – it was a very basic pencil sketch, drawn using a .5mm technical pencil on a cheap notepad. The sketch is just black and white… To my surprise the sounds and smells of the day came flooding back. Meeting some Kurdish goat herders and their flock near the base of Mt Ararat, about 10km from the Iranian border on a bright sunny but cool, alpine day. Along with memories of driving across the mountain steppe in an old Renault 19 and the smells of chai and coffee in a Doğubayazıt pasta solunu. It all came back come flooding back! Why did it evoke such vivid memories? I’m not really sure to be honest. Maybe t...
I needed some work done on one of my old bikes a few years back and was told that Josca's Bicycle Repairs is the go-to place for those attempting to keep their old bikes on the trails.
For some reason I wasn't expecting such a full-on workshop hidden inside a brick and tile garage in Mt Albert! It has to be one of the best looking garages I've visited — I obviously needed to bring my sketchbook when I returned to pick up the bike.
I find workshops one of most interesting places to sketch anyway but his collection of tools, bikes and paraphernalia made for a very enjoyable hours sketching. Frames, wheels and handlebars hang from the ceiling. Bikes, tools, old signs and parts hang off the walls.
Are your bike gears skipping? Your brakes have faded? You've taco'd a wheel trying to emulate the Crankworxs riders?
Sounds like Josca's your guy, here's a link.
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