Three of the top five racers, and the third-placed woman rider were all riding with Porcelain Rocket gear!

Rick Hunter – 2nd
Jason Benford & Cale Wenthur – 4th
Katherine Wallace – 3rd woman

Mr. Hunter Cycles looking pretty excited about a 2nd place finish.

AMAZING job, guys!

THANKS!
Scott

Fulfilling a promise I made months ago, and to dozens of people, the Salsa Anything Cage packs are finally seeing the light of day.

Anything.

These simple packs are loaded. Super-solid wraparound attachment points, ultra abrasion-resistant materials on the pack bottom and on the side/corner ‘lean point’, lightweight VX21 construction, and typical Porcelain Rocket bomber construction are all standard.

You.

The packs load and unload quickly, thanks to simple, moron-proof double-back attachment wings.

Want.

They also feature a daisy chain on the rear of the pack for the use of double-sided hook&loop tape, to bolster the stability even more. These loops can either be wrapped just around the Anything Cage cutouts, or all the way around the fork legs or frame.

Anything...

These packs weigh in at a scant 4oz. each, or 8oz. for the pair, and have a 4L maximum capacity per pack.

And of course, as with anything (get it, ANYTHING?) Porcelain Rocket, customizations are always possible!

Thanks again and again!
Scott

So, in an effort to make the Porcelain Rocket experience an even more ‘custom’ one, we are trying a little something new around here…

Instead of sending out hundreds of rather standard and boring form emails, or even setting up a page list on the website, I’ve decided that I will do a little live-action video FAQ series.

The first in the series:

This is a basic tutorial on making a nice pattern for me to work from on a custom framebag build.

If you have about 7 minutes to spare (and who doesn’t really?!), have a little watch. You might learn something.

Let me know what you think, and if there are any topics that you might like to see.

Thanks again and again!
Scott

I’m working away the winter here in the rainy Canadian Pacific Northwest.

I love Flickr. Generally, I am not a huge fan of the way Yahoo! things operate, but I have to say, this one’s the business. I have been using it on a near-daily basis as sort of a photoblog for what’s happening around here. If you have a few spare minutes, or are just curious, have a looksee.

On that note, there has been some cool stuff happening, for sure. Here’s a bit of an idea.

A cool blue kit for a Surly Big Dummy.

A crazy-custom top tube pack to stash the ol' iPhone.

HOT PINK Mission Control Handlebar setup and Booster Rocket seatpack.

Think outside of the black box, kids!

Thanks for the amazing support. I really appreciate all of it.

Scott

Late-night sweatshop.

Cass Gilbert of While Out Riding notoriety has made a bit of a surprise visit to Victoria. It is always great to see an old friend, and hear the myriad of stories he has to tell of his velo-adventures.

He has written a little feature on his blog about the building of a new framebag for his Surly Troll.

The romantic side of Porcelain Rocket.

Thanks Cass!
Scott

Since our move to Victoria, Vik has quickly become one of those friends that you feel like you’ve known forever. He has been after me for a set of bags for his Pugsley for a while, and it seemed like it was time…

All you can eat buffet.

Vik has good taste. And he knows quality gear when he sees it. So, with a healthy fear of being totally humiliated in front of 1000′s of velonerds, I pulled out all the stops on this one.

Fancypants.

The kit features main panels constructed of Dimension Polyant’s full-Dyneema XPAC fabrics for amazing aesthetics and superior weather & abrasion resistance, full water-resistant YKK zippers (big and burly, like Vik), full closed-cell foam padding wherever a pack touches the bike, tapering framepack and top tube pack for added volume, and built with the usual Porcelain Rocket bomber construction techniques and obsessive attention to detail.

Ground Control to Jeff Jones.

The Pugsley sports some Jeff Jones Loop handlebars. The Ground Control Handlebar setup melds nicely to most ‘alt-bars’ like these. Not to mention, these bars just seem right on a bike like this. Perfect for the long-hauling, adventure tours.

Boost.

Rounding out the kit is the ‘standard’ Booster Rocket Seatpack. All the usual features, but spiffed with Dyneema.

Shorts for Chrissssmas!

That’s me riding it, not Vik.

Merry merry holidays y’all!

Scott

A full-on custom pack for stashing e-bike batteries and controller :

Rocket Flap.

This little monster is a rack-top pack for a front Surly Nice Rack. It ain’t no ordinary rack-top pack though. Full of hidden treasures. Behind the Rocket Flap is a mesh window for full capacity airhorning.

Zips right round, like a record baby.

It’s got a wrap-around water resistant zipper for keeping all the zappy bits happy bits. Not to mention, there are enough wire ports on this thing to hook-up a house. Inside is a moveable / removable divider for full customization of the configuration:

Yellow is so hot right now.

I dare you to ask me for another one…

More super-sweet stuff later this week!

Scott

Alex on his amazing Dummy.

I’ve been plugging away with Fall orders, but I thought I’d let a few cats out of the bag for what’s coming in 2012:

1. I have had a number of folks ask about custom bags for Salsa’s Anything Cages. I am working on a prototype for these. I can say this; it’s gonna be a cute little thing that will stay put no matter what sort of terrain you take on.

2. I threw some feelers out with regards to what interest may be for custom bags that work on Xtracycle’s V-Rack platform. The responses were overwhelmingly positive, so with a little help from some good friends, Porcelain Rocket will be offering a limited edition run of these bags in the Spring. Keep your eyes on the blog for info as things progress!

3. After stumbling into the little niche of building custom rear frame packs for Surly’s Big Dummy, I have decided that it may be time to offer something a little more ‘universal’. For the impatient types, this might be right up your alley! Again, I’ll post more about this here as this little guy takes shape.

And of course, Porcelain Rocket will continue to produce all the gear that I currently build, with the same obsessive attention to detail.

Thanks so much!
Scott

I’m extremely proud of what is already happening here, and it is definitely a huge step forward for this little sweatshop.  In the coming weeks, we will be adding a PRODUCTS button that will lead to a few pages with plenty of photos and text, further explaining all the things we do around here.

For now, have a look around, and if you have ANY questions, give me a shout!  theporcelainrocket@gmail.com.

A HUGE THANKS to Ben Swayne for the technical support (and hand-holding) to make this whole thing possible!

And a few of the more notable things coming out of the studio lately :

Custom Panel-loader Frame Pack for a Salsa Fargo.

Custom Full Kit for a Salsa Fargo.

Single Compartment Frame Pack for a Surly Pugsley.

Custom Full Kit for a Surly Big Dummy.

And what would a good blog post be without a photo of a kitten?

Thanks to everyone for the support!

Scott

Higher.

Faster.

Stronger.

Lighter.

The new Booster Rocket has the same capacity as the older design (6 – 11L), maintains a full HDPE frame sheet, but now accommodates for a Thudbuster ST seatpost and features improved compression and attachment points.  It has also lost weight, now down to 12 oz.

Even more soon…

Scott