The story behind the video

All of these riding shots were taken from within a few blocks of the shop.

Filming turned into quite an adventure. For the final shots in the film, Karen used a Glidecam while perched on a milk crate in the the back of a rented pickup. I had to run a couple of stop signs and poor Karen almost got knocked out of the back of the pickup whenever I hit a pothole or took a turn too fast.

We made this video, in part, because we wanted to take away some of the mystery out of how your bike is built. We wanted you to see the electrically charged dry paint come smoking out of a gun and a frame dangling in a giant walk-in oven.The time lapse shot shows the final steps of two bikes being assembled simultaneously over the course of about an hour.

Our customers were played by actual customers.  We'd like to express our gratitude to Bridgette, Mark, Sean, David and Matt for making time to be a part of this.  We hope that this video will give our customers and fans around the world a better sense of what we love to do.

And a big heartfelt thanks to brilliant, patient, and forgiving cinematographer Karen Abad who rides her Mission Bicycle (pictured above) on the streets of Chicago.  

www.karenabad.com

vimeo.com/karenabad