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Baller’s Bicycles – Gary Smith’s Independent Fabrication Road Bike

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ballers ride independent fabrications owner gary smiths personal road bike

Among the Ballers’ personal bikes, Independent Fabrication owner Gary Smith’s was the most basic, but not without its touches. It’s an older Steel Factory Lightweight from 2008-09 with 28c tires stuffed in there to handle the abundant gravel roads.

At the last minute, several other baller builders had to bail on the weekend. Gary was originally scheduled to be in Canada for a business meeting (he’s also CEO of Polartec!), but thankfully shirked that responsibility to come ride and give a little talk with Tom Kellogg about different frame materials’ pros and cons.

Roll on to see his ride…

ballers ride independent fabrications owner gary smiths personal road bike

Independent Fab likes to hide their crown logo in various spots. The carbon frames make the most of it with custom lugs from ENVE that incorporate the crown into the openings of each lug (see this post for some great examples!)

ballers ride independent fabrications owner gary smiths personal road bike

You, too, can get the Baller F’ing Bike sticker for your own ride, just click here. It, and sales of the NixFrixShun chain lube and other goodies supports the weekend for handmade builders.

ballers ride independent fabrications owner gary smiths personal road bike

ballers ride independent fabrications owner gary smiths personal road bike

Remember we said he crammed 28c tires in there? There was barely half a millimeter clearance between rubber and caliper, but it kept him rolling over the rough stuff.

Check out our factory tour of IF’s New Hampshire digs here.

IFbikes.com

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ceebee
ceebee
9 years ago

well, not quite a richard sachs

jimmy
jimmy
9 years ago

Super nice bike. Gatorskins! Running those exact 28s on my commuter. Not one flat in 2 years of 100km weeks, year round.

K11
K11
9 years ago

@ceebee. still steel, still will rust.

Devin
9 years ago

If that bike dies of rust before either of us are long gone, I would be shocked.

Psi Squared
Psi Squared
9 years ago

It’s easy to treat a bike to prevent rust or slow the appearance of rust. As for “not quite a richard sachs,” good. Sachs isn’t the standard by which frames are judged.

The Conductor
The Conductor
9 years ago

Indy’s and Sachs(and Spectrum Seven’s) are fantastic bikes. I think the spirit of these Ballers postings is to show what the best builders are riding. They could ride-build anything they want, it’s interesting to see what they bring!

I don’t understand the criticizing of their personal bikes. Just think what they could say about your ride! (if they had that mind-set, which I doubt).

Seraph
Seraph
9 years ago

I guess what we can take away from these features is that the owners of bike companies don’t automatically have cool-looking bikes.

k
k
9 years ago

gators? cmon bro.

Angelo
Angelo
8 years ago

Rode a bit of Passo Gavia with him on this very bike last Saturday.
Great bike and great chap.

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