Gear Patrol

It started with an email from my buddy.

Condor,

Meet you in the lobby of the Islazul Gran Hotel De Camaguey @8am on March 18th, 2013. I will be in touch – Peregrine.

Actually, we’d talked about the possibility of a Cuba trip when Mycah — his name isn’t always Peregrine — and his wife found out the she’d been awarded a fellowship to study urban agriculture there. I had not booked my tickets. I wasn’t really sure I’d go because it was near a grand between the flight to Cancun and the next one to Havana, plus I’d been traveling a lot the past year. I told him it was 50/50. Then in early March I was offered a quick business trip to Cancun ending in mid-March. You don’t balk when serendipity tugs at your Johnson, so I shot off a quick email reply: F*ck it. Tickets booked. See you there.

The annual traveling circus known as the North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS) is the high point of the year for the arcane world of custom crafted bikes. I connected with the 2013 edition of the show in Denver a few weeks ago, and I was damn lucky to have my bike-geek daughter along as an interpreter.

The call comes on the radio almost as soon as Belle and her handler, Gerald, reach to top of the Snake Creek lift. There’s been an avalanche in the resort boundary. Two skiers are buried. They spring into action, the tension and excitement apparent in Belle as the two head along the Snake Creek Bowl traverse to the slide area. Within seconds, Belle has caught the scent of a victim and barrels across the snow field, letting the ski patrol members know where to follow with her eager barking. Her nose leads here directly to the first buried skier, whom she helps dig out. Read on to find out what it’s like to spend a day on the slopes with an avalanche rescue squad.

It’s no secret that it’s boom time for American-made heritage products, and companies as diverse as Stormy Kromer, LL Bean and Randolph Engineering are making the most of it. Even within this resurgence of handmade Americana, there is a further niche: Minnesota-made. Maybe it’s the popularity of the urban lumberjack aesthetic or a just a fondness for Midwestern honesty, but there’s no denying that brands from America’s icebox are hotter than ever.

We’ve highlighted some Minnesota companies before — Red Wing Shoes, Duluth Pack and Faribault Woolen Mills — but we recently got a chance to visit another venerable company nestled right in the gritty urban heart of Minnesota’s capital, St. Paul: J.W. Hulme. We stopped in, hoping to see what this bespoke baggage maker is all about.

Maserati’s singular focus on high-end beautiful Italian machinery has made them masters. The GranTurismo, GranTurismo Convertible and the Quattroporte are all essentially a variant on one auto. They’re vehicles with gorgeous lines and roaring V8s; each is designed to be (Maserati vernacular) “a good host” (however, as Olivia Munn and Mario Lopez demonstrate, good hosts…

For city slickers, Lincoln is the company car to a midtown meeting. The recently discontinued Town Car was easily the most recognizable Lincoln: the car of choice for livery cab drivers and Warren Buffett. This wasn’t sustainable. Not too long ago, parent company Ford and primary competitor Cadillac faced a similar problem. How do you…

With fresh changes to design language inside and outside of recent models like the XC60 and C30, Volvo has impressed buyers in the luxury/European markets, tempting some potential German-made owners to their (safe) side of the road. In hopes of continuing that trend, Volvo’s released an affordable AWD option for their entry-level, 2.5L engine 2013…

If you live in New York City and have even a passing interest in watches, then you were probably at TimeCrafters, held at the Park Avenue Armory this past weekend. If you weren’t, don’t worry. Gear Patrol dispatched photographer Jae Yoon to capture every interesting tick and tock. You can see his photos after the…

Sometimes we wonder, given the job prospects and varying degrees of instability, if writing auto reviews was the right decision for our lives. But then we realize that if Fate had wanted us to be anything else, we wouldn’t look so dang good behind the wheel. And so it goes, saddling up our horses we…

Preface: Recently, on an invitation from our friends at Veuve Clicquot, we ventured 4,800 miles south to Rio de Janerio, or what its Portuguese forebearers serendipitously misnamed River of January. Seeking insight and photographic proof of Rio’s reputation for both vice and enchantment, we discovered a city quivering to the beat of music and culture,…

Going into its sixth year, the Professional Bull Riders descended on the Big Apple earlier this month, and with it an abundance of leather, flannel and denim in tow. But the rough-and-ready horde didn’t come here to talk style, but instead demonstrated the brutally tough sport of professional bull riding. Kicking off a 10 month,…

When the Jamaica Tourist Board invites you to Jamaica for five days of culinary and cultural adventures, you don’t say no. You pack some sandals and swim gear, and you leave some extra space in your bag for local rum. Turns out there was very little beach time on the trip, but as this writer…

Recently we found ourselves presented with a couple of problems. First. We were handed the keys to a deep blue pearl 2012 Nissan GT-R and 2012 diamond black edition Cadillac CTS-V at roughly the same time. Okay, maybe it doesn’t sound like so much of a problem but bear with us. In reality neither cars…

Every car guy’s dream is to find a dusty vintage classic in a barn somewhere. And it does happen. The 1969 Maserati we featured here a few weeks ago was actually found, covered in an inch of bird guano, in a barn on the eastern end of Long Island. Well, today we’re featuring another “barn…

Maserati is a legendary carmaker resurrected. After decades of false starts and forgettable collaborations (the 1980s Chrysler TC comes to mind), the Italian marque that made its name in racing between the World Wars is now firmly back in the hearts and minds of motoring fans. Despite the company’s seductive new releases, there is one…

“Open Road” is an ongoing series of dispatches written and photographed by guest correspondent, Foster Huntington, during his epic cross-country adventure for his upcoming book by Harper Collins. Foster is the creator of Arestlesstransplant and The Burning House. Check out previous parts of the series here. My alarm went off at 2:15am on Thursday, the…

A couple of hundred miles south of its source in Northern Minnesota, the Mississippi River, after passing through Minneapolis and St. Paul, flows past an achingly charming town called Red Wing. Nestled below towering limestone bluffs patrolled by bald eagles, Red Wing sits like an oversized model railroad set. Its downtown Main Street is lined…

Conventional wisdom erroneously perceives that most Harley riders are over 40, beefy, peppered with tattoos and leather, with a preponderance of facial hair. Though a fair share of riders fall into that category, it’s also absolutely true that the pre-WWI motorcycle manufacturer has made serious inroads to the younger, hipper crowd. In case you didn’t…

We’ve already shared a peek at what a typical Monday looks like. In this next photo essay, we move on to a far more gratifying day — Friday. The weekend’s close.

At the 1975 Paris Auto Show, Ferrari released a new model that would set a new direction for the company and reinvent the design language for all exotic supercars thereafter. The 308 GTB replaced Ferrari’s Dino 246 and quickly became the most recognized of the Modena-based manufacturer’s cars, even to this day. Decidedly modern in…

Editor’s Note: Foster Huntington is the talented force behind A Restless Transplant and the hugely popular tumblr The Burning House. Recently, Huntington embarked on an epic cross-country adventure to document unique individuals and the things they care about for his upcoming book to be released by Harper Collins. After sharing his plans with us first…

When you think of the classic British sports cars of the 1950s and ‘60s, MG, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Triumph tend to come to mind first. But arguably the most beautiful of the genre was the series of roadsters made by Austin Healey during the company’s short run, with their long sweeping haunches, short rear…

Saturday, 9:05pm | It’s often said that New York City is one of the world’s worst places to own a car. Between the raging cabbies, soaring parking prices and tousled roads the conditions are enough to beleaguer even the most steadfast owner. Even worse, the past few weeks in New York have been a seasonal…

The arcane sport of cyclocross is a mix of mountain biking and steeplechase that was developed in the mid-twentieth century by European road bicycle racers looking for a way to stay in shape in the cold off-season. They would fit knobby tires on their road bikes and race them around muddy, or often snowy, tracks…

Marking the second in-depth post of British marquee Bentley, we’re turning back the clocks nearly a century from our previous post. Tuesday 10am | There’s really nothing quite like seeing 80 years worth of history rumbling its way up to you, but here on a breezy Tuesday June morning we managed to see just that….

As we mentioned, earlier this summer GP got the chance to dive into the fabled world of Bentley Motors. Immersing ourselves in a century’s worth of motoring history the marquee boasts, we took an in-depth look at everything from Bentley’s bespoke coachbuilding process to an all-access look at Bentley’s factory grounds. And of course, time…

Sunday, 6:45pm | If someone were to tell you that swinging an axe is an art form, you might initially think of the actual technique, but there’s also the implement itself. No, not the quick grab at Home Depot, but more so the Paul Bunyan harking metal and steel apparatus designed with a single purpose:…

7pm, Saturday | Somewhere at the crossroads of an overzealous stage-tech’s wet dream, a rave and Stomp is Fuerza Bruta — a kinetic aerial show that’s been running at New York’s Daryl Roth Theater for a few years. Yeah, we’re kind of late to this one. It’s not a show for everyone, but if you…

8pm, 78 Greene Street | In celebration of the Northeast Grand Prix Lime Rock, bespoke clothier Seize sur Vingt hosted the teams and cars from the American Le Mans Series. Besides the company of admirers, in attendance were Extreme Speed Motorsports, Genoa Racing and 12 year old go-kart champ Santino Ferrucci (in the orange shirt)…

Things don’t always come together but you try to make the most of it and sometimes, if you’re lucky, it works out for the better. Case in point. Not too long ago, we moseyed ourselves up to New York’s Monticello Motor Club for some lap time in the rip-roaring Lexus LFA. Unfortunately, Mother Nature and…