Had fun christening the new whip this weekend.
Arawak Cycles is a dude named Dave in NYC (the name is a nod to his Taíno heritage). Studied at UBI with Tony Pereira and while this isn't his first frame, it's his first production frame that isn't for himself. Tubing is a mix of True Temper S3 and Columbus Life, with Spirit chainstays.
The frame was ready this summer, but the waitlist for paint (handled by Ben Falcon @ Horse) meant I spent the summer bonding with my loaner, an '87 Trek 2500 with full DA7400.
Components were a mix of parts bin (Fairdale seatpost clamp, Sugino AS cranks), impulse eBay purchases (DA seatpost), and parts set aside for since-abandoned projects (CK headset, Thomson stem). I may switch out the stem for a silver and slightly longer one and replace the aging Vredesteins with some 25mm gumwalls in the near future, but I'm beyond stoked on how it's set up at the moment and am having way more fun just riding it than agonizing over parts.
I'm not sure why I agreed to a track bike when i haven't ridden fixed in years. This past summer I taught my teenage nephew how to ride fixed (his request) by spending a morning at an empty Kissena velodrome, which brought back a bunch of feels. After Saturday's shakedown ride, I'm in love with bikes again and can't wait to plan my next build, most likely a daily geared crossmuter.