Lost Amongst the Trees: Texas Nursery and Landscape Expo

By JW.JW, is our newest GoTryke Contributor. He’s our own auto industry insider. He reports live from remote destinations in the heartland. I flew to Houston-god-awful-hot-Texas this month. My mission was to work at the Texas Nursery and Landscape Expo. This is an annual three day event where wholesale nursery owners and landscapers bring their produce and equipment to show. The room is packed with thousands of trees and plants. Workers haul bags of ice every day of... Read More

Driving Fashion: Acne Creates Clothing with Comfort and Style

By Christine Arnefors August is filled with Scandinavian style first Copenhagen Fashion Week and then Stockholm Fashion Week. Instead of meeting new beautiful friends and influential bloggers at the runway shows, I’ve been hanging around with an old beige Mercedes in a dusty Swedish small town in the hopes of finally getting a driver’s license. Sadly enough, fashion and cars seem hard to unite. New behind the steering wheel, driving is a physical challenge that includes... Read More

Smartie Pants fortwo: The Passion of the 2009 Smart Car Convertible. VIDEO

Kerplunk! That was me cross a treacherous pothole on the FDR. The car veers to the left, to the right, but I’m so small that I barely even move to the edge of the lane. I’m zipping uptown in the 2009 Smart fortwo Passion cabriolet en route to Tarrytown, a Westchester County ‘burb to drive another car, but that’s another story. Heads are turning to gaze at Smartie and I. We feel lean, mean and frankly, a little naked, even with the cabriolet top snuggly... Read More

Under the BQE Bridge: 8th Annual Kustom Kills and Hot Rod Thrills

The smell of leaded gasoline coursed through the air. Mustached men, red-lipsticked ladies and greased-up fellas sipped cans of beer, leaning against their ‘55 Chevys, ‘62 Buicks and 30’s Fords. Vendors dolled out flea market fair of patches, smutty signs and vintage pins. The Rumblers Car Club of NYC transforms trendy Williamsburgh, BK into a melee of hotrod madness. The buzz of conversation was interrupted every 10 minutes or so by a barrage of rocket noises... Read More

Uno for the Road

The inspiration for the Uno Cycle hit 18 year old Ben Gulak when he visited China in 2006. He was amazed by the overwhelming pollution that completely blocked the view of the surrounding country as his airplane came in for landing. He realized that much of that smog was coming from the thousands of motor scooters whizzing through the streets and figured that there had to be a better way. His design features two wheels mounted side by side, very close together, and is powered by... Read More

Justen Ladda’s Green Machine: 1969 Camaro

Artist Justen Ladda is a stickler for detail. His painstaking execution of detail and meticulous application of unusual material make for gorgeous sculpture, paintings and installations. His subjects are part of the natural environment, but that provoke contemplation from a unique perspective. A giant nose, a Swarovski bodice, a humanistic giraffe. Ladda’s work is aesthetically rewarding and intellectually compelling. Ladda has parted ways with a prized creation that is... Read More

Why We Suck: Dennis Leary Espouses On Lady Race Car Drivers

Denis Leary makes me cringe. He also makes me laugh. And I don’t watch TV shows like “Rescue Me” nor have I watched an entire one man show such as “No Cure for Cancer,” and I’ve only seen a handful of his 30 some movies. But I did read his book Why We Suck (Viking) that’s due out this November. It’s clever, sardonic, offensive and punchy, which is probably what Leary fans extract from his comedy. His style is declarative and overt... Read More

Ralph Gilles Leads Chrysler Design

Ralph Gilles is changing the way people look at contemporary car design — and car designers. The rising star in the design community becomes Vice President Design for Chrysler September 1. The popular 38-year old designer first drew attention with his vision of the Chrysler 300C, a historic and memorable design that debuted in the 2005 model year. Haitian-born, Gilles grew up in Canada and graduated from Detroit’s College for Creative Studies. He joined Chrysler... Read More

Wagons West

Former Rides Magazine Managing Editor Rachelle Gauthier joins GoTryke.com. The New York native and renaissance woman is busy editing Vain Magazine, a new publication launching this fall, in addition to making big Westward moves. Look for her weekly postings as she chronicles her journey. By Rachelle Gauthier Poughkeepsie, pronounced who cares, is the name of the small town I’m from in New York, and PK gets no love. Even Charlotte poo poo’d it in the Sex and The City... Read More

Hydrogen Road Tour Takes Manhattan

If you happen to be in the New York streets Wednesday morning, you may notice ten hydrogen-powered cars rolling by Central Park. It’s part of the 12-day 4000 mile Hydrogen Road Tour, headed for the next stop at Liberty Science Tour, and then onto Washington, D.C.. The tour began on Monday, August 11 in Portland, Maine and ends in Santa Monica, California on August 23. The forces behind the sustainable tour include the U.S. Departments of Energy and Transportation in partnership... Read More