Evening Bike Shop Sale & Musical Event With Art and Great Food

Today begins the Holiday Bike Sale with 10-20% off of selected items. Oh yes, this is the weekend to pick up some sweet deals on bikes and accessories. We are kicking off the sale with an evening event at Wheelgirl tonight, Dec. 13, 2008 from 4:30pm-7:30pm.

When you are done with your late afternoon ride, stop by the shop for amazing food treats provided by Berkeley's 4th St. Eccolo Restaurant, Bette's Oceanview Diner, Tacubya Restaurant, as well as Acme Bread, and some sort of crazy good dessert from Spenger's Restaurant. Oh yes, there will be beverages in the form of wine (think small cups of holiday cheer my thirsty bike-riding rock stars), as well as bottled water, and soda.

In addition, Thomas Viloteau, a world-class classical guitar player will be performing from 5:00pm-7:30pm. He is a phenomenally gifted young musician visiting the Bay Area via Paris who commutes on a Redline 29er 1x9 bicycle.

Hope
to see all of you cats tonight. If you see a bunch of dog head
paintings on display, you are in the right place. (Jump for more.)

 

Photo by Wheelgirl. Still sunny the second week of  December in Berkeley.

Thomas is on this month's cover of Guitare Classique Magazine,and between giving concerts in Asia, Europe, and the US, he will be playing jazz and classical music tonight
at the Wheelgirl Bike Shop. So put down your iPod; tape that Comcast movie on
your DVR, and get yourself and your friends to the shop.

 Thomas's CD
, recorded after he won the 2006 Guitar Foundation of American
competition a couple of years ago, is available on the Naxos label (a super fine classical guitar label.) For those of you who dp not follow the classical guitar scene, the GFA cometition is a big, big deal. It draws the best-of-the-best international classical guitar players and rewards the
winner with a CD contract, a bunch of money, and a concert tour of the USA.

Canstruction for the Creative & Helpful Metal Heads in the Peleton

I was in NYC for the November holiday break. And what to my wondering eyes did appear, but this free and great Canstruction Exhibit!  If you are a creative metal-loving  bike maniac with a tender heart, and you don't have the resources to build a frame this winter, get your cycling pals together for a few days this holiday season and build your own canstruction. Pick the guy or gal who is still obsessed with Legos and not constantly talking about bottle openers you can put on a keychain to be the team leader. Design and build something insanely multi-colored of shiny tin. If you are on the West Coast, go visit the Canstruction Exhibit in the South Bay.

The Canstruction exhibit has been going on for years. Architectural and engineering firms design and create giant sculptures from cans of food. And after the builders have enjoyed themselves engineering and architecting the canstructions, and people like me have marveled at their 2500-pound creative acts, at the end of the exhibit, the canned food is donated to social programs that feed people who are homeless and hungry.

Make sure you have a reinforced floor. Or better yet, get out into the front yard, and make your neighbors shake their heads in disbelief. (Post a link to your canstruction so we can enjoy your metal-loving mind.)

Check Your Rim Braking Surface or Maybe Visit This Daymare

There are tons of beginning cyclist articles on the web telling you to check for tiny rocks and / or bits of metal embedded in your brake pads that can wear down or tear your rim sidewall. Yeah, yeah, yeah. These articles also tell you to replace your brake pads when they wear down, so you don't damage the rim. Right, right, right.  And then, usually, there is a tip about checking for rim wear. Some rims have wear indicators (little cuts in the rim that let you see how far you have worn through the alloy). Oh, tell me something new, you are thinking. I know all of this. My wheels are fine. Or are they?! (Check out the photo.)

If you hold a ruler parallel against the bicycle wheel rim's machined sidewall  and you see a small bit of light between the rim and the ruler, you are usually OK. Some cyclists, however, try this exercise and say to themselves, "Wow, I certainly feel a giant valley of alloy worn away in the middle of the braking surface, and when I hold a ruler parallel to this rim I see a fat-as-a-hog  half moon of light between the straight edge and the machined sidewall of the rim!" If this sounds like you, mileage beast,  you are skating on thin ice this holiday season.

The brakes can wear through an alloy rim braking surface until the alloy is paper thin, and then the braking surface on the rim can rupture, tear, and basically fail. The customer who owns this wheel didn't crash. He had just completed a long ride (with hills)and was putting his bike back on his car bike rack to go home. Lucky guy. Take him to Vegas. Suggestion: Check your rims, dear focused and bike obsessed cats. Plates of Holidays cookies are easier to hold and eat if you are not wearing a sling.

 

Photos by Wheelgirl. Hello Mr. Michelin Man. Happy Holidays.

Limited Edition Cinelli Track Bike by RVCA at Interbike in Vegas

OK, here is an eye catching track bike. RVCA (pronounced "Ru-ka" if you have seen the name only in print) designed this limited edition track bike for Cinelli. Check out the photos. They didn't make too many of these bikes. The graphics and color way make it really visually unique, kind of a blending or deep and mid-century old school. If you click on the first photo to make it bigger, you can see the orange outline of the faces on the seat tube. I am still a sucker for chromed lugs and stays.

 

Photos by Wheelgirl taken at Interbike in Vegas 2008

FixieTrix Food For Thought In November

Here are 5 minutes of fixietrix you can think about, emailed to me from customer Larry. If you've got your track stand dialed and can ride backward circles, here are some new ideas to keep you humble and challenged. 

Spend the winter practicing, and show us what you've got in the spring. Here are some other ideas if you are feeling like you're ready to build your skeels

(Suggestion: Build your skills slowly. Keep the blood and bones inside
of your skin. Note that there are no cars, buses, or trolley tracks in
the middle of the gym floor.)

Phil Wood "Cheese Shredder" High-Flange Hubs for Fixed Gear

While visiting the Phil Wood booth at Interbike, I came across these hubs, which the people at Phil Wood refer to as the "cheese shredder" hubs. Since, well, the hub flanges look like they could shred cheese. They have giant  high-polish flanges, and they were originally made for a customer who was putting together a hand-made bike show bicycle that was a copy of a 1940s French bike. The hubs are available in limited quantities, and they can be made with fixed/fixed or fixed/free threading. I love the way they look. (And yes, they are weighty babies.)

 

 

Photos by Wheelgirl at Interbike 2008 in Vegas

The Surly Rat Ride Single Speed and Doughnuts

OK, this Surly Rat Ride single-speed bike caught my attention at Interbike 2008 in Vegas because, well watch the video. How can you ignore its presence?  This fat single-speed with discs, Large Marge rims, and Hoggy-G 24 x 3.45 slicks makes you want to eat a few doughnuts before before your morning commute. Heck, it makes me want to string a bunch of doughnuts together on a necklace and have a giant doughnut breakfast during the ride and wash it all down via a hydration pack filled with coffee.

It looks a bit more like a hippo than a rat. Its shape makes me grin. And I am sure those unleashing its girth on the streets or trails are laughing themselves silly every time then catch a glimpse of their wide reflection in a storefront window or a pond.

Traitor Bikes Commuters and Fixed Gear Bikes (3 of 3)

Traitor brought a few of their geared commuter bikes to Interbike. One has an oil well on it the frame. The other has a dragon. You can also check out the two other videos featuring the Traitor fixed gear bike videos, the Ringleader and the Pabst Blue Ribbon limited edition fixie. (This is video 3 of 3.)

Traitor Bike Pabst Blue Ribbon Fixed Gear Interbike (2 of 3)

Traitor Bikes had a limited edition Pabst Blue Ribbon fixed gear in their booth at Interbike. The PBR label is decorating the Traitor Ringleader fixed gear frame. And the PBR fixie special edition has the same parts and frame spec as the Ringleader.

Traitor Bikes Ringleader Fixed Gear at Interbike (1 of 3)

The Ringleader is a production fixed gear available from Traitor bikes. The Traitor bunch have run Transition Mountain bikes up in Washington State for the past 5 years. They are looking to offer some new graphic design possibilities to value-based basic commuter, fixed gear, and urban transportation bikes. (This is 1 of 3 Traitor bike videos.)

New KHS Flite 100 Fixed Gear / Single Speed at Interbike

The good news, the KHS Flite 100 is going to be available in white and matte black. Things that I am not sure about, for example, the top tube now has a braze on for cable routing if you want to use the bike as a single speed. Those who ride fixed for simplicity may not dig that. However, I live in an urban area that lends itself to fixed gear riding. Those who decide on this bike and who live in hillier geographies may like the braze on detail. Also, the cog that comes with the bike for next year is alloy.(Jump to read more.)

My big fat opinion on cogs: Once
you have figured out you are obsessed with fixed gear riding: Buy the highest quality steel cog you can afford. It is money well spent. The fixie alley cats and lady cats will
probably shred alloy cogs like cheddar cheese. A national podium-placing masters track rider, Leo, who was officiating at Hellyer track in San Jose, told me a story of a guy who was trying to save weight during a track race and ran an alloy cog. He shredded the cog, and in the process, the alloy shaving that fell to the track punctured $500 of his racing competitors' tubulars when they ran over the metal bits. You never want to be that guy or gal. You want to save weight? Give the cupcake you are about to eat to your pal who still fits in the Levi jeans purchased while attending the seventh grade.

Offering no front brake or lever with the bike for 2009 is going to be a bit of
an inconvenience. And for my customers, who again, ride their fixies
really hard 11.5 months of the year (the other two weeks of the year
they are on holiday lock down traveling to visit relatives in snowy
destinations), the unsealed, machine-built wheel set, having had some
experience with these, does not inspire a deep and abiding confidence. Sealed cartridges work better for urban riders who tend to fuss less over their bikes than experienced road cyclists. (Shimano has loose ball bearings in all of their hubs, even Dura Ace. But if you are riding those pricey hubs, you keep your bike clean, or you have a team mechanic watch your back usually.) 

I don't mind the brazeons for a rack. Because at some point you might
want the option of throwing a rack on your bike (easy now, track
beasts) so you can hauling home that coffee table you saw at the garage
sale. You can always remove the rack a couple of hours later, and return your bike to its minimal best, before
your friends mock you.

If you want to try fixed gear riding, and you are not sure if you are
going to like it, this is a great bike for you. The price point is
really reasonable. If you end up hating fixed gear riding, you can easily flip
the wheel, throw on some brakes, and ride a respectable single speed.
So, all is not lost. And KHS does give you great value for your money,
in general.

Lynskey Houseblend Road Frames 1 of 2

I could wear the new Lynskey Performance CNC'd ti clover rear dropout on a chain around my neck and feel pretty. You can see them on this Houseblend R430 road bike frame. The geometry of this bike is more race-oriented. The top tube is longer, and the head tube is shorter. Also, the tubeset is 6 Al/4 V titanium with a bit of Helix tubing thrown in for the seatstays.  The tube set is diamond-shaped, and you can dry your tears and stop crying about how ti isn't inelastic enough for your riding style. Undoubtedly, the aero geometry is going to help you to ride fast. The ti compliance won't make you feel like someone beat you with a stick when you get off of this race bike. If you are a powerful race rider who needs to ride a bike that is responsive, won't beat you up, and is not going to noodle all over the place, Lynskey has replied to your request.(Check out the other Lynskey videos from Interbike on this site.)

Nitto Mandle Handlebars at Euro Asia Import Booth at Interbike

OK, these are shiny candy bars. The Nitto Mandle handle bar in the Euro Asia Imports booth at Interbike were just waiting to be held and admired. They are chromed steel with a clamping diameter of 25.4. You can get them in a riser or a straight bar. I took a quick measurement, since you can't really cut them down, or you will cut off the end caps, which are their entire identity. My thumb-to-pink full spread is pretty  close to 8 inches. So these are a bit less than 8 inches. (Super useful stupid human trick for measuring wood, fabric, paper, handle bars.)

The bar ends are completely capped in steel. The bars, in both styles, are clean looking and made of steel to withstand urban abuse. Of course, if you are not what I call a Beta tester for bike components, you can always look at the lighter alloy Nitto riser in anodized colors. (Heather and Julius this post is for you.) (Jump for more photos.)

Photos by Wheelgirl at Interbike 2008 in Vegas

Photos by Wheelgirl at Interbike 2008 in Vegas

New Surly Steam Roller Fixed Gear/ Single Speed at Interbike

I visited the Surly booth. The new Surly Steamroller comes with a brake and lever, sealed bearing hubs, and the chromo steel frame is comfortable for urban riding. The rear brake bridge is drilled for a rear brake, so you can utilize the flip /flop rear wheel and run it as a single speed if you move to the mountains.

We have put a few pro-athlete team-sport sized guys, 6' 4" weighing 215-240 lb guys on this bike. They haven't broken the frame yet.  So that is a good sign. The frame has brazeons for a water bottle cage. And you can fit up to 700c x 32 tires on it. The rear stays have a wider clearance. This is good news for those who have to commute on busted up pavement, since you can run a wider tire for a bit more shock absorption. You can then spend less time wondering when your ride over that giant crack in the asphalt if your body is going to be jolted really bad or just a little.

The color is kind of a vanilla cream (kind of the old SE color, actually) and the componentry is mostly black. It comes spec'd with a 3/32nd 47T chain ring and 3/32nd 19T. So that is a gear ratio of 66.8, which is a nice cruising gear, and the bike won't throw you off when you try to stop it. You aren't going to ever beat anyone in a sprint, but you should be able to ride the same terrain you can ride on a geared road bike if you put the bike in the smaller ring (on a double crank set) and in the middle of your cassette. Go here to figure out what gear ratio feels comfortable for your style of riding.  I forgot to check to see if you could scrape off the decals or if the clear coated over them and are there to stay. If someone knows about the decals, put up a post for us. (Jump for more ratio picking info.)

And if you don't know what gear ratio might work well for you, borrow a bike with a derailleur, and keep the bike in 1 gear for a week. Don't shift for any reason. Then count the teeth on the front chain ring and the
teeth on the cog you choose. Find the ratio, and look on the chart for a chain ring and cog combination that works with your riding style and terrain or with skid oatches, if you plan to skid a ton. 

Also, this whole Steamroller bike costs a bit more than a hand-built Phil Wood fixed gear wheelset on Deep Vs. I kind of advise customer to avoid dropping a ton of money into their first fixie until they really have a clear idea of what they want to feel when they are riding. Tricks? Speed? Beater city bike? Highly responsive and quick, but not comfortable on the pavement? Comfortable but feels like riding a couch? Heavy but super durable? Something in between? Everyone is different. It is fun to build up a fixie, but it has to work with your riding style. So, the package fixed gears, like the Steamroller let you start to figure out what you like and don't like at a price that won't break the bank.

More New Velocity Deep V Rim Patterns at Interbike

I know that we will all look back on this time and wonder why we felt the need to decorate our fixie rims with insanely busy colors and patterns. But for now, I like that there are some choices. Personally, there are only a few patterns that appeal to me. But at least I have a choice between silver and black. Here are 4 videos showing off the new line up of Deep V patterns from Velocity. They've proven to be an uber strong rim that can take the abuse of fixed gear urban riding and commuting as well as the stresses and strains of creative fixietrixs. Through it all, Deep V rims stay in one piece and keep quietly doing their job. Check out all of the patterns. Here is a link to the Velocity video I posted last week, too.

Chris King at Interbike Outdoor Demo New Products

I called Chris King Components yesterday to order some hubs for a wheel build. They had a booth at the outdoor demo. I didn't attend the outdoor demo, but here are the new products this year from my favorite headset maker and one of my favorite hub makers. Oh, and they've added a new color to their product offerings, brown. Think coffee with not much half and half in it.

Chris King has come out with new Shimano-style outboard bottom bracket cups in anodized colors with King bearings inside. These will be available in a couple of days. And they have a grease injection port, so you can keep them running smoothly.

If you ride a mountain bike, Chris King has a new 135mm x 12mm through axle and a 135mm x 10mm through axle for you. They've also come out with new bike jerseys and new technical fabric t-shirts.

In the headset area, they are going to a new style of logo branding on the actual component. The style, they call sotto voce is Italian for "under voice" or "soft voice". (You see this marking a ton in classical music when the composer wants you to play more softly or decrescendo.) The Chris King logo is rendered tone on tone color wise. So you can't see a high contract logo. Instead you really see the color of the headset.

My suggestion: I would really like some Chris King skewers. They are a small company making excellent products. But I am building up a set of Classic Road hubs for customer Simon's Independent Fabrication Crown Jewel SE, and I would like to be able to finish off the wheel set with Chris King road skewers, not skewers from an unrelated manufacturer. If you like this idea Chris King skewers, send a respectful email to Chris King. And if you write an email, and they do end up making skewers, stay true to your word, and support the design and manufacturing efforts of this small and excellent bike component company by buying the skewers.

Photos lifted from the Chris King site: New bottom brackets in anodized colors and new sotto voce tone-on-tone logo style on the headset.

Lynskey Performance at Interbike Curvy Single-Speed Mountain Bike

The Lynskey Peformance booth is always a welcomed sight to my eyes in the crowd of 1100 vendor booths at Interbike. David Lynskey is someone who in the Bay Area we call a "maker". Has never ever has tried to sell me anything. He likes, and most probably needs, to make things. His eyes light up when I ask him about projects he is working on that require new applications and fabrication processes for titanium. David Lynskey and his family founded and sold Litespeed almost ten years ago. Lynskey Performance is the custom titanium bike frame company that they launched at Interbike a couple of years ago. The frames are titanium, so they never rust, never fatigue, and are lifetime guaranteed.

Lynskey is applying modern designs to their bike
frames, tubing technologies, and titanium material technologies. But, for me, they also give off that familiar
old school, stable, manufacturing vibe of guys and gals who for decades
have been successful in a specific manufacturing industry. 

Here is one of the curvy single-speed mountain bikes Lynskey Performance brought to the show. (Michael you asked about this bike after you saw it on the Lynskey site. So, this video is for you. I took about four videos of new offerings at the Lynskey booth.)

Jack, my sales rep, has the job of making sure my custom shop has the
Lynksky ti bike frames it needs. He is highly customer-service
oriented. In the middle of the bike show, with an estimated 23K attendees from 60 countries (according to the Interbike website), surrounded by over a thousand vendors all selling their wares and trying to open new accounts, Jack is talking
to me about resolving the toe overlap on a smaller frame for customer Margo. Jamie is the can-do guy
in manufacturing and finishes who says, "Your customer wants that? Ok, I'm pretty
sure we can do that. No problem," and then makes it happen. There is no smoke. There and no mirrors. They nod, smile,
and then just get the job done with little fanfare and no excuses.

I commute everyday on the custom ti track bike Lynskey made me. This is
not your grandma's titanium bike frame. The Lynskeys can tune the
thickness and width of the tubes to match your riding style, body
weight, and riding conditions. The ride is vertically complaint.(Rough
pavement doesn't knock loose your fillings.) But when I stomp on my
pedals, I can't whip the rear triangle around like a noodle like I can on most steel
frames and older ti frames with skinny tubes. The bike is crazy fast
and smooth. I am always happy when I get to work.

(Here is an another more detailed video about the geared curvy 29er race bike with a cruiser heritage that was at the North American Handmande Bicycle Show.)

Lynskey Performance High-Polish Titanium Helix Road Frame

I visited the Lynskey booth the first day of the show, and I took some photos of this Helix road frame. But I couldn't really see how the tubes were twisted in the photos. So, I went back with the video camera. First, I am a sucker for old school chromed road frames. I know that chrome is heavy. I know that the chroming process makes metal brittle. Whatever. I love the simplicity and elegance.

The first time I saw this high-polish finish in the Lynskey booth at last year's show, I couldn't figure out why they had brought a chromed frame to the show. Silly me. It is a high-polish technique for titanium that takes 3 days and results in a mirror finish. Add that finish to the Helix tube set, and you have a frame that people from all over the world stopped by the booth to pet. This Helix road frame has more fingerprints than an FBI database.

Lynskey Houseblend R330 Ti Road Frame 2 of 2

The Lynskey Performance paint schemes this year allow you to choose from 16 different variations. I like red, black, and white as colorways for sports equipment. The Houseblend R330 has a replaceable derailleur hanger. I asked about this, and the change benefits those riders who were mashing their cut-out CNC'd dropouts and bending their derailleur hangers.

I like the clover dropouts. This dropout obviously isn't as beautiful. It is chunky looking. However, it is practical and obviously a good choice if you are hard on your equipment and / or have to transport your bike to racing and ride events. Beautiful drop outs aren't going to be of much help if you mash your stays loading and unloading your bike or stack during a race and bend your hanger. Also, the back of the non-drive side dropout is relieved, and I do like the way that looks. Once you have a wheel in the dropouts, the contrast between the clovers and the replaceable hanger dropouts isn't as noticeable as it is on the bare frame.

Phil Wood Has New Carbonite Bearings at Interbike Video 2 of 2

Here is video 2 of 2 showing the new Phil Wood Carbonite bearings in action. Thanks nice guy who held the hub while I filmed it spinning. These bearings are high-quality steel, but the microscopic pits in the steel are filled with a secret ingredient. What do you think the secret ingredient might be my gearhead readers?

Phil Wood Has New Carbonite Bearings at Interbike Video 1 of 2

Phil Wood has new Carbonite bearings in the bearing cartridges, and they spin like nobody's business. I saw a external bb spin like crazy. And then, I took a track hub, held the ends of the axle, dragged the edges of the flanges on the display table about 8 inches (the way you used to rev a Matchbox car when you were little), and that hub didn't stop spinning for 10-t0-15 seconds with no extra help from me.

The steel ball bearings in the cartridges in Phil Wood's hubs and bottom brackets are high quality, as we all know. But Phil has filled the microscopic pits in the steel bearings with a "secret ingredient".  Watch the video 1 from Interbike in Vegas 2008.

Dia Compe at Interbike 1

Here is 1 of 2 vids from the Dia Compe booth. I took about a zillion vids and photos of bike components. But my Vimeo account only has room for a tiny-sized video currently. So, all of it will be posted over the weeks, and maybe even months. There are 1100 bike, component, and accessory vendors here under 1 roof. I could be happily typing for a really long time. So, keep reading. And check back for the new videos from the show.

1 of 2 Dia Compe Videos at Interbike from Wheelgirl on Vimeo.

New Miche Advanced Primato Track Group Sets in Colors

Yesterday, while I was visiting the Euro Asia Import booth for an hour chatting with kind Steve and Anthony about all of their great new frame offerings, Steve informed me that the new Miche Advanced Primato track groups in blue and red anodized colors had just shown up at the booth a few hours ago. The Advanced Primato cranks take a chain ring with a 144 BCD (bolt circle diameter). Remember: The regular Miche Primato track cranks take a ring with a 135 BCD.

For the money, the Miche track group sets are really a good value. The components look good and work well together, in my opinion, when they are spec'd as a group set on a fixed gear bike. The logo and drilled seat post looks a tiny bit distracting when Miche parts are randomly attached here and there on track bikes in fits and starts. The color of the anodizing is really deep and appealing. For those with discerning eyes for color, the components in both the blue and red group sets sound deeper and darker to your eyes and less pop music teen beat.

Photos taken by Wheelgirl at Interbike in Vegas 2008

Matt Makes the Winning Bike Cap for the Vegas Interbike Show

I have been stopped maybe fifty times today by kind people at Interbike who wish to find out where I got my most cool and well-designed Interbike Vegas hat. The answer is that I got it from a man named Matt, who runs the LVFixed.com online forum (Las Vegas Fixed Gear). Matt, who enjoys graphic design worked some magic on a photo of a real Vegas sign. He works a day job for American Apparel and decided for fun to have Pace print up a limited edition of 100 show bike caps.

Usually, I am given some sort of show item printed with an image of a martini glass, a pair of dice, and a few girls pole dancing to commemorate the bike show. Thanks, Matt for your great bike cap.

Here is Matt modeling the cap he designed. I asked him to send his email to me. So, if you write to this site, I will forward any bike cap inquiries to him (when I get his email.) This is the only info I have about Matt currently.

Photos by Wheelgirl at Interbike in Vegas 2008

Shimano Di2 Dura Ace Electric Battery Info. at Interbike 2008

I talked with Ben at the Shimano booth. Yes, I had many questions about the batteries for the new Dura Ace electronic shifting offering. Ben was extremely gracious and put up with me constantly interrupting him and asking yet another question. First, the retail cost of the system is set at about $4000.00. He asked what I thought of it. And I am not really sure. I like that I can fix my bike without electricity in the middle of no where. And I don't like to charge or carry batteries or battery chargers. However, I do think electronic shifting might be the future. For those those making a living on a bike, and racer feedback is what drives the performance aspects of the bike industry, electronic shifting might be a dream. I tried it on the demo bike. You exert really light finger pressure on the textured or the smooth part of the lever paddle to up and down shifts. You don't push the levers at all. Not even as much pressure as pressing an elevator button.

Here is the battery skinny: They are lithium ion batteries take 1.5 hours to charge from 0 percent to 100 percent. They weigh 68 grams and give you about 2000 km of electronic shifting, about as much mileage as a riding a Tour de France on one charge. This means you can buy two batteries, and put one in your saddle bag. They weigh about as much as an energy bar. The hotter and flatter riding conditions make them last longer than hilly and cold riding conditions.

You can check the battery charge at any point in time with a light unit that sits on the cable under the handle bar. Green light steady is 100 percent. Flashing green light means 75 percent charged. Red light is 50 percent charge. Flashing red light is 25 percent charged, and it will flash by itself. If you choose to ignore the red flashing, you will run the battery down. The almost last 10 percent of the 20 percent energy left state goes to the front derailleur, and then that will stay in whatever ring you choose. The very last 10 percent goes to the rear derailleur. When the battery dies you are riding that single speed you always wanted to build. So, you thrill seekers in the Alps who are bad at details and frequently forget to charge your cell phones, Blackberries, and cameras, choose your last shifts wisely.

The battery compartment has O ring seals, and Shimano has been testing the set up with professional Tour de France peleton riders as well as pro cyclocross riders. No moisture or mud short circuit worries.  You get 500-600 charges to 1 battery pack. The Dura Ace 7900 group set components can all be use for the Di2 Dura Ace electronic shifting, with the exception of the derailleurs front and rear, shifters, and battery.

Photos by Wheelgirl at Interbike 2008 in Vegas

Velocity Has Tons of New Deep V Rim Patterns at Interbike

I took about 6 videos at the Velocity booth. There are a ton of new Deep V rim patterns. All of the patterns might not appeal to you. But it is great that there are choices. And Velocity appears to have solved the image durability issue with a new process: Powder coat rim;  wrap rim with patterned "shrink wrap"; bake; clear coat with UV protection over wrap; bake again.

(Unfortunately, I've used up all of my space on Vimeo. So, I'll be adding about 10 new HD videos of Interbike new bikes, components, and bike accessories every week for the next millenium. However, I will be posting photos throughout the show.)

4 of 6 Velocity Videos from Interbike 2008 from Wheelgirl on Vimeo.

Interbike Vegas 2008: Affinity Track Pursuit Frames 5

5 of 5 videos of Affinity at Interbike.

5 of 5 Affinity Pursuit Fixed Gear Frame Sets from Wheelgirl on Vimeo.

Interbike Vegas 2008: Affinity Track Pursuit Frames 4

4 of 5 Affinity videos. This is the Bat Wing bar. Sleek one-piece bar-and-stem set up. I'll recheck the spec. to make sure that they are full carbon. The retail is $175 for the Bat Wing bar stem combo.

4 of 5: Affinity Track Bikes Bat Wing 1-Piece Bar and Stem from Wheelgirl on Vimeo.

Interbike Vegas 2008: Affinity Track Pursuit Frames 3

3 of 5 Affinity videos

3 of 5: Affinity Track and Pursuit Frame Sets from Wheelgirl on Vimeo.

Interbike Vegas 2008: Affinity Track Pursuit Frames 2

Video 2 of 5 of Affinity track bikes

2 of 5: Affinity Track Bike Pursuit Frames from Wheelgirl on Vimeo.

Interbike Vegas 2008: Affinity Track Pursuit Frames 1

I talked with Jason at Affinity. The pursuit frames are made in Taiwan. Affinity is located in Brooklyn, NY. And my guess is that they are going to have a ton of orders on their hands. The vibe at the booth was great. I'll follow up with the frame models and details, but for now, check out the videos.  I am taking a zillion videos of new gear at Interbike. The uploading takes a ton of time. So stay tuned.

1 of 5: Affinity Track Pursuit Frames from Wheelgirl on Vimeo.

El Toro Chromed-Plated Steel Pursuit Handle Bars, The Bull Horns Let You Stretch Out

We got in some of Soma's El Toro handle bars. In general, the chrome-plated Tange steel bars are much beefier than alloy bullhorn handle bars. The bars come in 38, 40, 42, and 48 cm widths. The have a 26.0 clamping diameter. And the inner diameter of the bar ends is 20.9.

You can come into the bike shop and squeeze the 40 cm ones we have. You either like the wrist angle of the bull horn bars by Soma or Nitto, or you don't. You need to try them and see if they make your wrists and arms happy. (According to the Soma website. The El Toro bars were after the Irvine, California, Air Force base burned down by aliens in the movie "Independence Day".)

You can fit the Soma pursuit levers with these bars, but according to the Soma site, you have to buy the  20.6 plugs
separately. (The plugs that hold the Soma Pursuit brake levers inside the front part of the handle bar can expand from 19.6 to 20.6. And the El Toro bars are 20.9.) Make sure you check the expanding plug diameter of your levers before you
get all happy; then, pout like a baby, and then curse like a sailor if  your intended pursuit or time-trial brake levers don't fit right.

Photos by Wheelgirl

3M Reflective Frame Pads Style and Stealth Safety

If you are planning to commute on your fixed gear through the darker winter months, you might want to visit the bike shop and check out the new Bici 3M Reflective frame pad that just arrived.The 3M reflective frame pad looks like a normal light gray frame pad during the day. But the entire surface is made from a reflective material produced by 3M. The frame pad turns a really bright reflective white when it catches the light. One advantage of reflective material on the top tube is that cars entering a main street from a side streets can see you. The first photo, taken inside the shop, shows afternoon sunlight on the frame pad (and the bags in the background with reflective piping and trim). The second photo shows a non-reflective frame pad covered in a white material next to the reflective Bici 3M reflective pad. Again, this photo was taken indoors in the afternoon, and the Bici 3M reflective pad is reflecting sunlight. It is wicked bright.

Photos by Wheelgirl

What Does A Toasted Chain Ring on a Fixed Gear Look Like, Mommy?

Money-saving fixed gear tips: This weekend, check to make sure that your chain ring bolts are all there and tight. Check to make sure that your chain line spacing is appropriate for the drive train configuration you are running on your home-made fixie or single-speed. Check to make sure that you have not over tightened your chain to kingdom come. The blood on the spider, which was twisted out of alignment and beyond repair, is that of the friend who tried to help the buddy who toasted the ring. (We put on a new Sugino Messenger track crank set and new Sugino BB. Really nice guys, but expensive learning experience.) Suggestion: Ride hard. Respect material stress tolerance ranges. Again, try to keep the blood inside your body.

Photo by Wheelgirl

White Industries Splined High-Flange Track Hubs with Splined Cogs are Here

I've been waiting to see the talked-about White Industries high-flange single-fixed splined track hub set, and we got a pair in the shop last week. Very nice piece of kit. The idea is that they take a special high-quality splined cog made by White Industries that fits on the hubs, like a puzzle piece. So you can't spin the cog off, cross-thread it, or through urban fixed gear acrobatics, damage the hub shell threads by rocking back and forth on a loose set up. You line up the splines of the cog with that of the hub; tighten the lock ring, and get spinning. You don't need a chain whip. You need only a lock ring tool to tighten the ring. Oh, and they are really pretty. I look at bike parts morning, noon, and night. It brings me much happiness to look at high-quality pretty hubs.(Jump for more photos, info about materials used, technical info, as well as wheel building hub measurement specs.)

Photos by Wheelgirl

White Industries Track Hub & Cog Material and Technical Info.

The hubs attach to your horizontal dropout with brass track axle nuts. The rear hub is available as a single fixed. They run on Enduro
sealed-bearing cartridges, which are easily replaced if you thrash them
for about $8.00 a cartridge. The hubs were designed to be taken apart
with allen wrenches and serviced easily. I am assuming, like the ENO
hub, the splined track hubs take a Dura Ace lockring. (The ENO hub I wrote about a little less than a year ago is
White Industries eccentric fixed/free hub that work with vertical
dropouts, since the eccentric part allows you to tension the chain.)
The track rear hub does come with a lock ring and both hubs come with axle nuts. The hubs and the splined
cogs that fit them are made in Petaluma, California and are currently
available in 24H, 28H, 32H, and 36H drillings.

The hub shells are CNC'd 6061 aluminum. They are available in silver
only. The splined cogs are made of the same material as the famous and
crazy long-lasting White Industries freewheels. (Lynette from White Industries has stories of
people riding the White Industries freewheel for five years before
wearing them down.) The splined track cogs, like the freewheels, are
made of 8620 steel, They are case hardened, and electroless nickle
plated. The main thing Lynette stressed, when I spoke with her, was for fixie riders to get your
42mm chain line on your single-speed / fixed gear bike set up correctly. Most of the wear
they see on freewheels has to do with out-of-whack single-speed
chain lines.

White Industries are making the splined cogs to fit the track hubs
in 14T, 15T, 16T, 17T, 18T, 19T, and some 20T in both 1/8th and 3/32nd
thicknesses. So you can race on these hubs as well as commute on them. (Dura
Ace cogs are less expensive, for example, but they only go to 16T.) Very cool. They did run short on 17T cogs, and you
need to be prepared to wait for about a week to three weeks at the
longest for the cogs to restock. White Industries can make the cogs in a week. But the plating sometimes adds a week to delivery. That is fine with me. It is not like I have to wait 6 months for something to come on a cargo ship. If you know your favorite ratio, buy an extra cog. But they are expected to run for thousands of miles.

White Industries and Phil Wood Weight Info.

I surfed around trying to find more info about the hubs. And according to PricePoint, the hub set weighs Front = 324 grams and Rear = 430 grams? (Small boutique bike part manufacturers sometimes have to put their gear up on a site like PricePoint to reach a larger buying audience. The hubs aren't at bargain prices.)  Weight is not the biggest issue for track riders. Drag is your personal daymare. However, when putting the new hubs in the glass case, they seemed much lighter than the set of SLR Phil Wood single fixed hubs I had just picked up. The measurements I got for the track hubs are as follows.

White Industry 32H single fixed high-flange track hubs, according to Wheelgirl inexpensive gram scale from IKEA:
Front with axle nuts = 221 grams
Rear with axle nuts= 291 grams
Lock ring = 15
Total for White Industries single fixed high-flange track hub weight with lock ring = 527 grams (I didn't weigh the cog, since the larger tooth sizes will obviously weigh more.)

Phil Wood 32H single-fixed SLR (windows cut of out the flanges like the White Industries) high-flange track hubs weighted on same gram scale:
Front  with axle bolts and sleeve=249
Rear with axle bolt and sleeve = 353
Lock ring = 19
Total for Phil Wood  SLR (single fixed high-flange track hub weight with lock ring  = 621 grams

(Weightweenies site, please feel free to correct any errors. Post a comment with a link the the weight you get.)

White Industries Track Hubs Hub Measurements for Wheel Building

If you are building a wheel with the White Industry hubs:

White Industries track hub front: Flange diameter is 65mm. Center to flange is 33.5mm
White Industries track hub rear: Flange diameter is 72.5mm. Center to flange drive side is 29mm.Center to flange non-drive is 34mm.

White Industries Track Hubs Lockring & Fixed Gear Lock Rings in General

If you finger-tighten the lock ring, the cog will have a slight bit of play. (It needs to be a bit bigger than the splined carrier in order to slide onto the carrier.) When you use a lock ring wrench and tighten the lock ring down tightly and properly, there is no play in the cog. Remember to grease the threads for the lock ring. And you can't cross-thread the cog, since it is splined. But make sure you tighten the lock ring by turning it to the left (counter clockwise). If you are new to track hubs, lock rings are reverse threaded, so if the cog decides to spin off (looser= left) againt the lock ring, the lock ring holds it on (tighter= left). Left is tight for lock rings. And for new fixie riders, lock rings are not interchangeable. Your hub takes either what amounts to a Dura Ace or "JIS" threaded lock ring  or an "ISO" or Campagnolo threaded lock ring. (Paul Components = ISO, Campagnolo = ISO, Phil Wood = ISO, White Industries = JIS, Dura Ace = JIS, Formula = JIS.) The exception is Mavic track hubs, which take a French threaded lock ring.

White Industries Customer Service Perk

And here is another great customer service perk from White Industries: If you don't want to mess with your hubs, and you need to have the bearing cartridges replaced, you can mail the hub or the entire wheel to White Industries. They will charge you for parts and for return shipping fees. But they won't charge you for labor. Nice for those customers living in places that do not have access to local bike shop mechanics.

You stock the hubs and the cogs. (I found the hubs on Pricepoint. But the price is just about normal retail.) And we are happy to build you a set of track wheels.

Photos by Wheelgirl

Shimano Yumeya Website Has A Great Intro. and XTR White Gold Uber Parts

Usually, I hate to watch bike website Flash intros. I press the skip link, since I want specs, not dancing bike parts, and the far-from-entertaining intros seem to last forever. But you have to click here and see the new Shimano site for their new Yumeya product offerings. Yumeya is the set of new white and gold high-performance uber light XTR mountain bike parts. Don't skip the into. And make sure you have on your headphones if you are at work. There is music and a pretty loud yell.  This Kabuki cat, Mr. Ainosuke Katoaka, has so much fortitude and bearing, I had to watch the intro three times, and I forgot to check
out the part specs.  He is not even a cat. Check out that hair. He is a lion, and he is the real deal.

As to the XTR offerings, if you are all about gold and white high-performance mountain bike groupset colorways, you need to check out the product offerings.