Plemon's Leather Double Toe Straps, the Hand-Made Ones with the Birds

Ok, you cats who feel like you are going to fly off of your fixies into space if you are not double strapped into your pedals, Wheelgirl Bike Shop just got in another great looking choice in double toe straps. Plemon's all-leather double straps are hand made in San Francisco, California, and you can recognize them because they look beautiful, and they have a bird embossed into the leather. (Seagull, dove, pigeon [in the dove family and carnivorous], Canadian goose, you decide.)

The label is not so easy to read, so look for the lovely little holes in the straps and the birds. If you are wanting to rock double straps that cost something between the price of Soma double straps and Toshi double straps, you now have a locally made option. The
brown straps are the thickest, so if you know you are a beast when it
comes to breaking toe straps, get brown. (I want a  leather bracelet made to match the brown toe straps.) Suggestion: There are not a ton of white straps currently because they are a new color, so don't cry like a baby cat if you wait too long to decide, and the white straps sell out. (Jump for more photos and  info about these new double toe straps.)

Photos by Wheelgirl

They guys making these double straps with the birds are messengers and urban cyclists. They are a very small operation, but they really believe in their product. They perforate the leather with the old school method of using body weight and a leather punch. They rivet on the brass buckles by hand. The Plemon's guys have been trying to destroy their own double straps in their Beta tests to no avail.

We have them in the glass case in black, brown, and white leather next to the black suede Toshi's. The white model is new. It has a white "dusting" on the outside, so the texture is a bit different, and the white leather straps have not been tested for as long as the black and brown straps. All of the straps are guaranteed 100 percent for 30 days by Plemon's (Their website is a work in progress.) But if you have any problem whatsoever, they are happy to review any product issues, case by case, and make things right. You can also use these double straps with just regular bike pedals without toe clips if you are riding a single-speed bike or a commuter road bike. (See the last not-great photo.)

I was told by cyclist Jonny from Plemon's that the "weight" of leather is figured out by how much a square foot of the leather actually weighs. According to Jonny, Plemon's double toe straps are made of 8-to-10 ounce leather. So if you know anything about leather, this will mean something to you. For the rest of us, these straps are thick.

 

 

Photos by Wheelgirl. (In the last photos, the white Plemon's double toe straps are attached to a set of road bike pedals without toe clips. Customer, cyclist, and Plemon's toe strap fabricator Jonny uses these to hold his feet in place on his commuter road bike, kind of like those Power Grip toe straps.)

Wheelgirl Bike Shop Looking for Part-Time Bike Mechanic

It is bike season, and we are looking for a part-time bike mechanic with experience working on high-performance road and track bicycles.You need to have experience installing current Campagnolo Record and Chorus and Shimano Dura Ace and Ultegra SL drive trains. You also have to have experience working as a bike mechanic in a bike shop that sells high-performance cycling brands. The position is for 15-to-20 hours per week. The schedule can be flexible. (Jump for resume guidelines.)

(Photo by Wheelgirl of a cut away view of a Rohloff Internal Speed Hub. [Thanks, Neil!]  You won't ever have to fix these at our shop. But if you are a bike mechanic, you won't be able to avert your eyes!)

Please email your resume to us. Please include your contact info. (email and phone) as well any bike brands and models with which you have expert knowledge. We will not open any attachments. So, please just type your resume into the body of the email. You must have prior experience working as a professional bike mechanic to be considered for this position. Pay is dependent on experience.

Gripping Tales of Cloth Bar Tape

Many fixed gear riders like the positive feel of cloth bar tape. They feel more connected to their handle bars via the thin layer of cloth with an adhesive backing versus a thicker layer of synthetic cork bar tape. Also, the thinner cloth bar tape may be less likely to slip around than the thicker bar tape if you are doing acrobatic fixietrix. However, be warned, if you have sensitive hands or a rough urban commute, the cloth is really thin and not squishy at all. If you smack a pot hole, you may be more likely to feel the road shock and vibration transmitted through the cloth than through fake cork or rubberized riser bar mountain grips. (Some cyclists solve the hand stinging issue by putting a couple of gel pads on their bar tops and wrapping cloth over the gel pads.) We just got a bunch of cloth bar tape in different colors into the Wheelgirl Bike Shop. So far we are stocking cloth bar tape in brown, dark green, dark blue, white, yellow, red, and black. (Remember: We moved to San Pablo between REI and Performance Bicycles.)

Photo by Wheelgirl.

If Forced To Visit Relatives on 4th of July, Pedal ID by PedalMafia

Eat some grilled food, talk about the economy, kiss your great aunts on the cheek, and sneak a hand-held, web-browsing device to your 4th of
July gathering.  I started playing on this site after employee An introduced me to it. An's fixie was stolen, and she was trying to design her next bike. (The thieves cut down the sign to which her bike was u-locked.) An got a inexpensive orange fixie. But what rhymes with "orange"? While you are sitting at the picnic table hoping your Uncle Billy doesn't blow off a finger lighting firecrackers, go to  Pedal ID by Pedal Mafia .

Oh, how I enjoy the labors of creative and smart bike cats. The Pedal ID program is easy. Click here. You will discover colorways for track bikes that mimic those outfits of  late 1970s hair metal bands. Sometimes you will feel embarrassed by your designs and need to reload the tab.  Some tips for new users: To add a component to your canvas, click on the component. To remove a component, click on that specific component icon again, and it will disappear. You can drag and drop any components on the canvas. On the bottom left-hand corner of the Frame page, there is a Pink, Blue, Yellow Frame Paint icon which allows you to paint a frame different colors.

There are about 19 choices you can make from screens for frames, front forks, wheels, wheels bmx (spread the love), chain ring, crank (spider), pedal, toe clip, toe strap, stem, seat post, saddle, handle bar (riser and track bars), tire, tire bmx, grip, chain, exclusive, other (which includes frame pads, Chris King headsets, lanterns, Knog lights.)

No more holding up a component to your fixie and asking every friend you know as well as complete strangers, "Does this look stupid or good?"  This 4th of July, visit Pedal ID, and remember: Lighting paper tubes filled with gun powder inside of containers creates a big noise and shrapnel.

 

(Screens lifted from Pedal Mafia's Pedal ID app.)