Spring is Here, Bike Touring, Velo Orange, Soma Stanyan Frameset

Your hours have been cut. You are out are out of work. Four-hundred people are competing for one really boring, poorly paying job. My cats, don't despair. It's time to go bike touring! Go fill yourselves up with happy cycling chemicals for a few weeks. We just got Velo Orange as a vendor, so take a look at their site  or their blog. If you fancy yourself as a randonneur or cyclo-tourist, this is the fun place to browse for gear. (Or if you do have a job and are chewing up your work trousers in your single-speed chain ring teeth, check out the single-speed chain guards.) If we can help you choose and order components and accessories, let us know. We've got quite a bit of collective bike touring experience at Wheelgirl as well as many great stories of how we and our customers have irreparably damaged expensive work clothing and shoes via our bikes.(Snapped derailleur hanger caused by the sleeve of a lady's cardigan sweater? O yes we've seen it.)

The Velo Orange site is filled with shiny, pretty, classic bicycle bits and bobs. But you can also bike tour on a chipped-paint commuter with a pocket knife, a tarp, and a garbage bag filled with cans of baked beans bungeed to your rear rack. Remember: It's all about attitude and the stories you live to tell.

Cyclist and employee Daniel just built up his custom all-around bike for commuting and touring. We carry the Soma Stanyan frame, a nice steel platform designed for his hand-picked reliable components and comfortable bike touring. (I'm a sucker for chromed lugs.)

 

Photo by Daniel of his custom Soma Stanyan all-around commuter/touring bike.

VO Alloy Polished Chain Guard lifted from the Velo Orange website.

If You Still Have a Job Buy Yourself a Lynskey Cooper Titanium Frame

If you still have a job, you might want to think about getting your bike dialed so that if you get laid off, you can ride away your work fat and your crying-broke stress during your months of almost assured unemployment. I really like titanium as a bike frame material. My new favorite frame for the money is the Lynksey Performance Cooper Ti frame. Lynskey is offering these all-titanium frames for $1295 + fork. Sure, if you can afford to get a completely custom frame, go wild crazy. But we have built two of the Coopers recently, an extra large and an extra small. And if you can fit correctly on one of the variously sized life-time guaranteed, never rusts, never fatigues, made-in-the-USA titanium Cooper, buy one. Ti is really comfortable to ride. And the titanium tube set for the Cooper is shaped and flattened. The down tube is bi-ovalized. This is not your grandma's thin-and-round-tubed whippy ti bike frame that click,
click, clicks every time you are climbing and the front derailleur,
chain, and crank are kissing from the stress. The ride and price of the Cooper is reigning supreme.

Oh, and I'd put one of those Lynsksey CNC'd  ti shamrock dropouts on a chain, and wear it around my neck to dinner and a movie. Lynskey does the dropout CNCing and the frame fabrication in-house in Tennessee. Go click around on the Lynskey site while you are still getting a payday. (Jump to read more and more about the Cooper.)

  

(Photos of Lynksey Titanium Cooper taken by Wheelgirl. Photo of the shamrock dropout lifted from the Lynskey site.)

I test rode the gift for his Dad spec'd by customer Ronan, an XS Cooper with a WCS Ritchey and Ultegra SL build kit.
(Ronan, a kind Irish lad, is giving his Irish Dad in Ireland this sweet ride with the CNC'd ti shamrocks.) The bi-ovalized and flattened
diamond-shaped down tube and the rear triangle felt good.  Adam the Mechanic test
rode the extra large build (too big for me, think 6-foot 3-inch
customer Dana), which was build up from a 9-speed Ultegra groupset
moved from Dana's older Lemond steel frame.  Adam, also in the tall guys who ride hard club, was nodding when he returned from the routine test ride. (We also recently built up a Lynskey Titanium R230 for customer Joanne. I'll write about that one soon.)

Freaking out about money or the lack thereof is not a good thing. So, we often suggest moving your current group set to a new frame, if the group set is in decent shape and at least 9- or 10-speeds. This way, you can improve your bike over time with less stress on your wallet. Then, as you earn your new components by wearing out your old components, you can slowly upgrade out of need, not want.

This summer if you want to attend events like the Italian Festival in North Beach, San Francisco and eat a grilled Italian sausage on a baguette, grilled corn, a banana and cherry Italian ice, a free tiny bag of Potato Pop chip samples, chocolate cookie samples, Bare Naked granola and yogurt samples, some amazon rain forest drink, and then, walk 11 miles around the city of San Francisco before sipping an iced coffee and chomping a few bites of Frog Hollow apricot and raspberry cobbler before you put away a bowl of Japanese udon, you better have your bike sorted. You need to train hard during the week to get the most enjoyment from the weekend San Francisco June food festivals and events.

The Bike Kurt Built to Ride From Berkeley, California to Tierra del Fuego, South America

Bike mechanic, racer, and world touring cyclist, Kurt, is leaving on the cycling trip of his dreams. He designed and built his touring bike and wheels to be bombproof and reliable under any conditions. He started with a somewhat damaged XtraCycle frame, a welding torch, some Halo downhill rims and a Halo rear hub, a Schmidt generator front hub, his Jamis frame, some Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires, a Shimano Shadow rear derailleur, XT cranks, a nose-less saddle. Then Kurt, with his formidable skills as a bike mechanic, constructed the bike that is up to the job of making this dream come true. He plans to ride from Berkeley to the tip of South America and, perhaps, onward from there to some other spots on the globe.  His last trip included 12,000 miles through 18 countries in 10 months. For this trip, he has not set a return date. Best wishes and a safe journey to Kurt on his adventure. If you see him during his trip, do me a favor and keep him supplied with giant cake mixing bowls of pasta or breakfast cereal and lots of coffee. (Only black coffee, no flavored coffee, well-meaning lady cat barristas.) In the bike shop, I've also seen him have a "little snack" consisting of a gallon container of orange juice and an entire box of Wheat Thins. A few dough nuts, I've found, also usually produce a grin. We'll have a link on the Wheelgirl site to his his trip-of-a-lifetime stories and photos. (Jump for more photos of Kurt's touring bike.)

 

(Photos by Wheelgirl. Amazing touring bike designed and built by Kurt.)

Here are more photos of the touring bike Kurt designed and built up for his trip:

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.)

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.)

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.

Want a Clean Look, But Ride Too Many Hills for Fixie or Single Speed, Internal Hub Considerations

I receive phone calls from city cyclists who build up single speeds, and then realize after a couple of weeks that their commute contains too many hills for a one-geared bike. Most of these riders like the clean design of fixed gear and single-speed bikes, and they don't want to hang derailleurs off of their bike frames. So, the next logical question they ask is what about building up a rear wheel with an internal hub.

Most people were introduced to internal hubs on bikes such as the proverbial Raleigh three speed. You flick a switch or turn a grip, and all the gear changing takes place inside the hub where you can't see it and the mechanism is protected from the elements. These hubs employee planetary or epicycle gearing.

If you are considering an internal hub, right this second, read the late great Sheldon Brown's instructions on Bike Frame / Hub Spacing before we go on. Sheldon has written a clear lesson on figuring out hub spacing, cold setting, and he has included helpful photos. Also, read his article on Chainline Spacing, so you get a general idea about what is going on between the alignment of the front and the back of a bicycle drive train.

Now, given the number of internal hubs on the market, which one is going to work with your brakes and bike frame? Internal hubs are made in models that are compatible with either disc brakes, or coaster brakes (you use your feet to brake, like when you were a kid), or roller brakes, or V brakes. Shimano, for example, offers two models of their 8-speed Nexus hub: Model SG-8C20 has an integrated coaster brake; Nexus Model SG-8R25 is both V-brake and roller brake compatible. Also check the spacing specifications for each internal hub in which you are interested on the manufacturers' sites. Most manufacturers make 3-speed, 5-speed, and 8- or 9-speed internal hubs. Rohloff does a 14-speed hub. My suggestion is to try to find a hub that suits your current brake style, gearing comfort needs, and minimizes the amount of deforming you need to do to your frame in order to make the hub fit. If you are trekking across a continent, make sure to pick the hub that works with your adventure terrain. Strong suggestion: If you are thinking about an internal coaster hub for you city bike, and you ride like a wild cat, make sure to run a front brake also. You only need to skid through an intersection once to realize that coaster brakes are not made to stop late-for-work coffee-drinking adults riding at full tilt. (Been there, done that.)

Definitely check out this comparison of internal hubs by Marco at Hubstripping.com. You technical cats who love look at mechanisms and reading specs, click around on Marco's site until you get busted by your boss or co-worker for obsessing over gearing ranges and ratios while on the clock. Check out the manufacturer sites of the internal hubs Marco compares: Shimano, SRAM, Sturmey Archer, Rohloff, and Fichtel & Sachs. Wheelgirl bike shop recently built up some Nu Vinci hubs, which are heavy if you are riding a ton of hills, but useful for general, low-maintenance cycling. Marco has info on these hubs also. If we can build you wheel around your favorite internal hub, email us. We do build wheels for those living outside the Bay Area. The shipping is less than $20.00 to send a wheel set UPS ground.

(Photos of internal hubs, left to right, Rohloff, Shimano, SRAM, Sturmey Archer, NuVinci. All photos lifted from respective manufacturers' sites.)

Linen Shorts and Johan Museeuw Flax and Carbon Bike Frames

I just got out my linen shorts for the after-cycling spring weekend BBQ season, so when I chanced upon the flax /carbon bike frame tube cross-section on the BicycleDesign website, I was happy to see I was in good company. I clicked around on the post, and checked out the links on BicycleDesign to CozyBeehive BioComposite Race Bike Part 1 and Part 2 . If you want to see how Johan Museeuw makes bicycle frames using carbon and flax, check out the YouTube video on the Museeuw site. He uses different carbon-flax ratios for different frame tubes to tune the ride qualities. The Museeuw bike photos below give a breakdown of ratios.

If you are not familiar with flax, it is a plant from which, historically, people made linen thread, linseed oil, fiber-based products, and snacks (from the seeds.) Cyclingnews gives a review of how the Museeuw flax and carbon bike frame rides. The name, "MF-1" is taken from the "M" in Museeuw and the "F" in flax. (Quiet your minds, cats familar with curse word abbreviations.) I have not tried one of these frames, but if you have had the chance to ride one of these frames, put up a post.

 

(Photos lifted from the YouTube,except the cross section photo lifted from BicycleDesign site, and the two complete bikes with flax to carbon breakdown lifted from the Museeuw Bike site.)

Bike Frames with Holes: Calfee Spiderweb & Arantix Isotruss

I talked with Steve in the Calfee Design booth at Interbike. I have ridden on a Calfee black bamboo bike. The ride quality is cool. I have not had a chance to ride the Calfee Spiderweb, the one with the frame that looks like, well, spiderwebs made out of carbon fiber strands that have been magically frozen into the form of a road bike frame. The Spiderweb bike frame has lots of holes, and it showcases the unique and unexpected possibility of using carbon fibers to create organic looking bike frames.

Photos by wheelgirl taken in Vegas at Interbike 2007

The new Arantix bike frame is another bike frame with lots of little holes in it. But this bike frame is about repeatable design. Made by Delta 7 Sports, the frame uses carbon fiber and Kevlar, and it joined by carbon lugs. The isotruss design determines the strength-to-weight ratio. (Sorry, but "truss" is a word my brain associated with medical wear for hernia patients.) The big picture of the manufacturing process is that bundles of carbon fiber strands woven and wrapped with Kevlar strings, then the whole thing is baked in an oven. According to the Delta 7 Sport website, the frame uses 1,672 linear feet of carbon, which is roughly about five and a half football fields of fiber. The frame is hand-made by Delta Sport 7 in what appears, from the website, to be Payson, Utah. The frame weight is listed as about 2.7 lbs, which makes it approximately the same weight as titanium frame.

I have no idea how the frame rides. The Arantix Isotruss frames are priced at $6995.00 each. Delta 7 Sport expects to ship frames to dealers in 2008. (Post something if you have taken a demo ride.) My immediate thought is that it will be a nightmare to clean after a day in the mud or on the battlefield. And you better hope you don't fall into anything that smells foul. Because if you think that cleaning the sole of a shoe is difficult, my guess is that you will be the lucky one if the only thing molding inside your frame tubes is the residue from your sports drinks and power candy. (More after the jump about the video and the mention of the Arantix and shrapnel.)

 

Photo lifted from the Delta 7 Sports site.

The guy jumping off and on the benches with the Arantix in the video on gizmodo isn't really doing anything crazy impressive when it comes to showcasing the frame.  Neighborhood children do this on dumpster bikes. I would rather see someone smack the chain stay with a sledgehammer and /or machete. And if you are going to mention "shrapnel" in relation to a bike frame isolating damage, as the one guy does in the video, let's take away the frame from the other guy riding down the stairs, and see how it holds up on the shooting range. (I could get almost two custom Lynskey titanium Level 2 frames for that price. And titanium and shrapnel do have a long history.)

Photos lifted from gizmodo and the Delta 7 Sports site.

Pebbles Says: Do You Want to Ride on My Mercedes Boy?

The new Mercedes-Benz folding bike is expected to ship in 2008. According to the press release, "Mercedes-Benz Accessories GmbH developed the folding high-tech bike in partnership with top German cycle manufacturer ADP Engineering GmbH." (ADP Enginnering makes Rotwild cycles.) You will also be able to get Mercedes-Benz branded helmets, pumps, panniers, and carry bags for the bike.

The folder is a 5-speed with disc brakes, and you can keep the pannier on it when it is folded. Folded up the bike measures 800 x 800 x 280 millimeters. One feature of the bike design is that it can fit in the trunk of an open-top Mercedes-Benz CLK Cabriolet. Also, the folding process doesn't require the rider to touch the chain or pick up the bike. You can roll it on the wheels when it is folded. The bike is designed with 30mm of fork and 50mm of frame suspension for making the ride on bumpy city roads a bit more comfortable.

When they become available through Mercedes-Benz partners worldwide, put on your Bape hoodie or your Banana Republic jacket, get a speaker for your iPod, don't forget you Louis Vuitton wallet, and take a ride on your Mercedes folder to the designer hair salon. Tip the gal reading Vanity Fair or People Magazine to look out the window now and again and let you know if any wicked children who love to make necklaces are trying to steal your trophy folding bike head badge.

Photos lifted from the Autospectator.com website.

autospectator
to treehugger
to gizmodo

Budget Wisely This Halloween & You Can Buy A New Ti Frameset

Just think, this Halloween, if you curtail your holiday spending, and limit your budget to 1 latex pile of novelty rejected rubber foodstuffs, and you don't buy the giant, electric vomiting ghoul, you can probably use the $2,880.00 you saved to buy a titanium frameset.

It is all about choices.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/halloween/vomiting-halloween-decoration-nauseates-itself-into-your-heart-298403.php

Cannondale's Concept Folder a Curiousity at Eurobike

Cannondale's Concept folder has a righty fork, instead of their lefty fork. You press the red button in the middle to fold the bike. As you can see from the photo, people look a bit confused. A drag about Cannondale stuff is that lots of it is proprietary, so trying to service customer Cannondales is sometimes a royal pain. More to come after someone has taken a ride.

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/the-weird-and-wonderful-world-of-eurobike-12258?img=4

Dahon Shows of Light but Pricey Limited Edition 25th Anniversary Mu XXV

Eurobike was a folder fest with Dahon showing off its 25th anniversary folder for 2008, the magnesium Mu XXV weighing in at 16.61 lbs and costing 2500 Euros. Dahon is making a special edition run of 250 bikes.

OK, now, I know for a fact that the discontinuned black Dahon Helios SL from 2005 weighs in at 18.1 lbs, since I sold and weighed one on my stand. Its msrp was $999. None of the alloy componentry on the Helios SL is optimized for weight. The frame is aluminum. The wheelset is nice, a Rolf paired-spoke lightweight set with skinny Schwalbe 20" Stelvio tires that has a yellow-orange stripe that picks up the yellow-orange in the downtube label. The Helios SL bars are carbon, and they can score, so be careful and maybe replace them with alloy if you habitually loosening the clamp that holds them in place. So $999 for 18.1 lbs non-optimized folder or a modern-looking 2008 anniversary Mu XXV at 16.61 lbs for what comes to $3402 in today's Euro-to-dollar conversion?

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/dahon-launch-lightest-ever-folder-12312

Henrik's Custom Titanium Lynskey

Henrik designed his Level 2 Lynskey Custom Ti frame and bike as retro ride with a modern twist. The guy really put some thought into this; and it shows, from the style and color to the Chinese characters representing his name on the top tube.

He requested that the famed Reynolds brothers match the brown on the frame to the brown of the Velocity bottle cage and Aerohead rims. The light Carolina blue frame paint matches the center stripe of the light blue Michelin Pro 2 Race tires. The Wheelgirl hand-built wheelset should make a fast-touring-cycle-training-Ultimate-frisbee-playing athlete really happy. The black Chris King classic road hubs match the black Chris King headset. The race-ready frame has subtle braze-ons for a rear rack and a pump peg, if a fast touring adventure presents itself.

The bike sports a 10-speed, Ultegra triple groupset and a Ritchey build kit. The Reynolds Ouzo Pro steerer will get cut after the stem height is confirmed by some hours of riding. Then, the bars will get wrapped in Carolina blue Deda cork bar tape.

If you have ever seen Chinese characters on a top tube of a custom Ti bike, please drop us a line. Building up gorgeous one-of-a-kind bikes never gets tiring.