Evolution... because we ride.

I've never denied that I have a problem when it comes to by bikes. It's not that I'm not happy with all of them, it's just that there is some thing in the 'tweeking' process or fine tuning on things on a bicycle that gets me.

For todays 'because we ride', I'll highlight the only bike that I've ever owned that I have given a name to. Red. Red originally got its name from the red bar tape from the flip and chop handlebar I rocked on it but since I had started to go a bit overboard on finding just about any red anodized part I could for it. From crank bolts to headset, to nipples to the chain, I had issues.

Actually I still might have issues. Here are a few photos of Red's 'evolution'... the first is from the summer of 2008.

Summer of 2009...
To Spring of 2010...

Which brings us to today. I had recently decided to give Red another facelift. The first powder-coating job that I had done wasn't holding up well and last fall I had decided to repaint thanks to a little help from Uncle Sam via my taxes. I also decided to get a new fork, which I know some traditionalists might question going from a steel fork to carbon but let's just say it together... this bike is far from being traditional.

Last week, I got the frame back from the powder-coater and I had decided to go from the off-white to a silver paint. With that and the black carbon fork seems to have really toned down all the red ano. I also am transitioning to single speed from it being fixed, thus the front and rear brake set-up you'll see in the video below. Unfortunately, I found out after finishing the build that the Flip camera battery ran out before I finished, thus the photos at the end of the final [for now...] product so you don't get to see the whole process.

Before we jump to the video of the REbuilding of Red, here is the spec:

Frame: Orbit steel road frame

Headset: Chris King 2Nut

Fork: 1" Winwood Carbon

Stem/Handlebar: Salsa S.U.L. Quill/Titec Hellbent bar

Brake Levers/Grips: Fly Bike levers/Ergon GX1 modified with PDX Speed Metal grips

Brakes: Brick Lane Bikes CNC'd track brakes

Crank/Pedals: Sugino Messenger Crank with 46T ring/All-City Cecil Pro Pedals w/ the Clayton mountain double clips and Standard Double Straps

Saddle/Seatpost: Brooks B17/Salsa Shaft Seatpost

Wheels: Velocity Deep V's 32h laced 2x with DT Swiss Competition spokes and alloy nipples [one white spoke with single purple nipple] to our Solid Axle, Cutout Flange Track hubs.

A Polo Bike Experiment.

If you haven't noticed, we've kind of got the itch for bike polo of late. Everyone has played and about half of us play on a regular basis. For today, I figured show off my latest experiment for my polo bike. My former polo bike was much more traditional, much like Matt's former polo rig and Alex's, this one I'm playing around with a few new ideas[which I acknowledge are most likely just new to me]:

- the extremely set back seatpost [for wheelie turns]

- double pull brakes

- ladies frame

This could either be brillant or has the potential for epic failure. We'll see how it plays out.

Here's the spec on the new/old rig:

Frame: Schwinn Frontier

Crank: Raceface 180mm crank - 34T Surly Chain Ring

Stem/Handlebar - Cannondale C4 Stem shimmed down to work on 1" fork with a handlebar from an old Bridgestone handlebar - lots of sweep [also shimmed]

Seatpost: Black Ops set-back

Front wheel: 26" Velocity Aeroheat 32H - Robins Egg Blue [VIP] w/ gold nips and hub, 3X

Rear wheel: 26" Velocity Cliffhanger laced to a custom spaced SS hub w/ a 5-speed FW [chain kept on 26T]

Brakes: mix and match, from the double pull lever to the Red Tektro front from Jacobi to the old-new stock from Alger.

_

A tip of the hat goes to two shops, Alger Cycle - for having all the oddball parts instock and Europa Cycle - for having this old frame floating around that started the whole process.

Alo's Voyage....ur....

This past weekend, I was able to finish my latest bike. Hardly able to contain my excitement for it, I posted the bike over on my personal blog and figured it fits our '...because we ride' blog post series. So for today, my 'new' 1987 Schwinn Voyageur, enjoy:

Life's a Voyage-ur

That's right, life is a voyage. We're all going some where, we talk to people, make new friends and keep up with old ones. The story of my newest bike is some thing like that. 3 years ago, as many of you know, life brought me to the high five of Michigan after the time came for much needed change. One of the many people I have kept up with since moving is the one and only Guitar Ted. We've exchanged emails, gone for rides when I've made my way back to the homeland, and the such.

Recently, Mark [ask G-Ted] posted on his Twitter that a Xtracycle could be in the future for him. Being in the middle of a move and evaluating what I have, what I need and didn't need. In seeing that, I sent him a little what's up and said that I had a Xtracycle kit that had spent the last year in pieces since taking off the K-Monkey to finally get a mountain bike going. Since I was moving from a house to a studio, space was the issue and with 6 other bikes floating around having the Xtracycle wasn't the best idea.

I told Mark, I was looking for a touring bike and a few other odds and ends. And what do you know, Mark just so happened to have a 1987 Schwinn Voyageur gathering dust in his basement. A trade began to work itself out and through some middlemen the bike made its way here and the Xtracycle kit his way...

Here is what the Voyageur looked like when I got it:

The bike came with Campy barend shifters, Shimano 105 brake levers, Shimano Deore front deraileur, Shimano 6 speed rear, Suntour cranks, Blackburn front and rear racks. To be perfectly honest, I was so excited about getting the bike that I didn't really pay a whole lot of attention while I was taking it down to it's frame for paint. Yes, that's right, paint. I decided that I couldn't deny my desire to update the look of the bike and started on the 'winter' project right way.

I asked around to the guys in the wheel department at Velocity what a classic or pseudo-classic color for the bike might be and in the end I landed on a baby blue. As luck may have it, parts began to compile. As I stumbled onto the actual decal set from Alger Cyclery along with a few year old, yet still in the box 105 crank and 105 rear deraileur. I had the WTB Mountain Drop Bar floating around from my Trans Iowa set-up a few years back and decided that it would be a good way to go for touring. The canti brakes, front deraileur, Campy bar end shifters and 105 brake levers all cleaned up great with a little elbow grease. I couldn't help myself when I had the chance to bring the baby blue down onto the racks. I topped off the touring rig with a Shimano Dymo hub in the front, laced to Velocity Reflective Dyads [32 hole 3x front, 36 hole 4x rear], bronze Bottle Traps and a brown Chris King 1" headset.

So without much ado, the after:


I'm excited to get this thing out on the road, I could easily see this become my main commuter. Either way, there are 3 rides begging for this bike to be used: the November 13th/14th 200 mile Cadillac and Back installment: honoring the 29 men lost with the Edmond Fitzgerald, RAGBRAI, and my personal goal of riding around Lake Michigan. We'll see what become of it.

Hey Hon, can you get me a fixie?

There are some things that are necessary and many things that are not.

A bicycle? Yes.

A folding bicycle? Arguable.

A fixie? No

A folding fixe? Absolutely.

That's right. I'm not the first to pull off such a feat nor will I be the last. For the last year, I have joked with friends that I wanted to build up a folding fixie to have when I traveled and to simply to keep in my car to always have a bike with me. Sure, I could have kept it kosher and rocked it single, 3, or 7 speed like many that come stock but there was simply some allure to making it fixed.

This was the second folding bike that I got my hands on but the first that I made into a fixie. The first was a 20" wheel Dahon Speed D7, that I ended up trading my former co-worker, Brent, for my Karate Monkey frame. I got this 16" wheel folding bike, a Hon, precursor to Dahon from another former co-worker at my old shop for a pair of Oakleys. Check out an old post on the No Drive website to see what this started out like.

I did do a few modifications to the bike to be able to make it work. Since I am all legs and arms at a little over 6 foot. In order to get proper leg extension and reach to the handlebars, the first thing was to cut off the attached flat bar that was on the steering column. Without putting much thought as to what I would do after removing it, I soon discovered that the it was extremely close to an 1 1/8" steer tube. Grabbing a stem, it confirmed it. I then, added a pair of mustache bars that had been floating around on a couple of bikes but had never found a good home.

The bike then sat for a good month or so. I built up the wheels once I found the Maxxis Hookworms, then I knew I wanted to change the color of the bike. Originally, I was going to black out the bike but ended up changing my mind after taking it completely apart. Raw seemed to be the better way to go. The bike sat in pieces for 2 months as I explored how I was going to extend the seatpost.

Enter, a good friend of mine, Bob Hammond [who happened to do all the photos in our current catalog], who is a bit of a machinist and took up the challenge of making a post that would not only be long enough for my leg but also strong. What he ended up using was steel, machining it down to size for a seat clamp and the notched properly to keep the seatpost in line; even going a step further to drill completely through the middle to lighten it up a bit.

The last week I've spent clear coating the bike after having it sandblasted, cleaning/polishing all the parts and attempting to remember how it all went together. In the end, the bike came together great and I even discovered that one of the old Velocages worked remarkably well on the old reflector mount on the steer tube. I topped the bike off with a rear rack that was made specifically for the Hon, the Pedro's Trixie [carefully placed I might add; see picture below, right side] and some hipster cysts for good measure. There a few things I'll be adding but for the most part, it's all done.

Here's a few of the specs on the bike:

Frame: 19?? Hon 16" Folding Bike
Wheels: Velocity [349] Aeroheat 32H, Radial Front, 2x Rear on Velocity Solid Axle/Cutout Flange Track Hubs
Tires: Maxxis Hookworm 16 x 1.95
Gearing: 46 x 13 [roughly 59.7 gear inches]

Pseudo-classic becaue we ride...

Well, we made it through most of the crew, but that doesn't mean we are done with our regular '...because we ride' segment. Each of us have enough bikes to keep this going for weeks and months to come. So today we make it back to one of my rigs, my 1953 Schwinn Racer. There isn't much that is stock on this bike anymore outside of the frame, fork, and chain guard thus 'pseudo-classic'. I received this bike around 5 years ago from the owner of Europa Cycle, the shop that gave me the start in the bicycle industry.

Two bikes had come in for 'restoration', this Racer and I believe a slightly newer Suburban from the 60's. The customer wanted to take all the 'good' parts from the Racer and put them on the Suburban but then did not want any of the remaining parts. Enter me, and my boss was kind enough to let me have the parts as long as I treated the bike kindly. Well, it's been treated kindly and for a the first 4 years it was pieced back together with the combination of Racer/Suburban parts, which meant: the Sturmie Archer 3 speed hub with rim brakes with the old S-6 beaded tires, and the fenders were the from the Suburban.

This past summer I started customizing it a bit. Getting my hands on a Bendix 2-speed kickback Yellow band hub, lacing it to a Deep V rim, then building up a front track wheel with the B43 and solid flange/hallow axle hub. The bike really began to take shape. I then decided that the old fenders needed a more modern look to them so I cut them down a bit and removed the brackets. I've had a few different handlebars on it and haven't officially landed on what I'd like for it and has an old Brooks-esque saddle that has cut down by Jacobi. The purest might frown the bikes set up, but the bike is perfect for runs around downtown and simply cruising around.

Our Rides, because We Ride

Today, a new little segment we'll be starting up called 'Our Rides, because We Ride' series. If you've frequented or stumbled onto the regular Velocity site you'll notice a section under the About Us there's a few links to some of the guys bikes. This will be similar to that, but hopefully with a little bit more depth on the bikes themselves, maybe a story or two from on the ride. Plus give you all the opportunity to familiarize yourself with more of the Velocity crew.

We'll start off with one my rides, my Cannondale Cyclocross Optimo 3. This bike only has a few stock pieces left on it and has taken quite a few different transformations over the past 2 years; I'm sure there will continue to be a few changes as time passes. For now I have upgraded the wheel set to a custom Velocity Brown Fusion rims [Velocity road hubs, 32 hole, 3 cross, DT Swiss Champion spokes, with blue alloy nipples, using Veloplugs], rocking it 1 x 9 [inspired by Carl Buchanan's cross set-up] a 105 crank set with a Salsa Crossing Guard and 41T Salsa Ring, topped off with Kore White Canti brakes and stem, a Brooks B17 saddle, and recently install new bright white bottle traps. All in all, She's a looker.

The bike has seen the gravel of Iowa for Trans Iowa last year and competed in a few of the Kisscross events here in GR. This bike is really my all around bike, I'll swap out tires quite frequently from the Bontrager 700 x 34 CXR's to Continental 700 x 25 Ultra Gators and rock the bike as a commuter when I feel the need for some gears. Of the 7 bikes I have, this is 1 of 3 that I would have a hard time parting with.

Spec on the bike:

2007 Cannondale Cyclocross Optimo 3

Frame: Cyclocross Optimo
Fork: Slice Ultra XR Carbon
Wheels: Velocity Fusion 32H
Spokes: DT Swiss Champion w/ Alloy Nipples
Tires: Bontrager CRX 700x34
Pedals: Crank Brothers Egg Beater SL
Crank: Shimano 105 41T w/ Salsa Crossing Guard
Chain: Shimano 9-speed
Rear Cogs SRAM PG-950, 12-26
Bottom Bracket: Shimano 105
Front Derailleur: None
Rear Derailleur: Shimano 105
Shifters: Shimano Tiagra
Handlebars: Cannondale C3, 31.8 mm,
Stem: Kore K34 100mm [+6 degree]
Headset: FSA Alloy integated
Brakeset: Kore Race + Canti
Saddle: Brooks B17
Seat Post: Cannondale C2 Carbon-wrapped