b is for Box... or 650B.

Another day. Another bike. Matt's bike this time:

This little gem is a Scott Reflex 40 that I picked up on a trade with Brad Bacon @ Alger Cyclery. I swapped a pair of custom coated blue argyle Cliff Hanger rims (currently residing on B-Rad's beach cruiser) as an even trade for this 26" bike. As traded it came with a rear cassette wheel and derailleur that I promptly removed and tossed in the parts bin. The current drivetrain consists of an FSA V-Drive 180mm crankset to a Shimano single cog in the rear, made possible by the fantastic Surly Singulator. I built the Blunt Pro wheels before the era of the Velocity Single Speed ATB Disc hub, so what you see here is the equally drool-worthy Lightweight ATB disc hub, spaced out for single speed use.

Since the frame is on the small side for me, I decided to cram 650b wheels into the drops. I was a bit concerned about tire clearance, or lack thereof, but after a half dozen rides, these hand built beauties are still straight as an arrow. This is especially impressive considering that I am a self proclaimed amateur ATBer and I've been slamming into sh!t left and right! The increased wheel size just barely clears the frame and fork using Pacenti Neomoto and Quasimoto tires in the front and rear respectively. The fork and front end is mainly stock, but the non conventional wheel size forced my hand into XT hydraulic discs (aww shucks). The brakes were installed, routed and bled by Dan Koert, then of Ada Bike Shop. The seat post is a Ritchey and the saddle is a Fi'zi:k Gobi XM that fit the aesthetic way to well to not try out. I'm glad I did...Wing Flex + Tail Flex = seriously easy on the cheeks. The only thing I plan on upgrading is the headset, which I continually find out of adjustment after long climbs. Gripit & Ripit!

Recap... sorta.

Well, from all accounts the 'Battle of the Little Gladiators' aka the Barry Roubaix went off without a hitch. Good times were had by all as Jacobi rocked his Iver Johnson and Ryan, his Cramer 29er SS in their head to head clash in the Expert SS class. The course was a little longer than the previous year and both were able to put up better times than last year with Ryan over 4 minutes ahead of Jacobi. With combined 2009 and 2010 times, Ryan [2009: 2:06:40, 2010: 2:02:19] is 1 minute and 57 seconds ahead of Jacobi [2009: 2:04:14, 2010: 2:06:42]. The only talk going around is Jacobi dreaming of a titanium version of his Iver Johnson, rambling like a crazy man stating some thing to effect of 'If only I could get it down to 16 pounds.' over and over again...

For all the results of the full race go check it out here, along with pictures of the event located just below the results. A big thanks goes out to Rick Plite for once again putting on a stellar event.

J-Bolt stumbled onto this video earlier today today and it was too good not to put up.

Yeah, that hurts.

Battle of the Little Gladiators: Part 2

Last year at the Barry-Roubaix, Jacobi and Ryan threw down and Jacobi came out the victor. This years results we shall see in the epic battle on gravel! Same day entries are available or come out and see a great race! [The Critter/Fiddler battle is only a sub-plot to the whole race]

A-PAC

Meet the latest member of the Velocity USA crew the 'Life Size Adam Pelzer Action Cutout' [or A-PAC]. He came to us via the container from Australia yesterday. He was so excited to make it way to US of A that he had held himself to the door so as to be the first thing off. Granted, only half of him made his way to us [maybe next container we'll get his legs], A-PAC has made his presence known:

_First with a camera moment with Jacobi, his 5'6" is nothing to what appears to be an oddly un-proportionate head and arms to torso ratio but compared to 'Cobi it's always hard to tell.

_The real Pelzer handles a few things on the Australian end of things from sales to shipping, a few things in between. A-PAC being the action cutout he is just jumped right into things. Claiming he knew how to do just about everything.

Jumping into wheel department and building up wheels. Not surprisingly, A-PAC has a distinct way of building wheels which we are all still trying to fully wrap our heads around. Seeing that his hands also did not make the trip, he is able handle things well. It's important to note that the disembodied hand in the picture is still an anomaly we are trying to figure out, could it be a cruel joke towards A-PAC? We do not know.


Maybe he just wasn't ready to acknowledge or handle the toilets flushing differently we found him outside by our dumpsters 'doing his business'...


Then to top it all off, he had the nerve to get on Jacobi's trike and proceed to yell things at us. We struggled to understand what he was saying with the thick Aussie accent but from the tone, he wasn't happy or maybe he was just really excited.


All in all, he's a solid edition to the crew. I'm sure he'll continue to make is presence known among us.

Velocity Scuba Team: Wheel Department Daily Banter.

It was a typical Monday yesterday: wheels being built, orders being filled, and catching up on everyone's weekend which then transitions into the normal banter between the Velocity crew. All of which is healthy and in good fun, keeping us on our game and often provides some interesting content for the blog; you might remember the Utopian dream of living in the land of P. Wood.

Yesterday we might have stumbled onto another gem. The normal Monday wheel-building crew of Ryan, Paul, Jacobi and myself were rocking builds when it happened. One of the essential tools in aiding lacing up a wheel was lost. Granted we have a number of them, over the course of realizing one was lost, another found it's way gone. What tool you might be wondering? The nipple poker [insert joke here]. No machines used here to lace up our wheels, they are truly hand-built.

Lots of accusations and fingers were pointed. From me to Ryan, Ryan to Jacobi, Jacobi back to me, me to Jacobi, Ryan to me, Jacobi to Ryan... it was a mess, and you might notice, Paul was above this banter simply watching from the sideline. As one poker was found 'near' Ryan's bench, the search for the other was on... Paul started searching the benches and 'unknown' wheel-builder magically found said poker on his bench.

This then erupted into our normal passive aggressive comments:

'Oh my god, come on...'

'The pokers are on lacing table for a reason'

'I can't believe there would be two pokers on the bench...'

And so on...

Now Jacobi, being the peacemaker he is, interrupts the banter asking us. What if we were a scuba team? [Yes, we had no idea where that came from either] And what if one of our air hoses gave out, wouldn't we share our emergency hose?

Like piranha on fresh meat, we turned on him. 'Well, 'Cobi if we were a scuba team we would probably misplace the extra hose or the hose wouldn't be where it was suppose to be.' 'Yeah, we probably would have left it on the boat or even more likely it would be back on the dock, the last place any of us would look' 'In other words, 'Cobi, you might die.'

All of this because of a nipple poker: