It's the last day of the year.

"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."

-Mark Twain

Mighty.

Oh yeah, and this.

There's a water cooler here now...

It's no secret that I'm most recently from Calgary so I am somewhat prone to keep track of what's going on back there. One of the most appealing features of Vancouver is the climate. While I certainly rode a bike year round in Calgary the weather wasn't teh most co-operative part of that adventure. And sure it rains in Vancouver but we're mostly made of water so what's a little more? Anyway, I'll look at the weather in Calgary from time to time in anticipation of being able to phone my friends back there to gloat about the two hour cross ride I'd just completed in the Endowment Lands as they are trying to figure out how to unfreeze their front door locks from the inside so they can simply get out of their houses. But so far this fall/winter the weather in Calgary has been unusually pleasant. I was there a week or so ago and the sun was out and the temps were on the plus side of zero, it was quite civil actually. All that changed in the last 24 hours. The weather graph above shows their weather for the last 36 hours or so. You'll see it has dropped steadily from about plus 2 to minus 23 Celcius and I shouldn't get so much satisfaction from this but that minus 23 at noon today? That's their high, apparently it's going to get colder tonight and that colder temperature we see tonight? Close to minus 27 or so? That's tomorrow's high.

I haven't ridden my bike much this fall. I meant to, we always mean to, but beyond commuting with the odd detour the miles have been pretty limited. Now that the weather in Calgary is doing what the weather in Calgary does I've been inspired to get the bike out again. The battery will be charged and the bike cleaned up and lubed and ready for action. Of course in the interested of full disclosure they are calling for a high of minus nine here tomorrow but that's still twenty degrees warmer than my former home.













Yeah, weather is something one talks about around the water cooler but we have one now so maybe that's inspired this blog. And I've recently put my money where my mouth is and "upgraded" my cross bike to five year old 9 speed components, well, the shifters at least are "vintage NOS" while the derailleur and cassette are current. And I've done nothing but smile as I grind up the steep ascents that seem to exist in abundance on the left coast of Canada. I should also mention that the solid and crisp clicks of the older technology nine speed STI levers is greatly appreciated and something I will certainly enjoy when I'm riding around tomorrow in about as cold a temperature as I've ever experienced in Vancouver.




















There's not a hill in this province that I'm afraid of with a 34/34 tooth combo. I understand that the hardcore cyclocross riders get great satisfaction out of carrying their bikes on their shoulders whenever the hills get too steep to ride but I'm not a big fan of running without a bike on my shoulder so why would I make a tenuous activity even less appealing?

You'll see from the state of cleanliness that this combination has already been tested a couple of times and I'm much happier than I was with the first iteration of this bicycle. I anticipate that tomorrow, as I'm enjoying a relatively balmy minus 9 or so I will collect further evidence that the perfect bike is really more akin to having a fleet of six or so bikes and that my Dekerf cross bike is a key component of that collection. Stay tuned, the other five may rear their ugly but essential heads here over the next couple of weeks.

Oh yeah, here's that water cooler I was talking about.

Cancer Ride

If you're one of those types of people that is always looking for another excuse to ride your bike this would be a pretty good one.

The "we never have a sale" sale.

The season is quickly winding down and it's been a good first summer. We've managed to sell through most of our inventory and are eagerly waiting for 2009 products to come into stock. That being said we've got a couple of display bikes that are exceptional deals. The first is a Cinelli Man Machine with 2008 Chorus 10spd components. The frame/fork/bars/stem/seatpost are all Cinelli branded and carbon. The groupset is a complete Chorus kit with Record hubs (since they no longer made Chorus hubs in 2008.) The bike is a size "medium" which fits like a 53 to 55cm traditional frame. Regular price on the bike as seen in the picture is $4995. Sale price $3800.



The second bike is a Blue RC7. It's a high modulas lugged carbon frame with a full carbon fork. The bike is built with SRAM Force with 105 hubbed wheels, Thomson seatpost, Syntace stem, Fizik saddle. It's a size "large" which fits like a 56 to 58cm traditional frame. The regular price on this bike complete is $4350. Sale price $3200.

Both bikes are exception deals and are being sold mostly because they have 2008 components on them. SRAM hasn't changed much for 2009 though the shifters are supposed to act "quicker" while Chorus has been upgraded to 11speed whereas the Cinelli has 10.

Both are available for testrides, just bring in your pedals.

Bike Review Time.

I'm not sure it's fair to review a bike that was custom made for me because if I don't like it I really have no one to blame but myself since it was me that told Chris at Dekerf what to make. So the only way to start this review would be to say, "yup, brilliant bike, fits perfectly, handles like a dream, whoever designed it must me a genius." Those who have been in the store have seen this cross bike kicking around for a while, some have even drooled over it. And if a droplet of that drool were to happen to contact the frame it would have run quickly down the exceptional paint and launched off one of the silky smooth fillets that hold this frame together. Fillet brazing is a bit of a lost art, not many still perform this somewhat underappreciated method of connecting bicycle tubes together for any number of reasons including it's heavier, more time consuming, old fashioned, but few can deny it makes a much more eloquent bicycle frame.

I've had the privelege of riding some pretty spectacular bikes over the ten years or so I've been in this industry and while I've run through a relatively large number of road bikes and a good sized fist full of mountain bikes there have been relatively few cyclocross bikes in my collection which is odd as I always seem to have one, I always seem to ride it more than the other bikes, and I have always preached that if you were to have only one bike then a cross bike would be the "one" to have. I'm not sure why I've neglected to try more over the years.

This bike replaced an Independent Fabrications cross bike I had and sold in the spring. The IF was a really nice bike from a company that is known to produce some of the nicest cross bikes available so the Dekerf was going to be up against some pretty tough competition. I've always thought the test of any bike is in the details. While the IF was a georgeous bike and very well made it didn't have the little touches that the Dekerf possessed, like a custom made seat cluster lug with the seat binder bolt integrated into it (the IF used an aluminum collar) and the reinforced brake posts. And while IF is known for some pretty spectacular custom paint jobs I would suggest the quality of the paint Dekerf applies is ever so slightly better. When I asked them to paint this frame for me I picked a colour that I thought I would like and they painted it that colour. They stood back and looked at the frame and then called me and said, "this paint just isn't doing the fillets justice. It's nice but I think it would be a whole lot nicer if you went with the emerald green instead." I said "sure" and they stripped and repainted the bike at no extra charge. The metallic flake of the emerald green is the perfect choice for this bike too and I've not regretted changing the colour.



Anyway, like I said, it's probably not fair to judge the bike on how it rides as it was build as I asked them to build it so if I were to complain about anything it would be my fault. The build quality is subject to review though and it was perfect and the bike assembled with ease with no issues of clearance or component compatibility. Perfect finish, top notch craftsmanship, and ease of assembly, I think that's about all you could want from a frame.

Components though, yes, I did choose them as well but that doesn't mean I can't complain about them. The bike is essentially an Ultegra 10spd set up with the R700 compact cranks and Paul components brakes. I'm generally a Campagnolo kind of guy but for cross I don't like the idea of loosening up your grip on the brake lever body in order to shift which with Campagnolo to access the thumb lever you have to do from time to time. While generally that would be fine I tend to ride cross bikes like mountain bikes so the firm grip is nice in more technical conditions. Shimano's shifter system is good for this reason. What I didn't like though is how light the action of the shift levers is. Cross being one of those activities one generally takes up in the off season months when there might be snow on the up high mountain trails and it's a little cold to be packing in the miles on the road you'll more often than not be finding yourself wearing a considerable mitten of some sort in an effort(usually futile) to keep your fingers warm. This reduces the tactile interface with the shifters and I found it very difficult to perceive the shifts especially when that tiny "click" was competing with the vibrations of a gravelly path.

The other factor I found frustrating was the 10spd aspect of the current Shimano road groups (and Campagnolo I suppose though their gearing selection is limited regardless, but still they offer easier gearing than Shimano by 2 teeth). Previously when I cobbled together a cross bike with Shimano STI levers I made a point of going with 9spd levers so I could mix in a mountain bike drive train. Imagine a 34/34 tooth low gear combo and how appealing that would be to keep you on the bike on some of the steeper ascents. It's a very nice gear. With a 10spd cassette you're limited to a 27 tooth easy cog. While I will admit that for racing if you're looking for a gear easier than a 34/27 then you'd be better off running but some of us aren't racing and when we go for a bike ride we'd rather ride the bike than carry it. This isn't a dig against 10spd (or the new 11spd from Campagnolo for that matter) as I've been heard to utter that the "perfect" cassette would be an 11-25 range with an 18 tooth cog which would require a 12 speed cassette which is why I'm holding on to my 10spd Campagnolo for at least another two or three years before upgrading. I'm sure Shimano won't be far behind Campy in coming out with 11 speed drive trains which will force Campy to come out with the perfect 12 speeds in the not too distant future.

But I digress...

As I was saying, what bothers me about the 10spd drivetrains is its incompatibility with crossing over with the mountain bike stuff. I don't think Shimano necessarily needs to come out with 10spd mountain groupsets but how hard would it be for Shimano to come out with a 10spd cassette that covered the typical mountain bike range of gearing (11-34) and just ask that you use a mountain bike derailleur with their 10spd road shifters? This wouldn't be only for the cross riders but would be useful for Randonneurs and long distance tourers who already have the triple cranksets but still want a gear lower than 30/27 for the fully loaded mountain passes. If you look at the trailside picture I took above you'll see a pretty steep path. You can't see my cogset but I was in the easiest gear and I didn't stop to take a picture, I stopped because my cadence had slowly dropped to zero forcing me off the bike. It's hard to gauge steepness in a photograph but I am pointing the camera slightly upwards for better framing so it's even steeper than it looks. I think I could have made it up with a 34 tooth cog without too much difficulty. That would have been nice. If you're listening Shimano...

Don't try this at home...

I'm pretty certain that the bike attached to a steel rimmed 26 X 1 3/8" bolt on wheel couldn't be all that spectacular and yet it would seem that even it has fallen victim to an overzealous bike thief in Vancouver. Just a reminder that a good lock is a good start but knowing how to lock up your bike is also important if you want to completely find what you left lashed to the sidewalk when you return to it some minutes/hours later.

More prototypes from the streets

Some may remember the prototype handlebar I spotted in Toronto. Well, I usually keep my eyes peeled similar new and innovative items being tested in the mean streets of our cities and I wasn't disappointed tonight. Above you'll see a new version of the ever more popular integrated seat mast. It uses proprietary offset technology that I'm not familiar with but you'll notice the complete absence of a binder bolt or fastening device just like you would (err, wouldn't?) see on other bikes with integrated seat masts. If you'll notice the monster gap between the post and the frame you'll understand my amazement when I grasped the saddle and gave it a firm twist to see if it would move and it was indeed firmly fixed in place both vertically and laterally. I can't imagine what R & D secrets lie buried deep within this frame that this post could so steadfastly hold itself in place in this frame but I can imagine the envy other manufacturers with their binders and collars being quite jealous of the weight savings this bike has in it's apparent lack of seat post fixing hardware. It's enough to distract the viewer from noticing the inverted rear brakes which are also, undoubtedly, a prototype of some sort though I'm not sure what advantage it offers though I'm usually suspect of the advantages most of the new stuff purports to offer.

By the way, I've just gone over some of the price increases for the new Shimano DuraAce components. When going from nine speed to ten speed the cost of a set of STI levers went up about 30%. Going from 2008 ten speed to 2009 ten speed you'll see the price of an STI lever set go up another 25%, no pricing on the electronic stuff yet though. It's a good thing the markets suck these days so you won't feel so bad cashing in your stock options for a set of shift levers for your bike. On the Campagnolo side the new Record 11 speed ergo levers are actually priced lower than the Record 10 speed ergo levers. Of course there's Super Record now but that's another absurdity altogether.

The Twist

With all the modern and plastic stuff out now you sometimes forget about where it all started and the little things that went along with the classic stuff, like the twist you put into toe straps as you thread them through the pedals. Don't get me wrong, I'd take a set of clipless pedals any day over the old Traps and Straps configuration but still, it's nice to work on it sometimes.

Bike Envy

I have a number of friends that are lucky enough to follow behind me and pick up my "old" and "demo" bikes that always happen to be the right size and the right price for barely used one model year old stuff. I also have a number of friends that curse me for being a couple of inches taller than they are because they see this steady flow of luxurious and spectacular bikes flow through my hands from year to year and into the hands of some grateful customer who just paid way too little for a pretty spectacular bike. I've never really thought about this latter group much until last week when Michael from Dekerf came by with his 08 race bike asking me if I would mind putting it on the floor and selling it for him. Michael is about 3 or 4 inches taller than I am and for the first time I'm looking at a really nice bike for a really good price and it's just the wrong size for me and I wish I was taller or he was shorter.



The bike is a steel 29er hard tail and is pretty much a show piece for the company so it's got a whole slew of high end bits and pieces on it as well as a slightly unique classic panel paint job.




As someone who rides motorcycles from time to time I can appreciate the inherent advantages to an inverted suspension fork when it comes to structural and torsional rigidity. The Maverick fork on this bike is a good example of how the Halson inverted suspension technology of the early/mid 90's has been improved upon in the world of forks for bicycles.




And no group of photos of a Dekerf would be complete without a shot of the trademark seat stays.




A nice touch for this frame in particular is the inclusion of an eccentric bottom bracket so the bike can easily be converted to a single speed without all the hassles of horizontal dropouts and their incompatibilities with disc brakes and wheel/flat changes.



So why is he selling it? Michael is a lot like me. He's bought "the last bike he's ever going to buy" probably going on 20 times. This bike is no exception. There's lots of super high end cutting edge technology stuff on this bike like carbon bars, carbon levered brakes, fancy inverted forks, top of the line X-O shifters. There really is no reason for him to sell this bike except that next year he'll need to have room in his storage locker for "the last bike he's ever going to buy." In the mean time someone will get a smoking deal on the last bike they will likely ever buy, as long as they are a bit taller than me which would put you in the 6'3" range. If you're that person the bike's down here at the shop if you want to take a look at it. And I wish I was just a bit taller.

Salsa Fargo

I don't even know what to say about this bike. It's the most messed up thing I've seen in ages and there's no good reason for me to want one but, well, I want one. I'm sure I'll find some way to rationalize it like "it'll be good for towing the kid in the trailer" or "I've always wanted to explore the back roads and fire roads of BC, what better bike." It has mounts for six bottle cages on all but the smallest size which holds an astounding five. There's a rack to haul out your camping gear, food, crossbow, or keg. It's the Hummer of the bike world, but in a good way. Unfortunately the complete bikes won't be available until next spring but the frames are rumored to be showing up in about a month. Maybe the shop will have one built up as a demo bike before Christmas and it might just be my size. Funny how that happens...

Am I this old?

I wonder how old I am that all I ever do is complain about how bad things have gotten and how good they used to be. I will admit we are not always the best judges of ourselves but I would suggest I'm a reasonable mechanic, or by many standards, a pretty damned good mechanic. I will admit I don't use a torque wrench but I defend that with a story about how at the beginning of the first wave of lightweight crap for bikes flooding the market (think Deda Newton stem) I went out and bought a relatively expensive torque wrench and when it arrived at the shop all shiny and new in its own special little case I was quite excited to give it a go and proceeded to use a torque wrench for the first time on one of the delicate magnesium alloyed stems with little svelte titanium bolts only to have the bolt snap before reaching the recommended torque. To say the least I was disappointed. One manufacturer, Moots, put out a news bulletin to its dealers explaining why the torque spec of the stem wasn't necessarily in line with what the bar was capable of and the large number of snapped Easton bars is a good indicator of the truth in that statement. Understanding what Moots was talking about and my experience with the first snapped bolt in my experience as a bicycle mechanic as a direct result of using a torque wrench I adopted the "tight enough so that it holds but no tighter" philosophy of bolt tightening which brings us to today's entry.

Qualifier: I admit I didn't use a torque wrench to install this lockring and that I may be completely at fault for not following the manufacturers guidelines for installing a cassette on their product. There, I said it.

But I've installed a cassette or two in my time, perhaps even thousands but definitely hundreds. The picture above is of the freehub body on my own personal DT Swiss 240 rear hub. It has something like 3000kms on it. I have installed exactly one cassette on it exactly two times. The second time I installed the cassette the little lip that acts as a backstop for the cassette sheared off and binded up against the hub flanges. If you look closely you'll see where the lower lip of the freehub body is pulling away from the splined part and a wave in the rim at the edge of the freehub body where it has deformed due to its breaking. As per my qualifier I admit I didn't get out my torque wrench but it's not like I've never installed a cassette before. I suspect you'll see torque wrenches brandished by shop mechanics a vast minority of the time when it comes to properly installing cassettes. To say the least I wasn't impressed.

It's very disappointing when you do your research, cast reasonable budgets aside (the replacement freehub body for this hub costs more than some entire hubs) and make an effort to buy "the best" only to have performance expectations undermined by an inferior or substandard product. I think DT makes some very good rims but I stopped using their spokes a long time ago for very good reasons (which I see irony in because DT has always been first and foremost a spoke manufacturer in my mind.) And even though their rims have generally been pretty good there have been lots of complaints about cracked eyelets in their single eyelet R1.1 rim.

And then DT invests in Pace so they can branch out into the world of suspension. Again, I admit that my investment in the world of DT owned Pace suspension forks is limited to one example and for someone who values a significant sample size before drawing a conclusion of the "worth" of something I have to concede that perhaps my belief that the DT fork isn't very good may be unjustified. We put a DT fork on a bike and the client rode it once for about five hours and in that time the fork went from stiff and light and excellent to, well, light. It developed a noticeable and performance compromising amount of play in it in a very short time. While one doesn't expect high performance lightweight stuff to last a long time one might expect a fork that cost over a grand to last more than a couple of rides without a major overhaul.

Where is this long diatribe leading? I get lots of questions about why I don't carry Brand A or Brand B. The short answer is that if I don't think it's a good product then there's not a whole lot of reason for me to stock it. I keep trying the new stuff, bring stuff in that sounds good on paper or in the ad copy but if it leads to disappointing results then I really have no choice but to pass on it when ordering inventory for the store. There's a couple of DT products that might adorn the shelves of bicycles but you'll likely see less of it in the future. And if you don't see something on the shelves that you wanted don't be afraid to ask for it. If there's a good reason why we don't stock it we'll tell you about it. We'll do our best to refrain from base arguments like "it sucks" and take the time to explain to you why we don't stock some certain item and suggest what we think is a better alternative. Usually it's more affordable too. It's important to us that you're happy with what you spend your hard earned dollars on. Hopefully you can appreciate that.

This is absurd, no really.

While I'll probably be the first to suggest that many environmental movements are somewhat misguided or misinformed (read "Smelling Land" by David S. Scott and you'll find an interesting story about the "energy crisis" and turning off lights that will have you looking at a lot of things differently) I do make an effort to minimize my impact on my surroundings. I'm not perfect, and I'm sure I could do more, but I do try to visit the grocery store with my own bag on my back so I don't need to take away yet another plastic bag no matter how much less beautiful Sam Mendes's world gets as a result. I generally ride my bicycle everywhere, shop locally etc. Not everything that is recyclable ends up where it should in my house but more often than not I find the right receptacle for whatever consumable it is that I'm abusing and I'm always a little surprised at how much garbage the average bike build generates considering the environmental pluses these simple machines are supposed to embody. Which brings me to today's blog entry. Check out that svelte and appealing Selle Italia SLR saddle. Wow! Only 135 grams (claimed weight) and it looks good too. But what's with that packaging? I mean, I realize it's a high end saddle and that presentation of such an item isn't to be overlooked but this seat comes bolted to a hard plastic shell that doesn't even protect the saddle in question as the majority of the shell is formed to provide a convenient hook to hang the saddle on the wall by and a drawer, yes, an actual sliding bin, to hold a small catalogue in, though for the life of me I don't know why I would need a catalogue for saddles after having just bought a saddle. One would think my research into the world of saddle catalogues would be somewhat complete since the very vehicle to which was attached said catalogue carries within it a high end/high performance saddle.





Check this out, 495 grams of packaging and saddle.



And the packaging itself, 347 grams. Let's overlook that this makes this 135 gram saddle actually weigh 148 grams and focus on the fact that the packaging to deliver the product weighs more than twice as much as the product itself. As recently as a year ago this very same seat came in a cardboard box that allowed you to stack a number of these saddles conveniently on a shelf. The new custom formed packaging isn't nearly as stacking friendly nor is it easily recycled in comparison to the user friendly cardboard box the saddles used to come in.

I don't really know what the point of this blog entry is except that I was so blown away by the excessiveness of the backing for this saddle that I had to tell someone. I suppose fifteen years ago this kind of thing wouldn't even be noticed but today it just seems so out of place.

Another day, another rant

I sometimes come across as someone who could referred to as a curmudgeon and a bit of a retro-grouch. You'll often hear me rant against whatever new and improved technology is being rammed down our throats as the next best thing. While it's true there are numerous things to complain about in the bike industry and maybe one day I'll tackle integrated seatmasts, spokes made of tubular carbon fiber, and despite the fact I have a stash of new-in-box LOOK S2R mountain bike pedals that will last me through the apocalypse I take little glee in hearing about the recent recall of 40,000 pairs of LOOK Keo pedals. I really do like the new stuff but wish there was more consideration for quality over lightweight or performance over style. Which brings me to the impetus for this blog entry.

We've recently built up a couple of cross/touring bikes and while I usually recommend a decent set of cantilevers for this type of bike in both cases the client opted for disc brakes. I actually like the idea of disc brakes for road bikes, I'm okay with it, really. And there are a number of very nice cross bikes out there where you have no choice but to use disc brakes with them. And being a guy that generally rides Campagnolo who doesn't make disc compatible hubs, I've even gone as far as to find a hub manufacturer who makes both road and mountain hubs and both Shimano and Campagnolo compatible freehub bodies (DT Swiss, though White Industries also does this, perhaps others) so that I could install a Campagnolo freehub body onto a disc hub and run disc brakes with Campagnolo shifters. So let it be said that I have at least given it a try before becoming suitably unimpressed by this appropriation of mountain bike brakes by the world of road and cross bikes.

Check this video out:



Four for four rotors came out of the box brand new and this bent. It's hypnotic how it dances with the music in the background which is amusing enough but doesn't make me any happier about the additional set up time required to "tune" as in "bend the crap out of" four disc brake rotors. Avid BB7 disc brakes aren't the most expensive or high end disc brakes available, they aren't even that high up the Avid line-up, but when dealing with the relatively new frontier of disc brakes on road bikes there aren't many choices and these represent pretty much the highest end disc brake option available for road bikes. Firstly, most higher end disc brakes are hydraulic while road component manufacturers don't have any plans to offer an integrated hydraulic compatible shift/brake lever in the near future. This means cable actuated disc brakes are realistically the only option. Of course most cable actuated disc brakes are designed to work with a v-brake lever which pulls more cable than a road brake so even in the cable actuated disc brake world the options are limited. Hence the conundrum, to use disc brakes on a road or cross bike your options are limited to a single hard to get model from Shimano, a couple of Taiwanese knock-offs, a sole IRD model, and these Avid BB7s which are considered by most to be the "industry standard" for road compatible disc brakes.

I will admit disc brakes as a concept are a pretty good idea. Brake pads last longer, the brakes work better in the rain, you can beat the bejesus out of your rims knocking them out of true without compromising your braking, but if the industry is going to push this concept while touting these and numerous other benefits, shouldn't they offer a more impressive product? And while there are advantages to using disc brakes there are plenty of disadvantages too, like convoluted fender mounting techniques snaking their way around the calipers like in the following picture.



Also, bolting on stoppers where things like racks might normally go creates it's own set of problems. Like the rack you need to use which moves the "hooks" where your pannier might attach further up the rack frame rather than right down at the bottom where they would traditionally be and a weird appendage on the rack that despite articulating in three dimensions and being spaced out from the rack itself still needs a bunch of spacers to get it to attach to the frame properly.



So that's a whole lot of complaining about something to get to this point. Do the brakes work? Yup, and though I'm not happy with how they are designed and what needs to be done to get them to work on a bike and the adhoc redesign and modification of standardized items like racks and fenders, they do work pretty well. But considering how well a properly set up pair of cantilever brakes work I'm not sure they are worth the hassle. That said, I'm sure these won't be the last set of disc brakes I put on a road bike and I really do look forward to the day when more effective and better designed disc brakes are available for road bikes. Until then, call me a retro-grouch, I'll be sticking to cantilevers on my cross bike.

Don't try this at home

It was 1989 when Greg Lemond's unconventional aerobar setup in the Tour de France gave him the advantage he needed to beat Fignon. Since then all sorts of handle bars have been designed to give riders the competitive edge. I spotted this unique setup in Toronto over the weekend. I'm pretty sure it's a prototype and I'm not sure what advantage it's designed to provide but it's interesting nonetheless. You need to click on the picture for the full size version to appreciate the details. Yup, that's electrical tape holding the flat bar in place. Crazy.

Ride Report - Soma Speedster

It's not that hard to convince yourself that in order to speak about what you sell knowledgeably you need to try things out once in a while or in other words, you need to pedal what you peddle. To that end I was easily convinced by myself that I should try one of these Soma Speedsters for a bit.

The Speedster is Soma's all rounder road bike designed with the old school Randonneur in mind, or just for someone with an appreciation of a well made bike that looks pretty good too. Soma uses Tange Prestige double butted chromoly on pretty much every bike they make and they make quite a few bikes without being silly about it. So yeah, the Speedster. What do you need to know? It's steel, and I like that, and it's got some pretty nice paint, and I like that too, but most novel is the use of chromed lugs, and I really like that.

As a person who owns too many bikes already I questioned the need for yet another one but there's very little I can't rationalize when I put my head to it. To that end I realized that I didn't have a sturdy but quick urban commuter capable of holding a pair of full fenders and geared just right for both racing down Broadway when I'm late getting to the shop to open it and hauling a kid trailer up a steep hill to daycare in the morning. Sure, I have a cyclocross bike with fender eyelets on it but I couldn't bring myself to putting full fenders on my cross bike because that's just not "right." And my 29er, well, it's just too heavy for riding every day. So there I was in the shop moving a collection of bike parts I had onto a pretty cherry red Soma Speedster.

That was about a month ago and I figured with 30 days of riding on the bike it was fair to write a little something about it. The quick review is this: I like it, it's a very good bike.

But of course there's more. What I like about the Speedster is that it is first and foremost a road bike. The BB isn't too high like a lot of cross bikes, the handling is reasonably quick, and while steel is rarely light (especially lugged) this bike doesn't feel heavy. I mean, it is heavy, but it doesn't ride like it. You'll notice they've designed the bike around long reach brakes so that there's room for a full fender set and slightly larger tires. I'm running 700X28s on it and there's probably a bit of room for something a tiny bit bigger. There's also mounting points for a rack. The longer wheelbase isn't excessive, it's 101cm on my 56cm frame, which is only a centimeter and a half longer than what you might find on a more aggressive road frame the same size and can probably be wholly attributed to what they needed to do to leave room for a fender and bigger tire between the rear wheel and the seat tube. This slightly longer wheelbase makes for a stable bike without being too slow in the handling and I have a great deal of confidence in it when I'm aiming for the gap between the segmented bus and the construction pylons along Broadway at Cambie on my way to work.

Criticisms? Yeah, there is at least one. Why are the head tubes so short? You'll see from the pictures I've got a couple of bigger spacers under the stem and the stem has been inverted to get the front end up where I like it. Across the size range of the Speedster the head tubes are quite short which seems contrary to the stylings and most likely use of a frame such as this. I think it would be nice to see the sizing of this bike increase by about 2cms for the head tubes and seat tubes for any given size. Another bike I sell, the Salsa Casserole, seems to be more in tune with this fit ideology and though it's a bit more affordable than the Speedster it's lacking the chromed lugs and like I said before, I really like the chromed lugs. And that being said, I really do like this bike despite the low-ish front end. Now I just have to figure out how I can rationalize owning a Casserole too. I mean, I really should ride both of them to speak knowingly about the differences between the two similar bikes, right? Right?

We're alive

And we're still here but we're busy so there hasn't been much time to update the blog. More soon though, really...

"It's so small," she said,

but I was okay with that because, well, it is small.



bicycles is now a Felt dealer and our first few bikes have arrived. This one, an FW35, is the first one I pulled out of the box to build up. It's an interesting bike, and it is really stinking small, but Felt actually makes two bikes smaller than this one for women, the smallest of which is a 650c wheeled bike.



It's always bothered me that companies will take a frame, paint it pink, but a big squishy saddle and a short stem on it, and call it a "woman's bike." It appears that Felt has taken the idea of making a bike for women a little more seriously. There are five different bikes in the line up specifically for women and with all of them their smallest size uses 650c wheels. While some might groan at the idea of a bike with 650c wheels one needs to understand the finer nuances of bike geometry and realize that once a bike gets down to a certain size the top tube can no longer get effectively any shorter (by this I mean making the seat tube angle steeper to shorten the measurement of the top tube length isn't the same as actually reducing the effective top tube length, come see me and I'll draw you a picture to show you what I mean, or maybe in a day or two I'll edit this entry with an inserted crudely drawn rendering of what I'm talking about) and the head tube can only get so short meaning once you hit a certain point the front end of the bike can't get any lower. The result of extra small frames with 700c wheels is very slack head tube angles which make the bike handle quite poorly due to an excessively long trail number, and a front end that is too high for shorter people.

Another thing Felt manages to do is put 105 10spd components on a sub $1400 bike which is nice enough, and they also don't assume that women are weak (which they aren't) and they spec an affordable woman's bike with a double chainring with the understanding that women are often very serious cyclists and don't need to be pandered to with equipment that betrays their ability.

It's a nice "little" bike.

Quality parts for a reasonable price

The Globe and Mail has a section that they title "Darts and Laurels" where they give praise to some things whilst criticizing harshly others. It's in that spirit that I review two products today. The first, would it be soft enough for it to accept one, would have a dart hucked furiously at its being. It's a Syntace F99 stem. For certain it's not a cheap item retailing for $129.00 and it's advertised as coming with "stainless steel bolts" but as you can clearly see from the example that I own that someone at Syntace is a Neil Young fan because rust isn't even having a nap before attacking my stem bolts. In fairness, my stem is one of the older ones that were recalled because they were likely to implode or somehow disrupt the time/space continuum and they may have since really switched to stainless steel bolts but regardless of what they do now I find it quite incredible that any company would suggest such a high retail price without automatically including a readily available metal for their bolts that is commonly used for bicycles due to their exposure to the elements.




And now for the good. A "laurel" if you will. Tektro, oh how I love to hate you and hate to love you and with the installation of these brakes I am full of hate because they are wonderful. For years I have sworn an allegiance to Paul Components because of their Neo-Retro brakes which have previously been the best thing on the planet for a cross bike. And then Tektro shows up with these little darlings. I'm sure they won't last as long as the Paul equivalents (which are spectacular in construction), and the hardware will probably rust, but they cost $28 an end vs. the over $100 for the Paul cantis. You'll get a lot of leeway from me for saving me so much money and not just because my fridge will be full of beer paid for with the money I save. These Tektro cantilver brakes are pretty much the best thing going for a cross bike. I've sworn at my Shimano cantis but they didn't hear my cry of disapproval over the brake squeal they emit every time you engage the rim with them. And Paul, oh how I've loved thee, and you will always have a home on my custom swanky cross bike until you wear out and I know that will never happen because you are so indestructible, but Tektro, you've caught my eye and I'm looking forward to seeing where this relationship goes.

Phil Wood Hubs

It's no secret that there's a proliferation of fixed gear bicycles riddling the streets of this city of ours. The idea of a track bike has been romanticized and idealized as a lifestyle choice and accessory to the urban dweller. It's true, it's simplicity in design and functionality is appealing for those of us in this world who have little mechanical inclination. Even if the ability to fix things is a skill one has but the desire to do so is lacking then a fixed gear bike has appeal. Yes, there are no gears to adjust, and if run without brakes then it's of little relevance if rims run dead straight and one certainly won't wear out their brake shoes or rims. It would seem almost too good to be true that a bike exists of such purity and lacking in frivolous adornments and mechanical bobbles that only weigh down the heart and soul (and pocket books) of its rider. But once one has regressed to the purest form of the bicycle the next logical step seems to be to personalize the machine to reflect the characteristics and charisma of its owner. And so we see many a treasured and rare item find its way on to these track bikes, beautiful items like Sugino SuperMighty cranksets, or "Sherrif's star" Campagnolo hubs. It's the latter phenomenon I would like to address.

While the aesthetic appeal of track specific or NJS items is too subjective to argue (though I really am left wondering why quill stems have so much appeal in today's market) I can say this, it makes little if any practical sense to run old school DuraAce and Campagnolo track hubs on your city bike. I'm a sucker for aesthetics, it's true, and I am way too easily distracted by shiny things. I have a NOS Campagnolo rear Sherrif's star track hub that's never been built in my collection of "stuff" and it really is a beautiful thing, but it will never see the road. Why? Because it doesn't have any seals. Neither do those really cool high flange Dura Ace hubs with the blue inlays and the old font DuraAce written on them. Shimano includes little plastic rings with their hubs that they call seals but they aren't seals in the traditional sense. Track hubs are designed to be ridden on, well, this may sound dumb, on the track. Most tracks are indoors, safe from water, dirt, etc and even outdoor tracks of which there are plenty won't get used if it's raining or if there's any debris on the running surface it is quickly swept away for reasons of safety. To ensure their products run as smoothly and as quickly as possible at the upper levels of competition Shimano and Campagnolo have removed the drag inducing seals that are so necessary on their road worthy hubs.

This is where our good friend Phil Wood comes in. Phil is friends with Paul of Paul Components and there are a couple of people that both Phil and Paul know from the Orient who are all experienced travelers of the roads. They come in proper dress for rain and dust and dirt and hair and bird droppings and whatever else they meet along their respective journeys and by this I mean their precious lubricated parts are hidden behind tight and effective seals. The Phil Wood hub in the picture above, well, that's just about the sweetest thing you'll ever see when it comes to road worthy hubs. It's not quite as beautiful as the Campagnolo hub but it's getting pretty close with its elegant SLR cutouts (that save a whole 14grams!!!) that are reminiscent of the older Campagnolo hubs with similarly relieved high flanges.

It makes sense if you're going to invest in a track bike for its simplistic mechanical attributes that you get the hubs that are equally spirited. And please, even if the Bush administration is vague on its interrogation techniques, exposing classic track hubs to water is indeed a form of torturing them.

I stole this...

Yup, it's not mine, I didn't come up with it, I found it on another cycling blog, but I chuckled out loud when I read it and after paying for enough gas to move a Uhaul from Calgary to Vancouver on the weekend I have to say I wish I'd seen this sign first.

Ways to change the world

It doesn't look all that imposing in the box. In fact, it's really rather boring being brown and all and pretty much non-descript. There's a suggestion to the UPS carrier printed on the side suggesting that despite the appearance of this box it is, in fact, not oversized and under the maximum allowable 130 inches. And like a lot of things it has a top and and a bottom though most things don't need an arrow to tell the user which way is what. And that's it. Who'd a thunk the way to save the world would fit in a "normal" sized, uni-directional box?

Opening the box isn't nearly as exciting an event either when compared to what Pandora went through, or even the Raiders of the Lost Ark Nazis. It mostly looks like a bike partly dissembled and wrapped in plastic. I guess that's kinda what it is at this point.




What comes out of that box though is chock full of potential. It's a pretty stellar bike, really, with all the luxuries one would hope a good bike might have. It has fenders, lights, gears, a rack, brakes, but the light doesn't need batteries because it plugs into a dyno hub that gives you free electricity, and the brakes are hydraulic and disc driven meaning they'll stop you even when the sky has cracked open and is dumping untold amounts of precipitation upon you like Vancouver skies are wont to do periodically. The fenders are real metal meaning they won't crack when they get cold and if you do something like drop a small animal or box on them and they get bent you can likely bend them back instead of throwing them out and starting all over again.

But like that wasn't enough the good people who put this bike together said, "hey, let's put on a decent seat so that the first thing the customer does when they get this bike is ride it instead of cursing about how uncomfortable it is to sit on the damn thing." The Civia Hyland does, indeed, come with a saddle that is more liked than not. It's not a cheap seat but that's cool, because this bike is in no way about cutting corners to make a price point. This bike is all about providing the customer with a complete package that doesn't beg for upgrades and modifications to make it suitable. This bike is about doing it right the first time.

For instance, the bike comes with what is likely the best available stem and seatpost as stock items, Thomson components the both of them. I have never in my ten years in the industry seen a Thomson seatpost break and the manufacturer quite proudly showed their stem holding up a small car in a poster they gave away at Interbike a few years ago.

IT'S IN THE DETAILS:





Sometimes the details get lost when looking at the bigger picture. The goal with Civia was to make a pretty damn good city/commuter bike, one that wouldn't leave the customer wanting for more, for upgrades, for some sort of modification to make it a bit better. Civia was looking for the holy grail of city bikes. But while doing so they didn't forget about the little things. Cables are neatly tucked into grooves to keep the lines of the bike nice and clean, the bike not only has gears but it has enough gears to get you up the steepest of hills with ease and allow you to rocket down the other side at some stupid irresponsible speed but with eight gears to choose from all provided by an internally geared rear hub so you won't be worried about cross chaining and you won't be going from too hard a gear to too easy a gear because the "in between" ratios are missing like they are on most three speed hubs. The tires have a full circumference reflective strip and a puncture resistant belt. It's good to be seen but it's better to not have to stop for flats. There's also grips that bolt on meaning they won't slip around on the bar when they get wet. Bolt on grips isn't new technology but it's good technology and it's rarely seen on commuter bikes so it's nice to see it come stock on the Hyland.

And just to show they were proud of what they've done Civia took the time to bolt on a rather elegant headbadge to each frame. Special bikes deserve headbadges and I'm quite happy that this bike got one.

So how does this bike change the world? Simple. You ride it. Every day and everywhere, you ride your bike. It's that simple. And the folks at Civia have made it that much easier for you to do just that, ride your bike.

Parlee Z4, Part 2

I had the pleasure of riding this Z4 last week and there's a lot to be said about it. It's definitely the breed of a race bike, it handles very quickly with razor precision. And it climbs well, handles well, descends well. It does everything exceptionally well. The complete bike including pedals and bottle cages with essentially a last generation Campagnolo Chorus build (with Record brakes, and hubs) came in at a very respectable 16lbs14oz or 7.64kg on the digital Park scale. The more often quoted bike mass doesn't include those things needed to make it function like a bike like pedals and cages and so I weighed it that way too. In that configuration it dropped to 16lbs2oz or 7.32kg. But hey, it's only Chorus and the wheels are fully eyeleted alloy clinchers and the bar, stem and seatpost are aluminum. It's a solid bike that you could ride for a long time without any concerns about how delicate some of the parts might be.

I didn't ride it very far, a quick run out to UBC and back to the store was all it took, but in that short distance I managed to run it up a couple of hills, descend a nice little curvy fast bit of road, sprint away from a couple of traffic lights, and dodge a few pedestrians sneaking out from between parked cars. I'm a big guy and I didn't at any time feel the frame was unhappy under me. It handled the sprints away from lights expertly and without noticeable flex or derailleur rub, the inevitable choppy bits of urban road were smoothed nicely by the top shelf carbon fiber employed in the frame. The dolt who stepped out from between the parked cars should be quite happy that the bike goes where you point it. Yes, it's a very nice bike.

Some comments about the build, all Parlee frames are shipped with Edge Composites forks which have been garnering favourable press. Edge Composites and Velonews at Sea Otter both have details on the company and what they are up to. The fork looks great but in the interest of full disclosure I have to say that it was a bit of a pain to install. The steerer tube on the fork was slightly oversized and there was a seam running down the side of it from the mold and I had to file and sand away this seam to get the conical washer of the headset to sit inside the upper bearing. It's a small thing and easily remedied but I wouldn't want Joe Home Mechanic buying one of these forks and taking it home and trying to install it himself if this is normal for this fork. That being said, the fork rode quite nicely and seemed expertly matched to the frame's geometry. The fork that comes on the Z4 and all the other models of Parlee is Edge's 2.0 model that weighs a slight 340 grams claimed (my digital scale put it as 344 grams, but that was before filing off the seam so maybe it got lighter?)

Another unique accessory that comes with each and every Parlee is an incredibly light and elegant carbon front derailleur clamp adaptor. The clamp weighs a mere 7 grams and comes with a 4 gram bolt for a combined weight of 11 grams. Compare this to a Campagnolo adapter and bolt that weighs 31 grams. Yeah, it's only 20 grams but hey, if you could reduce the weight of everything on your bike by 65% you'd be pretty happy. The clamp is quite solid once installed and I didn't notice any issues with flex or shifting efficiency as the front derailleur derailed but it was a little finicky to install. Again, Joe Home Mechanic might not enjoy installing it but with a careful hand and an understanding of "tight enough" you'd have no problem putting this on your bike.

So yeah, there it is, a Parlee Z4. It's not a cheap bike but, man, is it ever an incredible ride. Everyone should have one of these.