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.