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.