Black Mountain Cycles

Fat, we gotcher fat right here...

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

NAHBS is right around the corner. Frame builders are busy getting preparing their show pieces. Last year, some of the most popular bikes were road bikes designed to accommodate large tires. In fact, three of the big winners were 700c road type bikes that were fitted with fat road tires and fenders. Best in Show was a DiNucci roadster. Best Road Frame was by Ellis Cycles and featured fat road tires with fenders. President's Choice Award was won by Anderson Custom Bicycles for his, yep, you guessed it, road bike with fat tires and fenders.

What's the point of all this? All these bikes feature 700c wheels, fenders, and fat road tires. It's been said that this show is being attended and noted by all the major bike companies and the bikes that are being presented at the show are indicative of what the major bike companies will be developing in the next few years. If last year's show is any indication, the majors will be coming out soon with road bikes that will easily swallow 28s and up to mid-30mm tires along with fenders. Haven't really seen them yet, but you will.

Recently, there was an article in Bicycle Retailer & Industry News about gravel riders going "the distances on triple cranks, fat road tires." In it representatives of a couple of tire companies, Clement and Continental, comment that they are getting requests for tires in larger sizes and are wondering what frames are out there that fit these large tires.

Tire companies are really driven by the OEM specification. Tire companies are hesitant to open expensive tire molds at the behest of a handful of small folks asking for larger versions of smaller currently available tires or small versions of larger currently available tires. On the dirt side, there is a big void, in my world, in the 35-45 size. I would personally love to see a WTB Nanoraptor tread on a 700 x 40-45 size tire. Conversely, I would love to see a Continental 4-Season in a 700 x 32.

And I have the perfect bikes in mind for these tires available right now. The Black Mountain Cycles cross frame with a 700 x 40/45 Nanoraptor would just be the absolute perfect off-road machine. The Black Mountain Cycles road frame shod with a Continental 4-Season 700x32 would be ideal for mixed terrain riding here in Marin or any area with buff dirt roads.

You don't have to wait for these machines. You can get them now. You might have to wait for more tires. However, there are still a pretty good selection of tires available now. Here's a list of some.

Fat Road Tires
Any 28 - I like Continental 4-Season and Clement Strada LLG. The Panaracer Pasela is also a good option. It is available in 28 and 32 that would fit my road frame. The Challenge Parigi-Roubaix 27 is also a great riding tire. The actual measurements of this tire on some wider road clincher rims is getting close to 30mm.

Fat Cross Tires
Kenda Happy Medium 40 is a great tire for hardpack dirt. The Panaracer FireCross 45 is an ideal dirt tire (a little slow on the pavement, but completely at home in the dirt). There are a bunch of tires labeled as 29" x 1.9 that fit my cross frame too. The Kenda Karma is one. There's also a few Bontrager and Specialized tires available.

Folks will point out that there are a lot of tires in the 700 x 32 to 42 range that are currently available. However, most of those are touring tires that feature heavy, stiff casings with road deadening belts. These tires are great for areas with sharp rock, heavy road debris, or for an application where you want the ultimate in flat protection. Those tires for most places, including here in Marin, are overkill and lend to a harsh ride.

So, I am looking forward to 2012 and seeing more availability of fat road and fat cross tires with high thread count, supple casings and proper tread designs. I'm tired of finding what promises to be a proper tire only to find it's just another heavy hybrid tire. What say you, tire manufacturers? But first, the big bike companies need to ask for these tires so tire makers can justify production.

You can be ahead of the curve by picking up a Black Mountain Cycles road or cross frame. Get one now and be the envy of your riding buddies when they realize how much fun these bikes are.

Here's some dirt road riding inspiration from Caletti Cycles, Steel Wul, and Peter Johnson (in the blue Bianchi jersey).

Big Basin Jan 2012 from John Caletti / Caletti Cycles on Vimeo.

(What's playing: KWRM The Kitchen Sink)

Merlin titanium mountain bike frame for sale...

2012-01-22T14:09:00.000-08:00

Next. Merlin mountain bike frame of unknown vintage. The on-line Merlin serial number lists are unclear on this, but this is likely an 89/90 frame. Here's some basic information on the frame:
Serial number: 1812
Head tube length: 6.5"
Seat tube: 19" center to center, 20.5" center to top and a 27.2 seat post will fit
Top tube: 23" center to center
The frame is designed for a 1" steerer tube fork and probably rigid. At the time, this frame likely would have come with a Ritchey Logic fork.
The bottom bracket is a non-grease guard style and appears to have new bearings. The axle is roughly 120mm.
Overall condition is pretty good. The decals have pretty much worn off the frame. There is some evidence of chain suck, but no bad gouges. Normal wear and tear. The pictures posted show the condition pretty clearly. This frame is sold as-is with no returns. Please ask questions if you have them or click on the photos for larger resolution pictures with more detail.

Price is $650 + shipping and any applicable sales tax.

(What's playing: Mumford & Sons Little Lion Man)

WTB Phoenix frame for sale...

2012-01-22T10:31:00.000-08:00

I've got a couple of sweet vintage frames for sale. The first one up is a 1993 WTB Phoenix. The Basic specs are:
Serial number: 93167
Frame size: 15"
Top tube: 22.75" effective
Head tube length is 5.25" and is for 1" rigid fork (no suspension forks on this one)
Rear brake is set for canti or v-brakes. However, there is no guide or stop for a centerpull canti brake. In its as-is current form, cable routing is for a v-brake. It may be possible to hang a cable stop off the seat binder to use a canti brake.
Seat post: 31.8
Front derailleur clamp size: 34.9
Ideal rider inseam is 30" - 34"
Condition: it's a rider, not a show bike. It has its share of paint chips and a small dent in the right chainstay. The pictures posted show the condition pretty clearly. If you have any questions, ask. Otherwise, this is sold as-is with no returns. Click on any of the photos to go to a full size shot if you want to see any of the details up close.

Price is $750 + shipping and any applicable sales tax.

(What's playing: The Wood Brothers Blue and Green)

What is the best...

2012-01-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

Being a bike shop in a tourist (reference is to "tourists," not cyclo-tourists, although both are prevalent) town, I get a lot of folks strolling through the shop who may or may not be cyclists. Sometimes, a guy will walk in proclaiming "I never miss a bike shop," take a cursory glance around, then walk right back out. I always wonder if and how my shop didn't meet their level of bike shopedness (I just made that word up, you can use it if you want).

Sometimes someone strolls in and says they are looking for a new bike and want my advice. Now at that statement's face value, that sounds like a good thing for me. What they are really want to know is should they buy the T brand, S brand, or C brand carbon road bike or something else I just don't carry or have access to. However, when I answer that I can't answer that question, they are confused.

My answer to these types of questions is always the same whether the person is looking for a high-end carbon road bike or an economical hybrid bike: find a bike shop you enjoy going into and one where you are comfortable with the staff. There really is very little difference in the various brand's bikes given a certain price and parts spec. Oh, and I tell them to pick a bike based on the color they like the best. No one wants to ride a bike they don't like because the color is going to look ugly in a couple months.

The other question I get frequently is "what's the best bike?" I'm actually baffled by these types of questions because I don't work well with absolutes. I don't have one favorite band or actor or food or ... You get the idea. Heck, I don't even think my frames are necessarily the best. Pretty darn good, yes. But not the best. There's lots of great frames out there, steel or other material.

There is no "best." What there is, are several darn good choices for a given situation . And it's really the sum of the parts that make the best choice for a given application. The best rim? No such thing. What there is is the best wheel (rim, spokes, nipples, hub, rim strip, tire, tube) for a given rider based on their need and intended use. There is never one best. Heck, there are simply too many great options out there in every aspect of life for there to be one best.

However, I did have the best ride yesterday. Paved road, dirt road, cow trail, steep climb, rippin' descents, and one lone coyote. However, I think my next ride has all the potential to be the best ride too.

Pierce Point Ranch

Coyote on the ridge

L Ranch Road

20 mph - maybe a bit faster

(What's playing: The Pretenders Up The Neck)

A whole lot of Marin for Friday Pt. 2...

2012-01-13T14:46:00.000-08:00

Part 2 is something a little older. This Cunningham Racer is slated to make an appearance at an upcoming exhibit at San Francisco International Airport's International Terminal in March. It's a great example of some of Charlie's best work. The Racer model with the optional oversized seat post and sloping top tube was so far ahead of its time. It's still a wildly popular bike and still will carve trails like no one's business today.

Full photo set available here.

"New" hubs made with NOS Hi-E flanges, built into Saturae X22 rims.

Specialized cranks were known for cracks that would develop between the arm and the spider. This crankarm has been worked by Charlie to eliminate the development of the crack.

Cunningham "gooseneck" stem. The term LD would apply to stems of the same shape coming out of Ibis Cycles.

Press-fit bearing from the '80s. Today's new fangled press fit bottom bracket systems can trace their routes back to innovators like Charlie Cunningham and others. Notice also the mud-guard for the rear brake linkage.

Vintage Shimano 600 brake lever with custom reach adjust tab.

Front brake with steering limiter.

Rear derailleur with helper spring to keep the upper jockey wheel away from the cogs when in the larger cogs.

(What's playing: Gram Parsons Ooh Las Vegas)

A whole lot of Marin for Friday Pt. 1...

2012-01-13T14:01:00.000-08:00

Might as well get this one over will so y'all have something to do over the weekend. Here are two bikes that came through the shop in the past week. Both were here for small miscellaneous things so I wouldn't necessarily classify them as "repairs" and I'll explain my reason for noting this later. Regardless, they are both remarkable bikes in their own way and remarkable just for the sheer nature of what they represent. Neither bike is one that anyone can just go out and buy. There are things about them and the builders that make them more exclusive that any hi-tech machine raced in the Tour de France. Custom through and through.

First up is a Steve Potts 29"er. The frame was purpose built so it could be handed over to Charlie Cunningham for the coup de grace: the installation of the most recent evolutionary iteration of the roller-cam brake, the lever-link brake. It's a fantastic piece of design and machining, literally made one at a time. The modulation and braking power is unrivaled. Disc brakes have nothing on this in terms of its modulation. The bike really is a total package that was built with as a whole and not simply a frame with various parts bolted on. It's truly an exercise in building a whole bike.

Here's a few select photos. The rest can be seen here on my flickr page.

(What's playing: The Clash Train In Vain)

What's in the stand...

2012-01-12T09:41:00.000-08:00

This Bruce Gordon BLT was recently finished for a rider in Santa Rosa. There really is nothing remarkable about this bike and that is what makes it a very nice bike that will give its owner many, many miles of great riding experiences. All the parts on the bike were chosen for their usefulness and to give the rider the trouble-free riding experience that he wants. He came back from his first short test ride and smiled and said it's wonderful. Smooth, comfortable, stable, but it also has some spirit in its handling.

Rear rack attachment points and Paul Touring canti brake.

Front rack attachment points and Paul Touring canti brake.

The offset rear rack attachment is a nice attention to detail to set the rack side off a bit that also allows for the fender strut to have clearance.

I made this (and one for the seatstay bridge) custom spacer for the rear fender so that it fits the profile of the tire with sufficient clearance.

The owner will continue to get many more miles with his set of Nuovo Record pedals and Binda Extra straps.

Paul Thumbie adapters still allow a NiteRider MiNewt 350 to be easily mounted to the handlebar.

Ride on!

(What's playing: KWMR Swimming Upstream)

Your tires are your suspension...

2012-01-03T09:00:00.000-08:00

Recently, I've been running my 28c tires down at 72psi in front and 75psi out back. I arrived at this a month or so ago. Recently, I thought more about how I arrived at those pressures. One of my favorite rides is from Pt. Reyes Station out to Pierce Point and back. Don't know how many miles it is, but it's an under 3 hour round trip so it gives me plenty of time to think about bikes and tires among other things.

The road surface is very varied. At the beginning of the ride, there is a bridge over Lagunitas Creek that has big, deep, wide expansion joints on both sides of the bridge. I repair many a pinch flat from riders coming into town with skinny tires and insufficient pressure. There is a too low pressure. Riding through Inverness Park and Inverness, the road is in pretty good shape since it was repaved a few years ago. However, the road condition deteriorates the further north one pedals and there is even an option of pedaling out on a dirt road.

It's on these roads with broken pavement and undulating surfaces that I started thinking more about tire pressure. And a few months ago, I started thinking about tire pressure on road bikes in terms of air pressure in shocks on a full-suspension bike. Too much air pressure in a rear shock or fork and you're just banging into rocks and ruts and you might as well be on a fully rigid bike. Not enough air in your fork or shock and you'll be bottoming out and wallowing too deep in the suspension's travel.

Applied to a road bike's tires, too much air pressure and the ride is harsh, amplifying every road imperfection. Not enough air and you'll be stopping every time the road surface crumbles to chunks to repair pinch flats. Now this might sound elementary, but I kind of like the analogy of setting the air pressure in your road tires much like you would on a full suspension bike. Maybe that's what it takes for folks to understand the interaction of road tires with the road surface.

Whether you are on a full-suspension bike or a road bike, you want your tires to stay in contact with the road. The only way to be fast is to have your tires in constant contact with the road surface. If the tires are bouncing into the air (even for a micro second and many micro seconds add up on a long ride) and you are pedaling to propel the bike forward, your energy expended to make the bike move forward is wasted. Of course you know that if you pick up the bike with the rear tire off the ground and you turn the cranks, the rear wheel will spin with no forward movement. That's what happens when you're bouncing along with too much air pressure in your tires.

I realize I seem to becoming an air pressure fanatic after writing several blog posts on the subject, but the thoughts of air pressure is fairly on-going whether I'm riding my bike or repairing flats for riders who stop at the shop and I ask them what air pressure they use. Invariably, they say "120" or "whatever the maximum is." That might be perfect for a smooth velodrome, or if you are well north of 200lbs and are still on 23 tires, but for most folks, I encourage them to try going with less. If you can make your bike more comfortable and faster with a simple change in air pressure, why not experiment. It's free.

(What's playing: Hump Day with Djimi G on KWMR)

Want to start the new year off proper...

2012-01-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

A few years ago a small clothing company for women cyclists started in Inverness, California. My Alibi makes some great clothing for women cyclists who wanted to cycle in comfort without having to look like they are kitted out in racing gear. I've carried their first product in the shop for a few years. The Bloomer is designed to be worn under casual shorts, pants, skirt... You get the idea. Cycling unders for women. I carry these in my shop and women dig them. Heck, I think the guys who accompany women into the shop dig them too. They never fail to hold up a pair and say something like "hey honey, I think you'd look great in these." And then I go on to explain how they are supposed to be used.

Anyway, Abbie, the owner and designer of My Alibi is also a kick-ass mountain bike racer. The main reason for this post is the demand for her My Alibi clothing is high. She has orders from some big places. Way bigger than Black Mountain Cycles if you can believe that. Heck, bigger than probably anything you can imagine. There's only one minor problem, she needs cash to make this production happen and that's where you come in.

My Alibi has launched a Kickstarter project to provide the capital to fund the production to really get the company off the ground and into some great retail establishments. I pledged to the project and am hoping readers here can do the same. There are some really great premiums that can be earned with a pledge. So women - check it out, pledge, and get yourself some great stuff. Guys, pledge and pick out some great clothing items for your lady. It's a win-win situation.

Go to the My Alibi Kickstarter page here and pledge now. There's 20 days to raise $45,000 to fund the project. You can say you had a hand in the launch of what's to become a hugely successful company. Pledge any amount you can. You'll feel better, trust me.

Salsa Vaya - Holiday bike special #3...

2011-12-08T05:59:00.000-08:00

(As of the end of December, the Vaya has found a new home.)

The next bike to go on the sale table is a 2011 model year Salsa Vaya in size 55. Seems strange that the 2011 model year bike is now old when it's still 2011, but I digress. According to Salsa's fit chart, it should fit guys in the 5'6" to 5'9" range (ideally 5'7" or 5'8") and gals in the 5'8" to 5'10" range. If you live in the Bay Area and are in that range and have been waiting for a killer deal on a 55cm Salsa Vaya, this is your chance.

As mentioned, it's a 2011 model which means it's got a Shimano 9-speed drivetrain with a double crankset. All the specs are on the link up in the very first sentence. Rack is not included, but can be added for and additional $80. Pedals aren't included as well. The brake housings were upgraded to compressionless housing which makes a huge difference is how the disc brakes feel and perform with the road brake levers.

The original price is $1595. Sale price for this baby is $1095 - a whopping $500 savings. Help me make some room and get yourself a sweet road/dirt all-rounder. This would make a great bike for dirt road loops around Mt. Tam. Photos are of the actual bike. Yes, there is dirt on the tires. No the bike is not used. I've got a dirt parking lot and in order to test ride any bike, it gets ridden through the parking lot. Price does not include sales tax. Shipping not available, sorry.

(What's playing: KWMR Coast Highway Blues)

Parts, we gotcher parts on sale...

2011-12-05T20:22:00.000-08:00

I run a pretty tight ship inventory-wise. However, sometimes I end up with parts for one reason or another that I'll likely not need in the foreseeable future. So, every so often I feel the need to make my buying error your purchasing error. Here are some parts that are one-time only "my loss is your gain" sale items.

First up. Before Shimano had 28t 10-speed cassettes, the Italian component company, Miche, was offering cassette cogs that could be mixed and matched in various combos. This is a 10-speed 12-29 cassette that will fit onto Shimano cassette splines (not the deep spline, though). The exact cogs are: 12-13-15-17-19-21-23-25-27-29. As is, it would sell for about $85. It's yours for $40. Lock ring not included.

There are a few nice square taper cranks on the market. One of them is the FSA Vero crank. It's nothing special to write home about. Forged arms, CNC aluminum rings in 50/34 combo. Just works nice. These are regularly $90, but the limited supply I have can be yours for $50 each. Pair them with a nice Shimano UN54/55 bottom bracket and you're set to go. I've got three in 175 and one in 170 length. The rings on the 170 are designed for Shimano 10 speed. The rings on the three 175 length cranks are designated as Shimano 9-speed, but they work just fine with Shimano 10 speed.

SRAM Rival cross crank. 175mm hollow arms. 46/38 rings in a 130mm bolt circle. Includes a GXP external bottom bracket. This cranks has been installed in a frame by never used. No box included. Regular price is $225, but you can have this set for $115 with bottom bracket.
*(Rival crankset is sold)

SRAM Red right side shifter. I thought I was ordering a pair of Force shifters, but what arrived was a single right side Red shifter. I could have returned it, but time passed, and my loss can be your gain. This should be on the north side of $300, but if you've crashed your shifter and need one, this one can be yours for $200 and I'll include shipping to the 48 states with this one. Includes cables and housing as pictured.

Momentary lapse of remembering that Dura Ace 7900 front derailleurs are not compatible with Dura Ace 7800 shifters. This Dura Ace 7900 front derailleur has a 34.9 clamp. These are usually about $125, but you can nab this one (without box) for $65.

There you go. Maybe you're piecing a project bike together and need that one last piece. Maybe you want a spare to have. Don't wait. Call or e-mail.

And with the exception of the SRAM Red lever, prices don't include shipping/postage.

(What's playing: KWMR Reggae Radio)

Classic Merckx retro mod...

2011-12-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

As we get older (okay, some of us), we still like to ride our bikes. Sometimes we like to ride our old vintage road bikes. And if it's a vintage road bike like a vintage road bike should be (I'm talking 70's and 80's) it will have a double crank and a close ratio freewheel. The crankset will have rings of 52 and 42 or 52 and 45. The freewheel will be a 13-21 or a 13-23.

Today, there is a plethora of gearing options and sometimes the gearing options make it easier to pedal a bike uphill with lower gears. Back when we were riding 52/42 with 13-23's, we had time to ride more and had the strength to push those bigger gears. Today, with jobs and less time to ride, fitness isn't quite what it used to be.

Today, there are a lot of gearing options for road bikes. However, converting a classic road bike to these new-fangled cranksets doesn't always maintain the same feel of the original bike. Until now.

This classic Campy equipped Merckx came in recently for a lower, easier to get up the hills drivetrain. To maintain the original look, we went with an IRD Defiant 50/34 crank, IRD 6-speed 13-28 freewheel, and a new Campy Veloce rear derailleur. The Defiant crank has a similar design to the original Nuovo Record crank with the fluted arms and the large chainring design has a similar shape and cutout to the early Nuovo Record rings. The rear derailleur is important because the old Super Record derailleur will only go up to a 24t cog. Additionally, the new Campy Veloce 10s derailleur has limit screws that and limit screw stops that allow it to move across 10 cogs and this set-up only had 6 cogs. A longer limit screw took care of that and stopped the derailleur right on the 6th cog.

Turned out pretty sweet.

The story was that this bike was originally purchased at Freddy Maerten's brother's bike shop, Maerten's Sport in Belgium.

(What's playing: )

What's in the stand...

2011-12-03T09:15:00.000-08:00

On the spot bar tape job on something a bit unique. Jacquie Phelan pedaled over from Fairfax on a spectacular Fall day here in West Marin. Temps in the upper 60s, maybe the 70s. We were also under a "hazardous wind advisory" that never materialized. Good for cycling.

With Jacquie's bike in the stand, I peeled off several years of torn and frayed cloth handlebar tape and replaced it with some new Cateye tape and some split-in-half Grab-On drop bar grips. The halved sections fit on top of the bar where your hands rest and are held in place by the cloth tape. And while Jacquie was snapping photos of a coffee table sized book of cycling posters, I finished within minutes. And Robin Williams' bike was not in the stand as reported. I had relayed a story of him stopping at the shop to pick up another layer while he was out on a ride and was facing dropping temperatures.

(What's playing: Tom Russell The Sky Above, The Mud Below)

Cyber Monday special...

2011-11-28T10:44:00.000-08:00

If all those other companies can do it, so can I. Here's the deal, or rather here are the deals. All involved purchasing a Black Mountain Cycles road or cross frame and all should be able to appeal to different needs you might have. Black Mountain Cycles "Cyber Monday" special runs through Sunday December 4. Let your friends know. Pass the word. Get down offa that fence.

Deal #1
Simple. Black Mountain Cycles road or cross frameset shipped to your door (in the lower 48 states) for $550. Or if you pick it up in store, $525. Deal #1 is valued at up to $635.

Deal #2
Black Mountain Cycles road or cross frameset, t-shirt, water bottle, and pint glass shipped to your door (in the lower 48) for $575 ($550 if you pick up in person). Deal #2's value is up to $668.

Deal #3
Black Mountain Cycles road or cross frame with Cane Creek 40 headset installed for $575 shipped to your door (in the lower 48) or $550 if you pick it up in person. Heck of a deal valued at up to $695 and the best deal, monetarily, out of the three.

Note, sales tax is applicable for any sale to a California address.

Okay, go! Operators are standing by. Here's some pictures of recent builds to get you all stirred up.

(What's playing: Monsters of Folk Magic Marker)

Holiday special #2 - Surly Cross Check...

2011-11-25T11:59:00.000-08:00

Up next on the holiday sale special is a 58cm Surly Cross Check. One only and one size only. In store purchase only. Regular price $1150. Sales price $700. If you don't need a new bike, your buddy does. C'mon over and check it out and make yourself happy with a new bike. Here's a photo of the actual bike. Pedals not included.

As of 12/4/11, the Cross Check has found a new home.

What's playing: The Rolling Stones Who's Been Sleeping Here)

T-day ride...

2011-11-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

Got out for a post-rain, pre-feast ride on the road bike. With fenders, it's no problem to head out for a ride without having to think about how the road/weather conditions will affect your ride. I'm not a big fan of going out to ride in the rain if I can help it, but it's just rained or if it's a bit crappy, heading out on a ride with a fendered bike is a no worry experience. No worries about the stripe of wet grime up your backside. No worries about wet feet. No worries about riding on roads through cattle ranches where the catle crossings are littered with a soupy, slick sheen of cow shit. Nothing worse that having that splash up on your water bottles.

And there are plenty of cattle crossings riding on any of the roads out in the Pt. Reyes National Seashore, which is where I headed for a little jaunt on Thanksgiving. The roads were plenty wet and I was going to head out to Kehoe Beach and back on the road. On the way out through Inverness, there were more cars that usual (holiday drivers). By the time I got to the turn off for Marshall Beach Rd., a fine dirt road for road bikes, I had enough traffic and decided on some sweet dirt. In the summer, this road is pretty dusty and has some pretty good sections of washboard. Not today. It was a little slick and super smooth.

Marshall Beach Rd. (also known as "L" Ranch Road.

The road surface was pretty solid, but there were a few spots where it was a bit soupy and the bike had some pretty nifty two-wheel drifts.

North into the headwind.

Marshall Beach Rd. looking across Tomales Bay towards Marshall.

Inverness Ridge off in the distance.

What's playing: Elvis Costello The Element Within Her)

Post Thanksgiving / pre-Christmas clearance...

2011-11-21T18:10:00.000-08:00

Got to make room. Between the Friday after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, I'm going to be posting bikes and parts that are for sale and on sale. Sales prices on bikes are good for in-store purchase only. I just don't have any boxes big enough to pack a complete bike into at this time. And I'm going to start with bikes.

As of 11/25/11, the Surly below is sold. Thanks for the calls and e-mails.

First up is a Surly Long Haul Trucker. Size 56cm. Stock bike except for the wheels. I robbed the wheels off this bike for a cycle tourist a while back. He was touring down the coast and by the time he got to my shop, he had multiple broken spokes in back and his front had seen one too many pot-holes. I also robbed the rear derailleur from it for another emergency repair. The wheels are now a handbuilt set of Velocity Synergy rims, Deore hubs, and DT Champion 14g spokes. The rear derailleur is the Deore model. Original price is $1090. Sale price between Friday Nov. 25 and Saturday Dec. 24 is $600 plus sales tax of 8%. Git it while it's hot. This is the bike.

(What's playing: The Who The Kids Are Alright)

Crotchet and leather goodness...

2011-10-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Been a while since I wrote a "Things I Like" post. It's not because there haven't been things I like that I've wanted to write about. Early on when I started this blog, I started writing about "Things I Lke," "Things I Want To Like," and "Things I Dislike." Then, in the mean time, this thing called Facebook showed up. You might have heard about it. On Facebook, you can "Like" all kinds of things. Some things you may "Like" but don't actually have a connection to it. Some things you may "Like" because it's the fashion of the day. I like to "Like" things I have a personal connection to and therefore, there's not many things I "Like." Black Mountain Cycles does have a Facebook page and I think it's cool that folks "Like" it and it's cool if folks don't "Like" it. Just because you don't "Like" it doesn't mean you don't like it.

Now how in the hell did I get from "crotchet and leather" to going on about "Likes" on Facebook? Oh yeah, I like classic crotchet and leather gloves. And specifically, I really like the Euro-Asia Imports classic version with tan leather and a natural crotchet back. Besides the gloves, I also like Euro-Asia. They've been a bike parts distributor for as long as I can remember. And for as long as I can remember, every invoice is hand written. For clarification, "as long as I can remember" goes back to 1988.

These classic gloves are so anti-new technology that they suit me just fine. I've got a pair of high-end, name brand (okay, Pearl Izumi), gel filled gloves that I wanted to like, but the location of the gel pads is not right. The gaps in the gel are right where I hold onto the corner of the bar. And the gel globules really give me a disassociative connection to the bar and hence the bike. But not these leather and knit gloves, oh no. There is minimal padding and I can feel the bar and that gives me a proper feeling of what's going on with the bike. Someone commented that there is no baby soft snot spot on the glove for nose wiping. To this, I simply referred them to Rule 5.

So there you have it. I've got these gloves in stock in sizes Medium, Large, and Extra-Large. They aren't cheap, but they aren't Rapha expensive. You get your own set for $39.95 (plus applicable tax and shipping if you aren't physically shopping in the store.

(What's playing: The Stanley Brothers The White Dove)

Titanium Thursday Pt. 4...

2011-10-27T14:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, final installment of Titanium Thursday (one time Thursday event). This one's a sweet little Willits titanium road bike that had its Ultegra triple components replaced with a mix of 7800 and 7900 Dura Ace.

(What's playing: Social Distortion Ring of Fire)

Titanium Thursday Pt. 3...

2011-10-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

Quick one here with a titanium group hug.

A shot of the first and most recent frame Steve has made with S&S couplers.

Okay, so there's an aluminum and carbon frame in the photo.

(What's playing: Neil Diamond Solitary Man)

Titanium Thursday Pt. 2...

2011-10-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

In the second edition, we have a new Steve Potts build. A really sweet 700c, disc brake cross bike. This is really a go fast dirt road, paved road rocket. Built with a SRAM parts group, White Industries hubs with HED Belgium rims, Thomson seat post, Ritchey bar and stem, and Avid BB7 brakes. The blue outline in the decal is a really nice match to the blue painted fork. It's just a good feeling bike. Dialed and rarin' ta go with the S&S couplers.

(What's playing: Waylon Jennings The Wurlitzer Prize)

Titanium Thursday Pt. 1...

2011-10-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

It's been pretty intense recently. Lots of builds. Lots of repairs. Lots of titanium. I'll parse out the sweet ti goodness in doses. The first dose is a nice little Steve Potts number that was in to get the fork repainted, new Moots stem and seat post, and new Potts ti bars.

Rick at D&D Paint suggested the exact color for the lower half of the Type II fork and really nailed exactly what the owner was looking for.

The brake pad with the rusted nut was replaced

(What's playing: Tom Waits Heigh Ho)

How many times...

2011-10-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

How many times have you ridden past something and taken it for granted? Ridden past something and thought "I should stop sometime and check that out?" Anyone who has ridden past the town center of Inverness on Sir Francis Drake Blvd. has seen the old boat that's been stranded high and dry on the beach behind the Inverness Store. I've always thought I should stop and check it out a little closer sometime.

Well, that sometime happened about a week ago as I was riding through Inverness to get to the dirt road climb up to the Inverness Ridge. The sun had just risen and the light was almost perfect. As I came into Inverness, I glanced over, saw the boat bathed in the first light and knew today was the day to check it out. And as chance would have it, I had my trusty little camera in my pocket.

The sun rises right over Black Mountain

Fishing boat on Tomales Bay

Then it was time to get back on the bike and start climbing up to the ridge.

Excellent trail conditions

Looking across to the bay through the trees

Sometimes, you have to look up

The trail up top

Looking down to Drake's Bay from the ridge

(What's playing: KWMR Coast Highway Blues. If you like the blues, you should check this show out on every Wednesday 8:30 - 10:30)

Cavalcade of blog posts...

2011-10-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

Been busy. Too busy, seemingly, to post anything here. Takes time to upload photos, think up something to write, and do all that and take care of all the bikes that are coming in. This post will be a "what's in the stand" post on a recent cross bike I built.

This cross bike represents something very close to what I was thinking of building for myself. I've been thinking I really should be on something newer than 1995 8-speed parts. After all, it's really my responsibility to know exactly how all this new 10-speed stuff works.

62cm 'cross frame

Really like the shape/feel of the new Salsa Cowbell 2 handlebar

Just a bit proud of how the head tube decal turned out

Avid Shorty 6 cantis with Conti Cyclocross Race 42 tires

SRAM bar end shifters move the X.9 derailleur along an 11-32 cassette

White Industries VBC crank handles the major transmission duty

(What's playing: KWMR Hump Day)

More dirt road rides...

2011-10-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

Following Cam's advice on this post, I saddled up last Sunday and rode south on Highway 1 and found Coast View Trail several miles south of Stinson Beach and just south of Slide Ranch. It was definitely more technical than Stagecoach Fire Road. More technical since it was a single-track climb for a bit over 3 miles. Totally doable on a road bike with 28c tires, though. Really nice morning too.

Riding south on Highway 1, there was considerable fog leaving Pt. Reyes Station which gave way to sun, which gave in to fog down towards Bolinas. The sun broke out again south of Stinson and just near the Coast View Trail, fog took over again and clung to the slopes until I got up near the Pantoll ranger station. Then it was sun all the way to the top of Tam.

I'd forgotten it was a holiday weekend. Lots of folks on foot hiking between Pantoll and the West Point Inn where it was packed for a pancake breakfast. Intent on climbing, I gave up pancakes for Clif Bloks to help me up the dirt.

Pretty dang fun ride with a virtually all dirt climb from Highway 1 up to Mt. Tam's east peak. I figured I'd been out for quite a while (no watch and no cycle computer so no way to know what time it was), so I scooted back down Ridgecrest to Bo-Fax and back up Highway 1 arriving back at the shop at 5 minutes before I was supposed to open at noon. Good fun ride.

Bolinas Lagoon

Just south of Stinson Beach

Looking down on Highway 1 from Coast View Trail

Start of Coast View Trail - soon to give way to single-track

Coast View Trail

One burned, charred log.

Trail ducked into the trees and became more challenging with some wet, slippery rocks.

Breaking out of the fog, the view to Mt. Tam was gorgeous.

See, gorgeous...

A little video on Coast View Trail

(What's playing: KWMR Faultline Radio)

Cargo cross...

2011-10-10T18:26:00.000-07:00

This was a first. Pretty fun build too. The owner came up and went for a ride out on the seashore while I built up a Black Mountain Cycles cross bike with an Xtracycle extension. But not before setting up his laptop to take a time-lapse video of the build. Then he went out the next day and rode the medio King's Ridge Gran Fondo in Santa Rosa. Pretty darn cool.

Back Mountain Cycles cargo cross on top of Black Mountain summit near Los Altos, CA.

Neat time-lapse. Might have to try this on my own some time.

(What's playing: KWMR Hippie From Olema)

Instant gratification...

2011-09-29T07:21:00.000-07:00

I posted the above photo yesterday on Facebook. I was busy building a set of cross wheels for a friend and preparing the rims and tires with a layer of Vittoria Mastik. I thought the image of the fresh Challenge Grifo and the can of cement was a nice composition. Still do. My buddy Rob commented, "What is that can? Do they sell tape in a can now?" That comment got me thinking about instant gratification and doing something simply because it saves time.

Sure, I could have used tubular tape instead of glue. That would have saved considerable time, but not if I wanted to do it right. Sometimes doing something "right" means you need to spend more time on the process. Sometimes, the quick way out is okay. Sometimes not. Sometimes it's all about the process.

Rob's comment was interesting since we both came out of the same shop years ago. Chuck always taught us to do things properly. I'm reminded of Chuck every time I cut a steerer tube and pull out a file to manually deburr and clean up the cut on the steerer. I could easily just turn the grinder on and run the edge of the steerer on the grinding wheel to clean it up, but I don't. I clamp the steerer in the vise, pull our one of my files and clean up the rough edge with a nice chamfer, then I file smooth the top of the steerer, and then clean up the inside with the rounded edge of the file. It doesn't take much time and when I do this, the image of the old Pacific Coast Cycles and Chuck always fills my memory. It also gives me great pleasure to perform this manual task and have the outcome be perfect because I had perfect control of the file.

The same applies to making coffee. I could buy pre-ground beans and simply load the ground coffee into a filter basket, fill up a reservoir with water, flip a switch, and be drinking coffee five minutes later. Instead, the preparation of a cup of coffee is a process, a ritual. While the water is heating up on the stove, I grind my beans to the proper coarseness, load the coffee in the press, fill with hot water, stir the mixture, press the plunger listening to the water being pushed through the coffee into my cup, then enjoy the pureness of that first cup of coffee in the morning.

While my process of making coffee takes about the same amount of time as an automatic drip coffee maker, during that process, I am involved in every step of the action of making my coffee. Sure, I could have used double-sided tubular rim tape. It would have taken a fraction of the time to mount the tires, but I know with rim cement, it's done right. And there's something comforting about the ritual process of layering on rim cement on a brand new rim and tire, fitting the tire to the rim, seeing that the base tape is uniform around the rim, slipping the wheel in the truing stand, spinning, and seeing that the tire spins as true and round as the wheel it's mounted to.

(And my coffee maker - this little gem that yields the best cup of coffee I've had. Truly pure and grit free. You might think your coffee is grit free, but you probably don't drink down that last sip because of grit and sediment. With this, you get to drink the whole cup. I'll have a few of these in the shop soon.)

(What's playing: The Sadies The Trial)

Biketoberfest...

2011-09-22T09:22:00.000-07:00

If Biketoberfest is in September, should it be called Biketemberfest? Regardless, this year's Biketoberfest will be happening this Sunday September 25 on Center Ave. in Fairfax. I'll be closed that day so that I can have a booth there and show some road and cross frames. There's going to be some great area builders there as well as a bunch of brewers. Advanced beer tasting tickets are on sale now at the Biketoberfest website. Hit the link and get all the details. In addition to being a good time, the event also benefits both the Marin County Bicycle Coalition and Access 4 Bikes.

My booth will be on the other side of the street, away from the food and beer tasting this year. Since it's just me, anyone who wants to ferry beverages and food over will be most welcome. Not that you wouldn't be anyway, but...

(What's playing: KWMR)

Dino ride 2011...

2011-09-19T10:49:00.000-07:00

In 2009, the Dino Ride rolled through Pt. Reyes Station stopping at the shop to have a broken spoke replaced. The owner of the Richard Sachs ,whose spoke broke, was also the organizer of the ride. In 2010, he invited me to participate on the ride, but I had other obligations. I also didn't feel very worth to be on a ride with such cycling greatness. I got the invite again for this year's ride and even though my credentials still paled dramatically compared to this years participants, I loaded up the car with bike and gear and made the 1/2 hour drive to Fairfax for the start of the 2011 Dino Ride yesterday.

There was a rumor that 3-time Tour de France winner, Greg Lemond, was going to show at the ride and, sure enough, a few minutes before the ride was to roll out, Greg did show up. A crowd gathered around him since a lot of these guys did race with him in his early days as a junior and then as a senior on the US racing scene and they were busy catching up.

However, the main purpose of the ride was to ride. And ride we did. There were a lot of steel bikes some vintage, some new. There were also a lot of riders who knew how to ride. Riding in a pack with these guys was truly a treat. Rock solid riders. We rolled out of Farifax, up White's Hill, through San Geronimo Valley and then up and over to Rancho Nicasio for the first stop/regrouping of the day - and group photos.

Leaving Rancho Nicasio, my buddy Gary B. had a rear flat so I stopped to help him repair it and get back on the road. By the time we got back on the road, the group was long gone so we gave chase up Pt. Reyes-Petaluma Rd. past the Cheese Factory and onto Hick's Valley Road. We finally caught on to the group soon after turning left on the Marshall-Petaluma Rd. where the pace was nice before hitting the base of the Marshall Wall. Boy, some of these guys (and gals) can sure climb fast! I hit the top of the wall with a few riders, including ride organizer, Tom Hardy and Peter Johnson. Came up on Joe Breeze on the descent as well.

After a stop at the Marshall Store to refill water bottles, we motored south into Point Reyes where I opened the shop for a few minutes to properly repair Gary B's flat tire before hitting the dirt Cross Marin Trail and I replaced the chain on another bike that had several twisted links. That done, it was chase mode again down to Olema and up and over the Bolinas Ridge down to the Cross Marin Trail. By the time we got on the dirt section we were coming up on the back of the group. At the end of the trail, one of the riders had a double flat so we stopped to repair that in the shade of a tree by the Inkwells swimming hole. Well, actually, there were several flats and one two bike tangle, but everyone was okay.

Back on Sir Francis Drake, the only thought was of the descent down White's Hill into Fairfax and food and beer at Iron Springs Pub and Brewery. Overall, it was a fantastic experience. I got to chat quite a bit with Joe Breeze and caught up with several other riders who knew about the shop or had been to the shop. Quite a great way to spend a glorious Sunday. And it happened on what is likely the best weather day of the summer to date.

Staging in the morning at the Java Hut in Fairfax.

Greg Lemond shows up.

Rolling out of Fairfax.

Heading towards White's Hill on Sir Francis Drake outside of Fairfax, CA.

Approaching White's Hill, the group thins out a touch.

Greg Lemond in the La Vie Claire jersey on the left.

Greg Lemond takes a moment to pose for a photo with me.

My buddy Gary B. A big inspiration for Black Mountain Cycles. He owned a shop in Ohio called Cycles Gaansari and developed their own line of steel frames branded Gaansari.

Jock Boyer and Tom Ritchey.

The group. There's a few folks I can name, but there's so many that I can't so, I'll leave them unnamed. And I'm horrible at remembering names.

But I do know that that is Joe Breeze in the Mt. Tamalpais jersey (blue, yellow, green). Peter Johnson is in the all green jersey. Alex Osborn is in the blue Della Santa jersey. Otis Guy is the bald headed dude kneeling.

Finally catching up to the group on the Marshall-Petaluma Rd. after some flat fixin'.

Rolling through the valley on the Marshall-Petaluma Rd.

Rolling through the valley on the Marshall-Petaluma Rd.

Rolling through the valley on the Marshall-Petaluma Rd.

Rolling through the valley on the Marshall-Petaluma Rd.

Rolling through the valley on the Marshall-Petaluma Rd.

Rolling through the valley on the Marshall-Petaluma Rd.

There was a motocross event here with motos crossing the road. We came around the corner pretty fast and had to hit the brakes. Kind of a panic for me as I was sitting up taking a photo with hands off the bar.

On top of the Marshall Wall on the Marshall-Petaluma Rd.

Event organizer, Tom Hardy's Richard Sachs.

The victim of the double flat. Larry "Swampdog" Swantner's modern Della Santa. Larry was on the '75 Pan-Am team and the '76 Olympic track team.

Tom Hardy lending a hand to Larry (in Molteni jersey).

Iron Springs Brewery & Pub fed us and hydrated us post ride. Greg Lemond holding court.

(What's playing: KWMR)

Closed Sunday Sept. 18...

2011-09-17T20:36:00.000-07:00

Ride report to follow.

(What's playing: KWMR Rick's Jazz Cafe)

Sunday ride...

2011-09-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

Took some pics out on a ride last Sunday. I rarely do any digital working of the photos I take in the shop or on the road. I may occasionally crop a photo. Sometimes a photo looks like it would be better in black & white. When I do convert an image to b/w, I'll take advantage of the tools available and adjust the contrast and brightness. In b/w, I think it adds a bit of a drama to the shot. As for the color shots, I leave them as I shot them. I just don't have the time (or the energy or desire) to do any mods to the color shots and well, I'm just trying to show what things look like not create an art project. I see some photos folks tweak around and think they look great, but I just don't have the desire to do that for my own stuff.

So, here's some pics I took on a ride out to Kehoe Beach last Sunday. It was pretty overcast and wet with heavy drizzle out there. Color versions. Black & white versions. Whacha think? They work for me.

On top of Inverness Ridge looking towards what would be the Pacific Ocean on a clear day.

Way out past H Ranch on the point. Probably should have cropped it to get rid of the shift cable in the upper left.

The color version is really nothing to write home about, but I like the b/w version much better.

Same with this one.

And then just some bike shots that I think turned out pretty good.

(What's playing: Johnny Darrell Willin')

Homegrown community radio...

2011-09-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

Alright, here's the deal. I love this local radio station, KWMR, we have and am honored that I host a couple of shows on it and get to sub for some fantastic folks and their great shows. This is the kind of station that everyone dreams about and it's in my own backyard. Tonight on Bakersfield & Beyond (6:30-8:30), we have Smelley Kelley from Red Meat on. We have a show goal of $1000. A $40 pledge gets you a KWMR pint glass. Pledge $40 during our show tonight and I'll also throw in a Black Mountain Cycles pint glass also. Any amount is welcome. Call 415-663-8273 or contribute online via paypal at kwmr.org.

And if you are a fan of X or The Knitters, John Doe was in the studio last night and played an acoustic set. You can listen to the show here for two weeks. It was really great getting to meet him after enjoying his music for so many years. The ability to archive past shows and offer them up for listening was part of the previous pledge drive's goal that was achieved.

Thanks.

(What's playing: Billy Bragg St. Monday)

Potts and pans...

2011-09-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

I recently built up a really sweet new Steve Potts 29"er with a Type II fork. While I was building it, another Potts 29"er single-speed with Type II fork was in the stand for work. It was super coincidental that the owner of the new Potts decided to order a frame from Steve after seeing the image of the Potts with the lt. blue Type II in this post from a year ago and that I was building his just finished bike at the same time the Potts SS was in the shop for some work. Small world. Smaller world in that the new owner was in town from overseas to pick up his bike at the same time his inspiration was in the shop.

The dusty Potts inspired the new owner of the Potts in the background to order it.

The new one and the old one.

And all finished and ready to ride.

The Type II fork really lends itself to a 2-tone paint scheme.

Ten-speed XTR: so smooth.

White Industries VBC crankset.

Point 1 Racing pedals: super low profile.

Moots seat post.

Good chain stay clearance with the 2.2 Maxxis Ikon tires.

A little something that will be adorning the front end of the Potts single-speed. Hmmm...

(What's playing: KWMR and Coast Highway Blues - if you love the blues, you should check this show out on Wednesdays from 8:30-10:30)

My newest favorite ride...

2011-09-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to pedal to the top of Tam on the dirt on my road bike for some time. The problem is that the most road bike-able dirt road up Tam is Railroad grade, which starts in Mill Valley, a good almost 2 hour pedal just to get to the start. So I pulled out the map and, "oh, what's this?" I see that there's a fire road called Old Stagecoach Fire Road that begins at the intersection of Panoramic Highway and Pantoll Rd. that takes one over to Railroad Grade at West Point Inn.

The new favorite ride is to pedal south on Highway 1 to Stinson Beach and climb Panoramic Highway to the top where Pantoll Rd. intersects. Then jump on Old Stagecoach Fire Rd. to Railroad Grade up to the top of the East Peak of Mt. Tam. The climb up those two dirt roads on the road bike is perfect. There are sections of Old Stagecoach that are flat and one can simply big ring motor up the dirt. There's something really elevating about riding fast on a dirt road on your road bike.

Yesterday's ride consisted of the pedal up to East Peak via Old Stagecoach/Railroad Grade, then back down (which is a misnomer because there are plenty of "ups" on Ridgecrest coming off East Peak) Ridgecrest to Bo-Fax Rd. and over to Fairfax. In Fairfax, I take a little breather pedaling easy through the back streets, fueling up on some Clif Bloks, then on to Sir Francis Drake over White's Hill, through the San Geronimo Valley. I always take the Cross Marin Trail through Sam Taylor Park because part of it is dirt and, well, I loves me some dirt road riding. To get back to Point Reyes, I usually take Platform Bridge Rd. to Point Reyes-Petaluma Rd. All told, that loop is 60 miles and has plenty of climbing. My new favorite loop. Just need 4+ hours set aside to do it. There's a lot of climbing, but I like climbing because I like descending.

The south end of Bolinas Lagoon.

Climbing Panoramic Hwy. just out of Stinson Beach. The fog pressed down all the way until I got to Stagecoach Fire Rd.

About half way up Panoramic. There are some really steep drop-offs off the side of the road up here.

Ah, the sun. A view of Mt. Tam and the observatory.

East Peak and the fog line.

Climbing Old Stagecoach Fire Rd.

Three cyclists coming up Ridgecrest as I was descending. The fog was doing a pretty good job of hanging on and keeping the temps down.

I kinda like the b/w version too.

This won't let me plot the route on the dirt, but it's close.

View Larger Map

(What's playing: R.E.M. Wolves, Lower)

Fat Friday...

2011-08-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

Got some new fat tires in the shop. Not fat like these fat tires, but fat for their intended installation application. What I got was a shipment of Kenda Happy Medium 700 x 40 tires that had been on my watch list with a distributor for a long, long, long time. They finally arrived and I snapped up several sets. They look pretty good for hard pack riding. The 40mm size will fit nicely in my cross frames. They're decent light at about 480g. Promising. I do hate to pull off perfectly good tires just to run a new set, but maybe...my back tire is getting a bit worn down.

Actual measurements on a Velocity A23 rim are 40mm knob-to-knob and 38mm wide casing.

Good clearance on my cross frames.

Minimal tread should roll well. Should also wear fairly well since the knobs are pyramid shaped so they shouldn't get torn off and should wear just like any other low-tread tire; better than you usually think.

Also got in some 700 x 28 Clement Strada LLG 120tpi tires. They too look very promising. Remember Clement? I do. I had a bike that had Clement del Mundo Seta tires. Those tires were pretty fat too and boy did they ride nicely. If I say "they make that sound" when they roll, you know what I mean. The del Mundos make that sound and so do these new Strada tires. It's a very cool sound. You owe it to yourself to experience the sound. The actual width measurement on a Velocity A23 rim is about 27mm.

Old school file tread.

(What's playing: Beastie Boys Fight For Your Right)

Genuine Trek Replacement Parts...

2011-08-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

That's right. Black Mountain Cycles frames are genuine Trek replacement parts. For evidence I present the Trek Pilot something or other. What it is is a silver aluminum frame with carbon seatstay and a replaceable derailleur hanger. What this Trek didn't have is a strong enough dropout that was attached to the chainstay and seat stay. Seems when push came to shove and the derailleur was wrapping itself around the cassette and spokes, that the derailleur and the replaceable derailleur hanger ripped the part of the frame that the replaceable derailleur hanger is supposed to protect right off.

You see, a replaceable derailleur hanger is supposed to break in case of unfortunate incident, thereby saving both the derailleur and the frame. Not in this case. Both the derailleur and the hanger are unscathed. The frame, on the other hand...

This is where a Black Mountain Cycles road frame becomes the replacement for the Trek frame. I swapped the parts from the Trek to a 59cm champagne road frame. Virtually all of the parts transferred very nicely. The customer picked up his bike, went on a little test ride and came back saying "wow, that's a great, smooth riding bike. I LIKE IT!" Cool.

You can get that feeling too with your own road or cross frame. Everyone digs how they ride, even the guy with two Seven road bikes. That's got to say something. Don't be left out.

There's not much material on that dropout around the hole for the bolt to secure the replaceable hanger.

This is the part that's supposed to break (in theory).

I have to give a nod to an old co-worker who came up with an ad for Haro Bikes that never ran. It featured a photo of a Haro bike with the headline "GENUINE GT REPLACEMENT PARTS." Always thought that was clever.

(What's playing: KWMR's Coast Highway Blues)

My bikes will take 1/2 hour off your riding time...

2011-08-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

That's right. My cross bike will take 1/2 hour off your two hour loop. Imagine that. A full 25% faster. All these big-shot fancy bike companies are spending untold monies trying to develop a faster bike and all they needed was one of my cross bikes.

I built up one of my cross frames with a 9-speed Shimano kit recentily (Tiagra shifters, Sugino triple crank, 12-36 cassette, WTB Pathway tires...) and the new owner informed me that she was riding her 2 hour loop a full 30 minutes faster. Okay, her previous bike was an older mountain bike with suspension fork and knobby tires, but those tires were worn down so they were almost like slicks. When she presented me with this info after a few rides, I asked her what was she going to do with all this extra time she was going to have now that her rides were faster. "Ride more!" was her reply.

So, if you are looking to maximize your time on the bike by either mileage or time in the saddle, my bikes will give you that maximization. Your mileage may vary.

This isn't her bike, but this is a recent road bike build for an old riding buddy. He's not old. Well, I guess we are all older now. We used to ride a lot in the 80's and that was almost 30 years ago. Anyway, he had me build up a single speed road bike for him. White Industries Eno Eccentric hub with White freewheel, SRAM crankset, Velocity A23 rims, Thomson stem, well, not too complicated build - it is a single speed. I'm sure he's going to knock his times down too.

(What's playing: KWMR's Faultline Radio)

King wheelset...

2011-08-23T15:10:00.000-07:00

Just got done building a new wheelset. Thought I'd offer a special deal to readers of the blog or Facebook. As the wheelset sits, it's an $800 wheelset. I'm offering it for $750 shipped to the lower 48 to anyone who says they saw it here or on Facebook. And as special incentive, if you are a reader of the blog and can answer the following question, you'll save an additional $50. That's right, $700 shipped to the lower 48 by answering correctly: What size are the photographs that the blind judge can't see in Alice's Restaurant?

Wheel specs: King classic wheelset with Velocity A23 rims, 32h, 130 spacing, DT Competition 2.0/1.8 spokes w/ alloy DT nipples - $750 shipped to the lower 48.

(What's playing: Buddy Guy Red House)

What's in the stand...

2011-08-17T20:51:00.000-07:00

Not what you're expecting. That's what. Sometimes it's not all Potts and Cunningham and Salsa and ... I find it interesting that there exists some bike shops that wouldn't even allow a specimen like this to enter their door. Granted there are some shops that are what would be called "pro only" and that's like taking your rusted out '68 Ford pick up to the Porsche mechanic. No, there are some shops that would see these bikes as too far gone and I understand that.

On the surface, besides the rust, they look to be in horrible shape. But the owner of the two in the stand only wants them to get through the upcoming Burning Man event held somewhere out in the desert of Nevada. Not my cup of tea, but these bikes have been there and back several times. And it appears that's the only place they get ridden because they were there last year and came to me with the same playa dust they collected in 2010 and probably the same dust under that from 2009.

And actually, with a judicious amount of Triflow and one new chain, they are functioning just fine. Oh sure, one has a front derailleur that won't shift to the granny, but last I heard the playa was dead nuts flat. Don't think the granny's going to be required. So long bikes, I'll see you next year.

The yeller bike is a different story. No playa dust. Just needs to be resurrected. With all the vegetation and insect like critters on it, it might have been better off seeing an exterminator and gardener first. Spiders and earwigs have made a safe haven for a few years, but they will soon get the eviction notice in the form of a mild degreaser/cleaner and a blast of water.

Yep, sometimes, bike like these keep the ole lights on.

(What's playing: KWMR Coast Highway Blues)

HTC hitting the high road...

2011-08-09T07:44:00.000-07:00

I hope I'm not the first to come up with that line: "HTC hitting the high road." It's too easy. And quite frankly, I'm really not that interested in what is going on at any level of cycling (or sport) with regards to sponsorship. Sponsorship is a very difficult thing to gauge in terms of ROI. Sure, your name gets blasted out there, but does that really net you an increase in income greater than what you spent. And what if you are not a title sponsor, but a small sponsor that gets a tiny piece of real estate on a bike jersey? In cycling, sponsors line up to adorn jerseys because they want to support the sport.

I do, however, follow racing. Road much more than mountain bike racing. But not fervently. I read the recap of the day's stages from the tour after it had happened. I did enjoy reading about Thor defending his yellow jersey and it was great to read about Cadel capturing the overall in dramatic fashion on the second to last day.

So, HTC-Highroad. They were the title sponsor of the team with more wins since the team founded than any other team during that period. Should be a slam dunk for a sponsor to renew, right? Well, maybe only if you know who the heck HTC-Highroad is. I didn't. Guess I didn't following racing close enough. I learned HTC is a maker of mobile phones. Hmmm, go figure. I haven't had a cell phone for 4 years and other than an iPhone, couldn't tell you the names of any other cell phones out there.

I just googled HTC and went to their website for the first time, just now. Nothing on it obvious about them sponsoring the winningest cycling team. I do know the name HTC, just didn't know what they made or sold and only because I've read about the team and seen the pictures.

And what pictures! Oh, pictures that make a sponsor proud. Pictures of your star rider arms up in victory salute crossing the line first. Pictures of your star rider flipping off the camera. Okay, emotions are high in a race, it's a heat-of-the-moment thing. The rider can be forgiven if he apolgizes. But wait, this isn't a photo taken during an adrenaline charged sprint finish. This photo is a studio shot that was surely carefully calculated. It's a full-on "fuck you" to the viewer of the photo. There's no hint of sarcasm or joking around.

As a sponsored athlete, you are representing the brands that adorn your jersey. They are you, you are them. I'm sure the failed sponsorship negotiations weren't caused exactly by that photo, but I'm sure it didn't help matters. That photo not only shows the disregard Mark Cavendish has for his fans (of which, I am definitely not one now), but the disregard he has for the people who pay his wages. If Velonews, sorry, Velo, wanted to set up this shot with Cav flipping the camera off, they really should have had him dress in street clothes. With the shot that was published, both Cav and Velo disrespected not only the reader, but the sponsors of HTC-Highroad as well.

(What's playing: Bob Dylan Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat)

Joe's ride...

2011-07-29T10:01:00.000-07:00

Remember Joe? Well, Joe turns 76 this year and to celebrate, he is pedalling 760 km up and down the east side of Vancouver Island in B.C. Every year, for the past several, Joe has undertaken a lengthy tour to benefit local West Marin non-profit organizations. This year, the beneficiaries are The Dance Palace and KWMR, two great local, community organizations.

Joe started his ride a couple of days ago and is updating a blog with tales from the road. Check out Joe's Vancouver Ride and follow Joe and his wife Mo, who's driving the sag wagon. And then go to either KWMR or The Dance Palace and make your donation. Both organizations will split all donations 50/50.

Here's Joe and Mo before they headed out of town.

(What's playing: Talking Heads Television Man)

What's in the stand...

2011-07-19T22:28:00.000-07:00

This turned out super sweet. Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know, it's a mountain bike with slicks, but no one would say word one if I fit knobby cross tires on my road bike. They'd simply say "cool!" But the most important thing is this is going to get ridden. Ken contacted me from Grand Rapids, MI and wanted me to build his bike after the frame was painted by Cyclart. I'm pretty damn honored to be involved in this project. I think the mixing of old and new on this bike turned out great.

What's old: The frame is a Tom Teesdale built Fisher Mt. Tam. It's fillet-brazed and Cyclart did a great job painting it. The color choice is perfect match to the parts. The other parts that are old are the old "no-logo" King headset, Gary Helfrich made Arctos polished titanium stem; and WTB ti bars. The Suntour roller-cam brake is also original to the bike. A WTB roller-cam would be the icing, but they are about as rare as hen's teeth. As it is, the Suntour brake set up really nice and I don't think anyone, including Charlie, would be able to tell it's not a WTB brake in a blind brake test.

What's new: XTR 10-speed drivetrain and pedals with White Industries VBC crankset and MI5 hubs, Velocity Synergy rims, Paul Components Neo-Retro front brake with the Paul canti levers.

It's going to be a shame to box it up and send it off to Grand Rapids (Velocity USA is in Grand Rapids) as it's such a neat bike.

Now that's polished!

Attention to detail: orienting the Brooks logos left and right so they are readable.

Interesting double grooved seat collar.

(What's playing: KWMR Faultline Radio: Random Music Played Randomly)

Dude, you left your seat bag...

2011-07-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

To the guy with the T-Mobile Giant who broke your SLR seat, your seat bag is here. E-mail me with your address and I'll mail it to you along with your seat post if you want that back too.

(What's playing: Elvis Costello Party Girl)

What's in the stand, Thursday edition...

2011-07-14T07:09:00.000-07:00

Another day, another sweet bike in the stand. This time it's a Pegoretti 'Day Is Done.' This particular one was exhibited at the 2011 NAHBS show in Austin. I really like the orange tones on the gray paint. It also looks and feels like it's going to be a great rider. This particular frame came to me to be built with Campagnolo Record 11 after being purchased from another great Marin shop, Above Category.

(What's playing: Luther Wright & The Wrongs The Happiest Day Of Our Lives)

What's in the stand...

2011-07-13T07:32:00.000-07:00

Custom touring bike. That's what's in the stand. This one is a custom touring/rando frame from Palermo Cycles in Baltimore, MD. The owner started this a while back and in the mean time moved from the DC area to Marin, got married, had a kid, sent the kid to college - kidding about the last one, but up to then I was serious. Just had a kid this weekeend - congratulations Nathan and Meghan!

It built up very nice. Only one hiccup with the length of the front rack mount, but that was easily solved. The only thing I would change would be to use standard butyl tubes. The latex tubes air down too fast and for a long distance rider, you would need to pay closer attention to them to maintain proper air pressure. On to photos...

Bike's built, on to the fender install.

The seatstay bridge is pretty neat and mimics the double plate look of the fork crown.

Racks next with a Nitto M18 that will be swapped for a Nitto Campee for touring.

There's too much threaded rod from the M18 rack behind the fork so in its final form, there will be a spacer at the front to make this flush. The spacer will also tip the rack forward which will also make it level. Racks have to be level.

Nice dropouts and dropout detail.

Mud flap on front fender.

(What's playing: Democracy Now! on KWMR)

Let's move on to water bottles...

2011-07-06T07:17:00.000-07:00

I received a water bottle in the mail recently. It kind of confused me. There was a top and there was another top. The second top was on the bottom and you couldn't drink out of it. What the... Then I read the literature. Yes, it had literature - for a water bottle. The bottom top was so the bottle could be cleaned. Clean water bottles? I removed both the top top and bottom top and tried cleaning it, but still couldn't get my hand inside to clean it.

Which end up? One too many parts.

I've been a fan of Specialized water bottles since day one. We sold them at the shop I worked at in the '80s. I sell them in my shop today. I'm not a Specialized dealer, but I sell Specialized water bottles. They just feel right. They fit into King Cages perfectly. The top screws down and doesn't leak. The poppet closes with no leaking and opens easily with my teeth. And most important, when you squeeze the bottle fluid drains into your mouth (provided it's aimed into your mouth). And when you squeeze it, it has just the right feel - not hard plasticy, not too soft, just right.

There's lots of bottles folks use out on the bike. From 1l store bought plastic bottles fit into vintage Blackburn/WTB Bomber cages to stainless bottles, there's lots of options. However, both of those options don't work that great for me on the bike. The purpose of the bicycle mounted water bottle is to drink on the fly. Reach down, pull out, squirt, swallow, reinsert. The method of securing the 1l bottles requires an additional rubber loop fit around the top. Technically, you can reach down, unloop, pull out, squirt (with "sports top"), swallow, reinsert, fiddle with rubber loop, and continue riding. By that time, I've probably wandered off road or off trail or crashed.

The stainless water bottles are supposed to fit into a standard water bottle cage, but metal on metal - the scraping sound of the bottle out of the cage is like fingernails on a chalkboard or teeth on popsicle sticks. And then there's the rattle of the bottle in the cage. There is a custom cage that fits the stainless bottle nicely. But there's still a problem. Reach down, pull out, squirt - oh wait, you can't squeeze a stainless bottle, you have to suck. And while I'm riding, I'm already sucking wind and combining that with trying to suck water out of the top usually produces oxygen deprivation followed by blacking out and then wandering off road or off trail.

So there I am, using the same bottle type I've used for closing in on 3 decades. I can reach down, pull it out, hydrate, and reinsert without looking. It's intuitive and fast. It just works. It's easily cleaned without having a bottom top. Just a bit of hot water, some dish soap, shake vigorously, squirt out the top to clean that too, rinse, and it's ready to go another round. And if you do find yourself negligent in your bottle cleaning duties and a bit of grunge starts growing that isn't removed by standard cleaning forms, a spot of clorox in a bottle filled with water and left standing for a few hours will clean out that bottle just like bleach cleans your whitey-tighteys. No streaks. And if you rinse thoroughly, there's no bleach taste. Well, at least none that bothers me.

And all this leads up to the sales portion of today's post - Black Mountain Cycles water bottles made by Specialized are still and will continue to be for sale. Large bottles are $7 and small bottles are $6. Get 'em now. And if you order a road or cross frame, I'll throw in a bottle, gratis.

And then here's a Black Mountain Cycles bottle in the wild that's sure to be the envy of every bottle out there - mounted to a classic 1984 Bruce Gordon on the flanks of Mt. San Bruno overlooking San Francisco and the bay yesterday. Thanks to Robbins for the use of the photo of his bike.

(What's playing: Joe Jackson It's Different For Girls)

More on the frame pump...

2011-06-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

One of the blogs/web sites I read regularly is Red Kite Prayer and the pieces by the site owner/manager, Padraig. I followed his writing before RKP began when he contributed to Belgium Knee Warmers (sure would like to see Radio Freddy crank it up again). I was caught off-guard one day, a while back, when Radio Freddy sent me an e-mail telling me that he appreciated what I was posting on my blog and that he dug what I was doing with the shop. I thought that was pretty damn nice of his to take the time to send me that e-mail.

RKP is chock full of good writing and opinions on the sport and the equipment. I'm more of an equipment guy so I most appreciate their "machine" bits. The most recent piece filed under machine was on the piece of cycling equipment that is fast becoming extinct - the frame pump.

I've always carried a full-sized frame pump on my bike. And that's one of the reasons why I also included pump pegs on both my road and cross frames. I may not use it much on the road (one time in the past 4 years), but when I do need it, it's there and it's reliable. While the classic Silca pump with Campy pump head painted to match your frame is just about the coolest, I carry a decades old Zefal HP-X pump. I use a Jandd frame pump strap to add a little extra security to avoid pump ejection while riding dirt roads. The Jandd strap is a little wider than most and has a piece of neoprene that fits between the pump and the frame to keep the pump from wearing the paint off the frame. And it keeps it all nice and quiet.

I closed last Sunday to attend Bruce Gordon's "Another Big Stinkin' Handbuilt Whoop-de-doo" and to also ride in the morning with guys I never get to ride with. I spent a good part of the first half of the ride in the back riding and talking with a friend I've never ridden with and part of the conversation was about frame pumps. There was a lot of steel bikes on this ride and plenty of frame pumps. Guys who've ridden a lot and know what it takes to make it back from a ride on the desolate West Marin/West Sonoma roads.

While reading RKP's "The Frame Pump," I happened to also notice one of the comments was from someone who was happy to discover that his Masi Gran Criterium had a pump peg. I'm pretty sure he's referencing a new aluminum Masi and not an older steel one because I have a 1980 Gran Criterium and there's no pump peg and I've had a 1973 Gran Criterium and there was no pump peg. And I do know for a fact that the new generation of aluminum Masis have pump pegs because I put them there. When I was creating the frame designs for the Masi line, the pump peg is one of the little touches I included on all frames that had space behind the head tube for a pump peg. So I was pretty stoked that cwcushman digs that fact that his bike has a pump peg.

Not all my frames have pump pegs. My old Bridgestone RB-1 doesn't, but with the seat stay attachment, it allows me to fit the pump up with side of the left seat stay using the quick release as the peg. It's clean and out of the way.

And speaking of frame pumps that are painted to match, it doesn't get any cooler than this 1983 Salsa custom with Silca Impero frame pump painted in the same pouf-de-flage paint as the frame.

(What's playing: KWMR Ridin' The Rails)

Thursday update...

2011-06-23T08:51:00.000-07:00

I was out of large, XL, and XXL t-shirts for a while, but they are being printed today or tomorrow. Hopefully, by the weekend I'll have t-shirts here and ready. For the folks who have ordered on-line, I'll have them mailed out to you on Monday. Sorry for the delay.

What I am not out of are frames. Well, I am out of certain colors in certain sizes, but I do still have road and cross frames in every size available. Don't let your summer get too far gone without getting your Black Mountain Cycles frame on. Here's a quick list of available frames:

Cross brown - all sizes available.
Cross orange - one 50cm and I did discover I have one more 53cm orange available.
Road orange - all sizes available.
Road champagne - 50cm, 59cm, and only one 62cm frame available.

As some inspiration, here are some photos of Derek's cross bike in it's natural element in Kamloops, B.C. Yeah, he also flies that whirlybird thing. Pretty dang cool.

And in other news, if you are in the area this Sunday, June 26, make it a point to head to Petaluma for "Another Big Stinkin' Handbuilt Whoop-de-doo" in Bruce Gordon's parking lot. Some great folks will be there with their wares. There's also a ride leaving Petaluma of two distances at 8:00 a.m. More info at Bruce Gordon Cycles. I do believe I'll be at both the whoop-de-doo with some stuff to sell (miscellaneous bike parts) and the ride.
(What's playing: KWMR)

Preconceived notions...

2011-06-16T06:58:00.000-07:00

A reply from Alex to my "Labels" post prompted the recollection of an event over 20 years ago. Years ago, working at Pacific Coast Cycles, we got a call from someone from Rolling Stone magazine saying that their staff was having a west coast retreat/meeting and wanted to go on a mountain bike ride, could we help them get bikes and take them on a ride?

We didn't rent bikes, but we did have a lot of friends who had bikes and some who had multiple bikes. So we rounded up a bunch of bikes and told the Rolling Stone folks to meet us at the end of Sorrento Valley Blvd. for a ride through Penasquitos Canyon. This was at a time when Sorrento Valley Blvd. dead ended at the head of the canyon and there were no houses gracing the mesa tops. A pretty great time.

Because we were Pacific Coast Cycles and several of us had our mountain bikes set up with drop bars and many of our customers and friends did the same, what we brought to the ride was an assortment of mountain bikes with drop bars and flat bars. We didn't dwell on the fact that some bikes had strange motorcycle-like bars when explaining how the brakes and shifting worked.

We matched up bikes to riders and off we went. A bunch of grown-ups hootin' and hollerin' and having a great time riding bikes on a dirt road through a canyon in the middle of San Diego County, but a million miles away. Like Alex's non-mountain bike riding friend, there was no talk of tire size, gearing... Nope, we just rode bikes and had a great time. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Labels, we like labels...

2011-06-14T20:20:00.000-07:00

I had originally planned a post similar to this one. Thought about it last week and was going to write it on Monday, the same day that other post came out. But after reading that post and the comments and receiving the latest "Bicycle Retailer and Industry News" that had a cover story titled "Surge in 29er sales points to continued market shift," I thought about the concept of a 29" wheeled bike being simply a mountain bike differently.

We like labels. We like to name things. It's how we communicate and describe things. I'm typing this into my Mac, not my computer. I rode my road bike this morning and then rode my cargo bike to work. I enjoy an IPA or a stout. Interesting about beer labels. If you're into micro-brews, it's okay to refer to the beer as the type of beer it is: IPA, stout, trippel, pilsner, porter... Just like with wines. However, if you're drinking a Bud or PBR, you're drinking a Bud or PBR, not an "American style lager."

There are a lot of labels in the bike industry. I've been in meetings wholly devoted to labeling categories. You think it should be easy. But no. It takes some serious time to come up with "XC Sport" and then decide which models fit that category. It gets even more dicey when bike models with the same model name series fit into different categories.

Where last week, I was in the camp of a 29"er being simply a mountain bike, this week it can be whatever you want it to be in order for you to enjoy riding it. I'm okay with a 29"er being a 29"er and not just a mountain bike. I'm not a big fan of "monster cross," but I use it to describe my cross frame in print. Verbally, it's just a "cross" bike. Like a monster truck is a truck with bigger tires, a monster cross bike is a cross bike with bigger tires. The mental picture works.

I'm not a fan of labels in general, but they serve a purpose. A segment of the industry that does need more labels is in the import reporting of bike companies. There, a 29"er is classified as "road" because the rim size is 700c. Time to break down all those categories and add more useful categories so that a better picture of what's being imported and sold is understood. Right now "road" is up 30%. But really that's because the 29" mountain bike category is kicking some ass.

And because I like pictures, we finally have had warm summer weather here. I even left the house this morning without a vest and it got so warm Sunday morning that I removed knee and arm warmers mid-ride!

(What's playing: KWMR Faultline Radio: Random Music Played Randomly)

Rabbit - Hat ...

2011-06-13T18:04:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, you just have to pull a rabbit out of the hat and write a post. Sometimes. But not all the time. I had planned to write something about 29"ers and then just today saw a p ost that pretty much summed up what I was going to write. Also today, my copy of "Bicycle Retailer and Industry News" showed up with a lead story on the same subject. I'll regroup and come up with something different but the same.

Instead, today, I'll pull a rabbit out of the hat. Basically, create something out of nothing. Heck Seinfeld did it for years and I'm not proud...or tired. I'm not usually one for posting something that isn't something I would want to read. Maybe this falls into that category, but it is interesting and it is helpful to the right person.

Here in Marin there are a lot of folks who have been riding their mountain bikes for many years. When they started riding, they may have been young. Now they're old. That position on the bike that felt good 20 years ago sometimes doesn't feel so good today. I feel lucky I'm still comfortable in my same position. But many people don't ride continuously for that many years so they bring their bikes to me and ask about a more comfortable (upright) position.

My number one, go-to, position refiner for these older mountain bikes is a new handlebar. The new bar is a riser bar with 40 degree of back sweep. It's not strong enough for serious off-road riding, but works just fine for light trail use and cruising to town. The shape puts the rider both up and back. Perfect. And every rider has dug the new position.

(What's playing: Texas Tornados Velma From Selma)

This is one BIG bike...

2011-06-02T09:20:00.000-07:00

So many 29" wheeled bikes look a bit awkward because trying to fit big wheels in smaller frames give the bike an unbalanced look. The wheel size overpowers the frame size and trying to keep the bars low enough is challenging. Well, this bike had no problems with that. It's a huge frame that perfectly fits its 6'6" rider. The frame size is so big and with the large wheels, well, it just looks like a perfectly proportioned bike. The build is simple: XT 9-speed group, Fox fork w/ 15mm thru axle, White Industries hubs, Salsa Semi rims, WTB ExiWolf tires, WTB Pure V seat, Cane Creek Thudbuster LT post, Thomson stem and Ritchey bars. Simple and built to last a long damn time. The head tube is so tall that with two 10mm spacers and the Thomson stem, I only had to cut 5mm off the fork steerer tube.

This is the first frame Steve built with 1" diameter chainstays (7/8" is the norm). You can see how the stay is formed at the end to fit up to the dropout.

(What's playing: Neil Diamond Solitary Man)

It hasn't rained every day...

2011-06-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

I was just treated to a June 1 burst of rain for the past couple hours. The rain pattern has been disturbingly random the past week. Then there's also the matter of the wind when it's not raining. It's hard enough to get out on the bike in the rain (so I haven't), but when it's not raining, the wind, last week, has been in the 15-25mph range with gusts on my favorite road loops up into the 30's. Luckily, there is a great cross loop that is out of the wind most of the ride and when you do pop out in to the wind you either get a tail wind on a climb or a head wind on a descent. Either way, not bad.

Here's some photos of that cross loop taken between squalls.

The ceanothus has been going off.

The rain has kept the hillside grasses nice and green through May.

This pond on the top of Mt. Vision is like one of those pools fancy rich people have that overlook the coast with the vanishing edge. This view over Drake's Bay is free to anyone willing to climb to the top.

From the top of Mt. Vision overlooking Black Mountain and the south end of Tomales Bay.

Looking south to Mt. Wittenberg and there's the Inverness Ridge Trail which is a rip-roarin' fun trail for the cross bike.

Not sure what this is at the top of Mt. Vision, but I think it's some sort of aviation transmitter/receiver site.

(What's playing: The Replacements Achin' To Be)

Cross build available...

2011-05-27T07:58:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to get various sizes of cross and road bikes built for folks to check out. Here's a cross bike I put together. It represents a lower cost version of the #1 cross build kit with a few things changed like the seat, hubs, rims, brakes, cassette, tires... Still a very nice build, but comes out to $130 less at $1865. Size 59. Could be yours...

Avid SD v-brakes w/ appropriate pull levers, WTB Pathway tires, Woodchipper 31.8 46cm bars. I put it together with v-brakes because, well, because I wanted to. I think it turned out pretty nice. My personal preference is for cantilever brakes, but these are nice and manage speed nicely.

WTB Speed V seat w/ cr-mo rails, HG50 cassette, Salsa Delgado Cross rims with Deore hubs and DT Competition butted spokes, triple Sugino crankset, SLX rear derailleur.

Pretty tall bar position, but I wanted to let a customer ride it and knew he would appreciate the position. He settled on a custom build Fargo that I'll be putting together this afternoon. He did say he loved how my bike rode, but really wanted something with a suspension fork, which the new Fargo frame allows.

(What's playing: The Beastie Boys The New Style)

Black and white is the new pink...

2011-05-25T11:28:00.000-07:00

Put together two really nice mountain bikes this past week. Black and white. One old. One new. Both California. One SoCal. One NorCal. Both named after an animal. One sea living. One land living.

The Yeti is a mid/late 80s F.R.O. I've never really got into Yeti during their early years when the Mountain Bike Action crowd fawned over them. They were heavy, they used a BMX headset, and the editors of MBA loved them while they panned the bikes that I loved from the NorCal builders whose bikes I rode. And today when people "restore" these old Yetis, they use way too many anodized parts. This Yeti, however, turned out really nice. Very understated in its parts choice and color.

The Rock Lobster from Santa Cruz's Paul Sadoff is a very clean, understated, 29" wheel single-speed built with the best parts from Northern California: Phil Wood, Paul Components, White Industries.

(What's playing: Sean Wheeler & Zander Schloss Spiritual)

Pink is the new pink...

2011-05-18T06:59:00.000-07:00

Or whatever that phrase is supposed to mean. Black is the new black. It does seem that anti-freeze green is the new black this year. Whatever. It's still ugly. What's not ever ugly is a pink bike. Started in 1985 by Specialized with their Stumpjumper Team model, pink has always been a bike color that demands of its rider one thing: to ride the legs off any one who dares to sit on your wheel. And do it silently with just your legs doing the talking. I've never been able to manage that fitness so I've never had a pink bike.

This iconic pink bike made its way through the shop recently. It's been raced all over the world at many Single-Speed World Championships. In fact, here's a photo I took of it being raced at the Napa edition of the race and some shop shots.

The RM-3 (aka the Ibis) bar.

Lookit all that clearance around those chainstay mounted roller-cams with a full 2.1 tire. The brakes follow the contour of the chainstay.

Now that's a straight chainline.

Mom always put my name on my clothes, but not my bike parts.

(What's playing: The Beatles I've Got A Feeling)

What's behind you...

2011-05-16T09:45:00.000-07:00

What's ahead of you? Mirrors and bicycles. Some folks can't ride without a rear view mirror. I can't drive a car without a rear view mirror. Probably spend as much time looking back as looking forward. Not because I'm worried about being caught speeding, because I keep my speed within that range that doesn't get you ticketed. I spend a lot of time looking back while driving because there is a lot going on on multi-lane roads and I want to make sure if I need to move/turn left or right, I want to do it so I don't upset the balance of traffic.

I don't utilize a mirror on a bike. Why? Don't know. Just don't. I've never felt the need. I sell mirrors and there are a few I like to sell because they seem to work well for folks who like them. But when they ask me what I use or recommend, I simply say I don't use one.

What I do use on the bike are my ears. I ride in a consistent manner, never swerving around or riding all squirrely. I also usually ride solo so I'm not worrying about moving over because I'm riding two abreast.

The main reason I don't use a mirror is my wonder at "what does it really do?" Sure, you can see what's behind you. But what do you do with that information? Move over? I'm already over. Bail off the road because something's coming up? Bail off where? There's no shoulders out here. Some sections, if you bailed off, you'd sail off a cliff or down a ravine or into a thicket of poison oak.

I hear some folks say they move off the road and stop when they see a vehicle coming up behind them. Somehow, I doubt that vehicle would have hit the rider and that could be moving off the road every 30 seconds. Although, I'm sure some folks would swear they would have been hit if they hadn't moved off the road. And for that, I don't doubt their feeling because they say the vehicle went by without moving over after they bailed. And why should it move over after you bailed? It had no reason to move over any more. My hope is that the driver doesn't expect that action of every cyclist they come across because I'm not bailing.

But if you want a mirror, I'm happy to sell you one of the few I stock.

(What's playing: Boston Don't Look Back)

Project 18 pound...

2011-05-15T17:52:00.000-07:00

"Don't ask me what I think of you I might not give you the answer that you want me to." Oh wait, that's a song lyric. What I meant to say is don't ask me how much my bike weighs because I don't know. I think I weighed it once, but promptly forgot. So it was an interesting task that was bestowed on me to build one of my frames up to weigh 18 pounds without pedals. One aid was to forgo my steel fork (which with a 1 1/8" steerer tube does add a bit of weight, but rides great) in favor of a carbon Seven fork the prospective owner already had. The length was within a few millimeters of the stock fork so handling won't be changed.

It's been such a long time since I looked at weights of components. My research came up with a SRAM Force build. Compared to Ultegra, the Force parts (shifters, derailleurs, cranks) are quite a bargain compared to Ultegra and also weigh quite a bit less to boot. Double bonus. So, here she is. All 18 pounds 6 ounces (without pedals or other gear) packed onto a 62cm frame. Pretty damn good. Handbuilt wheels with Velocity A23 rims, White Industries hubs, 32 spokes front and rear, brass nipples, DT Revolution spokes up front and on the left rear, DT Competition spokes on the right rear, Conti 4-Season 25c tires. Ritchey WCS alloy seat post and stem. Salsa 46cm bar. Salsa quick releases with stainless shafts. Just a bunch of good, quality components that will last a long time. Nothing chosen because it was stupid light. And it turned out to be a great looking bike.

And now that I've spent about a half hour watching various covers of "Oh Well," here's the original and a pretty great cover by Tom Petty.

(What's playing: John Stewart July, You're A Woman)

Road bike review...

2011-05-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

There's a nice review of the Black Mountain Cycles road (and cross) frameset available in the spring issue of the Marin County Bicycle Coalition's "Pedal Press." Check out the pdf of the issue at the following link. The review is located on page 22. Black Mountain Cycles review.

Here's a picture of James' road bike taken recently up in Mammoth. There's a heck of a lot of snow up there that hasn't melted yet. Really cool shot.

Also got a really nice call from the owner of a Black Mountain Cycles frame from Utah who called to say he is loving the ride of the bike. Very cool. Thanks!

(What's playing: Monsters of Folk Magic Marker)

Hey Nick, you forgot to include...

2011-05-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

Granted, I'm far off Nick's radar, but it's really not so difficult to find road frames with clearances for fatter tires. I've got a stack of them. And they can take up to a 33 tire, easily. I enjoy Nick Legan's column in Velo News, although some of the questions are becoming a little mundane. In the "not mundane" category is one of today's questions: "Where can I get a road frame with clearance for fatter tires that I can race?"

Part of the issue may lie in the belief that in the year 2011, a "race" bike is assumed to be carbon fiber. And once someone has it in their mind that in order to be competitive, one needs to have the lightest machine and that machine has to have a carbon fiber frame. Heck, just this week Cannondale unveiled their new race frame that weighs in at 685 grams! Holy Frack! I remember when a light carbon road frame was one that weighed under 1 kilo. Why design something that then needs to have weights dropped down the seat tube to bring it up to the UCI minimum weight? Oh well, not going to go there.

The writer of the question about tire clearances pointed out an important feature that manufacturers do no take advantage of to offer more tire size versatility in their frames (and forks). Too many road frames and forks are designed around short reach (39mm - 49mm) that do not take advantage of designing so that the brake pads get mounted at the bottom of the slot. If they did this, all of these frames could easily take a 25 - 28 tire. But no, the brake pads are invariably positioned at the top of the slot making even a 25 a tight fit.

So, to answer the question "where can I get a road bike that I can race that has clearance for 28 tires," I can answer "at Black Mountain Cycles." A steel road bike is just as raceable as a carbon bike. It's not the machine. It's the engine. And I guarantee that if you show up at a road race with a steel bike, you will be seen as a bad-ass, bucking the trend. Just make sure your engine is tuned properly.

These photos are in the previous post, but they do show off the clearance of my frames nicely.

That's a 33.333 tire in there.

The brake is a standard reach caliper (47mm - 57mm) with the pads at the bottom of the slot. Lots of clearance with a 33.3mm tire.

(What's playing: KWMR Morning Glory)

Some recent builds and info...

2011-05-03T10:13:00.000-07:00

The owner of the cross bike I built several weeks ago has been by several times. Each time he tells me how much fun he's having riding the bike and how great it rides. Really nice to hear stuff like that. A few more have gone out since then. And I'm trying to get a few more sizes built to have on display and to test ride at the shop. That's going slow since I've got to work around the other regular repairs which are pretty steady.

Here's a couple of recent builds for your viewing pleasure.

This road bike went to Jeff in Fairfax. Pretty soon he'll be pedaling all the way around Nicasio Reservoir and back to Fairfax.

This cross bike is going to be used by Katie for commuting in San Francisco.

This 59cm road bike is built with slightly modified Road Kit #2 and is available for sale for $2325.

I'm really stoked on the finish of the bike and the look of the decals under the clear coat.

(What's playing: The Byrds Yesterday's Train)

Cross frame crank compatibility...

2011-04-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

Being out of the bike industry insider club for several years, I missed the regular technical updates from Shimano and SRAM. The pages that make up these manuals are a bike designer's bible. When I designed the chainstays of the cross frame, I used what I had and thought I had all my bases covers so that a road compact crank would be compatible with the cross frame.

Well, I got it almost right. I physically checked the frame by installing compact cranks with external bearings from both SRAM and Shimano. External bearing cranks have no left/right adjustability with regards to chainline, arm clearance, ring clearance. Bearings go in. Cranks go on. Done. So I installed cranks from both Shimano and SRAM and thought - good, they fit.

Doh! I didn't check the new Shimano 105, Ultegra, and Dura Ace compact cranks. It seems their arm stance is narrower than their Tiagra compact or R600 compact cranks by enough that these cranks are not recommended on the Black Mountain Cycles cross frame.

Check out the chart below and notice the dimension W5. Here are some cranks and their respective W5 dimensions for reference.

SRAM Red, Force, Rival, Apex, S900, S500 compact doubles: 60.0 to 61.0mm (okay)
Shimano Dura Ace FC-7950 - 57.2mm (too narrow)
Shimano Ultegra FC-6750 and 105 FC-5750 - 57.6mm (too narrow)
Shimano Tiagra 4550 - 59.5mm (okay)
Shimano R600 - 61.0 (okay)

In summary, Dura Ace, Ultergra, 105 compact cranks - not compatible with my cross frames. Any others are good to go. Sometimes compromises need to be made to fit those fat tires. I'm not sure about the compatibility of the previous generation of Dura Ace, Ultegra, 105 cranks, but will try to squeeze the info out of Shimano.

(What's playing: KWMR Musical Variete and some Albert King)

Don't wait, get your frame now...

2011-04-26T18:42:00.000-07:00

Finally got the last frame sizes weighed and noted. Frame weight is a somewhat minor factor in my list of parameters for a bike. The most important factor is ride quality and I do have to say my frames ride really damn good. Anyway, here's the frame weights weighed with water bottle bolts and seat collars as recorded by my Park digital scale.

Road frames
50cm: 3lb. 13oz.
53cm: 3lb. 15oz.
56cm: 4lb. 1oz.
59cm: 4lb. 4oz.
62cm: 4lb. 6oz.
Fork with uncut 300mm steerer tube: 2lb. 2oz.

Cross frames
50cm: 4lb. 6oz.
53cm: 4lb. 8oz.
56cm: 4lb. 10oz.
59cm: 4lb. 12oz.
62cm: 4lb. 14oz.
Fork with uncut 300mm steerer tube: 2lb. 5oz.

(What's playing: KWMR Musical Variete)

Have you ever seen the first one...

2011-04-23T07:01:00.000-07:00

You know. Like the very first bottle of Stone beer. The first Chuck Taylor Allstar shoe. The first bike frame made by Steve Potts. I don't know where, or even if, the first two exist, but the third one has been taking up residence in my shop for the past several weeks. Steve made this in 1981 or 1982 for a close family friend. It is the first frame he made after he returned from a mountain bike trip to New Zealand with Joe Breeze where he decided he wanted to convert his considerable metal working skills into making bike frames.

Looking at it from a technical standpoint, there's nothing really special about it. It's simply a nice fillet-brazed frame and fork. The paint is shot. There's rust showing through the paint. The steel on the components are corroded. But it's the first one of thousands of frames. And it's still around and still going to be ridden by its octogenarian owner. Steve brought it to me to get it into rideable condition, which basically meant replacing cables and putting on some new tires.

Numero Uno (with one from the early 90s in the background)

The custom headbadge of SP-1 with the owner's initials and an icon to his heritage.

When you're in your 80s, you can run whatever bar setup you want.

(What's playing: A little J.S. Bach on KWMR)

So what do you really get...

2011-04-21T07:10:00.000-07:00

I was perusing my usual morning web browsing of cycling sites with my coffee this morning when I had one of those moments that makes you go "huh?" and scratch your head. Now, honestly, I do know the reasons, but that still doesn't make any difference.

So here's the deal. Reading bikerader.com's story on Easton's new carbon mountain bike wheelset got me thinking "can you buy a carbon framed 29" wheel mountain bike for $2600 (the cost of the Easton wheels)? You know, the whole bike complete with gears, not a single-speed. The whole bike with a suspension fork. The whole bike with its own 29" wheels and tires. The whole bike.

The answer is yes. It didn't take much time to find one either. I only searched for carbon 29"ers from three different companies. The first bike company I looked up was Specialized (soft spot in my cyclist's heart for Specialized) and I found the Stumpjumper Comp Carbon 29er that was a bit more than the $2600 wheels at $2900. Close, but I wanted to find something at or below $2600.

Next on my search was Giant. Giant always has bikes priced fairly aggressively. And they did not disappoint. Their XTC Composite 29er 1 was priced a full Franklin below the price of the Easton wheels. $2500 complete bike with carbon frame, Fox fork, and a press fit bottom bracket! Holy cow!

At face value, it seems pretty ridiculous that a set of wheels cost as much or more than a really nice complete bike. And honestly, I've built wheels that cost more than a lot of bikes. And at face value, in this comparison, I tried to compare a bike with carbon frame complete with all the shifters, derailleurs, suspension fork, crankset, brakes...with a set of carbon wheels that only have two rims, two hubs, spokes. Maybe what this really shows is how much bike one can get.

(What's playing: Dolly Parton Jolene)

I need to write a post but...

2011-04-18T16:54:00.000-07:00

I've always written posts based on what I feel folks might want to read and not because I set myself a deadline or need to have a Monday post or a Wednesday post or a... But dang, I probably should do something to post a little more regularly. So here's some random mind farts of some stuff I'm thinking about or doing.

Did a couple of really nice rides yesterday and today. Two days and a little over 6 hours in the saddle. Today saw the forecast with winds out of the southwest and a 60% chance of rain. A south wind usually means that a ride out to the lighthouse can be a bit of a chore, but the return trip back can be great fun with the tailwind. So, ignoring the rain forecast, I donned my vest and wool knee and arm warmers and headed out to the lighthouse. It was lightly raining as soon as I left the house. I thought about a rain jacket and booties, but decided against in a WTF moment. Turned out to be the right choice. The wool does a great job of keeping your warm when wet and the full fenders on the bike keep your backside and feet dry. Finished the ride with a perfect cappuccino from Toby's. Here's a few shots.

Looking out over the Pacific.

Wet roads, but the fenders kept the water off my feet.

Looking down over Drake's Estero.

Bunch of these short, steep climbs that suck with a head wind, but knowing there will be a tailwind on the way back makes it totally tolerable.

The steed of the day. And I would be derelict in my duty if I didn't interject here that there are still plenty of Black Mountain Cycles frames available. Road frames in all sizes and colors. Cross frames in brown only except for one each 50cm and 53cm.

The fog horn was bellowing and visibility wasn't very good at the lighthouse. This is a steep cliff and the Pacific Ocean down there. I knew it was there because I could hear the waves.

Out there riding, I got to thinking about a series of posts I started long ago, but haven't followed up with more posts. I'm about to rectify that. What I refer to is the "Things I Like," "Things I Want To Like," and "Things I Dislike." I've been using KMC DX10SC chain and really like it. It doesn't cost a bloody fortune. It shifts well and is quiet. I'm running it with a Dura Ace shifter and derailleurs, Ultegra 6700 cassette, and a Ritchey crank with a 50t ring and a 36t Salsa 9-speed inner ring. Shifting is spot on in front and in back. If you need a chain replaced on your older Shimano 10speed (not compatible with the newer asymmetric 10 speed systems) or SRAM 10 speed, this is a good alternative and won't break the bank.

A couple of new bikes...

2011-04-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

I built up a new cross bike for an Portlander yesterday with Nitto Moustache bars, but forgot to take pictures of the finished bike. Trust me, it looked pretty cool and after his first test ride said it rode "f'in awesome!"

I did manage to get some pictures of what I call a neo-retro road bike build I did for Bill in New York who is planning on racing this in the retro class at the Furnace Creek 508. It was pretty coincidental that Bill called up to commission this build as I was pondering a similar build kit that I'll offer. I like the look of the bike with the down tube shifters. I think I may have to build myself a simple, stripped down road bike like this.

The other bike that got built up was Ari's bike that he'll use for some endurance races in the mid-west this year. Ari works at a bike shop and did the build himself. I'm liking the white with the orange. The white bar tape with the orange frame remind me of some of Eddy Merckx's old rides.

Also got a really neat set of wheels built for Bill's Salsa Mukluk. The blue NoTubes Flow rims come from project321.com.

(What's playing: Hump Day on KWMR)

More on tires (and spokes)...

2011-04-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

I already feel, to some extent, that I've beaten a dead horse on the topic of tire size and air pressure. Besides a properly clean and lubed drivetrain, I think tire selection and air pressure is the biggest thing you can do to make your bike ride as comfortably and fast as you can make it go. A recent ride and a new video posted on YouTube got me thinking more about tires and pressure.

Starting with the video, which is making the rounds on Facebook, it portrays a very telling story of what a bike's tire/wheel goes through over the cobbles of the Paris-Roubaix race. The same thing actually happens to your tires when you ride on the road, albeit on a much smaller scale. The film's slow motion really does a great job of capturing what happens to a tire and wheel on a road surface.

Check out what happens to the rear tire as it rolls off of a piece of pavé and momentarily gets airborne at 1:36. The tire, even with lower air pressure, momentarily slips and loses traction. This is the same thing that happens, at a much smaller scale, on a rougher road with high tire pressure. The tire bounces, loses traction. Any time traction is lost, the rider must somehow make up for that loss by increasing output. This video really shows how tough those guy are who race Paris-Roubaix.

The other cool shot happens at about 2:05. As the front tire rolls over a rock, the tire absorbs some of the shock, but not all. The rim also absorbs some shock and ever so slightly deforms causing the spoke that is perpendicular to the impact to lose some tension momentarily. You can see the spoke wiggle. Every time that happens, the spoke nipple could potentially loosen. The moment this happens in the video lasts all of a fraction of a fraction of a second considering these guys are probably moving across the pavé at 25-30 mph. Imagine what happens to a wheel with 28 sections of pavé during the race's 162 miles. It's no wonder teams spend so much time and thought on tire and wheel selection for the race.

(What's playing: Tom Waits Who Are You)

Week of April 4 hours...

2011-04-04T17:36:00.000-07:00

Going to be closed a few days this week. I apologize if this affects your needing to purchase a Black Mountain Cycles bike decked out with the latest and greatest. If this is the case, operators are standing by ready to take your order. Well, not really. Here's the hours this week.

Tuesday April 5: Closed
Wednesday April 6: 11:00 - 3:00
Thursday April 7: Closed
Friday April 8: Normal hours resumed

(What's playing: Ha Ha Tonka Lonely Fortunes)

It's like church, but better...

2011-04-03T07:37:00.000-07:00

Bikes, building bikes, and specifically riding bikes soothe my soul and give me time to think, ponder, and enjoy being outside. Here's one that was a joy to build and during my test ride on it, discovered that it is an incredible riding bike - so smooth and comfortable (even if it's several sizes too small for me). The new owner conveyed the same saying that he felt right at home on it immediately and there was no period of time to get used to it. Hop on, ride, forget about anything except the ride.

This particular bike is a Steve Potts titanium all-rounder, do-it-all, expedition, adventure (you get the idea) bike. The frame was built with clearance for fat 29" tires. The owner will ride it with either a touring type tire because of the condition of his country's roads or a 29" Nanoraptor. I really like the ride quality of THE tire on both dirt and road. I keep trying to put together a drop bar bike built around Nanos, but keep getting off track. Soon it will happen.

Parts ready.

It's not so easy to build a bike for a customer who lives in a different country and across part of an ocean. However, the power of the digital age is very convenient when I can send a photo of his bike with his seat height and handlebar position so he can see the relative seat/bar position and we can determine how much to trim the steerer tube.

S&S coupled bike for easy travel.

With the Nanoraptors.

And now it's time for me to get out on my bike this morning. Whatever you do on your Sundays, enjoy.

(What's playing: The Mavericks Hot Burrito #1)

One for Friday...

2011-03-25T08:27:00.001-07:00

Been pretty busy at the shop and then helping out with the radio station's pledge drive in the evening. Here's some recent builds and repairs to peruse.

This cross bike was built for a guy I've known sporadically for the past 20 years or so. Well, sporadically in that he was a customer and friend of Pacific Coast Cycles when I worked there 20+ years ago and then he reconnected with me when he found out I had a shop up in Marin. He stopped by to get his cross bike built. He went with some new Kenda Karma 29x1.9 tires and some new brakes. I'm really liking this brake combination. Lots of braking power in a good looking package.

Avid Shorty Ultimate set up in the low profile configuration in back.

TRP CX-9 mini v-brake up front. This brake solves the potential of fork chatter if it exists. It's also very powerful and can turn a cross bike that has marginal brake power into a stop-on-a-dime bike.

Interesting (and rare) camo-anodized King hub.

LB's new bike. Simple cross bike.

This Ridley came to me with completely ineffective brakes. The euro-style cantilevers that were on the bike looked all neat, but they have no adjustability and they lack any kind of power to control the speed of the bike. The brakes performed so poorly that the owner of the bike grew to dislike the bike. The brakes howled and they barely scrubbed speed. And then the front fork chatter was so bad that it made riding the bike almost scary.

To solve the fork chatter, the TRP CX9 mini v-brake went on up front. It also provides great power to control speed and actually stop the bike if needed.

Avid's Shorty Ultimate went on in back. Again, howling eliminated and confident braking was restored.

(What's playing: Simon & Garfunkel The Boxer)

Want to get paid for your photos...

2011-03-22T10:03:00.000-07:00

Here's a chance to win $300 if your submitted photo is selected for the soon to be published "Where to Bike San Francisco." Go to the link and find the locations where they would like photos taken. My buddy Gary B. is authoring the book and needs help with photos. Good luck!

Where to Bike San Francisco photo competition.

(What's playing: Red Hot Chili Peppers Save The Population)

Do you like radio?...

2011-03-17T16:29:00.000-07:00

I mean really good, commercial-free, kick-ass, community-based radio? Well, I do. I can remember working at Pacific Coast Cycles in Carlsbad, CA and we'd play music we all liked and all of our friends liked it and we wondered why, if we all liked this eclectic range of music, did a radio station not exist that played all kinds of great music?

Well, I moved to a community that had such a radio station. I remember, shortly after moving, listening to the station and hearing a Robert Johnson song followed by a Bob Dylan song. My ears perked up and I was hooked. The station is KWMR and I've been involved with it for a little over two years. I am lucky to co-host a program called Bakersfield & Beyond and I'm a rotating host on another called Ridin' The Rails: The Americana Express. Super fun. There are other programs that play a great mix of music. We've got a great blues program, a super fun funk show, and an awesome lounge/jazz/pop show.

With congress threatening to cut funding to public broadcasting, we need the support of fans and listeners more than ever. Today is the start of the bi-annual pledge drive. The goal of $30,000 is enough to support the station for about a month.

Tonight, I'll be on the air from 6:30 to 9:30 co-hosting Bakersfield & Beyond with my friend Amanda. We'd love to get folks calling in at 415-663-8273 with a monetary pledge of support. I know there's a lot of you with "discretionary" Paypal accounts and it's easy to donate to KWMR through your Paypal account. All you need to do is go to the KWMR home page and there's a link right there. I would really appreciate it. Everyone who donates after reading this, I will send you a water bottle. Just send me an e-mail with your address and I'll send one out.

Thank you!

(What's playing: The Who Won't Get Fooled Again)

Tools...

2011-03-08T09:34:00.000-08:00

There's nothing quite like using a good tool. Conversely, there's nothing worse than using a poorly designed or crafted tool. On the good tool side, I recently picked up two that are a joy to use. The first one is like an old friend. The second one is my new best friend.

I remember when we added the Hozan 14/15 ratcheting crank bolt wrench when I worked at Pacific Coast Cycles in Carlsbad, CA. This was at a time when all cranks were installed with either a 14mm or 15mm crank bolt, not the current 8mm hex key bolt. The Hozan was an easy to use wrench. The shape of the grip area and the length were perfect. The length was just long enough to move your knuckles away from chainring teeth waiting to take a bit out of your knuckles.

When I opened the shop, I initially was going to purchase one of these because I just liked the tool so much from my wrenching days 20 years ago. However, I didn't 'need' the tool. I already had a Park ratcheting 14/15 wrench. Well, about a year ago, the 15mm socket on that tool cracked but I kept on using only the 14mm side. About a month ago, the ratcheting mechanism of the 14mm side failed. Now, I had a good reason to step up to the plate and purchase the Hozan tool I always wanted. After over 20 years, the tool is exactly like I remembered. The handle. The smooth ratchet mechanism, the ease at removing bolts and the effortless feel of installing bolts. Some shops might not have a use for a 14/15 crank bolt wrench if all they work on is new bikes. However, I work on bikes with this size crank bolt that I use the tool on an almost daily basis.

The other tool I recently picked up is the Efficient Velo Tools Right Arm Clamp. This replaces the Park wide range clamp that seemed to develop all kinds of play in it and made working on a bike frustrating because the bike would rock back and forth, moving with the play in the clamp mechanism. The EVT clamp isn't cheap, but after using it only once, it's totally worth the price of admission. In fact, I'm planning to purchase a second arm for the other side of my Park double sided work stand.

When the bike is clamped in the EVT clamp, it immediately has an incredible secure feeling. There's no play in the arm. It's incredibly solid. It fits into the Park receptacle much like a seat post fits into a perfectly reamed seat tube. The height of the clamp where it holds the seat post is much shorter so raising the seat post an adequate amount for the Park clamp is no longer needed. The leather covered jaws secure the bike very securely. The mechanism used to secure the clamp to the seat post is a smoothly threaded screw. There's a thrust bearing and the handle rotates effortlessly on the handle. Such a damn nice tool.

Time to go put both tools through their paces some more.

(What's playing: KWMR)

Handmade by guys....

2011-03-05T07:33:00.000-08:00

Recently, Guitar Ted recently posted his take on the North American Handbuilt Bike Show. I can't say I disagree with it. It seems the more out-of-the-box a design is, the more attention is paid to it. "Did you see the Xxxxx?" "Yeah, that was way cool, dude." Out-of-the-box is neat and cool, but when it's so far out that the design is obviously intended only for a show bike and not for real world riding, that's when I cease to get interested. There were a few examples that I'll not go into, but let's just say cantilevered, welded racks aren't really confidence inspiring.

Alas, I digress. What is neat about the show is that the builders are building bikes with a lot of details that can also be found on my Taiwan hand made frames. For example, road bikes with standard reach brakes giving the bike clearance for bigger tires and fenders. This Signal Cycles model is a good example - and is pretty nice looking to boot.

Photo: © James Huang/Future Publishing

Photo: © James Huang/Future Publishing

Pretty much just like my road frame.

Another feature that can be found on my cross frames is the threaded cable stop for front derailleur and rear brake like those found on this Shamrock Cycles cross bike.

Photo: © James Huang/Future Publishing

Now, this feature isn't something that the handbuilt guys came up with. I first saw it on a Bianchi Reparto Corse cross frame and incorporated into a Masi frame design 5 or 6 years ago. I like it a lot and carried it over to my frames.

So, if you want a bike that was hand made by guys, don't want to wait for a couple of years and don't want to shell out a couple grand, minimum, for a frame, I've got some sweet riding road and cross frames with all the great features of frames shown recently in Austin ready to be in your hands within days - $595 plus shipping. Time to go to the shop and build up another bike. Don't wait too long.

(What's playing: KWMR Daybreak)

Pizza and bikes...

2011-03-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

I'm sure the folks who went to the North American Handbuilt Bike Show (NAHBS and pronounced NABS), got exactly what they were looking for. For the most part, that's "over-the-topedness." It's actually easy to go over the top and make things overly complicated so intricately detailed, the concept of what the item's intended use is lost. The real task is making something simple, clean, and infinitely useful. Hmmm, sounds familiar. I wrote this post just over a year ago and still really like the quote by Albert Einstein I used to begin the post, "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex and more violent. It takes a touch of genius, and a lot of courage, to move in the opposite direction."

If you like the simplicity of the bike because its lines and purpose are clean and pure, if you like pizza that is made with simple ingredients, if you like hanging out with people who like those things, you want to be at Una Pizza Napoletana on Sunday March 20 at 1 p.m. Sean from Soulcraft Bikes and Anthony from Una Pizza are putting on a gathering of NorCal's frame builders and parts makers that is sure to be a great event.

And if you appreciate some good natured sarcasm and humor like I do, you'll appreciate this post: Can't we all just get along.

FROM STEEL: The Making of a Soulcraft from michael evans on Vimeo.

(What's playing: KWMR's Hump Day)

Frame availability...

2011-03-01T11:27:00.001-08:00

Quick and simple frame availability. If you're on the fence, probably want to act soon. No pressure.

Cross frames
Orange
50 - one available
53 - one available
56 - sold out
59 - sold out
62 - sold out

Brown
50 - good availability
53 - good availability
56 - good availability
59 - good availability
62 - good availability

Road frames
Champagne
50 - 3 available
53 - sold out
56 - 2 available
59 - 3 available
62 - 2 available

Orange
50 - good availability
53 - good availability
56 - good availability
59 - good availability
62 - good availability

(What's playing: The Clash Death Or Glory)

Joe's road bike...

2011-02-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

Seems the cross bike has been the big hit. However, it's the road bike that is probably my personal favorite. I'm a roadie at heart. Can't help it. The simplicity of the road bike and the ability to leave my door, hit the road, and cover miles and miles of open road through the hills of Marin and Sonoma Counties is just too big of a thrill.

Today's featured bike is Joe's road bike. Joe's over 70 years young and puts in a lot of time in the saddle. I barely recognize him in civilian clothes. Put him on his bike with his high-vis jacket and I can spot him from miles away. He wasn't too picky in the choice of parts for his bike with the exception of black parts and low gears. What I came up with was this 53cm beauty.

Those are Conti 4-Season 28's and SKS P35 fenders - plenty of clearance.

(What's playing: ABBA Knowing Me, Knowing You)

Nick's bike...

2011-02-24T08:34:00.001-08:00

File this under "whoa!" If it was a surprise to me when a Kenda Karma 1.9 fit in the stays and fork of the Black Mountain Cycles cross frame, it was a shock when Nick shoehorned WTB Nanoraptor 2.1 tires in to his frame and fork. I wouldn't go so far as saying this is now a 29"er, but... I would still prefer to run mine with moderate size tires and with more clearance. But, Nick's rockin' some fat tires in his. Here's a picture of his bike, a like to his flickr page with more photos, and some words Nick had to say about his new bike.

"We usually ride these trails on rigid ss 29ers but lately I have been having fun with the challenge of riding off road fix. Tonight was no exception. The bike performed flawlessly! The icing on the cake is the fit! The longer headtube is exactly what I needed that the xcheck did not have. I am so happy with this thing! I am also glad I got the brown. It is understated and classy and just looks like it belongs in the woods!"

Thanks, Nick!

(What's playing: KWMR Swimming Upstream)

Bill's, Ken's, and Bruce's cross bikes...

2011-02-20T21:50:00.000-08:00

Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Three days. Three cross bikes. Three different builds. Three totally cool bikes. Bruce came over from the East Bay to pick up his bike that will be used for mixed-terrain rides in the bay area. He stopped by the shop the week before on the Valley Ford 200k brevet to talk about the build and so I could get some measurements off his bike. He came out yesterday afternoon, picked up his bike and promptly took it out for a little spin. Upon returning he was quite pleased with the ride making the comment that it rode a lot like his Ebisu and would also make a nice bike for riding brevets. Bruce's bike got built up with a Shimano 9 speed drivetrain and Panaracer Pasela tires. Bars are Salsa Woodchippers with an inch cut off the end of the drops. He brought out a well worn Brooks B17 seat to perch atop the seat post.

Ken's bike was picked up today. I built this one up to replace an old Bianchi cross bike that he had pretty much ridden into the ground. Ken puts in a bunch of miles commuting and has several Paris-Brest-Paris rides to his name, including his most recent one completed on a fixed gear bike. Read "The Hardmen" to understand Ken. Ken's new bike is built with 105 ten-speed STI shifters on 46cm Salsa Bell Lap bars, 9-speed XT rear derailleur, and a SRAM 11-32 ten speed cassette. White Industries hubs and a new old stock front tire he had squirreled away round it out.

And today, I finished Bill's bike. It's getting shipped to New York tomorrow. This one turned out great too. SRAM 10 speed bar end shifters with a SRAM X.9 10 speed rear derailleur and a 12-36 cassette with Apex compact cranks. Pretty much a #2 cross kit. The shifting is super smooth. This is one kit I am leaning heavily on installing on my cross bike. Bill went with a set of Ragley Luxy bars. I also cut 1" off the end of these to make it easier to get to the shifters. I don't quite understand why the Woodchipper and Luxy bars have such a long drop section. Bill also opted for one of the new Brooks B17 seats in Mandarine. He also went with the Kenda Karma 1.9 tires.

(someday when I'm desperate, I may start drinking those Mickey's)

It's tight in the fork, but there's okay clearance for the Karma 1.9. I need to try those Bontrager 1.7 tires sometime.

For all the photos that aren't included here, you can go to my flickr page and see them all.

(What's playing: not a darn thing - the sound of frogs outside is the soundtrack tonight)

Fenders...

2011-02-17T07:27:00.000-08:00

Or mudguards. I made my road frame so that it could accept direct mounted fenders and think it looks really nicely finished with a set of aluminum fenders. So does the owner of the first build, Ten. The fenders will likely be called into action soon since it's raining pretty good out there and is supposed to be wet through the weekend.

The silver, hammered fenders look great.

This also gives a nice look at the champagne paint color.

(What's playing: Etta James Take It To The Limit)

What's in the stand...

2011-02-16T07:56:00.000-08:00

Special treat, Jacquie Phelan's Columboham came in for some much needed care. In the care of Jacquie's beloved Cunningham, I do not mind playing second fiddle to Charlie when he's got too much on his plate with other projects.

Columboham? A mix of "Columbus" and "Cunningham." The frame was made from Columbus tubing at a time when Jacquie was sponsored by Columbus and a suspension fork company. The frame was designed around a suspension fork. The parts are pretty much standard fare. I didn't have to get into the bottom bracket as it is grease guarded and, according to Charlie, has some unique things going on inside. What it really needed, though, was a cleaning, fresh cables, and new bar tape. It also needed a new fork because the previous one was roached. The stanchion tubes were deeply scored and, well, it just didn't function.

Here's some before and after photos.

Before

You might say the bar tape is a little worn out.

After

Those pulley wheels were also replaced. They were just "slightly" worn out.

The dent in the top tube isn't from the bar-end shifter. I heard it was a random act against the bike.

Charlie modified the cable hanger from an old WTB brake bridge/cable hanger made for old Judy forks and installed it on the fork arch.

Drilled out Unicanitor saddle

The RM-3 bar is the designation given to the Ibis drop bar. Made by Nitto, it also has a Specialized sticker. How convoluted is that? Ibis designed, Specialized probably arranged production at Nitto.

The aluminum shield does a great job to keep the brake working perfectly during adverse conditions.

One of the few 'hams that doesn't have bearings pressed directly into the frame.

Brake cable routing. No mistaking which side is "down" on the cam.

(What's playing: KWMR Hump Day)

Road build kits...

2011-02-16T07:09:00.001-08:00

I've added three different road build kits for the Black Mountain Cycles road frames. Both champagne and orange in all sizes are available. Here's the link or you can look up at the tabs and find "Road Build Kits."

Even though the new low-geared doubles are geared pretty low, sometimes folks just need lower gears. This build kit is inspired by a local rider who will be getting something similar later this week. He'll be getting even lower gearing because, heck, when you're in your 70's and your knees ain't what they used to be, you needs you some low gears. Pictures of that bike later.

(What's playing: Democracy Now! on KWMR)

First cross build...

2011-02-15T13:37:00.000-08:00

This is Kat's new bike. I pulled the parts off here previous bike and installed them on a 53cm orange cross frame. It's always nice when the parts transfer so nicely. It was doubly nice to see that the Dura Ace road triple crank fits perfetly with a perfect 45mm chainline. It's the double road 53/39 with 43mm chainlines that are not compatible. It's all about the chainline. Modern external bearing cranksets can't be modified for a wider chainline like old 3-piece cranks can. However, this Dura Ace triple worked perfect with the stock bottom bracket. Sweet!

Those were the last of the great looking Dura Ace cranks.

Just enough clearance.

And the first generation XTR canti brakes are among the nicest brakes.

This Dura Ace rear derailleur for triple crankset is also a favorite of mine.

Five more builds to go this week.

(What's playing: Electric Light Orchestra Strange Magic)

Road frame - 1st build up...

2011-02-12T08:55:00.000-08:00

It's interesting that with all the demand for my cross frames, the first build was actually a road frame. This one went to my friend Amanda (the second build will be a cross bike for her husband, Ken). Amanda is the one responsible for the champagne-like color on the road frames. Good thing I listened because, so far, all road frames sold are champagne. She was also insistent on silver components. Going all silver is not that easy. Sure there are plenty of silver parts still available, but getting the right parts for a custom build took some doing. In the end, the bike weighs 20lb. 5oz. with pedals. I think the frame weight was 3 lb. 15 oz. Should have written that down.

Here's a rundown of the basic build of her 53cm road frame:
SRAM Apex shifters w/ Rival rear derailleur and an Apex front
Shimano R600 compact crank
SRAM 11-32 cassette
Shimano long reach brake calipers
White Industries 28h hubs and DT RR415 rims with DT Revolution spokes and alloy nipples (wheels weighed 1460 grams)
Continental 4-Season 28 tires
Within the next couple of days, it will also get a set of Honjo fenders as well.

She's already got some time on it, including some dirt path riding and says it's a great riding bike. Sure think it looks great too.

(What's playing: Natalie Merchant Build A Levee)

They're here...

2011-02-10T07:31:00.000-08:00

A little late posting this info here. Hey, I've been busy! Big thanks to my friend Gloria, who drove up from San Francisco to help put the frames away - and get the shift cables on here neat old fillet-brazed Ritchey Timbercomp replaced. And thanks to Geoff for the burritos and beer.

I was informed by the trucking company that the driver would be at the shop at 9:00 a.m., but decided to get to the shop at 8:30 just in case. Good thing, because the driver was there waiting when I got there. By 10:30, all frames were stacked in the shop and by the end of the day the frames being shipped had labels fixed and were ready for pick-up. Now if I can only get FedEx to actually pick up the frames...they missed their scheduled pick-up yesterday. Sorry to the guys waiting for frames. Pretty sure they'll be picked up today.

Also did an inspection on some frames and they're good to go. I'll be building five of them within the next few days and will post pics of the first builds. You guys who are building up your own, please send photos of Black Mountain Cycles frames in the wild.

It can't all be wine and roses, however. There was a small item missing from the cross frames. Seems the horizontal dropout adjuster screws were missing. I've got some on order and will get them included with each frame. Minor, slightly annoying issue, but easily resolved.

Again, big thanks to everyone who ordered a frame from me! Pretty excited to see them built up and ridden.

Frame arrival

Loading them in

Loaoded in. Road frames on the right half, cross frames on the left half.

(What's playing: KWMR and Democracy Now!)

Build kits and delivery update...

2011-02-07T11:47:00.001-08:00

I created three different build kits for the cross frame and posted them on this here blog (link here). I think each one represents a different personality for a bike build. I'll get three kits done up for the road frames soon and get them their own page on the blog as well.

Update on frame deliver: because we are a bit far out in the boonies (amazing considering we are 30 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge), the trucking company won't be able to deliver today, but will be here at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow! Thanks for everyone's patience. I'll do my best to get the frames on order shipped tomorrow, but being that I'm still a one-man retail bike shop, it'll probably be Wednesday when they go out.

Update on frame availability: Plenty of road frames in both colors. All sizes of the brown cross frame are available. I'm out of stock on the 56, 59, and 62 orange cross frames.

(What's playing: Wilco Poor Places)

Blown away...

2011-02-04T07:39:00.000-08:00

I've been continually blown away by the response to my cross frames. And they aren't even here yet. They'll be here Monday, though. Provided the broker and trucker get everything coordinated as it was described to me. I'd like to thank everyone who I've talked to and who have ordered frames.

An update on frame availability: road frames in all colors and sizes are available. All sizes of brown cross frames are still available. Size 56 and 59 orange cross frames are sold out. Other sizes of orange are limited. When I was at Haro/Masi, we noticed the sales of the colorway featured in the catalog almost always outsold the other colors available. This seems to be the case here as well since it's the orange frame that has been pictured here and on the various other blog mentions. The brown is nice too - more subtle. I've been riding the brown frame for almost 18 months.

Speaking of blog mentions, here are some links to some I've seen. Thank you to each of your for the mention. And a big thanks to Guitar-Ted for adding the spark to this viral marketing.

Guitar Ted Productions - Got the ball rolling with this post. Then announced he was going to run Dirty Kanza 200 with on my frame with this post. Continued to maintain momentum (as a big wheel proponent will do) with this post, and then this one. Thanks, Mark!

Gravel Grinder News mentioned the cross frames.

Velocity USA - I really like the Velocity A23 rim for both my road and cross bike. I've built up 6 wheelsets this week with A23 rims already.

Culture Cycles - From Burlington, VT.

Monstercrosser.com mentioned the cross frame on their Facebook page.

And, pssssst, the road frames are pretty awesome too! The road frame will be my first build as soon as the frames arrive. Pictures of that build early next week. Thanks everyone for the mentions.

(What's playing: KWMR)

Go fat...

2011-02-02T08:02:00.000-08:00

For years, I rode with 23 tires on my road bike. Always inflated to 100 psi front and rear. At about 170-175 lbs., I felt that pressure was perfect for me. And Bernard Hinault told me. About 5 or 6 years ago, I designed one of my favorite all time bikes for Masi - the Speciale Carbon. It was made in Italy and featured Dedacciai steel tubes with Dedacciai carbon seat and chain stays. It's no longer available and that's a shame. On that bike, I installed a set of WTB road tires they gave to me way back when. The tires were labeled 25, but actually measured 26mm. And they rode great.

Fast forward to today and I'm running Continental 4-Season 28's on my road bike inflated to 78psi in front and 80psi in back. I don't lose any speed (that I have) and they are uber-comfortable on the road. I'm using a rim that's a bit wider than the standard skinny road rim. The wider rim gives the tires a nice profile and contact patch and helps to brace the structure of the tire so it doesn't fold over under cornering forces.

However, riders and bike companies still seem to think the 23 inflated to max pressure is the way to go. Maybe that will change. In the mean time, there is a lot of information coming out that refutes the skinny/super high pressure thinking. Think what you want about Bicycle Quarterly and their seemingly narrow focus, but they have some pretty good tech articles and this one on tire pressure is pretty good.

And now, I've been reading some good stuff by Nick Legan, a former pro mechanic (well, once a pro mechanic, always a pro mechanic) at velonews.com. This one on tire pressure is good. And the link he posted to the Sheldon Brown's All About Bicycle Tires And Tubes is excellent as well. And then today on cyclingnew.com, there's a piece on the work of Wheel Energy that claims during testing, wider tires roll faster than narrow ones.

With all this out there, why do riders still insist on running their 23 tires at 120psi? You've tailored your bike to fit you by spending upwards of a couple hundred bucks for a pro bike fit. Why not get tires that fit you and run them at the proper pressure? You bought a stem to get a better fit. Get tires that give you a better ride. One of my analogies is to compare the air pressure in your bike tires to the air pressure in your car tires. Your car tires have a max pressure of around 50psi, yet you run them at around 32psi. Try inflating your car tires to max and then take it for a drive. The ride quality will be horrible on the road. The same holds true for a bike tire.

A lot of the crop of carbon road bikes are made with minimal tire clearance. Some can't physically fit a 28 between the stays or under the brake caliper. Run a 25 in that instance. I guarantee if you run a bigger tire on the road at the proper pressure, you will be more comfortable and in being more comfortable, you will be fresher feeling during your ride. And fresher means faster.

(What's playing: Led Zeppelin Good Times, Bad Times)

Ride photos...

2011-02-01T21:42:00.001-08:00

All this talk and waiting for frames has left me not riding as much the past week or so. And we've been having some spectacular weather! (To my snow bound brethren, do not read the next couple of sentences.) And the spectacular weather isn't finished with the area yet. It's supposed to hit 70 here by the weekend!

I did hit the road this last Sunday, though. It had rained most of the night, but about 8, bright sunlight was streaming through the window. Opportunity knocks (or shines in this instance), and I took it. I was fooled, though. It was bright sunshine, but when I stepped out the door, it was also raining. I had the right gear on and thought, how long could this last? Not long. And hit the road out to Abbotts Lagoon.

On the way up through Inverness, I noticed the water level in the wetlands was pretty darn high. There's not usually this much water showing from this vantage.

And this is a shot overlooking Chicken Ranch Beach - which is underwater.

Another Chicken Ranch Beach shot. Neat little beach at the north end of Inverness submerged.

Looking back towards Black Mountain across Tomales Bay. Unstable clouds. On the way back through Inverness, it rained on me pretty steadily.

At some point, it hailed. There were several patches of hail on the side of the road on the climb up to Inverness Ridge.

The hills have turned from brown to emerald green.

Abbotts Lagoon - you can usually walk across the sand where it's now covered with water along a wide section skirting the edge.

There were some mighty big sounding waves out there.

The end of a one mile dirt path at Abbotts Lagoon.

When I was ready to head back, this flock of white birds flew across the skyline. Thought the contrast looked pretty neat.

(What's playing: KWMR Faultline Radio and Lulu's To Sir With Love)

Frame update...

2011-02-01T20:46:00.000-08:00

Thought folks might want a frame update. These things don't usually take this long as it had been my experience that once stuff arrives in port from a long overseas voyage, it's usually a couple of days to get through customs and on a truck to the final destination. Usually. Seems customs took a special interest in my frames and did a more thorough inspection. The frames are cleared now and will soon be making the final 45 mile trek from Oakland to Point Reyes Station. The broker tells me the soonest they will be here will be Monday Feb. 7. To all those who have ordered frames, thank you! And thanks for your patience.

I thought I'd take this time to post some pictures James took of his Black Mountain Cycles road bike. James bought the first production frame and has been putting in the miles in San Diego and up in Mammoth. Here's some cool words James put down in an e-mail to me recently.

"The bike rides great! If you recall, I was borrowing a carbon Trek 5.2. The BMC bike fits better, handles better and is all around more enjoyable to ride. The only area it looses is in the weight and that is only a small amount. In all honesty, I can't feel the weight difference once I'm riding down the road. I'm up (in Mammoth) at least once a month...the bike comes with me and I have to say the it does outstanding in the mountains, both on road and off road. I throw some cross tires on pumped to around 50psi and ride the forest service road throughout the Owens valley."

I'm totally fine that the frames loses on the scale compared to a carbon frame because I know the frame will more than make up for that in ride quality. Here's some pictures James took on some of his rides. Thanks, James!

(What's playing: KWMR's Faultline Radio and some Laurie Anderson)

Cross bike details and delivery update...

2011-01-27T12:22:00.000-08:00

First, an update on frame delivery. Seems customs wants to take a closer look at the shipment so they pulled the frames for a "manifest hold" to do a more intensive exam. Grrrrrrr. They're just bike frames! So, my estimate of receiving them this week will likely be delayed to next week. As I get more info from the broker, I'll post it. A delay of a few days is okay, but it will also likely incur additional charges that I'll have to pony up. That seems wrong to me.

Anyway, not your problem. But hey, check this out! There were a few questions on Guitar Ted's post about tire size so I got to the shop today and checked clearance with a Kenda Karma 1.9 tire. It fits! In addition, here are some other detail shots showing the front derailleur cable stop that plays well with Shimano/SRAM/Campy integrated brake/shift levers (aka brifters). There is also a barrel adjuster/cable stop for the rear brake.

With the 1.9 tires, the bike just looks so tough - especially the orange.

Brake cable stop/adjuster

Front derailleur cable stop/adjuster

Front deralleur roller for bottom pull derailleurs - included with the frameset

Tire clearance with Panaracer FireCross 700x45c tires (which actually measure 49-50mm knob-to-knob).

Clearance with 1.9 Kenda Karma with the wheel all the way forward in the dropout.

Karma 1.9 with wheel deep in the dropout

Looks pretty tough in this configuration. I may never ride a mountain bike again.

(What's playing: Dave Alvin & The Guilty Men Haley's Comet)

Making room...

2011-01-26T11:30:00.000-08:00

I've been clearing out space and organizing the past week to make room for the incoming frames. I've been lucky to have been able to display a few Steve Potts bikes that are owned by a friend, but they are now on their way back to him. Now the top shelf consists of my bikes only (except for the three hanging on the wall). The empty space against the south wall is where the frames will be "warehoused." I've got access to a storage space next to the shop, but I'd prefer not to have to use it. Also moved one of the couches to the space behind my desk. Not sure if that's a good idea since it's a really comfy couch.

(What's playing: John Doe Meanest Man In The World)

Just get here already!...

2011-01-26T07:34:00.000-08:00

Finally tracked down someone yesterday to talk to about the incoming ocean shipment of my frames. Because I haven't exactly imported anything, I think what happens next is I arrange for a broker to get my frames through customs and to a truck and to me (simplified version). Yesterday, I arranged for the broker to do just that. This waiting is killing me.

While I was arranging all that (phone calls, e-mails, faxes), I converted that old white Cannondale bike to flat bars and index 6-speed shifting. All while the new owner of the bike sat on the couch and watched me. Now if you work in a bike shop, you know what it's like to have the customer watch you work on their bike. Multiply that feeling many-fold due to my communicating with the broker and because the bike was previously set up with an ultra-6 freewheel, I needed to rearrange the spacers in the hub to fit a standard 6 and then redish the wheel, and... Well, if you are a mechanic, you know the challenge of converting something old.

It turned out to not take a long time because I knew all I would need to do ahead of time and instead of dinking around and trying to make the existing parts work, I just dove in and got it all converted. Done. Works great. The guy is super happy with the way the bike looks and rides. And I'm happy to have the work in January and that my frames are one step closer to getting here. And because I was so busy, forgot to take pictures...

And a big shout out "THANK YOU" to Guitar Ted for including my cross frame as one of his finalists for his "Ultimate Gravel Grinder Bike." Thanks a bunch G-T! I first "met" Guitar-Ted through the 29"er scene. When I designed the Haro Mary, I enlisted G-T's talents as copy-writer for Mary's catalog copy. Turned out aces. Thanks again, G-T!

(What's playing: KWMR's new Wednesday morning show, Hump Day)

The waiting game...

2011-01-25T07:45:00.000-08:00

Following the track of the Ever Elite, I know it made port in Oakland last Friday. Crossed under the Golden Gate Bridge just before noon. Now I'm waiting for a call from the freight forwarder who will deliver the frames on their final leg of the journey. I've got the south end of the shop cleared out in anticipation of storing 98 frames. Well, more like 90 because about 8 will be either shipped out or immediately built up. Stay tuned!

In the mean time, here is a video that has been making the rounds recently. It's a really cool video starring all-around good guy, frame builder Sean Walling from Soulcraft. If I didn't already have my own brand of frames, I would definitely have multiple Soulcraft bikes - road, cross, mountain... He's that good and his frames are pure, clean, simple...meant to be ridden. Beautiful tools.

FROM STEEL: The Making of a Soulcraft from michael evans on Vimeo.

While checking out the Soulcraft film, I also noticed the film maker, Michael Evans, had also produced a film about pizzaiola, Anthony Mangeiri. I met Anthony at Steve Potts' workshop several years ago and then not too long ago, got to work on his bike (it's the single speed with the light blue fork in that link) after he moved to the Bay Area from NYC. I haven't been to his pizzaria in the city, but hear it's fantastic with a long wait.

NATURALLY RISEN from michael evans on Vimeo.

(What's playing: Johnny Cash Sixteen Tons)

Potts part II...

2011-01-22T08:46:00.000-08:00

So, the red Potts was finished on Thursday (well, actually Friday morning because I overhauled the Campy BMX pedals on Friday) and then this white Potts CCR (Cross Country Racer) came in to be built up yesterday. Can't get much better than this. Especially when pizza from Cafe Reyes and coffee from Toby's is involved - thanks!

This CCR was built up from a 1993 frame/fork that had sat unbuilt for all these years. Putting together an 18 year old new frame, so to speak. The white/black combo is really clean looking and will make a great little rider for the owner.

And yes, these Suntour Ergotec shifters really do work pretty nice. Especially after completely rebuilding them so they index.

(What's playing: KWMR's Daybreak)