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Moskito, the made in Switzerland, analog interface cycling computer that fits on your stem cap or wrist, has teamed up with Chris King to match their matte Punch finish in a limited run, available for pre-order this Friday. This run is limited to 24 pieces, so if pink is your thing, don’t miss out! Head to Moskito for more information.
Jonas Johnson passed away earlier this year. He was a smiling spirit at Chris King and was loved by many in the industry. For me, I always looked forward to hanging out at tradeshows with him and I was shaken by the news of his death. Chris King and Santa Cruz are looking to raise money to support HarrysHoard.com. Here are the details from Chris King and see more photos of the bike below:
“Win this bike and more prizes while supporting a great cause at harryshoard.com!
A 12-year employee of Chris King, Jonas Johnson passed away this year. He leaves behind his wife, two young children and a baby due in a few short weeks. We’ve gathered prizes Jonas would have loved and you can win them while supporting Jonas’ family.
Up for grabs is a custom Jonas inspired Santa Cruz 5010 (large), with Fox suspension, ENVE wheels, bar, and stem, Shimano XTR, SDG Shibuya saddle, Continental mountain king tires, and Chris King Matte Punch components! We also have a collection of Oakley glasses made for the Rio Olympic athletes, a Moots Ti stem and seatpost, a Fox Prorfame helmet and kit, and three Oakley backpacks! Enter now at HarrysHoard.com”
$10 gets you a ticket, $50 gets you ten. Don’t miss out on this opportunity! See more photos of this beautiful, unique bike below.
This looks like it’ll be a good time in Chris King in Portland:
“Join us for our annual Open House and Builder Showcase! We’ll have food and drinks, and a plethora of custom bikes on hand. We are also offering the chance to see where our parts are made on a rarely offered shop floor tour.
Allied, Argonaut, Breadwinner, Caletti, Crema, DeSalvo, Moots, Seven, and Simworks will all be showing bikes made custom for this showcase. We’ll also have ENVE composites and Santa Cruz showing off some very special bikes from our sponsored riders.
We hope you’ll come by and raise a glass with us.”
See more at the event’s Facebook page and join Breadwinner for a group ride on Sunday.
This was shocking news to me, but someone smarter than me once said “do what you’re good at” and I can see Chris King just wanting to shift all their energy on hubs, headsets and bottom brackets. Still, it makes me sad every time a framebuilding operation shuts down. Here’s the official news from Chris King:
“AS OF AUGUST 15, 2017 WE ARE NO LONGER TAKING NEW CIELO ORDERS.
We are quite proud of the product that Cielo has produced over the years and are honored by those who ride our frames. We are suspending Cielo indefinitely to focus our attention on Chris King Precision Components core product families (headsets, bottom brackets, and hubs).
We will continue to support the Cielo warranty and will fulfill any outstanding orders. For any questions, email mycielo@chrisking.com”
Cielo will always live on here, on the Radavist, so check out some of the archives on the Related column to the left.
We’ve seen the bright and matte emerald color on the Moots from NAHBS, now here’s a look at all three limited edition colors from Chris King: matte black, matte slate and matte emerald. All three colors are available for ordering now. Limited Edition Matte Emerald is available for pre-order now and has a 40-day lead time. The last day to place an order for Matte Emerald is June 12, 2017, so holler at your local Chris King dealer today.
This year at NAHBS, Moots debuted their Chris King collaboration color dubbed emerald. Much like its namesake, this color really pops, like a well-fertilized lawn in suburbia. Moots decided to display this new hue on their Routt RSL, built with Dura Ace.
It’s hard to photograph titanium bikes with this lighting setup, but this bike with those green components made the struggle well worth it.
A Look at the Bikes from the Chris King 40th Open House
Photos by Billy Sinkford, words by John Watson
Portland was a buzz in December. With the SSCXWC bringing hordes of cycling fanatics to the area, Chris King decided to throw an open house in celebration of their 40th anniversary. After a few months of calling out to select framebuilders, the team at Chris King displayed a wide variety of bicycles all built with select King 40th components. Then, to round-off the display, a few “vintage” bicycles made their way on display, including the matching bike to Chris King’s own classic Cielo. Since I can’t be everywhere at once, many thanks to Billy for taking a few photos of these bikes.
If you’re bummed that you missed out on the 40th collection, they’ve still got some of the Chris King wheels for sale. I bought a set of the Hed Belgiums for my Speedvagen!
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Today, December 3rd, from 12-3pm, swing through Chris King in Portland for an open house, featuring excellent builds from excellent builders. Oh and pizza! And beer. That too.
Remember Chris King’s personal Cielo? The one that’s made from stainless and has the brazed-in headset cups? Well, here’s a video a reader just tipped me to showcasing the production process. It’s an oldie, but for people interested in the process used in making such a unique bicycle, it’s good as gold.
Team Dream recently designed a capsule collection for Chris King and it’s now in stock. Head over to Chris King to check it out!
If you look at each and every Cielo‘s non-drive chainstay, you’ll see the phrase “Built by Chris King” but if you look at a select few, it’ll read “Built by me, Chris King.” This happens to be one of those bikes. Chris King is too busy these days to build frames but there are a few rolling around, including this one that happens to be his own. If you’re skipping to the photos now, you’ll be returning to read all about it.
Chris wanted to run a 1 1/8″ steerer on a 1″ head tube so he could run a more modern cockpit but maintain the elegant lines in the frame. The way he achieved this was by running a stainless steel headset with the skirts cut off. He then counter bore the cups and silver brazed them onto the headtube.
He used Reynolds 953 on the front triangle, NOS Campy fork ends and dropouts, Columbus SL stays from the early 80’s on the rear. After it was built, the frame received a post-build heat treat tempering process to strengthen the brazing points of the stainless tubing. This caused the stainless cups to patina with the headtube, which was then clear coated to maintain this finish.
This bike was built prior to Cielo offering stems and as far as Chris is concerned, if the current cockpit works, why change it out? The same goes for his saddle, his pedals and that saddle bag from 1977…
Japan is wonderful. In the cities like Nagoya, cars zip through intersections, merge with traffic, mamacharis cruise the sidewalks, baskets rattling with groceries and pedestrians swarm cross walks. Yet if you drive or ride a bicycle outside its network of infrastructure for 40km, you’re in the mountains. Many ranging around the 3,500′ height and all covered in a dense forest. These mystical beasts lie in slumber awaiting the rainy season to drench their loamy forest floors and fill their rivers.
The rainy season is at the end of June, so very few people want to throw events this month, at the risk of it being rained out, yet that didn’t stop Shinya and the Circles team from organizing the Chris King Gourmet Century. Now, if you’ve never heard of a Gourmet Century, the format is simple. Chris King works with local bike shops to plan a route in a select city, then they fly out Chris DiMinno, their lead chef to plan food stops along the way, with the event culminating in a feast after the ride. In some cases, like Japan, Chris was able to count on the talented caterers from Nagoya, who’d drive out to Asuke the day prior to prepare food.
To commemorate their 40th year in business, Chris King has developed a special, limited edition olive drab collector’s set, complete with hubs, bottom bracket, and headset of your choice. It ain’t cheap, but it’ll last a lifetime! Head to Chris King for ordering.
When two brands like this get together, you know it’s gonna be good. Head on over to Ten Speed Hero to see their new Chris King Spring Collection!
Chris King’s wine n dine ride, the Gourmet Century, is making it to four cities this year. On the calendar is: Sonoma, Portland, Asheville and Japan. Registration for each opens on April 1st, so head over to the Gourmet Century site to sign up!
To commemorate their 40th anniversary, Chris King is launching an extremely limited collection of olive drab anodized hubs, headsets and bottom brackets. Then to add a special topping on this already tempting cake, they did a collaboration with Spurcycle, anodizing the bell’s hammer to match. These are in stock now at Chris King, so get on it!
Chris King‘s in-house bike production label Cielo has really grown over the years, branching out from sportif road bikes to cross racing bikes and now, the Base Racer gravel machine. We took a look at this model late last year in Portland, when it was dubbed the “Stereo.” After some in-house tweaking, Cielo decided on Base Racer. The name wasn’t the only thing to change. The head tube got shorter across the six sizes and the chainstays were lengthened.
Look closely though, because this one sports the new olive drab Chris King 40th components, as well as the T47 bottom bracket standard. Also, check out the annodized Spurcycle bell ringer! So what’s my consensus? I gotta get my hands on that 40th group!
Ordering the 40th anniversary components will commence later this spring, so stay tuned to Chris King.
Look. I’m not a super über tech geek. I don’t really care about stiffness or compliance in terms of data or coefficients but I do like riding bikes and developing stories about them, in terms of my personal experiences. When Argonaut and Chris King asked if I wanted to come along for a very informal launch of a new bottom bracket standard, I had a few questions:
-Do we need another BB standard?
-Where is this launch?
-Will there be booze?
Two out of the three answers met my standards, so I agreed.
