Chris King’s Cielo to Cease Production

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Chris King’s Cielo to Cease Production

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.

Chris King’s New Limited Edition Colors

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Chris King’s New Limited Edition Colors

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.

2017 NAHBS: Moots Routt RSL with Chris King Emerald

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2017 NAHBS: Moots Routt RSL with Chris King Emerald

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

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A Look at the Bikes from the Chris King 40th Open House

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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Follow Chris King on Instagram and Billy on Instagram.

Circles Japan Personal Bike Show: Chris King’s Own Cielo

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Circles Japan Personal Bike Show: Chris King’s Own Cielo

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…

In the Mountains of Asuke for the Chris King Gourmet Century Japan

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In the Mountains of Asuke for the Chris King Gourmet Century Japan

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.

Chris King 40th Anniversary Spurcycle Bell

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Chris King 40th Anniversary Spurcycle Bell

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!

2016 NAHBS: Cielo Base Racer with Olive Drab Chris King 40th Components

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2016 NAHBS: Cielo Base Racer with Olive Drab Chris King 40th Components

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.

Riding in Guerneville California with Argonaut Cycles and Chris King

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Riding in Guerneville California with Argonaut Cycles and 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.

Argonaut Cycles and Chris King Precision Components Unveil the T47 Bottom Bracket Standard

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Argonaut Cycles and Chris King Precision Components Unveil the T47 Bottom Bracket Standard

Do we really need another bottom bracket standard? Maybe. It depends on what your experience has been with pressfit 30. Personally, my Argonaut has been fairly maintenance free but any steel frame I’ve ridden with one has been a hassle. Noisy, creaky and kind of a pain to maintain.

Ben from Argonaut Cycles and I had a conversation a year ago about how much BB86 and PF30 makes sense in terms of frame design and performance, yet as the crux for a bike’s drivetrain, it’s riddled with failure. In short: a larger bb cluster allows you to shape a bike’s tubes and not have to worry about the cluster where they all intersect. That’s why it’s kinda hard to use a threaded, English BB in a frame with OS diameters.

Enter the T47 BB standard. It uses a standard PF30 shell, that’s just threaded with 47x1mm pitch to take these new nifty Chris King BBs – either 30mm or 24mm axle compatible. You thread them in like an English BB and walk away. The frame builder can work with OS tubing diameters and achieve the same “stiffness” without dealing with the hassle of a PF30/BB30 bearing.

I’ll step aside with the tech jargon and leave Argonaut Cycles and Chris King to explain the rest below.