My Surly Steamroller was one of my favorite bikes. It fit fatter tires (up to 38c), was designed around a taller axle-to-crown and took quite the beating. Unfortunately, mine didn’t hold up so well to the test of time when it came to fixed freestyle. But that’s not what the Steamroller is about. For the first time, Surly is now offering it as a complete with a rather cushy urban build. No more road drops and 23c tires! The 2011 Steamroller is a whole new beast. Mustache bars, front brake and cushy tires.
Also, it’s finally available in black. Thank god! Check out more details at Surly.
I’ve been swinging by Brooklyn Machine Works a lot lately. Today was the second time this week I’ve been by to see the guys. I bumped into a friend who needed to have his bike photographed and we decided to take it to its birth place.
FBM is looking for a new Sales Rep.
We want someone who is stoked on FBM, stoked on BMX and stoked on bikes in general to maintain and expand FBM’s relationship with and sales to US dealers. FBM is a unique company and as an FBM sales rep you will have to be able to communicate how FBM fits into BMX and how BMX fits into the range of bicycle products your dealers carry. You will be responsible for selling FBM’s full line of BMX completes, frames, components, dvds and apparel, as well as FBM’s other in-house brands, Nice and The Take.
Sounds pretty rad right? If you’ve got what it takes, read up more at FBM.
FBM Fixed may seem like it fell off the radar to some but that’s hardly the case. Fat Bald Men are still at it and just recently they announced the Sword SQ. Finding the balance between “overbuilt” and “delicate” isn’t easy. In an age where people worry about barspin clearance and mid-bottom brackets, FBM continues to do what they do best: bikes that are handmade in the USA (New York!) and take a beating. I’ve always loved these bikes and they look amazing with road drops. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s what Tracko rides!
Can I also just note that this headbadge is the best ever? So nice.
Now, if you recall the history of 3Rensho, Yoshi Konno, in his first year of business called his company Cherubim Cycles, which later turned into 3Rensho. This was around 1978. Now, Yoshi hasn’t built frames in some time but as I was checking my Flickr contacts this morning, I came across this frame on Hugeblock’s stream. A company under the Cherubim guise has constructed this lovely Keirin-inspired frameset for Japanese track bike boutique Sexon Super Peace. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because I did a Tokyo Bike Shop profile on them last summer.
I’ve got so many questions about this project but the biggest one is who is Cherubim Cycles? Maybe you recall the Urban Velo 2009 NAHBS set? Shin-ichi Konno is Yoshi Konno’s brother. Hitoshi Konno was Shin-ichi’s and Yoshi’s father. He started Cherubim in 1965 and built pistas for the 1968 Olympics. Later, Yoshi picked up the Cherubim name in 1978 and switched to 3Rensho shortly thereafter. Leaving the Cherubim name to his family.
Bottom line is, Cherubim is alive and well and the name lives on with Hitoshi’s spirit through the hands of Shin-ichi. If you need an example of this, check out the rest of the photos on Hugeblock’s Flickr. Based on Cherubim’s standard custom price of about $1,500, I’m going to guess this frameset will go for a little more than that. It’s a stellar deal for sure! Assuming it is for sale.
Yeah yeah yeah, so I’m an hour late on this. I had originally planned a different post for today’s Merckx Mondays but then I came across this. All I know is this better be a joke!
Here’s another beautiful video from Paper Fortress. This time, he worked with Union Foundry to shoot a short “how-to” video on their new T-0001 Roto-Fix Tool.
Here’s the info from the Vimeo page!
After a year of development, incubation, and manufacturing research, Union Foundry is proud to present our first official product. The inaugural, limited first run of T-0001 was designed on kitchen checks and cocktail napkins at our local. Just days later, the initial design still just a sketch, prototypes were milled and sent downtown to be tested by Boston bike couriers and other local riders.
When the final design was locked the tools were machined less than a mile from the place of its inception, then delivered – by bicycle – to be hand polished by the same finishing shop that worked with Somerville bicycle legends Merlin and Fat Chance. The military-grade stainless steel parts were polished to a jewelry-grade finish then shipped off to our laser shop to be etched by the same machinists that cut titanium parts for Independent Fabrication and Seven Cycles. Upon their return to Union Foundry headquarters, in the same building that housed Merlin Bicycles until the late-90s, packaging materials were hand cut and printed by local letter-press outfit Repeat Press, and then assembled and packaged for individual sale.
T-0001 eliminates the need to carry a lockring wrench and chainwhip in your tool bag. Using a simple rotafixing technique, This tool allows for effortless removal and installation of lockrings using nothing more than your bicycle chain. The proprietary eccentric cutout allows for the tool to accommodate all popular lockring sizes from the small Sugino type to over-sized Profile type. The seventeen tooth cog on the outer diameter of the tool can also be used with a normal 1/8″-width chainwhip when in the shop. The tooth profile on the outside of the tool stems back to the ANSI standard for half-inch pitch roller chains, allowing for optimal contact and power transfer from the chain to the lockring. Tired of breaking your knuckles using that Hozan to muscle off your lock ring? We were, too…
When Jason at Affinity first told me about his fixed freestyle bike, I thought it sounded pretty rad. Then he got in a prototype and I thought it looked cool but that it needed to be a little bit beefier. Initial field tests proved that, yes indeed it did. So Jason went back to the drawing board and re-worked the bike, adding some larger tubes, a new gusset detail and yes, bigger tire clearance; the Cyclone was ready! Last Saturday they got the bike in from the factory and yesterday I took some exclusive photos of it.
Tony Fast came in town this weekend. He needed a break from life in Philly so we met up with Chris and Nate to ride fix and BMX. While filming a small line at the Peel Sessions spot, I caught this skater, names Rob Hall hitting a nice wallie.
Check out more photos below, including a guy falling out of a tree head-first.
Tom’s had his new Charge ( @chargebikes ) Scissor prototype for a few weeks and I was going to go to Philly this week and shoot photos of it but Juliet beat me to the punch! The new Scissor has a mid-bb and clearance for super fat tires on a 700c wheel. It’s the same geometry, just with a few improvements.
I took some photos of Mårten’s D.A.M.P. Butterbean today before the guys left for Stockholm. It’s a unique bike, to say the least. Being the 1st prototype, Per has a lot to work out, but for the most part, the design intent is there. I gotta admit, I wasn’t entirely convinced when I saw it a few months back. After seeing it in action all week and riding it a little bit, I’m pretty stoked to see how the final run turns out. As you can see above, a big fat tire will fit in the rear, but the wishbone seatstay limits the size. One of the improvements Per will implement is more clearance here.
Oh Craigslist, how I love thee. Check out the listing for this 1975 Colnago in Seattle. So funny. Gorgeous bike. Let’s hope this one doesn’t go to Nigeria as well.
Here’s the seller’s price breakdown:
Ok enough ranting. I hope this is detailed enough for everyone.
One of you needs to buy this one.
Prices are as follows:
If you are an investment banker – $10K.
Just because Dow is over 10K now old boy, and all is so hunky dory and because it would look great next to the gorilla hand ashtray that your father left you as a memento of his first million.
If you’re a Google, Microsoft or Amazon Yuppie $5K.
Just because all your stocks are going higher every day and because you’d look fabulous on it while you’re going to Freemont to sip your $9 Belgian beer. What, it’s not really $9? Well, you’re in the wrong place, look harder.
If you’re a BMW frat boy: 3K. If you had one of these all those hot punk and goth chicks on the Ave that look through you would actually look at you. It’s magic. Some of them might even talk to you so to I’ll throw in two six word phrases that do not contain the words ‘dude’ and ‘cool’ more than 2 times.
Kareem’s already set up the Southeastern US’ Death Pedal 2 premiere. Here’s his description of the event from the DP site:
This is gonna be a good one. I mean, you know… we got Fat Tire hooking it up with multiple kegs, TONNNS of prizes from our sponsors with Eighth Inch hooking up a bike to win. What could be better? Also trying to drum up some funds for the North American Courier Cycle Championships of which Atlanta is the host city this year.
As with the other Death Pedal 2 Premieres, this will be the only one in this region (southeast). There really won’t be a lot of chances to see the film so I hope people don’t sleep on it!
Ted James, aka Super Ted, has been busy cranking out his ESB (Extra Strong Bikes) frames for Shop 14. A batch of the ESBs are heading over to Dice & Dice in Japan right now for distribution. With all the freestyle frames on the market, what makes the ESB different you ask? Ted’s frames use Reynolds 631, a cold-drawn steel best described as:
The strength to weight ratio of 631 is equal to that of many aluminium frames, and it has an excellent fatigue life whilst providing a supple ride quality suitable for long distance events.
Seems like an ideal material for a fixed freestyle frame right? Light and durable.
This Merckx Mondays post has been growing peace-meal over the past few weeks. I really wanted to try to compile a good amount of information on Eddy Merckx’s MXL tubeset that he developed with Columbus. Merckx wanted to design a bike for his professional racers; made out of a tubeset that was stronger and suited for the workhorses of stage races. It had to be stiffer than anything else in Columbus’ arsenal. After working with Columbus and consulting his racers, they created Columbus MAX and later, MXL. Using Nivacrom chromoly, Columbus began to develop a new and unprecedented over-sized steel tubeset for Merckx.
Read up on how MAX evolved to MXL and see some gorgeous photos below.
Here’s the follow-up to the previous post on the Mid-West Mayhem Recap: Day 1. I realized after looking at all the photos that I could just group the last two days into one. So here it is, the Mid-West Mayhem Recap: Day 2 & 3.
To pick up where we left off, we had all gone out the night before and had a few drinks. The next morning, we all woke up kinda late and hung out indoors. The weather had turned from nice to messy in a matter of hours. No one was in a rush to do anything. I kept saying this whole trip that getting everyone motivated and amped to do something was like herding cats. I was staying at Mark’s, Tom was at Kevin’s and we knew that we had to go to Ben’s Cycles that morning to change out Tom’s bottom bracket; which had come down with a case of the Mid-West salty disease.
