#coaster-brake

Radar

The New Readymade Speedvagen Urban Racer Comes in Three Build Specs

This year Speedvagen is doing something a little different with their Urban Racer coaster brake bike. For one, the coaster brake has been upgraded to a Moné Bad Ass Coaster Wheel. Then it also got three different build kits: a drop bar with big ass tires (pictured here – $4150), the same build kit but with moto riser bars ($4395), and then the original Urban Racer with slicks and a fillet brazed bar/stem ($4500). Of course these bikes feature all the Speedvagen accouterment, including the Berserker dropouts, chain guard, and more. The biggest aesthetic change this year, however, has got to be the matching cerakote paint and components.

These new Urban Racers are built in batches of 11, awaiting orders to be sent off to their new home. Head on over to Speedvagen to see more.

Can I just say “wow” one more time?

Radar By: Crust Bikes

The Crust Florida Man: A Leo Rodgers Pro Model

We love hosting and supporting the fruits of our good friends’ labor. Crust Bikes and Leo Rodgers have been working on a pro model for Leo, dubbed the “Florida Man.” This singlespeed frame can be built as a singlespeed freewheel, a coaster brake, or a straight-up fixed gear off-road machine. Check out all the details below, including how you can win one of these frames!

Radar

The Merry Sales Company Is Importing Eagle 2-speed Coaster Brake Hubs in USA

People love tinkering with coaster brake cruisers but the achilles of the cruiser bike is always the hub. Truth told, there aren’t a lot of options out there for coaster brakes, but luckily, distributor Merry Sales Company will be importing Eagle brand 2-speed coaster brake hubs in USA. They will distribute the hubs to dealers and distributors and will also conduct OEM sales and services.

Here’s a bit of backstory from Merry Sales:

“International Cycle Gears of India has manufactured hubs and other parts for the last 25 years. Mr. B.B. Lall, President of International Cycle Gears, has worked on the Eagle 2-speed coaster hub project for many years; first with Mark Worksman, and later with The Merry Sales Co. Mr. Gurpeet Bhushan son of Mr. B.B. Lall will soon join the company after completing his MBA to handle this new project. There may be some people in the U.S. that do not recognize the name International Cycle Gears, but they have a long history of collaborating with Mark Worksman when he was President of Bendix USA. ”

The Eagle 2-Speed Hubs are for sale at Merry Sales for $119.99. You can order from your local shop.

Radar

Show Me the Moné: Cerakote Black Coaster Cooler

To coaster brake afficianados, the Coaster Cooler might be one of the ~~coolest~~ most unique inventions for your cruiser. Cjell over at Moné Cycles has a limited edition run of these hub coolers – and hubs/spokes – all done up and fancy in Cerakote black for an extremely limited release. Head to Moné Cycles to check it out.

Reportage By: Kyle Kelley

Paul de Valera Does it All at Atomic Cycles

Paul de Valera does it all, he’s the mechanic, manager, buyer, PR, HR, ride leader, ride organizer, social media expert, designer, illustrator, coaster brake extraordinaire at Atomic Cycles. Paul doesn’t have a cell phone, still uses a yahoo email address, and hand draws every single one of his flyers. While this may be fine for a shop that puts on a handful of events a year, but Paul’s ride calendar is ridiculous. Atomic Cycles host a weekly BMX Cruiser ride, two Coaster Brake Race Series a year, vintage mountain bike rides, downhill racing on children’s bikes, a few long gravel rides, a winter and summer solstice ride across the Santa Monica Mountains, a SoCal Single Speed Mountain Bike Championship, a ride where everyone dresses like ninjas in the middle of the night and spends most the ride in fear of someone jumping out and attacking them, a BMX Sidehack Race, the S.C.U.M.B.A.G Mountain Bike Weekend, a Turkey Day Ride, and a SanFernando Valley to DTLA ride. Try to say that 10 times fast!

Reportage By: California Travis

Cam’s 1979 Lawwil Knight Pro Cruiser is a Drum Brake Blast From the Past!

Mert Lawwil had already been a legendary motorcycle racer for years and was building and selling Harley Davidson flat-track racing frames with Terry Knight when they got the idea to weld up a batch of BMX bicycle frames. But Don Koski of the Cove Bicycle Shop in Tiburon, California (hangout spot of mountain biking progenitors, The Larkspur Canyon Gang), convinced them to make a production run of “mountain bikes” in batches of 50 at a time instead. Mert and Terry had to label and sell these bikes as “cruisers” because most other bicycle shops didn’t understand or want to sell “mountain bikes”…yet.

Reportage By: kyle kelley

The Coaster Brake Challenge: And Y’all Thought You Were a Freak!

Welcome to the beautiful dark twisted world of Paul de Valera and Atomic Cycles‘ Coaster Brake Challenge! A race I have known about for over a decade, a race that my mentor JimC would race religiously, but for some reason, I never made the time to attend. I always made up some kind of excuse, usually, it was about the bike, which is bullshit. Paul and Atomic Cycles have plenty of loaners, and as you can already tell from the title of this story, these bikes are simple, cheap, and easy to build.