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Here’s a quick piece from Bombtrack, featuring their new Columbus Chromor disc cross bike with SRAM Rival, the Hook. Weighing in at 22lbs for the complete build in a size medium, the Hook is designed for cross racing, trail riding and gravel rides.
See some product photos below and more information at Bombtrack.
So precision products like the Takara Genkai can grace the shelves of Walmart. Hey, the wheels don’t have to be even remotely true with discs, the brakes don’t need to be toe’d in and the rear triangle doesn’t have to be square, at all. They’re also cheaper to produce.
For $399, who can argue? Is it bad that I want to buy one and see how long it lasts?
This past weekend, some buddies and I went on a little camping trip. Some of us had to be back in town the following day, while others went on through Monday. The lucky bastards… One of the early returnees, along with me, was Jonathan. It was his first camping trip here in Austin, since recently relocating from Omaha, so we wanted it to be a good one.
There’s more to come on the ride itself (oh and it was a good one), but I thought I’d take a minute to feature his rather unique Surly Disc Trucker…
For those looking for a disc brake-equipped bike that won’t break the bank but will brake in all conditions, Kona’s got something new in their 2015 offerings. The Esatto DDL is their new “all road” bike. Spec’d to impress with a Shimano 11-speed drivetrain, Mavic Aksium Disc One wheels, TRP calipers and Continental Grand Sport Race 28c tires.
See more at Kona!
This bike has single-handedly upped the game for All-City Cycles in my opinion. You get everything the Nature Boy had, plus disc brakes, a Whisky fork, Anna’s fancy dropout design and Reynolds 853. All that for $1,200 frameset or $2,250 complete. Available in November of this year.
See more at All-City. Congrats guys, this bike looks great!
So what do frame builders think of their own bikes? Kris from 44 Bikes has some interesting things to say about his own Huntsman’s component selection, which I think it spot-on for the kind of riding Kris likes to take part in and for the kind of bike his clients often request.
See more at 44 Bikes and thanks for sharing Kris!
Ummm… Holy shit. Ira really killed the Oregon Outback on his Breadwinner throwback B-Road Gravel Bike and there’s video evidence. Such a great watch!
The world is still a little upset over last year’s SRAM Red hydraulic disc debacle. In this video, SRAM outlines the 2015 model and its improvements.
The Rouge Roubaix exceeded mine and Ben from Argonaut‘s expectations. I don’t think anyone involved with that trip knew how that race would unfold. Backtrack to a few months prior, team Argonaut had the idea to pull Brian Vernor in to do a video and bring me down to shoot the race and document the new Disc Racers.
We spent the two days prior to the race testing out the bikes and looking for key vantage points to photograph the event. While Vernor got his video footage, I took some photos of the bikes and (part of the) team River City / Rapha. These photos are to be used on the Argonaut website…
Check them out in the Gallery and see the bike in person at the Aether NYC event this Friday!
Cielo is on fire this year! All their new frame offerings look incredible. The latest being their newly-announced Road Racer Disc. These new disc-equipped frames feature a Press Fit 30 bottom bracket, tapered fork, lightweight steel tubing, come with a Chris King InSet 8 headset and an ENVE fork for $2,495. See more at Cielo!
I finally had the chance to actually ride bikes with Todd from Black Cat this week, rather than just talk about them at a trade show. There’s something to be said about a frame builder who makes time to ride his own bikes and Todd definitely does that.
Two of my favorite bikes that I’ve featured on the site came from Todd’s workshop at Black Cat Bicycles – and they just so happen to be owned by two great people. There’s something about Brian Vernor’s Hardtail MTB and Eric’s MAX disc road that just do it for me.
Watching a frame builder rip on his own bike is something else and midway through our ride yesterday, I had to take the time to shoot his bike.
Funny side story: Todd was inspired to build this bike by the titanium Campagnolo seat post he came across after seeing what they fetch on eBay… He couldn’t just sell it, he needed a new bike for it!
All-City just posted an update to their blog about the Macho King Disc Limited Edition, Macho King Disc and the Nature Boy Disc. Included in this update is pricing, weight and availability. If you want one of these bikes, now’s a good time to head over to All-City’s Blog to read the full update.
Each year at NAHBS, I love how much Geekhouse steps their game up. From brightly-colored fixed gears and track bikes to classic tourers and race-ready cross bike. This year, Geekhouse is unveiling their new Hopedale Disc. By partnering with SRAM, Vittoria and Selle Italia to lace out the builds.
Since it is the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, Geekhouse chose 100% made in the USA tubing, with a mix of True Temper’s S3 and OX Platinum, along with Paragon Machine Works “Low Mount” disc dropouts.
For me, the most notable detail on the bikes are the paint jobs. The paint uses a two-step process. All three show-bikes have a powder-coated base, and then Jordan Low masterfully applied wet paint in geometric patterns. The artwork, done by Adria Klora, was inspired by the Geekhouse HQ (yellow), dazzle camo (blue), and the Zakim Bridge in Boston (red).
The yellow Hopedale Disc will be heading to the owner of Cooks Paint Works in Japan, via Blue Lug Bicycle Shop after the show. The red Hopedale Disc belongs to Kyle B., in Texas, which he gave as a 30th present to himself. The blue Mudville is an extra special bike though, aside from the paint and HED wheels, SRAM Force, and Thomson components, this machine is going to someone close to Geekhouse.
View these bikes this weekend – Geekhouse Bikes is exhibiting at the North American Handmade Bike Show at booth #400.
For those who won’t be in attendance at NAHBS, each bike is highlighted in details through the lens of Heather McGrath. See all three of Geekhouse’s offerings in the Gallery!
When Ben from Argonaut Cycles designed and developed his first road frame, he was content, but that didn’t mean his desire to create the best made in the USA carbon fiber road frame was sated. Ben knew the market was changing and wanted to have even more options for his customers to select when purchasing a custom bike.
With the popularity of gravel / dirt rides and races, he knew that his current racing geometry would need some finessing and with the increasing demand for disc brakes, the opportunity arose to adapt.
A bike suited for off-road riding has a few tweaks to the geometry. The rear end will be slightly longer, the bottom bracket, just slightly lower and the head tube loses around half a degree. This enables the bike to still handle fast on sealed roads, but really be at home on dirt. Tire clearances are important as well. These bikes fit a 28mm tubeless road tire with ease, which is all you need for gravel. Remember, this isn’t a cross bike.
The Argonaut Disc Road bikes that the Rapha / River City Bicycles team rode during the Rouge Roubaix were developed for off-road conditions, while staying true to their race machine pedigree.
For those familiar with the Di2 hydro system, you’ll note the front plate of the shifters were painted black. Other than that, it’s pretty straight forward. 140mm disc rotors, Argonaut Made in the USA frameset, ENVE bars, ENVE stem, ENVE wheels with custom decals and dripping with Chris King’s precision components.
Tim from the team has the first production model. After an afternoon of shooting photos and video of the bike in action, I took it out for some portrait photos.
This bike ripped apart the dirt and stood out from the pack at the Rouge Roubaix. See more in the Gallery!
These days, it’s tough to decide on your stopping method. With some systems failing, skewer genocide on the horizon, and awkward setup required, the hydro disc cross and road bike market is at critical mass (no pun intended). I do however find this photo of the Dura Ace hydro caliper on the latest Firefly easy on the eyes.
Throw some bigger tires on these beauts and I’d be so into them! I say that like I’m I’m not already into them. Firefly put out two solid looking machines this week, including this Ti disc machine with XTR cranks and this carbon and a Ti / carbon disc with RED. I love how the builds are so different, yet their intended uses are the same.
Side note: I’m trying to use a different word than “adventure” for bikes like this. Any ideas?
This is a great photo and there are many more at Ichicoblog’s Flickr. Also, much love for the White Industries VBC cranks. Those are the best!
All-City as a brand has grown so much over the years, largely due to the killer team working their asses off designing their bikes from the ground up.
For Frostbike this year, they unveiled three new disc cross models: the highly anticipated Reynolds 853 Macho King Disc, a Macho King Disc Limited Edition and a Nature Boy Disc. While the whole line is impressive, my favorite detail is the singlespeed dropout on the Nature Boy Disc…
Earlier this summer, I posted photos of an early prototype of the Macho King Disc and people were stoked. The bikes All-City unveiled tonight are dialed. See more details and photos below.
