Brooklyn’s Affinity Cycles is pairing premium shop rags with Phil Wood products you can trust. Select one of three rag designs with Phil Wood Hand Cleaner or the rags with Phil Wood Grease.
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Golden Saddle Rides: Low Track
Photos and words by Kyle Kelley
In many cases, I’m not a huge fan when someone swaps parts from a chromoly bicycle to an aluminum one, but in this case I was a-ok with it. This particular customer went from a frame sourced in China to this delicious Low, locally sourced and homegrown right here in California!
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Follow Kyle on Instagram and visit Golden Saddle Cyclery in Silverlake, Los Angeles.
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No 22 Little Wing Titanium Track Bike
No.22 Bicycles just recently completed a build of their Little Wing titanium track bike. If you remember their Great Divide Road, then you know what to expect here. American-made, precision titanium at a pricepoint lower than their competitors.
The Little Wing features a No 22-designed integrated saddle clamp, custom drilled Phil Wood hubs laced to Wheels of Mass Destruction carbon rims, a tapered carbon, undrilled fork and those sick Phil Wood cranks. It’s over the top!
See for yourself below!
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Division 1 Red Hook Crit Navy Yard Cinelli Vigorelli
Something I’ve been saying a lot this past year is how the crit track bike has become its own character within the world of “fixed gear”. Now, I don’t want to generalize too much (I’m guilty of that) but unlike track bikes used to actually race at the track, the crit track bike takes on more eccentric personality. Think of them like a racing machine found in F1 or Nascar. Bright colors, patterns, excessive details that jump out and catch your attention in the four or five seconds of each lap.
The most compelling example in recent months being the Stanridge Speed x Death Spray “magnetic” design or the hyper neon Dosnoventa bikes. Call it what you will but I’ll call it exhibitionist extravagance with two wheels. Case in point are the new Division 1 Cinelli Vigorelli frames. These are full blown, over the top, lightweight race machines.
Custom painted ENVE wheels laced to pink Phil Wood hubs, custom anodized PAUL cranks, custom anodized Thomson stem, Thomson post with a matching Thomson collar, Painted ENVE bars, custom Busyman saddle and bar tape. The guys went all out to match the Cinelli Vigorelli “Giro” pink paint scheme.
Would I ride it? No but I’m a little more reserved when it comes to paint. Besides, I’m a purple kinda guy. Do I think it works in the context of one of the most exhibitionist track bike criteriums of all time? Of course. It’s fun, colorful, will look great at night (in the rain nonetheless) and will match the Division 1 team’s Pee Wee Herman skinsuits to a T. Yes, they even have bow ties.
Call them what you will but Colin Strickland, a local racer, or beast have you, is sitting pretty at number 5 in the Red Hook Crit standings and he isn’t even warmed up yet… Now, if the rest of the team can work together, one of these machines might make it to the podium.
At any rate, a race is a race, a bike is a bike and you can check out more of this excessively extravagant track bike crit machine in the Gallery!
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Mobius Cycle Gives the Phil Wood Cranks Some Love
This lovely yellow Seven fixed gear has a hell of a drivetrain. The Phil Wood cranks are a good way to bring some balleur componentry to any build. Leave it to Mobius Cycle to deliver some great photos. See the rest here.
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Let’s Get Rolling!
I can’t even begin to process everything that I missed while in China but this image that Tracko posted from Velo Cult is a great launching point. I’m in Melbourne, toasted from the past three weeks but am ready to get rolling again. Thanks for your patience and thanks to Tracko for holding it down!
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Stanridge Speed: Newest HSP with Phil Wood Cranks
Man, I think this is the first time I’ve seen the Phil Wood cranks on a photographed bike and they look great. Here’s the newest from Stanridge Speed. Thanks for sending this over, Adam.
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My FBM Sword SQ Track
This bike has been in the works for a while now and I’m not talking about the weeks the frame sat in the box while I accumulated the parts. I’m talking about since I first saw one in person, at Post Bikes in Brooklyn. The original Sword wasn’t what I would consider a true track geometry. It was more of a fixed cruiser, marketed not only at the kids wanting a street bike to thrash, but also to the older BMXrs who wanted a quicker way around town.
Steve and John Paul began working on the Sword SQ. They talked to various people in the “industry”, including Josh “Big Red” Hayes and Kyle Kelley, who worked on the Sword’s geometry, making it what it is today. This Sword SQ represents a lot of things to me. Mostly, a company, who in the wake of Taiwanese fabrication, still make their bikes in America, for an affordable price and have never taken a penny from an outside investor.
While I’ve already got a kick-ass track bike, this Sword will go through many variations. I’m already planning on putting a Cetma on it to carry my photo bag in the summer and will probably throw risers on it at some point to encourage some throwback FGFS. It’s a little small, compared to what I’m used to riding, so the saddle to bar drop is much more race-fit than my Icarus. I’ve dialed in the fit now and it looks a lot more reasonable than the first Instagram photo I posted.
I tried to use as many American companies as possible. Profile Fix / Fix hubs laced to H+Son Archetype rims (fucking love these rims!) and a 18t Phil Wood SLR cog. Thomson stem, post, 1960’s Unicanitor Saddle, Ritchey Classic Curve bars and Newbaum’s tape. I was tempted to buy a set of the Phil Wood cranks, but went with the tried and true SRAM Omniums with an extremely rare, purple 44RN 144#47 ring. My White Industries pedals got a new life and the Toshi single straps are just right. Finally, a black KMC Cool Chain and 28c Continental Gatorskins finish off the build, with a 3/4″ mini Viking decal on the stem.
I’m very happy with this bike and it’s been nice to ride a track bike around, since my Icarus’ fork has been at the painter’s for a few weeks.
Many thanks to FBM for this beast and I can assure you, this won’t be the last time you see it here on the site!
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Down to the Cog
It’s been a while since I’ve taken my sweet time building up a bike and this project’s been a lot of fun. Over the past few months, I’ve sought out everything piece by piece. Whether it was buying and trading parts from friends or finding deals at local shops, I’ve really thought about each component and how they’ll fit into the entire picture. But most importantly, I took my time.
Getting this Phil Wood SLR track cog today was as juicy as well-cooked and cut brisket.
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Life’s Too Short to Ride Clean Bikes
When I ask people if it’s ok to shoot photos of their bike, they often reply with “let me clean it first”. Where’s the fun in that? As long as there’s not salt residue from winter slush on your beautiful steel steed, there’s nothing wrong with road crud and grime. No matter how nice your bikes are, they’ll always look better with some dirt on them. More on this bike in particular, later on this week.
I have to credit Andy from Fyxomatosis for the “Life’s too short…” lead in.
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Phil Wood: Seat Collars in Stock
The small details on a frame are what stand out and even if you can’t afford some Phil Wood hubs, these new seat collars are an affordable way to add a nice bit of color (they’ve got a good selection!) to your build:
“Phil Wood & Co. seat post collars are machined out of solid US produced billet aluminum. Each collar is machined in-house to the same high-quality standards as we apply to all of our products. Our collars are available in the same anodized colors and high polished surface as the rest of our products. This allows for a coordinated color match between all of our products.
We are currently running at maxiumum capacity. Becuase of this no other sizes are available and custom orders will not be taken.”
Head on over to Phil Wood for more!
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Phil Wood: Black Track Cranks in Stock
If there was ever a reason to swap out silver for black components on your track bike, this is it. The Phil Wood Track Cranks are now available in black and they’re oh, so sweet.
Check out two more shots below and a huge thanks to Darla at Phil Wood for sharing.
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Two Phil Wood Products for You: Cranks and Collars
I showed you the Phil Wood 40th anniversary singlespeed cranks back at the 2011 NAHBS on the Horton Collection’s bike by Bilenky. Then last year at Interbike last year, where they were dubbed “singlespeed, not track” cranks, due to their Q-factor. Now, nothing on the Phil Wood site says anything about a track crank, but I know they were working towards that last year at Interbike. Regardless, these things are balleur. Get on that pre-order!
Also from Phil Wood are seatpost collars. Another fine piece of machined metal.
Contact Phil Wood for pre-ordering information.
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Phil Wood: BB Cup Mud Guards
Some people don’t like the way the Phil Wood BB cups look. For those naysayers, Phil Wood developed these mud guards for their shells. They’ll cover up the innards that you don’t like to see and keep your cups clean:
“Our mud guards are designed to help protect your Phil Wood bottom bracket cups from getting dust, dirt and mud that can accumulate in and around the bottom bracket cup splines. They are designed with a drain opening to allow any moisture between the bearings and mudguard to vent out. They are designed to install onto any Phil Wood square taper bottom bracket cup sets. Each set of mud guards comes with 4 rubber o-rings, (preinstalled and two replacement).”
Pick a set up here in all of Phil Wood‘s colors. I’m going to order a set and shoot some photos on the Icarus this week.
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Phil Wood Likes it Fat
I don’t think it gets much fatter than this. Hell, that looks like it’d fit on a dirtbike. I’ll save you from counting the spokes. It’s a Phil Wood 64-hole disk hub for a new project the team’s working on.
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Ross’ Richard Sachs Cross Bike
When I first moved to Austin, I met up with Ross to shoot his Nagasawa track bike. Then I shot photos of his Speedvagen and now, the other day, we took his Richard Sachs cross bike out for some lens love. This bike is race pedigree through and through. There are no cable stops for a front derailleur and no bottle cages. Not ideal for a daily rider but when Ross saw a local selling it, he hopped on board. Wanting to do something a little different with the build, he opted for TRP mini v-brakes, a Ti Chris King headset, Tune ‘Bigfoot’ square taper cranks and a Phil Wood Ti BB. Oh and Campagnolo 10… How’s that for a bike suffering from an identity crisis? Personally, I think it’s bad ass and he’s on it every day when we ride. Ride what you love…
Check out more by clicking the photo above or here to open in a new tab.
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Tokyo Fixed Gear: New Workshop
You can’t work on bikes in a messy shop. My goal in the next few weeks is to build a legit workshop. It just makes life easier, as the Tokyo Fixed Gear team has found out. They’ve got a new shop and that means, new pricing and specials. Head to their site to see how they could become your LBS if they aren’t already (in London).
