The Bikes
The Bike. It is the central tool in pursuit of our craft. A Velominatus meticulously maintains their bicycles and adorns them with the essential, yet minimal, accoutrement. The Rules specify the principles of good taste in configuration and setup of our machines, but within those principles lies almost infinite room for personal taste.
It seems in some ways like a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, the way we honor our machines. We love them to a point that lies well beyond obsession. Upon these machines upon we endure endless suffering, but also find an unending pleasure. The rhythm, the harmony between rider and machine, the outdoors, the wind in our faces and air in our lungs.
The Bikes is devoted entirely to our machines. Ours, The Keepers, and yours, the Community. It features articles devoted to our bikes, and proves a forum for uploading photos of your own machines for discussion. We will be harsh, but fair; this is a place to enforce and enhance our observation of The Rules.
If you’d like to submit an article about your own beloved bike, please feel free to send it to us and we’ll do our best to work with you to include it.
- Rule #12 and the Cascade Effect
That is a very reasonable opening salvo for the Rule about bike ownership. Three is good and certainly a minimum, and we are talking road bikes here, if there was any doubt. They naturally become ordered: the #1 is ichi-ban, top dog, go-to bike for every and all rides. #2 was the old #1, ... - Guest Article: Black Is Not The New Black@kogalover is singing my song here. Bikes are beautiful. ’nuff said. VLVV, Gianni With all those posts on riding in winter and being visible, either by putting Eyes of Sauron or other car melting devices on one’s steed, or by even considering a YJA instead of donning plain black kit, it was about time to finally get ...
- Dialing in the StableThis was going to be an article about Rule #45. It is amazing how much time is wasted and matches burned when professionals stop for that second bike change to get back on their #1. With all the jigs available to team mechanics it would seem they could set up five bikes exactly the same. And ...
- Matching the drapes to the rugAs a longtime titanium bike owner, I’ve always been jealous of a beautiful painted frame but Ti and carbon frames don’t need paint like a steel frame needs paint. But I want some painted beauty. It’s like buying a white car; I can’t do white, need some color. So between a Ti frame and a ...
- Festum Prophetae: Waiting for the HourEveryone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. – Mike Tyson The one thing everyone should always plan for is that however well-conceived a program might be, things will never go to plan. The high level plan for my Festum Prophetae Hour Ride was as follows: Have a custom Hour Bike built by Don Walker. Because reasons. Reasons like custom ...
@Buck Rogers
HA! No sir..this bike is named El Presidente…I am the benevolent President and Dictator for Life of my cycling team, so my steed bears the name the troops sometimes call me.
@Haldy
The experience has been great so far. Bixxis is basically a 2 person business, Doriano and his daughter Martina. Somehow, they have responded to every email within an hour or so. We went over my dimensions, sent pictures and measurements of my old bikes, we talked about what I wanted in a bike, and customized each tube and angle. Ships from Italy on Monday, the whole process took only a few weeks, and price was reasonable to boot.
@fignons barber
I had the extreme pleasure of meeting Doriano, Martina, and Valentino Campagnolo down at NAHBS this year. I have an old ’88 DeRosa Professional( my very first super nice steed!) that was probably built by Doriano and is decked out with Campy Ergo Power( the original 8 speed set). Showed them both pics of it and they were very complimentary and gracious enough to pose for this photo. I had already done some communicating with them prior to the show and since two of my bikes were in the show, Doriano and I went over my fit/riding style and I have a drawing all whipped up and ready..I just need to pull the trigger.
Nice! I can believe it. For all his experience, Doriano seems very down to earth. The kind of guy you want to do business with.
@Haldy
Now THAT is super cool! Talk about “The Circle is now complete”, eh???
@Buck Rogers
Indeed, my friend, indeed!!
@fignons barber
This may be a little uncouth, but… What is a “reasonable” price range for custom steel or Ti?
PX10 spotted at work – the owner found it on the side of the road in a kerbside rubbish pile in poor condition, has just got it back from LBS. cable length possibly a bit OTT, but what a find!
@Cameron W
cannot believe a LBS would do that to brake cables, WTF?
@Cameron W
More disturbing than the cable length is ” found it on the side of the road in a kerbside rubbish pile ”
I’m yet to find this mythical rubbish pile of classy steeds and unicorns.
@AJ
AJ, sounds like we may be in the same boat. I’ve done quite a bit of homework on this lately. Frame or Frame/Fork from top notch builders are gonna run between $1800 through $3000. I’m certain you know that is only part of the cost. You will also need groups and bars and wheels and a Velominati Decal and perhaps a few other things. You can hit $5000 easily, honestly that may be cutting corners a bit (depending on what exactly your shooting for). Most of the builders will spec a complete build for you but they don’t always list their prices for such. Hope this helps. Chapeau!
@AJ
Tough call on prices. Custom Ti will usually run you high $3700-4200 for frame and fork and custom steel is usually more around $2200-$3200.
At least that is what I found when I was doing my extensive, OCD research over the last year. These are prices for pretty well known and respected builders.
I’m sure that you can pay less (or more) with other builders but if a Mate of mine were to ask how much to save or plan for, I’d say shoot for $4,000 for Ti and $3,000 for custom for FRAME and FORK ONLY from a good builder and that would be a good place to start.
@hudson
@Buck Rogers
You know, that’s not as bad as I thought. I have been eyeballing an S-Works Tarmac frame or a Super-Six Evo Hi-Mod frame, and it looks like custom is in the same price range. I could even ask for something off the wall like compatibility the the Rotor group set?
@Barracuda
I now do a double take on every rusty steed I see during the annual ‘kerbside collection’ in my fine city. My day will come.
@AJ
Is @Cyclops still making his Deacon frames? They were supposed to be pretty reasonably priced.
@MangoDave
Scapin will build you their very pretty Eleanor for €1700.
http://www.scapin.com/en/collections/steel/eleanor
any word on gear getting out the door anytime soon?
so I´ve put together a #9 bike as well to go along the ritchey logic #1, a mtb, a commuter and a folding bike in the stable. actually if I count my VMH´s wilier, mtb and the 2 boys´ bikes, the #9 is the 9. bicycle in the basement.
took an old cx frameset from the local club youth rider who´s overgrown the frame, added some cheapo parts from the abandoned-parts-bin like 8-sp brifters, tiagra derailleurs, fsa crank, avid mini-v´s, fulcrum racing 7 with new conti 4 season in 25mm width. weighs in at ~10kg.
still to work on handlebar positioning so no bar tape yet.
hope it´ll serve me well as we have no cx races around this part of the world, but some gravel roads to be explored as well as a fair share of bad weather to ride.
probably I´ll chage things gradually as funds will be raising or more likely I will switch better and lighter parts from #1 to #9 whilst upgrading.
The Eleanor from an Eyetalian builder? Seems odd.
@Ron
Google it – the name Eleanor originated in and was very popular in Western Europe, and many famous Italian noblewomen had the name.
Latest n+1
So, the BB on the 2012 Fuji SST is finally due for a replacement. Due to the plethora of replacement BB’s on the market it’s all a bit daunting.
Fuji SST runs a BB86 currently with Shimano Ultegra 24mm axle.
@Mikael Liddy has already offered up suggestions privately.
What have all the cool kids here currently got / looking at getting ?
Rule #12 strikes yet again for me. Don Walker has forged me a new track weapon with which I can cleave through the air. I present Excalibur..the newest member of my fleet-
@bovary1031
Ooooh – nice. I have a bit of a hankering to add a Gios to my stable – and that looks just my size…..
@Ron
It’s a pretty name for a pretty lady.. And mine will ship tomorrow! So: Italian post -> Dutch post. What could possibly go wrong?
@Teocalli
The older Brooklyn era Super Records and mid 80s Professionals turn up on eBay. I had a Super Record like this racing as a Junior and was thrilled to find this one years (decades) later
@oligali
I’d love to know more about your ritchey logic. Its a bike that is in the runnings for my N+1. I’ve read quite a bit online but i don’t know anyone that actually owns one.
@bovary1031
Yeah I keep seeing them but I don’t have budget approval – not least having just put Gruppo Super Record upgrade on #1.
@hudson
I had arm warmers arrive a few days ago.
@bovary1031
Nice! That will be a pretty bike to get back on the road. Are you going for repaint/redecal? Those lugs are very cool.
@Gianni
The long point lugs are a great Gios feature. The drilled dropouts are pretty awesome too.
Since the frame suffers from an overabundance of patina (i.e. rust, paint chips, peeling, yellowing decals), it is a prime candidate for a repainting and new decals.
@Haldy
very cool.
@hudson
so here it is:
built up with ultegra 10 speed group-san, fsa gossamer compact crank, ultegra/dt r440/sapim laser wheels with conti grandprix classic in 25mm, 3T stem and seatpost and a deda zero100 handlebar.
i find it very comfortable, killing a lot of roadbuzz as opposed to my old battaglin alu/carbon vortex. of course, it´s not the lightest one around but in my case the weakest link is still the rider.
so far i managed to do almost 4kkm in one and a half year into it and i´m still very pleased with it.
@Bart
Yeah, about that: since Italians are the most punctual people in the world, it’s going to be another two weeks..
@Bart
But the packaging will be a work of art?
@EBruner
nice, hopefully there’s a cap for me floating around somewhere in the postal system.
@oligali
very nice, thanks for your input. its top 5 in a list of choices. I have to be very careful with my decision, the next n+1 will put me in a s-1 state for a unforeseeable extent of time, possibly until the kids move out….and i have a 18 month old.
@hudson
yeah, i know that feeling. in my case the tensions are not so high anymore since my boys are 12 and 8 years old, so the VMH lifted up the sanctions a little bit. maybe it helped that i found an excellent slightly used wilier mortirolo in size xs for her, so we are enjoying the local roads together sometimes…
@bovary1031
Hmmm, new paint will be cool. No wonder RDV and Freddy Maertens had Gios build their bikes and then painted to look like Flandria bikes.
Hey yinz.
If my aluminum frame, that had the rear triangle unrepairably knocked out of alignment by a truck, now has oxide spiderwebbing under the powdercoat is it double-fucked or just extra-fucked?
@DerHoggz
The thing with aluminium is that it “work hardens” and becomes brittle after bending. So yeah sounds like one or the other of those unfortunately.
@Teocalli
It’s on the DS chainstay as well, so a fairly important a tube.
@hudson
And maybe those socks I ordered three years ago. Ha, I gave up awhile back.
@DerHoggz
Oops, only been two years.
@DerHoggz
I’m guessing Frank is dressing up his dogs in your socks and my caps.
@bovary1031
Have that frame media blasted and then epoxy primed to prevent future rust.
@smithers
Sorry – meant to ask for opinions on the R5 … New bike day looming and this is serious contender….
@Teocalli
Hope so. Saw the box Jaeghers come in, I hope Scapin ships in “fun to unpack” boxes too.
@ChrisO
I’m cool with that, I’d honestly forgotten until I saw talk about receiving orders.
Anyone know of hardware store equivalents to Speedplay grease and injector, or is it proprietary? I can’t find the legit stuff locally, and need it ASAP.