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 ...
@motor city – Thanks for the advice – passed to the VMH – there’s an FR70 out now – any experience of that?
@strathlubnaig – Also thanks – passed on to Mrs Engine for review and comment
Ooh, an updated Flite. I have a few from the early/mid 90s and grab them whenever I see a bargain. Really like that saddle & have them on a few of my road bikes. Sometimes one saddle feels the best on a particular bike but I can put a Flite on anything and forget it’s under me, which is how I judge a good saddle.
@motor city @strathlubnaig – Mrs Engine pointed out that she can easily tell what my heart rate is without a monitor because “you are red faced, sweating & youre out of breath
Wow, this orange fizik tape is absolutely spot on. VMH’s bike with V-Orange tape deployed. Looks even more amazing with a rider on it. She is definitely stretching the limits of the Rule #8 footnote, If you feel this is a violation, I suggest you take it up with her. See how that goes for you. She’s Irish, Scottish, and Norwegian and she is more than willing to fight dirty.
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@frank Looks good to me, flying V-orange on your handlebar should earn you a Rule #8 stretch, I’d think….besides given the VMH description I’m passing on the argument…
@frank give her my email and ill tell her for you.
@the Engine
you must have impressive endurance. My missus only ever sees me going anaerobic.
Having just witnessed this I can say the orange bar tape and orange on the V-kit is a match made in hebben. Matching the bike to the kit, there outta ba rule…
@frank
@Marcus
Well played! +1
@Mikael Liddy
OK, I will have to call FedEx as I am getting insane numbers from the online quote program, same thing for Canada Post.
Fargin’ iceholes
@frank Orange is the new orange. Very nice.
@Dan_R I’m going to Melbourne Feb 17 if that helps.
@sthilzy The Q-Rings only have two chain pick-ups, and they’re positioned at the optimum parts of the elipse (with smaller teeth as well). I’ve played with timing the shift, but it seems like the inside of the chain wants to ride on the teeth if I move the FD too quickly, regardless of the timing. I only see it becoming a big issue if I have a race that involves time in the small ring, and I’ve just been doing crits. My plan of attack is first to try a Shimano chain once this one needs replacing. If this doesn’t help, I’ll try the new SRAM yaw FD.
As for the race, I just missed out on the prime, and let myself get trapped on the slow side of the track for the bunch sprint (finished 6th). In retrospect, I should have just gone for the kamikaze early solo break, and blown myself up in a blaze of glory. Live and learn.
@Dan_R johnny dangerously. Nice.
@G’rilla
Yeah, with like 10 sets of Haleakalas. Don’t worry, that’s less than 10kg. You could take them as carry on.
@ten B ive got a soft spot for the r3. Yours looks the business. I too tried the selle smp evo saddle, but had two i issues with it. 1. It had an odd exterior cover that was more grabby than smooth, and rubbed a few pair of bibs into an ugly mess. 2. I was never sure if i had it leveled properly. It was comfortable with the nose all over the place, but that did little to reassure me i was actually doing it right. Reckon if they fix or change the material to something like the fizik ill give it another go.
@roger Thanks! I’ll say one thing for this site – if you follow the rules, you’ll wind up with a fantastic looking bike! As for the saddle, I can’t figure why they stitch a huge bibs-shredding logo on it. I was a bit wary, so I actually bought a used one that was already fairly smooth. I also give it a good spray of Armor All from time to time. Some good advice on fitting here: http://www.stevehoggbikefitting.com/blog/2011/09/all-about-smps/
I’m after a bit of help. I’m finally getting the position sorted on my new bike and I need to change the carbon headset cap.
It came with a 25mm FSA one which is far too big and I’m going to swap it for 10mm one and leave a 5mm spacer above or below the stem.
The problem I’m finding is that they don’t appear to be very easy to buy. No joy at the LBS. I’ve only found these online but they are out of stock:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=73499
It may be that I’m looking in the wrong place….any ideas? I’m in the UK.
Cheers for any help.
@motor city well there’s always these
http://www.velominati.com/general/merckxy-christmas-and-a-coppi-new-year/#comment-154257
@motor city ah, scratch that thought you were talking about the cap above the stem…no help sorry.
@motor city
http://store.canecreek.com/p/40-is41-short-top-assembly?utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=googleshopping&utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=googleshopping
This would get you 9mm. Or what about the FSA carbon bit on Frank’s VMH’s machine in the pics further back on the thread?
Oh, forgot the UK bit. Sorry. They do ship international though.
@graham d.m.
@Mikael Liddy Thanks for trying!
@motor city Some folks call them “volcano spacers” or something with volcano in it. Maybe this’ll help you in your search, but I have a feeling it’d be easier buying a new headset with the volcano size you want.
@snoov
@motor city
+1 I also was looking for a taller upper bearing cover for my FSA headset and was told I was out of luck. Cane Creek sells their integrated headsets as separate upper and lower bearing assemblies, however. That’s an option if you don’t want to replace your crown race and lower bearing – just get the upper assembly with the stack height you want. (of course you only save a little money over an entirely new headset)
@motor city You could always look for a negative rise stem (-10D, -17D) to adjust your position (keeping your headset as is). Unfortunately, that is likely a more costly option.
@motor city
A few tools to help you work things out:
http://www.brightspoke.com/t/bike-stem-calculator.html
http://yojimg.net/bike/web_tools/stem.php
http://www.ttbikefit.com/stemcalc.html
@VeloVita I got a headset for a bike I built for my VMH (she’s been out on it twice) which is a Ritchie WCS, it was only 15 bucks.
HOWEVER – I notice that the headsets that come on the Cannon D’Allez bikes have a double volcano cap. This allows one to remove the 15mm volcano (quite a young volcano) to reveal a 5mm volcano (a volcano that has been severely eroded by time and the elements or blown it’s top). I’m mentioning this in case @motorcity hasn’t looked under his young volcano, I don’t know which bike he has or whether he has looked under the cap/spacer.
@snoov What a ridiculous concept to add unnecessary weight!! I considered a new headset, but it still wouldn’t make me Rule #45 compliant so I’ve simply accepted my steerectile dysfunction. Nothing some Rule #5 and some yoga/core work can’t cure.
@VeloVita More time on the bike absolutely results in better flexibility. Two years ago I barely rode in the drops and my back went every couple of months. Now my back feels great most of the time instead of rarely and I love it in the drops (shallow Ergonovas). I have a lot of spacers under my stem but that’s cos the frame is a 51 and I should really be on a 55, when I get a new frame I’ll be slammin it!
@snoov That’s been my problem. Breeding and blimping has restricted my riding to only about 1600kms last year whereas before that I was riding a lot over the spring/summer and then racing CX in the fall. My back went out several times last year as well, which necessitated even more time off the bike so I feel I’m pretty much starting from scratch.
Cheers for your help so far with this.
Photo has loaded the wrong way round for some reason…this is what I want to swap for a smaller cap. I understand why new bikes are sold with big steerers to fit all but a 25mm stem cap + 20mm of spacers seems a bit much.
This is my bike, Rose CRS5000:
@motor city
Hello mate.I’d advise you to check your headset first before you spend money on a new one with a volcano/dust cover that doesn’t fit your bike.You can’t just put any volcano cap there but one that will allow to preload your headset bearings and cover the top bearing properly.I don’t know what size is the headset and the head tube on your bike so can’t really say what will fit and what won’t.From the pictures it looks like the integrated headset with the oversized bottom bearing.I got a spare FSA Orbit carbon volcano that measures 15 mm and it is pictured below.You can’t buy those separate so after market caps are your only choice.If you want to contact me I can send it to you to try.It’s the part that is hard to find spare even in a LBS.Alternatively post some pictures of your headset and bearings to give you more information
or contact Rose to see if they have smaller caps but I doubt it.
@TommyTubolare Thanks for your help, will take closer look tomorrow and get some photos. I’ll also speak to rose, they were really helpful when I dealt with them before.
I’m assuming the Keepers et al have seen this?
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/fizi-k-to-launch-bars-and-stems
That orange tape does look awesome. Just unusual enough but not obnoxious. Looks great on an all-black steed too.
@frank
You should get your vrouw these
@frank Time for a custom color Fizik?
@motor city No problem, I like the Rose bikes (nice choice!) and I hope you don’t mind me asking but have you tried the Rose site? They have a comprehensive choice and they’re pretty good price-wise too.
@TommyTubolare Ha, of course I didn’t mean just any headset, thanks for adding the info I’d omitted.
@wiscot
and just after Frank bought himself some pretty new carbone bars…unlucky
So I ordered some Craft lobsters online, but they are permanently out of stock. They offered up Louis Garneau instead, but I just can’t dig the brand. Should I go for it, or shop around again?
@Mikael Liddy
Is AG2R newly on Focus? I don’t think they were last year?
@DerHoggz they were on Kuota
@RedRanger
Yup, switched from Kuota to Focus this year.
@Mikael Liddy
Wish they switched to black as well! That brown shouldn’t be made in lycra!
@sthilzy yeah it’s pretty horrid
@DerHoggz
Hey. I have a pair of Pearl Izumi softshell lobster gloves and a pair of Ibex merino wool thin gloves to use as liners coming soon in the mailz. And some Northwave Arctic spd shoes, to boot. My extremities are so long that blood only pays the occasional visit.
i’ll report back.
@frank
Crikey! Those Zwarte plugs really set off the orange bar tape!