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 ...
@Mikael Liddy
I’ve seen your rides on str@va this summer. The poor thing’s whimpering with pain.
@Mikael Liddy
Do you have another saddle you could mount temporarily to see if it alleviates the creak? Carbon frames can be nightmares when it comes to diagnosing creaks since everything seems to echo and get magnified as you stated. At least you could rule out the saddle rails this way, which is a start.
@G’rilla
Gorgeous!!!
@VeloVita
Trial and error is about your only hope…
@Mikael Liddy
Grease your quick releases/dropout faces before you do anything. For the saddle maybe grease the rails if metal or assembly paste if carbon, pull the seatpost, (re)apply carbon assembly paste, reinstall and tighten to appropriate torque.
@all while the saddle/post junction all seemed pretty tight, there is a plastic section under the nose of the saddle that’s screwed on which was pretty loose. Given the noise seems to come when my thighs are pushing down & adding pressure to the front of the saddle this may have been the solution…shall report back.
@Dan_R
Apologies – I know there is some in depth back and forth discussion including video links somewhere. Thought that was it.
@Mikael Liddy
A few months ago, after my last CX race that included lots of sand, mud and water crossings, my Al framed CX bike developed a nasty creak that I swore came from the headset. I pulled it down and rebuilt it twice with new grease each time, and each time there was no change. I then pulled apart the stem and bars because I was only getting the noise when I was flexing the bars sideways whilst out of the saddle.
Just as I was resigning myself to accepting it, I took the front wheel out of the dropouts and found two grains of sand on the QR interface with dropout. I brushed it away with my finger, and the bugger hasn’t made a sound since.
Look where you don’t think the sound is coming from.
@itburns I was just observing. Maybe this should be an actual article in the future!
@mouse Yup, skewers were the first things I looked at. Given the impending arrival of the velomifoetus the bike is now being transported atop the car so the front wheel comes on & off regularly (seriously tempted to rid it of the lawyer tabs), the rear has been on & off for a clean recently as well but the noise has been present before & after.
@Mikael Liddy
Bugger.
@Mikael Liddy Incredible how the noise transfers, a drop of oil on the skewers solved one of my Silencio problems too. I’d never have thought of it but @Oli (where are you?), @frank and others suggested it here.
@snoov
My wheels (Fulcrum Racing 7) don’t have any contact between different spokes, blissful silence.
Grrr, tightening seat post bolt & funny screw under the front of the saddle don’t seem to have worked. I’m sure the noise is from the saddle though as I’m pretty sure I can feel the ‘click’ as my legs go past…may have to resort to an lbs diagnosis on the trainer.
@mouse
+1 My CX bike had a tiny knock that happened every time I went over an uneven paved surface (crack in the road). Seeing as I had just adjusted my stem height I figured it must be that the headset was loose. After doing several laps of the neighborhood with a stop at home to readjust after every one, nothing was working. It turns out it was the valve stem knocking against the rim hole.
@Mikael Liddy
Have you tried: a) greasing up the bolts? b) using a product like Finish Line Carbon Grip on the rails? That combo stopped my clicking.
Seeking advice: The last bits I wanna upgrade on the #1 are the headset (FSA generic) and BB (SRAM BB30, good but generic).
I’m thinking Chris King, but holy hell, ceramic is gonna break the bank. Suggestions?
@scaler911
You live in a wet place, isn’t ceramic contraindicated?
@Nate
Lot’s of guys here ride ceramic. I didn’t know that was a concern. And #1 doesn’t see a lot of rain riding. Some for sure, but only when necessary.
@scaler911
From what I have heard ceramic bearings are easily trashed by wet. Don’t run them myself.
@scaler911 slightly off topic have you and McSqeak seen this race series down our way: http://trailheadracingpdx.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/heiser-farms-grand-island-road-race-series/
I like the casually deliberate photo at the bottom of the page too…..
@Gerard
Oh ya. That’s one of the first races on the calendar. My team will be there in full force.
@scaler911 nice, there is Dirty Circles in Woodland, WA as well, I’ll be there for the first one and maybe the second one then off to Australia. I’ll be in the Cat 4’s though :) It will be an hour of adrenaline filled craziness- it’ll be fun!
Which team..?
@scaler911 Surely ceramic bearings in the headset are a bit OTT non? Bottom bracket though, makes perfect sense.
@scaler911
Training looks to be going well:
N+1 plans successfully divulged to S earlier this week with no objection and positive response; blood pressure restored to normal levels now that my spot in the builder’s queue is no longer covert.
@Nate Custom frames aren’t for the impatient! I started the process in November and will be surprised if I see the completed bike before March.
And that’s with no queue (the builder now has a 6 month waiting list).
@G’rilla
I’ve been in the queue since last May and reckon I’ll have the frame in April, which is what I expected. It’s quite possibly the most challenging wait I’ve ever had. The only ways I’ve been able to scratch the itch are gradually acquiring the build kit, and thinking about the paint job.
@Gerard
Therapeutic Associates PDX Cycling. You’ll have some of my TAI guys in your group. 4-5 I think. @gaswepass is one of them.
@Nate
@G’rilla
Can I inquire as to which frames you are having built?
@snoov
Aha what timing. There is an article in this months Cyclist magazine on bearingsenititled “Spheres of Influence” All bearing are not equal, in the same way that you can get good quality, expensive, steel bearings, you can also get good and bad quality ceramic bearings.
In essence the jury is out. The theory is that ceramic bearings are smoother, require less lube and there is therefore less resistance….however much of this is marketing hype and it comes from the use of ceramic bearings in industrial machinery where the bearings have to operate at 25,000 rpm rather than 300rpm on a bike. I think you will find that high quality steel ball bearings are probably better than low quality ceramic ones.
If you have very deep pockets and are going for all out marginal gains then fine, but if not I would just buy some high quality steel bearings and save the pennies.
@scaler911
Spend to replace what you need not what you want. Spend the money on booze straight away, so long as you spend enough to punch yourself in the head until you forget about ceramic headset bearings, you can consider it a measured success.
Just don’t drink so much that you get someone else to punch you. They won’t care about your wellbeing as much as you do and might not stop at the appropriate time.
@Deakus
I totally agree with you. I’ve been reading a lot of good stuff about the Zipp steel bearings which are way rounder than many ceramic bearings by others. They also make ceramic bearings which are again way rounder than others one can buy and evidently many pro teams get Zipp to make bearings for them.
My first hand experience is that on the club rides if those in front of me stop pedalling and I do too they all slow down faster than I do, unless they’re on Zipps too. I read that the switch to Zipp’s ceramic bearings is like losing 300 grams when climbing.
http://www.zipp.com/_media/pdfs/technology/hubs.pdf
@xyxax
Steel, Dave Kirk/Kirk Frameworks.
@Nate
Fuck ceramic, especially in jockey wheels. Any performance gain is negligible compared to the time I spend cleaning the damn things. I need some straight up steel ones. My mindset recently in the cold/wet/snow/ice has been focused on durability and longevity instead of saving 6 watts with fucking chain lube. The Fredliness of cyclists cannot and never will stop surprising me. I read an issue of Bicycling magazine recently, fuuuuuuccckkkk.
@xyxax
Titanium cyclocross, 333fab.
Just to clarify people, I’m not going to go ceramic, mostly based on price, and the negligible, if any, gains. I was just wondering what people were happy with. I think the FSA headset is fine, just not “pretty”. Same with the generic BB.
@DerHoggz
Don’t worry, I just read a Newsweek article with some douchebag reporter defending COTHO. I was bored.
@scaler911 High-quality steel makes a difference that lasts for a while. High-quality ceramics may offer an initial advantage, but deteriorate quicker – by nature of their own superior hardness, they wear out the races faster.
I noticed a huge difference when I switched from the generic BB to my current Dura-Ace on the roadbike. A similar change was noted when I swapped the half-seized derailleur pulleys for a fresh set…
G’rilla – Hmm, gold & black, any reason? You’d better not go on a Cogal with any of the military academy lads or they might try and steal it. Looking forward to seeing it. My Gin & Trombones is the white/black one which has a greenish tint in the paint. Mine still looks good after a few years of riding, but yeah, I’d say matte might be a good idea for a bike that sees such treatment.
@Ron My MTB is black and gold. My favorite Fizik saddle is black and gold (but no longer made). I saw some Baums in similar colors.
I haven’t seen the completed bike yet. Hopefully in a few weeks!
@Nate
I love the JKS classic model in particular, just beautiful. I look forward to see what you chose when finished. Since I already have steel and aluminum bikes, I’ve been looking for a dream carbon bike, which would have something similar to that classic styling (in my size). Which led me to custom Parlee or Seven. Now I dream of bank robbery.
@G’rilla
The baby blue paint scheme would be particularly sweet. What will become of the Van Dessel? Pit bike?
@G’rilla Please tell me you aren’t going to fully paint the new bike. Raw Ti is so beautiful. This is a cross bike from a AZ builder.
http://www.formcycles.com/FORM_cycles/CYCLOCROSS.html
@RedRanger Raw Ti is beautiful, but a nude Ti bike looks generic and uninteresting, IMHO. And it looks weird if the frame is silver but the fork is black. I’m going for 3/4 paint with the rear triangle unpainted.
I think Baum does painted titanium well:
@G’rilla Well is an understatement – Baum, I believe, have bike aesthetics nailed down perfectly.
@xyxax
David, if you want to stop by either place, give me a holler. My accommodations are not 5 star, but you’re more than welcome to stay with me. I don’t know much about the Parlee’s, other than they lookin F’ing mighty fine. and Seven, well I see Rob VM almost weekly when I stop by the studio, and there’s no better person to talk to than the man himself, over an espresso no less. He’s truly a gentleman, and dare i say he could care less about making money, just getting you on a bike that you love.
@G’rilla Still waiting on shots of the entire wheel. The classics are the ones with the CRAZY buzz, yea?
@xyxax I’ll likely be deciding between the JK Special and the Classic. I don’t know which way I’ll go.
Funny on the triumvirate of materials. I lack steel, hence the Kirk. Does Seven do carbon? I always think of them as a Ti shop. Oops, there’s another material I don’t have.
@G’rilla Firefly:
@Nate
Nice going! Kirk, eh? He had a booth a few years ago at the NAHBS in Richmond. Very, very impressed by his work, really beautiful bikes.
You & G’rilla need to cool it though or everyone is going to get really damn jealous really fast. Then again, not sure if I’ll ever develop the patience to wait that long for a bike. Maybe when I hit senior citizen status.
G’rilla, a man who knows what he likes. Black & gold sounds nice. My Tommasini has such an insane paint job that I try to keep my other bikes pretty plain.
@Nate
You won’t go wrong, I bet. I’ll be interested to hear about the Terraplane seat stays. Seven is more recently in carbon, with one full carbon line and some mixed carbon-Ti (carbon tubes with Ti lugs, for example.) I’m drawing the line at bamboo.
@roger
Great offer. I’ve got to give a talk in Providence some time this year, so might be a good side trip.
However, the fantasist ice is thin beneath my feet. First, full-on fitting to see if my anatomy (in view of some aesthetic red lines) requires a custom frame. Only then will I be able to explain the all-Ramen diet to the kids.
@xyxax Will definitely get the Terraplanes. There is a cool interview with Dave Kirk somewhere in the archives on Red Kite Prayer where he talks about all the work he put into developing them. They are all about maximum traction.