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 ...
@DerHoggz Only just spotted your insoles/high arch question. Have you tried eFit insoles from eSoles?
http://www.esoles.com/products/efit/
@Mike_P
Do you know if there is a charge for getting your foot scanned? I have tried the Superfeet, the Dr Schools custom insoles and various others without success. I have to use my custom orthotics to keep from getting hot foot if I ride more than 10 miles. It would be nice to have insoles I can leave in my shoes and not be that one item I always forget to grab when I am getting ready for a ride.
@seemunkee
May be preaching to the choir but moving your cleats back on your shoe can help with hot foot. Couple of mm back can make a big difference and you may want to lower your saddle a bit as well. Steve Hogg’s got a good guide to setting up cleats.
Number Two
or Number 254 to be exact.
@piwakawaka
Mercy!
@Rigid – you seen this???
@minion
If anything my saddle feels a bit low already, but I’ll take a look at Steve’s info and try playing with cleat position
@the Engine
AHHHH! Talk about not helping you out.
A small issue that I’d like some help with relates to my rear brake. It always seems to rotate which means that when you apply the brake it’s pushing the rim over (after setting it up so that rim stays in position at start of ride). I don’t want to tighten the bolt past the torque recommended. Anyone got a solution?
@snoov
Is the wheel built in the centre? If you have vertical dropouts, pull axle right back into the drop out and measure from the rim face to the inner chain stay gap. If you have a vernier, use the inside jaws to measure if the gap is the same both sides. If you don’t have a vernier, maybe Lego, plastisine, small block of wood. You want to measure if the rim to inner stay gap is the same. otherwise take it to a LBS that builds wheels and they’ll have a wheel centering tool.
@sthilzy Thanks but I don’t think it’s a dish problem. The brake starts a ride set up correctly but seems to move over the course of a ride. Front stays put.
@snoov
No worries. I had a look at my brakes to see what could make them rotate. Hmmm… the serrated washer split?
Have you used the brakes centre adjustment if it’s a dual pivot?
Maybe have a read of this – http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/dual-pivot-brake-service
Mrs Engine has turned my #2 into her#1 road steed. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Bike building party at my house today! Tubulars glued, growler of Bluebird Early Summer IPA in the fridge, and a sunny afternoon. What could be a better way to spend a Sunday? Besides actually riding?
@the Engine
You need to consider spreading the wealth a bit, there are at least 3 stores within 30′ driving that count as LBS for you. May avoid future uncomfortable nights.
@frank
Hit “reply” just to see that thing of beauty again. Super nice (as are the fine folks at VF!). Match made in heaven.
@the Engine
You have very high tech LBS indeed. At mine you are lucky to get a receipt that you can actually read never mind recording all my individual transactions. I was convinced the till was just set up to produce 50mm of white paper per sale until the owner confessed he never bothered to change the ink in his 1980’s vintage machine. Mind you it was 15 years old when he bought it spares probably no longer available.
@frank There’s a nice 1km of singletrack north of 110th street that we can try it out on later this week!
@frank amazing
@G’rilla I can’t imagine riding any of the local single track on a cross bike. We have plenty of fire roads and such though.
@frank
Now thats the way to spend a Sunday afternoon!
@RedRanger It’s fairly flat, urban dirt next to a regular bike path. It’s not steep enough to even require the small ring, but is pretty similar to most ‘cross courses around here. My plan is to train on it by doing sprint repeats later in the Summer.
We do have proper MTB trails within a 40 minute drive of the city, which I plan to ride next weekend if I can get my bike back from the shop.
@G’rilla if I get to move up there I’m gonna miss having trails within 20 minutes of my door. There is one trail that is only 10 minutes from work. But the climate will be a huge pay off.
Whaya wrong with the bike?
I am researching a new fork for my rig. Right now I just have a basic spring fork. 100mm of travel for a 29er.
@sthilzy
Thanks for that useful link, I’m not sure there is a serrated washer, this could be the problem!
@RedRanger Nothing wrong, just basic suspension maintenance that I haven’t had done since I bought it almost a year ago. Apparently suspension forks and shocks need maintenance twice a year if you ride a lot.
@frank
Can you please ‘splain? Or rather confirm. Is that a custom made Vbike soon to be made available, like a Defeet sort of deal?
Looks cool, would love to learn more.
@RedRanger
I have no idea why you’d want to move to Seattle: they don’t brew beer, have shit coffee, they think they know how to ride cyclocross, it’s “only 40 min” to single track (it’s in the middle of town here). And their strippers don’t actually “strip”. Do the right thing.
@scaler911 when I end up in the PNW.
@scaler911
You are so fucking wrong. On all counts, including the strippers. Citrus Orange and Park both go all the way, every time.
And singletrack is only 40 minutes away if you drive like P-Towners. For Seattleittes its about 5 minutes. By bike. This will require a show down. You show me yours on June 15, I’ll show you mine when you come up for V-V.
Oh, one other thing: we also have a working economy, which is another differentiator with Portland.
The Veloforma Graveur teaser. My Goodness my Merckx this is a hot bike.
@frank
You could save another 74g by taking off the SRAM front derailleur.
Those who have ridden SRAM know that it’s purely decorative.
My SRAM gear looks great and functions beautifully. Its all over my mountain and road bikes.
Lookin’ good, Frank. I do enjoy bike work sometimes but full builds…I usually get a bit anxious because I know that regardless of trying to plan everything and avoid minor issues, something will likely go wrong. A small part won’t fit, etc. I guess I gotta learn to relax! Also, it’s darn tough to give up a weekend riding day, but I guess you gotta do it once and awhile to get a new steed built.
G’rilla – Not sure if that is a joke or not, but my Force left shifter has always been a pain in the ass. My mechanic mentioned my FD could probably be set on the DT a bit better (not installed by me), but I wonder if this is the issue. I have 42/38 rings on the CX bike and getting from the small ring to the big is a pain in the arse. Could it be my medium sized hands? I really have to turn my wrist out and jam the shift lever in to get it to move. I wonder if it’s me/my FD setup or are they just hard? I sure as hell know I’d not want to have to do that on any bike I was shifting in the front frequently. (which I guess I don’t really do on any bike).
And since we’re on the topic – shifting the RD with SRAM. Are you lads doing more of a “pushing it past position 1 to upshift” all at once or more of a “push into position 1, then to position 2.” Hope this is clear enough. I find it much more difficult to get consistent precise shifts on my Force stuff than any of my Campa or Shimano. Is it my mindset/technique?
@Ron
@G’rilla
and that is why I preffer Shimano. although the Niner has a full SRAM build minus the crank, never had any real issues with it. Next MTB will get a full XT buiod though.
@frank
That paint job is so fucking sick. Awesome. Deserves another repost.
@G’rilla Evidence suggests that if you know how to adjust a derailleur, the SRAM FD works beautifully. That said, the little plastic pulley does add a TOUCH of friction. Going to have a get a better one of those.
@frank
That, I’ll give you. Until Microsoft and Boeing fold.
@Ron
This is a charged topic, but in all honesty, the Shimano CX-70 FD works great with SRAM. When I was riding SRAM, I noticed a dramatic improvement in front shifting when I switched out the FD for Shimano.
In the worst case, you’ll be 1/5 of the way toward owning a Shimano CX gruppo.
I rode my new full-Shimano CX bike in a muddy race for the first time last week. It continued to shift super well even when the whole thing was covered in slick mud and grass. Shimano really has the front shifting thing figured out.
This photo doesn’t look half as muddy as it really was:
@G’rilla
That’s a good tip; I have one of those on my other bike; I may swap the Force FD (wired to a Red shifter) for the CX-70.
Frank/others – what is the trick to running new cables with internal routing? My Casati has some internal routing and I’ve yet to recable it, mainly out of fear of fuckin’ it up. A mechanic mentioned using a strong magnet to move the cables…must be other ways.
And Frank – so this is a graveleur bike, not a CX bike? You’ll still use the Deacon for CX riding?
@frank Seeing SRAM on your rig makes me a little sad.
@Ron I wish I could help. I had a bike with internal routing once. Never again.
G’rilla – interesting tip with the Shimano FD. I’ll first monkey with my current SRAM, but for someone with medium-sized hands, I find the push to get it to move a long one.
Also, nice to see a bidon cage on your CX bike. I have one on mine so long as I’m not racing. Why do I want to train with a bidon in my jersey?
Where do the Rules fall on this? Is it okay to have cages on a CX bike? Some pals I ride with never put them on, but in the off-season I’m not really working on shouldering and enjoy the cage for post-ride beverage holding.
@frank
This makes no sense. You’re allergic to Shimano, but you’ll mount SRAM on a bike? I wouldn’t serve food to the cats on SRAM for fear it would stick. SRAM makes some pretty good MTB parts, but it’s a pretty well known industry secret that it remains inferior on road/cx…
@scaler911
Move to Vancouver, BC?
@Steampunk truth. Although Avid brakes are known to be shit.
@Steampunk
You base this on what personal CX experience? I prefer a fixed brake lever for anything technical, so the choice was between Campa and a Bro Set. And, seems to work fine, by the way.
Also, I’ve never heard anyone say(besides G’rilla) its inferior for CX; in fact, the shifters are nicely sealed so they deal well with participating in face-first mud landings.
@G’rilla
Isn’t that pose customary for people who have recently won something?
@frank
I’m gonna go out on a limb here. The gruppo/groupsan/broset discussion only goes so far. One selects the components for their function (see my often ignored comments about the Bike being a “system”) and because you like the fit or perhaps even unique features.
Suggesting any of these components have defects that shorten their lifetime *if properly maintain and cared for* isn’t supportted by any objective evidence I know of. Ok, maybe some take crashes better than others; or perhaps their features vary such that different tools are needed for maintenence or cleaning. But barring crash or neglect, is there any reason any of these systems wont last 10,20,30,000 miles? Or more? Yes, some parts wear out. But because a Velominaus’ Bike is Meticuluously Maintained, this is simply a limitation of the system.
I have SRAM Rival on my #1. Never had any problems. Why did I pick it? Because I sunk all the quid I had into the frame. And because SRAM makes a Rival compact crank with 180mm crankarms. I’m nearing 10,000 miles with no issues. I like the doubletap system. I don’t race, and I don’t ride in the rain or CX. (Although I have a Trek with Shimano 105 with 10,000 miles on it for use in the occasional non-dry day.)
My $.02 worth. Buy what you like; maintain it with slavish detail. Then go ride. VLVV.
180 mm crank arms, holy fuck. You must have some long, long legs.
Campa Record 8s, Campa Centaur 10s, Campa Centaur 10s compact, SRAM Force, Shimano 105 10s, Shimano 105 9s. I like them all in different ways. The feel and the precision of the Record makes me smile every time I shift. The 2009 Centaur gruppo is flawless, shifts very nicely all the time, the 2007 Centaur is a little less smooth, in my experience. Force. Don’t like the FD shift (but mine could need some adjustment) but it has performed very, very nicely in cross riding/racing. The new 105 stuff with internal routing is darn nice for the price. The 105 9-s, love the movement, don’t like the cables emanating from the hoods.