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 ...
Two Cyfacs in two weeks? Fuckinhell. The cool thing is one is modern and hot and black. The other is classic and hot and white and colorful (and still modern!). Yet, both are awesome.
Nice garage door, too.
@frank
And it turns out that the DT Swiss freehub was fucked – chain rings are “fine”
@xced
Gorges!
@Marcus
Says the man hiding behind the default v-cog
@roger
It is one of the great mysteries of the world how Campa got their hobs so shiny. It is out of this world. Fantastic score, mate!
@xced
@Barracuda
great looking steeds. and quite the man cave you have barracuda
@frank
im thoroughly excited about this purchase. so lightly used and clean, there was not a spot on the freewheel threads. then i watched it spin around in the stand, imagining what it must look like once out in sunlight, full glint
@Barracuda new possie is going pretty well, got through 100k on Saturday (and nearly 300k all up last week) with no issues up top…the legs however, are another matter!
Don’t really know where to put this, so I guess it’ll go here (Frank and Gianni, please feel free to move this message if you need to)
Spent half a day up in Santa Rosa with the Colnago getting frame surgery at SyCip cycles. Jeremy SyCip is totally the real deal. It was pretty amazing walking through the shop, with the racks of frames sitting there in various stages of completion. I already have some custom bike ideas in mind, and I think SyCip will be my go-to shop to make it happen. To make the day even more amazing, Gary Helfrich rode in and hung out, holding tubes that will become a cargo bike.
In case you’re wondering Gary Helfrich is, he is one of the three original founders of Merlin and one of the original builders at Fat City cycles. I learned more about steel and titanium tubing that I ever thought possible in one sitting. Also, both these guys are incredibly gracious and answered every question I peppered them with with humor and knowledge. It was also fun to hear Gary dish about the personalities of cycling, from Gary Fisher to Mike Sinyard to Tom Ritchey (first name basis across the board).
Santa Rosa is having its bike expo this weekend, and Gary and Jeremy told me I should come and hang out. That’s like Jesus personally telling you to go to church: gotta do it. I’ll be heading up to Santa Rosa early Sunday morning from the Bay Area and doing a morning’s worth of riding if anyone is interested. Afterwards I’ll stick around for the expo in the afternoon. Apparently a lot of the bay area builders are going including the Calfee guys. The local builders are having a cargo bike build-off live at the expo, and there will be bike tractor pulls and other competitions of V.
I’ll check this board regularly the next few days. It’d be a lot of fun to get a crew together an hang out. Some pictures attached (Jeremy SyCip is in the brown shirt and Gary Helfrich is in the green shirt)
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@Mikael Liddy
Keep it up, you’re inspiring me from my blimping funk! Riding buddy has suggested 5k @ 7,8% climb this weekend, I will schedule it early in the ride then try to match your km..
@Ron
Keepers, we need a Garage Door thread so we can post photos and have the community comment verily upon them.
After two years dedicated to learning the rules and living la vie Velominatus I am on the eve of the eve of my first cycling race. On Sunday I took a class at the local velodrome and this Thursday I will be competing in the beginner’s Thursday night racing at the track in my hometown of Redmond, Washington. My steed is what I could scrounge up with my underemployed college graduate budget: a craigslist find. Since taking this photograph I have removed the front brake for maximum channeling of the V and replaced the headset with one that works. All I need to do is put the pedals from my #1 on it and it’s ready to go for racing on Thursday.
Any words of wisdom for a budding Velominatus’ first race?
Needless to say I have lowered the bars in observance of Rule #45.
@Beers
Nice, I’ve found the Five & Dime is your friend when trying to recover any semblance of form. I’ve committed to (& helped organise) a ride on Sept 7th that involved about 3,500m of climbing over 100km, fear of pain has turned in to quite a good motivator when it comes to training.
@zeitzmar
I haven’t done much track riding but I can offer one piece of racing advice and a second for all riding.
The golden rule of racing is: Never Do Anything You Don’t Have To.
The golden rule of riding is: You Are Responsible For Your Own Front Wheel.
Adopt those and pretty much everything else should fall into place.
@ChrisO
I’ll add to that.
1. FFS, don’t stop pedalling.
2. Inside Suicide. Always pass on the outside if your quarry is anywhere near the red line.
3. In the paceline, you want to be as close as possible behind the rider in front and about 50mm offset to the right. This gives you space to bail out up the track and to their right hip if they slow.
4. Track is all about tactics (and leg speed). Save your matches until you need them.
Enjoy!!
Oomph…bike racing….haven’t done that in a while….
How many people have tried tubeless tyres (or tires even!)? I trust they are not a modern heresy that conflicts with a rule somewhere involving dark deeds and trial by ordeal by the miscreant (i.e. me). Anyway, an open question without sharing my current experience so far just yet.
An exciting potential opportunity has come up. I’ve mentioned before that I’m in the midst of a Cervelo warranty frame swap. The LBS called today to let me know the new R3 should be with them by the end of this month. The downside to this swap is that the frame will be in the current, awful matt grey colour-scheme that Cervelo came up with in a bad dream.
However, the LBS have suggested they’d be happy to put me in touch with the guys who custom paint their Continental teams’ frames.
question for the Keepers – complete sacrilege for a mere Pedalwan to consider a custom Velominati paint job or an opportunity not to be dismissed?
@xced
Mary mother of god i think i just soiled myself….stunning!
@Teocalli
There was a post about this a while ago…as ever there were doves and hawks a plenty….personally (never ridden them so take with a huge pinch of salt)…..i would say why? If you do puncture you get you beautiful frame sprayed with shit!
carry tubes…get co2….practice and get fast at changing them…job done.
@xced Very nice indeed. I like the limited red/white trim- classy. Wheels? Other component choices? Inquiring minds want to know… Especially since I’m building my new ride up next week.
@Teocalli I ride tubeless on my MTN bike. never had an issue other than remembering to service the stans liquid. On my roadie Ill stick with tubes.
@Marko
Just can’t make those seat posts thick enough
getting there…..
Alright, at the sake of sacrilegious talk, question about commuter/lock-up bikes.
Has anyone tried/had success with any of the locking wheel skewer sets? It would be nice to just have to lock up my frame and not worry about the wheels being stolen.
I have tried to find confirmation that any of the skewer sets work well, but can’t. Zefal ones where you have to flip the bike, some say good, some say the bearings get stuck. Kryptonite, others, some good, some bad.
I guess I could just get bolt-ons and not worry as the wheels are not so hot. I generally have a backpack or a pannier on the bike so could carry a 15mm wrench. But, wanted to see if anyone uses a set they like.
@Deakus
Ha ha. Re doves and hawks I can imagine based on the few people locally who I know that have tried them. I put them straight on a new bike so was unable to assess the claims of faster/smoother etc as the whole bike is a quantum leap from my previous one. It has always puzzled me as to whether the claims of reduced friction and rolling resistance are measurable for an average Jo like me vs a Pro in a TT.
@Dr C I need a mud tire for the Fall and I’m really tempted to go with the Limus instead of Dugast or FMB. So many good tires I’ve never tried!
@G’rilla
I was hunting around for a good price for some Rhinos, but was put off by the sidewall sealant requirement, and then spotted these on Wiggle for £104 ($?180) for the pair – 35% off, so couldn’t turn that down – can’t wait to get them built and glued and then go try to roll them off in October when the racing starts
@ChrisO Thanks for the advice. I managed to observe the golden rule about responsibility for my own front wheel but not so much on avoiding unnecessary work. I ended up leading the pack of beginners (mostly experienced roadies and me) for a few laps before people moved out of my slipstream and passed me on the finish. So much fun though. I think I’m hooked.
@mouse Much appreciated. The legs almost tried to stop pedaling when I went through the finish at a high cadence but the resulting jerking motion quickly reminded me that there was no coasting happening.
For any fellow Velominati with tracks nearby, highly recommend getting involved with racing. I always thought of track racing as something super esoteric but nonetheless fun to watch, but it’s also fun to do. A great way to work on the guns.
@Dr C
bought it secondhand from a team – it’a former pro bike. here it is in its previous guise
@Teocalli
Been there, tried them, wasn’t worth it…
Pros:
Yes the ride is theoretically better – about halfway between clinchers and tubs
Cons
Very limited choice of tires – Hutchinson are shit, thus negating the better ride quality. Only recently I’ve seen Schwalbe start to bring in some tubeless tires. They are also quite expensive and rarely on sale or in discounts.
You really have to use sealant which has several problems, the main one being that it doesn’t always work so you still have to carry a spare tube anyway, and if, God forbid, you need to use it, you will look like you’ve just walked off the set of a bukkake porn video. The second problem is that the sealant tends to harden over time so every few months you need to scrape it out and replace it. I even found one brand started to eat into my rims and leave the inner surface pitted.
So, honestly, I would not recommend it.
@zeitzmar
I’ve just realised the Blois velodrome is just down the road from where I’m going to be for the first week of my holiday. I’ll have to ride past it and see if I can sneak a few laps. I won’t be following any dernies though.
@xced That looks so much better in stealth mode.
@Chris
That’s a fine lesson in aesthetics right there, really shows how pro cycling is just moving advertising, really fuckin fast moving advertising!
@piwakawaka
@piwakawaka
Does make you wonder whether marketing understand cycling when the put all the advertising on the wheel rims……………..
@Teocalli
I think they do it specifically for the James Huang coverage.
@xyxax
just so ya know, big C-59 on Ebay.
Here.
@xced
Still, excellent score. Chapeau for a new badass carbone ride.
@Ron
I haven’t tried the QR type, but I had a set of allen-key type skewers which needed a specific allen key with a hole up the middle. Not too much to go wrong and they worked fine, although I didn’t like having to carry the specific tool as I was worried I’d forget it and be unable to get the wheel off mid-commute.
I now use the Halo skewers, which are just a standard allen key fitment, and lock the wheel using a Kryptonite cable fed through the lock. I can leave the lock and cable at work so I don’t have to carry it around with me.
@Gianni
That is hot bike. The current bid wouldn’t even cover the SR electronic groupset. As a simpleton, I want to simplify, so disc brakes and electronica are not on the wish list.
I’m having Alchemy do me up a custom frame, a Helios
New build is back on. Having decided on and purchased rims and hubs, I then had to wait 2 months for the right length spokes from Sapim – which gave me plenty of time to practice on some old rims!
Anyway, they eventually arrived and I have now built the wheels, which I’m quite pleased with.
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38mm carbon rims, Tune Mig 70 front hub, Mag 170 rear hub and Sapim CX Ray spokes.
Combined weight, excluding QRs (and rubber) is 1,125grms. I’m sure they won’t make me any faster but I’m looking forward to kidding myself they do!
Which one of you fine gentlemen is this? Chapeau.
umm…that didn’t work. delete?
Tried to embed this photo from the Axel Merckx gran fondo
@Jaundo
Are those Rapha gloves?
@Mark1 just hawt! Ride the piss out of it.
After Ruby’s demise in July, and Trek’s crash replacement program – I present to you the Black Pearl. Perhaps the Keepers will give me a pass on the stem. Still recovering from a back injury – flexibility is returning. I alternate between the 10 degree and 7 degree stems to hasten my full recovery.
Keepers – reposting this question in the hope one of you may offer a view.
An exciting potential opportunity has come up. I’ve mentioned before that I’m in the midst of a Cervelo warranty frame swap. The LBS called last week to let me know the new R3 should be with them by the end of this month. The downside to this swap is that the frame will be in the current, awful grey colour-scheme that Cervelo came up with in a bad dream.
However, the LBS have suggested they’d be happy to put me in touch with the guys who custom paint their Continental teams’ frames.
question for the Keepers – complete sacrilege for a mere Pedalwan to consider a custom Velominati paint job or an opportunity not to be dismissed?
Thanks for any views.
@Mike_P that grey is horrible but does it viod tyr warrenty?
@Mike_P
Obvioulsy not a Keeper here but how much will that set you back? Maybe that money could be spent on a better wheelset or a Groupo upgrade? Yeah, I know, maybe a bit too practical.