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 ...
@G’rilla
Cheers, I’ve found a decent bean i can buy locally, but have stopped buying coffee at cafes. I’ve seen that site too, it looks pretty good, might have to check it out.
What I really want now is a proper home coffee machine, that can heat milk AND make coffee within 15 minutes without crapping itself.
@DerHoggz
Did anyone say they’d recovered their saddles? I think saddlers can do it if it’s a straightforward job (less padding the better) otherwise there’s
http://busymanbicycles.blogspot.com.au/
@Mikael Liddy
Michael, no we haven’t had experience with Babici gear. We have experience with custom ordering champsys, nemesis (good in my view but some of our group have mixed views on the knicks) and Capo (good kit, pricey but temperamental ordering process – hey they are Italian).
The design head in our riding group is in the process of ordering custom Castelli gear for a local bike shop which is co-ordinated in Australia through De Grandi cycles in Geelong. Their prices are very competitive for the quality and it will be on our list to look into when we get around to sorting out any future order.
Suggest you investigate Castelli.
@kiwicyclist cheers, based on my experience with the V-kit I can’t complain about the quality from Castelli, just that it’s a little rough on someone who’s not quite Peaking in two months. My jersey was unzipping of its own accord during the first few weeks back after recovering from a busted collarbone.
@minion
FYP. Milk is for baby cows.
@Nate
In the immortal words of Monty Python, “It’s like making love in a canoe….” and therefore good for rehydration. Even if it does taste like shit.
minion – I drank Steinlager when living in NZ because it was pretty cheap & just out of college meant I didn’t have much money. (Well, even when I have more money I think I’d still rather spend it cheap beer & nice bike gear.) They had cases on sale at the local beer store last year for a great deal. Picked a few up and it was better than I remembered it and, I have to say, no bad at all. But hey, I don’t mind so-so beer. I wasn’t trying to fuck with ya.
On another note – that 1mm spacer fixed everything right up. Getting into the 25, not throwing off the 12. Thanks for all the help with that! The odd thing though was that when in the stand it was skipping from 25 to 21 and skipping the 23. Hmm, confused again by this but I’ve asked enough damn mechanical questions of late.
Hmm, Garmin + a watch. I’ve never done more in a cross race than try to keep my teeth in my head and go as fast as possible. I’ve only ever used a V-meter when racin’.
Hmm see through skinsuits? Those don’t leave much to the imagination as it is.
Saddle recovery – I was wondering if anyone had done it themselves. Doesn’t seem too difficult. If we’re building bikes up from parts, some glue and a few staples can’t be that challenging.
@Ron
Glad you were able to fix that up.
My shiny new compact double is sitting on my doorstep at home, or so says Amazon.com. I’m looking forward to putting that sucker on this evening. I won’t be able to really ride it ’till tomorrow morning’s commute to work, other than going around the block a few times… I have a meeting this evening that will take the remaining daylight ours outta my day. :-(
@Ron
Alright then that’s fair enough. There are definitely worse beers out there,I suppose.
@RedRanger
I think it is just the angles involved in the shot, the saddle is level. Yeah, I am getting a longer stem, then I’ll test it for a while before getting it cut. Only problem is finding time to enjoy it while working.
@DerHoggz
I know your pain well.
*sigh* In installing my new compact crank and adjusting my front derailleur, I found that the shift cables are badly frayed. It looks like I need to replace them sooner than I wanted. Sadly, I now cannot ride ’till I get new cables. #sadpanda
On a happier note, I did finally order a barrel adjuster for the weinmann brakes on the Raleigh. YAY!
@Xyverz making the ‘retreat’ to compact territory next week too.
I’ve given the new bike with the standard set up a good 2 months & I’m still getting to the bottom of the range on much too easy a gradient, given I’ve got the parts for the switch already I may as well solve the problem that way rather than look to buy another cassette.
@Mikael Liddy – Excellent! Yeah, reason I’m swapping is because I need to get better, and having the 30-27 is just … me being a wimp. I’m hoping that the 34-27 will make a hard(er) man outta me.
Speaking of bikes… I just saw this thing of beauty on the Cycling News website:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/aston-martin-launches-one-77-superbike
It’s very pretty and almost entirely carbone, but still weighs in at almost 21lbs. Would look good in the trophy case, no?
@Xyverz I had the exact opposite reaction. Disc breaks on a road bike make me want to bleach my eyes.
@RedRanger – Get that bleach handy, because I see that trend as getting more and more common. I actually have eyes for the Volagi Liscio, should I ever be able to save up the dosh for that sexy beast…
@xyverz: not sure i am all over that Aston Martin, especially at 25k euro
now, to preface, I am a skeptic of all things unproven, so take my comment in stride
I did however sit and stare like a sophmore in high school looking at Daisy Dukes assets..at the rear hub they manufactured for that, and was thinking…now this is novel, truly novel and with that wheel design (which was funky) but it did allow different clearances and a narrower wheel…ala more gears. can you say, shimano Di2 14 speed?
It seems the industry is infatuated with our love of numbers, but I particularly only pay attention to one, one number, the V, and for the rest of the kilojoules, annular comotions, and as for my core temp…i really don’t care what my core temprature is, even though this Aston Martin, and they say they can check it, its too much for me and i just don’t care.
and the front fork, i am still wondering ‘why’?
so, yes, give me a Baum in GT40 colors any day, preferrably donned in matching custom painted stem and post with Sram black, and I would be equally happy for a quarter of that do=ra=me
@Souleur
The fork was a head scratcher, but definitely not an innovation. I believe either Scott or Willier have something like that in the works?
Mmmm, GT40 colours – I’m assuming you’re talking about the Gulf Oil colours? – would be dead sexy on pretty much any bike!
@Souleur, @Xyverz I’m assuming those photos were taken in a showroom in London. I”ll pop round and tell them I need it for a week or two to test it for compliance with the rules.
@Chris – That would be funny if they actually let ya do that. I seriously doubt that any of those will actually see pavement. They look like they’re just (functional) showpieces…
slap you chops on this
yes, gulf oil GT40 tribute colors, and yes, that is custom matching, and simply right
I hear you on the fork, i remember seeing it in the past, i suppose i was scratching my head amongst other things wondering after 15-20 yrs later, why now and why on an Aston Martin?? Whats the concept they are chasing. From the side, the head tube is so ridiculous it must be targeting the wall streeter who can afford dumping the stash on this, ride upright and not hurt their neck/back.
@Souleur
@Xyverz
@Chris
for 25k I can build you 2 sweet rigs and still have a bit left over. the more I look at it the more bleach I want.
Xyverz – frayed cables & no riding for a bit. That sucks. This is why everyone needs at least two working road bikes at all times. I don’t feel at peace when any of my bikes is out of order. Which reminds me that I have a stripped crank arm bolt in my cx bike crankset. Gotta get that out sometime soon, bugger needs to be drilled out.
That Baum, Aston Martin, etc.Fun to look at, cool to see limits pushed, but I don’t even get half Carbone over them. They’re too nice, would never want to own them for fear of scuffing or nicking them on something. Give me a good solid bike that I can ride like hell, not some $15,000 runway job. I guess this is par for the course for me – I find ladies I see out at the pub or grocery stroe or wherever far sexier than supermodels. Oh well.
Hey, on a completely different note – has anyone tried the locking skewer sets for wheels? Was thinking they might be kind of awesome for my commuter/townie bike, would only have to lock the frame. Used to see ones with a special key, maybe OnGuard. Now it looks like some of them function without a key but need to be flipped upside down to unlock. I guess some sort of bearing?
@Souleur
FWIW the Gulf Oil livery is probably more associated with Porsches than the GT40.
I saw the Aston Martin bike concept before it was rolled into Aston Martin, I think in December. I’m guessing whoever was doing it got sponsorship Ugly as sin.
@Ron I use the front one for my track bike, so I can use whatever wheel I want – mstly takes a 5mm allen key to get it on and off, so can’t comment on using it as a lock and leave bike. I’d think Id still want to lock the front wheel though, since it doesn’t take that long to undo compared to a QR?
@Xyverz
Mine was a case of the replacement for my written off bike came with a standard crankset instead of a compact & still has the same cassette on the back. The old running gear was undamaged & despite giving it a decent crack over the last couple of months, the standard set up isn’t helping me in my attempts to get my fitness back.
I’ll get them to swap them over & then keep the standard for when I’m fit & strong again after summer.
Anyone else think this is a really stupid looking bike?
@Souleur
@Ron
Come to Melbourne. Baums everywhere – including my bike#2 (one of their pretty early models). They ain’t runway jobs – and they are all custom made. Painted how you like them as long as Darren Baum likes your choices.
Ron if you don’t get Carbone (or t least steel/TI-bone) over a Baum I fear for you.
@Nate
what is that line just above the V decal on Frank’s shorts?
@Xyverz
sorry dude, didn’t realise you had already posted about this abomination – friggin disc breaks and the playstation on the stem? Doh
@Souleur
THAT is my dream bike in the dream scheme right there… I’m on a bit of a Steve McQueen kick at the moment, and the Gulf livery is just the tits! And it definitely says 917K to me more than GT40. Just needs a number 20 on it somewhere…
@Dr C Probably his Defeet UnDshirt.
Marcus – Oh, I’ve seen quite a few Baums that are totally awesome. Didn’t realize you had one.
My comment was more of a general one – the show bikes/let’s see how far we can take it bikes are cool but they kind of don’t do it for me. I’d rather see a nice steed really built up to be ridden, not to be looked at in a showroom. I like pretty bikes, but at some point they get so nice (expensive) that I’d be nervous to ride the thing.
minion – hmm, not sure what you mean exactly. I was talking about locking skewer sets made specifically for anti-theft reasons. OnGuard, Kryptonite, and some others offer them.
@brett
GT40 or 917, I’ll take it in a heart beat
@Ron, these are all steel bikes. Baum makes some Ti stuff too, but no carbon. They buy off the shelf 3t stuff, maybe reynolds carbon fork and paint to match their awesomeness
@DrC my wife and i have never visited down under, but definitely have plans to, would love to see a pack of riders with this quality stuff in it. What are your impressions of Baum since its something your familiar with, the impression I get is all good.
@Dr C
All the V-Kit shorts are like that, at least that I’ve seen.
@mcsqueak I think @Dr C is implying Frank might be wearing underpants, but it’s just his undershirt.
@Marko
Yup. I just got an DeFeet UndLITE which is completely insanely awesome. I’ll be racing in it tomorrow for sure.
@all
Re: FostersGate
It was a transgression, please forgive. The enormous can was just too tempting along with the promise of a refreshing session beer inside. Sadly, it was filled with what I have to assume was a blend of @Marcus’s urine and that of an ox.
@Oli
OHHH, I see what he was talking about now. I thought he was asking why the V-Cog wasn’t exactly lined up with the rest of the text.
I must have just been distracted by the massive can of fail in Frank’s jersey pocket.
@Souleur
They stock BAUM in a store near to me and I can confirm they are just as beutiful in real life. Really classy looking bikes.
@motorcity: your lucky man, I can’t wait to lay hold of one
here in the states, buddy and i have coveted the chance to drive a day trip up to Waterford and shop talk with the dudes there, see what they are doing and talk about their R33, stainless steel babies, but i must say, their paint isn’t even close to this
@Dr C
LOL! I believe it’s a thing of beauty though. Beautiful? Yes. Practical? No fucking way. Not on your life. This machine is a 24k Euro showpiece for the filthy rich who have nothing better to buy. Shit, for 24k Euros, I could have two top-of-the-range carbone bikes and a top-end steel steed.
@Souleur
That’s a sexy looking beast! Y’all gotta stop it with this VeloPr0n. I’m at work. I can’t afford be walking around with a hardon all day…
@frank – I’ve become quite the fan of the UnD Wool base layer. It’s good in pretty much all weather, up to about 75F. I haven’t touched any of my Descente base layers since buying this sucker. http://www.defeet.com/60266/UnD-Wool.html
I’m finally Rule #47 Compliant! YAY! It rides as well as expected with the Triple-specific derailleur and shifter. Those will be replaced in the next two weeks.
Xyverz – Nice! What bar tape is that?
Anyone have experience with the LOOK Keo Blade pedals? I have the Keo Sprints, which I like, and also the Keo 2 Max, which I like more with the bigger body (I don’t like the ricekty axle that needs to be serviced/replaced). The Blades are not much more expensive, wonder if they are worth the extra money or I should stick with the Max 2s.
And don’t say get Speedplays, iClics, etc! Not about to go switching pedals on all my bikes.
On another note, I skipped Saturday futbol today and went out for a long solo ride. First one I’ve done in far too long (wedding, honeymoon, etc.). Is there anything better than a cool, quite Saturday morning and a long, awesome ride with open roads on your #1? Damn, I’ve been on Cloud 9 all day. Rode for a long time, pit stop to people watch and have a pivo, then more riding. Awesomeness!
Hope the lot of ya had some good rides today!
@Ron
These? You need a 5 mm allen key to get them off, no lever and can’t take them off without the allen key.
Yep, I’m about to take the SS mountain bike out for it’s first fanging, it’s on a ridiculous gear (42-18 I’m huffing and puffing riding it on the fricken road) but it’s gonna be tons of fun. I’ll be ronning it p all the way!
@frank
At some point in the past you mentioned that latex tubes don’t take patches very well, is that with a standard patch?
After a nipple washer broke on my wheels (latex tubes) I decided to use my VMH’s wheels with butyl tubes. One ride and I’ve got a puncture. I’ve not yet had a puncture with my latex tubes even though I had a bit of flint in my tyre which went right through the tyre. Anyway, best advice on repairing latex is to use a bit of an old latex tube rather than a standard patch, after all the latex tubes are joined at the valve area, so gluing can’t be the problem. (Tube must be cleaned well though). Hope you didn’t throw out that last tube you had a problem with!
Hmm, didn’t know this snoov. Been thinking about getting latex tubes for one of my bikes for awhile, this kind of puts me off a bit though. I won’t have any old tubes when I start out…I guess I could check into the LBSs for some old ones, but at first I’ll just have two new ones in the wheel, one in my pocket to swap in if puncturing.
@Ron
I wouldn’t let it put you off, the ride is far better and I haven’t had a puncture with them on my bike. Out once with the butyl and I got a pinch flat. I’m gonna get more and the first puncture I get will be the sacrificial tube.
Well, my friends, my first experience with fizik microtex bar tape today. It’s pretty amazing how new tape makes you feel. So simple, but I love it. Now to keep it white….. Definitely, still some other areas of the bike I’m working on like cables need cut, etc. This is my #1, but I’m still working on full rule compliance.
@graham d.m. Nice tape job, but what really makes it flutter is the angle of that stem. Sweet.
@marko thanks, mate!