Ordered: Trek Emonda SL Frameset

Today I handed Rob at Carmel Bicycle a small envelope with five crisp new Benjamins, freshly plucked from my bank account, as a deposit.  He is ordering for me the just-released Trek Emonda SL frameset, and I'm stoked.  Since I use Campagnolo, he also had to order the adapter kit for the BB90 bottom bracket shell.  If anyone cares, the part number is 407383 and they spec the use of Loctite 638 (retaining compound) and 7649 (surface primer) for the adapter installation.

I've never been a huge fan of Trek, nor have I been opposed to them.  I briefly considered a Madone frameset based on the near-perfect geometry for me, but didn't really like the $2k price tag.  The Emonda has the right combination of price, geometry, visual simplicity, and weight that caught my attention.  I was very close to purchasing a Ritchey Road Logic, and would have if this bike didn't exist.  The frameset is supposed to arrive in about a week, and I'm incredibly excited for my early birthday present to myself!

Soon, this will be mine.  Trek Emonda SL frameset.

Carmel Bicycle - Next to the Barnyard Shopping Village

Video: Le Tour De France Explained in Animation

This is an incredibly well done animated video explaining Le Tour.  I especially enjoyed the history in the beginning of the video.

Bar Fly Shim for 26.0 Handlebar

A while back I bought a white Tate Labs Bar Fly for my Fuji Connoisseur retro-ish road bike.  The Bar Fly isn't available for a 26.0 bar, which is what I have mated to the Nitto Dynamic quill stem.  I was using a shim made from a Bud Light can held on with electrical tape.  It worked ok, but slid when it got warm and recently just gave up on life.  Luckily for me, I have a friend in the machine shop at work who is also a cyclist.  Armed with a CAD drawing, I headed downstairs to beg for a shim.  A day later I had this in my hands:

Below is the shim installed on a set of first generation of Easton EC90 bars.  It looks great next to the Nitto stem and reliably holds the Bar Fly in place.

More photos of the Connoisseur are on Flickr.

Race Face Narrow Wide Chainring Install - Bolt Decisions

After numerous rides on my Santa Cruz Highball using only the 32 middle ring, I decided to ditch the front derailleur, shifter, and extra chainrings.  After looking at the options I decided on the Race Face Narrow Wide single ring, mainly because I could get it in orange, and bumped up to a 34.  If it proves to be too much, I can always do a cassette conversion to gain a 40 on the rear.  My current XT cassette is 11-36, and I rarely use the 36 out in Fort Ord.  One of my big concerns with going to one ring was losing top end speed which is why I opted for the 34 tooth ring.

Install was straightforward.  Mostly.  I pulled the cranks to get the rings off and do some general cleaning and went to slap on the new ring.  There is a choice of graphics on this ring.  One side is mellow with some laser etching in the grooves, but the other side has Race Face laser etched all over it.  I wanted the beautiful orange color to show, so I opted for the mellow side out.  I had ordered a set of Wolf Tooth Components single chainring bolts in blue to nicely offset on the orange and tie in the blue bits of the Fox fork.  This is where I ran into trouble.  You see, the Race Face ring is flippable, but different.  On the mellow side, the bolt holes have a recess for a bolt head to sit in.  The flashy side is flush.  If you want the mellow side out, you need double chainring bolts.  If you want the flashy logo side out, then you need single chainring bolts.  Bummer.  I dropped $36 ($28+tax+shipping) on the WTC bolts which are now useless to me.  Luckily I had a set of double bolts sitting around that I slapped on.

Race Face Narrow Wide Chainring - 34 Tooth

I wrapped the chain around the chainring and largest cog in back, without running it through the derailleur to determine the new chain length.  With three links overlapped, I shortened the chain by one link and added a master link.  I was a bit surprised that the XT chain didn't have a master link installed.  On the stand, shifting didn't seem to be any different, and thinking about it, I didn't take note of extra noise from the chainring.

As for weight savings, I dropped about 380 grams (0.84 pounds) by removing the rings, cable, shifter and derailleur.  It's a decent chunk of weight dropped for parts I rarely used.  I will give it a proper flogging this weekend to see how well everything works and will do my best to try and drop the chain.

Hard to see, but the flashy side holes are flush and the mellow side holes are recessed.

Fort Ord Is My Back Yard

After moving to the Toro Park neighborhood about a month ago, I have been spending a lot more time in Fort Ord and have basically forgotten about my road bike.  It's awesome to hit dirt within about ten seconds of leaving my front door.  Yes, it's that close.  Below are a four photos from recent rides.

My new back yard - Fort Ord.

Motobecane Fantom Cross Uno SSCX looking over the new 'hood.

Redline Monocog Flight AL SSMTB looking over the new 'hood.

Santa Cruz Highball AL on one of the many trails in Fort Ord.

Mount Skidmore Bottle Cage Adapter

I've really been enjoying the Motobecane Fantom Cross Uno singlespeed cyclocross bike, but was not happy with the bottle cage placement.  I have a Backcountry Research Mutherload strap to hold a tube, mini tool, and patch kit, but had to mount it under the down tube near the bottom bracket.  Sure, I could have put it higher on the seat tube, but I was going for a lower center of gravity.  After scouring the interwebs, I came upon Mount Skidmore in Australia and their bottle cage adapter.

 The adapter came in a nice little bag that can probably be used as a dry bag for an iPhone.  I have a Samsung Android phone that's just a little too big for this bag.  I did however find it useful to hold replacement parts for my gardening shears.  Perfect.

 

As you can see in the above photos, the adapter allowed me to push the cage up to give enough room to place the Mutherload on the seat tube at the bottom bracket shell.  Other benefits are that the bottle is now a little easier to grab and I have the option of mounting a second bottle in a reasonable location.  Well, there aren't bottle cage bosses on the seat tube, so I have that little issue to deal with.

This is a really well made handy product that is well worth the price.  Also, shipping to California from Australia was pretty speedy.  I hope they come up with other nifty products.

Fairdale Bikes R+D

Here is a fun video of the guys from Fairdale having fun with "bikes" of all kinds!

ALERT: Demo Bikes Stolen From Santa Cruz's Headquarters

Nearly $100,000 worth of Santa Cruz demo bikes were stolen from a locked trailer behind the company’s headquarters last week.

Click here to read the full article on MTBR.

The photo below was originally posted by Eric Highlander to his Instagram account.

 

Motobecane Fantom Cross Uno SSCX First Ride

On Saturday, I took the Motobecane Fantom Cross Uno out for the first time.  I decided to do a (mostly) road ride with it just to get familiar and make sure everything was well set up.  I first headed over to Peninsula Bike Works to drop off some tires for Micah, then hit the bike path toward Marina.  After passing through Sand City and on to the Fort Ord Dunes path, I took a side detour toward the old military bunkers.  They are all blocked by large cubes of concrete, but make a great place for photos due to all of the colorful tagging.  I took a few photos in front of them, then headed back to the main trail over a sandy dirt area that wasn't really a path.

I have to admit that I went a little more custom with this bike than I had originally planned.  The only stock parts left are the frame, fork, wheels, and tubes.  I changed out everything else.  That said, I'm really happy with the bike.  It was the best first ride I have ever had on a new bike, and I don't plan on changing how it is set up.  I spent a lot of time measuring between my road and cross bikes and it paid off.  At some point I will probably change the seatpost to a Thomson Elite to match the stem, and when I need new bar tape I might add some carbon bars with a compact drop.  Different tires will also be in order depending on how I plan on using it.  At the top of my list right now are the Clement X’Plor MSO tires in 40mm with 120tpi casing.  They look like a great all around tire and will fit the bike.  For a while I have been stuck on the Bruce Gordon Rock n' Road tires, but I think that if they do fit there won't be much clearance.  The Rock n' Roads are also about 60 grams per tire heavier.  It's not a big deal for overall weight, but enough to feel in rotational weight.  For pure SSCX riding I'll have to look around, but I am happy with the IRD CrossFire 32mm tires on my geared CX bike.

The bike handles very well and is more stable than I expected.  Other reviews I have read mentioned twitchy handling, but I didn't get that.  Also, toe overlap was not an issue for me.  The main drawback to the bike is the weight, but I didn't feel it to be an issue while riding it.  With all the nice parts I have on there, it still weighs 21 pounds.  The fork alone weighs about 930 grams uncut.  The full specs of the current build are listed below.

SSCX Bike Arrival - Motobecane Fantom Cross Uno

For a couple years I have been eyeballing the Motobecane Fantom Cross Uno from Bikes Direct.  I like the idea of singlespeed cyclocross and this is (supposed to be) a cheap way to try it.  Last week I finally hit the purchase button and today it arrived at work.  I quickly pulled it from the box and began removing the packing and protection.  The box itself was pretty beat, but the bike is well wrapped and protected.  Or so I thought.  I pulled off the foam on the seat tube to find a small dent seven inches up from the bottom bracket shell.  It's very odd since there were no parts near that spot.  The closest was the front wheel, but that couldn't have caused it.  My best guess is that it happened while being prepped and boxed and was just missed.  I had already been emailing with Matt from BD, so I shot him an email with a photo of the dent.  He immediately responded and asked if I would accept a $50 refund.  Absolutely.  That's awesome customer service, and the refund was given within 30 minutes of me sending the photo.  Rad.

This dent is worth $50

After getting all the protective material off of the bike, I quickly threw it together to get a weight.  From searching online, I was expecting it to be around 24 pounds, but was pleasantly surprised when my Feedback Sports scale read 22.31 pounds.  I have already ordered some new parts and have some old parts that I will install in place of stock items, so the bike will be vastly different from stock.  The details of those parts will come soon.  Based on looks alone, I'm already happy with the bike.

The bike will look much different when I'm finished swapping parts

Some details of the bike that I could not find online:

• 30.0 seat post collar
• 52cm frame has a 95mm head tube
• Stem length is 130mm!
• Handlebar width is 45cm C-C at the hoods
• The crank length is 175mm
• The measurements for ST and TT match the geometry listed online
• The bike ships with the fixed cog installed and the freewheel in the parts box
• Included for the brakes are both Y cable straddles and aluminum triangle cable straddles

Martyn Ashton's Road Bike Party 2 Video!

Martyn Ashton's Road Bike Party 2 features Chris Akrigg and Danny MacAskill.  This is another amazing video of guys doing tricks on a road bike.  Not a bad plug for the Colnago C59 Disc.

Colnago C59 Disc

Review: North Shore Billet Parts

The maching and finish on the North Shore Billet adapters is beautiful.  I bought two 160mm blue adapters (front and rear) and the color is very close to Salsa blue, as compared to my skewers and seatpost collar.  The threads are perfectly machined, so all the bolts threaded easily and securely.  I have no way to verify the stiffness, but the machined faces will be a more solid connection to the frame and brake than the adapters that came with the brakes.  The only problem I had was with the front adapter, as it is a bit wider than the one that came with my brakes, so I had to file about one millimeter from both of the holes on my brake to get a proper clearance from the rotor.  The fork is a 26" Fox 32 F100, the wheels are Easton XC One SS, and the brakes are an inexpensive Tektro cable model.  One other thing to note is these adapters are shorter than my stock ones.  On the front brake, I had to cut a tab off of the brake pad to clear the bottom of the adapter.  Not a big deal, but worth noting.

 

As for the NSB cable guide, it is a great little piece, but it isn't perfect.  The machining and color are just as wonderful as the brake adapters, but the bolt that secures the guide to the fork uses a tiny hex with a soft head.  I was barely able to get the guide secure because the head started to strip.  With a better bolt this would easily be a stellar product.  It is a stout little piece of aluminum, and probably weighs about the same as the two zip ties that I was using to secure the brake cable.  If I can find one, I will replace the supplied M3x8 bolt with a titanium one.  Bolt issues aside, I would still highly recommend this cable guide.

Guinness Red Harvest Stout

Guinness Red Harvest Stout.  It is a bit lighter, less "thick" than original Guinness, with a sweeter flavor profile.  It keeps the beautiful fall after pouring and has a nice dark red-orange color when held up to the light.  Quite a pleasing beer, most worthy of the Guinness name.

Guinness Red Harvest Stout

Bike Rumor POTD / G4G Mention

Today my Santa Cruz Highball was posted as the Pic Of The Day (POTD) on Bike Rumor!  They were also kind enough to add a mention and link to Gears 4 Good.  Pretty cool.

New Bike!! Santa Cruz Highball

On Sunday, I took delivery of a bran-spankin-new Santa Cruz Highball.  I opted for the aluminum frame over the carbon for two reasons.  First reason is price.  It was going to be nearly an extra grand for the carbon.  Second reason is dropouts.  The aluminum frame has swappable dropouts that allow you to run it geared or singlespeed.  The singlespeed swinger dropout kit is about fifty bucks.

Sunday afternoon I swapped out some stock parts for some parts snagged off other bikes that I prefer.  The parts I removed were a 70m Easton EA70 6 degree stem, WTB saddle, and Lizard Skins grips.  They were replaced with a 90mm Thomson X4 -10 degree stem, Fizik Tundra carbon saddle, and Oury Grips.  The other things I did was remove the red and white decals from the WTB i19 rims
add some orange aluminum bottle cage bolts to hold the King Titanium Cages, and toss on a set of Crank Brothers Eggbeater pedals.  I was hoping to have a mango Chris King headset installed, but they are on backorder so I'll swap it in as soon as it arrives.  Other parts I'm waiting on are a custom orange seatpost clamp from Purely Custom, some miscellaneous titanium bolts, and a stem (mentioned below).

On Monday morning I had a fit session with Chris Burnham, who has an office inside of Peninsula Bike Works.  We spent most of the time with my road bike, with the main focus on my cleats.  On the Highball, there were a couple tweaks with saddle height and position.  At his recommendation, I have a Thomson X2 100mm -17 degree stem on order to get some more drop and a little more reach.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take the Highball on dirt, but did get a quick eight mile ride on the bike path to get a feel for the bike.  The main thing that I found strange is the massive width of the Easton EC70 bars.  They're listed at 685mm, but measure out closer to 710mm.  The bars on my other mountain bikes are closer to 600mm wide.  I'll be chopping them to a more reasonable width when I swap out the stem.  This weekend I'll be able to take it out to Fort Ord for a proper break-in.

Experiments in Speed

Rad.


Experiments in Speed from SpindleProductions on Vimeo.

Ibis Silk SL - Retired!

While browsing the Ibis site today, I realized the Silk SL road bike was nowhere to be found.  I then found it listed under Past Models along with the Tranny.  Being the curious guy that I am, I sent an email to Ibis about this.  Well, only about the Silk SL because it was what really interested me.

My inquiry:
"Good morning, bike friends.  I just saw that the Silk SL is now in the Past Models section.  WHAT??  Are you planning on bring on a newer and shinier (or matter) Silk to the lineup, or are you going to focus on all things dirt?  By the way, I love what you've done with the Lugi Disc.  I hope you have more sun today in SC than we have in Monterey.  Dreary.

Cheers,
Steve"

The response:
"Hi Steve,Yep, we've retired that bike. Stay tuned for what we're working on. I assure you it's a lot. We don't say specifically what we're working on until it's ready to ship.
Scot"

Interesting.  I imagine they will bring back a road frame, but only time will tell.  The Silk SL is a gorgeous frame with a reasonable price for the low weight.  My only real gripe is the external brake and derailleur cable routing.  Some prefer that, but I like the clean look of internal routing.  Now that it is discontinued, I bet the price will drop from online retailers like Wrench Science and Competitive Cyclist.

Farewell.

Ibis Silk SL, now retired.

Peter Sagan & Roof Rack

Peter Sagan has some crazy skills with a road bike.  Apparently, he has found a creative way to get his bike up on the car's roof rack.

Scot ‘Chuck Ibis’ Nicol on Riding a Bike

Scot has put into words what many of us feel.



“Every kid who gets on a bike, that’s their first real taste of freedom in their life.  That’s the first time you really escape home.  That’s something that never leaves you.”

For the Love of Bicycles