30th Century Bicycle

Goodbye summer, hello falling leaves!  Autumn is a great time to ride, and a great way to do it on is  a cyclocross bike.  We have long been of the opinion that a cross bike is the most versatile bike around.  You can do cyclocross if that is your thing, or ride gravel roads, or switch the tires for paved roads, or put some racks on and go for a tour.  Racks and fenders and always ample tire clearance make cross bikes great commuters, too.

New this year from MASI, the Speciale CX Uno is a great cyclocross bike for $845.  The solid cromoly frameset has all the rack and fender mounts (lowriders, even!) you could ask for, and comes with a durable 8 speed STI drivetrain.  Toss in a solid wheelset with Kenda Smallblock 8 tires and the always classy MASI styling and you have an awesome bike at a great price.

The MASI Speciale CX relies on the same frameset and classic styling as the Uno, with some upgrades in components taking the price to $1195.  This bike gets you a smooth shifting 9 speed set up with Tiagra STI levers and front derailler and a 105 rear derailler.

If you are looking for a full speed ahead, performance driven ride, the MASI CXR is ready to go as fast as you want.  This is Steve’s bike, and he has over 600 miles on it so far, including its first cross race.  It has an aluminum frame and carbon fork, 10 speed 105 drivetrain, KORE brakes and wheelset, and is priced to move fast at $1,785.

Last, the newest MASI cross bike is this good looking singlespeed.  The same geometry as the CXR, but with a steel frame and carbon fork.  Massive tire clearance, it comes with 700 x 45’s!  This one is not yet available, but as soon as they are in stock they will be coming to a 30th Century Bicycle location near you!

Lots of things coming up on the 30th Century calender.  First up, we will be closed this Saturday, Sept 18th, the Iowa City Brewfest will be held in our parking lot!  There will be more than 400 imported and micro-brewed beers to enjoy and you can get all the details HERE.

We are sponsoring the bike corral, but due to the many regulations and fencing requirements the shop will be closed for the day.  So just ride your bike down here, corral it and enjoy the brews, we will!

Next up, Sunday September 26th is the Gritty Brevet!  Check out the website, registration closes this Sunday so if you want in – get in!  grittybrevet@gmail.com

Last we want to invite you all to a benefit dinner for Think Bicycles at the Red Avocado on Wednesday, September 29th.  Think Bicycles is a new group forming in Johnson County to promote and coordinate bicyclists and the events, clubs, info, connections and everything else they need when it comes to cycling in Johnson County.  The website will be launched soon, watch for it!  And plan to join us for dinner at the Red Avocado!

Has anyone ever talked about what a great time they had looking for a place to park their car in Chicago?  Probably not…

We will not be the first.  We took the Megabus to the big city for the weekend with our Dahon folding bikes to test out the concept and it went really well.  We had the bikes folded and bagged and put them on the bus with no fuss.  We took the money we saved and used it on a nice downtown hotel and lots and lots of coffee!

And we had some Schlitz.

We had a couple of different bike maps and found it really easy to get around by bike.  Everywhere we went was pretty flat and we rode all over the place.  Just look out for the cabs and buses!  We rode along Lake Michigan, went to Chinatown, Quimby’s Bookstore, and we took a commuter train up to the Northern suburbs to visit Steve’s folks, too.

Folding bikes are allowed on Metra trains all the time as long as they are folded, but off peak trains and weekends allow you to bring any bike on.  Well, maybe not a tandem.  We saw lots of other people taking advantage and it worked very smoothly.

We were sure to always lock our bikes securely, 2 U locks and 2 cable locks with bolt on wheels all around.

It was a great trip, and we are already planning our next alternative transportation outing to Chicago and elsewhere, if you want to give it a try come talk to us and we will share what we know!

We will be CLOSED on Labor Day, Monday September 6th!

We will be open Friday & Saturday, but Cody & Steve will be away, packing the folding bikes onto the MegaBus to Chicago. 

A full report on folding bike adventures to follow!