30th Century Bicycle

We love a pretty bike as much as the next person.

But we love seeing a pretty bike we sold come back for a tune up with signs of serious usage. Ride on!

Over the weekend we left the shop in the capable hands of our newest employees and Cody and I headed to Minneapolis to check out Frostbike, the biggest little bicycle tradeshow in the world. We saw some old stuff and some new stuff. Like this Big Dummy to Bill or Ted adapter from SURLY. No word if this will be available as a most awesome and all powerful cargo accessory, mostly because the dudes in the SURLY booth are kind of surly looking, so we just took a picture of it and are crossing our fingers.

Nicely done. We also got had a good discussion with the PDW folks not just about their innovative and well designed products, but how they are doing everything they can to reduce packaging to make the world a better place. Their Origami fender, for instance, is made out of it’s own packaging! Apparently Hutchinson thinks this is a reason for them to use more packaging, kind of like trading cardboard credits instead of carbon ones, demonstrated here with their full sized tubular tire box.

We also got a glimpse of Steve Flagg’s personal ride. He refuses to ride anything else, which keeps the R&D departments at SURLY, Salsa, Foundry, All-City, and Civia (forgetting anyone?) going trying to finally come up with something that will impress him enough to give it up and turn this beauty over to a museum.

After taking in all things trade show we roamed around Minneapolis to take in some of the bike culture up there. We hit the Seward Co-op, which is being discussed a lot in Iowa City lately as an idea generator for the possible Iowa City Co-op relocation. They have not just a Fixit stand like our beloved New Pi, but also covered bike parking, and lots of it!

So much it could not be fit in a single photo! We also hit a book store, a couple of faboo restaurants, and bike shops. One of them was even open. There are more photos, and lots more to report, so check out our Frostbike album, and come on in to see and hear more of what we learned up there. Big thanks to QBP and all the vendors for putting on such a great show.

Brooks saddles last a long time. But not forever. If and when the sides start to flare out you can lace them together to pull them back where they should be. Some of their new saddles come with holes all along the edge and all you have to do is get a lace, run it from side to side, pull it to the tension you are after and tie it up. If yours does not have holes you can either punch them or drill them. Or we can do it for you!

There are lots of webpages that show you how to do this, but most of them are boring, frankly, with pictures of drills and markers and stuff. So here we present the Brooks saddle in question with an exploded Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub to class it up a bit.

Speaking of class, here we have the same Brooks saddle, now with 6 holes drilled per side, plus a can of champagne. How did we do it?! We used a caliper to reference the first hole on each side from the rivet on the nose, and then evenly spaced them back, about a centimeter up from the bottom edge. The holes are just big enough for the lace to pass through. *WARNING*: Don’t drink too much coffee before performing the measuring or drilling step! As to how we got a can of champagne, it was a shopwarming gift form our friendly neighborhood bar.

Finished project, should provide a few more miles, or years, of use for it’s owner!

Back on an old English lightweight, looking like it owns the place. Class dismissed.

This Feb 14th, tell someone how you feel about their bike.

Heroes & Criminals Press

One dollar each, or 6 for five dollars.

It is a running joke amongst bike folk to speak of offsetting someone’s crankarms so the pedals are not right across from each other where they should be.

So when this bike came through the door we suspected alcohol and good natured foul play. But in all honesty, it was just a snapped bottom bracket spindle!

How many watts do you suppose the rider was producing at the moment of failure? Who cares, it just made him late for work. That’s commuter power.

Always wanted to have a high ceiling shop to put an old bike up on a wall.

And oh, by the way, we are putting all our remaining Bianchi Milanos on sale – now 25% off! Maybe you had not heard that the Milano has been phased out of the Bianchi lineup in favor of the new Metropoli? Well it has, so when these are gone we will not be stocking any more.

All Bianchi Milanos 25% Off

We have 3 here in black, and white, and black again. 25% off, come check them out and see if a stylish and simple fendered commuter is right for you!

Also, let’s keep our heads and just accept it, winter is not coming. We are putting our remaining Yaktrax 25% off and marking all in stock studded tires on sale as well.  Most of our studs are $60 a piece, how does $40 a piece sound? Come and get ’em!

Most of my life is spent trying to come up with 2 or more things that relate somehow and are worth a blog post under the same clever title. Here is today’s offering!

Peterson’s Scrap Metal Xtracycle Trip by gpickle at Garmin Connect – Details.

How much do you think this Xtracycle load of aluminum weighs? Rode it over to Peterson’s this morning. Aluminum is pretty light, but get a big enough stack of bent rims, broken seatposts and twisted bottlecages and it adds up!

WALD giant basket not included in Wacky Deals, base made of 1′ chunks of scrap 2x4s

How much will the stuff cost that winds up in our new shop Wacky Deals basket? You will have to stop in to check, but expect any and everything that makes it in here to be 25-50% off. Or more if we are really sick of looking at it!