Into the Darkness

Got our first 2 generator wheel orders as the season of the Darkness approaches.

Don’t take it from us, listen to them:

When you’re cycling through the city at night
And you’re dodging these apartment lines
I’ve got my fingers greasy
And you didn’t care
I was fixing your shame

This is our shame salvaging package deal – no polluting or burnt up batteries for you – handbuilt wheel with a Shimano disc compatible generator hub laced with DT spokes to a Sun rim because <duh> with a Planet Bike blaze generator light to bright that night for $230.

First two wheels built, time change in about 2 weeks and just as the Darkness say –

Nothing’s gonna stop us!

Cause it doesn’t matter where we are
Oh when you’re the stunt peg
And I’m in the chair
I was pulling a wheely
You were pulling my hair
They’ll never catch us
Cause we’re catching air

 

Upgrades & Orange

Our floor is orange when it is not too dirty.

So is this sweet old Schwinn Voyageur. The owner had us add some shine from Velo Orange and Nitto and a touch of honey from Brooks.

Another orange one, brand new out of a really small box is this Dahon Speed D7 in tangerine. This is the folding bike we sell more than any other because it is simple, strong, and, well – it’s orange!

In other upgrade news we have gotten in a couple more sets of Retroshifters, now called Gevenalle or however it’s pronounced – one set to help this tandem shift more reliably especially up front on it’s wide range crankset. The other set is for a Breadwinner Aufderheide we are building up, pictures to follow but a bike so nice gets it’s own blog post!

Another cool upgrade shifter project. We took off dead Shimano trigger shifters here and replaced them with these nicely machined thumb shifters from Microshift. Strong light cheap – pick all three!

Not orange but sure to make folks green with envy is this decked out Xtracycle Edgerunner with the full family package to haul kids and or cargo – plus a generator wheel powering front and back lights with a USB charger.

Last thing orange and upgraded we made some major changes to our helmet / clothing / shoe corner. Stop in and take a seat – we do! Carpet is also quite comfortable for naps we hear.

 

 

It’s New Stuff

Spring sprang, here is what’s sprouting in the shop lately. We are well stocked with generator wheel hubs and lights, including these 3 awesome Busch & Muller models.

Also just got our spring Arkel order whether you are looking for touring or commuting bags we have a whole bunch in stock.

We also added our first hitch mount car rack if you are into taking bikes for a drive?

Sunglasses from Optic Nerve, we got a couple pairs for you to check out.

And our clothing selection continues to grow, shop jerseys and shorts, now we have some rain wear in, plus a whole lotta socks.

Also lots of new helmets, and of course those Detroit Bikes A-Type, and we have lots of used bikes right now, plus a bunch of winter stuff on sale that won’t be of any use at all once it is summer, but might help once or twice more this spring, so come by and see what’s new!

 

The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side Of The Winter

Don’t get winter SAD – put a little garden on your bike rack!

Speaking of winter, we keep expanding our stock of gloves, hats, Bar Mitts, generator hubs and lights, etc – plus we have our usual vast selection of studded tires bulked out like that kid in a Christmas Story. We are donating a couple, plus some lights as prizes for the UI winter bike challenge.

So stay on your bike this winter, if you need advice or gear we can help, after all we will be out there in it two wheeling with you until the grass is green again.

 

New Stuff

First up, our great BIG Stupid Construction SALE will continue through closing time this Saturday! 10% off all new bikes, take another 10% off bikes already on sale! So yes, the construction is almost done, the building is looking great and things are returning to normal. Much thanks to all of you who braved the noise dust mud and such to wade in here and see us!

So what have we been up to behind the scenes? Well, we have brought in a couple of new bikes from Marin that are sure to please most bike commuting needs. The Muirwoods 29’er is basically a steel frame mountain bike built for the streets. 3×8 drivetrain, disc brakes, locking skewers for the wheels and saddle and reflective decals galore. The Hamilton 29’er is the same chassis but with rim brakes and a 1×7 drivetrain for simplicity and easy cheap maintenance.

When we build the bikes we recycle the boxes by bike, always! Speaking of bikes, again, we are now Selle Anatomica dealers and have we the demo saddles to prove it!

There is kind of a line already to try a demo, but if you want to get on one give us a call and we can get you on the list. These made in the USA saddles have quite the comfortable reputation and so far have gotten good reviews from the few people we have sent them out under. Sadly demand has been so high we have not yet gotten to demo ourselves!

We also built another really nice generator system that was picked up so fast by the new owner we did not even have time to snap a picture of the finished project, so here are a couple of the parts.

Last new thing, our updated shop clothing is shipping to us this week! Jerseys and shorts this time, might see them by the weekend, early next week for sure! And just so you don’t think we are going all NEW on you, we got some used bikes ready and they are up on the USED BIKES page now.

 

The Week’s Sport Utility Vehicle News

Had a few interesting bike projects roll out of the shop this week.

First up we rebuilt the rear wheel for this amazing bike, and yes it is the one you see around town all the time even in winter with the kids sitting up in the front.

We also had a couple of dynamo hub projects. First we swapped the Rolf wheels out for a Son generator up front and White Industries in the back.

And then wired in the headlight and taillight.

This is a pretty awesome set up, ’nuff said.

We also wired the same model taillight into one of the dyno systems we installed on a Disc Trucker project.

He already had the amazing Luxos U lighting his way and now he can let go of his superflash when the batteries go out.

And here is the Civia we raffled off for Bike to Work Week moments before it was ridden off into the wilds of Iowa City to seek it’s fortune and save it’s new owner a fortune on car maintenance and parking and insurance and gas and etc. These are what sport utility vehicles look like!

 

Power Up

As we lurch and gustily precipitate towards summer the rhythm of the shop steadily picks up. So much so that we forgot to give a shout out to ourselves, last Monday was our 4th anniversary! We thank you all, as ever we could not do this without YOU.

We built this touring wheelset this week. A dynamo front wheel from our specials page and a sturdy rear 105 hub wheel to follow along. We still have a couple of dyno hubs left if you are interested in having us build you a wheel so you can leave batteries behind and create your own juice.

In other dyno-juice new we will have the Busch & Muller Luxos U in stock within a week! The light that made Peter White gush:  “I don’t usually gush over the products I sell, but the Luxos U and Luxos B headlights have some characteristics that to me are truly extraordinary, but impossible to describe in a few simple marketing phrases. So, please bear with me while I gush.” We are looking forward to seeing for ourselves what all this gushy fuss is about.

And fussle gushle it’s almost Bike to Work Week!

May starts Wednesday. May is Bike Month. Bike Month has Bike to Work Week! Locally there are lots of great event going on to encourage and/or reward you for riding to work or anywhere else you need to be. The schedule for our area is up at Think Bicycles and hopefully we will see posters popping up around town soon. We are raffling a bike from Civia Cycles.

All you have to do to get entered is come on into the shop here, or attend any of the events all week long, there will be tickets available at them as well. We will have the drawing for the bike giveaway Friday night 5/17 right here at the shop during a very informal happy hour from 5:30 – 6:30. Get your bike on, always the best spring accessory!

 

Disc Truckja Vu

Recently we decked out a Surly Disc Trucker. Someone saw it and said, “I want that!”

We love it when that happens. So here it is, Disc Trucker version deja vu. We built a generator wheel for the front, more SKS Longboard fenders, centerstand, Brooks B-17, and Tubus racks front and rear. Waiting for the same light as the previous bike, the Luxus U. If you like what you see and are thinking you want that, we can’t blame you, and count ourselves among you. What a solid ride!

Lot’s of wheel building going on these couple of weeks, just got these VO high flange hubs in to build up to shiny VO PBP rims. Blinding bling baby!

Other wheels recently built, the four on the right were rebuilds for a customer who was tired of tubulars and wanted the ease of clinchers. The wheel on the left is for personal usage and abusage on Steve’s gravel bike, road bike and cyclocross bike. Which are the same bike.

 

Disc Trucker Racked & Generating

Had the opportunity to deck out this Surly Disc Trucker.

It came in as as bike, it leaves as a touring machine with Tubus racks front and rear, SKS Longboard fenders, a Pletscher double leg kickstand hiding back there, and our handbuilt Alfine Generator wheel.

Right now it is ably making due with the Planet Bike Blaze that is part of our ongoing generator wheel system package deal. But, we have ordered the Busch & Muller Luxus U for it, which we are pretty excited to have in stock once they are available. Soon. Soon…

Steve is getting his photos uploaded and sorted from NAHBS, will try and give a little write up yet this week.

A lot of great stuff hiding in those booths!

 

Yesvember

October is over and that means many things.

No more zombie songs, shorter days, we move to winter hours, and our generator wheel deal returns!

Next Monday, the 5th, we will start our winter hours, 10-5:30 M-F, 10-4 Saturdays.

Also, for the second year we will be offering a semi custom handbuilt generator wheel with headlight deal.

Shimano DH-3D72 centerlock disc brake compatible Dynamo hub, Sun CR18 rim and Planet Bike Blaze light for $230. That breaks down to half price for the hub and 10% off the rim, spokes and light when you spring for the package. We can swap in an Alfine generator hub if you prefer, or use a different rim, 26″, 700c, 20″ for you recumbantaneers or commuting kids, whatever you like so come in and take a look and light that night. Yes!