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

 

Strong Like Bull

We have built some nice wheels, sure have, and this is surely the nicest picture we have ever taken of wheels we built.

40 spokes per, fer a bicycle built for two. Strong like Bull! That is custom paint on those Velocity Deep Vs, too.

Finally we have the Xtracycle Edgerunner in the shop! This is the new cargo bike of the future design with the 20″ rear wheel, lowers the load and that wheel is strong like Bull!

This is our shop ride, yes, but it is also our demo so if you want to spend a day or a few with it come talk to us.

Built up with a mix of the stock parts and our favorite substitutions, one highlight is total right hand shifting control. Which makes sense because your left hand is holding your cup of coffee.

 

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.

 

With Pride

If you have ever seen this bike careen it’s way around Iowa City under massive load, over curbs, down railroad tracks, head to head with cars on Gilbert St…

Then you understand why this is the rear wheel we have the most pride in having built – Devin tough! Going to knock on wood for it’s continued good health, and conveniently he has some strapped to his rear rack. Next, thumbing our nose at the anti-establishment, we were happy to install 9 speed sti on this here hunk of lugged steel.

Low spoke count wheels, aero bars and now sti! It’s okay Grant Petersen – just ride.

 

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!

 

Winter Projects

Everyone asks, “Pretty slow this time of year?”

Nope. First there was the construction and painting of these here walls. Then trying to figure out where everything should go. Xtracycle get their own chunk of wall so all the longtail stuff is in one place, saddles and folding tires, too. And that cascades over to the pannier selection which is now less cramped and looking to expand.

There are also some that choose to flee the cold and dark of Iowa for sunnier warmer lands so some bikes get boxed and shipped away.

We can Xtracycle that.

Then it always seems that there are projects people save up til winter to spring on us also. Like the customer that decided he had finally had enough of sew ups on his hi flange 5 speed freewheel Dura Ace wheelset and his 6 speed freewheeling Campagnolo Record wheelset. So he hunted up some classic clincher rims for us to rebuild them.

And then the new stuff starts showing up, like boxes and boxes of Lazer helmets, and Masi Road bikes next week.

And then there is some travel, like going to Cyclocross World Championships and then taking the train out to NAHBS. And the 30¢ Squad took a zipcar up to Dubuque and did the Triple D last weekend. Pretty slow this time of year? Never!

 

Lacing Up & Winding Down

Built up this 2 speed kick back coaster brake wheel. Twice!

Had to build it twice because the first hub had issues with the braking surface of the hub shell. Fun! The wheel, and the curvey cool Schwinn Paramount Sprint that it was built for, look pretty comfortable even in a snow pile. And how great is it that we finally have a shop snow pile! Woo-hoo for winter.

According the serial number and my interpretation of it this frame was the 15th built in January of 1975. Amazing that it can handle a 700×35 tire! And fenders and a seatpost rack and a handlebar child seat, too.

This is one of the last cool bikes we will work on this year because:

We are closing early December 24th & will not reopen til Monday, January 14th!!

But we are still on normal hours today and tomorrow, and there is lots of good stuff on sale down here, so drop in and check it out if you need snowshoes, or studded tires. Or lights, or a new bike! Or a used tandem? Or even an old chain for an art project or a box of old tubes for a gardening project or something. Or a new bag or even some gloves. Or just to say hi!

Thanks for a great year everyone, it’s been great working for you, and if we don’t see you before our break we will see you:

Next Year!