Craig, Ling from Cambridge Bicycle, and I had the opportunity to go to Vegas for interbike this past week and check out all of the new products coming our way for 2011. The first day we were there we went out into the middle of the desert for the Dirt Demo, which is a place mainly for companies to allow dealers to demo their new road and mountain bikes as well as show off some of their other new products. Here are the highlights from Craigs camera.
First up is the FSA Metropolis internally geared 2 speed crankset. If you are familiar with the Hammershimdt crankset made by SRAM for Mountain bikes this is quite similar except for 1 major detail, you don’t need a special frame mount to use it. This crank will literally work on any bike with a 68mm bottom bracket shell and works with most 2 speed shifters. Don’t plan on putting one on your fixed gear however because it has a built in freewheeling mechanism, unless you want to convert it into a singlespeed!
This is a small carry along mini pump made by SKS that stows conveniently into your handlebar where you can forget about it until it is needed. GENIUS!
Blackburn has pushed the envelope of small multi tool design with this mini tool called the Toolmanator. It has all the essential allen wrenches and isn’t much bigger than your thumb, leaving more room in your bag for your 30 rack.
Here is another multitool from blackburn that features a chain tool and a mini pump aside from the regular goodies. The pump is designed for shocks on mountain bikes, but I am wondering how long it would take to get a road tire up to a ridable pressure?
Ling was lucky enough to test ride a nice little Cielo at the Chris King/Cielo Booth. Look at all the bling in the background!
Out at interbike I got to talk to some of the great guys at cinelli about the upcoming Laser reissue. All the final details are still waiting to be ironed out but it sounds like it will be a more traditional geometry track frame, with dual 700c wheels and a slightly forward sloping top tube. They will mainly be made to order and are only planning to start with 10 frames. Price, as you can imagine, will be quite high, so start saving your pennies and if you must have one talk to us soon so we can have one pre-ordered for you.
Bryan Hollingsworth of Royal H Cycles stopped into our shop today to get his special Bendix 2 speed kick back coaster hub serviced. The thing is crazy! It not only is a beautiful coaster hub, but has an internal 2 speed hub without cables or shifters. It shifts with the action of the coaster break. I don’t even know exactly how to describe how it works, but it’s like a magical unicorn.
The hub is built up to Bryan’s custom show bike that was just featured last night in the Massachusetts Bicycle Film Festival Handbuilt Bicycle Show. Along with the crazy Bendix hub, there is a 3 arm Campagnolo crankset and vintage Ideal leather saddle. The frame has serious lug details and a beautiful sparkling burgundy paint job. If you are looking for a classic custom frame, especially with lugs, give Bryan a call.
Here is a classic Keirin style build for our friend Chris. The frame and fork is Kazane, which bases their frames off classic Keirin track frames. The stem, handlebars, and seat post are Nitto. To toss it up, Chris went with the all black Paul Royal Flush crankset and of course the always classic Chris King headset. Noted that Chris was also the first one to get our custom made top tube protector bash guard hand made by 3RRR.
Before I can even introduce Joachim Parbo I have to first talk about the week before his arrival.
One day at the shop, just working, 2 sets of carbon cyclocross Zipp wheels arrived in the mail. Tom and I were flabbergasted. While still getting over the shock, 2 more carbon fiber cyclocross frames arrived, now starting to freaking us out. I was running around calling everyone we worked with to figure out if these were for their own cyclocross order since the season just started. No luck. So I’m wondering if we paid for 10,000 dollars worth of carbon fiber no one ordered… Running around pulling my hair out on the phone with all the dealers making sure we didn’t pay for these components, all that I found out was they were for Joachim… Who the hell is Joachim? And if he doesn’t show up can we keep it?
Finally last Friday morning Joachim arrived to build up his bicycles and we find out he is the 3 time Danish National Champion and 31st in the world. Just arriving in America from Denmark to start the first leg of Elite cyclocross races in the US, he just needed a shop to help him build up his bikes. Here is a shot of Joachim’s Leopard cyclocross builds with a winning smile.
