Friday News And Views

Look for another Project 1X1 update coming soon...

Project 1X1 Update:

Well, the wheels went well. I will get you all caught up to speed on how the final bits went and then I will move on to the rest of the bike. I had to get a new stem, handle bar, and I haven't decided 100% on what I will need to do about the brakes yet.

This is kind of a weird bike, for me at any rate. 26 inch wheels, and as it goes with most bike companies, I am an in between size for this bike. This is an 18"er, which is smallish for me, but a 20"er is too long. Oh well..... I am used to it and will make do for now.

So, at this point the bike is rideable. I have several "fine tuning" adjustments I have to make though. The brakes, mentioned above, being one of those things. The other major change will be when I can get my mitts on a set of Surly's new Extraterrestrial tires. Those meats are tubeless rated and should fit the Cliffhangar rims fine. All of that tubelessness will be awesome, and I expect to be able to do a lot with this set up over the course of the Winter.

The "place holder" tires are kind of interesting. They are some Serfas tires I got over a year ago when I was still writing for Twenty Nine Inches. Wait........twenty six inch tires were sent to Twenty Nine Inches for review? Yep! By mistake, and they didn't want them back when I offered to send them back, so they hung around here until I had a reason to use them. That reason is the Project 1X1. So, now you know and that in "full disclosure mode" and all.... Anyway, one of the tires is dubbed the "Boil" model. Yes......boil. Who comes up with these names anyway? Weird.

Is a Luxy Bar redux just around the corner?

Alt Drop Bar News:

As many of you long time readers here know, I am a fan of the old Ragley Luxy Bar, which is a highly swept, flared drop bar. Since it hasn't been in production now for a few years, many folks hunt these down on E-bay and are paying more than what they were originally offered for in hard earned cash. I have casually kept my finger on the pulse of a rumored re-introduction of this design for years now.

The latest that I have heard is that "pact bikes", the new project started by the designer of the Luxy Bar, Brant Richards, was green lighted to do a knock off of the Luxy Bar. Then things were very quiet for quite a while. That is until yesterday.

That was when I noticed a bit of Twitter back and forth between Brant and some other UK based blokes who were mentioning the Luxy Bar and a company named "Alpkit" in the same breath. What?!! So I investigated, and it seems that this company is going to do a line of bicycles and components, one of which is a flared drop bar that, (supposedly), is the Ragley Luxy Bar reborn, or close to it. Now, I've not seen this mystery, unicorn bar yet, but when I do, I'll post up about it here. Stay tuned......

By the way, this is a "pactbike" Battlecat 650B+ rig. It's titanium. I think it is quite lovely. Brant designed one in Alu for Alpkit too. Check it out.

Velo Orange Dajia Far Bar

Velo Orange has just released the "Dajia Far Bar" for sale on its site at $54.00. This, or one nearly like it, appeared as a bar on some Koga-Miyata trekking bikes, as I understand it, in Europe a while back. However that may be, here is another choice for a flared drop bar.

It kind of reminds me of what might be called the love child of a WTB Dirt Drop v2 and a Woodchipper. My initial comments were that it looks as though you have one place to put your levers and one place to put your hands in the drops. That seems a bit limiting when you compare this to other swept/flared drop bars that are out there for sale these days.

These are available in silver or black ano, so that is cool. At least you aren't stuck with boring ol' black ano. Velo Orange also offers them in two widths, 44mm and 48mm. They are bar end compatible as well. The bars are definitely different, but I struggle to see any benefits over what we have now with Midge, Cowchipper, and hopefully that new "Mud Love" components bar from Alpkit.

Okay, that's a wrap from G-Ted Productions for today. Have a great weekend and go ride a bicycle!

Friday News And Views

Look for another Project 1X1 update coming soon...

Project 1X1 Update:

Well, the wheels went well. I will get you all caught up to speed on how the final bits went and then I will move on to the rest of the bike. I had to get a new stem, handle bar, and I haven't decided 100% on what I will need to do about the brakes yet.

This is kind of a weird bike, for me at any rate. 26 inch wheels, and as it goes with most bike companies, I am an in between size for this bike. This is an 18"er, which is smallish for me, but a 20"er is too long. Oh well..... I am used to it and will make do for now.

So, at this point the bike is rideable. I have several "fine tuning" adjustments I have to make though. The brakes, mentioned above, being one of those things. The other major change will be when I can get my mitts on a set of Surly's new Extraterrestrial tires. Those meats are tubeless rated and should fit the Cliffhangar rims fine. All of that tubelessness will be awesome, and I expect to be able to do a lot with this set up over the course of the Winter.

The "place holder" tires are kind of interesting. They are some Serfas tires I got over a year ago when I was still writing for Twenty Nine Inches. Wait........twenty six inch tires were sent to Twenty Nine Inches for review? Yep! By mistake, and they didn't want them back when I offered to send them back, so they hung around here until I had a reason to use them. That reason is the Project 1X1. So, now you know and that in "full disclosure mode" and all.... Anyway, one of the tires is dubbed the "Boil" model. Yes......boil. Who comes up with these names anyway? Weird.

Is a Luxy Bar redux just around the corner?

Alt Drop Bar News:

As many of you long time readers here know, I am a fan of the old Ragley Luxy Bar, which is a highly swept, flared drop bar. Since it hasn't been in production now for a few years, many folks hunt these down on E-bay and are paying more than what they were originally offered for in hard earned cash. I have casually kept my finger on the pulse of a rumored re-introduction of this design for years now.

The latest that I have heard is that "pact bikes", the new project started by the designer of the Luxy Bar, Brant Richards, was green lighted to do a knock off of the Luxy Bar. Then things were very quiet for quite a while. That is until yesterday.

That was when I noticed a bit of Twitter back and forth between Brant and some other UK based blokes who were mentioning the Luxy Bar and a company named "Alpkit" in the same breath. What?!! So I investigated, and it seems that this company is going to do a line of bicycles and components, one of which is a flared drop bar that, (supposedly), is the Ragley Luxy Bar reborn, or close to it. Now, I've not seen this mystery, unicorn bar yet, but when I do, I'll post up about it here. Stay tuned......

By the way, this is a "pactbike" Battlecat 650B+ rig. It's titanium. I think it is quite lovely. Brant designed one in Alu for Alpkit too. Check it out.

Velo Orange Dajia Far Bar

Velo Orange has just released the "Dajia Far Bar" for sale on its site at $54.00. This, or one nearly like it, appeared as a bar on some Koga-Miyata trekking bikes, as I understand it, in Europe a while back. However that may be, here is another choice for a flared drop bar.

It kind of reminds me of what might be called the love child of a WTB Dirt Drop v2 and a Woodchipper. My initial comments were that it looks as though you have one place to put your levers and one place to put your hands in the drops. That seems a bit limiting when you compare this to other swept/flared drop bars that are out there for sale these days.

These are available in silver or black ano, so that is cool. At least you aren't stuck with boring ol' black ano. Velo Orange also offers them in two widths, 44mm and 48mm. They are bar end compatible as well. The bars are definitely different, but I struggle to see any benefits over what we have now with Midge, Cowchipper, and hopefully that new "Mud Love" components bar from Alpkit.

Okay, that's a wrap from G-Ted Productions for today. Have a great weekend and go ride a bicycle!

Project 1X1: The Wheels Part 2

Nipples and spokes. Time to prep!

Okay, the last update was about the why and the what of the components. This post will focus on the how. Now, I'm not going to actually teach you how to build a wheel in a simple blog post, but I will go over some of the things I do to build up a wheel set.

Now that you have the parts, the next step is to prep the spokes. Those threads will allow for the nipples to back off after riding some if you do not use some sort of thread locking compound. There are a lot of semi-religious, fanatical things wheel builders do that don't always make sense, but putting a thread locking compound on there is usually one thing most builders agree upon. It is the type of thread preparation one uses that gets everyone going! I use, and have always used, "Wheelsmith Spoke Prep". It has never let me down, and when it comes to wheels, I don't fix what ain't broke.

I apply this goop by hand with the tip of my finger, just like I always have. (You'll begin to see that I am pretty stuck in my ways when it comes to building wheels.) Just enough on the spoke threads to fill 'em up, then that's it. Let those sit a while, then you can start building your wheels. Now I've always been a fan of Jobst Brandt's book, but there is another good one I've read by Gerd Schraner. I've read through both of them and I ended up with a hybrid technique based on a little bit from each of these wheel books. Again- I do it like I have learned it and have been doing it since the mid-90's. I probably could go back and re-read these books and pick up some more stuff, but I suppose I know enough to be dangerous and well, I've built some solid, long lasting wheels over the years. Yep-it ain't broke, so.......

An adult beverage of your choice is optional.

I usually pile up my spokes, dump the nipples in a small bowl, and start out. There are tricksy-tricks one can use to do special, secret handshake stuff that doesn't mean a thing, but is "the art of wheel building", so you do it any way. Things like lining up the hub label/stamping with the valve hole, having the rim label just so, and so on and so forth. The only thing you really should do is to build the wheel correctly. The rest is fru-fru. That said, I do the fru-fru. I just wanted everyone to know that might be starting out, or wanting to give this a shot, that the esoteric wheel builder aesthetic BS isn't necessary to build a great wheel.

So, I don't go in for all of the modern day motorized nipple drills, or what have you that speed up the process and make you save time, and allow you to push more wheels out the door. No- I don't build that many wheels, and I have probably built more wheels for myself than I have for anyone else. So, this is pretty much as slow as you can go, but I enjoy it, so why rush a good thing? In fact, I almost never lace and tension a wheel set the same night. I usually spread that over two days, unless it is at work for a customer. Just a bad habit I have, I suppose. But again, it has always worked that way for me so....... Heck, when I started out building wheels I would take forever to tension them up because I was so unsure of myself and I would fanatically check every spoke with a tensionometer as I went around tensioning them up.

That's one laced up......

For these wheels I decided on 36 hole hubs and rims and to lace them up in the 3 cross pattern, which is par for the course for a decent, strong wheel build. I read in those books I referenced earlier about "other" patterns, but after thinking it all over, I usually just do a three cross with an occasional two cross build thrown in to keep it interesting. Anyway, this came out really nice, I think.

Now, I used a straight gauge spoke, a big, beefy rim, and the hubs were "okay" weight, and the alloy nipples saved a couple grams, but make no mistake, these wheels are heavy. That was okay with me. I wanted durability and toughness above all else, and these components should give that to me. By the way, all the spokes were the same length. That means no wheel dish, which, theoretically makes for a stronger wheel. The spokes were short for a 26" wheel as well, at 258mm, which again- should make for stronger wheels. Another side benefit is that I only have to carry one spoke length with me in case of an emergency on any longer trip I might decide to do with the bike these end up on.

So anyway.....there ya go! I tensioned these up the following day and then I will go about putting the blue, Velocity tubeless tape on the rims. I'll go over that in my next post, and I will also have the "place holder" tires mounted up. Then I'll move along to other elements of Project 1X1.

Stay tuned...

Project 1X1: The Wheels Part 2

Nipples and spokes. Time to prep!

Okay, the last update was about the why and the what of the components. This post will focus on the how. Now, I'm not going to actually teach you how to build a wheel in a simple blog post, but I will go over some of the things I do to build up a wheel set.

Now that you have the parts, the next step is to prep the spokes. Those threads will allow for the nipples to back off after riding some if you do not use some sort of thread locking compound. There are a lot of semi-religious, fanatical things wheel builders do that don't always make sense, but putting a thread locking compound on there is usually one thing most builders agree upon. It is the type of thread preparation one uses that gets everyone going! I use, and have always used, "Wheelsmith Spoke Prep". It has never let me down, and when it comes to wheels, I don't fix what ain't broke.

I apply this goop by hand with the tip of my finger, just like I always have. (You'll begin to see that I am pretty stuck in my ways when it comes to building wheels.) Just enough on the spoke threads to fill 'em up, then that's it. Let those sit a while, then you can start building your wheels. Now I've always been a fan of Jobst Brandt's book, but there is another good one I've read by Gerd Schraner. I've read through both of them and I ended up with a hybrid technique based on a little bit from each of these wheel books. Again- I do it like I have learned it and have been doing it since the mid-90's. I probably could go back and re-read these books and pick up some more stuff, but I suppose I know enough to be dangerous and well, I've built some solid, long lasting wheels over the years. Yep-it ain't broke, so.......

An adult beverage of your choice is optional.

I usually pile up my spokes, dump the nipples in a small bowl, and start out. There are tricksy-tricks one can use to do special, secret handshake stuff that doesn't mean a thing, but is "the art of wheel building", so you do it any way. Things like lining up the hub label/stamping with the valve hole, having the rim label just so, and so on and so forth. The only thing you really should do is to build the wheel correctly. The rest is fru-fru. That said, I do the fru-fru. I just wanted everyone to know that might be starting out, or wanting to give this a shot, that the esoteric wheel builder aesthetic BS isn't necessary to build a great wheel.

So, I don't go in for all of the modern day motorized nipple drills, or what have you that speed up the process and make you save time, and allow you to push more wheels out the door. No- I don't build that many wheels, and I have probably built more wheels for myself than I have for anyone else. So, this is pretty much as slow as you can go, but I enjoy it, so why rush a good thing? In fact, I almost never lace and tension a wheel set the same night. I usually spread that over two days, unless it is at work for a customer. Just a bad habit I have, I suppose. But again, it has always worked that way for me so....... Heck, when I started out building wheels I would take forever to tension them up because I was so unsure of myself and I would fanatically check every spoke with a tensionometer as I went around tensioning them up.

That's one laced up......

For these wheels I decided on 36 hole hubs and rims and to lace them up in the 3 cross pattern, which is par for the course for a decent, strong wheel build. I read in those books I referenced earlier about "other" patterns, but after thinking it all over, I usually just do a three cross with an occasional two cross build thrown in to keep it interesting. Anyway, this came out really nice, I think.

Now, I used a straight gauge spoke, a big, beefy rim, and the hubs were "okay" weight, and the alloy nipples saved a couple grams, but make no mistake, these wheels are heavy. That was okay with me. I wanted durability and toughness above all else, and these components should give that to me. By the way, all the spokes were the same length. That means no wheel dish, which, theoretically makes for a stronger wheel. The spokes were short for a 26" wheel as well, at 258mm, which again- should make for stronger wheels. Another side benefit is that I only have to carry one spoke length with me in case of an emergency on any longer trip I might decide to do with the bike these end up on.

So anyway.....there ya go! I tensioned these up the following day and then I will go about putting the blue, Velocity tubeless tape on the rims. I'll go over that in my next post, and I will also have the "place holder" tires mounted up. Then I'll move along to other elements of Project 1X1.

Stay tuned...

Project 1X1: The Wheels Part 1

I chose Velo Orange's "Fixed High Flange" hub for the rear wheel

The Wheels:

Project 1X1's wheel build is the central focus for getting the 1X1 up to snuff for the duties that I have in mind for it. Those include urban assaults, errands, some single track, and commuting back and forth to work.

The drive train needs to be very simple for reliability and durability. Our Winter weather features slop on the roadways that is really bad on derailleurs, cassettes, and chains. Things get real spendy when your drive train needs to be rehabbed twice a Winter. Single speed drive trains are more robust, and I have had them last through a complete Winter on many an occasion, so that was why I wanted single speed hubs. I also wanted to have peace of mind and ease of security when I do errands and run into a store for a few minutes. So, that pointed me in the direction of nutted axles. That led me to Velo Orange and their Fixed High Flange hubs. They not only have a "flip flop" capability, but their hollow axles also would allow for a quick release conversion at some point if I wanted that. With a flip-flop hub, I plan on having one side fixed and the other free wheel for more choice and a fail-safe in case the free wheel quits on me. The matching front High Flange hub was also purchased to be part of this wheel build and also has the same axle set up as the rear hub.

The Velocity Cliffhanger rim was an obvious choice for my rims.

The rims needed to have a rim brake track since the 1X1 is old enough that it does not support disc brakes. Also, the rims had to be 26" diameter ones, so I didn't have to jerry-rig up something for brakes to fit a different wheel size. 26 inch stuff isn't where the industry is going, so wishing for wide, quality rims might be a tough call. Having them be tubeless ready was pie-in-the-sky thinking, but guess what? Velocity USA's Cliffhangar rims were just redesigned, and by golly! Those things matched up with everything I wanted perfectly. Heck.......they are even made in the USA. So, I had Velocity set me up with a pair of these in 36 hole drilling with black anodized coloring.

The Cliffhangar rims are a 30mm wide rim with a 25mm wide inner dimension which will be perfect for a set of wider tires that will provide a tubeless ride having great traction, comfort, and stability. They are touted as a strong design as well. Here's what Velocity has to say about them:

"Strength comes first...short and stout sidewalls guard against pinch flats and denting from impacts: a pothole, a rocky descent, or dodging that rhino outside of Jakarta."

Velocity's excellent tape and tubeless stems

Sounds right up my alley! With the tubeless capabilities, I also had Velocity send over their excellent tape and valve stems so when I get the tires I have in mind for the 1X1, I will have an easier time of it when going tubeless. 

I've used the blue Velocity tape numerous times in the past and it is a very effective, durable, easy to apply tape that I trust. The valve stems I only started using recently on another wheel set, but they haven't given me a lick of trouble, so I expect that these will do the same. I'm going to hold out for a certain tubeless tire, which is not quite available yet, so I may run tubes in these wheels to start out with, and of course, the blue Velocity tape is perfectly fine for use with tubes.

With the rims and hubs sorted, I needed to come up with something for spokes. DT Swiss makes a Champion model stainless steel spoke that is perfect for an all-around use bicycle and with 36 of those in each wheel, I should be able to beat the tar outta those hoops! Nipples are also DT Swiss and since my 1X1 has a bit of red going on with one of the stickers I have on the frame, I decided on red alloy nipples. Now, I know many of you will say that the entire wheel build is going to be compromised by using alloy nips, but I've never had issues with them failing unless I crashed. One has to know the proper method for lacing with alloy nipples, and the troubles tend to go away then if you do it right.

So, stay tuned for the results of the Project 1X1 wheel build, coming soon!

Project 1X1: The Wheels Part 1

I chose Velo Orange's "Fixed High Flange" hub for the rear wheel

The Wheels:

Project 1X1's wheel build is the central focus for getting the 1X1 up to snuff for the duties that I have in mind for it. Those include urban assaults, errands, some single track, and commuting back and forth to work.

The drive train needs to be very simple for reliability and durability. Our Winter weather features slop on the roadways that is really bad on derailleurs, cassettes, and chains. Things get real spendy when your drive train needs to be rehabbed twice a Winter. Single speed drive trains are more robust, and I have had them last through a complete Winter on many an occasion, so that was why I wanted single speed hubs. I also wanted to have peace of mind and ease of security when I do errands and run into a store for a few minutes. So, that pointed me in the direction of nutted axles. That led me to Velo Orange and their Fixed High Flange hubs. They not only have a "flip flop" capability, but their hollow axles also would allow for a quick release conversion at some point if I wanted that. With a flip-flop hub, I plan on having one side fixed and the other free wheel for more choice and a fail-safe in case the free wheel quits on me. The matching front High Flange hub was also purchased to be part of this wheel build and also has the same axle set up as the rear hub.

The Velocity Cliffhanger rim was an obvious choice for my rims.

The rims needed to have a rim brake track since the 1X1 is old enough that it does not support disc brakes. Also, the rims had to be 26" diameter ones, so I didn't have to jerry-rig up something for brakes to fit a different wheel size. 26 inch stuff isn't where the industry is going, so wishing for wide, quality rims might be a tough call. Having them be tubeless ready was pie-in-the-sky thinking, but guess what? Velocity USA's Cliffhangar rims were just redesigned, and by golly! Those things matched up with everything I wanted perfectly. Heck.......they are even made in the USA. So, I had Velocity set me up with a pair of these in 36 hole drilling with black anodized coloring.

The Cliffhangar rims are a 30mm wide rim with a 25mm wide inner dimension which will be perfect for a set of wider tires that will provide a tubeless ride having great traction, comfort, and stability. They are touted as a strong design as well. Here's what Velocity has to say about them:

"Strength comes first...short and stout sidewalls guard against pinch flats and denting from impacts: a pothole, a rocky descent, or dodging that rhino outside of Jakarta."

Velocity's excellent tape and tubeless stems

Sounds right up my alley! With the tubeless capabilities, I also had Velocity send over their excellent tape and valve stems so when I get the tires I have in mind for the 1X1, I will have an easier time of it when going tubeless. 

I've used the blue Velocity tape numerous times in the past and it is a very effective, durable, easy to apply tape that I trust. The valve stems I only started using recently on another wheel set, but they haven't given me a lick of trouble, so I expect that these will do the same. I'm going to hold out for a certain tubeless tire, which is not quite available yet, so I may run tubes in these wheels to start out with, and of course, the blue Velocity tape is perfectly fine for use with tubes.

With the rims and hubs sorted, I needed to come up with something for spokes. DT Swiss makes a Champion model stainless steel spoke that is perfect for an all-around use bicycle and with 36 of those in each wheel, I should be able to beat the tar outta those hoops! Nipples are also DT Swiss and since my 1X1 has a bit of red going on with one of the stickers I have on the frame, I decided on red alloy nipples. Now, I know many of you will say that the entire wheel build is going to be compromised by using alloy nips, but I've never had issues with them failing unless I crashed. One has to know the proper method for lacing with alloy nipples, and the troubles tend to go away then if you do it right.

So, stay tuned for the results of the Project 1X1 wheel build, coming soon!