29 March, 2007

Surpises from France


You have to love the French. Who else but the French could design a reverse brake lever as elegant and beautiful as these CLB levers? We found a few NOS pair, but they are so hard to get that we'll only sell them with a city bike frame for now.

Just when you're about fed up with a certain French company that never ships on time, they do something very nice. Many of us have been searching high and low for the old silver and black metal foil decals that graced older TA cranks. A friend just sent me a pair from Japan and I was thrilled to get them. Now TA has reprinted them. These things have not been used on cranks since the early '80s, yet TA looked out for their customers needs and supported a 30 year-old product.

Of course I got as many decals as was possible, which is not many. But I'll ask you not to buy them. That is don't buy them unless you really need them and don't buy extras. Lets let other folks get some too.

Speaking of French parts, we should soon have NOS and very cool French city bike bars and stems (22.2mm stems).

Remember that cool ALPS pass hunter photo I posted. It's the one that Peter Weigle-san used as inspiration. Ernest, from Japan, sent me the identical LED light that's made for ALPS. He also sent the proper mounts. It's a magnificent piece of precision machining.



UPDATE, WE WILL HAVE HONJO FENDERS IN ALL SIZES AGAIN BY LATE NEXT WEEK.

7 comments:

Alan said...

"sent me the identical LED light that's made for ALPS. He also sent the proper mounts. It's a magnificent piece of precision machining."

Say I were to be daydreaming a bit about my bike and it's related accessories. What is the liklihood that this wonderful LED light and the mounts were to appear in the Velo Orange store? I love the retro light you sell, but have a hard time going back to old school light technology. Lighting is one of the few things modern technology has clearly improved.

If the liklihood is zero, please crush my daydream as soon as possible so I snap out of my stupor.

Velo Orange said...

Ernest, Did you see Alan's comment?

I actually have one of the new MagLites with the 3 watt LED that I've modified to mount on a bike. It's sitting on my workbench and as soon as I can make the drawings for the mount fabricator and find the local distributor and test them a little more thoroughly, we'll have the Velo Orange version.

Anonymous said...

Are you going to save the French bars and stems for VO city bikes, too? Speaking of, what's the status of those city bikes? Are you still taking orders? Are there any finished frames? -Andy

Alan said...

The maglights do come in silver which is good, but unfortunately does not have that cool retro look as the light Ernest sent you. I guess you can't have everything.

Velo Orange said...

The French bars and stems will be available to everyone and reasonably priced.

There have actually been two city bikes frames/forks built. The second one is on it's way to the paint shop and is the final version (I think). We'll have photos as soon as it's painted, probably a couple of weeks.

Of course we'll take orders. We like orders.

Ethan Labowitz said...

speaking of lights and orders:
Chris, can you fix the B&M taillight and spare bulb pages so i can add them to my order?
i sent an email to this regard and didn't get a response.

thanks

Ethan

Anonymous said...

Chris said,
"I actually have one of the new MagLites with the 3 watt LED that I've modified to mount on a bike. It's sitting on my workbench and as soon as I can make the drawings for the mount fabricator and find the local distributor and test them a little more thoroughly, we'll have the Velo Orange version. "

What's the hold-up? Have you seen this?

http://www.tiny.cc/FoxFuryLights

Watts may be irrelevant now with new technology lights.