The Modernist Bicycle

Though Velo Orange is often characterized as a "retro shop", I very much admire modernist design, particularly in bikes. Those of you who know me may point out that my own bikes are all 20-40 years out of date, I drive a Citroen 2cv (only occasionally) that was designed in the '30s, and live in a reproduction 18th century house. There is no question that old thing often work better. After all, the old things that didn't work have long since been discarded; we are left with only the best examples of retro-technology. But modern design will one day be retro-technology and it is fascinating to see.

One of my favorite modern bike designers is Sören Sögreni whose company, Sögreni, makes very cool bikes and even cooler accessories. Whether they are practical is another matter. Nonetheless I love his bells and his chainguard. The rear rack is neat too.

Sometimes interesting modern designs come from unlikely places. Delta, the same folks who make the lovely Inox cage, have a cool belt drive commuter. They also have an interesting collapsible bike. Their argument for belt drive make sense; has anyone tried it?

A bike that I really want is the Strida. It's light, simple and tiny. Just the thing to take to InterBike or carry on the Metro when I go to DC. Too bad they are not sold in the states yet.

You might also enjoy seeing the Locust, a truly wild design study.

If you're interested in this sort of thing you might also enjoy the Bicycle Design blog. I've got a lot more links and photos for another post, but how about sharing some of your favorite modernist bikes?

Velo Orange Fenders are Here !

What the world needs is proper aluminum fenders that are long enough to really keep water off and don't cost $80. And that's exactly what arrived at the VO shop today, hundreds of high quality Velo Orange brand aluminum fenders.

They come in a smooth profile that's 46mm wide and will easily take tires to 35mm and probably 38mm (need to check). The second model is fluted and 49mm wide and will accommodated 40mm tires. They fit 700c and 27" wheels. The stays are 5mm aluminum, just like Honjos and they use similar (but not identical) R-clips and stay-to-fender draw bolts. They are not highly polished like Honjos, but have a slight mat finish.

The front fenders are 90cm long and the rear are 120cm. That's longer than most Honjos and every other fender but one; our special extra-long Honjo models are still a bit longer.

So what are the drawbacks compared to the more expensive Honjos? The VO fenders are not as shiny as Honjos, though you could buff them up in about 30 minutes. The hardware is generally not as nice as on Honjos and the attachment for fork crown and bridge is a little crude compared to Honjo's nice daruma crown bolt and sliding bridge. Like most metal fenders, they are not pre-drilled.

The best part is that they only cost $35 per set with all hardware included!

So wadda ya think?

Arrow

Reading my new favorite magazine, Monocle, I came across a reference to Arrow bicycles of Japan. I hadn't looked at Arrows in a long time, but I find their style and business model very interesting. Arrow is a small brand of city bike. They come in only a few models and without logos. The styling is utterly simple and a small number of options are offered. I have read that producton is limited to about 1000 bikes a year.

There seems to be a bespoke version of Arrow as well, called Trunk. Notice that the selection of colors available is quite large and very Japanese. This is not a collection of colors you would imagine an American or European company would offer.

Among the more unusual product is a "chariot", a very neat grocery trailer, and a push scooter. Their selection of wire and wicker baskets and child seats are also noteworthy. Maybe we could have a chariot stage in the TdF?

Interesting company, this Arrow. It's nice to see the independent thinking. Look around the site and follow the links. You'll find some fascinating stuff. And don't miss the very cute shop turtle

Random Bits

We have a few random bits that various customers have asked us to stock.

Classic style cable clips are getting hard to find and we have some made by AGPA.

Replacement pedal caps for Campagnolo and other classic Italian pedals are almost impossible to find, but we did locate some nice Gipiemme caps that make a fine replacement.

VAR grease in the 100gm jars has proven very popular and it's been hard to keep in stock. We just got another shipment. This will make your French bike very happy.

We also found some alloy TA bottle cage clamps. They look much like the chrome version, but don't come in the cool paper package. That's the price of shaving off a few grams.

We now stock the Soma double gate toe clips. Double gate toe clips have not been available for a long time. They are great for cyclo-cross, dirt roads, track bikes, etc and make getting into the clips faster. They are going on my new pass hunter.

The drought of products at VO will soon be over. Several hundred racks will ship from Japan in about two weeks. 400 Honjo fenders should ship next week. More decaleurs will soon be on the way. And the VO aluminum fenders are due to arrive within the next few days.

Logos and Pricing

One of the things I've wanted Velo Orange to stand for is elegant and understated products. That means small logos, or even no logos. You might have noticed that we don't put our name on our racks, leather products, etc. So it's interesting that a couple of customers have commented that they'd prefer to see our logo on various products. Is the Velo Orange name becoming a status symbol like a Patagonia, Hermes, or Manolo Blahnik tag? I hope not, or maybe that would be a good thing? Hmmm...

We've recently ordered our 27oz stainless steel water bottles without logos. Well actually there is still a tiny logo near the base. The company that makes them insisted. We'll have the 18oz bottles sans logos in a month or two. These are still the greatest water bottles I've used. I don't know a single person who has tried them and gone back to plastic bottles. We use them as off bike bottles too--the environmental impact of disposable plastic water bottles is staggering.

Speaking of the water bottles, you may have noticed that the prices are a little higher. The manufacturer instituted a "minimum advertised price policy". That means the won't sell them to retailers, like VO, if they list the price below their set minimum on their web sites. Personally I think that policy stinks, but I love the bottles so we decided to go along with it. The prices are still well below "suggested retail".

Actually I've been catching a lot of, umm, guff recently, not from customers, but from distributors and competitors because our prices are too low. A well known competitor told me that "I'm making him look like he's ripping off his customers." Two distributors have made pointed remarks about how unhappy they are with our prices.

Now I've always thought that we should base our prices on what we think is a fair profit, not on what others charge. We have a brick and mortar store just like everyone else. We buy and warehouse stock. We are not a "virtual" business.

One solution to this silliness is to import more products directly. We need to grow to do this. But when we do we can challenge the importers and distributors on pricing. And that's good for everyone.

Annette always jokes that I'm just an old hippy socialist. I always though I made a pretty good capitalist.

Cleaning Up

Since we are waiting for so many shipments and have so little in stock, we've spent a couple of days cleaning up VO's stockroom. This afternoon I'll put a few odds and ends and samples I've found in the specials section of our E-store. Head over later for some good deals, including a couple of frames.

New Racks

While I've been goofing off over the 4th of July weekend, new racks have been piling up at Velo Orange.

We just received the prototype Porteur racks fresh from the polishing shop. (Thanks for forwarding them Jon). There are two of them and each has a slightly different mounting system. As soon as I test them we'll decide on the best method. The plan is to have these available in September. By the way, that rack is just sitting on the fender, it's not attached.

Two more prototype medium front rack made from thicker tubes also arrived. I thought the 0.25" tubing on the first prototype was a little too flexible so we'll try this version. Originally we called these the Semi-Porteur, then the Demi-Porteur, but it might be better to call them Courier racks. What do you think? I must apologize for the amount of time it's taking to get these into production, but we want to get them perfect right from the start.

A big box arrived from Japan with sample front and rear Nitto Campee racks. I am very very impressed by these. The lower pannier support is removable so they can be used both for day touring and cycle camping. The design and quality is first rate. They will only mount on bikes with canti brakes in the current form, but we may be able to make an adapter that will work with caliper and centerpull brakes. A trial fit on my Ebisu shows that there is enough heel clearance even for my size 11.5 shoes. If I don't encounter any problems in a few weeks of testing we'll stock these and also use them on our new camping bike.

Another small box from Japan contained the hardware we needed to finally make our chain case and chain guard mounting kits.

As for the chain cases, we got and sold a few, but the craftsman who makes them rejected most of the shipment of aluminum intended as the faces. He's a picky guy, but a super fabricator and welder. More aluminum has arrived and we might have them in good supply by the end of this week.

News

Please pardon my going a bit off topic again, but I've been thinking about the commute. You see, I'm a bit of a news addict and often skim the online editions of a couple of dozen foreign newspapers and blogs each morning; it's important to have a balanced worldview. A couple of things have jumped out at me these past couple of days; one is obvious; the other is the number of articles about commuting on bikes and about city bike programs. This is a topic that really seems to be on the public's mind.

The Catalan newspaper El Periódico has an article comparing public bike rental programs in Lyons and Barcelona. Be sure to click on the graphic. If you prefer your news in English, autobloggreen.com has a nice summery of the piece. I find this sort of bicycle program fascinating and can't wait to use the new rental bikes next time I'm in Paris.

I'm not sure if this piece in USA Today about an "Islamic Bicycle" (USA Today is a rag I rarely read) is a distasteful joke, or serious. But it tells of an Iranian bike designed to preserve a women's modesty. Here's a quote:

The Islamic Republic of Iran has devised an "Islamic bicycle." This new vehicle comes fully equipped with a cabin to conceal parts of a female cyclist's body.

The new technology is less about the bike and more about suppressing women. Iran, unlike Saudi Arabia, allows women to drive cars. In fact, Iran's top race car driver, Laleh Seddigh, is a woman. Women also ride motorcycles, although they must be accompanied by a man (and must sit behind him).

But Iran forbids women from riding bicycles (thus, the newly designed bike). The belief is that sexuality is easily stimulated in both sexes. The country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, announced in 1999 that "women must avoid anything that attracts strangers, so riding bicycles or motorcycles by women in public places causes corruption and is thus forbidden."

Wired has just reviewed the Bridy folding bike. Now I want one.

Treehugger has a post about the success of bike travel in Berlin.

Several papers have had articles about Mexico City's biking mayor and his pro-bike initiatives. Here is one from Sand Diego.

Monocle, a really superb magazine, had a bicycle wheel on it's last cover and featured "A global survey of bicycle culture and and commerce". The newest issue features a survey of the most livable cities and bicycle infrastructure features prominently. Here's the list:

Monocle's Top Ten livable cities
1. Munich
2. Copenhagen
3. Zürich
4. Tokyo
5. Vienna
6. Helsinki
7. Sydney
8. Stockholm
9. Honolulu
10. Madrid

Finally, how about this short piece about a plan to use more cargo bikes in the Netherlands.

A Quick Note

It's been so busy I've not had time to put all the new stuff we have into the store, but here is a list:

• Lomotec Retro light, but not the version with standlight or switch yet.
  
• CLB city bike levers
• NOS Stronglight dust caps
• NOS TA bidon cage clamps in the ancient paper packages.
• All sizes of Rivendell/Nitto stems
• Another case of the rare and beautiful Simplex/Gipiemme retrofriction shift levers
  
• And more neat stuff that I haven't even unpacked yet
  

I'll try to get this stuff counted, checked, and set up in the store by Monday

We also have the latest essential biking accessory from Japan. That's right, we now stock the amazing e-bell. Read all about it here. Sumi-masen!

And finally, we've stopped opening the showroom on Saturday morning. We simply get too few customers then; everybody must be out riding.

For Your Eyes Only

Since the CIA has just released the "Family Jewels", describing how they spied on Americans and tried to assassinate various heads of state, I thought I would release some data on getting bike parts manufactured. Many people e-mail to ask how various projects are coming so I thought we needed to explain the delays. Now I'm still new at this, so I probably don't know all the secret shortcuts, but here is our basic operational plan.

Let's take the VO water bottle cage as an example. First we look at dozens of historical drawings to get ideas. Next I make sketches of the cage and send them off to my Taiwan agent by e-mail, not secret courier. At this point a few weeks have elapsed and he has given the drawings to a real draftsman and stopped giggling at my sketches, (Tom, have you stopped laughing?). The plans are drawn in Solid-Works, sent back and forth a few times as various versions are considered and several small changes are made. Now finished, translated, and double checked, they are sent off to five factories that make cages. Most have no interest in doing a small run of high-end cages for an unknown company, but one likes the idea. The problem is that they can't find exactly the right stainless steel rod to meet our specs. We broaden our specs as a few more weeks slip away.

So here we are, in a few more weeks we'll receive samples. Then we will pay for tooling cost. The tooling will be made and then the cage. Now months, not weeks, have slipped away as we wait for our turn in the production schedule. Eventually the first run will be completed and packed. Then we will wait for a freighter, not Air America, to bring then to the US and a truck to haul them to Annapolis. Eventually they will be for sale, but it won't be soon.

In Europe, "An Attack on Car Culture" says WSJ

After my post about a car, I thought I'd better write something about how bikes can replace cars. But those consummate liberals at the Wall Street Journal have beaten me too it. Check out this article and slide show about bike transportation in Europe. The WSJ waxing poetically about bike culture---have I fallen down the rabbit hole?

The WSJ also gives a nice plug to The Dutch Bike Company, which sells a nice selection of heavy, but sturdy, Dutch cycles here in the US.

The idea of free or low cost loaner bikes has really taken off in some European cities. Read this post from TreeHugger that reports the Barcelona bike program has had some 30,000 users in three months.

The 2CV, Not a Bike

Working around bikes all the time, I occasionally find the need to get away from them. A couple of days thinking about something else clears the mind and gives a new perspective. Perhaps the blog needs a break too. Last weekend I got away by attending the Citroen Rendezvous in Saratoga Springs (click to see the photos). You see, my car is now a 1982 Citroen 2CV, or Deux Chevaux.

Now I know that many readers are anti-car, but I think the real issue is how we use our cars. I love to travel, by bike, sail boat, train, plane, and, yes, car. Having a car for longer trips, long errands, carrying heavy stuff, etc., makes perfect sense. It's the daily commuting and taking a car on little errands that could be accomplished on a bike or by foot that really bugs me.

But back to the 2CV, it carries four people very comfortably, has a top speed of 70mph, and gets, by my calculations, 54mpg around town. It does this with a 2 cylinder 602cc engine that is so simple almost anyone can fix it. But since the car was designed in the late 1930's for French farmers, who had never owned a complicated machine, it is amazingly reliable. They have been driven on several round-the-world, trans-Asian, and trans-African expeditions

The seats come out with the flick of a lever to turn it into a sort of van, or so the seats can be used for a picnic. Oh yes, the roof rolls back to become a convertible. There is even a commercial "truck body" version. It is also fairly safe, based on crash tests done in the '70s.

So why is it that we need SUVs? It may not be a bike, but the 2CV is the next best thing.

The last photo shows a very odd 2cv made for French fire departments. Can anyone guess it's purpose?

"Rene Herse" Name Revived

While at Cirque, I learned that the rights to the Herse name had been purchased by Mike Kone of Colorado. Together with builder Mark Nobilette, they plan to build custom bikes under the "Rene Herse" name. This has generated some lively discussion on the Classic Rendezvous list and more than a few e-mails among those of us who build this style of bike. Mike and Mark plan to offer bikes at the very top of the price range and in the Herse style.

I'm throwing this out for discussion because it is an interesting marketing tactic. I don't think these new bike will be mistaken for real Herse bikes in the same way that the current Buggatti cars made by Volkswagen are not confused with classic Buggattis, But that is not to say they might not be excellent products.

If Mike and Mark plan to produce bikes that are comparable to the classics, and they do, then they have set a very high hurdle indeed. It is easy to say that you will build bikes that can carry on the legacy of, perhaps, the finest constructuer in history. But quite another thing to do it. It certainly takes a lot of confidence to believe that you can rise to such a standard and to essentially announce to the world that you will henceforth start building the very best bikes on the planet. Certainly Mark is a fine builder, but I have never seen any of the bikes from Mike's last venture, "Cone Head Bikes" so it's hard for me to speculate on the outcome. And Herse was famous for technical innovation. Can one suddenly decide they will be innovative? It's certainly possible in a larger company that can hire a research department, but for a small bike shop? I guess we'll see when the first bikes are delivered and are ridden. Let's not forget that Herse bikes are even more renowned for how they rode than what they looked like.

So, what do you think?

More Mixte Photos

Here are a few more photos of Lorna's new mixte. It still needs a generator, but the build is very nice. Check out the internally expanding seatpost and very cool chain guard.

The color is a very close match to the blue used by Rene Herse. Interestingly, Neil (who ordered the frame as a present for his wife) didn't like the color at first, but now says it's probably better than what he had envisioned. I'm still trying to talk him into center pull brakes ;<)

The First VO Mixte City Bike Frame

Here are two photos of our prototype mixte city bike frame which is going to Neil B. It was built by Ahren Rogers, nice fillet brazing. Note the generator mount, chainguard bosses, and rear brake location. The slightly odd cable guides are for the shifter cable for a SA 8-speed internal geared hub. I think we'll switch to non-wrapped seat stay caps on the mixte frames since they would then look like the mid-stays, a more consistent appearance.

Ahren will build up the frame over the next couple of days and Neil's wife will get a very nice present on Monday. Neil, we want lots of photos please.

BTW, our next frame is a semi-lugged mixte frame from Johnny's shop with rando geometry!

Shop News and Growing Pains

Here are a few items of interest, at least to me:

• Tressostar has just discontinued green, gray, and ORANGE handlebar tape! What are they thinking?
  
• TA has confirmed that we can get another 100 Pro 5 VIS cranks. This was a 60th anniversary batch that was forged, but never polished. I wonder what they planned to do with them if we had not bought them, just dump them? You can reserve a set. This is all there is; forever; really, unless they dig up another dusty box.
• Honjo will finish our fenders late next month. The fenders will take 2-3 weeks to ship. When they arrive we'll have several new models.
  
• Our Velo Orange brand fenders will be finished next week and will ship by freighter. If they look good we will immediately order a 650b version.
• We are out of Ostrich bar bags and, for the first time, are really pushing a Japanese company to finish an order ASAP. We'll see if it works.
• If you want decaleurs or racks you should order soon. We will run out for 4-8 weeks. Sorry but our sales have increase threefold this year and we just didn't plan for it.
• The Porteur chaincases should be available next week.
• I think the name of our eventual built-in-Taiwan bikes will be Cycles Escargot. The idea is to have a less expensive line of bikes, but without diluting the VO brand name. Opinions please? We are shopping for a factory to make a 650b touring frame and a 650B city bike frame. These will also be sold as complete bikes.
  
• I am almost finished designing an absolute top of the line cost-not-considered VO frame. The intent of this frame will be to be as light, look as beautiful, and ride as well as any rando bike on the planet. I don't think a $2500 frame will sell particularly well, but I'd like VO to have a halo product that folks will consider alongside Singer, Weigle, Mariposa... Of course saying it is the easy part. Johnny, you have your work cut out for you.
• Speaking of Johnny, frame orders have been rolling in steadily and the wait time for a Rando frame has now increased to 8 months. The first mixte city bike is back from the paint shop and I'll post photos very soon.
  
• Does anyone want to order the first VO Camper frame? We will sell the first couple at cost (with racks.) But we get to pick the paint and some of the options.
  

Silver is the New Black

While we have been trying to get silver inverse brake levers made, Soma has done it and we have the result in stock. Now make no mistake; these are not as elegant as the eventual VO levers. But they are available from the VO store right now, which counts for something.

The photo shows them mounted in our Belleri Tour bars. What a perfect combination for an elegant city bike.

Today I ordered two runs of custom handlebars from Nitto. Both are porteur bars, but made from the tubing used for Nitto's road bars. So they are nice and thick when taped and accept inverse brake levers. One is a version of the Nito Promenade bar we currently stock. The other is narrower, more traditional, and better for riding in city traffic. Please don't ask me when they will arrive; I don't know yet.

Finally, Soma has come up with some very nice bar-end plugs that are silver, yet lock in like Velox plugs. At only 8 grams each they will help with that ultralight randonneuse build.

More Le Cirque Photos

I've added another 36 photos of interesting bikes from Le Cirque. Which bike is your favorite ?

Le Cirque Photos

I'm attending Le Cirque du Cyclisme this weekend and I though you might enjoy seeing some details of the bikes scattered about. Tomorrow is the bike show so I'll take more photos, but for now I've posted a selection in this album. There are some neat details to discuss and emulate.

Motobecanes

Of the mass produced French bike-boom era cycles, Motobecanes have always been my favorites. The design and quality was always, at least to my eye, a bit above equivalent Gitanes and Peugeots. Of course there were some excellent smaller brands like Urago, but they are hard to find. Motobecanes can be easily and cheaply bought at yard sales, swap meets, and on E-bay.

My favorite Motobecanes were the Grand Record and Jubilee. They have decent construction of Vitus or Reynolds 531 tubing with Nervex lugs. The handling is comfortable and stable, as a rando bike should be. In fact I currently use a Jubilee as my everyday city bike and have a Le Champion frame in reserve. The Grand Record and Jubilee make very good budget classic randonneuse and are probably the least expensive way to approach the feel of a constructeur bike. This Classic Rendezvous page explains the full Motobecane model line-up.

David Barnblatt obviously appreciates Motobecanes as he has transformed the two Mirages and the Grand Record shown into truly lovely machines. His Grand Record is probably a better rando bike than most any complete production bike available in the US today. Check out the gold Mafac competition brakes and levers, Honjo fenders, and Simplex seat post, not to mention Campy high flange hubs and Velo Orange racks. More photos of his bikes can be found here.

The last photo is of my own Jubilee city bike which is still waiting for the prototype large porteur rack and VO fenders. It may also get 650B wheels.

Sara's Black Randonneuse

We have a small album of photos on line of Sara's new black Randonneuse frame. Johnny took these first shots outside his Brooklyn shop. (Thanks Johnny.) It's hard to photograph a black frame, especially in bright sunlight, but I think you'll get the sense of it. We hope to have more photos when it's built up. Note the eyelets on the inside of the fork for the hub generator wires. The brakes will be highly polished Paul racers.