Fillet Brazed Rando Frame

This is a prototype fillet brazed rando frame. Our frame factory has two craftsmen who are skilled at fillet brazing, one is the president. We're exploring the possibility of offering a very limited production run of these frames, maybe 25 frames. It has geometry like the current Rando frame, but it will have an upgraded fork with a nicer bend. The cost would be about $1200.

If you want a the un-ridden 61cm prototype in the photos it's available. The price, as shown (with chrome headset, crank, rack, BB, and brakes) is $1200. I had intended to build it up for myself, but I have too many bikes already.

Update: The prototype frame is sold. It went right after we posted it on the site.

 

Picture Day

Photos of some really neat bikes found their way into our in-box this week.

Andrew's wood porteur is really beautiful. More images on Flicker. It's really a sweet build, and I want to know more about the frame.

Justin sent photos of his "Faux Constructeur" based on a Schwinn Voyager. This is a super example of what you can do with a little imagination and the right part. Here's Justin's description:

I'd like to share photos of my 1981 Schwinn Voyageur 11.8 with you as your site and products were inspirational in outfitting the bike to my liking over the past year or so. Additional thanks to my local VO dealer, Vic's Classic Bikes.

The Grand Cru crank is arguably the pièce de résistance. I installed it yesterday. On the lowest two or three sprockets, however, the chain just nicks the inside of the crank arm. I'll have to install a spacer. Note that I did order the 118mm Grand Cru BB as recommended, but it's not wide enough to accommodate the 8 speed SRAM cassette.

Other VO parts inlclude:
SS housing (I had to use brake housing for under-bar wrap shifter routing as this is a tall frame).
La Paon fenders
Gran Compe levers and calipers
Grand Cru crank
Spanninga tail light (this does not function as advertised BTW)
Moderniste bottle cage
Constructeur rack
105/Diagonale rear wheel
Shimano 3N-80 32h hub laced to Diagonale front rim (built by local wheel builder)
Ostrich handlebar bag

Other things:
Long cage Ultegra RD
Schmidt E6 and VO light bracket
Crane bell
Brooks honey Flyer Special and bar wrap (I also love your sew-on wrap but wanted to try the wrap - VO's version was out of stock)
Ruffy Tuffy tires
Technomic stem (turned to 21.1mm by a local machine shop)
Nitto Noodle bar (44cm)

The only part original to the bike is the headset. If the size/configuration looks a bit odd it's because I have long legs and limited movement in my lower back from multiple vertebrae fusions.

Also note that the Ultegra triple FD is too wide for this crank on my bike. It is shown for mock-up purposes. It will be replaced by the double version. 

Beth Holladay gets credit for the photos. BTW, I think a BB 2mm spacer will solve the chain issue.

Justine sent photos of her lovely Mercian step-through. She writes:

It's a custom "Miss Mercian." On it are the following VO item

• Porteur bar
• Stem
• Guidonnet levers
• Bell mounted on steerer tube
• Hammered aluminum fenders (The undersides of the fork crown and brake bridge were drilled and tapped for the fenders. Yay!)
• Retro cage
• Toe straps
• Toe clip leathers

 Aaron did a very nice job building a Polyvalent for his wife and is looking forward to building one for himself. There are more photos on flicker.

 Thought you'd like this photo of part of our warehouse after receiving the last shipment.

We'll be exhibiting at Interbike, in Las Vegas, in a few weeks. It's one of the three big industry bike shows, along with Eurobike and the Taipei show. Amazingly, almost everything for our 20' x 20' booth fits into an 8' x 4' x 4' crate.

Dia Compe Inverse Levers, for 22.2mm Bars

Dia Compe has introduced a version of their inverse levers that fit most 22.2mm, MTB size, bars. This is a big deal because you can now use inverse levers on many standard-size city bars.

I'd asked the president of Dia Compe about making these last year, and he told me that other had also requested this new model. That's not surprising; I expect they will be very popular..

Installation of these levers is a little tricky because they are a tight fit in the bars. You'll actually deform the little metal tabs as you insert them, so some effort is required on bars made with thicker wall tubing.

Also, we have wheel stabilizers again. And we just got a shipment of wheels, so some of the models we've been out of will be available again.

Roller Bearing Headsets

Our roller bearing headsets arrived and I thought you'd like to see photos. BTW, we're calling them roller bearing, rather than needle bearing, because that's technically the correct term.

And here are the new knurled headset spacers. I especially like the black ones with the silver trim. They look like old camera lens extension rings. We have chrome spacers too.

New Stems and Restocked Components

Here is a new VO stem. We're calling it the "Tall-Stack" until we think of a better name. Stack height is 75mm. It offers a really clean look on a modern bike. Angle is 17-degrees, for a level extension, and lengths from 80-110mm are currently available.

Many of you asked for VO stems that fit 31.8mm handlebars. we now have them in both 6-degree and 17-degree versions.

We also have new stem shims: 31.8mm-to-26mm and 31.8mm-to-25.4mm.

A few Items we've been out of are back in stock, including:

VO Half Clips
VO Road Pedals
VO Stem Adapters
All sizes of threadless stems
1" Decaleur Kits
Gran Compe ENE Ciclo Tires

There are several other new items we'll list soon. 400 cases of parts arrived on Friday and it'll take a few days to sort through everything.

New Polyvalent Color?

 
We're about to order a new production run of Polyvalent frames and are thinking of changing the color. The two top choices are dark green or dark brown (top or bottom left on the chart). We're leaning toward brown. But I thought I'd open it up to suggestions. What's the best color for a city bike? The only color we've ruled out is blue, since we already have two other blue frames.

More Shiny Stuff

In our never-ending quest to make our products shinier and shinier we asked our headset factory about doing a second round of polishing on our already polished and anodized Grand Cru headset bodies. Instead, the factory prepared samples that were highly polished then lightly chrome plate. We were amazed; it was like a mirror finish. So we have headsets with a finish like those steel Campy headsets that I used in my youth, but with light weight alloy construction and with sealed bearings. These headsets are also more scratch resistant and have nicer  graphics.

We recieved a case of each size by air freight yesterday. The remainder will arrive by ship sometime next month, so we might run out before the ship docks. We should also be getting some neat knurled headset spacers and our roller-bearing headsets in that shipment.

Chrome Stems

If it seems as if we've been working on fillet-brazed quill stems for years, it's only because we have. The photo at left shows the final prototype for the Grand Cru stem. It will have an alloy wedge and even come with a clamp bolt. As to the price, $75-$95 is a fair guess. We hope to have them this winter.

There will also be  a simpler and less expensive VO fillet-brazed and chrome plated. I'll post details when we have the final prototype. It should be soon; we're very close on the design.

Interestingly, these stems are about the same weight or lighter than a Nitto Technomic, but the quill is a little shorter.

Update: Here is a post I wrote last year about Zen and the Art of Making Stems.

Roller Hanger Recall

The draw bolts on the latest production run of Grand Cru Roller Straddle Wire Hangers do not meet our specifications. They can crack if overtightened. We sent out about 130 of these before spotting the problem.

We've already sent e-mails to everyone who bought them, but in case you didn't get an e-mail I'm posting this. Not all roller hangers are effected, just one recent batch. Those can be sent back for a refund or replacement. Please contact us for more info if you bought roller hangers in the recent past.

An easy check is to see if the bolt sticks to a magnet; if it does it's OK.  Also, the good ones don't have a washer under the nut.

VO Double Crank, Special Deal

 The VO Compact Double cranks are here. But they are not as we specified. You may remember that we made a prototype that was chrome plated aluminum alloy. While it looked great and performed perfectly, most folks preferred a polished alloy finish, as on the triple and polyvalent cranks. Unfortunately, the change in specifications did not reach the factory and we have a shipment of chrome plated doubles.

We've decided to sell these at a big discount. The price was to be $115, but this batch is $65 while they last.

The factory still has many more chrome plated VO crank arms. Those will be assembled with polished alloy rings and priced normally. This winter we will have regular polished arms and rings. Again, we don't know of any problems or issues with the chrome cranks, they are simply not what we wanted. And they do look pretty cool.

Update: All sizes sold out.

VO and Grand Cru Cranks Are Here

The triple looks really nice. The VO Triple Crank is a modern, stiff, cold forged crank set. It has all alloy polished chain rings, 48/36/28. The rings are pinned and ramped for easy shifting. Machined alloy dust caps - not plastic - and nice BB bolts are included. At $125 these are a great deal.

The wide range Polyvalent crank has 46/30 rings and comes with a polished alloy chain ring guard. The 46/30 rings give almost the range of a triple when used with a wide cassette, while the chain ring guard helps keep your pants clean. This is a great crank for city bikes and utility bikes.

The 46t ring is specially designed to shift properly in the middle position. (A regular 46 outer ring won't work because it's spaced for the outer position mounting.) I want to use it with a VO chain guard on my own city bike; that will be a sweet setup.

 

Classic 50.4 BCD cranks, like the TA, Stronglight 49D, and others are still sought after by randonneurs and cyclo-tourists. These cranks offer tremendous versatility (chain rings from 26t to 62t fit). They are also light and have very narrow Q-factors, or tread.

While the new Grand Cru Crank looks like the classics, we have made several important improvements. They are cold forged 7075 aluminum alloy. The rings are thicker so they don't flex as on classic cranks. The BB taper and all threading is common sizes, no need for special tools and BBs. The rings have modern shifting aids so shifting performance is much improved.

The VO double cranks are not yet available

Wheel Stabilizer

I don't usually order accessories or components that I've haven't tried, but we'd received a fair number of e-mails suggesting that we stock wheel stabilizers. Tom has been lobbying for a year to add them to our inventory. What the heck is a wheel stabilizer?

Wheel stabilizers are common on European utility bikes. They are a spring connecting the fork to the down tube. They add a subtle self centering action to the front wheel, making loading and unloading of a bike with a basket, or say....our Porteur rack....much easier. You don't fight the bike while putting stuff in it. The front of the bike stays put. The spring offers some resistance to steering, so it counteracts deflections from hitting potholes and road debris, too.

It's pretty universal - any bike with a down tube of 1-3/8" or smaller can be fitted. It connects to the fork via the brake pivot hole. The hole diameter is made for nutted calipers or a M6 bolt. For recessed mount calipers, minor modification with a drill is necessary. It's rust resistant, includes all the required brackets and hardware, and has a pinch guard to cover the torsion spring. Not bad for $10.

Since we added them to the site a couple of days ago, they've been selling very well. Who would have thought?

Update: We sold out. More are on order, but no ETA yet.

Gran Compe ENE Mini-rack Details

The Gran-Compe ENE racks arrived today. These are much like the Mafac mini-racks and are designed to support a handlebar bag. (More info about the Mafac racks can be found here.) ENE racks mount directly to Gran-Compe 610 and Dia-Compe 750 centerpull brakes. There is no direct attachment to the frame so they can be used on any bike so long as the brakes fit.

They are chrome plated steel and the platform is about 140mm x 70mm. The  upright is about 75mm high. So they are the right size for an average handlebar bag, but too small for anything larger. There are four 5mm light mounts under the platform, two on each side. The rack sits level on most frames. At 160g these have to be among the lightest racks ever made. Cost is $50.

The tag on the rack reads, "Designed only for GC610 & DC 750 brakes". Of course we tried it on several other centerpull brakes and managed to mount it on various Mafac (including Racers and Raids), Weinmann, and older Dia-Compe models. The mounting tangs are 68mm c-t-c, but can be flexed to spread or narrow a little.

On another subject, we just received more Montmarte, Left Bank, and Porteur handlebars. A lot of you have been asking about these, so they'll probably sell fast.

118mm Bottom Brackets

  We just received 118mm Grand Cru bottom brackets. They are available in all thread-types:

• Standard BSA (or ISO)
• French thread
• Italian thread (On sale!)
• Threadless, which fit Swiss and several other odd sizes.

118mm BBs have been a little hard to find, but it's a very common size on older bikes, especially those with classic European cranks. They will also be used with our new 50.4bcd cranks.

BTW, we are overstocked on Italian thread BBs so they are on sale.

All Grand Cru bottom bracket have oversize sealed bearings and boron-steel hollow axles. Both cups are alloy. The quality is first rate. Axle bolts are included. 258gm average weight. JIS taper.

A customer recently pointed out a troubling comment on a competitor's web site. He was speculating that our BBs were simply re-badged versions of some lower-quality BBs he sells. Not only is that untrue, but anyone in the bike biz knows it.

VO 37mm Hammered Fenders

We asked VO customers what width the next model of VO hammered fenders should be, and 37mm was the overwhelming choice. They just arrived. The pattern is a little different from our 45mm hammereds; the indentations are smaller and the there is a smooth band at each side. We think it's a cool look that's a little sportier than the Honjo 35mm that we also stock. We recommend using them with 20-28mm tires, 700c.

New Brakes, Gran Compe 610 CNC

I came back from vacation to find that the new Gran Compe 610 brakes had arrived. The new 610s are super stiff CNC machined centerpulls with 47 to 61mm reach.

I'm really excited about these. Top of the line centerpulls generally have better stopping power than sidepulls, but what is more important is that they tend to have better modulation. That is, the brake pressure is more linear and controllable. Paul Racers have long been the only other high quality centerpulls available and we used to sell them. But at $133 per wheel, or $143 for the high polish version, they are simply too expensive for most. Fortunately the Gran Compe 610 are only $75.

Note that the version we sell have been upgraded with VO alloy cartridge brake shoes and VO pads. This makes adjusting toe-in easy and any Shimano-type pads fit. It was really nice of the folks at Dia Compe to accommodate us in this since they also make their own brake pads.

Another neat thing about these brakes is they fit frames made for either recessed or nutted brake bolts. Two bolt spacers are included to allow them to fit most older frames, as well as modern frames. We are trying to convince Dia Compe to also offer braze-on mounts for custom frames.

The front mini-racks for the 610s are on the way. These are neat little racks just big enough to support a handlebar bag. They just arrived in the US and should clear customs in a week or so.

Vacation Time at VO

Just wanted to let you know that there will be little, if any, blog activity for the next few weeks. Annette and I are leaving for vacation tomorrow. I'm traveling sans laptop, taking only an iPad which I might turn on for a few minutes a day. So please excuse if I don't return e-mails or post or tweet for a while. Info e-mails will still be answered by the staff.

Meanwhile, Tom is visiting VO distributors in Britain and will be soon be heading to Spain for a little well deserved R-and-R.

Kyle is finishing up grad school over the summer, so is only working part time.

And Heidi is taking her 16-year old son to California for a summer-long Olympic sailing clinic; he's been asked to try out for the 2012 US sailing team in Finn class.

But orders will get out promptly as always. Perry is acting general manager and the full warehouse staff, less Heidi, is present.  King Trygve is cleaning up the glitches on the new web site while Kyle attends to final design details. Robert will be building up wheels to test the new hubs and the new VO Raid rims (they are 22mm triple box section rims that look like wider PBP rims).

Hub News

The photo is of our VO freewheel hub. They use high quality Japanese bearings. The spoke holes on the drive side are slotted so broken spokes can be easily replaced with the freewheel in place, but we are still doing strength testing on this feature. We hope to have them for sale early this fall in 126mm and 130mm spacing. 120mm spacing is also possible if there is demand.

The VO flip-flop hub prototypes are also here, but the design is undergoing some cosmetic modifications that may require a bit of new tooling, so no ETA yet.


The pictured quick release is something we're still thinking about. Do you like it?

The VO cassette hub is taking a little more time to develop than we thought. I doubt we'll have them finished before late fall.

I recently mentioned a new dynamo hub design that I thought was revolutionary and might make existing high end dyno hubs obsolete. We have a production-ready sample that we'll be testing over the next few weeks. But I can already tell you that the build quality looks very impressive and, if my calculations are correct, it will cut overall rolling resistance by more than 50% compared to any other (production) dyno hub that I'm aware of, while maintaining the same 3w/6v output. If all goes well we should have them in around 3 months. The cost will be considerably lower than existing high-end dyno hubs. We do want to be clear that this is not technology developed by VO (we're not that smart), but from a small company we ran into almost by accident.  I'm sure that you have questions about them, but those are all the specs we'll reveal for now; sorry.

Grand Cru Crank Update

I know that a lot of you have been waiting for the Grand Cru 50.4bcd cranks. I had thought they would be here by now, but the factory has had some delays in testing the new tooling. Also, factory offices moved to a new location which slowed things down. In any case, the latest estimate is that they will be done about July 25th. We'll have a few hundred shipped by air and the rest by sea. Details on these cranks can be found at this post.

The VO 110bcd cranks should be done a few weeks later. We still don't have a firm ETA on the Grand Cru 110bcd cranks, but they are in production.

We've had some major delays in getting other products here on time because of new packaging. As we sell to more and more shops all over the world we find we need more refined retail packaging. And having those boxes and tags and backing cards made has been a real bottleneck. I would really prefer to have minimal packaging, just a poly bag and header card, but shops displaying VO products are asking for packaging that's more like Campy's and Shimano's.

I do apologize for being out of so many items. The super busy spring season really cleaned us out and we've once again seen growth beyond what I'd anticipated and planned for. The good news is that we should have two containers of products, including several new items, sailing in July.

Rando Photos

Bob sent some photos of his new VO Rando taken during The Cranbury 600K brevet:

He writes:

I put in 250 miles testing the bike with the combination of components I have laying around and some new parts before I decided in this final configuration. These photos were taken while I was riding a 600K brevet in NJ, "The Cranbury 600K." I am very impressed on how this bike rides, it turned out to be a fast and comfortable bike. It also climbs very well too which surprised me. So far in three week, a total of 640 miles and I am very happy with this bike. A lot of the cyclist riding with me in the brevet where very impressed with the looks and especially the frame, fenders, rack and bag. 

Thanks Bob!

That Frame Doesn't Fit!

We see a lot of folks building up frames which obviously don't fit them well. I think most of these folks know that the frames in question aren't right for them. But usually they explain that it was such a great deal they couldn't turn it down, or they can't afford a new frame. Sorry, but even a cheap production frame that fits well is always better than the best hand-built masterpiece that's too small or too big.

So here are my top three clues that a frame doesn't fit:

• The vast majority of frames should have stems between 80mm and 110mm We don't even sell 130mm or 140mm stems. If you need a stem that long your top tube is too short. By using a super-long stem you are also putting too much weight forward and compromising the bikes handling. Very short stems may be useful on city bikes, but even those are a compromise. 
• 15 to 30mm of seat post setback is all anyone should ever require, even with a Brooks saddle. Needing more means that either the top tube is too short or, more likely, the seat tube angle is too steep. There are those folks who convince themselves that having their seat way behind the BB allows them to apply more power. But that sort of turns your bike into a semi-recumbent. You end up loosing the ability to spin.
• An extra-long seat post on a conventional level-top-tube frame indicates a seat tube that's too short. I'm still in the "fist-full of post" school of fit.

Of course there are a few folks with disproportionately long or short, torsos, arms, or legs. And they often require custom frames for a proper fit. But most of us will find enough choices among the better production frames if we don't want a custom; there's no reason for an ill-fitting ride.

I'll post my simplified frame fit guidelines soon. But for know I just want to emphasize that fit is more important than any other characteristic in a frame. I don't care how famous the builder is, how special the tubing, how beautiful the lugs. If it doesn't fit you well then it's not worth riding.

Great Deals on the Specials Page

You might want to have a look at the VO Specials page. There are some spectacular deals there right now.

Since we're still hoping to have the new website up in a few weeks I wanted to get our inventory cleaned up. So we've been going through the warehouse looking for items that we have over-ordered. There are also some products that will change slightly with the next shipment and we're blowing out the old versions. And there are some items that we won't stock in the future. All these are on sale while they last, or until the inventory levels get back to normal.

On another subject, I stumbled across VO's "customer ratings" numbers from Yahoo Shopping. Of the last 500 ratings (that what's displayed) here's what we got:

447 Excellent

37 Good

3 OK

2 Bad

I do read all the ratings we get, but I've never looked at the numbers. Not too bad.

A Nice Freewheel System

Since we'll be getting our VO Freewheel hubs in a month or two, I've been thinking about multi-speed freewheels. I still don't think VO will make freewheels, but I'm at least exploring remote possibilities. So I dug around in the bins of unusual old parts that we keep for inspiration and found this new-old-stock Maillard 700 "Professional Team Issue" freewheel system.

 
It consists of a BSA-sized freewheel body and a range of cogs (from 13t-22t plus replacements) that can be built up as a 5 or 6 speed freewheel. There is even a removal tool and spare spacer included. I'd forgotten I had this and looking at it again I'm impressed by the idea. You could set up your cogs for each race or route, a straight block for a flat criterium or 13-22 for a hilly road race.

This is the only example of a kit like this that I've seen, but apparently there were five versions available. Note that three were Dural,  which is one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. Those might have been pretty expensive when new. My kit is "acier" or steel alloy.

If we do manage to find a factory that can make freewheels to our quality standards, we may attempt a kit like this one. But making really good freewheels is hard. I remember the problems when we sold Soma's IRD freewheels. So we might all be better off sticking to Shimano freewheels or looking for the better versions of the old Suntour and European units. Frankly, there is no good reason to use freewheels over cassettes on new bikes, other than a certain retro-cool factor. But they are needed to keep all those great older frames original and on the road.

By the way, if any of you collectors want this kit, shoot me an offer. I don't think I'll ever use it.

Spanninga

 I'm very impressed with Spanninga's latest lights. Since their acquisition of JOS and Hella, this Dutch company has been continually introducing new products and technologies.

The most interesting is their "Reverse-Beam Technology". They claim it's one of the most efficient LED systems available. The LED bulb is mounted just behind the lens and aimed rearward at a mirror that focuses and reflects the light. This  minimizes light loss and gives a strong focused and lateral beam. We just received a shipment of lights from from this Dutch manufacturer and two of the new models incorporating this system. The other Spanninga trend is that the new models are generally much lighter and smaller than the previous, while putting out more light.

 The first is the long awaited LED version of the Micro FF dynamo light. This light also has a safe stop feature that keeps the light on for about 4.5 minutes after you stop pedaling, very useful at traffic lights and stop signs. But what's most amazing, other than the brightness, is how tiny and lightweight (54g) this light is.

Though the Micro FF comes with a bracket and reflector, we usually remove them and use a VO light bracket to mount it on the front rack. This results in a lightweight and very compact, but powerful, headlight.

 The other new light with reverse beam technology is the Mega LED battery light. Again, this is a compact, light and very very bright unit.

The new rack mounted Plateo LED lights are available in dynamo and battery versions. The Plateo has a very bright steady light (not flashing) that can be activated automatically when it gets dark or turned on/off with the switch. It's very thin (22.4mm for the battery versions) and also very light (65g for the battery versions – incl. batteries). The dynamo version is even thinner and lighter. The mounting system allows it to be used on brackets with standard 50mm spaced holes (common in the USA) or on European racks with 80mm hole spacing. That dual spacing mounting is something we've been pushing for for years.

There is also a new and (excuse the repetition) lighter, smaller, and brighter fender mounted taillight, the Pixeo. Again it has the safe stop feature. A battery powered version is due in a few weeks.

Finally we have the new "Compact" taillight. It uses two AAA batteries that last about 140 hours in steady mode or 600 hours in flashing mode. With the "Light-Guide Technology" (patented by Spanninga), the Compact Rear offers an optimal rear and lateral visibility (220° visibility) since the light is also visible from the sides.

A Low-Battery-Indicator warns when the batteries need replacement. It's shock and water resistant. The housing is easy to open without any tools to replace the batteries. The Compact light offers various mounting options: it includes brackets to mount on a seat-posts or a seat-stay. It can also be clipped on a saddlebag or on your jersey pocket with the built-in clip. Not bad for $18.

Cirque du Cyclisme

This is a reminder that the 13th annual Cirque du Cyclisme takes place this weekend in scenic Leesburg,  VA.

In addition to rides, seminars, and more cool bikes than you'll ever see in one place, there is the swap meet. VO will be there with lots of seconds, prototypes, and overstock parts that have been taking up space in our warehouse.
 
Go to the Cirque site for all the details