Another Polyvalent 650b Build

Here are a few photos of another new Polyvalent 650b build. This one is set up as an all-around road bike. This is the sort of bike I'd have if I could own only one bike. It's fast enough for club rides and can carry enough to make it useful for shopping, commuting, or even weekend tours. With our upcoming camping racks a similar build would make a nice long-distance tourer.

VO Porteur

Here are a few photos of a brand new VO Polyvalent built up as a Parisian-style porteur. Porteurs were the bikes of newspaper delivery riders. These guys would haul massive stacks of papers (up to 50kg) to news stands around the city. The papers had to get from the printing plant to the stands quickly, so they had to be fast and strong riders. Some engaged is porteur races on weekends. The better routes paid very well and those who rode them often had custom-built bikes by the best Constructeurs. Some images of classic porteurs can be found here.

Note the bell mounted on the shifter boss. This is a nice way to use the other boss on a bike with an an internal-gear hub.

The New Polyvalent 650b Frame

We just received a couple of new versions of our very popular Polyvalent 650b frames. The rest are enjoying a leisurely ocean cruise and should reach us in about four weeks. These first few are for demos and display at Interbike.

The Polyvalent is an  all-around frame, an urban ride that's equally at home on a loaded tour. Outside magazine said it was, "Easily the most versatile bike out of dozens tested, the chromoly Polyvalent handles like a dream on long city voyages with as much as 40 pounds on the front rack"

 You'll notice that they are a nice shiny green color.

The decals are rather subtle, but we'll also offer white decals with a brown outline for those who desire bolder graphics.

A couple of the frames will be built up later this week. I'll post photos.

Customer's Bikes

It's been a while since we posted some of the photos of great bikes that we see in e-mails; here are a few.

Bob B. sent a photo of his VO Rando which he'll be riding in the 1200K Paris-Brest-Paris. He comments:

Let me tell you a bit about your bike since it left home.  I bought it within days of you first listing it on your website.  It is 57cm. Has many VO parts, seatpost (awesome for the Brooks Flyer), headset, bottom bracket, wheels, two types of pedals,  decaleur on an early acorn bag in the photo.

It has many rando miles on it.  It has been ridden in snow, rain, and gravel.   This is my second year with this bike.  I have completed 5 Super Randonneur Series on it so far.  I intend to add PBP and another SR to the list this year.  

It may not climb like a monkey, but it carves a wonderful line downhill.  For brevet riding it rides straight and true, absorbs road shock, and truly takes care of a tired rider.   Great job guys!

I'm very excited to be riding the VO Randonneur in Paris Brest Paris.

 Jo W. built this lovely LHT with many VO parts:

 I wanted to take a minute to thank you for your great service and share my winter project with you. It a LHT that features wheels, stem,bell,spacers, pedals, clips, cages, seatpost, cranks, rack, and fenders purchased from you. This bike is an absolute blast to ride and the quality of the  VO/ grand cru parts is amazing.

Harry W. did a fantastic job on his new custom tourer:

Hello to velo orange,

enclosed you will find some pictures from my homemade touring bike.

Some parts from your shop, rims, fenders,stem,pedals, handlebar and others.

I also built the frame myself .

On Friday i will start my first journey from London to Edinburgh.

Guy B sent this photo of his Mikado, a brand I hadn't seen in many years.

I send you a picture of my Mikado Cyclotoureur bike updated with some Velo Orange parts. Mikado was a french canadian bicycle brand bought by Procycle in mid 90's.  The bike is a traditional mid 80's touring bike but after several years as a single speed bike (Phil Wood fix/free hub) i decided to update the frame. The rear fork end are new (no more derailler tab). Mafac Racer brake on brazed posts. A lots of other tiny frame change + brand new black powder coat paint job. The framebuilding job was done by Giuseppe Marinoni in Montreal and myself (small braze-on only).

Then what about Velo Orange fluted aluminum fender, bottle cage, stem and Ostrich handlebar bag? It's now a classical bike.

You can see more of it at: http://guybouchard.wordpress.com/velosbikes/mikado/

Note the bulge downtube on this picture: http://guybouchard.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/img_0016.jpg . The called this Mikado Low-flex downtube. I never saw another like mine.

 

Francisco did a nice job on his Polyvalent. What are those bars?

More VO Cinema

Here's a video about installing our new chain ring guards. We also have some of the hardware separately, should you want it use it on another chain ring guard.


VO Chainring Guard from Velo Orange on Vimeo.

And, in case you missed it, there is a video about installing a Rackaleur.


the Rackaleur from Velo Orange on Vimeo.

Bonne Route!

guest post by Alec Burney

Over the past few weeks, we've been hearing from more and more customers that are excited about their upcoming trips to PBP. I know of two new VO Rando frames that will be rambling around the French countryside this year, and maybe there will be more. This year we've also chatted with a couple folks looking for new handlebar bags for the ride.

Are any blog readers heading to France next month? What are your goals for the ride? What kind of bike will carry you across the finish line? Would you care to share your bike number with us so that we can watch your progress on the PBP website?

Ed & Mary (check out the cool fenders and mudflap!)

I'd like to take the chance to wish a public "Bonne Route" to folks from our local club who are headed to Paris, and to some of our dealers who are taking time off to join the ride.

After the spring brevet season slowed down, most people around here who plan to head to PBP transitioned into a different kind of training. 

I've joined these folks for some short weekend tours - getting up early, riding hard, eating well, and having a few laughs is the best "training"  I can imagine.

Riding PBP is not an easy task, but all of these folks are ready!

Charlie, Gary, Maile

So, best wishes to the amazing tandem couple, Ed & Mary.

And all the other DC Randonneurs going to PBP: Carol, Charlie, Cindy, Gary, George, John, Kelly, Maile, and Nick.

Kelly

Maxi, Maxi, Maxi!

guest post by Alec Burney

Because of the positive reception to our freshly updated Rando Build Kit, we've tried to put together an even better deal for you folks. The Rando Maxi Build Kit is available now. It sports almost everything you need for a great new road bike, including wheels, seatpost, saddle, bars, stem, brakes, a front rack...

We're also trying something new. For $40, we'll chase the bottom bracket threads, face the head tube, and install the bottom bracket and headset cups for you. You won't find a deal that good at any bike shop, and it will save do-it-yourselfers even more in expensive specialized tools. In most cases, you won't need any special tools for the rest of the assembly. Home mechanics, rejoice!

If this is an idea that interests you, please speak up! We're in love with the idea of building machines whose parts all work together in harmony. I think we're getting close with the parts that come in this kit. Most of the ingredients needed for a commuter, club-rider, or sport tourer are all in the Maxi Build Kit.

Our next project may involve a complete bike, designed around our Polyvalent frameset. It's a big step for us, so we're going to see how things go with the Maxi Build Kit. Are all of the pre-chosen parts restrictive or do they liberate you from the burden of choosing minor details? How do you folks feel about having the heavy wrenching taken care of for you?

Dealers: these are available to you, too.

Just a few things

guest post by Alec Burney

Although Chris has stepped out for a few weeks, we still have lots of news.

There's a new video online, and more will be up in the next few weeks. What would you like to see on our Vimeo channel? We're working on some more instructionals and fun things, but are interested to know what people would like to see most.

Robert's cyclocross bike - Challenge tubulars, VO stem, VO cable housing.. 

Scott's Gunnar - speedy randonneur bike.

Kristin's Chicago Schwinn Commuter.

Kyle's touring bike - VO Polyvalent.

You've probably noticed that we've got a lot of VO parts and frames. This isn't because we get a great deal on them (it helps), but because we're serious about our products. We make the stuff we like and want, and test parts thoroughly by strapping them to our own bikes to discover what works and fix what doesn't.

Wishing you all a good weekend,

Incoming and More Miscellany

We've been out of some items after our spring rush. It's just really hard to predict future demand. Here is an update on a few of these:

• The Tall Stack Stems, that many of you have e-mailed about, should arrive next week.
• 650b wheels and GC touring hub wheels should be here within a few weeks.
• The new Polyvalent frames are almost finished and we should have a ship date soon
• Contructeur front racks have been out of stock for month, but we should have more in 3-5 weeks.
• Metallic brake and derailleur cable kits are on the way, 3-5 weeks.
• Copenhagen kickstands are in the same shipment.
• All sizes of Uno sp-248 seat posts are also on the way.
• 50.4bcd cranks have been delayed for at least a couple of months, no ship date yet. Sorry about this.
• Another container is due around the end of the month and most other items we're out of will arrive then.

As for miscellany:

• Bike shops in Canada can soon order VO and Grand Cru products from our new distributor, Fourth Floor Distribution.
• We are working on a Maxi Frame Build Kit which will include most of the parts required to build up a Rando or Polyvalent kit. We'll have details in a few days.
• Peter likes our fenders.
• I'll be traveling for the next three weeks, but the VO staff will maintain the blog.

Miscellany

 The Cycloculture blog has been well regarded for their collection of interviews with bike designers, builders, and others in our industry. Unfortunately their standards may have have fallen recently, as they even published an interview with me.

The Lazy Randonneur has some nice things to say about our bars and stems. He also likes our headsets. The build is a 26" LHT. I've always like this blog, and not only for the bike content.

We just received a big shipment from our wheel building company. We'll do a little QC and photograph them today. The new wheels should be on the site soon.

This blog started out as, mostly, my blog and has evolved into an, almost, official company blog. We've recently been publishing more posts by other staff members, and I hope that trend continues. As part of the transition we're switching the Twitter feed from my tweets to the official VO account. I hope you follow both.

VO Garage Sale!

Once again we've accumulated a big pile of odds and ends, literally hundreds of items. Rather than put them on the site we'll offer them all at the second VO garage sale.

What's for Sale:

Prototypes, items we've used on display bikes, items from test bikes, seconds, overstock, returns, and even a few personal items from our employees are for sale. There are wheels, racks, fenders, cranks, a couple of frames, bike luggage, handlebars, stems, etc.

Most everything is priced at about half the retail price. We'll also offer any regular in-stock items at 15% off; this reflects our savings in not having to pack and ship the orders.

When:

The sale will be held from 9am to 1pm on Saturday July 9th, rain or shine. The last sale was big hit, so get here early for the best stuff.


Where: 


The Garage sale will be at the VO warehouses and office, 1819 George Avenue, Annapolis MD, 21401.

The Fine Print:

• Nothing can be pre-ordered.
• Cash or credit card only.
• The 15% discount is available to those who buy in person, not on-line.
• Items on sale not included.
• If you ride your bike to the sale you'll get a free VO Poster. 
• Garage sale stuff is non-returnable.

Why I Race and Why You Should, Too

A guest post by Robert George

“Most cyclist don't race...” The unofficial slogan of Velo Orange, and one of our founding principles. It still holds true today that most cyclists don't race, but some of us do. One of the great things about a company like Velo Orange is that it attracts a talented and passionate staff that all love cycling. Even so, everyone is different and we all get something different from cycling. My main focus is racing and I see it both as a way to compete in the sport I love and an outlet to relieve stress and put myself to the test.

I started racing in 2003 when I learned about about local mountain bike races from a friend. I stripped the failing derailleurs off of my Schwinn mountain bike, turned it into a singlespeed and raced a local Wednesday night race. Instantly I was hooked! Racing let me push myself until I thought my heart might leap out of my chest and my legs might give out and yet still had a great time doing it. It was suffering like I had never experienced; it was fantastic.

If racing is so much suffering and so at odds with the stated aim of Velo Orange, then why race? For me, it's the excitement and adrenaline of competition. Toeing the start line with butterflies in your stomach before riding all-out as hard as you can for an hour (or two, or four, or many more) is about as fun as it can get. Racing pushes me to levels I didn't know I could go; legs and lungs burning I forget all the stress in my life and think only about how this is the hardest race yet and how I can push just a little bit harder to overtake the next rider. Today I race road, mountain and cyclocross to keep the calendar full for most of the year.

Of course that's my answer; when the question is “Why race?” the answer is different for everyone. As a cyclist, racing can give you a new channel to explore the sport you love. Racing is also a great way to get out and meet other cyclists and find new routes and places to ride. If you are like me, racing will also push you harder and give you more motivation to stay in shape and work on your fitness year round.

If you want to give racing a try there are lots of different disciplines within the sport. Probably best known are mountain and road racing, but you shouldn't overlook cyclocross or track racing. Once you dive into the world of racing you will find that there are additional subcategories within each discipline. Here is a quick rundown:

Mountain biking (MTB): Popular, fun and technically challenging, MTB encompasses lots of different types of riding and racing including the cross country, various downhill disciplines and the currently popular endurance events.

Road racing: If you like skinny tires and high speeds then road racing is for you. Seemingly less technical than mountain biking, it really isn't. Road racing isn't just raw speed either; strategy and tactics are the name of the game, having a great team to race with helps a lot too.

Cyclocross: My personal favorite, cyclocross combines many of the best aspects of road and mountain biking into a fun and spectator friendly sport. Cyclocross is characterized by mud, nasty fall weather and truly enthusiastic fans ringing cowbells. With such a welcoming crowd 'cross is a great place to start racing, not to mention that crashing in the mud doesn't hurt as much as asphalt.

Track: The discipline I have the least personal experience with is track racing. This is due to sad fact that there are not many velodromes in the United States, which is a shame as track racing is fast and and fun for both participants and spectators. A variety of race formats keep things interesting as well, from short sprints to six day races.

The majority of road, cyclocross and track racing in the United States is governed by the sanctioning body USA Cycling, with other similar organizations in other countries. USA Cycling handles the rulebook, race officials, rankings, licensing and other details. If you want to race road, 'cross or track in the United States it will benefit you to get a license from the USAC. For an extra fee many events allow one day license purchases, but registration for popular events often fills before race day. Additionally, you don't have sign up for many races in a season before you break even on the $60 annual license fee from USAC, and you won't be able to advance through race categories without a license.

One important exception for race licensing is mountain biking. Professional mountain bike racing in the United States is governed by NORBA (National Off-Road Bicycle Association, a division of USAC) and requires a NORBA license. However, here in the Mid-Atlantic nearly all mountain bike races are unsanctioned grassroots events and you will have a difficult time finding NORBA events. Opinions may vary, but for mountain biking I prefer small, fun grassroots events and I don't miss the licensing requirements. The relationship between NORBA and mountain bike racing may vary by region as well.

If you decide you want to get your feet wet and race, there are lots of places to find out about races, but I would start with bikereg.com. Bikereg is by far the easiest way to find and register for all types of cycling events. If you need further race recommendations you can ask your local bike shop, local teams and any friends that race.

Velo Orange is not about racing so it may seem like an oxymoron for us to post about racing and why you should do it, but we don't think so. Racing certainly isn't for everyone, but it isn't mutually exclusive to the relaxed touring, rando and city riding we stand for. I'm thrilled to race one weekend and go bike camping the next. Two VO staff members race and it is simply another aspect of the sport of cycling that we love. If you love something then why not involve yourself in as many ways as possible, have some fun, and maybe meet some new friends? That is why we cycle: fun and friends.

Photo 1 by JoeMallis.com, photo 2 by Jen Linko

Frame Plans

I've been pondering the Rando frame and its possible successor. Before I go on, let me say that we still have plenty of Rando frames available and plan to continue to offer them. They get great reviews and the folks who bought them seem to love them. Check out the nice article on the Chasing Mailboxes blog about Mark B's VO rando. Nonetheless, after the new VO 650b Polyvalent (due in late summer) and the 700c Polyvalent tourer (due in early 2012) we'll need a new frame project to work on.

The next model may be a TIG welded VO Pass Hunter based on my own bike. Here are a few of my thoughts and ideas:

• It will be a low-trail design with geometry much like a Rando's.
• Ideal tire size would be 32mm, though 35mm would fit.
• It will have canti brakes since a pass hunter is meant to be ridden up and down mountains. 
• Being TIG welded, it'll be a little lighter than the Rando. As much as I love lugs it's hard to get over the fact that they add $200-$400 to the price of a frame while offering only aesthetic benefits.
• We may use a lighter, and more expensive, tube set. This is a bit of a trade-off since thinner wall tubing is also easier to dent. We've even talked about using Reynolds 953. Still not sure if this is really worthwhile.
• Vertical dropouts, of course.

A Nice Porteur

This lovely Lee Cooper Porteur by Alex Hatfield won the Best Utility Bike category at the Bespoke Bristol show. Note all the VO parts, racks, bar, chain case, fenders, etc. Alex says, "Without Velo Orange it would have been a very difficult project to complete". The frame is designed to carry serious loads and handle properly while doing so.

Bespoked Bristol, The UK Handbuilt & Boutique Bicycle Show

Jamie of Freshtripe (our UK distributor) sent along some photos and links from the Bespoked Bristol, The UK Handbuilt & Boutique Bicycle Show. It looked to be a great show with some amazing bikes.

 Jamie writes:

The show was a great success, I think everybody including the organisers were taken aback by the turnout - we were swamped all weekend with customers (new and old) who were pleased to be able to meet us and get their hands on the VO parts up close. The Rando build went down a storm and was great at illustrating the range of parts, a few people declared it their favourite bike of the show, quite a compliment given the competition! The stand was also a favourite as we'd gone for a traditional butchers theme (playing on the Freshtripe name) with the parts tagged and layed out on platters..

Also you'll be pleased to know that the Best Bicycle of Show by Donhou Bicycles (called Pimento Stuffed) featured VO items such as mudguards, seatpost etc and the Best Utility bike by Lee Cooper/Alex Hatfield Concepts (called Porteur) also featured some choice VO items such as the Porteur Rack, chainguard, muduards, bottle cages etc (as did his other creations) - both supplied by us. Paulus Quiros Desins wowed everybody as newcomers to the frame building fraternity with a stunning set of builds including a tandem, singlespeed and a polished Reynolds 853 road build which between them sported leather bar covers, bottle cages, mudguards, stems, seatposts, handlebars, GC Cantis etc also supplied by us - a situation which helped all involved to direct people to each others stands to see examples of the VO parts either available to buy or fitted to a bicycle..

 If you're "across the pond" and need VO parts check out their site. They also distribute our part to other UK shops.

Here are  links to more photos:

http://www.hardtailnation.co.uk/2011/06/bespokedbristol-handmade-bike-show-2011/

http://www.thefootdown.co.uk/2011/06/12/bespoked-bristol-2011-photos/

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=153362

http://www.bikeradar.com/gallery/article/bespoked-bristol-handmade-bike-show-massive-gallery-30538 

https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/29754457/2/BESPOKED%20BRISTOL%20Photos/LO%20RES?h=1bafaf

Alec's 1200k Ride

We want to congratulate Alec Burney who just completed the 1200 kilometer Shenandoah Brevet in a time of 84-hours and 50-minutes.

Not only did Alec complete the very mountainous ride and endure searing heat and torrential thunderstorms, but he rode the 60-miles to the start. Then he rode 60-miles back and, instead of going home, he came directly to the VO office to catch up on e-mails and answer tech questions!

By the way, he rode his VO Rando with Grand Gru 50.4bcd cranks, dynamo, Ti Saddle, PBP rims, prototype rack, etc.

Grand Cru Touring Hub are Here

The first batch of production Grand Cru Touring Hubs just arrived. Even though we examined and tested six prototypes, I'm always nervous about new products until I see the ones that are production made. So it's really great to see that the quality and finish is every bit as nice as the hand-assembled prototypes.

The Grand Cru Touring Hub is designed for long distance riding and heavy loads. The sturdy hub shell is our own design. Being a large-flange hub there is room for four identical and rather large cartridge bearings. We use very high quality Japanese bearings. The bearings we chose are a common size and relatively easy to replace if they ever do wear out.

The axle is hollow and oversized. The free-hub body is steel for durability. There are three pawls with sturdy springs. The touring hubs accept 8/9/10 speed Shimano-type cassettes. You can fit a 7 speed cassette by adding a 4.5mm spacer. The VO enclosed-cam quick release skewer is included.

They are available in 130mm and 135mm spacing in 32h and 36h drilling. Matching front hubs are also available.

The video we posted a few weeks ago showing how to disassemble the Grand Cru hub for field servicing without tools can be found here.

They have been selling very well since we added them to the site late yesterday. I expect we'll run out before the second batch arrives later this summer. As soon as we have sufficient stock we'll have some built up with Raid rims and with Diagonale rims. The very first set of 36h is going on my bike.

More Staff Bikes

You may remember that back in February we posted photos of some of our staff's personal bikes. Here are a few more:

 Katie's new Univega commuter.

Nick's Schwinn High Sierra touring bike as ridden from Tacoma to Baja  to Central Mexico to New Mexico and so on.

Chris's VO Pass Hunter (prototype). This will probably be production bike eventually.

Annette's Gitane mixte city bike with 7-speed hub.

Christopher's Di Blasi R6 folding bike, purchased and ridden when he was living in Amsterdam.

Annette's custom VO rando.

Christoper's Peugeot all-arounder.

50.4bcd Rings and Other New Bits

What a busy week we're having, not much time to write blog posts. But I did want to mention a few items that just arrived.

The 50.4bcd inner rings and 50.4bcd outer rings are here. We also have single speed rings. They are fully compatible with TA, Sugino, Nervar, Grand Cru, Stronglight, and most other 50.4bcd cranks and they work with 6-10 speed chains.

The VO compact double crank is back in stock. But a production problem has delayed the next shipment of 50.4bcd Grand Cru cranks by a couple of months.

We have a few other small new bits: VO pedal replacement bearings, Grand Cru headset replacement bearings, and alloy crank dust caps. VO chain ring guards and fixing hardware will be on the site soon.