Grand Cru Stem Caps with Custom Engraving Option

These are really nice CNC cut alloy stem caps with knurled edges. They are one of those little touches that make a bike special, particularly so when engraved with your name.

Back in the day of French constructeur bikes the owner's name was often engraved on the top of the stem. We think that's great tradition and one that should be kept alive. So we'll engrave your name on the Grand Cru stem cap for $15. It only takes one business day to do and we can fit up to 22 letters and spaces total. The font is as shown above. Silver caps get black filled letters and black caps get silver.

Rustines Patch Kits, Tres Chic

Rustines has been in the business of fixing tires for about 100 years. Louis Désiré Auguste Rustin (1880-1954) literally invented the tube patch kit. You can read their history here (Google translate).

Mark, our resident flatter and expert on fixing same, says these are the best patches he's ever used, partially because the rubber is very flexible and stretchy. He now looks forward to getting flats (just kidding). Almost 100 years of development has to count for something. Plus you have to love the graphics on the packaging, especially on the tins.

Rustines sticks patches on both sides of the release paper (to save weight?) Clever. So you get twice as many as you might expect. By the way, we'll have spare glue tubes soon.

The #1 Patch kit is all you need for riding around town. Remember that each of those dots is two patches, so there are 10. Not bad for $2.70.

The #2 patch kit offers a larger variety of patches with a couple of bigger ones, should you get a pinch flat.

This small metal tin is my favorite. It's a reproduction of an old Rustines patch kit and it just looks so cool. I have one and plan to refill it with the inexpensive #1 kit as I use up the patches.

This large kit in the neat cylindrical tin is another reproduction of an old kit. It's made for touring or to keep in your shop. In addition to the 18 round patches, it has a huge patch that could be used as a tire boot should the worse happen. Again, I would keep refilling it with the inexpensive #1 or #2 kits.

If you have a shop you might put a basket of assorted Rustines kits next to the cash register. Folks just seem to love the look of them. Tres chic!

Campy-style Gum Brake Hoods and Other Cool Rubber Stuff

We have some neat new stuff from a small French company called Rustines. They literally invented the rubber patch kit (which I'll write about soon.) They've been making rubber goods since the early 1900's.

These gum brake hoods are a nice replacement for classic Campagnolo-style brakes. If you've previously looked for replacement Campy hood then you know how rare and ridiculously expensive the originals are. They also fit on Sun Tour Superbe, Modolo, and many other levers that are the same shape. The gum rubber really is gum like the originals, not simply brown as are some modern replacements. We also stock them in white and in black, just like the original colors. They are made in France.

We'll have the half and full hoods for Mafac-stye levers in two or three weeks.

If you've admired constructeur city bikes, or most any better quality classic French bike with upright handlebars, then you've probably seem grips like these. They are made of soft rubber, gum, white, red, or black. These are our all-time favorite grips and have been very hard to find for many years. They are made for 22.2mm bars (regular city/MTB size), but with a little effort they can be installed on 23.8mm (road size) handlebars.

Rubber bar plugs, particularly the black French Velox brand, have been popular with cyclists for many decades. They make a nice bumper to keep the end of your bar from damaging your frame. Some of us have looked high and low for rubber bar plugs in other colors with little success. So we're very happy that Rustines decided to produce these.

These are really nice French-made elastic cords. We think they're much classier than the type from the home improvement store.

Camargue Review Online

The Bicycle Times Camagrue review is now online. It's a short but worthwhile read in a good magazine.

That's all; carry on.

Stella's Favorite Things

by Stella, as told to Adrian and Igor

Even as a dog, there is absolutely no reason why I can’t enjoy cycling just as much as my 2-legged counterparts. In addition to long walks on the beach and playing fetch, I enjoy going on bicycle rides in my spare time. These are some of my favorite VO products for tagging along on bicycle rides:

50.4 Crank, allowing my owners to climb with my extra 60 lbs holding them down. Spinning in a low gear is a lot easier than mashing on the pedals. If you live in a more hilly area, the Triple would be your best bet.

Campeur, my chauffeur's ride of choice. Going downtown or on a weekend tour with Adrian and Igor, it gets me everywhere I need to go in style and comfort. The Burley Tail Wagon is my ride of choice.

Campeur Front Rack and Grand Cru Handlebar Bag. What else can hold all of my treats and toys?

50mm Snakeskin Fenders to prevent spray back on me when the weather turns sour.

Bell. Was that a bell? Where's the bell? Ahh it's a bell!

Mojave Water Bottle Cage and Klean Kanteen 40oz bottle because it can get hot out there.

After a hard day’s work at the office, I like nothing more than going for a long ride with Igor.

Drillium Noir

Coming this fall, a retro black version of our drillium crank. It's like the 1980's are back. But we'll make the logo the Grand Cru crest on the production version. Waddya think?

Also, later today we'll have a small quantity of the new style long setback seat posts in black.

The Grand Cruz, on the Road with VO

We're doing a road trip, a Grand Cruz, this summer. Well, not all of us, but our friends John Byfield and Kate Heber will be taking their solar-powered 1962 Air Stream trailer and SUV to dozens of shops out west.

It'll be loaded with VO stuff, including a few built-up bikes. They'll also have a pop-up canopy and display items for small bike shows. This will give folks out West a chance to see how VO frames compare to often more expensive brands--we think you'll be amazed. And while they can't take every VO component, they will have a nice sampling to examine first hand.

It's so different for Velo Orange to operate outside our website and this blog, but we're excited to know that bicycle veterans will be sharing our products face-to-face with shop employees and their customers, that a shop can get one-on-one attention outside a huge consumer show. We're also not a little envious of the Air Stream.

Here's the tentative schedule:

• Through end of May - Seattle, Portland, and various smaller metropolitan areas.
• June - Full swing through California including NorCal, SoCal, Central Coast, etc.
• July-Mid August - Bend, Boise, Salt Lake, Colorado, on to RAGBRAI.  Return through Chicago, WI, MN, SD, MT, then eastern WA.
• Late August - Giant Bicycle Festival outside Seattle; Seattle, Portland, etc.
• Sept - No & SoCal-main metro areas, Phoenix, Tuscon, TX.  Return through OK, NM, Las Vegas (Interbike as guest), Reno etc.

Dealer visits may include everything from simple product presentations to in-store sales training and consumer shows. Current or new VO dealers who'd like a visit should contact the Grand Cruz at 541-408-5754 or info@thegrandcruz.com. Or ask you local shop to request a stop-by. We've already had interest from many shops, and John and Kate are itching to get on the road. 

They have also have a separate Grand Cruz blog that you can follow. Here's a nice piece about the Grand Cruz in Bicycle Retailer.

This and That and New Stuff

By Chris

The Piolet frames are finished and painted. Unfortunately decals are still being printed and need to be applied. Since Piolets use a larger down tube than other VO frames our regular decals wouldn't look quite right, and I didn't think of that as soon as I might have. We still expect them to be available mid to late June. I can't wait since I want one to ride to remote fly fishing streams. Mine will use  650b x 3" tires; the outer diameter will be close to the 700c x 2.5" tires that the frame was designed around, so handling should be as we intended.

You may have noticed that we've been out of long setback seat posts. That's because we'll have a new version in a few weeks. It will be easier to adjust and stronger. There will still be over 30mm of setback. I've been kicking around the idea of a 45mm setback post, but maybe that's just silly?

We'll soon have these cool Grand Cru constructeur-style stem caps. And, yes, we are planning to offer a custom engraving option. That was something Constructeurs did to personalize the bikes they built.

In other retro news we hope to soon stock real gum rubber hoods for old Campy brake levers; they also fit other similar shape levers. We'll also have full-hoods and half-hoods for Mafac-style brake levers.

The E3 light brackets now come in silver as well as black in both the large and the small versions.

The classic Grand Cru Course bars will soon be available in Noir and the super popular Dajia Shallow Drop bars will soon be available in 46cm size.

Rhodia Notebooks, The VO Standard.

By Chris

Sometimes I think Velo Orange runs on notebooks. Most of us always have them out, listing, sketching, doodling. I've long used Rhodia notebooks, which have been made since 1934 in France and are named after the Rhone river. The two trees in the logo represent the two brothers who started the company.

Rhodia notebooks use acid free paper, and they work well with any kind of pen or pencil. I like them because they are well made and sturdy. And, it goes with out saying, because they have orange covers.

You may have noticed that the grid background on this and on our web site is the Rhodia grid. Kyle, our web designer, thought it could be our trademark after seeing it so often around our office. So we thought that it was about time we offered a few models in our Camp and Cabin section. 

This small notebook is handy for jotting down grocery lists, errands, and inspirational quotes. It fits perfectly in a shirt pocket or even a tiny saddle bag. I use this model when I go to the gym to record progress or, too often, lack of it. It has 24 sheets (48 pages) per book.

The medium sized notebook has a hard cover It features dot graph paper with 5mm spaced dots. An inside pocket is handy for storing business cards or cash. I like this style for traveling to trade shows and for factory visits because it's so sturdy and just fits in my pants pocket. These are for the notes I'll need to refer to years later. An elastic strap to keep this notebook closed and secure. Rhodia calls this the "web notebook," but no matter where I click nothing loads.

This large top stapled pad is always on my desk at VO. Another sits on my home office desk. I use them constantly, during every morning meeting, in design sessions, and for phone call notes. If you've ever visited VO you've probably seen me writing in one. I like the sturdy cardboard back that allows me write with it on my knee, and the grid makes my lousy handwriting somewhat decipherable. The grid also helps with drawing design sketches. The cover is cleverly creased so it lies flat underneath the pad.

One last thing, unlike my Nexus pad, they never run out of juice. I actually did try working exclusively on a pad computer like one of those Silicon Valley CEOs. Even wore a black t-shirt. But paper notebooks are just easier.

What do you think, iPad  or note pad?

40oz Klean Kanteens and Mojave Cages

We just got these neat 40oz Kleen Kanteens to fit fit our Mojave cages. they are great for touring, especially in hot weather. But check fit in your frame; these are tall bottles and won't fit in some small frames. They come with the sport top, as shown below.