Downtubes are the Shift

by Igor

"They're like grandpa's shifters!"

If you simplify what a shifter does to its absolute bare bones, it purely creates and releases tension on a cable which pulls a derailleur cage. With friction downtube shifters, you have to know where each gear is in the shift lever's throw. Too far in either direction can lead to a noisy drivetrain, but don't stop trying! Practice is key and you will learn derailleur and lever positions to keep your bike quiet and happy.

Downtube shifters are still popular with cyclotourists because of their simplicity and compatibility. Break a cable on tour? Throw out the old one, put a new one in. Break a cable in an integrated shifter/brake lever (brifter) on tour? Break out the pliers and magnet because you're going steel head fishing. Not #bikefishing, but #aaahhhhhhhF***thisbikefishing.

Friction shifters work all of the time and are compatible with pretty much every derailleur and cassette available. Want to mix Suntour and Campagnolo? Awesome. Shimano and Simplex? Done. Shimano, Campagnolo, Simplex, Suntour, and Microshift are pretty much all cross compatible with friction shifters.

In addition, downtube shifters are excellent for travel. Packing up your bike for a tour is significantly easier than brifters and bar-ends since there are fewer cables and housing lengths to worry about while positioning the handlebars.

Scott's rando setup on his Gunnar reminds me of Lance from his USPS days. One downtube shifter and one shifter on the bars. Having a right shifter on the bar-end makes it easier to reach the shifter which is used most often.

More recently, mid-80s on, indexed downtube shifters have made sprints and climbs significantly easier. Indexed shifting means that there is a *click* in the shifter for each gear selected. You can throw the shifter around and you'll hit a gear without worrying about being stuck between them. Most Shimano shifters and Microshift bar-ends even have a friction mode in cases where the derailleur hanger is bent or indexing isn't functioning properly. Keep in mind, you need to stay within component families (Shimano with Shimano/Microshift, Campagnolo with Campagnolo, etc...) for proper indexed shifting.

Plus, downtube shifters just look damn good.

Do you still use downtube shifters or am I just stuck in the Paleozoic era?

Snow Day Projects

By Scott, our winter expert

As VO's resident Canadian, I was requested to talk a little about winter projects. So with a blizzard approaching the mid-Atlantic ( 'Mericans call it a blizzard. I call it "heavy snow flurries"), I thought now was a good time to go over some ideas of ways to stay connected with the bike, considering the only riding I'll do this weekend is either on the trainer or on my Piolet.

Snow days give me a chance to look the bike over fully to make sure all is ready for the upcoming touring season. And with my increased gravel riding last year and  plans for more gravel touring, it makes sense to ensure everything is ready to go and make the most of spring when it arrives.

The first thing I do with my winter break is to give my leather saddle some care and attention. Rubbing in some of the VO saddle care helps protect the leather. If you just bought a VO saddle, keep in mind that our saddles come with a waterproof spray applied to their tops; the waterproofing helps protect the saddle during the shipping from Taiwan. It takes about a month of riding for the treatment to wear this off, so don't bother applying the VO leather care until you've ridden it for a month or so.

After the saddle has some wear on it, you can apply a dab of the saddle care to a nice clean rag and rub it into the leather. You don't need to use a lot of it; a little dab will do you, as they say. You can also use the saddle care on boots or such. It is made by Limmer boots for us, and we've all used it on leather boots for ages to keep them in tip top shape. There's more about VO saddle care in this older blog post.

Moving down the bike, there are lots of bits on my bike that are, well, shiny. So this is where Simichrome comes into its own. You can use it on a ton of stuff. I've used it on fenders, crank arms, stems and my Opinel knife to get them all looking nice and clean and shiny. It's also great for restoring classic parts as Chris explains here.

Next, I check over the brake pads and make sure they have enough life left on them and replace, if necessary.

I also take the down time to go over some of my camping stuff that has been in storage for the last couple months, clean it up, and check that everything is ready to go for future adventures. I give all my camp knives a sharpening with the Opinel shaprening stone. I also give everything else like mugs, sporks and bowls a good wash and dry and put them back in their stuff sacks, so they can be grabbed quickly and with the knowledge that they are ready to go.

Other then watching cycling movies on Netflix, what are your snow day projects?

Camargue Eats Cobbles

by Igor

Annapolis is an old city. Not 12th century European old, but it's still old by American standards.
Back in the 17th century, they couldn't have anticipated 2 ton rectangles with four wheels and small explosions emanating from in front of the driver while barreling up Main St and spewing hydrocarbons.

Bonus points if you know what street this is. Photo courtesy of the MD Government Archives.

All the transportation around the city was by horse, foot, velocipedes, carriages, and wagons. This is why the streets are very narrow and cobbled. The Hysterical (Historic) Preservation Commission ensures that they stay old. So.....they need some work.

Someone with a BMX needs to hit this jump

Today's Main St.

Freezing and thawing of water in addition to automobile traffic doesn't help the condition of the streets, either.

The tire clearance on the Camargue makes it an excellent candidate for an all-round bike that tackles the road and trail. The tires fitted on this build are the 700cx47mm Continental Comfort Contact. The bike swallows up vibrations and impacts with ease.

We're paring down bikes in our showroom, so this tour-ready machine is for sale! SOLD!

Drops on Chris's Piolet

by Clint

Chris's Piolet.

Winter is a good time to experiment with new builds for the upcoming season. Chris wanted to test out some drop bars on his personal Piolet. One thing led to another and we ended up changing out the entire drivetrain.  

10-speed hydraulic brifters.

Daija Short & Shallow Drops.

New crank for the 2x10.

Longcage Sram Gx, compatible with the brifters and a big cassette.

Hydraulic caliper behind a big cassette.  

Aggressive Ardents.

The new getup starts with the Sram S700 2x10 hydraulic levers. We went with a long-cage 10-speed Gx rear derailleur for a huge range in the back. It's a solid derailleur for the price, and it's compatible with their 10-speed road line.

In the front, we have a X7 double crank and a matching derailleur...should be a good range for any hills around here. To finish it off, I added a couple Jagwire barrel adjusters. Sram derailleurs usually have the adjusters for the road line, and Sram trigger shifters usually have the adjusters for the mountain line. Since we're using a combination, we had to throw in adjusters elsewhere.

It had been a little while since I've played around with hydraulic stuff, but I've now set up both Shimano and Sram hydraulic brifters. The Shimano kit comes with the levers, brakes, brake hoses, and fluid along with some fittings and basic tools. None of the brake parts is connected or bled. The Sram kit comes pre-bled with long hoses in addition to spare hoses. The Shimano system was simple enough to bleed, and I appreciated the use of mineral oil versus the more hazardous DOT fluid that Sram uses in their system. The front brake in the Sram setup was close enough that I left it as is. I shortened the rear hose carefully, and didn't end up having to bleed it, so that was nice.

Without considering compatibility, and despite the easier setup with the Sram system, I prefer the Shimano levers. The cables have a cleaner routing and were easier to access. The calipers also have a bit more clearance with the spokes.  I could see this being a problem on some other bikes. These are all just initial impressions. Stay tuned for a followup after we get some dirt on this drivetrain!

Bike Packing Rack, Blems, and Bells

By Chris

I have to admit that I'm not a fan of some bike packing bags, especially of those ass-rockets that swing and stick out behind the saddle, but then I never liked large saddle bags of any type. So when we were testing the Piolet prototypes I had an idea for a minimalist rear rack to carry a dry bag.

The advantages to this system include the ability to vary the size of the dry bag depending on what you need to carry; dry bags are cheap so you can have several. The load won't sway or bounce around. Unlike panniers the dry bag setup keeps the bike narrow for single-track touring. And dry bags really are dry, in any weather. Should we make these?

The rack above was welded up by one of the staff from 3/8" stainless tubing. In addition to carrying a dry bag, it will take small panniers, which are convenient for grocery shopping and commuting.

We have a few more blemished framed for sale. This is a smart way to save some money. After all any bike will likely have a some blemishes after a few months of riding, so you might as well get ahead of the curve.

Finally, I just wanted to show you this cool hand hammered bell made by frame builder Nao Tomii. They start out as a VO Striker Bell. You can get the hammered version at Nao's site.

VO is on Vacation until January 4th

This is just a reminder that Velo Orange will be closed until January 4th 2016. It's our annual winter break, giving our hard working staff a much needed rest. 

The web site will be open and you can place orders and secure those sale frames. But orders won't be shipped and emails and calls won't be answered until the week of Jan 4th.

Happy Holidays

We wanted to wish our customers, suppliers, and anyone else reading, Merry Holidays and a  Pleasant New Year.

And thanks you for another prosperous and fun year.

Velo Orange will be closed until January 4th, giving our hard working staff a much needed rest. The web site will be open, but orders won't be shipped and emails and calls won't be answered until the week of Jan 4th.

The photos are from a little ride a few VO staffers took around Annapolis on Tuesday.

Frame News and 30% Off Camargues and Polyvalents

By Chris

We're doing year end inventory here at VO. And we've also been chatting about next year's frame production. Here's the executive summary:

• We will, sadly, discontinue the Camargue. It's a great frame, but everyone is ordering the Piolet instead. So we'll put the remaining Camargues on sale at 30% off (shops get the lower price, too).
• We'll also discontinue the current Polyvalent, and those remaining frames are now 30% off.
• Piolets have been selling faster than we expected and we are out of some sizes; sorry about that. There are more being built. We hope to have them in March
• The Polyvalent will be redesigned or may be replaced with a somewhat similar frame. The goal is to fit larger tires, shorten the top tube a bit, and possibly add disc brake mounts. 
• No changes are anticipated for the Pass Hunter and Pass Hunter Disc.
• We've been discussing a new color for the Campeur and we've gotten sample tubes painted in four possible shades. (Can't really judge from paper samples.) But almost everyone likes the current grey best. We may just keep it.
• We have a few blemished frames that we need to photograph and put in the store, but I doubt we'll get that done before our Holiday break.

Clint's Porteur Hunter Disc

We East Coasters have had a ridiculously mild winter thusfar - sometimes with even higher temps than SoCal! That is until yesterday when it rained. So we made some lemonade from lemons and photographed Clint's Pass Hunter Disc prototype.

Warm & wet winter. Fender weather. 

Best drivetrain ever.

Salsa chainrings #MUSA

Click click.

Blink blink.

Drip drip.

They keep telling me my prototype build is weird, particularly the drivetrain. I started with the XTR rear derailleur. I knew I wanted to run that with dropbars. This lead to the Dynasys-compatible Gevenalle shifters. They've been pretty good so far: quick shifting, no complaints. I've always liked the early 2000s Campy cranks, and they're not hard to come by for a decent price, so I threw one of those on the front end. This one has some old #musa Salsa chainrings. Since I wanted the prototype to be a sporty touring bike, I needed to expand my range a bit, went with an 11-34 cassette and wrapped a couple chains around it for the giant gears. To finish it off, a Record front derailleur matches the crank.  Kind of a heavy drivetrain, but it's everything I wanted and more.  

VO 20% Off Sale Ends Tomorrow

The VO 20% off sale ends tomorrow night!

That is all. Carry on.

Big Tires, Little Trout

By Chris

There's not much going on at VO this week other than filling a lot of orders due to our 20%-off sale. So I thought I'd post a few photos of yesterday's ride. I took the day off and drove out to New Germany State Park in western Maryland. The plan was to do a little trout fishing and some solitary riding.

The Piolet in it's natural habitat.

There are numerous ORV (off road vehicle) trails in this part of the state. Fortunately, some of the best ones are no longer open to motorized vehicles. I rode an abandoned Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) road that runs along a small trout stream. The CCC built a tremendous number of roads, lodges, cabins, and other infrastructure in national and state parks during the great depression. It was a very successful program to boost employment for young men and to improve our park system.

The road along Poplar Lick is just abandoned enough to make it too bumpy to ride comfortably on my Pass Hunter, so I took a demo Piolet. It's a beautiful trail, yet I didn't see another person all day. If you want to spend the night there, you can choose from some lovely hike/ride-in campsites along the way, most of them with picnic tables and fire rings.

One of the smoother sections.

So many fords.

The road crosses Poplar Lick more times than I could count, often on small bridges, but I also made 16 fords and all but a few were too rocky and slippery to ride across. The air temperature was in the high 40s and the water temperature was in the 30s. I rode and waded in sandals; surprisingly, you soon get used to the cold water.

I had to watch out for occasional brush on the trail.

Poplar Lick ("lick" being local for "crick",) is home to a healthy population of native brook trout, the only species of trout that's native to our area. The streams up here are so isolated that the trout are genetically different in each stream. As it turned out, after riding for four hours I was too beat to put much effort into fishing afterward, so it was one of the few times I've visited this area without catching a single fish.

Fly fishing kit with tenkara rod.

My fishing gear for cycling includes a Tenkara fly rod and a few accessories that fit in a small shoulder pouch. The Tenkara rod is is Japanese fly rod that telescopes from about 21 inches to about 11 feet. It uses no reel and only weighs a few ounces, perfect for biking and for smaller streams.

It's a small stream.

One of the trophy Poplar Lick trout from a trip earlier this year.

The Piolet performed perfectly with 2.4" tires, just what's needed on the rocky eroded portions of these trails. I also liked the Seine bars, though they were wider than needed for a non-technical trail. In fact, I liked the ride enough that I'm thinking about a Piolet with wide drop bars and a double crank, and maybe a porteur rack.

Holiday Gift Thoughts

by Scott

That time of year has arrived, the one where folks start to get all excited about "The Holidays."
A time of gift giving and spending time with friends and family or, in some cases, escaping all of the above. So in the spirit of providing some assistance: cut and paste the url for this page in an email to Aunt Estelle if she is in need of help.

Starting small, the coolest little things that folks can always use if they have toe straps on their bike - toe clip buttons. These are the cuff links of bikes and add a huge amount of class to any ride, even that rusted out velopicide that gets so little love (really, you should at least oil the chain once in a while). Putting these on your straps instantly bumps the cool factor up a level.

Moving up in size, Rustine patch kits add a vintage charm to your bike repair kit. The little tin ones look great, have lots of usable stuff inside them, and always make people smile when you pull it out to help some one with a flat. It's great as a stocking stuffer or as a package if you also picked up a baguette bag to go along with it.
                        

Keeping with vintage charm that is 100% practical, an Opinel knife is a fine gift for almost everyone- well, maybe not for a 6-year old. We sell carbon or stainless steel blades. Naturally, we also carry a corkscrew model for that picnic with your favorite ride partner when some nice wine is brought along. We even have a model with a whistle in it should you get lost from your partner.

           
If you're someone who heads out on a hot day and needs lots of fluids on hand, then the Mojave cage is something to ask for this year. It will  hold a 32 oz Nalgene bottle or 40 oz Kleen Kanteen bottle, so for adventure cyclists this is the best alternative to towing a camel.

Most of our customers have some sort of rack on their bikes or some way to get that extra bottle of wine home with them. Having a good quality bungee cord can make all the difference between getting that bottle back home or crying over spilt Merlot. Enter the Constructeur bungee. Available in a variety of colours to match your bike or libation of choice, these are a great addition to any bike.

Finally if none of the above floats your boat or pumps up your tire, then you can always ask for a gift certificate. It's usable on everything in the store and never goes out of stock, plus it fits all sizes from XS to XXL.

Other items from years past that have been popular are the Soto coffee maker, Soap, Rhodia note books, bells or a cycling cap to top off the cyclist in your life.

One last tip - if you need a pick me up of shortbread this holiday season, try Dean's of Scotland. Best we've found, and we've tried lots.