Planes, Trains, and Polyvalents

by Igor

Adrian and I will be taking two Polyvalent prototypes on a two week long European tour. Our tentative schedule is to ride through through Switzerland, Liechtenstein, a tiny bit of Austria, Southern Germany, and end in Friedrichshafen before heading back to Zurich. Not only is Friedrichshafen known for its vicinity to the beautiful Lake Constance and extensive Zeppelin history, it is also the location of Eurobike - the biggest mainstream industry show in Europe.

Traditionally, the entirety of Eurobike, just like Interbike and Taipei Bike Expo, was an industry-only show. Meaning only shops, distributors, manufacturers, etc were allowed in. In recent years, all three of the big shows have opened up their doors for one of the four days to the general public. So if you have an opportunity to go, you should spend the day nerding out at the latest tech and weirdness these types of expos have to offer. In addition to seeing new and upcoming products from all corners of the cycling world, we'll have an opportunity to visit with several of VO's European wholesale and distributor partners.

Enough about the show, let's talk bikes. This is Adrian's 51cm Polyvalent. We transferred many of the components from her Campeur onto this bike, and her Campeur will morph into a Porteur Townie.

For gearing, she's using our 50.4 bcd Crankset paired with an 11-32 9 speed cassette for low gears to get over those long climbs through the Alps going into and out of Lucerne.

Shifty bits are standard issue Shimano Bar-ends, Shimano Tiagra dangler, and Shimano 105 pusher.

Brakes are Avid BB7 Road with 160mm rotors being pulled by SRAM Brake Levers. Readers will have their opinions about disc brakes, but simply put, they work really well.

Handlebars are Dajia Cycleworks Short and Shallows with a 26.0, 17 deg threadless stem and adaptor.

The Campeur Rack out front will carry a pair of Ortlieb Panniers and a handlebar bag. They are mounted inside the fork blades with the rack's included hardware.

My 57cm Polyvalent is a carefully curated mismatch of components and accessories. Campagnolo 10 speed integrated shifters (I dare not say the b-word), 50.4 bcd Crankset, Campagnolo Veloce Rear Derailleur, and Shimano Dura-Ace 8 speed Front Derailleur. It works pretty darn well.

The brakes are cable actuated Shimano non-series brakes with 160mm rotors. They're cheap, easy to install, and work great.

The bars are prototypes for a modern all-rounder drop bar that have quickly become my new favorite. Reach with integrated shifters is of goldilocks proportions - not too long, not too short. The drops are easy to reach without too much stretching (on the final product, the drops will be rounder and not so ergo). They have a bit of backsweep for a more natural position while on the tops. Speaking of tops, they are ovalized to give a flatter, larger section with more real estate to move around on. I think these will be great for touring, off road riding, randonneuring, and heck, even racing. All. Rounder.

No apologies for the tape ends, it's wabi-sabi

The mount is also a prototype - you can use one or both barrels for mounting your computer, light, travel chia pet, solar-powered dancing whatever, etc. We can always use some extra dashboard space.

These fenders have been a long time coming. They have the wavy pattern of the classic Lefol fenders that were popular on Constructeur bikes of the era. They're wide, lightweight, and swallow up 650bx47mm tires easily. The pattern needs a bit of work to be perfect, but they're getting there. You'll notice that they're satin rather than our MO of high polished. We found that the wave pattern is much more noticeable and beautiful in the satin style. The next sample will have deeper indentations, but is otherwise nearly ready to go into production.

The handlebar bags are the first prototypes from our new bag line! The plan is for the bags to blend with the versatility and modularity of many of the bikes coming out nowadays, the Polyvalent included. These arrived just before we packed the bikes on Monday, so we're excited to see how they work out on our trip.

They would look right at home on a 1200km brevet, a populaire, commuting, and touring around the world. They'll be highly water-resistant, abrasion resistant, completely vegan, and very very MUSA. The plan is for the rear and side pockets to be completely modular with different mini bag styles to choose from. Cell phone, XL cell phone, point n' shoot camera sack, book flap, etc...

Waterproof zipper rather than button to keep contents secure

I've been coming around to more vegan-friendly options for saddles, handlebars, and bags and I think the niche slice of our industry is moving that way as well. Our Microfiber Saddles have been super popular, and I hope to expand the line into other surface options and designs in the future.

Prototype seat bag

What do you all think of the fenders, luggage, and saddles? We hope to have all of these items all ready before next Spring, just in time for the season!

If you all have any route or sightseeing suggestions, we're all ears!

And We're Back From PBE 2017

by Igor

Philly Bike Expo is always so much fun. In addition to showing our own new products, it gives us an opportunity to nerd-out with friends, builders, and attendees. It's a pleasure to walk the floor and see where the industry, even within our niche, is headed. I welcomed the sight of all of the gravel-style bikes with big clearances and room for fenders and racks, something I think is good for the industry as a whole. Each builder's attention to detail and the finish is truly astounding. Check out these favorites of mine at the Expo.

Hollingsworth Sportif

Drillium!

Beautiful assortment of hand-cut lugs from Hollingsworth

Nice paint flow on this Bishop

Oversized bi-lan 

Represent!

Devil in the details

Groovy Dirt Drop 

Winter Porteur

With our Porteur Bars

Cycles Ed

Ed's No Bull Fat Trike with a ton of tricks

Rookey all the way from South Korea!

Johnny Coast seat cluster

Nice custom front derailleur mount!

Gallus Randonneur with clean internal wiring. I've always wanted a pink bike.

Pedalino Star Trek bike!

Another great year in Philly! Keep an eye out for our upcoming post on new Velo Orange products we displayed at PBE, with specs and release dates!

Philly Bike Expo 2017

By Scott

The Philly Bike Expo is coming up quickly. It's the weekend of Nov 4/5th and you can find all the details about entry costs and hours of operation on their website.

We'll be there again this year. Our booth # is 1049 and 1050. We'll have prototypes of the 2018 Piolets and Polyvalents as well as samples of some new handlebars, bags, and examples of our Cigne and Removable Faceplate Quill Stems that folks can look at up close.

We always have a great time at the Philly show. The show itself has a great variety of exhibitors and thus gets a wide variety of attendees. There's usually a number of small frame builders at the show and it's always interesting to see the bikes that they put together for the show.

See you in Philly this weekend!

Piolet Prototype Updates

by Clint

We just received our final round of prototypes for the Piolet mkII and they look great! We made them 69% shreddier without taking away any of their original touring capability.  As of now, they're set to be released in the Spring along with the new Polyvalents.

Geometry updates! We've slackened and stretched a few tubes to tweak handling and dial in fit. Flat bar builds have been pretty popular for this frame so we've adjusted accordingly. Top tubes are slightly longer and slightly steeper. This lets you size up if you want to run flat bars, without running into standover issues. Other than that, chainstays are a little longer on the smaller models, and headtubes are half a degree slacker on the larger models (putting it more in the realm of XC headtube angles vs touring headtube angles). All of these updates have felt great on our test rides!

Aesthetic updates! Right off the bat, you'll notice we're switching colors. More discussion on that to follow. If you look closely, we've swapped out the rear dropouts for the hooded model we use on several of our other frames. It's a nice consistent look across our lineup and all use the same durable, replaceable stainless steel derailleur hanger.

Hooded rears.

Other than that, there are a few small changes to the fork. The most noticeable is the new larger segment plug.  It lines up nicely with the headtube and makes it easier to mount a rack.

Stout, Angular.

Now for the controversial color options. We're split between Desert Stan and Poppin' Purple.  Desert Stan is nice. Somewhere between sand and tan. Seems to be trendy now. Pairs well with black or silver. It's a pretty neutral color so makes your anodized bits really pop. I dig it!

Desert Stan

Basket compatible

Poppin' Purple is fairly tame as far as purples go. It's quite nice. If you want to spice it up, it's dark enough that bright colors look nice against it without being too crazy, and if you want a more tame touring build, the usual black and silver also look fantastic!  I think this frame color looks amazing with gumwall tires.

Not too bright Purple

But it pops when light hits it!

We also just got in these VeloORANGE water bottles. They're a nice alternative to metal bottles for offroad ventures and they hold water really well. Find them here!

Hydration Station!

Does Weight Matter?

By Scott

With the arrival of the second round of Polyvalent prototypes, one thing we did was weigh each frame as well as the matching fork with it. It's one of those times where you have the frame without anything on it other then the bottle cage bolts that it comes with. It got me thinking about weight and a cyclist's relationship with weight. We are, as the MTB crowd would say, a gravity sport. The effect of gravity is directly related to riding. Ride up a hill and you'd swear that you were in a high gravity zone. Go down a hill and you'd wish that you'd filled up your water bottle to help speed you down the hill.

So does weight matter? And further to that, is it frame weight/wheel weight or the total package (the bike and the rider) that makes the difference?

A sharper fork, that's for sure

Now, I'm not going to insult all of you left reading this with a technical discussion of me going up hills attached to various meters/monitors and displays. I've given up on the cycle computer, and the last statistics course I took was in the 80's, so I'm not going to stifle the situation with numbers that can prove anything they want and often (shockingly) do. What I'm speaking of is more of a feeling/perception.

no more Paris-Brest's for Scott :(

I bring this up as over the past 6 months, I've lost 21 lbs. A change of diet and more exercise has led to this loss. In rides over the past month with my wife, who has also lost a significant amount of weight, we both found that going up the rolling hills of MD has gotten easier. Now losing this sort of weight means that my overall weight going up the hill is much less. The bikes we ride have not changed at all in terms of weight - same tires/wheels etc on them - but they feel easier to go up the hill.

So this all leads to my feeling that the frame and fork alone is only a small part of the overall perception of weight/speed/feel. If I weigh 181 lbs and my bike weighs 31 lbs, my frame is only 14% of the total weight of 212 lbs (I promise this is the only math in this blog post). If I drop 6 lbs off the bike, quite a big feat I'd say, the frame percentage only moves to being 12% of the total weight of 206 lbs. Dropping 21 lbs off my body results in a much larger % change in total weight and thus the greater difference I feel on the bike. Perhaps once my weight is between 165-170 lbs, frame weight will make the bigger difference.

Would you ask how much the frame weighs when talking to a custom builder?

How much emphasis does frame weight make to you? Is it a starting point when looking at a frame or is it just something you note along with the chain stay length and the BB drop when looking at a frame or bike on line?