Production Samples and New Bits

As I promised, the next few months will bring a lot of new Velo Orange components. We just received production samples of a few of them.

On the left is the new VO "Grand Cru" headset. It is a highly polished alloy headset using very high-quality angular-contact sealed cartridge bearings. We'll have a similar headset in 1-1/8". We feel the quality of this headset is among the best available.

The other headset is an alloy and steel ball bearing headset that is very nicely made and polished. It should sell at a great price.

The bottom bracket at the top is the new VO standard BB. It has alloy cups, and a steel body with sealed bearings. The lower BB is the "Grand Cru" version with an alloy body and cups and a hollow boron axle. The bearings are over-sized and of super quality.

The new VO Grand Cru derailleur jockey wheels are made from a special Swiss nylon that we believe is far superior to that found in other jockey wheels. They use sealed cartridge bearings and, this is the best part, they come with a set of shims that will allow them to fit almost any modern or classic derailleur. The sample is black, but I'm trying for orange or red.

We also recieved two new VO products this week. The first is a good quality replacment jockey wheel set for Shimano and other Japanese deraileurs in stylish bright red. These are normal bushing-type wheels, not sealed bearing, but still very good quality and only $4 a set.

And we have some new basic front cable stops with an adjusters.

Bob's New Toei

Bob, who was kind enough to provide us with a post about Toei owner's meeting in Japan, just got a new frame. He sent a few photos of this lovely bike that I had to share. He writes:

I alluded to this bicycle in my report last fall about attending the TOEI Owners Meeting. Here are pictures of my new TOEI 650B bicycle. Chainrings, wheel set, and tires came from Velo Orange. I will add flashlight and handlebar bag soon. I like the ride!

What a nice understated bike this is,

My Pass Hunter

My pass hunter arrived today (after 6-weeks at the powder coat shop). And YES; the decal is on the top tube! That was obviously an error. Otherwise I think it looks great and I can't wait to build it up and ride it.

The Passhunter is our new affordable semi-custom frame. Though it's a bit less affordable now because we'll be switching to the Spectrum shop to powder-coat the frames; 6-weeks is too long to wait. But Spectrum is the best powder coat shop in the US and they will also be clear-coating the frames. Otherwise it's a TIG welded frame from Ahren Rogers, who also builds our fillet brazed city bikes.

Looking at the photos you'll see that the welding and brazing are exceptionally smooth and neat. There will be a few very minor changes on the next frames though. We'll set them up for Nitto M-12 front racks and we'll use the same rear cable stop as on our rando frame, and we'll put the decal on the damn down tube.

Maybe that decal placment isn't so bad after all. What do you think? I don't want to wait until it's repainted to ride it ;<(

There are a few more photos here.

Shifting Gears at VO

We've been searching for shifters to use with Montmarte, Porteur, Left Bank bars and other road-sized city bike handlebars. These inexpensive Falcon shifters are not TA or Campy quality. What do you expect for $10 a pair? But they do function perfectly, have a nice ratcheting action, and the soft rubber tipped levers are actually very comfortable. And they look nice with inverse brake levers. They also work on MTB-sized bars such as the Milan, Promenade, Tourist etc. Heck, they even work on drop bars, though not on the sleeve. They should be in stock on Friday.

Speaking of shifting gears, there's a lot of that going on here at Velo Orange. We are now in our third year and still growing like crazy. I expected strong growth in the first two years; it's easy when you start from zero. But we're seeing no slowdown even as we become more established. This while a friend who owns a very nice racing and MTB-oriented bike shop is complaining of weak sales.

Surprisingly, I never wanted to own a bike shop. My main interest is in finding, designing, and sourcing new bike components. The number of VO-brand products will triple by year's end. We hope to have a range of complete bikes to sell by late next year. And we will introduce a line of "Grand Cru" components; the best of the best. VO is becoming more like a manufacturer than a regular shop.

So it's time to launch a real effort to get these new items into other bike shops. Tom Martin, who was the buyer at a major West Coast bike wholesale company, just joined us and is taking over management of VO Imports this week. VOI is the new wholesale-only company I've started. It has a different warehouse, separate inventory, and it's own staff. My hope is that it will become the wholesale equivalent of Velo Orange. VOI will sell a complete line of products from many manufacturers, not just VO components. Within a year or two, a local bike shop selling city, rando, and touring bikes might not need to order from any distributor other than VOI.

At the same time we'll start offering Velo Orange brand and Grand Cru components and accessories to other distributors both in the US and abroad. And we're still looking to buy an established distribution company to merge with VOI.

Of course there are problems too. I continue to underestimate the amount of stuff we'll sell and we keep running out of popular items. Our ever increasing orders plays havoc with planning at the small manufacturers we prefer to use and so production gets delayed. Of course I don't get much sleep or riding time these days and fear I've become a bit of a grumpy bastard these past couple of months. But things will calm down when we have more staff. And it's still fun.

Wish us luck.

Nice Light

We just received our latest shipment from Spanninga/JOS. As you may know, Spanninga is a Dutch bike lighting company that now owns the famous French JOS brand. JOS was the choice for the finest European constructeur bikes for decades and vintage JOS lights now often sell for hundreds of dollars. I'm happy to see that they are returning, in a very small way, to their retro roots.

In this shipment were the long awaited Retroled lights. These are a fairly bright one-LED battery powered light, but in a very cool teardrop shaped case. They run a reputed 600 hours on two AA batteries. Not bad for $18.

The Retroled comes without a mounting bracket, but a VO Light Bracket (as I've used on my bike in the photo), a Down Low model 2 mount, or the new Spanninga fork mount will work. I'm thinking of putting two of these on my next city bike, one on each side of the porteur rack, but inside the outer rails!

We also received a new complete and more economical Spanninga dynamo lighting kit that includes a halagon light, fender mounted taillight, Vesta dynamo, and all the required mounts and wiring.

Finally we received a simple, but desperately needed, inexpensive dynamo bracket that can be used with Spanninga, B&M, and other brands of generators. It also can be used to mount many types of lights.

These items will be available to bike shops and (full time) frame builders at wholesale prices through VO Imports.

Lezyne Tools

I'm impressed by some tools from a new company called Lezyne.

The Lezyne Alloy Levers are constructed of polished, aerospace-grade aluminum for an high strength-to-weight ratio. Aggressive geometry design equips the Alloy Lever with ideal leverage for handling even the tightest of tire beads. These are, in short, the best tire levers we've ever seen. The, admittedly high, price includes two levers and a neoprene sleeve (so they don't rattle in you tool bag. I think this may be the only lever we stock in the future.

Another product I like is Lezyne's stainless steel multi-tool. It features forged, CNC-machined stainless steel bits have a solid and centered pivot base. This makes them very strong and resistant to folding during use. The aluminum side plates are also forged and high-polished. Even the hardware is custom forged and machined, then heat-treated. And a neoprene sleeve is included.

Finally, we will be stocking the Lezyne Pressure Drive pump. Its a sleek, and compact (216mm) pump that delivers up to 120psi. A feather-weight (103gm), CNC machined aluminum structure features an oversized piston that houses a reversible Presta/Schrader hose. The advantage of the hose is that it does not stress the valve stem and it allows you to hold the pump at any comfortable angle. Our Quicker Pro pump may be faster and easier to pump, but the Lezyne is smaller, lighter, and superbly made.

VO 650B Fenders are Finally Here!!!

Many months ago I announced that we would have 52mm VO 650b fenders. I said they would arrive in a month or two. What arrived were 700c fenders. So I took the opportunity to spec a cooler Zeppelin profile fender. Three months later I was told they were almost ready to ship. Delays are expected with new products so I was not concerned. Two months later they had still not shipped and after another few week's wait I was told that the tooling wouldn't work. Darn; well time and money would fix the tooling so I did the only thing I could, paid and waited. A weeks later I was told they were ready to ship. A month after that they had not and I was starting to get mad. My agent assured me that they would cover the cost of air freighting them to us to make up for some of the delays. He put them on a plane, but they didn't arrive. US Customs apparently spent three weeks looking for tiny terrorists hidden among the r-clips. Finally they were released by customs. Yet they did not arrive. The trucking company that was to bring them the last 20 miles had misplaced them. Finally, last Friday, the new fenders arrived. All the hardware was missing though. And the profile was not exactly what I'd ordered. Still, I think the profile is still very cool, perhaps even nicer than what I'd wanted. And we do have extra hardware so can ship the fenders to customers starting today.

I relate this little experience in case any of you have thoughts about getting into the import business. I also wanted to demonstrate the futility of asking us when something will be in stock. I may nod authoritatively and say "In three weeks" but I probably don't have a clue.

I hope that you like the new fenders? I do.

Photos from Le Cirque du Cyclisme

Despite oppressive Virginia heat and humidity, Le Cirque du Cyclisme was well attended and a lot of fun. I took a few photos, which are posted here. And here a few of my impressions:

There was a lot of talk about high-end city bikes, not only among average riders, but among frame builders and collectors. Obviously this is a type of bike that people are becoming more and more interested in. Of course, this is not a new trend, but it sure seems to be picking up speed.

Some very knowledgable insiders who have been in the bike industry for decades are guardedly optimistic that we may soon see a new bike boom like that in the 1970s.

I was amazed at how few people seemed to be discussing racing bikes. Or perhaps I'm just not in with the right crowd?

The lower photo is of Johnny Coast and Annette.

Le Cirque du Cyclisme and Racks

For anyone interested in classic bikes, the premier event in the US is Le Cirque du Cyclisme. It's a bike show, charity auction, swap meet, and party all rolled into one weekend. This year it's in Leesburg, VA, a very pleasant town with a lot of good riding nearby and only about 30 miles from Washington DC. Being about halfway down the east coast many folks can drive there. For those of you who want to fly, Washington's Dulles airport is only 12 miles away. More info and photos are here.

Also, we have portuer racks again as well as the new rails! And we have some stainless steel rear constuctuer rack "seconds" at a discount price

Something to Think About

From Paul Krugman's blog:


As he says, "we're number one"!

Then there is this. And this.

We're Moving

I'm a bit behind on posting. It's been busy here, bordering on totally crazy. So we're hiring a couple of more folks and moving to a bigger shop.

The spaces pictured at right will house VO and VO Imports. It's still within a mile or so of downtown Annapolis, but now we have plenty of parking and storage. We'll move at about the end of Summer.

You'll notice that this is an exceedingly elegant structure in the early penitentiary style. The landscaping seen in this photograph might be described as minimal, however we have a large yard in back. It is done in the style of an un-raked Zen garden with rusty machinery and oil drums evoking mountains and islands. Perhaps we should add a koi pond?

Interestingly, the other end of building houses my old company, Chesapeake Light Craft.

Also, we got another, and probably our last, shipment of the very interesting Modolo Grand Fondo Handlebars.

Sneak Peak

I just finished building up the prototype multipurpose frame, well almost. It still needs fenders and racks.; I wish someone had 650b Le Paon fenders in stock. In any case, I've only ridden it around the neighborhood so far, but I really like it.

You may notice a few odd items on this bike. The bottle cage is a new high polish version of our Moderniste cage that should arrive in about two months. The saddle is one of four models, in three colors, of the new VO saddles. They should be here in about 3 months. The bars are old French bars I wanted to try out.

There are a few more photos here. BTW, the chain guard in one of the photos is a model that works with a front dérailleur; it's not attached yet. It's actually plastic, but not as awful looking as some. We might stock it.

City Bike Decision and New Items

Thanks for all the great opinions regarding the city bike. I've placed to order for a production run of TIG welded frames. We will also have them in a Mixte version if that prototype looks good. The Rando frame and the multipurpose frame will both be lugged. I'll post photos of the multi-purpose bike in a few days.

A perfect accessory to a city bike is shopping panniers. The Basil Kavan panniers are beautiful and popular, but expensive. So we decided to stock a simpler style Basil city bike panniers, the Memphis. The Memphis is a double rear pannier in the Dutch style. It's made of sturdy and waterproof imitation leather. It has a cut-out for luggage carrier straps and spring clamp and double reflective stripes front and back. 33 x 12 x 30cm (each bag).

I really like bike baskets and we have a few new Basil models. The Davos is a large open basket and the Denver is an oval model with a lid. Both have handles for shopping. And we now have the very well received Blossom basket in blue.

We also have some inexpensive double track straps, for you animals who want to race to the farmer's market.

A Proper Mixte

Lesli sent some photos of her VO Mixte and it's simply stunning. This frame was built by Johnny Coast. Lesli wrote:

More formal ride/commuting report to come but I can tell you right now that the frame fits perfectly and is a total pleasure to ride. I'm amazed at how light and sporty the bike feels. It's definitely a distant, sports car cousin to my old Raleigh 3-speed. I can promise you that I'll be taking this bike out on a late season 200k just to test its randonneuring credentials. Louis Orsini did amazing work to put the bike together. Lots of small build/adjustments to make those old parts fit together (drilling, filing, shimming, etc). One special detail: he built me up one of his "special" derailleurs: coupling the body of an old Campy rally derailleur to the short cage of a Campagnolo Super record.

The chainguard is a VO prototype and I like it so much I'm going to start bugging Taiwan to hurry up and put it into production. The bars are Bellari Porteurs drilled for NOS CLB inverse levers. There are more photos here. Thanks Leslie.

What Are Lugs Worth? UPDATED

I received final pricing for the city bike from the factory today. It would raise the final price of the city bike by $160 to $200 to have it built with lugs, rather than TIG welded. The TIG welded frame and fork would cost about $400. Both versions includes fender mounts, semi horizontal dropouts, chainguard mounts, and all the other braze-ons you would expect from a VO frame. The tubing is double butted and the quality of either is as good as is available in Taiwan, which is not far from a modern production Japanese frame. Both the brazing and welding is very clean and there are no signs of overheating. So the question is, are lugs worth the extra expense?

As I see it, a city bike should not be too expensive or you'll be afraid to leave it out on the street. And a TIG welded frame rides almost as well as a lugged frame. Some say they are indistinguishable.

On the other hand, I think a lugged frame feels just a touch nicer. And it is certainly a lot nicer to look at. There is no question that most folks reading this would prefer a lugged frame, but is it worth the extra cost in this application.

The floor is open.

UPDATE: I wanted to add a few words to answer some questions and offer some explanation.

This is a low trail design with capacity for significant front loading. We are working on less expensive portuer style racks for it. But it is a real city bike for commuting and shopping, not a porteur optimized for a 50 pound front load. A portuer like that will not handle as well when unloaded.

As with all VO frames the emphasis is on perfect handling. I'm confident that there is no production city bike frame that will handle as well. My goal is offer the ride like of a top-of-the-line French constructeur city bike in a frame selling for between $400 and $580. Surlys, Somas, and other current frames are not like this. The Kogswell is a nice bike, but I think it's more like the upcoming multi-purpose frame. The VO has a longer top tube and is designed specifically for city bike handlebars, not drop bars.

This is a 650b frame; that is the best tire size for this sort of bike and I won't compromise on that. A bike like this is not for someone who will be happy on a converted mountain bike. It's for someone who lusts after a $6000 vintage Singer city bike on E-bay, but knows the Singer is far too valuable to lock to a parking meter.

Picture Day

A couple of very nice photos of bikes found their way into my in-box yesterday.

The first is of Mark's lovely Fuji Randoneuse. There are more photos here. He writes:

The only thing original on the bike is the frame and fork. I built-up everything else with either new or NOS parts. Wheels are shimano 105 hubs DT Swiss R1.1 rims 32-spoke laced 4-cross. Tires are Grand Bois 700x32 (thanks out to Jan Heine). Besides short touring, I made the mud flaps out of 1/8" sheet rubber bought at a hardware store. I epoxy-glued one end of these to the inside Honjo fenders, clamping them with a wine cork on the inside to make it fit to the curve of the fender. Then I drilled and through bolted the flap with a small stainless steel bolt/nut.

I've used this bike to carry photo equipment to photograph stages of races like the Amgen Tour of California.
<http://www.medesignphoto.com/amgenTOC2008>

I'm currently retrofiting a second later quad butted del rey frame as a campee bike (it's dark green).

Then there is this stunning Myata built up by David. Click to enlarge the photo; there are lots of nice details. Maybe David will chime in with more info.

Finally we have a less-than-stunning prototype VO "Type C" or city bike. This is a perfect example of why we build prototypes. The fork length is an error. I spec the length from the bottom of the crown because this allows for perfect fender lines, but the manufacturer assumed it was from the top of the crown. Good thing we caught it now. The color will change to a very very dark green. The chain guard was not drilled for this frame, but rather it was an old one that already had some holes in it. In fact, most of the parts were simply bits we had lying around; I'll rebuild it later. This one is in Annette's size; I haven't photographed mine.
















By the way, we have VO handlebar water bottle cage mounts in stock again.

In Stock, Low Down Type 2

This is just a quick note to let those of you who have been waiting for the Type-2 Low Down light mount that they have arrived. These are hot off the lathe and allow you to mount a dynamo light to your front wheel skewer. You can also mount them on the light eyelets of VO racks. The Type-1 , for battery light has been selling well and gotten good reviews from those who have tried it.

We also have some nice new chrome Japanese round spoke wrenches for a great price.

And we have 8 speed KMC chains in stock Again. I don't know why there was a run on them and we kept selling out. They are very good chains, but still?

A Few New Products

I thought I'd take a break from building up the production city bike prototype and post about a few new products.

We just got new Honjo 45mm x 700c fenders that are based on the famous French Lefol Le Paon fenders. They are highly polished, terribly retro, and one of the most beautiful fender styles ever made. Our VO 650b Le Paon fenders are finally on the way as well.

Another new item is the FSA Gossamer Front Dérailleur that's designed for compact cranks. They have a flat outer cage so they work well with TA Pro-5-Vis, and other older-style, cranks. They clamp onto 28.6 and 31.8mm seat tubes. All hardware is stainless steel. And, yes, they do work perfectly with 9 and 10 speed chains.

And then there is the new Sumo horn. Give him a good squeeze and he'll honk. Wouldn't you? One can't always be elegant. Mounts on most handlebars.

New Brakes

We just recieved a prototype VO long reach caliper brake in our special polished, but not anodized, finish. This matches the finish of TA Pro-5-Vis cranks and many other classic components. I've mentioned these brakes before, but here are the specs. They have a reach of 47-57mm, they are CNC made from 6066 T6 alloy, and their weight is 367gm per set. You'll also notice that we now have matching cartridge brake shoes that take any standard pad. They are super stiff and very smooth. The price is not yet set, but they will compete with the better Shimano long reach brakes. I'm working on the black hardware issue. Any thoughts?

Brett's VO Rando Bike

Just as I was trying to think of something to post about comes a great e-mail from Brett, who just finished building up his VO frame. And he has done a splendid job of it. He writes:

I took a few photos of my VO Randonneur frame built except for the lighting system (it will be a few months before I do that). The ride is superb and the frame is stunning. I've thought about building this dream bike for years but Velo Orange is what really made it possible...

...It took about 20 hours for me to assemble everything and the final weight is less than 25 pounds which includes the heavy Schmidt SON hub.

The quality of the frame is equal or better than many custom frames that cost thousands more and have 2-3 year waits. Even at the current price of $1850 it seems like an incredible bargain. What's more important is that you're supplying the necessary parts to really make it happen from racks to the roller hangers all at reasonable prices!

The rest of the photos are here. I think that's a beautiful build. Great job Brett. By the way, the wait for a frame is now 2.5 years, sorry.

This and That

A few random notes:

The New York Times had a nice article about the bike lending scheme in Washington DC. I'm a huge fan of these programs which have been fairly successful in Europe. Actually, some early attempts had problems, but the newest models seem to be working.

Our TIG welded production city bike prototype will arrive late next week. I'm very excited.

We will also get the frame that may be the basis for a possible multipurpose bike. I'm still working on this concept, but the idea is a bike that's halfway between a city bike and a touring bike, wide 650b tires, wide gearing, light lugged frame, porteur bars, chain guard... It'll be fun to build up. Any ideas?