Interbike, Good Blog

Interbike

I'm off to the Interbike show in Las Vegas today. Not my favorite city, but it should be a good show this year judging by the number of manufacturers coming from Japan and Taiwan. The global economic downturn may be pushing manufacturers to make an extra effort to attend this year. I had planned on visiting Taiwan next month, but so many of the folks I wanted to meet with will be at Interbike that I may reconsider.

After the show I'll be in Breckenridge for a four days, but the staff here will keep VO running smoothly.

As I ask every year, what new products do you think should I look for at the show?


Joel's Blog

Our friend Joel Ralph at Bikeville has an interesting blog that's worth checking out.

Vintage VO, Lunch & Porteur Racks Arrive

Typical lunch scene at Velo Orange:


And: The first 50 Porteur racks have arrived.

E-Bay and Flashlights

Once again we've accumulated a formidable pile of samples, seconds, prototypes, and parts used on showroom and demo bikes. There are even some old French components that I bought for research purposes. So Kyle has been assigned the unenviable task of sorting through everything and listing them on E-Bay. It'll take at least a few weeks to get everything listed. You can find all these treasures under seller name "veloorange".

With the days getting shorter I've been thinking about bringing back the VO front rack-mounted flashlight. The model we sold in the past is no longer available, so we'll look for a new suitable light.

Plans and News

I thought I'd write about some of the projects we're currently working on.

• We've just approved prototypes of the new VO hammered and polished fenders. These, like Honjo fenders, are reproductions of classic French fender designs. They will initially be available in 45mm and 50mm widths for 700c wheels and 60mm wide for 650b wheels. More sizes are likely in the future.
  
• We are also working on three new VO bags. A new VO British-style saddle bag is in the prototype stage. It's shaped roughly like a Carradice Nelson Longflap, but a little narrower. It will be heavy black canvas with lots of brown leather trim, including leather edge tape and piping. It will be called the "Inverness bag".
  
• A small rack-top bag, the "Eclair bag" is also on the way. It will use the same materials.
  
• After months of indecision we have finalized a VO Pannier design. It will be in the general style of the Ostrich and classic French panniers and use the same materials as the other VO bags. It will be taller and narrower than the classic bags to provide better heel clearance. Depending on how many rounds of prototypes it takes to get these three bags exactly right, they may arrive in 4-6 months.
• The VO Rackaleur is close to going into production.
• We will be working on a high end riding glove, as pictured above.

Please don't ask me when the new parts will be available or how much they will cost. There are simply too many variables to give a reasonably accurate answer.

In other news, the first shipment of the new Porteur racks will arrive next week. These will be priced at $160 including the rail and all hardware. The US made racks, including the rail, used to cost $235! And the quality is of these is great. The first 50 are coming by air and may sell out, but the rest will arrive by ship in about two weeks

The container due at the end of the month will include several new products, among them:

• VO cable housing and cable kits in various colors.
• VO squeal-free brake pads. These have received great reviews from everyone who has tried the prototypes, super stopping power and no brake squeal or your money back.
• VO threadless stems in 25.4mm size.
• New chrome plated expandable bar plugs

Gunner's Mooney

I've posted photos of Gunner's bikes in the past. He's one of our oldest customers and bike stylist extraordinaire. Here are a few shots of his latest build, a recently repainted Mooney. Note all the VO parts, racks, bar covers, rims, toe clip straps, decaleur, extra long Honjo fenders, mud flap, etc.

The last is a shot of his latest acquisition, a stunning silver McLean. Gunner's eclectic blog can be found here.

Toe Clip Overlap Tricks

Installing fenders on some bikes results in toe clip overlap (TCO). When you turn the front wheel in a tight, slow-speed turn, your toe clip, or toe, can hit the front fender. This is especially common on smaller frames and frames with steep head tube angles. I've owned several larger racing bikes with TCO, but it has never really bothered me. I simply watch the position of the crank when turning at slow speed. In fact, the only time I remember experiencing it is when slowly circling while waiting for someone. Some folks, however, really hate TCO.

One way to give yourself a little extra toe room is to replace the eyelet bolt on the front fender stay with an r-clip. This makes a lower profile attachment resulting in an extra 5mm of room. You can also drill a second hole and move the stay to a lower position. This latter fix doesn't look great, but it works. Finally, if you have smaller feet it's a good idea to try smaller toe clips.

Fortunately, VO frames all have reasonably long top tubes and, being low trail, generous rake. This will minimize TCO as compared to most modern frames, but there still may be some on smaller sized frames.

Do you think TCO overlap is important enough to make compromises in frame geometry to eliminate it? Or is it better to have the best possible handling and live with TCO on a small frame?

High Speed Testing

BPA and Water Bottles

I recently received an e-mailed press release from Klean Kanteen, those are the folks who import the stainless steel water battles we sell. Here's the interesting bit:

Recent news in the outdoor industry has once again brought much attention and questioning about the presence of the chemical, bisphenol-a (BPA), in reusable bottles. In an August 19, 2009, article by SNEWS, popular bottle makers, Sigg and Laken, publicly acknowledged for the first time that every aluminum bottle made and sold by their companies prior to August 2008 was knowingly lined with an epoxy resin containing BPA. Many scientific studies indicate BPA has the potential to act as an endocrine-disrupter when ingested, and fetuses, infants, and children are most susceptible to develop negative human health effects associated with BPA such as diabetes, heart disease, cancers, infertility, obesity, and neurological disorders.

Now I don't know if this is just aggressive marketing hype or a real concern, but I, and my family, switched to using only stainless steel water bottles a few years ago. In fact I own several aluminum (and some plastic) bottles that haven't been used in years; no point in taking chances with BPA.

All this got me thinking, or speculating, about Klean Kanteen. It's an interesting business. These stainless bottles have been made for some time by several factories in China. The quality of some is very good, but others are marginal. I know because we've recently been looking at samples from several factories. Kleen Kanteen seems to import some of the better ones, puts their name on them, and markets the hell out of them. It's a nice Kleen business model and KK seems to have done everything right. I admire the company. But I see it as a business model with low entry barriers; it's not terribly capital or development intensive while having good growth potential. In other words it is not a "deep moat" business. That means that other companies can easily jump in and be competitors. I suspect that there are few proprietary designs, unique products, or exclusivity agreements with manufacturers. A business of this sort is primary based on brand name, marketing, and distribution. So a company, like Velo Orange for example, that has distribution and marketing infrastructure in place could easily jump the moat and be a competitor.

But should we be a competitor? I have always been uncomfortable with distributors who set minimum prices or even minimum advertised prices. I also don't like the fact that we can no longer get the bottles without a logo. And we can't sell the current bottles to the almost 200 VO dealers. So that's why we've been looking at sample bottles from various factories. A container of stainless steel bottles is not a small investment, but paying for another company's advertising, when we don't benefit from it, is not a wise investment. Hmmm.

Last of the US Porteur Racks, Updated

We have one last small shipment of the USA-made Porteur Racks. These are stainless steel and un-drilled. These are still hand made in a two man shop in Wisconsin Once these are gone we will not restock them. These racks typically sell out very quickly, which is why we are moving production to a factory with more capacity.

The Taiwan-made pre-drilled Porteur Racks should be here within a few weeks.


UPDATE: The shipment is all gone, but we found a few seconds in the warehouse that have either a minor blemish or were slightly bent in shipping (We straightened them). They are now on the site at a discount.

Nutted Brakes

So many of you have been asking for nutted brakes to fit older frames that we asked Tektro to make some for us. This means that you can now easily convert older frames to modern dual pivot brakes without drilling out the fork crown and seat stay bridge.

We ordered the Tektro R538 (with a 47 to 57mm reach) and the Tektro R556 (with a 55 to 73mm reach) in traditional nutted versions. Both brakes are modern dual pivot designs with excellent stopping power. They both include re-fillable cartridge type brake shoes, barrel adjusters with O-rings, and cam type quick-releases. The finish is polished and anodized aluminum. The quality is equal to that on many much more expensive brakes.

The R556 is very popular for converting older frames to 650b wheels.


For some reason the little Tektro logo is silver on the front brake and black on the rear.

And, YES, they are available to shops through VO Imports Inc. As is my habit, the first order of any new item is small, so they probably won't last too long.

Mixte Prototypes

A few VO Mixte frame prototypes have arrived. As with most prototypes there are a few small problems, fork bend, missing cable guides, etc, but overall they look great.

Details:

• Around $700 including fork
• Lugged, double butted, chrome molly, frame.
  
• 50cm, 54cm, 57cm sizes
  
• 700c wheels
• Extra long reach brakes
• 38mm max tires
• Were shooting for Jan 2010 delivery.
  

Here are a few more photos.

VO Touring Saddles by Air, Updated

We had to arrange a special air freight shipment to restock a couple of popular items, so we included a few cases of the new VO touring saddles. It's cool to get new products ahead of schedule for a change.

Like our other saddles, these new models are made of the finest Australian cowhide. They have a special anti-stretch layer laminated under the top. The frames are sturdy chrome plated steel. The midsection of the aprons are tied together underneath so the saddle won't splay out over time. The Models 3 and 5 have copper rivets and the edge of the skirt is skived. The top is embossed with a slightly textured pattern. The rails are about 10mm longer than on Brooks saddles.

The Model 3 saddle is 170mm wide and 285mm in length. This is a size that most will find ideal for long distance touring and casual riding. It is particularly appropriate if your handlebars bars are set at, or above saddle height.



The Model 5 saddle is a sprung version of our Model 3 saddle. The sprung frame is more comfortable on rough roads and extended tours.


Since we only shipped a few boxes by air, we'll probably run out before the ocean shipment arrives in a few weeks. So order soon if you don't want to wait.

This completes our basic line of VO saddles. We'll wait a while to see how they sell and how folks like them. I'm especially interested in how folks find them compared to the Brooks B-17, B-17 Special, and Flyer. If all goes well we'll start designing new saddle models this winter. What styles of saddles would you like to see?

UPDATE:

It turns out that the factory used copper-plated rivets instead of solid copper rivets in the saddles. Damn! They function perfectly, but the copper color will wear off over time.

We'll try to get the right rivets in the next production run. This explains why there was so little additional cost for the new rivets.

Also, we ran out of Grand Cru seat posts last week, but we now have more.

Performance Sam

Sam, budding bike racer and VO order packer extraordinaire is going back to college. In honor of Sam's last day I'm linking to the video below, partly because I suspect that the guy behind those glasses may actually be him.



Update: Sam just came into the office and said, "That video is so TRUE!"

Copper Rivets

The type of rivets in your saddle is hardly a significant issue. But hand-set copper rivets do look rather nice. And, in theory, they distribute the load better so may make a saddle last longer. When the factory that makes our saddles told us they could install them, I speced them right away. We try to keep making little improvements, just as with the fenders. I think that the models 7 and 8 are now as good as any city bike saddle available.

As we replace models with the new copper-riveted versions we're clearing out the old styles. You can save some money on the older type if you act quickly.

We hope to have our mid-width touring saddle here around the beginning of September. It'll also have copper rivets and be available in brown and black. A mid-width sprung saddle is in the works.

The photo below is of our Model 6 racing saddle.

Fender Sale

Since we just received several models of our upgraded fenders, we're putting some of the existing stock of old style fenders on sale. Here are the differences:

• Our new fenders are all polished, maybe not quite as shiny as Honjos, but darn close. The older ones were matte finish.
  
• They now include Daruma bolts instead of L-brackets for the front fenders, but we will have optional VO L-brackets soon.
• The sliding bridge is stainless steel and slightly thicker so as to better resist rattling.
• The eyelet bolts are a closed design that's stronger.
• VO stays are shinier.
• The R-clips are narrower to better clear the second dropout eyelet on some frames.
  
• We have a new 37mm smooth model.

With these improvements I think we've really narrowed the gap between VO and Honjo fenders. Of course the old fenders are still very good and you might pick some up at bargain prices before the rainy season. All the new hardware will also be available separately.

We will continue to sell Honjos because they offer some unique styles and their quality is still the best.

New Stuff

We have a big shipment from Taiwan with new stuff including:

• Porteur bars! Much better quality then the French originals.
• VO toe clips
• High polish versions of several VO fenders
• New VO 37mm fenders
• New hardware kits for fenders
• VO saddles with copper rivets
• Constructeur rear racks, pre-drilled
• Decaleurs from our new factory

We also got a bunch of stuff we were out of.

It'll take all day, maybe longer to photograph all this stuff and get it into inventory. I'll add links as things are added to the VO Store. Shops can order everything here through VOI. And you may notice considerable price drops on a couple of items.

I remember when a shipment contained 20 or 30 boxes. This one had 160 boxes!

Weight Weenies

I've been thinking about weight today.

I weighed the chrome fillet brazed stems and the quill stem actually weighs about 40g less than a similar size Nitto Technomic. But when we make the quill a little longer the difference will be smaller.

Someone asked about the weight we list for our cranks, not the first time. Why is it that it's higher than some other companies list? That's because we include the weight of the crank, and chain rings and chain ring bolts. Some shops simply list the manufacturer's stated weight, which is often for the arms alone.

By the way, we have two electronic scales. One of them is certified and said to be super accurate, so I'm pretty sure of our weights.

One thing that surprises me is that that some parts can vary in weight by 10% or even 20% from one piece to another. I've also found that some stated weights, mostly for racing stuff that we don't stock, are just plain overly optimistic.

I've decided to cut down on carbs and lost 10.5 pounds in the last four weeks. And without ever feeling hungry. I find that amazing. It's a lot more weight than I could ever shave off my bike.

I actually don't think that bike weight is very important. Most cyclists worry way to much about it.

Help Wanted

Dynamic bicycle retail/wholesale company needs warehouse help in order fulfillment, shipping, and stocking. Knowledge of bikes a plus.

One of us is returning to college. Plus we need another to keep up with ever growing orders. These are entry level jobs, but you get a substantial discount and better pay than at most bike shops. Probably beats working at Starbucks.

If you have experience in the bike industry, we'll also soon be looking for someone to increase our office staff and help with ordering, inventory and shipping management, and technical support.

Send an e-mail.

Zen and the Art of Making Stems

Like many growing up in the late 1970s, my introduction to serious philosophy was reading Robert Pirsig's bestseller, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. In it Pirsig explored the "metaphysics of Quality", though he says that Quality itself is indefinable. He also attempts to unite classical and romantic (Zen) perception. I admit that it was a struggle to understand. And to this day I struggle with many issues of Quality, though the current problems are not quite as deep.

A case in point is our chrome-plated fillet-brazed stem project. You may remember my mentioning them in early spring. We're finally considering placing an order after seeing some production samples. Custom made fillet brazed stems, or any fillet brazed stems, are incredibly expensive. Johnny Coast made them as an option for our semi-custom Rando frames. The photo below shows that they are very high quality indeed, as they should be given the $450-$500 price.


The stems below are made in Taiwan and at first glance they look similar. The polishing and chrome on the top are pretty good. Given the cost of somwhere between $60 and $80, it's darn nice.


But flip them over and you'll see that there is little finish work underneath. The area around the bolts, which must be finished by hand with a small file also looks rough.


So the question I face is whether we should we accept this level of finish and price? Or should we insist on the bottoms being filed and polished and, perhaps, doubling the cost? On one hand, I know they could be nicer. On the other, I want to make them accessible to everyone.

So long as I'm throwing out questions, should they be 6-degree angles or have a higher rise? And does anyone have further insights on the "metaphysics of Quality"?

Guidonnet Levers

We just got the new Dia Compe Guidonnet levers. Many cyclists have asked us to make these, but the tooling costs were too high for VO. Fortunately Dia Compe picked up the tab and this great style of lever is once again in production. The quality is nice and I find the details and shape very pleasing.

You might have seen guidonnet levers on old French cyclo touring and camping bikes. They allow easy braking from the top of the bar, but can't be used from the drops.

They are also ideal for city bars, like the VO Bellville shown in the photo. You can brake from either the traditional grip area or from the front of the bar. This allows two safe positions in city traffic, a low aerodynamic position and a traditional upright position.

We only received a small shipment of these, so they might sell out quickly. Cost is $30 a pair and they are available in both road bar size (23.8mm) and MTB size (22.2mm)


We also have silver Tektro inverse levers in stock again.

Below is another view of our new PBP rims. The quality and finish on these is really remarkable and we're selling a lot of them to shops that build wheels.

PBP Rims, Updated

PBP rims are here. From Tom's VO Imports blog:

For years cyclists have been lamenting the loss of the simple box section rim in a shiny silver polished finish. They were available here and there but you really had to scour local swap meets, eBay and Craigslist. If you did find them they were usually used, and in varying ranges of condition, mostly poor to fair at best and required a careful and very experienced builder to get them close to true.

Well, no more of that. Velo Orange has worked for months with one of the premier rim companies in Taiwan. We researched different widths, shapes, and materials, and what was being currently sold. It quickly became apparent that we needed to offer an alloy doublewall rim. Doublewall construction adds a bit of weight as compared to singlewall (or open box) rims, but we feel a classic doublewall box design is far superior in terms of overall strength, load capacity, and impact resistance.

The PBP rims in house weigh around 450g. The 19mm outside width and 13.2mm inside width is ideal for tires up to 32mm.

We paid a little more for stainless eyelets and a lot more for a high polish finish. We kept the graphics down to an absolute minimum; there is a simple VO sticker for identity.

The 700c PBP rim is offered in 36 and 32 hole versions. For wheelbuilders, ERD is 606mm.

The price is $50 (not $40 as we initially thought; sorry).

Since Chris is on vacation, questions in the comments may not be answered for a long time.

UPDATE: After reviewing all the costs we realized that the price of these rims has to be $50, more than we initially thought, but still pretty reasonable. Chris says he was simply looking at the wrong column in one of Tom's infamous (and yard wide) spreadsheets.

Vacation Week

VO will be in slow mode for the next two weeks. Annette and I are off to the Exuma islands for 12 days of R&R. Heidi is finishing up a sailboat race.

Tom alone will be dealing with all the e-mails. Please give him a break and save the non-urgent mail until I return. Orders may ship a day later than normal.

If you're planning to visit the showroom, please call ahead because Tom is the only one there to show you around. The rest of the staff will be hurriedly packing orders.

New VO Info Website

Trygve packs orders, helps manage inventory, and is our new web guy. In his spare time he's put together the new VO Info site. I had long wanted a place to post instructions for VO products, a list of VO dealers, and a few helpful articles from this blog. I think Trygve has made a great start on this!

I guess I should ask what other information you'd like to see there. But remember that I'm not Sheldon Brown and don't have his encyclopedic knowledge of all things bike related. So be reasonable.
The photo is of Trygve (on the right) and Sam with a stack of postal bins. It was supposed to be a joke on Heidi, who is in charge of packing/shipping and usually comes in early. But Tom didn't know and knocked the tower over. That's how we amuse ourselves here at VO ;<)

By the way, Trygve's long commute to work is often on a beat low-end moutain bike. Sam is a cat-3 bike racer who's recently been finishing in the top ten in local races. Heidi is only a casual cyclist. All her spare time is devoted to racing her 33 foot sloop and she is not even remotely casual about that. I know because I've crewed for her a couple of times.

Happy Bastille Day!

Also, we an have almost firm deliver date on the 650b Polyvalent frames. They are about 90 days out. I will get additional confirmation and commitment soon and then we can accept pre-orders. As I wrote earlier:

The main differences from the photo are that the color will be dark gray and there will be an extended head tube. It will be available in four sizes initally, 51 x 54cm, 54 x 56cm, 57 x 59cm, and 60 x 61cm. Remember that it's designed for city bars so the top tube is longer than on a rando frame. We'll add more sizes on the next run.

The introductory price for the frame and fork will be $400, plus shipping. That price will go up on subsequent production runs.

New Threadless BB

I recently mentioned a new threadless BB design I saw in Taiwan. Much to my surprise a sample arrived today. Usually development on products like this takes a very long time, so I wasn't expecting to get one for many months.

This BB uses a new locking system that works even if the threads in the BB shell are damaged, or non-existent. That means it should fit Swiss and other oddly threaded bikes. As the adjustable cup is tightened the silver sleeve is pushed up the tapered outside face, expanding and locking in the BB. Installation requires a traditional-style BB spanner or a pin wrench.

We're going to try it on a few frames before ordering, but the quality looks great. The bearing are big sealed cartridges with serious weather seals. The body and cup are alloy with nice machining. The axle is chromo steel, but not hollow. As for the colors, we can have that changed; maybe lime green?

If all goes well we should see these arrive in about 3 months. The first shipment will probably be 107mm, 110mm, and 113mm lengths. We don't have final pricing yet, but I would guess they will run around $75.