Summer Pleasures

One of life's little pleasures is a glass of wine and a bit of reading after dinner. On nice summer evenings I'll take my wine in the old Adirondack chair under a tree and beside our tiny pond. I caught a glimpse of my city bike, not yet put away for the night, along with my wine glass and book from an upstairs window. I think it makes a pleasant summer scene.

Returning to the garden I found our 12-year old son pretending to be me. Smart-Alec! Nothing profound here. It's just that we should take the time to savor long evenings, nice bikes, good books, and clever kids.

On Quality and Product Development

We just received another box of samples and prototypes from several factories. Our agent consolidates these and overnights them to us every so often. Of the four items we've received recently, only one will make into our inventory. Product development is tricky business. If we can get 70% of our new projects to the point where functionality, quality, appearance, and price are up to snuff we're thrilled. The reality is that the figure is closer to 50%. Here are some recent examples.

An aluminum bell we wanted to import just didn't look good enough. Tone and durability were fine, but not appearance, so we'll drop that idea.

A leather saddle bag we have high hopes for needs more work, The opening is too low so items could fall out if not opened carefully. And the shape is not quite right as it rubs on our thighs. Re-design time, too bad since the quality is pretty darn nice.

A new VO chain guard with a cross-check pattern on it won't be produced because there is no way to get the pattern exactly right at reasonable cost. We'll give up on that one.

Another chain guard, however, looks fantastic and will be available in a few months.

We find that we're getting more concerned with quality every year and becoming ever more picky. And we continue to make little improvements with almost every production run.  I'm really proud of the quality of our fenders, for example. I feel that they are as good or better than any made. And the quality, strength, and durability of our racks stacks up against racks that cost twice as much. The same can be said of our brakes, seat post, and stems.

But it takes time and a lot of little, often unseen, improvements to get products to the point that they really are the best. Here's an example: Casey was testing VO Moderniste water bottle cages, actually pulling them apart to see where they would fail. He figured out that if we made a small change in the location of the butt-joint in the tubing, the cages would be a lot stronger. At the same time we're increasing the wall thickness of the tubing used by 0.2mm. We're actually having custom tubing drawn just for our cages. I'll bet not one of our customers would have noticed those two minor changes.  But the cages will be much more durable.

More Arts and Crafts

Above is Igor's design for a U-lock holster. It's nicer than mine. This is one of those little things I wanted to try on my own bike. I'll run errands downtown, typically stopping at the hardware store, drug store, wine shop, and, on Sunday, the farmers market. With so many stops it seems that a quick-draw holster might be an improvement over digging through my pannier for the lock. We'll see how it works out. Igor already put one on his bike. I don't think we'll make it, but it's fun to try new ideas.

In other crafts news, the above shows Heidi's broken aluminum rear rack and her clever repair with two Allen wrenches and electrical tape. It broke on the first day of her first ever bike tour. This is why we prefer stainless steel racks. Heidi is getting a second Dajia expedition rack for this bike since the one on her son's bike has held up perfectly.

By the way, Heidi's tour is along the C&O canal, which reminded me of this old post.

Leather U-lock Holder and Croissant Bag Straps

We were kicking around the idea of making a U-lock holder to work with Velo Orange racks. This is one design I came up with. It's simply a strip of leather tied to the rail of a rear constructeur rack; it would work with a front rack too. We used the leather we make mud flaps from. There are notches to keep the twine from slipping off. You could probably make your own from an old thick leather belt. I don't think we'll make them.

On another subject. I notice that VO Croissant bags, and other similar bags, are often attached incorrectly, which allows them to sway and bounce. The strap should come out of one the holes, go around one saddle rail, go back into the bag, then come out the other hole and around the other rail. Well, you can see what I mean in the photo. A further refinement is to have the buckle inside the bag. By the way, this style of bag is still my favorite. They hold just enough for a whole day on the bike.

Motobecanes Again

Yesterday I saw nice old Motobecane in Annapolis and today noticed this one on Velospace. I was reminded of this post I wrote in 2007.  As I wrote previously, Motobecanes seem a cut above Gitanes or Peugeots of similar vintage. Classic Rendezvous has a run-down on the various models here. Finding an older high-end Motobecane to re-build is one of the least expensive ways to get a really nice riding rando or city bike.

I still own and enjoy a Motobecane Le Champion that's set us as a fast city bike. And my previous city bike was a Grand Jubilee (pictured above).

Of course the currently made Asian Motobecanes come from a  different company and share only a name with the classic French bikes.

Catching Up

Things have been pretty crazy at VO. Not only have we been busier than ever, but we've been working on a bunch of new projects. We're also scrambling to order more stuff; you guys are cleaning us out in record time. I mean as soon as we increase quantities and push for faster and more container shipments, demand rises above our most optimistic projections. Air shipments will be incoming. So given all that, I'll ask you to excuse me for not posting more often.

Here are a few of the newest things we're working on. I won't provide many details for competitive reasons, but you might make some educated guesses. Of course not every project will come to fruition, and most will take longer to finish than I anticipate. And some of these items are rather specialized and probably won't sell in huge quantities. They are a little like the porteur chain cases in that they are items that I think should be made, even though we may not make much of a profit from them.

• We hope to have a new and very stylish Grand Cru crank by this Fall.
• We're working on three new fender models, each will be unlike anything currently made.
• A new and rather elegant chain guard is in the works, but it may be expensive.
• Those top tube protectors I wrote about recently will be available soon. We just need to pick the best leather.
• Some Grand Cru luggage is in development, but might not be ready until 2013.

I took the photo along the Canal du Midi. It has nothing to do with this post, except that it's a great place to ride a bike. Wish I could take a few days off and do just that.

Rims and Hubs are Here

We finally have all of our rims and hubs back in stock. This includes the following items that we were out of and that many of you were waiting for:

• Grand Cru High Flange Freewheel Rear Hub 126mm
• Grand Cru High Flange Front Hub, 3hh and 36h
• Grand Cru Fixed Front Hub, 32h and 36h
• Grand Cru Touring Hub, 130mm, 32h
• Grand Cru Touring Hub, 135mm, 36h
• VO PBP 700c Rims, 32 and 36h

The Diagonale Rim in 700c size has made a comeback. (We'd only been making these in 650b size in 2011.) These rims have a very strong triple box-section. They will be a great match for the upcoming Campeur frames. We'll also be using them on a new touring wheel with the VO touring hub. They are available only in 36h.

We'll have some of the rims and hubs built into wheels and available in a few weeks.

Pelago Bike Shop in Finland

One of the things about VO that has, pleasantly, surprised me is our strong international sales. It's neat to see that our products have gained favor not only in those places that have long had a strong bike culture such as Britain, France, Japan, but also in places such as Finland, which I didn't know was so into cycling. Yet we have gotten many orders from Finland almost from the start. Here's a little about the history and mission of Pelago, a shop in Helsinki that sells VO products. It's written by Timo, one of the owners.

The root idea which eventually has led to work with bicycles must go back to late eighties and early nineties. Being involved with the underground, skateboarding, going to punk rock shows and getting brainwashed into the ecologism in the teenages must have lead into search for creative yet meaningful job in the adulthood.

Bicycling came along as a choice for moving around and making small trips, but then growingly as an object of intrest. When you can't find the bike you like, you end up fixing your own. After building a couple of them came the question what if we could make a living out of it.

At first we tried to rebuild and restore bikes from old and abandoned ones. There's a large recycling center in Helsinki where loads of these bike wrecks are piled up. You can also get parts there for cheap. Unfortunately most of it is crap and we learned the hard way that it was a laborsome job – especially when you try to meet your prefered aesthetic or function. The amount of hours put into rebuilding a bicycle wouldn't pay back in the price people are often ready to pay for a used bike. This lead into search for new frames, which lead us into designing our own frames which lead us into starting Pelago. (The name is short from archipelago which is a nice part of nature in our country). 

Besides making the bikes, we run a shop and service in Helsinki which offers a variety of cycling goods for day-to-day errands and alternative travelling. Velo Orange has a nice selection of goods which we've been happy to offer for the needs of local cyclists. Although rooted in the Helsinki pavement, we still look at cycling from greater context. Sustainability is a common effort. It’s not just what you buy – it’s what you make. It’s about what you do at work. Bicycles is an obvious and easy choice for us, but in everything we do, we should think what meaning it has for the society.

Running the company for three years now has thought us a lot. Building one bike is relatively quick job compared to designing a bike for production. It's a process that consumes time and money. Two years ago it felt we had barely scratched the surface of what we'd like to be doing. That feeling hasn't gone anywhere. There is a lot to do, a lot learn, but we believe we have something to give which keeps up the spirits. After all, we embarked on the journey with long term intensions.

Can you recommend any good overseas, or domestic, shops that stock VO stuff?

What about NERVAR?

Here is another blog post from 2006, slightly updated. I've been re-reading those early post; good memories. Of course many of the items we used to look for on E-bay are available new today, 50.4bcd cranks from VO, centerpull brakes from Dia Compe, etc. But it's still cool to recycle the classic parts.



Many connoisseurs and restorers of fine French bikes seek out old TA Specialties and Stronglight cranks. This is understandable as both companies made beautiful and practical cranksets that were fitted to the finest bicycles. But there is a third brand, Nervar, that also made top quality components and whose cranks were occasionally used by even the best constracteurs.

The relative anonimity of Nervar cranks makes them a bargin. I bought the 50.4bcd crankset in the first photo for about $20 on E-Bay (in 2006). Yet it is as well made and takes the same chain rings as a TA Cyclo-Tourist or a Stronglight 49D crankset, either of which usually sell for much more. As for appearance, I think the the 49D is a bit more elegant, but I find the Nervar prettier than a TA.

An additional benefit of Nervar cranks is that they use standard-taper axles and standard crank removers, no special tools required. And yes, they work fine with 9 or 10-speed drivetrains.

The great thing about this 50.4mm-bcd bolt pattern is that you can run a wide range double, say a 46 and 30. This means that with a modern 9 or 10-speed 12-27 cassette you'll have the equivalent of a triple with only two chainrings and standard cage derailleurs. And most riders will find that they stay in the big ring 90% of the time with plenty of gears on either side of a normal 15-19 mph cruising speed.

The lower photo shows what may have been the last model of crank Nervar produced. They are pretty 122-bcd cranks that makes a fine single on my Motobecane. They are very light, lighter than Campy record cranks, or so I've read. I paid $15 for them.

Do you have any favorite old component brands?

Polishing with Simichrome

This post is from 2006, and might still be useful. There are now 840 posts on the VO blog. You'll find more worthwhile info in the archives.

I bought some old Dia Compe 980-R brakes on E-bay. They were made in 1983 and didn't seem to have been cleaned since. So I poured a glass of wine, sat down in the big leather chair, and started polishing one of them with Simichrome. In about 10 minutes it looked like... Well click on the photo to enlarge it and see for yourself.

The trick is to first use a scrap of very fine sand paper, about 400-grit, to get rid of any deep scratches. Then dap a drop of Simichrome on a piece of soft cotton cloth, like an old t-shirt and start polishing. The cloth should be about 6" x 6". Keep using the same piece over and over because the little Simi-particles build up on it and make polishing even faster with use. It doesn't take long to get an amazing shine.

Simichrome polish is made in Germany and it's not cheap, nor is it easy to find. But it is the best and a little lasts a long time once your cloth is saturated. It does a great job on non-anodized aluminum, chrome, brass, stainless steel, and silver, perfect for brass bells. It also leaves a thin film that protects the metal. We still stock Simichrome; you can find it here.

Brake Levers, a New Golden Age

I remember how hard it was to find decent looking silver brake levers for upright bars just 10 years ago. Usually I'd search E-bay for old levers to use on my own bikes. How times have changed...

I really liked the Tektro FL750 levers from the moment I first saw them. They combine a clean moderniste shape and Tektro's usual high quality. But the black clamp wasn't quite right, so we asked Tektro to make us some with silver clamps. Now they are stunning. They fit 22.2mm bars.

If you prefer a MTB style lever, check out the Tektro FL740 levers. The new version has red quick releases. I wasn't sure about the red at first, but they are kind of cool once on the bike.

For the true retro look there are always the inexpensive, but classic, VO City Levers.

Dia Compe Guidonnet Brake Levers are another great choice. Who would have though, ten years ago, that brand new guidonnet levers would ever be available again.

Finally there are two inverse levers, the Tektro RX4.1 and the Dia Compe inverse levers. The latter are available to fit 22.2 or 23.8mm bars.

I think it's pretty great that we can build practical and great looking city bikes without searching for parts on E-bay or at swap meets. Are we in a new golden age of sensible bikes? 

Yard Sale this Sunday

Don't forget to attend the VO Yard Sale this Sunday.

• In-person only. No internet orders, sorry.
• Cash or credit only
• 15% off anything we have in-stock except build kits
• lots of prototypes, old french stuff, bits-and-bobs, used parts, at a huge discount
• 9AM - 12PM  at 1819 George Ave. Annapolis, MD 21401 

Zeste

The Zeste brakes were developed by an engineer who designs and makes brakes for at least one major pro bike team. Two VO employees put a lot of miles on the prototypes and both were immensely impressed. Nick used them on a cross-country trip. My own personal set ended up being used on a display bike for the British hand-built show, but I'm putting a new set on my pass hunter this week. Here's the description from our web site:

The Zeste brakes may be the most powerful canti-brakes we've tried. This is due to extra-long arms for increased mechanical advantage. Need to stop a loaded touring bike  down a steep mountain pass? They use a double plate design for superior "mud-clearing" for those of you who ride dirt roads or Cyclo-cross. The low-profile design helps them clear luggage and, on small frames, your heels. But just as important is their excellent adjustability.

There are spring tension adjusters on each arm for easy centering.

Up and down adjustment in the brake pad slot result in greater frame and fork compatibility; not all canti studs are in exactly the same place on every bike due to manufacturing tolerances or intended specification.

An adjusting mechanism at the end of the straddle wire easier setup and fine tuning for perfect clearence and wire angle. You'll wonder why all canti brakes don't have these adjusters.

Brake pads have adjustable toe-in, offering superior stopping power over most OEM pads.

The pivot bolts and washers are stainless steel for long term corrosion resistance.

Price is for two sets, or a bike's worth. Including straddle hangers, mounting bolts and cable end caps.

Sliding the arm onto the boss, note the spring's position.

 Setting up these low profile canti-brakes is pretty easy, but it's important to pay attention to the height of the straddle wire hanger, or yoke. It's height determines the "yoke angle" and thus much of the mechanical advantage of the brake system. If the hanger is too low, you'll have amazing stopping power, but poor modulation and excessive lever travel. If too high you'll have to squeeze the brake lever very hard to get good braking. As your pads wear the yoke angle changes; the yoke get's higher when the pads contact the rim. Use the adjuster at the end of the straddle wire to shorten the cable and compensate for wear.

The yoke is at about the right height for this Polyvalent.

The exact height of the yoke will be based on rim width and on the exact position of the canti studs on your fork. But the photo above will give you starting point. Our Zeste support page is here.

Spring position

Spring Warehouse Sale

Starting to sort out the sale pile; there's more.

We're having a spring warehouse sale. We used to call it a "yard sale", but our parking lot is not much of a yard. In any case, here are the details:

What's for Sale: 

We're selling sample parts that were sent for review or displayed in our showroom. There are some returns and a bunch of prototypes, some discontinued parts, parts that have been used on test bikes. All-in-all there are hundreds of items. We want to blow them all out in one day! So most will be priced at about half the regular web site price.

In case you can't find any garage sale stuff you like, we'll offer 15% off on any parts, accessories, or frames (but not mini-build kits) in stock. This reflects our savings in not having to process, pack and ship, so you must be here to get the discount.

When: 

The VO Garage Sale will take place between 9am and 12pm on Sunday April 22nd, rain or shine.

Where:

At Velo Orange of course, 1819 George Avenue, Annapolis MD, 21401

The Fine Print:

• Nothing can be pre-ordered.
• Cash or credit card only.
• the 15% discount is available only to those who buy in person, not on-line.
• Frame build kits not included.

Developments

Here are a few new developments that may interest you.

This is the little model name decal that will go on our Polyvalent-700/Campeur frame. The frames are now being made, but we don't have an ETA yet. The drawing is by artist and writer Dan Price. He's an amazing guy; check out his web site.

Our long delayed container is here and we have a couple of new products. It may take a couple of days to get everything checked and entered on the site. The next shipment, in about two weeks, will have all our rims and hubs along with a few miscellaneous components.

The amazingly powerful Zeste brakes are here; I'll write more about them soon.

The new Grand Compe ENE shifters have also arrived. We have both the down tube and the bar end versions. These use the same internals as Silver shifters, but have more attractive levers. they also use the newer and stronger friction washers.

We also have more 50.4bcd double hardware that many of you were waiting for.

We are changing the finish on our seat posts. They will be machine polished rather than hand polished. The advantage of this is that diameters will be more consistent. In the past we had issues with over enthusiastic polishers polishing them so well that they ended up slightly undersized. The disadvantage is that they will not be quite as shiny.

Top Tube Protector

In our early days we sold this VO leather track style top tube protector. It was made from very thick leather and intended to protect your top tube from being dented when track bike handlebars slammed into it. Bikes with brake cables usually don't get these dents because the brake cables "slow" the bars. Folks still email occasionally asking if we have any left.

Igor, our warehouse manager, wanted a top tube protector for a different reason. He wanted to protect his paint when he leaned his bike against a parking meter or street sign. But he didn't like the BMX-style top tube pads sometimes used for this purpose. So Igor made the protector below out of the elk hide that we use for bar covers.

I think it's a pretty good idea. It would work even better on a bike with a run of cable, rather than cable housing because it would fit under the wire better. Or you could sew it over the housing. In any case, do you think this is something we should make?

Miscellanea

I want to apologize for VO being out of so much stuff right now. Due to some production delays our latest container was shipped over a month late, but will arrive in two weeks. Another shipment is about 4 weeks out, so we should be re-stocked on almost everything pretty soon. Wheels will take a little longer since they must be built up after the rims arrive.

We were taking inventory this week and found a bunch of miss-marked boxes of stainless steel fenders. How did that happen? They are 58mm wide and made for 650b wheels, but are also an excellent fit on 26" wheels.  We're blowing them out. Need fenders for your 26" LHT?

I'm a little disappointed that our regular front racks are outselling the models with integrated front decaleurs. I just want to tell you that the integrated front decaleurs are the way to go. They put the decaleur at the perfect height on any size frame. They weigh less than a separate decaleur and rack, and they are easier to install. If you don't need the decaleur you can just install the U-shaped "plug". They are the only type of front rack I would put on my own bikes, except for the Porteur rack.

My 12-year old son got a new (used) bike yesterday. Alec has been into road racing since his training wheel days. I think watching the Tour de France in person at age 6 has something to do with it. When I offered to get him a Surly Cross Check to replace his 24-inch wheeled cyclocross bike he wanted no part of it. He wanted a "real road racing bike," no fenders, no wide tires, no canti-brakes, and no racks allowed, but carbon fiber is cool. (Where did I go wrong?) I know that it's more likely that he'll use a bike that he really likes, so we bought him a used aluminum Trek with a carbon-fiber fork and seat post and 23mm tires. It can be really really hard being a dad sometimes! (Anyone want a nice used 24-inch wheeled Redline CX bike for their kid?)

The Stein Cassette Cracker

By Scott

I first saw the Stein Mini Cassette Lockring Driver years ago when working in a little bicycle shop in the suburbs of Vancouver. They seemed like a great thing for the bike tourist heading out into the wilderness of Canada or Australia who wanted to make sure they were covered for all eventualities. The basic theory is that if you break a spoke on the rear wheel, taking off the cassette allows for a new spoke to be replaced easily. I see frames that have spoke holders on the chain stays, but if you can't take the cassette off, you can't replace a drive side spoke. So when I was looking at ordering more of the Stein Crank Extractors (which sold really well over the past while) this winter, I thought this might be the time to order some for Velo Orange.

I think these are great for the Boy (and Girl) scouts amongst us who like to be prepared. These are designed to fit on Shimano/Sram cassettes. (Sorry Campy fans, we'll have to see how well these sell and how much interest is in those). Small, light and made in Arizona by J.A Stein, folks with years of experience in making quality tools for bike mechanics, they weigh only an ounce and come in a handy little zip lock bag with the instructions. In terms of space on a bike tour, it's pretty much a non issue. Cassette removal (unless you have a Grand Cru free hub that doesn't need tools to disassemble) is one of those bike jobs that does require specific tools and this is one of those tools, but much much smaller and lighter than most. With it you don't need a big crescent wrench or anything, just hook it to your quick release skewer and spin the cranks forwards. You can reinstall the lockring with the tool by spinning the cranks backwards when you're done. Even if you don't use it on a tour, it's a little piece of mind that you have in the tool roll “just in case”. Hey, even if you don't use it, perhaps you can play the role of super hero and help save someone else's tour.

Panda Bikes

By Alec

Jacob and John have company called Panda Bikes that makes Bamboo bikes. They're in Fort Collins, Colorado. Fort Collins, by the way, is also home to Swobo, New Belgium Brewing, RideKick, the FC Bike Co-op, the FC Cycling Festival, and a dozen great bike shops. I think there's something in the water out there.

We talked a bit at Interbike and geeked out on one of their bikes (I think it was the natural). In Jacob Castillo's words:

We wanted to outfit our bamboo bikes with beautiful, well made, and stylish components that you can't find anywhere else. What's more is that their company culture and outlook on riding is aligned with ours. When we were talking to their team at Interbike last year, we both know that it was a great match and started working together immediately.

They've been good customers in the time between then and now and if you check out their website, you'll see that all of their complete bikes include at least a couple VO parts. Some of them have almost a full VO group, even.

the Panda "Natural"

Take the Natural, for instance: where else can you find a bike with a VO stem, a healthy stack of headset spacers, leather bar tape, wine cork bar plugs, and a Grand Cru headset? Cool!


Then there's the Action. A bike that comes stock with a porteur rack, wing nuts, the excellent Grand Cru Hubs, a 1x9 grand cru 50.4bcd drivetrain, VO leather Saddle, and grand cru seat post. That's pretty neat.

The Panda "Action"

Drivetrain of "the One"

There's also "The One," which is a belt-drive city bike, with Grand Cru fixed gear hubs, wing nuts, and a gorgeous center track carbon belt drive. That's really unique.

And, lest you think that it's all a bit too commodifying, the frames are built by hand in in the USA. These are premium bikes, and we're glad to provide premium parts for them.

These bikes are supposed to ride like a dream, as well. We haven't had a chance to ride one, but I think they're pretty unusual, using a blend of steel, lugs, and bamboo to tune the ride feel and make a really unique looking bike.

Has anyone here ever ridden bamboo? What's it like?

On International Shipping

Guest post by Annette:

"Buy more! Save more!"

That tag line has always annoyed me in its urging unnecessary consumption, concomitant with boasts like, “I bought this backpack for $250 on sale, and it was a third off, so I saved $125!” - when the buyer already owns five other backpacks. Really?

In some cases, however, the encouragement is based on truth and is not simply a ruse to trick the customer into buying more. For our international customers this is the case.

We've shipped internationally since VO began. Yes, it costs us a bit in labor, and yes, it's a headache, and yes, there are delays in getting quotes to the customer and collecting the shipping. Our procedures for international shipping have never changed: you must place an order, we tell you how much postage will cost once we've packed and weighed it, you can reject or accept the shipping options, and we'll issue an immediate merchandise refund you if you cancel. We've investigated this process time and time again, and we've always concluded that, given the weird size-to-weight ratio of many of our products, this is the fairest way of assessing postage costs.

It is usually better for international customers to order more at one time, for two reasons. First, the shipping cost per pound decreases as the total weight increases. This is especially the case for orders that we can ship via US Postal Service. Second, however, is a more complicated consideration called “dimensional weight” that kicks in when we use air express services like Fedex. Dim weight is calculated by the box measurement, and shipping is charged on the higher of the two weights, dim vs. actual. For example, the weight of a box with a single set of fenders is 4 pounds, but its dimensional weight is 24. So it is to the customer's advantage to order more items that can be stuffed in the box, since s/he's paying for 24 lbs worth of shipping. As the box size increases, obviously, the dim weight increases, until the story gets really gruesome with frames.

Thankfully, we have a very understanding and responsive team at Fedex, so when we scream that we're losing orders because shipping is too expensive to, say, Australia or Austria, we are not ignored. Effective last week, depending on weight/size/cost of your orders, international customers are receiving rate quote emails for both USPS and Fedex, with a strong recommendation for one or the other. In most cases, Fedex is beating USPS on both service and price except on the lightest, smallest packages. So, in terms of shipping costs: buy more! save more!

I had to laugh when I saw today's NewYork Times piece about major retailers and their discovery of an international market. Oh, to be a scrappy upstart (h/t Pete Campbell).

NAHBS

Credit: Urbanvelo.com

Credit: Urbanvelo.com

There was some great internet coverage of the North American Handmade Bike show, as usual. Even though we didn't make it to the show this year, we felt like we got a good idea of the bikes that were shown.

I'm sure I missed some cool bikes, but here's a little selection of bikes using VO parts. They're all real stunners, huh?

Urban Velo noted that our snazzy Grand Cru Long Reach Brakes were in evidence, along with many other VO parts.

You can see our Chainguard, Zeppelin 700c Fenders, and (custom painted) porteur kickstand on Mike Flanigan's super cool city bike. A.N.T. Bike has been at it for a while, and

Credit: dirtragmag.com

Grand Cru Seatpost made an appearance on Steve Rex's road fixie. Check out Steve Rex Cycles if you get a chance - he makes some really cool classic-but-different bikes.

Our retro bottle cages and Tall Stack stem showed up on the Ventus bike.

Credit: dirtragmag.com

The mixte from Muse Cycles really impresses me. Look closely.

It won Best City Bike this year, and is covered in VO parts.

It's got a VO stainless bottle cage, threadless stem, threadless headset, touring saddle, porteur double leg kickstand, alloy chainguard, and the VO-spec Kalloy seat post. you can take a closer look at that bike on the a page on their website, and some great photos from ditrag here.

Credit: urbanvelo.org

There was also a cool creamsicle track bike with PBP rims.

Panda Bicycles had the full Velo Orange treatment, with Porteur Rack, Belleville upright handlebars, Threadless Stem, Dia Compe 700c tires, grand cru Seatpost, VO Saddle, Grand Cru Touring Hubs, Raid touring Rims, customizable arm-only 50.4 bcd Crank with single speed hardware kit and single speed ring, and Grand Cru Cantilever Brakes.

Touring in Taiwan

Post by Alec Burney
Note: you can click on any photo to see it bigger.


Before the Taipei Cycle Show, I took a few days to tour around the north end of the island. It was really great to see a bit of "normal life" before all of the factory visits, meetings, product discussions, quality improvement debates, and enormous dinners...

GPS kicked in on the second day, and says my route
was kind of like this

I arrived at the airport late, unpacked and reassembled my bike, and disposed of its cardboard box. I gave my airplane reading (Blink) to a friendly security guy, who spoke excellent English with a pronounced Australian accent. I pedaled away into the night, unaware that this would be the last English speaker that I'd see until the show.

I planned to camp on the beach, and headed straight for the Strait of Taiwan, on the Western coast. Lost immediately, I bought a map at a 7-11 and tried to convince the cashier to show me where we were on the map. He called his buddies over and we all pointed at various places, scratching our heads. No one knew where we were!  We gave up, and I was pretty lost, since all of the street signs in the area, and the map itself, were all in Chinese. All the names looked identical to me, and I mean that it the nicest possible way. So, I kept heading southwest, in the approximate direction of the beach I had in mind.

It was a beautiful ride with a still night and a flat, wide road. It had an ample shoulder marked with stencils of a guy riding a bike, a good sign. Everyone else seemed to be asleep, so I took my time and enjoyed the warm air.

I found a nice patch of grass next to the beach, slept. It was a nice, calm night, and when I woke halfway though, I realized that I was in a foreign country, with a vocabulary not extending much past "hello," and "thank you." I thought maybe I should be afraid. This wasn't exactly an official campsite, I could be easily misunderstood. I was alone. But, I was completely comfortable and unafraid. I would be for the entire trip, and I'd come to realize that I was surrounded by a kind, gentle, understanding people, who despite the language barrier would feed me when I was hungry, and point in the general direction of a city for me when I squeaked out the Mandarin name for it. I get the impression that there's not much crime in Taiwan, and I never once felt threatened, not even by heavy traffic.

I woke up to a beautiful morning, finding myself on the Taoyuan Seashore bike path, as a sign in English proudly proclaimed. It was covered in dense fog, and I was comfortably alone on this Wednesday morning.

There seem to be a lot of bike paths in Taiwan, as well as small roads that serve as defacto bike paths, having only occasional, local, and courteous car traffic. This one was blanketed in fog, and I was alone, waiting for the GPS to figure out I was on the other side of the world, so I rode in what later seems to be circles on the coast looking for the road that would lead to the mountains.

When the GPS woke up I zipped up the road towards the Wulai district, the mountains, and the hot springs. My destination was the "public" hot spring, and I didn't know much about it except that I hoped I could make myself welcomed there by the locals. I didn't want to go to an expensive private spa.

First, I would get to cycle though a couple towns, the most notable being Taoyaun City. Here, I was first exposed to the ubiquitous motor scooter. The operators of these strange machines seemed to all be having a ball, and every intersection was equipped with a bike box for them. This guy seemed to be carrying milk, or something like it, and we rode together for almost the entire length of the city. The bike boxes in the intersections meant that we could outpace the cars by a good bit by filtering forward at the lights. The scooters, truly, seem to be king of the road within the Tiawanese city.

I also had the opportunity to ride some nice bike paths. This one is in the Yingge District on the far side of Taoyaun, at the edge of the mountainous interior.

After crossing some big river that I can't name, the road turned upwards for real and I pedaled through the Sansia district. I began to notice that even though I was now well out of the big cities, development didn't taken on a sprawly character the way it tends to around here. The towns were very dense, and private, freestanding homes seemed to be quite rare. The towns also seem to usually have public toilets. Listen up, bike tourists!

And then, I was in Wulai district for real. The town is cut down the middle by a wide, slow, cold river. Next to the river is the road, which turns into a public market full of indescribable and unidentifiable food, and delicious noodle shops. On the far side of the river, the public hot springs is a small park cut out of the bank of the river. It seems to be maintained by the public, with rough concrete steps, small manmade pools, and PVC pipe festooned about carrying water of all temperatures from one place to another.

I squeezed past about a half-dozen local families and found myself alone on a set of steps below everyone else, equipped with two piping hot streams of water emptying into a small lagoon in the freezing cold river. Great place for a mid-day bath!

Like many other places in Taiwan, the building was delightfully dense. Can you well which is a dwelling, hotel, restaurant, spa, or store? Some of them are all of the above!

I had some more noodles afterward, chuckling about our various states of weirdness with the shop owner, who was wearing a getup that seemed to be straight out of 80s pop, with splatter decals, stripes, florescent colors, and backwards cap. He seemed to think my bike was pretty funny, too, so we got along well.

I headed out of town then, I climbed the switchbacks, up, up, and up to the top of the mountain.

As it would turn out, the road would end a little earlier than I hoped, turning into first a large dirt road, then a small dirt road, then a small path. I bumped along the trails, climbing more and more, really enjoying a bit of offloading, but hoping I wasn't overdoing it (the wheels use VO Hi-lo hubs, PBP 700c rims, and Pasela tires, and as always, they were perfectly happy to bounce around on the dirt trail, even with 25lbs of camping stuff).

Soon, though, I came to a rockslide, which I had the pleasure of carrying my bike across, and on the other side, things got narrower and narrower until I walked the final mile to my campsite.

Another half-mile on from there was the end of the trail. It was a gorgeous site at nearly the top of the mountain, where three waterfalls, one from each compass point, came together to form one big stream, flowing off in the fourth direction. I'd learn later that this was a fairly well-known trail, and one of our friends in Taiwan had hiked it as well.

After a quiet night at the top of the mountain, I backtracked and headed towards Fulong. This meant a brief trip through the North end of Taipei, near the Zoo, and then another series of mountains to climb and descend. It was full of wicked switchbacks, like this one in the Shihding district.

I had the opportunity to ride with some local roadies, as well. They seemed to all have pretty nice bikes, and I think this guy was a little bothered that I could keep up with him, the universal reaction of the roadie.

He stopped to eat at the top of the mountain, in a small town in the Pingsi district, and I kept going. It started to rain, then, and I put on my jacket before heading through some long tunnels under the peak of the mountain. Soon it was raining hard and I was wet all the way through. I had put my tent up wet in the morning, and it was time to imagine how nice it would be to sleep in a soggy tent that night.

When I arrived in Fulong, it was raining so hard I could hardly see, and the guy behind the counter at the (official!) campsite spoke enough English to tell me that I should camp under the pavilion.

I tried not to do an excited happy dance as I pedaled over and unrolled my stuff to dry under the roof. The bathroom had warm water and showers, too. I was overjoyed. Then the rain stopped, and I rode to the town center and had some noodles, and the tent was dry by the time I got back.

There was also a short bike path of a couple miles that lead down to the sea. The Phillipine Sea, this time. It was nice to spin along without my camping gear, and I was also reminded about how well this bike transitions from one role to another. The handling was impeccable both loaded and unloaded.

In the morning, I set out early and cut a zig-zag back to Taipei, through Keelung City, and then back out to the coast and around the Northern tip of the island back to Taipei.

I tend to ride straight through. I don't like to stop, and with my big handlebar bag on its little rack, I can load up my meals and eat while I'm riding.

But, on that day I made an exception and stopped in the early morning. Not for lunch, but for a haircut. It was a high-end looking salon in the small town of Nuannuan, and predictably, no one spoke any English. I pointed at my hair and my beard and made some snipping gestures and she hopped to it, giggling at my bravery. A cut, shave, and shampoo followed with few ill effects, and the charge was quite reasonable. All of our friends in Taiwan thought this story was hilarious. A haircut in a foreign language! And it looks okay!

I rode along the river bike path in the Nangang district of Taipei, crossed the river, and headed back to the coast.

The coast was rainy and foggy, but was a wonderful mix of tunnels and hills and the road wound right along the edge of the water. Some of the tunnels were quite long, but the traffic was light and polite.

Near Yunshan, in the Northeast, one of the tunnels was open on the side and had some wonderful concrete details and a sidewalk where you could look out on the ocean. This time it was the East China Sea. That's right, a third one! I think I missed one on this trip - the South China Sea.

I wrapped up my trip and headed to Taipei to get ready for the show. All-in-all, it was quite relaxing, and it felt natural and easy to ride on Taiwanese roads. Most of them had ample shoulders, and I shared even the most remote roads had scooters, so the cars knew how to behave around me.

I was warmly received everywhere, and with an open mind.