Spring-Time Photo Dumping

Spring time came and went and it seems as though summer has already appeared. I have not posted in quite a long time due to the sheer busyness and high levels of stress that took place during the past season. Trying to find a balance between cycling, poloing, school work, shop work, and having awesome bonfires/BBQ's proved to be extremely challenging, yet in the end I managed to pass my senior review at the NIU school of design while having a ton of fun. I'm left with a feeling of great relief and more time to spare, so the bike riding, poloing, and posting shall commence. Stay tuned. In the mean time, enjoy a massive dump of photos.

Also, a very huge congratulations to our buy Cookie, of the Slender Fungus Cycling Association, for taming the malicious beast known as Trans Iowa V8. He completed the race a few weeks ago, which is a feat that few have the privilege of boasting. Way to go dude! Also, a congratulation is in order for our main man Ari on another spirited attempt. His determination is incredible and we all miss him dearly.





















In case you haven't heard, our dear Otter has fled the midwestern lands in search of fresher oysters in Atlanta. He is currently living among his kinsfolk, working at a great shop, and loving the culture which he was bred to revel in. We held a goodbye BBQ for him and will continue to keep the DeKalb League of Bike Polo alive with the spirit of our Uncle Velo. We all miss you dearly and plan to visit sometime soon.

Our Main Man Ari on da News

Slender Fungus Cycling Association founder, Ari, talks about cycling to work while repping Syracuse Bicycle in NY. I miss that guy!

Clement Visitation

The Clement dude came by the shop the other day and brought with him a bag of treats. The new tires look great and a few of them are built with gravel in mind. I'd really like to throw a pair of those USH tires on my Nature Boy to test out. They look like they'd handle great off road and on gravel while still standing up to smooth pavement.





Excellent, well thought out products! Keep your eyes on Clement because good things are happening.

T.J.'s Derailleur Post-Pugsley World Championships

Ouch. We spent a good amount of time bending his dropout back into place, but the Pugsley will ride on!

Turbo Tuesday Returns

T.J., Gumby, the Otter, La Kruze, and myself met up at the trailhead for an SFCA approved night ride (yes, most of us drove there... I know...). Expecting conditions to be sloppy, T.J and Gumby had insisted on riding their Pugsleys. The Otter rode his Cross Check with internally geared hub, La Kruze rode the Casseroll, and I took my new "go-to", the Nature Boy. It was a good old fashioned QBP Steel Parade.

T.J. debuted his latest creation: a 13something hundred lumen headlight with a battery case fashioned out of a Rubbermade container. Insane.



The trail conditions turned out to be pretty pleasant actually, as all the mud was freezing. The sky was totally clear and the stars were fantastic.



Although, this may have been the warmest night ride of the year, my feet were still cold. I believe I learned something though: Always put on fresh socks before a cold ride. I had worn those socks all day long and I'm sure they had accumulated some sweat, which immediately turned my feet to ice out in the wind. A fresh dry pair would have been a huge improvement I reckon. Regardless, we had a great ride and it was refreshing to take a night off from bike polo to hit the Ol' Great Western.

Da Macho Man!

All-City debuted their latest masterpiece, the Macho Man, at Frostbike this year. I had a feeling a geared version of the Nature Boy was coming! The color looks awesome and the details are perfect. Another win for the boys and girls at All-City. It will be available as a frameset or complete bike (with Salsa stem/bars and Shimano 105!) for $1,595. Read more here.

Afternoon Exploration

I had some free time between classes, and so I decided to go thrash around in the woods. I donned my denim cycling kit, tightened my boot laces, and headed out.



I found evidence of "single track" in use. It's sketchy and overgrown, but it's enough to provide a bit of afternoon entertainment.



The locals were kind enough to construct a makeshift bridge, which leads you to "The Island".



On the island, you can find remnants of some old dirt jumps, which should really be fixed up. I couldn't resist the temptation to give the jumps a quick session. After all, I had Primo Tenderizer pedals on the 29er!



I also took this opportunity to play around with the old rangefinder camera I picked up at the antique shop. It's a Petri Computor 35. It takes 35mm film and measures shutter speed electronically. I've been itching to take photos with film again, and I think this is going to be a lot of fun.

Road Bike Stunting

For some reason this really impresses me, like, way more than fixed gear freestyle ever did.

New Hangers from Problem Solvers

The cable hangers included with each set of Paul brakes are as crappy as the brakes are nice. They're probably the cheapest things they could have found. Paul sells some awesome cable hangers separately, but they're just so expensive. I came across these from Problem Solvers and decided they'd be a perfect replacement. They're 50mm wide which allows them to be mounted lower than typical hangers, which gives you even more braking power. I think they look cool too. Their sharp, machined look is a good compliment to the Paul brakes.

Switchback Magazine - Issue 02

I went over to the local Barnes & Noble the other day and picked up a few magazines. One of them was Switchback. It comes from the people who do Peloton Magazine, but Switchback focuses on mountain biking, gravel riding and the other dirty stuff that we love. The elegant design of this magazine and great photography is what really sets it apart from the typical MTB mags and that's what appeals to me. This issue features articles on Mert Lawwill, the "Godfather of Suspension", a visitors guide to Bend, Oregon, the legend of Gary Bonacker and more.

"S*** Cyclists Say"

Great video. Don't be one of "those guys"!

!Un Mariachi Caliente¡

Built up for a lucky customer at NCC: Titanium Salsa Mariachi frame with a Rohloff rear hub, Chub front hub, e*Thirteen cranks, Rock Shox Reba fork, King headset, Thomson stem and post, Salsa Pro Moto carbon bars, Formula hydraulic brakes, etc... This thing is wild!

A few other photos can be seen here at our brand new Tumblr page.

Full Suspension Mukluk Prototype

You've probably already seen it by now, but if not, go take a look at what Salsa's up to.

Tyler's New Big Block

The Otter recently acquired a slightly used All-City Big Block with orange deep-V rims and an 8 speed Nexus hub. He switched the wheels over to his Cross Check for winter riding and turned the Big Block into an awesome road stallion. It rides nice! Hopefully someone around here will get a Space Horse and we'll have a whole fleet of All-Citys.

Nature Boy Redux

Almost two months ago I had posted about having my brand new All-City Nature Boy stolen, only about a week after completing the build. I had never even got around to doing a "formal" post about the bike itself. I loved that thing though and I was beyond bummed out when it disappeared. Shortly after, I was shocked to find that Tobie and Frank of North Central Cyclery had combined forces to order me up a brand new frame and several generous locals had donated money and parts in order to get me back on the Nature Boy. I was blown away by everyone's generosity and I can't thank those people enough. I now have an incredible bike that has been built up the way I had originally intended it to be built.





Here's the parts list:

Shimano wheels (Thanks to Jeff Halverson)
DMR spacer kit with 16t cog
Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires (old tires I had, probably temporary)
TruVative Elita cranks with 39t ring (Thank you Llama)
Paul Touring canti on rear Neo-Retro canti on front
Chris King headset (Thanks to T.J.)
Thomson x4 stem
Salsa Cowbell bars
Lizard Skins DSP (1.8) bar tape (possibly my new favorite)
TRP RRL SR Retro Levers ( they feel great and in my opinion they look fantastic)
Salsa seatpost (Thanks to Dean)
Selle Italia Turbo Saddle
Salsa stainless bottle cages

Weight is around 23lbs with the world's heaviest tires.









Thanks again to Tobie, Frank, Dean, Jeff, T.J, Tyler, Chad and all others who helped out. I'll be thinking of you every time I ride it. Getting your bike stolen sucks. Lock it up no matter what!

Happy Holidays

Hope y'all had a good one.

Adventures in Milwaukee

Not long ago I visited Milwaukee to see the band Beirut at the Turner Hall Ballroom. While in Milwaukee I stopped off at Ben's Cycle. The shop is full of awesome stuff, including many Milwaukee Bike Co. builds, which are handmade in Waterford. I grabbed a few pics with my crappy cellphone camera.


This Gan Well Pro track bike with Dura-Ace was just beautiful.


A nice Milwaukee road bike with 105.


Another Milwaukee, set up as a type of randonneur bike, reminded me of my own Surly Pacer.



Beirut is a fantastic band and their performance may have been one of the best I've seen. I wasn't able to bring a camera into the music venue and I had left my cellphone in the car, but the show went a little something like this:

Beirut - My Night With The Prostitute From Marseille from beirut on Vimeo.

Necromancing the Stone

We recently built up a couple of the new Surly Necromancers. They share similarities to the stock Pugsley build but with the wider Rolling Darryl rims for a bigger footprint, Surly Mr. Whirly Offset Double crankset with 2 rings and thumb shifters. Obviously, it's all black too. Wooooo! The fatbikes are flying out the doors here at NCC. Come get em' while they're hot!

P.S. Moonlanders are here too.

H Plus Son Rims - TB14

I recently had the chance to check out these rims as they were being laced up for a customer at the shop. They're really quite awesome. It's a classic looking box section rim with double eyelets and a sweet valve badge. Hard anodized after machining. Retail is about $80. Buy them!