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.

DESTRUCTION!

Polo can really take a toll on your gear. I finally got around to replacing the brake pads on my polo bike after they were nearly worn down to the metal. Soon I'll have to replace my shoes too...





Not polo related, but a customer came into the shop with "drivetrain issues". This is what his Suntour Derailleur looked like:



No teeth on the jockey wheel at all. A well-used bike indeed!

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!

!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.

Coolest Pugsley Ever

We recently finished building up Gumby's custom Pugsley at North Central Cyclery. This thing turned out to be so awesome. Note the drilled out Vicious Cycles rims, and yes, that's astroturf lining the inside. Custom paint job with pinstripes, SFCA and Gum Trucking logos. The Surly Nate tires are bad ass too.





Additional shots of the frame can be seen here.

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.

Gumby's Custom Pugsley Frameset

I intended to post this a while back, but now's as good a time as any. This is Gumby's custom painted Slender Fungus/Gum Trucking Edition Surly Pugsley (if you didn't know, Gum Trucking is his company and that skull is their logo). It's going to be built up with an apple green Brooks B17, green hubs and other bits to match the painted graphics. I can't wait to see this thing when it's done!

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!

"Blubber Bike"

Our shop is organizing a snowbike race on January 29th, 11am. It will be held at Afton Forest Preserve in DeKalb, Illinois. Come out for fun snow time. I drew the walrus. T-shirts: maybe.

Mukluks Galore

Recently we've been hard at work building up all the new Mukluk 2's we just got in. Actually, you could say that we are Fatbike Central here at the shop, with more Mukluks in stock than the Llama has eyelashes. We've got Salsa Mukluk 2's and 3's as well as Surly Pugsleys and the new Revelate/Salsa Mukluk frame bags (which are made in the USA and are really incredible). Come and get 'em before it snows. I hear this winter's snowfall is going to top last year's. Bring on the suffering!

Hopkins Park Cyclocross

Last weekend DeKalb hosted part of the Chicago Cyclocross Cup at Hopkins Park. Turnout was excellent with around 650 riders, including our very own T.J. who raced very well for his first race ever. We all had a blast watching the races, yelling at people and drinking copious amounts of beer. It was great to just hanging out with good friends all day and enjoy the beautiful weather. Actually, I was having too much fun to take as many photos as I usually do, but I feel like I still got a few good ones!













There are probably a few more over on the Flickr gallery.

Shots from the Shop

Mukluk Building:


Quesadilla Making:


New Trek District; A pretty neat little bike:

Brompton - Now Available at NCC

As you can see, they're really quite durable. Come into the shop and test one out.

Single Speed Rigid 29er's: All the Rage

Well, I finally got myself a mountain bike. It's a 4130 steel single speed 29er made by GT. They call it the "Peace 9'er". GT wouldn't have necessarily been my first choice when selecting a 29er, but an awesome deal arose (thanks to my friend Billy) and I had to jump on it. This bike has barely been used and came mostly stock, except for the 20t Surly cog (hell yeah!). I soon added a pink Salsa seat collar, Ergon Biokork grips, my old Brooks Swift saddle, Time pedals and a Salsa bottle cage. The bike seems practically indestructible and it handles extremely well.

Earlier this week Jeffrey and I took our bikes out to Rock Cut in a rainstorm and gave them a ride they were probably never expecting. It held up pretty well considering we rode upstream through rivers of mud. This photo depicts the aftermath:



Ari just built up a titanium single speed Salsa Selma frame with parts off his Surly 1x1. The bike looks HOT and weighs just over 23lbs with no lightweight components. He'll be joining us at the trails soon enough.



Read more about his build and frame specs on his blog.

Spearfish at North Central Cyclery

Come into the shop and check out this awesome bike.

Sunday Festivities

Met up with Tobie on sunday morning to support the MS150 ride. We set up the tent and pumped tires/tuned bikes from 7am-10:30. It was interesting to see all the different types of bikes and riders that came out for the event.

...T.J. was one of them.

Something about the dripping paint gives an entirely different meaning to the message written on this van.

After the MS, I headed to Arlington Heights and went fishing with a couple of good friends.

We didn't catch a single fish, but I didn't really expect to. For me, fishing is just an excuse to relax outside by the water and hang out. It was a good time and the weather was perfect.

RXXXL Road Shoes at NCC

Our Bontrager/Trek rep brought over some new Bontrager RXXXL Limited Edition shoes for us to check out at the shop. These things are pretty wild. Extremely lightweight, ventilated, and comfortable. Retail is about $300. The packaging is equally impressive and I appreciated that.

New Lens and Sweet Bikes

I finally picked up the new Nikon lens that I've been wanting for a while now. It's been fun to play with and I've taken a few pictures of some cool bikes that are currently in the shop. One is a customer's Bianchi with Columbus Genius tubing. The other is a Ridley being built up for Frank. Expect more photos of the Ridley upon completion.