It was a frigid night in late 2004 when the lights went out on a potluck dinner of frustrated bicycle enthusiasts.

In the road bike market, you may have noticed that nearly every manufacturer is offering bikes with compact double crankset, ie road cranks with a 110mm chainring bolt-circle typically mounting a 50 and 34 tooth chainring combination. Bike companies have toted the compact double as the ideal way to gain most of the benefits of a triple crank (namely better low range gearing) while having a better chainline and lower weight. This is mainly true, but before you decide that the compact double crank is right for you, you should understand its real advantages for you as a user as well as the motivations bike companies have for selling it to you.  read more »

Bike Month. The San Francisco Bay Area Bicycle Coalition and Metropolitan Transportation Commission announced the 2008 Bike Commuter of the Year awards for each of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties.

The ultimate for bike maintenance - The Blubike/Super-B combo has all you need to clean and maintain your bike dring the hard wearing winter months. The SUPER-B 96500 is a top quality bike toolkit at an amazing price. Every tool is custom designed to do its intended job and then manufactured to precise tolerances. SUPER-B tools are intended for home mechanics and durable enough for professional use. SUPER-B 96500 includes: 1 - PEDAL REMOVER 15X16MM,15X17MM 1 - CHAIN WHIP (To hold cassette while loosening locking ring) 1 - 8MM HEX KEY+1/2 DR ADAPTOR 1 - L HANDLE 4 - 25L BITS SIZE:PHILLIPS:1/2; SLOTTED:5/7;W/HOLDER 3 - 1/4 DR. SOCKET SIZE: 8/9/10MM 1   - HG CASSETTE LOCK RING SOCKET 1 - B.B. TOOL (Shimano internal bearing type) 1 - BB LOCK RING TOOL 1 - TOOL FOR BOTTOM BRACKET CUP 2 - HUB CONE SPANNER 13X14 AND 15X16MM 1 - HEAD SET WRENCH 30X32X36X40MM 1 - TUBE REPAIR KIT 1 - OPEN-ENDED WRENCH 8X10MM 1 - 6" ADJUSTABLE WRENCH 1 - SCHRADER TYRE GAUGE 1 - SLOTTED 3X75MM SCREWDRIVER 6 - HEX KEY 2/2.5/3/4/5/6MM W/HOLDER 3 - PLASTIC TIRE LEVER 1 - CHAIN RIVET EXTRACTOR 1 - COTTERLESS CRANK TOOL 1 - SPOKE WRENCH The Blubike Cleaning Kit includes all of the essential accessories needed to keep your bike looking great, it will even smell nice too. Brush, scrub and soak your bike to bring it up looking almost like new. The kit comes all included within the large plastic bucket with sealable lid to keep all of the contents organised and fluids contained. The kit includes 1 x Bucket with Lid, Blue 1 x Wash Sponge 1 x Spray bottle of Bike Cleaner Fluid 500ml 1 x Bio Chain Cleaner fluid, 250ml 1 x 10.40 High Tech Wet chain lubricant, 75ml 1 x Chain Machine with rotating brushes 1 x Cassette Cleaning Tool  1 x Bike Cleaning Brush 1 x Tube repair kit What's in the bucket?  read more »

Photos continue to pour in from this past weekends handmade bicycle show, and like most of the cyclists who werent there I continue to pore over them. Yes, many of the bicycles were beautiful. Yes, we are truly fortunate to be alive during a handcrafted bicycle renaissance. Yes, its great to see so much innovation from so many independent builders. And so forth. Frankly, after gorging myself on pictures I thought Id gotten the whole thing out of my system already, but I haven't. Theres still something about the show thats bothering me. Its like a slight ticking from your bicycle that you still cant get rid of despite multiple tear-downs and re-builds. Certainly Id like to just sit back and appreciate the bikes.  read more »

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Built up the Trek Project One Madone over the weekend with SRAM Force . Earlier this year, the DA parts from the Madone had been dispersed to the Hotspur and Modal and I’ve been wanting to test SRAM. The summary report is “very good” with these observations Solid — there’s no “light action” of any sort on SRAM. It shifts similar to Campy way back in the 90s. You not only feel a shift, but hear it, and know it occurred without a cable shift indicator to tell you so. I also appreciate another group that opens up the cockpit by running the cables along the bar. Loud — carbon derailleur cages, with carbon wheels, on a carbon bike is loud. The drivetrain ironically sounds like a fishing reel . Responsive — I’ve never shifted from the big ring to the little and back faster. Wham it’s there and same thing with the rear. I figured out the DoubleTap shifting in about 17 seconds. I did periodically grab the brake lever while shifting and I also a few times wanted to shift a button with my thumb like Campy. Cable actuation and all the engineering didn’t matter much to me, but I did wonder what was happening between my index finger and brain to figure out that a short tap meant a rapid upshift and a longer double-click meant a downshift. I didn’t really have to think about it is the point. It just works.  read more »

Built up the Trek Project One Madone over the weekend with SRAM Force. Earlier this year, the DA parts from the Madone had been dispersed to the Hotspur and Modal and I’ve been wanting to test SRAM. The summary report...DL Byron

Hiya,

Any chain recommendations for Phil cogs? Currently running a 1/8" Wippermann White Star 152 and the combo makes NOISE!

Zooming in on the cog I can see that the tolerance between the chain sideplates and cog teeth is almost nonexisting, and even though the chainline runs straight I can see and hear the chain having difficulties "settling" on the cog teeth... Especially the chain "quick-release" link makes a distinctive sound on every loop when reaching the cog...

My On-One track crank has the same 1/8" spec but to the naked eye the chainring teeth look narrower than at the rear...

All components are yet to be ridden in - will the noise maybe fade away as the chain/cog wears in or should I try a different chain? I've experimented with different chain tightness and by tweaking rear wheel dish slightly but its no use. As I said the chain line can't be off by more than fractions of a mm.  read more »

Last Friday, I made an exception.
On ordinary weekdays, I don’t drive out of my way to go on a ride, because I don’t have a lot of spare time, and I have plenty of good riding right out my front door.
But, as I mentioned, last Friday I made an exception.
This exception was due to the [...]