Bikes galore – BLB is the home of the track bike in the east end of London. Every inch of wall, ceiling or floor crammed with new and vintage frames and parts. A few of my favourites – Cinelli alter stems in a glass cabinet full of vintage Cinelli parts… heaven!
With only a few weeks left of the london Rapha Cycle Club, I had to go and check out the pop-up shop / cafe while back in Blighty. Without realising it I ended up staying for a few hours, taking in the store while sipping very good coffee, watching the Tour on the plasma and chatting to the super friendly and knowledgeable Rapha crew & guests.
It is almost a shame that it’s not here for ever, but also in a way good that it’s not, it keeps us in suspense of whats next for Rapha.
These handcrafted bikes from Vanilla Bicycles in Portland, OR (of course) are beautiful examples of classic design and everything I’d want out of a bike. Vanilla’s attention to detail and reverence for classic styling is breathtaking.
However you need the patience of a saint if you want to own one, currently the waiting time is FIVE years, and of course any time you have to wait that long for something you can expect to part with many $’s. When you do take delivery however, I am sure it will live up to all those years of expectation and excitement, and deliver a bike like no other.
The Vuelo Velo ''1'' track bike is the creation of Martin Renwick (Marty). This has to be one of the most beautiful and head turning bikes I have seen, it stole the limelight at the NAHBS this year, and you can see why. Made from Titanium and designed from the ground up, Marty has amalgamated form and function in such an impressive way, a hard thing to get right, but successfully achieved in the Vuelo Velo bike range. The Vuelo Velo range is being exhibited in all the best bike shops in New York... however I hear talk of one or two coming this way soon - Will keep you posted!
More Info:
The pictured Vuelo Velo “1″ Track bike has a 55 cm effective top tube, a 74 degree head angle and 38 mm of fork rake, the effective seat angle is 73 degrees. So there is nothing that steps outside the bounds of normal body positioning in that mix. The rear end however, is 360 mm (BB center to rear axle center), that’s short!
The seat tube curve facilitates a shorter rear end, and a degree of compliance vertically, due to the increased seat tube exit angle and the inherent movement that Titanium can so alluringly allow. This is carefully controlled with tube wall thickness, diameter and curve diameter for each individual rider (totally custom).
2 bikes at NAHBS had Shimano BB86 Ti shells, and another a Campagnolo BB90 Ti shell, this design is to facilitate a broader chain-stay setting (attachment width) on the BB, which creates a greater mechanical leverage advantage at the root. The design also allows the use of big bag tyres with plenty of clearance, our “Copenhagen” runs 35 mm tyres with ample room to spare, even if you break a spoke.
The “Wishbone” or dual chain-stay design is about creating more lateral rigidity via quite substantial ovalization, in my opinion this is one of the only places where ovalization can really work for you substantially on a bicycle. The amount of metal you are putting to work to resist lateral force, has a direct effect on creating compliance in the vertical plane where it is reduced. Trek and Giant have taken the BB root width route with their Carbon Road frames, but the “Wishbone” is another approach to the constant bike frame design dilemma/grail – rigidity versus comfort.
Volume Cutter sure does ‘cut the mustard’ as far as we are concerned. Crafted by the folks at Volume Bikes in the US, this frame is built with BMX technology, making it the strongest frame out there for the ‘Trixie-fixie’ - do those tricks all day long, this frame will never let you down! In fact the guys at Volume are so sure of this they give a lifetime warranty with every frame.
Check out our fully built-up ‘VC’ bikes on our website: Show me the goodies
Well done Hugo Gaspar – First place in the RBCC kids race at Heffron, where Hugo took the overall handicap as well as the under 9 events. Hugo is an avid Skullcandy fan as well as a fast rider!
Designer, Sydney ex-cycle courier and two-wheeled enthusiast DoubleOhTwo swung by the shop last week, and snapped some photos.
Here’s what he had to say .