Dura-Ace 10 Pitch

If you're a real track cycling connoisseur/geek, here's you chance to score some of the most elusive, hard-to-find and esoteric vintage Made In Japan track bicycle components ever made. 

On Ebay and on two separate auctions, a Shimano Dura-Ace 10 Pitch crankset with a chain and a NIB NOS 10 Pitch chain. This stuff doesn't show up for sale often. But what's so special about these, you might ask? 

"Almost all bike chains are half-inch pitch, so the centres of the pins are half an inch, or 12.7mm, apart. Introduced in 1976, and discontinued some time in the 80s, Dura-Ace 10 used a smaller chain and therefore smaller chainrings and sprockets - the number of teeth was the same, but they were closer together. 

The big advantage was lower weight, and eventually, according to legend, the Japanese Keirin federation banned the 10mm pitch equipment because it might give some riders an unfair advantage."

So they're only some old parts made to an obsolete standards, and maybe a little bit lighter than normal track components, so what? Yes, but isn't the whole point? 

See here for an example what they look like in action. And the whole original 1982 gruppo here.

But remember also that even with these items you'd still need to find a 10 Pitch cog and THIS. 

For Your Listening Pleasure

This might be the first non-cycling related post in my blog ever but I know some you listen to your iPod or whatever when riding so here we go. On a side note, I don't listen to music while riding because I don't think it such a good idea actually, makes it harder to reach that Zen, dude.

Anyhow, yours truly and my boys Alppila & Hennessy get tangled up in some musical activities every once in a while. Here's the download link to our latest product for your listening enjoyment. Or if you're lazy, just go directly to our MySpace page to hear it and some of other stuff as well.

Our latest track 'Someone To Feed' is party music for the deejay playing mp3s in the corner of your favorite dive bar, it samples heavily that old Cars song everybody knows because AOR is really trendy right now, and your should like it, at least if you're really drunk on the dance floor and just about to pinch the ass of that hot boy or girl you always wanted to ask out to a date... 

Mike Giant 'Burning Rubber'

On sale at Turntable Lab, one of my favorite non-cycling webstores.

Sprinting On Rollers

H+Son In Rainbow Colors

Whoa! Pretty over-the-top but I do like that. Original pic here.

'CAUSE I AIN'T NO SUGA RIDA SEEN!

This is already an old clip which I only now found on Tracko. 

But check the out comments section, there's some pretty hilarious stuff there, verging on being epicly funny. But YO! keep in mind that it's NOT A CHROME AD!!!

And I'm 100% sure that the dude is a nice guy and a really strong rider in the real world. I mean, he used to mess back in the day and all. 

Fixion Trailer

New movie coming from Japan again. Where else, you fool?

(Found at 3Bancho)

More Super Deep Aero Rims: Dodici *

Even when the H+Son rims debate is still going on, maybe it's time to introduce yet another new brand of super deep aero rims for your fixed gear bike. Jacopo and the people behind the Vintage Pista blog are from Italy and they've recently produced their own brand of Dodici deep aero rims: 

"More than 40mm height, Incredible Hulk-like strenght, 32 and 36 holes!

Only 1662 grams per set.

Available in powder coated black, white and now also in uncoated rough finish"

If I'm correct, the rims are manufactured in Italy and what's also pretty interesting is the fact that, again I might be wrong here, but the rims appear to be modeled after the legendary and hard-to-find Gipiemme Tecno 416 rims of the 1990s. Ok, Dodici rims have more spoke holes than 416s but still. 

On the other hand, the sellers are comparing their rims to Campy Shamals and and I guess the weight is on the same range between these two. In any case, Dodici rims are bit heavier than Deep Vs, DP18s or H+Sons so maybe they really are strong as well, who knows. 

My man Lauri will be lacing up a pair of these rims very soon and I'm interested in seeing how they will look like in real life. 

You can order directly from the blog or from the Ebay, where they are selling ready-laced wheels too. 

You might want to also check out the Vintage Pista blog because they seem to have quite lot of other interesting stuff for sale there as well, vintage Italian track frames and the like...

Stockholm Winter Bike Check Pt. 1

It's winter up here in the north. Here's superswede's nice Bianchi dressed in some snow. You can peep him riding in this video.

Corratec 1994 Track Bike

While Olli builds his mad bike designs over here at the moment, there were people before him who decided to challenge the conventional rules of frame building. I just wonder why these types of ideas did not stick and become used more often. Maybe there was a reason... 

If that bike is your type of thing, check out the auction and tons of hi-res pics in here. 

Profile Racing Fixed/Fixed Hubs

Double fixed hubs, finally available. In anodized colors for all yo'all hipsters and tricksters out there. Hmmm, but it looks like the prices of all of their fixed hubs went up a bit. Or do I remember wrong?

Mmmmm, Beer...

"It's Like Standing Inside A Turbine Of A Boeing 747"

Real Taco'ed Rim

Ok, yo'all know already about the whole discussion going on all over the web about that one H+Son rim that split. I personally only want to point out that maybe you should not judge a new product entirely based on one individual defective item and incident. 

Or am I wrong in this? I guess time will tell. If more of these start popping up, then we need to re-evaluate this case but until then here's the most on the point comment I've come across yet: 

"It does look thin but that doesn't mean it's not a good rim. That was not from skidding. You hipster's getting all hard core pulling the circus/bmx tricks under some over-pass on gear designed to be used for other purposes should stop bitc*ing about it. It's pretty funny reading post's from hipsters with no mechanical or engineering background giving negative comments about gear they're misusing."

UPDATE!

Here's actually the manufacturer's response to John Prolly's blog post which he has not, yet at the time of writing this, approved to be published there:

"This is my response on the prolly blog. But I see he has yet to approve it.
I high doubt this rim snapped in half by itself causing the inner tube to be cut. I'm leaning towards the fact that it must be some outside force as you can see the sidewalls are clearly dented.

Anyways here is the response:

There has been no official H Plus Son reply as we have yet to see the rim in person.
The "official reply" that people are posting, is in fact a few weeks old, and is not a response to this rim.

Prolly the rim isn't half the weight of a Deep V, they are about the same: 580 grams.

The tire well of these rims is made to the same specs as the many other road rims we manufacture. They are 0.8, plus or minus 0.1 mm

We are a new brand. But the factory has been making rims for the past 10 years. We make about 6-7 million rims each year and about 2 million of them are double walled.

We don't want to piss anyone off, nor do we want to push responsibility onto someone else. But please we think there needs to be more investigation into the real problem of this before pushing the blame onto one party.

We have asked for the customer to send us their address and phone number and a representative will go and inspect the rim.

If for some reason the rim did not rip apart and cut open the inner tube, we believe we reserve the right to take this a step further in clearing our name"

You can see from this picture that the force of a exploding inner tube is huge. This is a posting someone else did on a different blog relating to this issue. These are mountain bike rims mind you.

"Wowza! I had some MTB Salsa Delgado rims fail the same way, although not as epically.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3002/3057218306_9fdaff008e_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3151/3057218132_f274dd180f_o.jpg

The outward pressure from the bead is apparently one of the strongest forces on a rim - who knew!"

(Please note! This following image is by no ways related to the actual incident discussed above that might or might not have occurred somewhere else at some completely different point in time.) 

Bull's Head - By Pablo Picasso

Sculpture By Picasso

"Bull's Head" 1943. Bronze, after bicycle seat & handlebars, by Pablo Picasso. 
Location: Mougins, France
Date taken: July 1967
Photographer: Gjon Mili
Size: 844 x 1280 pixels (11.7 x 17.8 inches)

Winter In Stockholm

Fixed Gear Jam STOCKHOLM from Martin B on Vimeo.

Hej, they have snow in Stockholm too! Heja Grabbar!

Obey 18k Gold U-Lock

If things go far enough, maybe it's good to know that there are options like the Obey ring here. 

Olli's New Whip: Kosmos

ChopperOlli is bending steel again. 

New project is under way, the draft name is 'Kosmos' and I believe the inspiration came from those wheels he just built, actually. 

Here's a full gallery of hi-res pics. And hey, it's barspinnable too!

Laek House Winter Cycling Hats

Right on time too! These new Laek House winter cycling hats look very nice and classic indeed. Wool, Calamai soft-shell, fleece, and "based on a standard four panel cycling cap and a traditional Euro winter hat". Just note that this is a limited run so you need to act fast to get one, I suppose. 

The hat would go nice with those Outlier OG Pants. And to top your outfit off you should maybe have that retro Cinelli helmet too. 

 

Fixed Gear Romance & Dating Tips

Fixed 2 from Charge Bikes on Vimeo.

Aaaawwww... that's so sweet! Juliet + SuperTed. They've got matching bikes and everything. So nice. Why my girlfriend won't ride a fixed gear bike too? L, if you're reading this...

But all right, even if Juliet & Ted have already hit it off, maybe reading this will help the rest of you lot out a little bit: "Dating advice from Fixed Gear Bikers"... 

It's Winter In Here

Eki took the pic and apparently his bike is buried somewhere under there. My bikes were safe inside last night. Anyhow, my commute to work this morning was as much fun as you can have on a bike. I wish the snow stays too. Not likely, though. 

On The Phone

The pic came from here, again. Maeda is on the phone. 

Outlier OG Cycling Pant - Straight Outta NYC

You might have already read about the new Outlier OG 4Season Black Lotus cycling pants on John Prolly's blog or somewhere else but I need to give to them an extra shout-out here.

When I read the copy on Outlier's site, I was immediately sold: 

"A garment designed to work as well in a board meeting as it does on a bicycle. Wake up and throw them on, regardless of whether you plan on climbing a mountain or running a business.

Made in New York City with Schoeller Dryskin Extreme fabrics, these pants are designed for the ultimate in versatility, both socially and technologically. This is the best technical fabric around, you'll stay cool and dry no matter how hard you ride. The Lotus or Nanosphere coating is "self cleaning". The surface is coated in nanoscopic spikes that prevent grease and stain molecules from bonding to the fabric. Water just rolls off, taking with it any dirt that might remain.

It's water resistant and quick drying, so no worries if the sky turns against you. Light rain? Forget it, that stuff just rolls right off, just like the coffee or red wine you might have spilled upon it.

You could rock it with a sport coat and oxfords or a hoodie with sneakers." 

So If you're commuting on a bike but you're commute is not super long, or you're just riding casually in a city everyday in every weather but you don't want to look like you're a professional road cyclist or on your way to go hiking on the mountains, Outlier's pants might be just what you're looking for. 

Technical, yet casual enough, and good looking in that understated and simple way. 

And if the price tag seems bit hefty, remember that they're Made In NYC by a small company run by real people who actually ride bikes themselves, they're made out of high quality technical materials, made to high environmental standards AND you can maybe get them bit cheaper if you're clever enough to click here.  Also, if you end up ordering, tell them Jussi convinced you to buy them, ok?

Bike Bash Tonight - Parteeeey In Helsinki!

Selle San Marco NOS In Colors x 4

On Ebay, of course. A jolly colorful four-pack. But I wish they also had the neon green one included 

Caselli Pista

Interesting design. You're late, it's already sold. 

But check out more pics here. 

Keo Spin Fail

failed keo from TrackTramp805 on Vimeo.

Even though pretty much everybody pulls those Keo Spins on every single video clip out there, it's not that easy after all... 

St*rfuckers Trick Bike Again

Here it is again. The Starfuckers prototype freestyle frame with that fork. I already stole some nice pics from Gooove8, check them out, there's plenty more.  

Girl On A Bike

Tailwhip

More here. 

Bar Mitts. Mmm'kay?

If you really want those, click here. There are more funny pics there too.

Track Bike Times Video w/ Aero Fail

Track Bike Times Edit #1 from Matthew Rice on Vimeo.

Are these guys like the little brothers of those MASH SF dudes or something? Who knows but check out the "Aero Fail" ritualistic murdering of an Aeropoke somewhere there. Pretty funny. 

3Bancho Caps

Didn't I already post these? Maybe not. 

If those New Era -style caps are your thing, 3Bancho now has his own ones for sale here. Neat design and details, I'd say. 

The Kinfolk Lounge Tokyo

I've been informed about the new Kinfolk Lounge opening in Nakameguro, Tokyo. Well, the bar looks very nice and comfy and what's best they have a bunch of Keirin frames hanging from the rafters. 

Now my only question would be, 'Can I have one purple 54cm 3Rensho with my Ginger Mint Mojito, please?'

Actually, what's more interesting is that the people behind the bar have also a hook-up with Kusaka-san, a well-known builder who ran Vivalo for almost thirty years, and who's apparently now building Kinfolk Cycles for them. I'm waiting to hear more about this. 

Tricks alla Milanese

Style. From Milano. 

Meanwhile In Hong Kong

Respect. I've visited Hong Kong couple of years ago, without a bike, though, and the impression the city left in me was that HK must be the most cycling UN-friendly city I've ever been to. But of course, it could also be the most exciting city to ride your bike in, for the very same reason. In any case, it's a cool city. Here's more of those guys.  

Taxis = The Enemy? In Toronto...

Everyone, please try to be nice to each other out there, all right? This is just too harsh. 

 *  *  *  

Taxi Driver Severs Cyclists' Leg in Violent Hit-and-Run
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 11.17.08

Last night in Toronto, a cyclist had a loud argument with a cab driver and the next thing residents heard was a sickening crunch and a man screaming for help- the cabbie rammed the cyclist against a pole and severed his leg. Doctors couldn't fix it and the leg was amputated.

The cabbie took off and then three hours later called police and said he was defending himself against a robbery attempt

Constable Burrows: "We're trying to determine the sequence of events and how this escalated from the sound of voices to what we have right now, a male in hospital with fairly significant injuries fighting for his life".

MPLS Sunday

MPLS Sunday from Andrew Gruhn on Vimeo.

Watch it, in the end. Smooth! 

Mini Moser Hour Record Bike

Very cheap too. If toys are your thing. 

E.T.

My New Heroes

These guys are SO my new heroes!

And some haterz say people should quit trying to do tricks on track bikes and how road cycling is where it's at now. So is this what they meant?

(From Tracko)