El Cyclista

10.28.09

Bertelli Bici

Bikes to watch girls go by. These make you dream of Spring and Autumn, and sixties lounge music. Throwing your leg over and touring your hood with a camera in your bag. Another brand that understands the power of presentation, not only in the details of the simplest build, but in how they show themselves off to the world. Every bike is a one-off as they are constructed from a selection of parts from suppliers and others found at Flea markets. This requires an eye and dedication to finding the perfect combination that is a craft in itself. Check their site out for more stunning photography and details on the builds. I promise you will be amazed and will consider putting a large hole in your Bank balance. Thanks for the introduction Wai.

Viking Cycles, Norway

This brand verges on  the frame as art. Super Simple. Five colors, chrome and unpainted. A fixed track geometry made with Reynolds steel tubing and brazed lugs. Available for pre-order. This is photography I would have printed large and put on my wall to stare at all day. Gorgeous.

10.27.09

The Blackburn Flea USB Light

Cool for many reasons. It is named after a great bass player, one of the best the US has ever created. There is a white one, and it is rechargeable via a USB port on your computer. I love my Knog light, it looks great, but it is more for identification than illumination. If you are planning on Park rides at night this winter this 4 LED light is going to do both. On the continuous light setting you get 3 hours of light and it recharges in about an hour. You can get the front and back combo pack on Amazon for $32. Bargain!

Not everything that can be fixed, should be fixed

Well yes of coarse you can fix steel, but there is something about a frame when it gets to the above situation that you should maybe just say to yourself – “it is time”. No one is debating the obvious skill of the craftsman who got this frame back to looking like it does below, but looks can be deceptive. I would hate to be going down a very fast descent to find this out. Thanks for the contribution Wai.

10.25.09

The Holzweg Wooden Bike

A 2.3kg wooden bike (15lbs) by German product designer Arndt Menke. For his thesis diploma Menke studied the anisotropic properties of wood and the advantages they offer for product design. This particular frame design uses Ash wood, and is only used in places where it makes sense – instead of trying to make the whole frame from wood. The rear triangle uses a layered bridge design to create a damping area by adding a little spring. Beautiful clean design.

10.24.09

A new Ristretto from Baum

Fast becoming one of my favorite brands, a new Baum Ristretto. It appears that these guys cannot make a bike that is not a work of art. Attention to detail is everything. Hit the photo above for the large size to see the frame in all its glory. Baum Bikes.

The MetriGear Power Meter

Every so often a product comes along that changes an industry, or in this case a sport. The MetriGear Power Meter when it hits the market in Q1 2010 could well be the ipod for the bike industry. If this thing works like they say, then everything else won’t matter. Every other brand will spend the rest of their days trying to copy it, just like the ipod or the iphone. What we know from Interbike. They have been working on this for 5 years and already have working prototypes. It will be priced around $1000, compared to $3500 for a wireless SRM. It is swappable between bikes, by just swapping your pedals. It weighs in at 219g for the complete package, compared to 919g for the SRM. It can measure the power output from both legs with 38 points a second, compared to a combined single measurement on the SRM. It is being developed with the now established ANT+ wireless platform to work with a selection of head units. They haven’t settled on how to translate the data to the head unit, but they have it working by ANT+ to a fob housed in a water bottle for field testing – I love this shit! The measurement technology fits inside the axel of your pedal, which means that today it can really only be used on Speedplay pedals (lucky old Speedplay). If you aren’t following their progress you need to be, they are posting test ride data to their blog. This is going to be good to watch!

10.22.09

The Knog Super Tool

It is a tool like no other. Brought to you by the same people that brought you the Knog lights (won’t light up the road for you, but will stop you being invisible), a very practical and unique tool for your pocket. Designed by a company called Catalyst from Australia that seem to have a knack for looking at existing products and making them better. Deep breath, the tool has: 7 hex keys, two screwdrivers, 6 wrenches, a chain tool and wait for it a bottle opener, which is obviously very important for beer during rides. You can get them here. Thanks for the heads-up Chad.

10.20.09

Hetchin’s Decal Designs

When I was reading more on the Hetchin history I found this beautiful collection of frame decals. The first two shown here were designed for their track frames and were called the “6-day” design, although they also started to use the design later on their road frames. One interesting thing I found out was a rule regarding advertising. Imagine this. Frames ordered for use in amateur competition were not allowed to have decals, because that form of “advertising” was forbidden! Can you imagine telling that to Trek, Cannondale, Specialized, Colnago today? The idea that putting your name on your product was considered advertising is very strange. The Third design was called the “Hetchin’s Script” introduced in 1953.  The last set of decals were called “Fairground” after the font used which resembled that seen on fairground graphics.

Hetchins Frames of London

The rear triangle is probably one of the most explored areas of frame design to try and improve ride quality and power transfer, and this frame is indeed the original “Curly Stay”. This is a brand from an era when frame makers were actively involved in the sport from sponsorship to development (nice to see this happening again with Cervelo and recently Raleigh). Hetchins had the honor of putting the World Champion stripes on their frames after a win on the track in 1936 Worlds. They are still making frames today under the marquee of Hetchins Lightweights run by David Miller (but I don’t think it is that David Miller of Garmin fame). These new builds have everything from custom lug design, over-sized Columbus tubing, geometries from road, track and touring, custom paint and conventional rear stays. You can find more info on their current Magnum Opus O/S Ultra Light frame here. There is also an amazing gallery of restored bikes here, where you get a real sense of the craft of the builds. In a world where modern frames are mostly white or naked carbon, with a few accent colors it is nice to see some serious use of color. Also the idea of having custom lug design…….True bespoke bike building.

Above is Champion, Toni Merkens, with his downward curved handlebar stem and “Curly” Hetchins frame. A pretty progressive position considering the period. And the guy below looks like he showed up to late to change, and just decided to ride in his suit. Well at least he tucked his socks in. And where is your helmet man!