130mm vs 135mm... The Crosschecks have their gnot-right spacing at 132.5 to fit mountain or road hubs.

I rode the above setup on the Taco Tuesday ride (Balboa Park - La Jolla - Balboa Park) and absolutely enjoyed the fast spirited pace and hill climbing back to the mesa. I think I finally got the bike tuned the way I want it. Thanks for the suggestions and comments. So I will take OKB's suggestion on building a SS from another bike or from scratch...

Went out to try the new tires recently. I was able to fit the 650b's on my MB-0 without a problem. The Hetres rode so nicely on the road and the trails!

Nice, I'm building up an old Bontrager for myself with 650b wheels now although mine is remaining an MTB with knobby tires. I went ahead and moved the canti posts since it needed new paint anyway. The zip looks nice.

wpstoll:Latest build. Should be finished in a couple of weeks.

What's that wall mounted rack called?

Just started the refinishing project on the lady's SST-AL. First step is sanding off all the clear coat so it's down to the bare aluminium. She wants to go with an anodised purple finish. More photos to come.

lookin nice! :face-devil-grin:

So I finished Jennifer's bike this morning. Let me know what you guys and girls think of the new build.

That bike in the background is my wife's project bike that I'm building for her. Brought it in for adding bar end shifters and final cable-running. I just got the phone call from Josh that it's ready to go, so I'm going to be swinging by in a little bit to pick it up. The turn-around time was perfect, because I wanted her to be able to ride it tonight for Courteous Mass. Velo Cult Rules!

mileco:That bike in the background is my wife's project bike that I'm building for her. Brought it in for adding bar end shifters and final cable-running. I just got the phone call from Josh that it's ready to go, so I'm going to be swinging by in a little bit to pick it up. The turn-around time was perfect, because I wanted her to be able to ride it tonight for Courteous Mass. Velo Cult Rules!

I recognized the bike from the background in tonight's Courteous Mass ride. It looks really good...May I suggest removing the toe-clips (for now) until your wife (Melissa?) gets comfortable with the setup. She almost lost her balance on a stop light while pulling out her feet. She'll get the hang of it eventually (if she chooses to keep the toe clips).

Gena, my wife, rides her single speed Bianchi mixte with regular plateform pedals and upright swept back bars. She was wearing the white Bern helmet.

Sky this is an awesome revival from the VC Blog....Just sayin.

New additions to the family stable. For those that got the preview of my wife's bike at Courteous Mass, this is with the fenders added now (and toe clips removed for safety).

The green bike is the red Nishiki I had at last Courteous Mass. The saddle, bar tape, and toe clips are the only additions. Drivetrain remains original. Tires and new cables made it functional.

The only change I'm going to make to mine is to drop down to 700x35 wheels. The 27" doesn't leave enough clearance for the fenders I want.

Rode it into work this morning. Biggest smile I've had in a while. And that's what biking is about.

Yeah, we stock those rubber boots for kickstands.

Hers is a Fuji Monterey, mine a Nishiki Riveria (unfortunately, not the GT version). I left the head badge and surrounding area with the original dark-blue color. Same with mine, leaving the Nishiki head sticker and surrounding red area (hard to see in the pic). Kind of a throw-back nod to their roots.

The argyle pattern on hers didn't come out the way I wanted. It just proved too difficult to paint properly, with light colors and tight pattern. So, I compromised and made stickers with the pattern (dark blue, light blue, light khaki, white, with pink cross-hatch). I then put four layers of clear gloss to seal it in. Only close inspection reveals that it's not paint. Every time she takes it out, she gets rave reviews and compliments. The Hillcrest residents seem to love it most :face-monkey:.

The white portions on both bikes are hand-painted enamel. I wanted hand-painted for a "classic", weathered look, but knew that it would only look good on detail work. So, her headset and my white details are the only to get this treatment.

Mark, our condo is rapidly turning into a bike barn (five now in the fleet), and I'm looking into wall hooks. I've been meaning to get that rubber boot for a month now, and haven't gotten around to it. For that matter, I think it's time I get a kickstand for mine. Maybe a trip to VC on Friday will fix my needs . . .

I did a search on Schwinn Cycle Truck and found this and this. I have always thought it was made in Europe. It's becoming more popular on this side of the pond (search for "Cycle Truck) due to its utilitarian design.

An image of a restored 1955 Schwinn Cycletruck

Shy is right on the money.
Definitely a warehouse bike. At 62 lbs, it's only 2 lbs lighter than my Bakkersfiets, which is a delivery bike. The larger wheels on the Bakkersfiets go over anything, whereas that 20" rim on the CycleTruck can handle more weight, lower the placement of the cargo, and is more maneuverable. I just bought mine as a historical vehicle/art. Narrowed it down to being produced between 1940-41.
Too bad you don't see these as often as golf carts in the 'States, in warehouse environments. Maybe employee healthcare costs would go down.

Schwinn stopped production in 1967, but Worksman Cycles is still building these in NYC (since WWII). Current price for a new one? $539. Replace the basket with a metal pizza box, and you're still under $600.

I finally got around to re-doing my handlebar tape this weekend. I didn't like how it came out the first time, and the electrical tape just seemed like a turn-off on the faux leather Fizik bar tape. After watching a cool video on bar wrapping on the Rivendell website, I saw them using twine as the way to finish off the wrap. It seemed like the perfect fit, so I copied the idea for my bars. I'm still no expert at wrapping, but it's much better than before.

I've b been in the mood to change the bike up a bit in time for spring. I painted my stem and pedals with some montana paint (which is awesome by the way) which I mostly use for art projects. I ended up trading a deep v for this guy below, it is also being repainted with montana paint. I'm aware this is the hated ” hipster” wheel but wanted to give you guys a look with the use of this paint.

Yeah I think they are pretty common nowadays. I personally like the look tho.

It's a rattle can. It's intended for Graffiti mainly. It's called Montana Gold, Montana HARDCORE also works great, it's about $10 a can at an art supply store. Totally worth it.

Here is the MKS pedals I also painted yesterday. They were originally silver. Same with the cages. For these I used Montana Black which is their high pressure/large area coverage can style. It holds up pretty well even without primer. I'm sure it will get jacked up over time but what part on a bike doesn't.

Christmas was good for my business and we all got a sizeable bonus. I was finally able to buy a quality tandem that I've been wanting for me and my daughter. It's a 1980 Santana. CroMoly steel frame, the paint job is in pretty rough shape, but there's no frame rust (thankfully!). I believe most of the parts have been replaced, but they are good quality parts. Phil Woods 48 spoke hubs and bottom brackets, Campy cranks, Sachs freewheel and shifters. The seats definatly need to be replaced, but whoever owned this before me maintained it well, it's just really dirty and needs a good cleaning.



We've already taken it on a few rides around North county (101, Elfin Forrest, Del Dios, etc) and it performs great! With the weekend forecast for rain, now it's time to give it an overhaul and heavy cleaning. The cables are starting to get a bit rusty anyways.

Rear hub. Has threading for a near non existent Woods drum brake (not Arai like I originally thought)


Front hub, 1st generation Phil Woods. Needs some navel jelly to get rid of the rust, but not bad for a 40 year old hub.


Examples of how dirty this bike is currently -






I was considering getting this repainted, but need to have this bike available now to maximize our summer time enjoyment. Perhaps I'll consider that during the winter time.

I'll post again once cleaning is completed. I'll probably post in the tandem thread instead.....

The Phil Wood brake is kind of cool to have but it was not very safe. If would lock up and not release which is why they stopped making it. It's only good as a drag brake and doesn't do much to stop the bike anyhow. Cantilever brakes are the best for tandems. You have Cantilever brakes although there are stronger one's out there.

Try kookstop pads. I had a white-knuckle descent down Laguna Mt. ( 50+ mph gusts) and rode the brakes the entire way down. Bike 50 lbs and me at close to 230

Hi Brent,

It was pretty extreme conditions when we blew off the rear tire. Las Flores is a wicked hill--I think we dropped about 1000 feet in a mile and a half, and there were some twisties so I didn't want to let the bike run.

http://www.toughascent.com/blog/?tag=las-flores-canyon-rd

I don't believe changing the brake pads would have much of an effect on heat dissipation, although I'm guessing brake fade could be an issue with lesser pads. We had XT cantilever brakes (probably BR-M737) on our tandem, similar to what you have (are yours LX?). OKB's brakes are classic "non low profile" cantilevers with an effectively much longer lever arm, and should require less pressure on the levers to generate stopping force at the rim. V brakes would also give you better leverage, and they're less likely to squeal than cantilevers, but at the expense of being harder to modulate--more like an on-off switch. I don't recall there being a problem generating enough force to brake effectively, and I had road bars and levers, vs your more effective MTB levers, so I don't think generating enough brake force is an issue for you. In any case, switching to "more powerful" brakes will not substantially affect heat dissipation, and thus will have little effect on the probability of blowing a tire off the rim.