We're back from FrostBike Goodbye Minneapolis, Hello Pittsburgh!!!

Aaron here everybody.   As you may already know Katharine and myself closed the shop this past week to attend Frostbike in Minneapolis MN.  Frostbike is Quality Bicycle Products annual shindig where they display new products and hold educational seminars for their dealers.  It's not hard to figure out why it's named Frostbike as it was 0 degrees when we got here on Wednesday and not much warmer throughout the rest of the week.  We had a really great time there and the seminars and break out sessions were incredibly helpful.  The best thing about the conference is that we were able to meet some great bike people from all over the country and even from elsewhere in the world.  

We decided that it would be super cool if we road our bikes to the Pittsburgh International Airport to catch our flight.  We figured if we were going to a bike convention we should start it off with a bike ride.  We had heard about the Montour Trail Airport connector and thought that this would be an excellent opportunity to try it out.  Last summer our Brompton rep John flew to Pittsburgh from Portland and then road his Brompton to the shop before continuing his ride to Washington D.C for the Brompton National Championships.  We blogged about it here if you want to read about it.  Importantly  the Pittsburgh International Airport does offer cyclists overnight covered bike parking in their long term parking garage so we were able to leave our bikes and some gear safely at the airport.

Because of the cold weather and recent snow we decided it would be best to ride through the west end and take a more tarmac and traffic heavy route where in nicer conditions we would have most likely pedaled through McKees Rocks and Neville Island to Coraopolis to catch the head of the Montour Trail.  You can check out our route via google maps here . Fortunately we were able to get up and over the West End without too much static from morning traffic.  As expected the Montour Trail was snow covered with very minimal tracks.  There was one set of fat bike tracks in the snow that both Katharine and myself attempted to follow without too much success.  This 10 or so miles was definitely the most challenging part of our ride and did cause a fair bit of anxiety about missing our flight due to our slow than expected pace.  It also began to snow at a fairly heavy rate for the last 5 miles or so.  In retrospect these challenges were the best part of the ride.  The snow was beautiful and really made the ride special.  We also saw a coyote clear as day right on the Airport connecting trail which was really cool. 

One really odd byproduct of riding through the airport was definitely going through security in my cycling gear.  The TSA agents must have thought I was a little off coming through security wearing just bib tights and a base layer although it should have made their job easier as wearing tights gives you little room to smuggle contraband.   I got aggressively questioned about my socks and what was underneath them to which I answered "more socks".  They were not amused.

Being in Minneapolis and QBP was really cool for bike nerds like us.  We have always heard MLPS was a great bike town but I was really impressed by all of the bike commuters we saw pedaling around town in 0 degree weather.  QBP headquarters was awesome and checking out all the new gear was really rad.  There was a snow bike course outside of the headquarters where we road some cool fat and 29er plus bikes.   Again the best thing about the trip was all the really cool and weird bike people from around the country and world. Check out some of the pictures below.  You will see some pics of a Surly bonfire party held on a frozen pond (seemed kinda dangerous to us but no one else seemed to care).  I got an out of focus shot of Katharine riding a ski bike down a  snowy hill while party goers looked on hoping for just a little carnage.  All in all it was a great trip.  We are super happy for the new friends we made and the chance to learn how to make Kindred better this year than last.  Now that we are back in the Burgh we can't wait to get the shop back up to speed and ourselves back into the swing of things.

Here we were 75% of the way there inching our way on the Montour Trail to the Airport.

My sock boot combination was amusing to Katharine.  I didn't want to ride clip less and then have to pack more shoes so I rode in my winter books.  It worked out just fine.

Check out this Surly Ice Cream Truck tricked out with a Lauf carbon spring fork.

Downtown gave us a taste of more snowy trails to come.

Here is Katharine ripping a janky ski bike down a hillside while the crowd watched, cheered, and jeered. Scored a 4.8, tied Aaron's score.  We were all winners!

There were some man-made features on the fat bike course,  The was a big wooden kicker and a big wooden berm.

TSA get a load of me.

Surly threw a party behind the QBP's headquarters.  They made a huge pallet fire in the middle of a lake then encouraged us towards bike shenanigans.  Katharine and myself were pretty concerned about have a fire on a frozen lake but no one else seemed to care.  When in Rome I guess.

Katharine first to step up to the flat fixing competition.

Surly had a bunch of demo bikes for use around QBP headquarters.  Fat bikes Galore!

Awesome Airport bike parking.  Partially covered, our bikes made it thru a cold and snowy week, no problem.  We used one U-lock, one folding lock, and a cable lock to grab our saddles, helmets, and empty panniers.

Live Band Kareoke!

Tire Test: Riding the Clement X'Plor USH 700X35 60 tpi

Oh Man!  There are few things I love more in the world than new tires.  New tires have the ability to transform your bike nearly instantaneously more so than almost any other component.  As much as your bicycle's frame and wheels, tires directly impact your bicycle's performance,  durability, comfort, and safety.  But unlike your bicycle's frame or wheels replacing tires is relatively inexpensive and quick.  In short no other component has the same impact per dollar ratio.  This should make sense if you think about it, when riding your bicycle in the conventional manner your tires are the only thing touching the ground.

I am constantly searching for the next best thing in the world o' tires.  Like most people I want my tires to do everything well all the while being lightweight, durable, and inexpensive to replace.  But In the real world we must make compromises right? So...generally speaking you can pick two out of the three and if you want your tires durable and light you got to pay the piper. 

Most of the riding I do now a days involves commuting from the shop to my home and around town doing errands.  I spend a lot of time riding on pavement but I love the ability to take my commuter bike off road and mix it up a little.   I was looking for a tire that would roll well on pavement but allow me reasonable traction off road should I feel inclined to take a detour through the park on my way home.  Luckily the burgeoning adventure/gravel racing scene has spurred the development of incredibly versatile tires designed to roll better on road and hardpack and have more puncture protection than cyclocross racing tires all the while offering greater off road grip and durability than traditional road tires.  Clement tires has been at the front of this trend releasing some very cool gravel specific tires.  They have bestowed these tires with the X'plor moniker.  I was immediately attracted to the USH 700X35 offering.  Looking at the tire I really liked the combination of the smooth center tread with the spike shoulder knobs as well as the 35mm width (the widest tire I can fit under my fenders).  I decided to give them a shot and have been commuting and riding on them for the past two months.

So...how do they stack up?  I decided on the less expensive 60 tpi (thread per inch) $50 per tire msrp compared to the 120 tpi ($80) offering.  In general tires with lower thread counts are less supple, heavier, but more durable than higher thread count offering.  I figured because I was unsure of how I would like the tread pattern I should go with the less expensive option.  The 60 tpi 700X35 tires came in weighing 440grams.  I was unable to find a weight for the 120tpi version.

I have a few hundred miles of on and off road riding on the  X'plor USH tires and I have to say I am quite please with their performance. On the road they roll well and extra volume compared to the 32mm standard takes the edge off of road irregularities.  The 440 gram heft can definitely be felt when accelerating and climbing and sets this tire apart from racier offerings in the cyclocross and road segments. That said the higher TPI USH tire  should be lighter and feel faster.  The pointy nobs do squirm a little under hard cornering on pavement but this is to be expected. Happily I can report no flats and good wear characteristics from the short time riding this tire.

When mounted on the H+Son TB14 rim the tire measured a little less than 34mm.

Wear has been very good so far.

Perhaps the most surprising and rewarding aspect of this tire has been it's off road performance.  I was originally a little skeptical that then USH would be able to supply driving traction in messy conditions.  I felt that the continuous center tread would leave me wanting for more aggressive tread pattern when things got muddy and wet.  During a recent post snow double track ride in some of our city parks I found the tires to offer surprising grip even in the tough snowy/icy conditions.  I was able to keep up with friend riding more aggressive cyclocross race tires and felt a definite advantage when we got onto the road.

440 grams.  A little hev for folders but it's not too bad.

The Clement X'Plor USH does offer excellent versatility which is exactly what I was looking for.  I am very interested in trying the 120tpi version to see how much lighter and more supple the tire is compared to its cheaper little brother.  I plan to continue riding this tire throughout the winter.  Keep a look out for a longer term review when I put more miles on em.

Long Term Review: Living with our Brompton folding bicycle

Our brompton demo came to my rescue recently and I thought now would be a great time to write a more in depth review, especially now that we had it for the better part of a year.  Last week I was recovering from the flu when I asked my wife to pick me up from work instead of forging ahead with my normal bike commute.  Usually I relish my 6.5 mile commute home as a opportunity to turn off my brain and get some much needed excercise but I was still achy and sick from the flu and with the winter conditions I couldn't get myself excited to ride home.  I had my current commuter bike at the shop but already feeling sick I really didn't want to hoist it up on the roof rack of my Subaru.  The Brompton seemed like the perfect solution, folded it fits easily in the back seat of my car no muss no fuss.  

Here is a picture of our demo brompton in it's natural environment.  An urban area.

The next morning I felt much recovered, most likely due to the extra rest given by not riding home nor hoisting my full sized bicycle onto and off  of the roof of my Subaru.  It also happened that the weather was unnaturally sunny and warm for a Saturday in January.  Feeling well and enjoying the unusually sunny weather I had a truly great ride into the shop.  It was during this commute where I decided to do some more writing about one of our favorite bikes. 

One of the coolest things about Bromptons is that each bike can be customized for the user.  Although many customers choose to buy a bike off our sales floor there is no extra cost associated with special ordering a bike to your taste.  Brompton's website has an excellent bike builder function (here) where you can have fun spec'ing out your very own folder.  The only difficult thing about custom ordering a Brompton is that you have to wait for the bike to be built (the wait as of the writing this blog post is 4 weeks).  When purchasing a Brompton you have to choose a handlebar type (Short,Medium,P touring,High), a gearing system (single speed, 2 speed, 3 speed, or 6 speed), do you want a rear rack or fenders (you probably want at least fenders) and then you have to decide on the color of your bike,  and lighting options (dynamo lighting anyone).  You also can add really ingenious luggage and transport options (easy wheels are a must).  Our demo Brompton is classified as an M6R (meaning it has M type bars with a six speed drivetrain and a rear rack with fenders)  On our bike we also added Shimano dynamo lighting for safety and a telescopic seat post to fit really really tall people. You can check out our earlier Brompton review here where we discussed our first impressions of our new demo Brompton.

My first impressions of the ride of our Brompton haven't really changed throughout our extended use of the bike.  I feel the bike is extremely capable of traversing our potholed and pockmarked streets.  If anything I am increasingly impressed at the overall durability and build quality of the Brompton.  With such small wheels (16" X 1-3/8") many people assume the ride would be overly harsh.  In actuality the Brompton rides very comfortably despite its little wheels. The comfortable ride is accomplished by incorporating suspension into the frame design.  The rear swing arm of the bike has an elastomer where it contacts the main frame allowing for a small amount of travel.  The stem and bars also have a good deal of flex which suspense the rider isolating him/her from the bumpiness of the terrain.  All of this designed compliance does takes its toll in pedaling efficiency where I find the Brompton to be lacking.  That said this is a folding designed for urban utility not a race bike made for outright speed so a little extra give is expected and appropriate.  And as long as you don't strava your commute everyday you probably won't mind either.

We have found that the best thing about having a Brompton is having the ability to take it with you pretty much wherever you go.   Have to go to the bank?  Fine...fold it up and bring it in.  Need to stop at Penn Mac to do some shopping for tonights dinner?  Great!  Partially fold the Brompton and use the easy wheels and front mounted folding basket to transform the bike into a shopping cart.  The only challenge becomes having to stop and answer questions posed by curious bystanders.  

Our bank has a perfect parking spot for our Brompton right underneath the deposit/withdraw slip counter.

With the handlebar up and the rest of the bike folded the Brompton becomes a usable shopping cart.  The front basket is in a great position to hold goods while you wheel the bike around.

I have to say the longer we have our Brompton the harder I think it would be to live without it.  We continually find new uses where being able to bring your bike with us just makes sense.  For me it will never replace having a full sized bicycle, its just not fast enough on road or capable enough off road to give me the thrills I look for.  That said I can't see myself not having one either.  Feel free to stop by the shop and give our demo a spin.

Wheelbuilding n'at

Katharine just finished another great wheel build so I thought I would take this opportunity to share some of her work and advertise that we do offer custom wheel building services.  We can build with a wide range of hub, rim, and spoke brands.  We are a dealer for White Industries, Chris King,  DT Swiss, Wheelsmith, Sapim, Paul Components, and many more.  We have built wheels intended for many different applications from touring to racing to dirt jumping.  Check out some pictures below of some of our previous wheel builds.

I love pretty much everything about Katharine's latest build and would be proud to rock this wheel any of my applicable bikes.  This particular wheel was built using a H Plus Son Archetype rim in the hard anodization finish laced to a american made White Industries MI5 racer front hub.  The hub and rims were drilled for 32 spokes of which DT Swiss Competition 2.0/1.8 double butted silver spokes with silver brass nipple were used.

One of the great things about hand built wheels are the small touches and attention to detail.  While the outboard side of the hub flange is bevelled to allow the spoke head to seat flush the inboard side of the flange has no such bevel.  In these instances we like to use brass spoke washers to allow the spoke head a malleable seat as the washer bends to accept the spoke head.  This tight interface of the spoke head and flange drilling can lesses spoke fatigue and maximize even tension.

Notice the flat drilling for the spoke head.

As mentioned earlier we do build race wheels.  Below you can find a picture of Katharine fitting a newly build Enve wheel to a custom Seven titanium road bicycle.  This particular wheelset was built with some of the highest zoot components available from American made Carbon rims to ultra light ceramic bearing DT Swiss Carbon Ceramic 180 hubs.

Cost for building a wheel is $50 Labor per wheel plus parts. If you read this and think you might want so wheels built feel free to call, email, or message us and we can discuss option.  Cheers!