A new BikeNüt bike with great stopping power

They are having lots of fun with their branded bike, at BikeNüt, and I’ve heard that some in the shop are beginning to call it the Umlaut.

What makes this bike exciting is that with each new owner comes the promise of a new project, something entirely unique. The assembled bike is the result of long discussions with a client, of discovering habits, preferences, requirements, and wishes. This is the way industrial production should be: some parts come from far-away places, others from national or local manufacturers, but the final product is assembled here, to respond to individual wishes and needs.

In this particular bike, everything is pretty much straightforward, from the gruppo, SRAM Red, to the wheels, Ambrosio rims. Apart from the white saddle and bar tape (BTW, I’ve never seen any dirty fingerprints on white tape, have you?), the future owner decided to go for EEBrakes, a very innovative set that are the latest thing in stopping power: they are solid!

It is worth looking at these brakes in some detail. When we apply a gradual pressure on most of the brakes commonly available, the friction between the rim and the brake pads flexes these arms and reduces their efficiency. Many manufacturers, such as Shimano and SRAM, strengthen the caliper but, in doing so, increase their weight.

The EEBrakes. © EECycleworks

EE Cycleworks, the maker of the EEBrakes, have taken a different approach. They have reexamined the way brake works and have engineered their brakes to overcome traditionally weaknesses. Rather than a single point, they utilize multiple pivots to activate the caliper arms. The pivots multiply the leverage in the caliper arms and reduce the amount of pressure that is needed on the brake pads. The designers have increased the caliper width but have eliminated every superfluous ounce of the main materials employed in their construction, high-grade aluminum and titanium. As a result, the EEBrakes are exceedingly smooth to operate, they have great modulation, and are light, about 195 grams for a set.

These brakes look complex and different from the rest. Admittedly, they take a little time to get used to them. Yet their performance sets a new standard, one I would like to adopt as soon as I can afford it.

The designer's bike

When he joined BikeNüt a few months ago, John-Paul Rutledge, or J.P., as he is usually known, bought himself a brand new bike, a Giant TCR Advanced. His previous road bicycle was a top-of-the-line machine from a well known brand, the same used by two top G.C. contenders in this year’s Tour de France. J.P. seems much happier with his new bike: “It’s stiffer, more comfortable, and costs about thirty percent less than the other one,” he says.

J.P. grew up in Charlotte, NC, and has been riding bikes since he was 8.  He rode BMX bikes with a group of similarly gravity-defying kids of his age, discovering daily new ways to get hurt. He had an epiphany during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, when he watched the first mountain-bike competition. He began racing mountain bikes at 15. Once he rode with one of the legends of the sport, Ned Overend, an athlete who doesn’t let trivial hindrances, such as advancing age, get in the way of his racing.

J.P. finally yielded to his karma and got his first job in a bike shop in 2000. He moved to San Francisco four years later and began road cycling in 2006. “I hated it,” he exclaims, remembering his first ride to the Marin Headlands, a kind of rite of passage for any self-respecting, local road cyclist. Yet his interest in road cycling took hold. He worked at another bike shop in the Mission district, and rode on a Colnago bike with Shimano DuraAce components.

J.P.’s life is not just about bikes. He is married, has graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute, and used to work as a graphic designer for Specialized bicycles. But he had his fill of designing decals and got a job at BikeNüt. He still does some consulting for a few clients, however, and devotes the rest of his time to art. Cycling is his passion and, thanks to his ongoing practice with mountain biking, he thinks nothing of riding for 100 miles across Marin County on his days off.

By BikeNüt standards, he has done little to transform his Giant. J.P. likes the way the bike looks, such as the shape of the seat post, which increases comfort without detracting from the overall stiffness of the bike. The riding quality is very smooth, he feels.

He has installed a set of Revl brakes, produced by The Hive, a Bay Area company based in Petaluma. The carbon-fiber calipers exert a gradual, but firmly modulated braking force on the rims. They are light, strong, and very understated on the outside—they inspire confidence.

For the drivetrain, he employs the Shimano Ultegra group that came with the bike. They are exceedingly reliable in the most brutal situations. He only changed the pedals to DuraAce ones.

He likes his new job at BikeNüt: he enjoys the people and the constant banter that goes on behind the scenes. He is laconic, with an occasionally wry smile. I’ve noticed he responds swiftly whenever he becomes the target. He appreciates the deep pool of knowledge and the culture of constant innovation that pervades the shop. “I learn every day,” he says. But J.P. is a man of principle and likes mostly being surrounded by people who are interested in what they are doing, more concerned in individual riders’ needs than in just selling bikes. He fits very well in this culture.

A bike trip across America

David O’Mara has just completed his first bicycle transcontinental ride across the U.S. He began his ride on May 26 from the Santa Monica Pier. It took him 31 days to cover the entire distance to Washington, D.C. He decided to take this long trip to support his favorite charity, R.O.C.K. (Real Options for City Kids, http://www.rocksf.org/), an organization supporting girls and boys, ages 6-17, who live in or attend school in San Francisco's Visitacion Valley.

This is a photo at his start from the Santa Monica Pier.

It would just be your typical, heroic feat for a good cause, if it weren’t for the simple fact that Dave didn’t use to ride his bike very much, perhaps 5 miles since he bought it three years ago, until he decided to warm up his muscles on a trip across America.

He averaged 100 miles a day but on his longest day rode 178 miles. He hit trails and dust and storms, and on some stretches of the road he endured a temperature of 110 degrees. “I couldn’t breathe,” he complains—understandably. He lost 25 lbs during his ride. “I got fit on the bike,” he says. By any stretch of the imagination we shouldn’t throw ourselves into adventures of this kind, but not exactly knowing in what he was getting himself, Dave did it and came out triumphant.

His reliable charger is a Giant TCR C2, a bike that was part of the Giant line in 2007, when Dave bought it. It was then a state-of-the-art bicycle, equipped with a Shimano Ultegra gruppo and a Mavic Aksium wheelset: not the lightest setup by any means, but tough, loyal, and indestructible.

He’s now consigned his bike into BikeNüt’s loving hands for a well deserved checkup and new chain—and a wash, perhaps?
What next, a trip across Asia, from Mongolia to Paris?

Lots of kudos, Dave. You’re a hero!

In praise of clinchers

Tubulars or clinchers? This is not a question that will be settled today. Personally, I like clinchers. They offer good grip, comfort, durability and seem pretty fast to me. 

Tubulars would be lighter, provide even more grip and, given that professional riders use them and must have good reasons for doing so, more speed. If I used tubulars, however, I would have to carry a spare or two, just in case, as they used to do when they wore them across the chest. 

The extra weight would eliminate all of the advantages of a tubular. 

When misfortune strikes, changing a tubular is not something to be done on the spur of the moment. It takes time, and the outcome can be ghastly, if the exchange is performed incorrectly. Which is why race riders have professional bike mechanics to do it for them. Usually there is no team car behind me when I ride. So, there you have it, it’s clinchers.

Still, not all clinchers are equal. What to look for, when I buy a set? When I started paying nearly daily visits at the BikeNüt shop, I asked questions, researched the manufacturers websites, read Bicycling Magazine, and got more confused than ever--too much information. It took some experimentation and improved bike-handling sensibility to figure out what I liked.

What is my ideal clincher tyre? I consider five determining factors: rolling resistance, comfort, grip, weight, and durability. There would be a sixth factor, cost, if it weren’t for the sad truth that clinchers are all in the same price range, within a few dollars from one another.

Rolling resistance. Do you have the impression that you can go as fast as you want, or that the ground is as smooth as an egg shell? That is good. If the clinchers you use give you such feedback, keep using them: that is low rolling resistance.

Comfort. Often, surface conditions are less than ideal on our beautiful roads. There are cracks, potholes, bad repair patches, loose debris, and, in some cases, the surface is so worn out that it feels as rough as sand paper. Good clincher tyres, while not entirely insulating us against the ills of modern road surfaces, can at least alleviate their worst symptoms. I have discovered that the higher the thread count (TPI = Threads Per Inch) the more comfortable the tyre feels and the less rolling resistance it develops.

Grip. This is an attribute we usually think important when going downhill. If you are descending at more than 40 miles per hour, and your tyres give you the impression that you are drifting, that is not a good thing. Please change them as soon as you can. If, on the other hand, you can lean into the curve until your knees touch the road surface, that is good grip. Keep them.

Weight. We all know that a light bike is faster than a heavier one. Tyres contribute to the overall weight, and therefore we want the lightest we can find. As usual, we must make compromises: a very light tyre is more prone to annoying punctures than a heavier one. A heavier one will probably last longer, too. 

Durability. Tyre weight is not the only indicator of long life. The rubber chemical compound is another variable: a harder tyre, however less comfortable, will outlast a softer-compound tyre. Perhaps most important of all is where we ride. Urban roads are less kind on our wheels than country roads, smoother surfaces easier on the tyres than rough ones, and neck-break cornering is antithetical to long life.

In the end, it all comes down to personal preference, as I mentioned earlier, based on solid experience. BikeNüt carries at least four tyre brands in their lineup, Continental, Michelin, Schwalbe, and Vittoria.

Here is a comparative table with some of these tyres.

	TPI	Weight
Continental GP Attack	370	190 g
Continental Grand Prix 4000S	330	207 g
Michelin PRO² RACE	127	229 g
Vittoria Open Corsa Evo Slick	320	210 g
Vittoria Rubino Pro Slick	150	215 g
Schwalbe Ultremo R.1 HS 380	320	180 g

Each of these brands offers a line of several products, for clincher tyres but also for tubulars. I have tried my share of combinations. For the moment, I am pleased with a Continental Grand Prix Attack for the front wheel and a Continental Grand Prix 4000s for the back: comfortable, good grip, excellent roll, and very durable. They definitely could be lighter. I’ll keep researching.

The bicycle maker

Sam Kroyer has been riding bikes for nearly his entire life and has been working on them ever since he was 13. He has always been good with his hands. He is the master mechanic at BikeNüt and knows his stuff.

Sam builds bikes according to the customers’ needs and wishes. This is not an easy job: these customers are exceptionally up to date, discerning about what they want, and have firm opinions about how they want their bikes to work. Sam is a valued and perceptive advisor and can explain what works, how well, and what doesn’t. He speaks softly but has a commanding presence, and others listen attentively.

Sam grew up in rural Vermont, a beautiful, occasionally harsh environment that has long been the subject for poets and painters. He had his own soul-searching, Jack-Kerouac moment, when he hitchhiked across Canada to the West Coast, supporting himself with occasional and occasionally back-breaking jobs. He kept moving for a few years, from Washington state to Hayward, California, Utah, and to art school in Portland. He returned to the Bay Area with a young daughter and settled in San Francisco. He supported his daughter and himself by working in a bicycle shop and going to school at night, until he landed a job at United Airlines in Oakland to fix their planes. He loved the work but soon returned to bicycles.

Why does he like bicycles so much? “There is something direct about bicycles,” he says. “All the parts of these machines are connected by cables.” There is no go-between to deal with. This kind of directness appeals not only to his aesthetic sense but to his ethical one as well. His entire life is centered on making things, making them with his hands, and making them well. He is selective about his food, brews his own beer, likes running and mountain climbing in addition to riding bikes, has set up a workshop at home where he builds his own bicycle frames. 

Sam specializes in brazing their joints, he clarifies, a much tidier process than welding and one that produces tighter tolerances. One has the impression that his workshop is spotless, meticulously organized, well lit, and very comfortable. He is aware of the broader social implications of  his own choices. There seems to be a direct connection between his mind and his body.

This is one of the frames he has designed and built. It’s well used, both on and off the streets. It’s extremely well made, and the tubes join one another seamlessly.

He arrived at BikeNüt a couple of years ago. He has found his place. He appreciates the freedom he enjoys within the shop’s culture, respects the people with whom he works, and especially likes that he’s constantly learning new things, such as unraveling the mystery of bleeding hydraulic bike brakes, for example. 

According to his 5-year plan, he’ll be doing exactly what he does now.

Leila's new bike

Meet Leila. Yesterday she picked up her new bike at BikeNüt.

Her bike is a Giant XtC Advanced hardtail frame.

Once again, bicycle manufacturers select the weirdest names for their bicycles. They make sense to the engineers in the company, but the rest of us have to translate them into something more generally meaningful. XC, of course, means cross country, but I will freely admit that I haven’t the faintest idea what the “t” in the middle stands for. I know, however, that the name Advanced is assigned to Giant’s most advanced (duh!) composite technology. I tend to believe their claims. Giant is the only manufacturer that controls production from the raw materials to the finished bike. That goes for road racing bicycles, too.

There wouldn’t be any spectacular difference between Leila’s bike and other Giant bikes if it weren’t for the paint job she requested. The frame was stripped bare, the shock absorbers disassembled, and a beautiful, sharp, pearlescent white glossy paint was sprayed over it. Now, this bike is truly Leila’s, and nobody else has one like it.

The paint job may make the bike visibly unique, but Peter, the BikeNüt mechanic who worked on this custom build, installed a number of pretty cool components. The wheels, 26 inches in diameter, employed DT Swiss rims, spokes, 240s hubs. DT Swiss is a company that is justifiably renown for their reliability, high construction standards, and a reasonable balance between price and quality.

The brakes are by Marta SL magnesium, known for their efficacy in technical, nearly acrobatic, off-road conditions. 

The company that makes them, Magura, is located in German city of Bad Urach, about 80 miles east of Strasbourg. I have no idea why they chose the name Marta for this particular series of components.

The drivetrain components are Shimano Deore XT, once again extremely reliable on all kinds of terrain and wet or dry conditions.

Finally, the pedals are extremely light platforms, made by Wellgo.

This is the kind of unique bikes of which BikeNüt is particularly proud, something put together with a lot of thought and care. It’s understated, but once you know what went into it, you go “Wow!”

This is a bike that is at home on city streets but also outside the city and off the roads. Leila seems happy with it. I hope she enjoys is for a long time and many, many miles.
Happy 4th of July!

The BikeNüt road bike addendum

Have bicycles remained substantially the same since the early 1900s? Not even close. Their design has kept up with the use of new materials and changes in technology. Only ten years ago, steel bicycles were still common; now, they are on the endangered-species list. Frame geometry has evolved with a better understanding of biomechanics. The size of the frame’s components have changed: we have now tubes of varying sizes and shapes, corresponding to the increasing need for stiffness and efficiency. Since carbon fiber has become the material of choice, frames have changed as a result of improved manufacturing techniques—monocoque, instead of lug and tube assembly. On top of all that, bicycles follow fashion; we see different design trends, depending on the country of origin. European designs, especially in Italy, tend to be flashier and curvier that Asian ones. American designers continue along more classic lines.

And yet, at some fundamental level, when we think of bicycle forms we all conjure up an archetypal frame, some timeless design. For example, I’d like bikes—I’m just talking road bikes, here—to express the material of which they are made, rather than camouflaging it with decals. I understand that carbon-fiber frames are antithetical to sharply defined lines and crisp angles. Still, I like to see them clearly rather than morphing into a curvilinear mess that looks as if it were about to melt. Carbon fiber is charcoal grey, after all, and I prefer to keep everything that way, something understated that does not shout for attention. Needless to add, I wasn’t a fan of chrome moldings on cars, either. I prefer the same color not only on the frame but also on drivetrain components, brakes, and, naturally, handlebar tape. Finally, as a strict disciple of the form-follows-function cult, anything that does not add to the performance should go. For me, a timeless bicycle design is simple, its lines are essential, its proportions are pleasing, and each part illustrates its use and function. I shouldn’t tire of looking at it. But that’s just me. If you have a different opinion and would care to explain why, please let me know.

Which brings me to the BikeNüt bike. I already wrote about that earlier this month. The shop has already assigned several to customers, not one of them exactly alike. The one above is the very first that came out of the shop, as straightforward as it could be. That’s the way its proud new owner wanted it.

This is another bike prepared for another customer. As I wrote above, I prefer all one color, but I can take a sharp contrast, black and white. Everything seems to fall into place on this bike, from the saddle to the bottle cages. White spokes? Not so sure.

Could we call this design timeless? Perhaps, but it’s too soon to tell.