The original Nüt

For many, this is just another mountain bike, with a strait handlebar, shock absorbers, fat tires, disk brakes, and mud splashes. But for Huseyin, his bicycle is eye candy. This is a cutting-edge bike, with a carbon frame that weighs barely over 1000 grams. His designer, Marcus Storck, describes the Rebelion 1.0 as “one of the lightest hardtail MTB’s in the world.”

There are many reasons why this is one of the most desirable bikes available. The quality of the carbon weave, for example, is one of them. I’m not a bicycle engineer, with the mechanics of a frame at my fingertips and wouldn’t know where to start selecting a particular type of carbon fabric. But Storck does, and, as is typical with his bikes, everything in the frame is taken apart, examined, and redesigned. For the production of this particular frame, Storck has taken inspiration outside the bicycle industry and has looked at the automotive carbon manufacturing. This technology allows a combination of lightness, stiffness, and flexibility. In the Rebelion 1.0, the brake mount is integrated in the massive chain stays, thus allowing the designers to make the seat stays a little more forgiving.

Huseyin, of course, couldn’t leave all of this alone, and has added his personal touch by changing pretty much all of the components, from the front end to the wheels and drivetrain. His drivetrain is based on the Shimano XTR, but the crankset is a beautiful Raceface Next SL—675 grams with 3 chainrings! 

The brakes are Formula R1—263 grams inclusive of rotor, master cylinder, and brake levers, according to the manufacturer). 

The wheel rims are DT Swiss XRC330, designed specifically for disk brakes and weighing approximately 330 grams. The fork is by Ritchey Logic. 

The stem is a beautifully sculpted carbon-fiber piece by Zipp—SL 145,135 grams.

At about 17 lbs., Huseyin’s complete bike is lighter than many road-racing bikes. Designed to be extremely maneuverable, it can also compete with many of them, as Huseyin proved one day by rushing down one of the steepest descents in Marin County and passing several road cyclists along his way. He must have felt relieved to have it made in one piece.

Huseyin Guler didn’t start out to be a bike guru. He arrived in this country from his native Istanbul to study business administration. He began cycling late, well into his twenties, and then only on a borrowed bicycle. It was a means of transportation in Boston, where he lived, much handier than calling a cab to go home at night, after work. Boston doesn’t have a reputation for excessive friendliness to bicyclists. Yet for Huseyin, cycling was more than just convenient—it was fun, it was a revelation, and it was the beginning of a new stage in life. So, he didn’t just use a bicycle, he became a cyclist: he stopped smoking, lost weight, logged in 15,000 miles a year, and joined a pro-racing team.

He moved to San Francisco in 2002. After completing his studies, he quit his racing team but discovered early on that wearing a business suit wasn’t really his call and found a job at a bike shop in the Mission District. He rapidly gained a reputation as someone who really knew his stuff, had a predilection for the coolest gear, and understood his customers. He also learned about running a business, actually a bicycle business, and managed the entire shop.

That’s when, in 2005, he decided to open his own.

“I had the idea of the wings,” he says, “because, for me, riding a bike is like having wings.” That was the beginning of BikeNüt, a combination of practical knowledge and deep passion for anything related to bikes.

The beginnings were not glamorous, and Huseyin was his own sole employee, assembling bikes, setting up the store, and dealing with the first customers. But he has expanded ever since, and now the shop is bursting with energy.

BikeNüt sells all sorts of bikes, from road-racing machines to children bikes with 12” wheels. The point of the shop, however, is not just to sell but to provide clients with something entirely unique, something that has been assembled only for them. There are lots of frames, wheel sets, and components around the shop. The front counter displays brake calipers that have been milled from alloys, the lightest cranksets available, handlebars, and all of the smallest components. We see there, as a matter of course, the latest gear. There are complete bikes hanging from the walls, but the overall impression—the correct one, as it turns out—is that complete bikes are there just to be taken apart and rebuilt from the ground up.

Certain manufacturers are popular at BikeNüt, such as Storck, Giant, or Bianchi, for example. That’s only because the people at BikeNüt truly believe in them, ride them, and own them. Now the BikeNüt Umlaut, with its sleek, minimal frame  is part of the lineup. These are bikes that are not meant to maximize profits but to respond to customers’ requests.

For Huseyin, service is the key characteristic at BikeNüt. I remember one of my initial visits to the shop and the free information I was given about the merits of carbon frames, although I had indicated that I wasn’t going to buy anything that day. That was the beginning of my education, and, of course, I eventually went back and bought a bike there.

Every customer is important, and there is no intimidation factor when stepping into the shop for the first time. Buying a bike is a process: people are not rushed into a purchase, they are educated about the range that is available for their particular needs, from the frame selection to each of the components. They also learn that a thorough session, or sessions, spent on fitting the bike to their bodies and their riding characteristics is part of this process.

BikeNüt, for Huseyin, is not a launch pad for some stratospheric enterprise. He hopes to see some growth in the business but doesn't see himself as a CEO, dealing with numbers rather than bikes. His future will be with real bikes, riding them, fitting them with the coolest technology, and also talking to customers, seeing them as people, and educating them.

Women's bikes

This is a Giant Avail Advanced 2, a very handsome road bike with a compact frame as is typical of all Giant bicycles. Its main characteristic is that it has been designed specifically for women. For me, at least, the visible signs that this is really a bike for women are so subtle as to be almost invisible. Yes, perhaps the top tube slopes just a little more than that for men’s bikes, but that could be just my initial impression.

I used to be able to recognize women’s bikes very easily, because the top tube was parallel to the down tube. The explanation parents gave me was that it made it possible for women wearing skirts to ride their bikes without having their clothes fluttering over the handlebar. They thought that it would be inappropriate. This configuration made the bike convenient and comfortable but not very fast: it was the kind of bike that would have a basket over the front wheel.

We now have entered the very treacherous territory of market segmentation, where

minimal differences in materials, construction, and components target specific requirements, demographics, economics, gender, or even national characteristics. Since we’d like to think that we are immune to marketing ploys, we should ask ourselves whether such differences really justify buying bikes that are different for women and for men.

Let’s start with the color. Do women like pastel colors more than men? If so, this preference explains the designers’ choice of colors and slightly subdued graphics. But I think that color preference is something very subjective and don’t see why all women should like such colors.

Are women’s bicycles built with different materials than men’s? No, actually, they employ exactly the same materials and construction methods. In the case of this Giant Avail Advanced 2, these materials and techniques are called Advanced-Grade Technology. This means that all of the tubes are made with optimized methods of construction, just the minimum amount of layers of carbon fiber—oriented in such a way as to resist strain in the best possible way—making certain that each of them is as light as possible and responds appropriately to the power conveyed by the pedals. The head tube and bottom bracket remain as stiff as possible, while the seat stays absorb the bumps of the road.

As for the bicycle components, The Avail Advanced 2, like the other bikes designed specifically for women, employs the same components as the men’s bikes do. These things—wheels, drivetrain, brakes, and pedals—are not gender specific.

Avail Advanced Geometry

Defy Advanced Geometry. This is the men's version.

What’s left? The only feature that makes this truly a bike for women is the frame geometry. Comparing the women’s bikes with the men’s, as can be done from the two diagrams I have downloaded from the Giant website, we see that there are indeed some differences, however small. In the men’s bikes, the top tube is generally a quarter of an inch longer, to account for the men’s torso being generally slightly longer than that of women’s. Other dimensions vary just about this little. Thus, if a woman with a slightly longer torso wanted to ride a man’s bike, she would be perfectly capable of doing so, or viceversa.

Are such dimensions insignificant? Not at all. For example, when I was fitted a couple of months ago, I discovered that even smaller changes made a huge difference in my riding.

The Avail Advanced 2 is not really a bicycle for fast and furious competitions. The manufacturer describes it as a bike designed and built for endurance, long rides, when comfort, rather than twitchiness, is an important factor.  The weight of the components is less of a factor. Even in this case, not much changes between the  top-of-the-line bike, TCR Advanced 1 W, and the Avail Advanced 2 model. The only significant difference is that the Avail has slightly longer chain stays and therefore a longer wheel base. This difference makes the bike more stable and easier to ride over longer distances.

Are all these minute differences detectable by common mortals? Perhaps. It depends on experience and expectations. More experienced riders would what riding qualities they want; less experienced riders would probably adapt to the bike. More experienced riders would expect know what to expect from their bike in certain situations—climbing hills, fast descents, fast acceleration, and so forth. Perhaps the most relevant differences in women’s and men’s cycling is that men will probably insist in learning everything by themselves. Women will be not so hesitant to ask for advice.

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!

Ryan's bike

It is almost a given that anyone working in a bike shop would be deeply passionate about bicycles and cycling. Why would one do it, otherwise? And yet this is not all there is to it, especially for the BikeNüt folks. Owning a bike, especially a racing bike, requires engaging in a never ending process of tinkering. We search for that perfect moment, that sweet spot of nearly frictionless, almost silent rolling, when body and machine are one. As a result, the bike evolves almost daily. Of course, that moment never quite materializes, or, if it does, never lasts more than a minute or two. And so the process continues.

Take Ryan, for example, who started riding seriously in 2006, when a roommate gave him a heavily used bike. He liked the physical exertion of riding it and the freedom that bicycles offered in ways car drivers couldn’t even imagine. Soon he was addicted to cycling and began thinking of ways he could make his newfound interest the center of his life. He worked as a bike messenger, what else?

Ryan expanded the scope of his cycling and began racing. His favorite type of racing is the criterion, a short, furious race, usually held on urban circuits, on typical streets with all the usual potholes, railway tracks, sidewalk curbs, and sudden corners, where good reflexes and killer instincts are just as important as athletic talent. For bike messengers, even former ones, these races are just another run through the city.

He became acquainted with BikeNüt through a fellow bike messenger and started working here. He had graduated to a Trek 5000 bike, but it couldn’t last—too much bike candy around the shop! In 2009, he upgraded to a brand new Giant TCR Advanced, a stiffer and lighter frame. The frame, however, was just the beginning of a process of transformation.

First, naturally came new wheels. Not all wheels are equal, we know that. Wheels are almost the mirror of the rider’s personality: they reflect the type of riding one does, the chosen line between lightness, stiffness, comfort, and reliability. The choices are almost endless. For Ryan, the perfect combination consisted of a set of DT Swiss R 520 alloy rims, 240s hubs, laced with DT Champion spokes. This is not the lightest combination available, but Ryan is a big man and likes to ride his bike hard.

Indeed he managed to crash, once, and cracked the top tube of the bike frame. He fixed it and now doesn’t worry about it.

Naturally, he also thinks about the brakes. For the past week, he has been testing a set of Revl carbon brakes, manufactured by The Hive, a Petaluma, California, based company. He likes the stopping power and the gradual control they offer. Will they become permanent part of the bike?

He has installed a SRAM Force gruppo. Ryan likes its lightness and the quick response of the shifters. He has made one change, however, a standard set of DuraAce chain rings instead of the SRAM ones.

What’s next? Perhaps, in a few months, he’ll get a new frame. For the moment, he has his eyes on a Giant TCR Advanced SL with an integrated seat post. The frame geometry would be different, more compact, lighter and stiffer than what he rides at the moment. Also the bottom bracket, a BB30, would be slightly different, further reducing the weight but adding to the stiffness and providing a better fit between rider and bicycle.

What are his other plans for the future? I asked him this question and had the distinct impression that he didn’t quite want to put all of his cards on the table. I’ve seen him in action. He is unfailingly polite with customers, knowledgeable, and quick to offer assistance to neophytes. He seems content: he likes what he does, the shop, the work, his colleagues, and the BikeNüt ethos—high standards, no stock answers, constant search for better ways. 

 

Bike fitting

You probably thought you’d never forget how to ride a bike. Yet, I’ve recently found out that this is not entirely accurate. You may not forget how to ride on two wheels, but riding efficiently and using the right leg muscles, while the rest of the body remains still, is something different. Our body changes constantly, and our way of riding adapts to this change. This is what I learned last week, when after a year and 8 months since purchasing my first road bicycle, I finally realized that I needed another fitting. 

This is what my bike looked like when I bought it.

A number of reasons convinced me to do it. First, it was the saddle: it started hurting after a couple of hours. Then, it was shoulder tension: it would increase to the point that the entire upper body would be in pain. Finally, it was my endurance on the road, which seemed to decrease, the more miles I invested in riding. Of course, I didn’t expect that changing the position of my hands relatively to the seat and the seat relatively to the pedals—the three points of contact we normally have with the bike—would resolve all of my problems. I knew I would have to do a lot of work on my own.

I arranged to see Kevin Bailey, the bicycle-fitting guru at BikeNüt. Kevin knows that bicycle fitting consists of a lot more than matching diagrams and key body dimensions. When we ride, we move, and the fitting must be dynamic rather than a static one.

Kevin attached my bike to a trainer and watched me ride for a while. He adjusted the handlebar to modify slightly my hold on it. He made sure that my shoulder joints were properly aligned with my hands. That adjustment made it more comfortable for me to hold the drops, a position I usually found comfortable for only a few minutes at a time.

New handlebar position

Kevin then observed that my back was slightly rounded, forming an awkward angle between my pelvis and the saddle. He eased the saddle back on the post by almost an inch, giving me more room to expand my lungs and relieve the pressure on my lower back. He also made me perform a few stretches on the floor, to make sure that my posture on the bike matched what I would normally achieve, when my muscles were warm and relaxed.

Old saddle position.

New position.

By far the biggest chunk of time, however, was spent on my leg motion, checking the angle formed by the femur and the tibia at the knee was the ideal one to allow the leg to spin the pedals without wasted effort. It sounds so simple, but during the fitting session I discovered that my bones are of different sizes in my right and left legs. I also had developed the habit of moving on the saddle quite a bit, changing frequently the amount of power I was able to develop. Finding an ideal position for my pelvis against the back of the seat eliminated that silly habit.

Much more relaxed on the bike.

Finally, Kevin checked the alignment of my hips, knees, ankles, and feet, even checking that my shoes provided the correct amount of arch support. Pushing against the pedals with misaligned joints not only disperses a lot of the power but also develops long-term problems, such as knee pain.

A lot of this sounds like going to the doctor for the yearly physical and, well, it is. Also, like with the doctor, I felt relieved to be out the shop and back on the bike. Yet, I immediately noticed how weird it felt; my body position had changed, and so had my hands, seat, and feet. As I have discovered during the past week and a half, this is a good kind of weird.

The bike as it is now. After 20 months, only the frame remains the same.

I am still adjusting to the changes, and sometimes, after a ride, it feels as if I am developing a whole new set of muscles. I had been using my quads for most of the time, and now, after the fitting, I put more effort in my glutei maximi. I develop more power with less effort. By keeping my back more straight, I allow my lungs to work more efficiently (less hard breathing on the hills) and the seat doesn't hurt. Finally, I hold the drops for longer periods of time for added leverage, even while climbing, something I had never done before.

In theory, minimizing my effort on the bike should allow me to go faster and be less tired doing it. Well, let’s just say that I’m still testing this theory.

Time Trial Machine

Denis Menchov of team Rabobank, the winner of last year's Giro, rode on the last stage to the Colosseum in Rome and to victory on one of these.
These are bikes built just for speed--don't even think about going to the market or installing a basket on one of them. There are no practical considerations, there is no concession to comfort, and not only there are no cut corners, but this bike is made to go on a straight line--fast. If your role model for a weekend ride is Fabian Cancellara, then this is the bike for you.
I should add that this bike is not made to ride in a group but only in front of one.

The frame is a Giant Trinity Advanced SL, stripped of all graphics down to the carbon weave and clear coated. I guess you could call it understated.
Pros can reach a speed in the neighborhood of 60 miles per hour on one of these machines, and everything on this bike is designed to accommodate the power that such speeds require: this is one stiff, stiff frame. Just take a look at the massive head tube, or the size of the chain stays. No effort goes wasted.

As a machine built for speed--not for sudden attacks, subtle strategies, or leisurely rides along country lanes--the Giant frame designers and engineers (I imagine the former wearing jeans and the latter white lab coats) spent a considerable amount of time in a wind tunnel, making sure that every area of the frame is as aerodynamic as possible. Apparently they set standards other manufacturers are still catching up to, such as taking the brakes from their usual location, and hiding them behind the fork in the front:

and tucked away behind the bottom bracket in the rear:

If the frame looks massive from the side, from the front or back it looks like a knife ready to cut through the air:

Here you are: imagine yourself in a wedge-shaped position, elbows tucked in, body contained in a frictionless skin suit, eyes focused six feet ahead, barely a whisper from the air hitting the frame, mind racing with the clock. All of your attention is focused on producing speed, smoothly, increasingly, consistently.
Nice thought.

An entirely customized Giant TCR Advanced SL

Here’s a philosophical question. Let’s say you buy a road bike from a well known manufacturer. At last, you have taken the bike out for your first, long anticipated spin. It’s great, but it could be better. First thing you do, you buy new wheels, much, much lighter than those that came with the bicycle. The tires are not so great, either, and you install new ones. The saddle hurts; out it goes. We are just warming up. The drive group could be made lighter and smoother: cranckset, derailleurs, shifters, cables, all of them made of smaller parts, assembled with titanium screws, milled out of the toughest alloy available, and each of them carefully researched and selected out of a short list of the lightest components. Then you start looking for other weight-saving parts: new light-weight, hand-made, expensive brakes; pedals; cable housing; front stem; handlebar; and chain, of course. OK, here’s the quiz: at what point in this process do you still have your original bike and when do you begin to have an entirely new bike?

This is exactly what we do at BikeNüt; we’re kind of obsessive. We transform bikes, from standard to highly specialized machines for the most exacting requirements. You might say that we don’t actually make bikes, but, in a way, we do. We take the bike that arrives in a box, disassemble it, and put it together in a new way.

This is our latest construction: the frame is the limited edition of a Giant TCR Advanced SL. I know, they could have chosen a sexier name.

Let’s just say that this not an off-the-shelf frame: it’s their latest generation, has internal cabling, and is especially set up for the Shimano DuraAce Di2 Group. Giant has made only 161 of these limited-edition frames, all of them numbered, and this is no. 94. The color scheme is unique.

I know, nobody’s jaw is going to drop when you mention the Shimano electronic group. There have been so many raves out there, that I’m almost convinced I should have one. Almost. It shifts so precisely and so effortlessly. Even when going uphill, off the saddle, when you wouldn’t dare shifting with a normal, old-fashioned group, you just have to apply the smallest amount of pressure.

The list of unique components to this bike is long. It includes a pair of EE Brakes, by EE CycleWorks, and anodized to match the color scheme of the bike. With my brakes, I know I have to plan ahead; with the stopping power of these, I could just improvise.

This is a racing machine, no doubts about it. It’s an instrument that can handle a big amount of power. Just to see how much, it’s been equipped with Shimano 7900 SRM wireless power meter, that keeps a record of things such as power, speed, cadence, heart rate, and so forth.

The wheels are also an assembly of parts from different manufacturers. The rims are Velocity Aerohead, 22 mm. deep; the hubs, both front and rear, are DT Swiss 240S, and the spokes are DT Swiss Aerolite.

Tour pros’ bikes have absolutely nothing on this one. Down to the smallest components, such as the wheel quick-release skewers, this has the best the industry has to offer.

This is a set of Carbon Ti X-Lock Special skewers, made in Italy, with the axles and the axle-ends made of 7075 aircraft-grade aluminum and levers made of high quality titanium. By the way, the axle ends have been anodized to match the color scheme of the frame. The weight for the set is about 60 grams.

Does anybody really need all of this? Probably not, only somebody who likes to push himself and can live only with the best.

Could we put together bikes that are just as good but, shall we say, a bit more affordable? Oh, yeah!