Great deals and nano particles

This is the BikeNüt Umlaut. I’ve talked about it, described its attributes, and discussed its exceptional value a few times. It comes fully equipped with a Shimano Ultegra gruppo and Easton Circuit wheels. It has white tape wrapped around the handlebar and a white saddle. This assembly, of course, is the standard. If you wanted, or needed, different components on the same frame, no problem—it could be done.

The Shimano Ultegra components have long established a standard for reliability. There are few things that go wrong with it. Shimano, the company, is a bit like Porsche; they make gradual improvements on their products, preferring to work on what they have rather than rely on sudden innovation. As a result, things work a little better than they did in their previous manifestation. 

Shifting is smooth with Ultegra, and it is for a reason that Shimano had named its cassette Hyperglide. Shifting under load, when for example we are beginning to climb and realize that we are on the wrong gear, can be a tricky operation at best, but Ultegra increases the chances of its  success. 

Of course, if you want unerring precision, you should go with the Shimano DuraAce Di2 electronic group, and you should be prepared to pay for it.

The Umlaut is light and stiff, with its monocoque frame design, handles beautifully, accelerates quickly, and its slender seat stays make it comfortable to ride over long distances. It could be yours for $2,650 USD.

There are bikes that are heavier than this and lighter than this. Weight is a relative measure, and what is considered lightweight today will be thought of as positively burdensome tomorrow. Already there are road-racing machines that are attempting to break the 6 lbs. barrier. Soon, with new technology, even this boundary will be a thing of the past. All we need is a quantum leap--literally.

We hear the term nanotechnology used in combination with bicycles with increasing frequency. In part, this name calling is the result of marketing tactics. Since the current technology (monocoque design carbon frames) has leveled the field, companies look for marginal advantages. The promising field of nanotechnology may offer such advantages. We are told that it makes bikes lighter and stronger, but we don’t know exactly why or how should be so. One Italian manufacturer claims that nano-alloys, tiny amounts of metal integrated into the fibers of carbon, help absorbing impact more efficiently and prevent the sudden failure of its frames. I’m sure that there is an advantage in their use, but we are not quite at the point in the development of nanotechnology, that we are able to employ structures such as nanotubes and buckyballs. Still, there is progress.

On October 5, 2010, the Nobel Prize Committee awarded the team of Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov the prize for physics for their work on graphene, a relatively new material that promises a revolutionary—not just evolutionary—range of new applications. Why am I bringing this up? Because, when this material is produced industrially together with appropriately light bonding agents, it’s going to make carbon fiber disappear as a choice material for bicycle frames and accessories very quickly.

Graphene consists of a sheet of  atoms of carbon, arranged in a lattice-like fashion, the thickness of a single atom—as two dimensional as you can get. To repeat an example that has already been reiterated innumerable times, a sheet of graphene, resting on a support no larger than a pencil point, could support an entire truck. This is no hyperbole: graphene is 200 times stronger than steel, stronger than Kevlar, stronger even than the nanotubes, also made of carbon atoms, that haven’t yet made it to the market. It’s also the lightest: a sheet as large as a football field would weigh about 1 gram.

Applications will vary from new, faster, cheaper, and lighter semiconductors, extremely efficient batteries than last a long time and require little time to be recharged (bye, gasoline), solar cells that can be part of the surface of buildings, rather than “things” on the roofs, and of course the stuff of which cars and, yes, bikes are made. How about a bike, made of graphene, that weighs less than a pound? How about a new kind of bearings, consisting of two graphene tubes, one inside the other, and producing no friction at all? Can you imagine the potential? A pair of sneakers would be heavier than that, your bicycle gloves, your sunglasses, or whatever. It would be just like cycling on a cloud.

The BikeNüt road bike

Occasionally a fellow cyclist will stop next to me at a red traffic light and ask me a question or two about my bike. It’s only natural, since there are no logos or decals on the frame. A couple of times in the past, after pondering about the naked carbon frame, a look of recognition appeared in their eyes: “BikeNüt, isn’t it?” They cared nothing for the brand but zeroed in on the attitude that was apparent from the way the bike was assembled, the care for the best and lightest equipment and accessories, and even the determination to pull all the stops to make it the best with what was available. It was clear to them that it was more than a bike, it was a manifesto.

Every bicycle that comes out of the shop represents the end result of a series of considerations, rather than a quick purchase off the racks. This series begins with an interest in the way bikes are designed and work, follows with an understanding of the objectives and design of the essential components, continues with constant research to keep up with the available technology, and even requires a certain amount of discipline, to remain focused on the goal and not be distracted by the ads and stream of new gear that appear on bicycle magazines.

That was what my bike said to those two fellow cyclists. But now, we’ve ratcheted up the attitude: we have our own BikeNüt bike. Feel free to ask around, it’s rather unusual for a bike shop to produce their own carbon-fiber frame.

The new BikeNüt monocoque frame comes out of the same manufacturing facility in Asia that produces bicycles for Specialized, Bianchi, Storck, and BH, among others. They know what they’re doing, but we have our own requirements. First among them is the quality of construction, such as top-notch materials and manufacturing technology: leaving aside the techno speak, if you insert a finger inside the tubes, you’ll feel their inner smoothness, without any stray fibers, witness to a careful layering and curing process.

Then there is the frame stiffness: every pedal turn counts and we don’t want to disperse any energy when the frame twists under a sudden load. But, with stiffness, we also want comfort. By now designers know how to build a stiff bike, beef up the bottom bracket, make the down tube massive, and design a head tube that will simply not bend. Often, however, the result is that every minuscule asperity on the road rattles the rider’s bones. We don’t like that. The seat stays in our frame are slender and graceful. In contrast with every other part of the frame, they are also compliant and absorb the shock of the bumps and crevices that populate our marvelous roads.

We wanted the frame to be stiff, but we wanted it also to be light. It is. Despite the size of the frame tubes, it is as light as all of the other extremely light race frames the peloton rides these days, such as the Team RaboBank Giant TRC Advanced SL we also carry in our shop.

To increase the lightness further without harm to the frame’s stiffness, the standard for the bottom bracket is the BB30, which allows a growing number of cranksets to be installed (as in the case of the SRAM Force pictured above) and a better fit between rider and bike.

The size of the head tube is 1 1/2 “.

This is all about the standard specs for this bike. All of the rest can be customized. This is not another iteration of “you can have it any color you want it as long as it is black.” You can literally have it any color or any finish you want it. Or, if your body dimensions require it to take advantage of every watt of power it can produce, you can even modify the frame’s geometry. Want a longer top tube? It can be done. Need another fork? Of course. Any other requirements? I’m sure we can meet them.

Do we really need another bike? Aren’t there enough manufacturers? Is this just the result of vanity? Yes, no, and definitely not. Most of the available bikes on the market, because of their size and goals can only offer a limited amount of options. If you manufacture bikes on an industrial scale, you can’t make everybody happy all of the time. It takes industrial manufacturers about three years to produce a new bike that takes advantage of the latest technology and responds to the changes in the market and new requirements by riders.

On the other hand, we don’t have such limitations: as far as we are concerned, the age of industrial standardization is over. We can pretty much tailor every new bike to a particular customer. In addition to that, we can offer a new bike at a surprising value. You won’t believe it.

 Just come by to the shop, and you’ll find out just how good a value. Just a finishing touch: you won't see the new frame, finished with a clear coat to show the integrity of the carbon-fiber weave, plastered with decals. But we couldn't resist showing off our new logo.

Fascenario 0.7

Marcus Storck, now in his early 40s, has been designing bicycles for more than 30 years. His design philosophy is to make things once, make them well, and not upgrade them every one or two years. You can’t do any better than that, he says.

Storck makes me think of a book of a few years ago that I am re-reading only now, with a renewed sense of interest and much pleasure. The book is The Craftsman, by the sociologist Richard Sennett. The idea of craftsmanship, Sennett writes, is not applicable only to wood carving or macramé, but to virtually every aspect of our world, from dentistry to writing or computer 3D rendering. Even lawyers or bond traders have the potential of being craftsmen. At some point or another in our daily lives, we translate ideas into things, and if we have any salt in our brains, we want to do it well. It is this innate reward of making things to the best of one’s ability that craftsmen treasure, far beyond material rewards or public praise.

Marcus Storck is a craftsman in the best sense of the word. Storck knows that, in terms of market share and level of public exposure, his bikes will never compete with the giants in the business. That is not his goal. His objective is to make the best bikes he can.

The Fascenario 0.7 (no further information is available about the origin of this name) was introduced in 2007 and is still in production. At that time, his was the lightest production racing machine available, one complete bike for 12.7 pounds.

There are many remarkable qualities about this bike, such as the level of craftsmanship in all of its parts, for example, the smoothness of the carbon layering, that make it possible to see the weave through a thin layer of clear coating without any aesthetic loss, or the organic, sensuous forms of the tubes. Many more components than are usually provided by bicycle manufacturers are produced directly by Storck, such as the cranckset, for example.

The Fascenario 0.7 has been a regular fixture at BikeNüt. It is placed on a prominent display in our showroom, implying that is reserved for the most discriminating customers, those looking for a bike at the sight of which only collectors or cognoscenti will emit an appreciative “Wow!” Its frame looks remarkably straightforward, even simple. Even its simplicity communicates quality: if things are good, there is no need to hide them behind useless decoration.

Yet, as good as Storck bikes are, we believe that there is still room for improvement. As usual, this Fascenario 0.7 is not the bike that is shown in Storck’s online catalogue but one that we put together with the best components. Marcus Storck has his own ideas about quality; we have ours.

The wheels consist of a set of Mavic Cosmic Carbone Ultimate. These wheels introduce a new technology, where the spokes do not penetrate the surface of the carbon-fiber rims, thus compromising their structural integrity, but are molded to them. They are tubular rims and are very, very light.

The brakes are REVL Carbon, and, as the name implies, are made of carbon fiber except for the spindle, of course, made of titanium, and the brake pads. As brakes go, they are deceptively simple in their design, reducing the number of moving parts to a minimum. 

As I mentioned earlier, the fork is also manufactured according to Storck's specification. It has its own brand, Stiletto Light USM. It is considered to be extremely stiff and reliable for its weight, a meager 260 g. Why should Storck go to the trouble of designing, engineering, and manufacturing these things? Easy: no other fork, in this instance, would do, as it would clash with the design quality and appearance of the other components. All parts of this bike merge into a seamless whole.

The same goes for the crankset, also produced by Storck. The PowerArms SL crank is very light (440 g. without chain rings) and stiff and, like almost everything else on this bike, is made of carbon fiber. It is suitable for BB 30 bottom brackets. The outer chaining is also made of carbon fiber and produced by Fibre-Lyte, a British company. The inner chain ring is a Stronglight, made of 7075 aluminum and coated in Teflon for smoothness.

The saddle alone could be the subject of a series of posts. We all know how important saddles are for cyclists, amateurs and pros alike; their importance becomes painfully obvious after spending several hours on them. This, an Arione K:1 by the Italian manufacturer fi’zi:k, is a technological marvel, entirely made of carbon fiber from the seat to the rails, supporting the whole surface of the saddle: 140 g, total. The manufacturer claims the this surface consists of a combination of carbon fiber and soft gel. Mmmmh.

Not everything is black or charcoal grey in this bike. We introduced a touch of color: the KCNC cassette is made of a combination of titanium, light weight aluminum alloy, and scandium, all in the name of lightness, for an approximate weight of 103 g. The chain, also gold in color, is by KMC, model X10SL with a titanium nitrate coating: it is light! Perhaps more importantly, these components work exceedingly smoothly with the Shimano DuraAce group.

Finally, a touch of levity, in the gold colored, Y-Cut TK 233 titanium and alloy skewers by Token: about 40 g for the set.

We've barely scratched the surface, and there is a lot that could be added about this machine. Let's not forget that this bike is made for riding not just for admiring. I know, I'm asking a lot.

One last thing: many thanks to Ryan at BikeNüt for last-minute research on some of the components.