ComCycle USA

2010-05-22T12:47:00.000-07:00

Friday (May 21, 2010). I decided to follow the Tour of California stage 6 from Palmdale to Big Bear on my motorcycle.

I hit the road at 6am in order to make it to Palmdale with some extra time before the Tour started at 9:30

I arrived with time to look around. As I pulled into town I rode along with one of the pro teams who were riding their bikes from their hotel to the start line. They were riding along them main drag in Palmdale, no bike lane, in a large group, thinking nothing of it. Once they got there they went to the team bus. I took pics of few of the buses.

Not surprisingly the Radio Shack bus was mobbed.

I saw several interviews as I walked around.

I staked out a pretty good place at the start line.

Levi and a few other notable riders line up.

And they are off!

Here is how fast these guys are. You will need to look at Google maps to get an idea of scale. I wanted to intercept these guys at Mount Emma Road and Angeles Forest Highway. I took a few minutes to walk back to my bike, stopped to get 2 gal of gas with no wait, stopped about 1 min to look at a map, made a wrong turn that cost me maybe 2 min, and by the time I got to the intercept point, they had just passed it so I missed them. Now the riders don't have to stop for lights, and I cannot take the same route the do so my route is longer and full of traffic and lights, but even so, these guys are flying. I started to rethink my strategy for leapfrogging them.

I paralleled the riders route. They took Angeles Crest Hwy and I took Big Pine road which was beautiful and a lot of fun. There were a lot of amateur cyclists along Big Pine, too. I tried to find road 4N12 that connected Angeles Crest and Big Pine according to Google. Yeah, I know Google is not that accurate with dirt roads. There were a lot of labeled state forest roads along the way, but no 4N12. The road that I think was 4N12 was gated. I did explore around the area and found myself on single track a few times. So I gave up on that intercept and continued to where Big Pine Hwy intersected Angeles Crest Hwy 2.

This turned out to be a popular spectating spot.

I parked at what I hoped was a good vantage point.

This announcer car came by. The announcer did not seem to be in the car, it was kind of strange. But the announcer was very professional and gave a good race update.

And finally the inevitable breakaway group showed up. George Hincapie was amongst them, and I am a big fan of Big George. Go George!

Then the main peloton. At this point the peloton was already starting to lose some of the sprinters and such and some of them came straggling in after.

I was going to be hard pressed to make to to Big Bear in time for the finish line. I chose to head back up Big Pine, get to Hwy 18 and work my way to the north entrance to Big Bear. This gave me the opportunity to take a short cut and make a real dual sport ride out of this.

Google showed Mescal Creek road as a shortcut. I found a local amongst the spectators who knew of the road. I don't think the locals call is Mescal road, but it was for real.

Back to Jackson Lake

And sure enough, there it is. The paved road was gated. Mescal Road was the dirt road.

There were a couple of recent rock slides that were cleared away enough for the road. Mescal Creek paralleled to road, probably fed by Jackson Lake.

This view let me know I was going the right direction. No, I don't have a GPS. Soon, but not yet. I just carried a bungle of Google printouts.

I had to negotiate a few of these.

The road descends to the desert basin below. There are a few homes along this road as well as local traffic, which included a Honda Civic. I don't think this saved me any time, but it was fun. I made my way to Big Bear knowing I was pressed for time, so no pictures until then.

I got to the finish line with only minutes to spare, so I did not get any good pics of the finish. For some reason, though, I found myself thinking about starting a school for women plumbers.

This is a fraction of the bikes, er bicycles, waiting at the finish line.

There was a big festival atmosphere with lots of sponsor booths set up.

The Nissan Leaf, electric car. Not a hybrid. All electric. After the Honda electric and the GM EV-1 it will be interesting to see how it goes. Maybe the technology, price and infrastructure are there by now.

Camera crews, interviews and cycling celebrities were amongst the mass of humanity.

That was basically it for the day, no more pics. I made my way out through the heavy traffic and back home.

Chumba Racing VF2 / Lefty Build part 3

2010-01-30T18:27:00.000-08:00

Today I am feeling a little like Dr. Frankenstein. The doctor, mind you, not his creation.

Bwaahhh hahhh haah ha...Its aLIVE!!!!

Well, sort of. I did install the lefty onto the frame using the adapter. Still a ways to go.

This is a closer look. You can see the upper crown of this Lefty is offset upwards. This is an option Cannondale only started to offer last year. The traditional layout is for the upper crown to look pretty much like the lower crown. The new upper crown option will allow the Lefty to fit many more frames than before. The limitation of the fork is that the head tube plus headset height must fit between the fixed spacing between the crowns.

I created this exploded view to show how it all goes together. In this case I had split the race (make a cut across it) to make assembly possible. It is hard to explain, but if the race has a bigger diameter than the adapter sleeves it must be split. Most races are either small enough or split anyway. But the Chris King race is an example of a race that is both too large and solid so I needed to modify it. It does not affect the performance of the headset.

Chumba Racing VF2 / Lefty Build part 2

2010-01-29T22:15:00.000-08:00

The most important piece of the project arrived today, the Chumba Racing VF2 frame, a tapestry of hyroformed aluminum alloy and carbon fiber. (most images clickable).

Ooh, the anticipation has reached its crescendo.

And there it is at last. Like any new project of mine I need to analyze it to death. Which looks to be a lot of fun in this case, this frame has a lot going on. But first things first. I have to weigh it. Not because it is the most important thing, but because I need to do that before I put a single component on the frame. And the frame, fully dressed with quick release, derailleur hanger, shock and all hardware, size medium is 6.1 lbs. A full pound lighter than my Chumba XCL decked out the same way. I am very pleased with that number. In spite of all the marketing claims out there it is hard to find a full suspension frame below 6 pounds, and it usually takes some compromises in stiffness to do it. Only riding will tell for sure, but this frame does feature a lot of Chumba's stiffness tricks.

I love frames that are made with attention to detail. The VF2 does not disappoint.

Lots of frames feature asymmetric chainstays nowadays. The VF2 bottom bracket shell and head tube arrive faced, which is a nice touch. The VF2 uses Chumba's signature wide mounted pivot at the bottom bracket shell. Excellent machining and weld quality are evident throughout.

Chumba pulled out all the stops when it came time to hydroform the top tube and down tube. Their complexity cannot be captured in 2D all that well. The downtube is an amazing design. Many downtubes ovalize to match the bottom bracket shell. This one takes it a step farther: its cross section changes to allow the greatest possible contact between the downtube and the shell. The bottom transitions to a large, wide flat shape on the bottom, allowing a firm embrace on the drivetrain.

Chumba Racing VF2 / Lefty Build part 1

2010-01-29T22:09:00.000-08:00

Today I begin the project of building my next mountain bike. It is going to be a Chumba VF2 with a Cannondale Lefty fork and a lot of new components from various manufacturers. I am going to go pretty deep with the build, I have found there is usually a lot of interest in this kind of thing.

Oddly, the starting place for my build is the front hub. The hub is made by this great little company called Project 321. They also made a Lefty fork adapter, a Lefty truing adapter and a Lefty hub cap, which we also carry. But this new hub is my favorite piece so far, at least without riding it. Weight, without hub cap and bolt: 115g. Those caps are 11g.

It has a lot of great attention to detail and is worth a close look. Lefy forks use hubs specific to the fork. They are not QR, 20mm or anything like that. The hub axle is integral to the fork leg, and the hub does a light press fit onto the axle. The result is super low flex, in spite of appearances. I feel the Lefty has less flex than any QR fork. It is in a league with 20mm thru axles. The hub a real gem. I hate to mention Chris King at all, but they are the standard here in my opinion. And this hub being made in the USA with this kind of craftsmanship begs the comparison.

What is interesting here is the way the seal is done with an extra snap ring for a better seal. Lefty hubs all seem to wrestle with the issue of getting a little better seal and this is the best approach I have seen.

Cannondale makes a Lefty hub, but so does Mavic, Crank Brothers, Shimano and others. This is how Mavic, Cannondale and some of the others add an extra seal to the Lefty hub. It is a hard plastic cover. They are known to create drag and not seal all that well.

Compare this with my Chris King headset, which will also find a home on my project. Sorry I don't have a hub laying around to compare with, it may be different. But King headsets feature this extra metal snapring around the whole bearing seal. It is an elegant way improve the seal without extra flanges, o-rings or plastic strips. And Project321 chose to go this route on their Lefty hub. So far, so good. I am waiting on much of the build, including the rest of the parts needed for the wheelbuild. I hope to start that next week.

Electric Century: 100 miles in a day on an electric bike

2010-01-29T20:05:00.000-08:00

Since putting together my Electric Kona Ute I have been toying with the idea of a reaaally big one day ride. 100 miles, or a century ride as roadies call it. The idea is simple. You just need enough batteries. You could load a trailer with batteries on any eBike and go. You could recharge during the ride and carry less batteries, but there are only so many hours in a day.

Why? Well, yes because it is there. But more than that, I get lots of people interested in eBikes, but their objection is that the range of the bike is just too short. This is a common objection people have to electric cars and motorcycles, too. And recharge times take too long, too. So I decided the best way to deal with those objections would be to just go and and do a big ride and see what it takes.

I started by doing the math. I had almost enough battery capacity at my disposal. I figure I need a little more than 50Ah of 36V packs. If I kept a pace of about 15mph and added some pedal power it should be no problem. BUT 15mph is boring. And I wanted to include some hills in my loop, and there would be headwinds. So I brought chargers. There are 4 separate packs, which means 4 chargers and lots of charging ability. If I used 4 chargers at 4A each, I could pump 16Ah back into the packs in a 1 hour lunch stop that I would take anyway. That would increase my range and speed options a lot.

Click on images to see the full res versions in our gallery. I planned the route as a combination of well known scenic routes with places to recharge along the route. This is the route, extracted from my Garmin GPS and displayed on Google earth.

I use my Cycle Analyst and Garmin GPS to keep an eye on things as I ride (no bike computer set up on the Cycle Analyst yet). By the time I get to Cooks, this is the situation:

I am using my Ah faster than I wanted to, but there is nearly 1500 feet of climbing to get from my house to Cooks. Since I will eventually descent that same 1500 feet to get back home, I figure I am ok. Plus, Cooks is very cool and has given me permission to recharge there.

Here the bike is sucking down all the amps I can feed it. A full charge of all the packs costs less than a buck. I don't get to keep my creation out front with all the other cool bikes at Cooks. It needs powahhh. And it is very tipsey with all these packs so I prefer that it be out of the way. Besides that, it is not a Harley. Well, ok, its not even a motorcycle.

So I let it charge and have a look around Cooks. First, let have some breakfast. Good news for Cooks fans who happen to be geeks: they have free Wifi now. You don't even have to mess with a password or logging in. In other geek news, I discovered the Skyfire browser for my Windows phone. It is faster than IE or Opera mobile, it lets me browse sites as a real browser, not WAP, and it supports Active X pages perfectly so far. Even IE does not do that, ironically. And the food was pretty good too. The outdoor setting is very nice.
You never know what you will encounter at Cooks. Unless you read their schedule they post on their website, I guess. There were lots of booths being set up from bike clubs and charities, the lot was full early and the weather was perfect.

I make it through Santiago Canyon and stop for a rest at the plaza at Jamboree Road. I don't recharge the bike here, but I get myself a little energy.

I managed to avoid the glare in most instrument pics, but not this one. Still you can see my progress. Another 500 feet of climbing. The Garmin measures cumulative climbing, not net. So if you go up and down a 100 foot hill 10 times,it will show 1000ft of climbing.

The next leg of the trip was down Jamboree, then east on Portola a short distance to pick up the bike trail that continues south all the way across the Back Bay.

Did I mention is was great weather for a ride?

From the Back Bay it is a short, beautiful trip over PCH to Balboa Island. I took the ferry across the harbor to reach the peninsula...and because I love taking the ferry. The big party barge passed in front of us, but I can't really say the got in our way. No one was in any kind of hurry.

The Balboa Fun Zone was living up to its name. There was a lot of activity, including happy kids, even in November.

I passed by the second recharge station, which is in a park on the peninsula, figuring I would use it when I doubled back and came this way again. There was a big pet fair going on and the police department had a booth. There was a police motorcycle parked next to where I wanted to charge. I am still cautious when riding the electric bike. Not all law enforcement officials are aware that electric bikes are legal. And I was pretty sure recharging from an outlet in a public park was OK. But I did not want to have to discuss the whole thing with a cop if I could avoid it.

I hoped things would clear out by the time I passed back there again. I followed the coast to Huntington Beach, where I turned around. The weather was in the upper 60s. Between that and the time of the year, the beaches were almost completely empty. That used to really amaze me when I first moved to California, but I am used to it now.

So I turned around and headed back to Balboa to my recharging station. The pet fair was still going but at least the police motorcycle was gone. The Gazebo was being used for presentations and a sound board was plugged into one of the outlets. That left 3 more outlets for me and I had a power strip. But I was afraid of throwing a circuit breaker. I settled on plugging in the two of the 4 chargers. The sound system did not crash. That was nice. I retrieved some Mexican food from Great Mex - a place frequented by the locals - and joined the fair and ate while the bike charged again. Sorry, no pics of the food this time.

Then I added up the time it would take to finish and realized I would be riding in the dark. I departed and quickly made my way back to San Clemente. I had equipped my lights before I left for just this possibility. I was coming up short on miles as I approached the turn off of coast highway that would take me home, so I rode back and forth on coast highway until I knew I would hit 100 miles as I got home.

Commited to a night ride at this point, I stopped in the flagging light to assess my situation and get in a couple more pics. I figure I have plenty of Ah left. So I don't attempt to conserve any for the final miles. I finish well after dark with my trusty Light and Motion Stella 200 blasting a cone of 200 well focused lumens in front of me. That and the nice evening temps actually make the night ride portion fun, short though it was.

I finally arrive home.

Some final stats.

So my estimates were close. It took a little over 50Ah and I used a little over 18 Wh/m. And the 4000ft of cumulative climbing was more than I figured on. It required some capacity as well. I estimate I had 10AH left or so by the time was done.

I may go for it again after the Ute gets a series of changes, like frame mounted batteries and some other small stuff taken care of.

Kona Ute Electric Conversion

2010-01-29T19:32:00.000-08:00

I have wanted to make a longbike for a while. As a dealer for Kona parts, I can get a Ute, so I decided to go for it.

The Ute is a long wheelbase cargo bike. For 2010 it comes with front and rear disc brakes. It comes as a 700c bike, but my only motor sitting around was a 26" model. I am working on lacing up a 700c motor but I don't have the right size spokes yet. So I quickly assembled it with what I had available. Fill size images can be seen in the Photo Gallery Here.

It is a work in progress, but it is rideable. It has a BMC 600W Speed (V2S) rear motor, standard 30A BMC controller and a random assortment of 36V battery packs. Even at 36V it is good for around 25mph. I have some 48V Li Ion packs on the way, I will claim one for myself, I expect a top speed of over 30mph with them.

The great thing is that there is room for a whole family grocery trip back there, even with the batteries. And there is no need to figure out a rack mount. With this capacity, all day riding and touring should be possible. I am thinking about a west coast tour ride at some point.

On its maiden voyage I just threw the battery packs in loose. I plan to try other battery mounting options as time goes on. It rode pretty well with a 26" wheel in back and a 700c in front. The big 2.35" Big Apple made the 26" close to a 700c in size. It is nice to know that monster tires do fit. And with discs front and rear you could put 26" tires/wheels on it if you wanted to.

For a later ride I did a grocery trip and came back with 4 12-packs of soda, a gallon of milk, enough groceries to fill all the bags on the bike, and I had my batteries in the bags. That was probably over 100lbs of stuff. The bike handled the load. Really heavy loads just sitting in the bags can sway a bit, which makes the whole thing wag a bit in the back. As long as I rode and pedaled smoothly everything was OK. But if I wiggled around on the bike or shook the bars while riding (remember, I was doing a test), the back end magnified it. If I had the kind of load that I could lash to the top of the deck or secure on the sides on the Ute that amount of weight would be fine.

Here are some details of the build such as it is.

I installed a nice wide mountain bike riser bar. This eliminates the upright riding position of the stock bars and is a personal preference. I am a regular cyclist (no electric assist) too, and the single sided clipless pedals seen in the crank pic below go along with that. I don't even notice the long back end of the Ute when riding, BTW. Another note is on the light. I runs on its own stock battery for now. DC-DC converter power is on the list of things to do. Any good eBike can be an endless source of projects if you want it to be.

The Ute comes with a 26-36-bash guard crank. I installed a road triple crank. But then the chain interfered with the stock kickstand, so I installed an Esge model where both legs fold up on one side of the bike. With the 11t small cog in back I have a big enough gear to allow me to add pedal power at all speeds.

The controller held in place with my version of bailing wire and duct tape: zip ties and inner tubes. It will get a better installation in time. I will do the same with the batteries, too. The BMC controller is nice, I will stick with it for now. Maybe in the future I will swap in an Infineon. But I like the 36/48V jumper on the BMC controller, and its sustained 25A output is plenty for me. Even at 36V it can handle the big hills where I live.

The bike comes with a very nice drivetrain for the price. But, as usual, Shimano trigger shifters will interfere with twist throttles. The solution is Sram thumb/thumb style trigger shifters. If an 8 speed cassette fits back there, I will install Sram Attack models. It will require extra long shifter cables, which I have at the ready.

I will post an update after making some changes to the bike.

Interbike 2009 Focus on Electric Bikes

2010-01-28T13:18:00.000-08:00

This year I decided to focus a bit on the Electric Bikes at Interbike. There are brands that sell only electric bikes exclusively as well as electric bikes being introduced by makers of regular bikes. How popular and viable will this form of transportation be in the US? Who will sell and support them? There are many questions surrounding ebikes, as they are called, but I figured it time to have a close look at some of the products out there.

This model is a folding electric bike from Kilowatt Bikes, who brought their "A" game to the show. The battery is in the frame. I think there is a lot of interesting possible uses for folding lightweight eBikes. They can be carried along with other kinds of transportation like in the trunk of a car, in an RV, on a boat, in a train, etc. They can fill a gap in areas with limited mass transit, like in our home in Southern California. You could park a long way from a destination where parking is difficult, possibly getting free parking, then ride the rest of the way on the ebike.

Kilowatt makes this daring carbon fiber electric bike, including a carbon fork with a front mounted hub motor. I say daring because I am willing to bet most consumers don't realize carbon can be used to make a super strong frame. This would be a no-no with any off the shelf carbon frame/fork. "Beefy carbon fiber" is not a phrase you usually hear, but that is what this bike is. And in case you couldn't tell from the picture, that is a bamboo top tube. Very earth friendly.

I have seen a lot of A2B on the road and they are expanding their line this year. In addition to the bikes they are known for, they are introducing some 26" wheeled versions. Here you also see some accessories.

By making some simple changes to their existing bike they were able to make this electric scooter - almost anyway. You dont have a complete flat deck to put your feet on like a scooter, but it is close. If you don't pedal anway you can loose all the weight and complexity of the pedal drivetrain.

My favorite electric bike at the show was the Kona "Electric Ute". The bike is not released yet. The name alone practically wins it for me. The "Ute" (as in short for Utility like Sport Utility Vehicle) has been in Kona's line for a few years. It is almost like they named it in anticipation of a future electric version. The extra long cargo format of the bike and big bags make its purpose clear: carrying all the stuff you need to get your errands, commuting, etc. done. The small thumbnails below are clickable for higher res images.

The bike has no throttle, it is pedal assist style. This little handlebar mounted unit controls it and displays more than just the time when it is working.

The internal cable routing is a nice touch. Just be careful to attach a snake and leave it in the frame when removing cables for maintenance.

Bionx is a perennial favorite in the eBike world, it was great to see them at the show.

Madsen does not make an electric bike, but their cargo bikes are innovative and would make a nice electric bike platform. It is not like I spoke with them and got some inside info, I just saw them, liked them and took some pics. The tub option on the back is huge. The possibilities are endless.

Interbike 2009

2010-01-28T09:29:00.000-08:00

Interbike 2009 was a great event as always. It was a little smaller than usual, no surprise there. But the attendees all reported continued success and even growth in the bike business, a sentiment we share here at ComCycle USA. There are a lot of Interbike reports on the web and in magazines, so I try to focus on unique topics you may not find elsewhere, stuff that is relevant to our customers, and maybe a few things I am just hopeful about. To than end I found a cool new Lefty wheelset, I saw a real trend towards bikes as transportation and the eBike segment keeps getting more interesting.

My favorite part of Interbike is the Outdoor Demo. I wish they had one more Outdoor day and one less indoor day. But this is Vegas, baby (actually Boulder City), and the weather may not cooperate. This year was nice. Tuesday, the day I was there, was in the low 90s and no wind or sandstorms.

I did not get the chance to do any demo rides this year. I know, what a wuss. But I only gave myself 1/2 a day, and I wanted the time to meet the vendors that were only at the outdoor demo, which some choose to do.

Walking the Outdoor demo is fun. There are often as many people riding the aisles as walking them. They are all skilled riders, I have never seen anyone get hit by a bike. Try this anywhere else and the pedestrians will freak out.

We have another player in the world of Lefty Wheels: Crank Brothers! Their Cobalt wheelset is now available with a Lefty compatible front hub.

I like the looks of the hub, it looks like the Proect321 Lefty Hub Cap will look a lot nicer in there though!

Welcome to ComCycle USA

2010-01-28T09:19:00.000-08:00

I got ahead of myself, I suppose I should have a welcome blog post, so here goes: I cover a wide range of cycling products and interests here because the bicycle is such a versatile machine. The bicycle remains one of the greatest inventions of all time: it can take on so many forms and do so many things.

Just think of the many ways the bicycle is used. It is used to race, to commute, to travel the world, to work, as recreation, to make us fit, etc. Thus there are a lot of different kinds of bikes. There are road races, mountain bike races, cyclocross, trials, track, bmx and more. The bicycle is used to carry heavy loads in some parts of the world and small packages by messengers on the streets of New York City. The bicycle gave birth to the airplane through the Wright Brothers and their bike shop, and to the modern motorcycle which started as a bicycle with a motor, something that is still done today. This trend continues with the electric bike: the bicycle is proving a great platform for the development and deployment of real and valuable electric vehicle technology, available not in some distant green future, but today.

I sell bike parts and accessories because of my passion for all things two wheeled. The bicycle is not limited in its application, any neither is my interest or the scope of ComCycle USA. I am hopeful that I can provide more than just products, but valuable information and insight from myself and a community of cyclists. No one can know everything about the bicycle or provide every perspective or come up with every idea. But together we can share what we know, open our minds the the vast potential of the bicycle, and move the bicycle into the future.

Niches Part 3

2010-01-28T08:36:00.000-08:00

Did I mention I like niche-ey bike products? I think I did.

I have already mentioned Paul Component Thumbies. I have admired Paul Components ever since they made their own rear derailleur. I don't know of any other small manufacturer who attempted that. Paul makes a handful of great specialty items made right here in the USA. They make some excellent center pull cantilever style brakes that are popular with Cyclocross racers as well as the brake levers that are needed for them. I don't know of any other maker of high end center pull levers. Which is OK because Paul's are great.

Speaking of cyclocross riders, we carry a handful of other cyclocross items like "dirt drop" style bars, cyclocross tires and tubes, bar top brake levers, etc. Some of these items and Paul's items are popular with other niches like single speeds and fixies. I have mentioned fixie stuff. For single speeders we carry hubs, spacers, conversion kits etc.

There are so many bike niches out there and I am not afraid to say we don't cover them all. Like recumbents, tandems, tricycles (tadpole and delta - do you know the difference?) and combinations like recumbent tandems. The possibilities are endless. But that is exciting, too, it means that there are more niches to be explored and serviced and room for growth in the future.

Niches Part 2

2010-01-28T08:32:00.000-08:00

As I was saying in a previous blog, I love niches, and there are so many of them in the bike world. And I love talking about them.

In these times of high gas prices, we find more people using bikes to run errands and commute to work. For these people we have a wide range of bike bags, baskets, lights, reflective gear, versatile pedals, mirrors and more. There are bike racks that are compatible with disc brakes out now, some that attach only at the seatpost, racks for the front and rear, etc.

Yet another niche product is the Stan's Notubes system. I have been using Notubes since it was only available as a valve and tape system. Notubes makes a system that seals up existing bike rims and tires to make them airtight so you don't have to use a tube. The sealant also makes the best flat protection/sealant available on the market, so the system has many advantages. With no tubes you cannot pinch flat either. Mountain bikers have been benefiting from this system for years, and now roadies are getting in on the action. Many Mavic rims are sealed already and tubeless road tires are starting to hit the market, but Notubes valves and sealant are still useful for road bikes.

One of the newest bike niches is the electric bike. People are riding electric bikes to run errands and commute instead of driving cars. This is not pie in the sky future electric vehicle stuff. If you want an EV, they are here and now, and we have many of the parts you need to convert an existing bike. This niche ushers in a whole new groups of users: people who might not otherwise ride a bike. Electric bikes let you get as much or little exercise as you want, giving you the option to arrive without being in a sweat.

More niche-ey stuff to come.

Niches Part 1

2010-01-28T08:21:00.000-08:00

I really like finding good niche products in the bike market. It is one of the things that you can do well if you sell on the internet. You can reach a wide market with items that may not sell in large enough quantities for a local shop to carry.

The Cannondale Lefty adapter is a good example. It is made by another small company right here in California, Project 321. The adapter allows you to install the Cannondale Lefty one legged fork on a regular (non-Cannondale) mountain bike. Every installation results in a pretty remarkable bike, a creation unique to its owner.

I carry a combination of drivetrain products to let you come up with innovative gearing for your bike. Action Tec is a very small California based operation that makes Titanium drivetrain components: cogs, chainrings, etc. Their titanium is the good stuff: much stronger than the aluminum or steel alternatives. This titanium allows them to make a small 20T chainring for the crankset and up to a 39T cassette cog. This enables 1x8 or 2x9 drivetrains with very little loss in gearing range compared to 3x9. In addition, we carry wide range IRD 10 speed cassettes. Amongst them is an 11-34T Shimano and a 12-23T Campy cassette. And with SRAM jumping into the pool with the XX 2x10 MTB group, I suspect we will start seeing even more drivetrain creativity.

Paul thumbie mounts that let you mount bar end shifters like the thumb shifters of old. You can mix and match these components with standard components if you are looking for a drivetrain combination that is out of the ordinary.

In a different part of the spectrum, I know there are lots of beginners, casual riders, or people with back problems that like to get their riding position more upright. We carry a variety of riser stems, stem risers (yes, they are different), high rise bars, adjustable stems, etc. to help you get in the position you want. Often these riders want larger saddles because this tends to shift more weight over the seat, so we also carry some bike seats to help with that.

Fixed gear bikes, or fixies, are off the hook popular. These bikes do not coast. If the rear wheel is moving, the pedals are moving with it. Often these bikes don't even have brakes. Your legs are your rear brakes! This kind of bike has spawned a group of riders with a minimalist style, not surprisingly, and we have handlebars, pedals, grips, tires, toe clips and more for this kind of bike. Many parts are available in a wide range of colors to add a style that is popular with this group, but catching on with other riders as well.

Well, that's enough for now, but I will have more on niches later.

Mission Statement

2010-01-28T08:14:00.000-08:00

It seems every business has a mission statement nowadays, but there are a lot of mission statements out there that are kinda silly. Some of them sound like they came out of some kind of random missions statement generator; some are so non specific they could apply to anything; some try to portray the business as though it were some kind of charity; and some allude to effecting far greater change than a single business could ever hope to.

So make no mistake, ComCycle USA exists to earn a profit and make a living for its owners and employees. I am not running this business to end world hunger or give free bikes to people in the third world. Call me old school. I figure if I can save people money on their purchases and help a few people earn a living, those people are free to give money to whatever charity they like, not the one I choose. Don't be fooled. If someone says their company is giving money to save children somewhere, it really means they are taking a portion of the price you just paid to do it.

But that does not mean we do not have some sense of benefiting the greater good beyond just making a profit. Far from it. Bikes do so much good for the world, and the way we go about selling them does too. It is pretty easy to see how bikes benefit us. They keep us fit. They reduce pollution, congestion and noise. And the way we sell them fits right in with that. When I started ComCycle USA, I figured the world did not need one more strip mall location with a big paved parking lot and cars coming and going all day. An internet business can have a much smaller carbon footprint. We don't have a big showroom with wasted material for displays. Delivery via a shared shipping vehicle is so much better for the earth than individuals driving to a store. And our smaller physical footprint means less encroachment on the environment. My desire to do well by the earth stems from my faith: God has called us to be good stewards of His creation, and I think the bicycle and an earth friendly business help achieve that.

So here then is our mission statement: ComCycle USA provides cycling products, service, expertise and community to enable people to ride bikes as transportation and recreation through an Earth friendly business so that we may be good stewards of God's creation.