The Sams are here
We got the delivery yesterday and have already started shipping out framesets. We should have all the framesets shipped by the end of next week, so expect a tracking number shortly. If you're going to be out of town the week after next, call us on Monday.
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I've had Albastaches on bikes a couple times over the years and always liked them, but for some reason always switch away to something else, although I guess that could be said about any handlebar on my bikes.
Actually, lately I've been switching stuff on my bikes like crazy, and not because I'm dissatisfied with any of my setups, but because I'm suffering from a bad bout of what Roman and I call "Bike Brain". The best definition I can come up for Bike Brain is a frenzied state of parts swapping with a suppressed concern for cost or time and for what might only amount to a tiny gain in functionality or good looks. It's a 75% fun and 25% excruciating condition. I bet some of you know exactly what I'm talking about, and you know it compounds based on how many bikes you have. If you've got a mild case you're buying handlebars and tires. If you've caught it bad you're buying framesets only slightly different than what you already own, having framebuilders add braze-ons, and getting stuff repainted.
It starts for me when I switch one bike, enjoy whatever I switched to, and then want to change all my bikes to match, even though I was perfectly happy with them before. I admire people like Vaughn or Grant who can set a bike up and leave it unchanged for years, only changing the disposables like brake pads and chains. I've never been able to do it; there's too much interesting stuff out there nowadays. Remember 12 years ago when there were only a handful of tires in the 700x38 to 45mm range that were even halfway decent? And remember how few swept-back or "alt" bars there were? Other than the Albatross and Bosco, they were all either too flat or too narrow. I'm not saying I miss the lack of selection, but it was definitely harder to catch a case of bike brain back then.
One bike I'm determined not to switch around too much is my Roaduno:
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It should be easy because it's perfect already, but I'm sure I'll manage to find something to swap. That's supposed to be a heart framing the bike, but the photo didn't really work out like I had hoped. Here's a clearer view:
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Ah, it's the best. This bike is the epitome of the long-n-light frame design we're doing nowadays. It feels so easy to pedal and riding it through the city (especially at night when it's quiet) is always so fun. If I had to describe the feeling musically, this is pretty close. And they're coming soon, finally. The presale is June 27th at noon, our time. The bikes ship from Taiwan that same week.
We're getting three colors: Mustard, Silver, and Purple; in sizes 47.5, 51, 54.5, 58, 61.5, and 64cm; in both complete bikes and framesets. Because there are three colors and we have a limited amount of space and money, there aren't huge quantities of each variation. I recommend picking a color but having a back-up choice as well. Silver is gonna go quickly.
The bike pictured above is dark gold, not mustard, and so isn't a good representation of either the color or the complete build package, but we're having some air-freighted over early to take pictures of before the pre-sale. I really like the build we picked for the completes. They have:
- Choco Bars
- Nitto Faceplater stems
- Our new road cranks, the Silver3
- Wheels built by a fancy place in Taiwan that builds for BORAF teams
- Gravelking tires
- IRD CAFAM brake levers
- Yokozuna caliper brakes with nice shoe'd pads.
The completes are coming as actual singlespeeds, like mine shown above, but they'll have a inner ring mounted for an easier swap to a 2x1 setup. The stock gearing is 38x16 and we'll have a bunch of freewheels in stock too, if you'd like to swap. If you swap the chainring guard with another ring, you can set one up like Grant's 3x1:
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Again, not a good representation of the color or complete build package.
The complete bikes are $2,400 and the frames are $1750. You'll notice the complete bikes are only $125 less than a fully geared Platypus complete; that's because of the fancier wheels. Plattys are getting the same wheel treatment in the next run so we'll bump the price up accordingly. It's worth it.
The airfreighted sample complete and frames should be here next week, and at that point we'll get a product page going with photos and all the relevant info.
June 27th! Noon!
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Pencils and sharpeners for charity
Go, Bicycles! Pencils and erasers (by Musgrave)
Not for pencil-fetishists, but as good as a pencil needs to be, and since 1916, without changing locations or name, it has made by The Musgrave Pencil Company in Shelbyville Tennessee. In the 1950s, Shelbyville had so many pencil makers that Tennessee’s governor dubbed it, “The Pencil City.” Only Musgrave has survived, and to our knowledge these are the only pencils that promote bicycle riding as a lifestyle. No need to turn us on to your favorite “Hemingway used it” pencil, etc!
Technical Data:
• Raw cedar wood
• Hexagonal for minimal rolling
• HB (medium, a #2) lead
• A full almost-7.5-inches (18.8mm) long before sharpening. As pencils go, that’s a “medium length,” and fits better than some in the pocket of a shirt.
• Red eraser (not pink) with a black foil (the part that holds the eraser)
• 0.2oz / 5.8g per piece
All proceeds (meaning 100 percent of your $1.00 cost) goes to charity (Isabel Galan* of Bronx, NY), and we’ll match that with $1.00 out of our lunch fund.
We have sharpeners, too—a Germany/China collab, with one country supplying the plastic exoskeleton, and the other making the metal blades. This is a Musgrave-approved sharpener, and it comes with two holes—one for normal pencils, one for fat ones. Also 100 percent of the $2.00 cost goes to Isabel Galan, and we’ll match that, too, with $2.00 out of our lunch fund.
* Google “Isabel Galan, NYT” to learn more. We lend support regularly, and these pencils will help. If we sell 864 pencils and 385 sharpeners, Ms. Galan gets $3,268. We’d LIKE to send her that check by the end of July.
Go, Bicycles! Pencil: $1.00
Germany/China eraser: $2.00
While supply lasts.
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New Blahg
Grant just put up a new one that I haven't even had the chance to read yet. It looks like there's some Silver project updates, some strange advertisements, Jim's genius FD extender, and a lot more. Check it out here.
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We're closed next Wednesday for Juneteenth
Th photo above of ol' Campy track-outs is obviously unrelated, but I didn't have a related picture and it felt strange to only have a line of text as an announcement. I love a simple, chonky dropout. Framebuilder Erik Billings is gonna splice these onto an old Jack Taylor for a customer of his. Pretty, pretty good.
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A nice bike
It's Shinichi's 50cm Susie, with front and rear Nitto racks and a dyno set up. James just finished it up. Shinichi has a Platypus set up similarly, but he wanted a huge-tire bike too.
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Back in stock 6/14/24
All the items listed below can be found in the Back In Stock section of our web store - linked here.
I love the clip feature of the Nebo; every time I ride my tandem at night I wear one, just for a little extra visibility.
acs ss freewheels, new
affinity wrench, short
boeshield, spray
black 1" headset spacers, new
black steel brake cable hanger
brooks
-b17 classic carved short
-b17 special titanium
chainring, 110 bcd
-38t
-44t
conti
-basketball tires
cygolite
-hotrod red
-hotrod white
-zot 450
evt mobile repair stand
greenfield kickstand
lord olivier liquorice soap
mini torque wrench, 5nm
nebo mycro headlamp
shimano
-8s chain quick link
-9s chain
--hg53
--hg93 xtr
-altus m310 rd, black, new
-blr780 xt brake levers
-essa, 8 speed gruppo, new
--rd
--cassette 11-45
topeak torq stik
zefal
-christophe toe straps
-hpx rebuild kit
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Miscellaneous
Are you super tall? Or are any of your friends super tall? I'm talking 95 + PBH. If so, now's the time to get a 64cm Homer. Use the coupon code wildcat for a whopping $750 off that size. We have a lot, we haven't sold one since January, and we really need the space. Don't expect a sale like this to ever happen in the middle sizes, it just won't happen. We won't be re-ordering this size unless our frame-per-size minimum order quantity comes down to around... 7 frames, which likely won't happen.
Song of the week for me. I'm not as big of a Dylan fan as Grant and John, but I do know the words to this one by heart.
'til next week,
-will
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