We’re in a constant struggle to continue bettering our brand and products, and towards those goals we’ve recently we made some changes to our Double Straps that make them way way more awesome.  The best part?  The price stays as it always has been.

How are they better you ask?  Well friend, walk with me and I’ll explain everything

on the left you have our new strap, on the right the old.  Just looking at the two it’s easy to see that the one on the left looks alot more like leather (though they are both leather) than the one on the right.  It is thicker, has a much more supple feel, and has a nice rich texture

detail of texture

If you start comparing the backs of the straps the differences become even more glaring in the qualities of the material

and to complete the new package we’ve even changed the buckles to a more secure design that will yield less slippage (sp?)

So for the same old price of 35 bucks you’re now getting what we feel is a better product.  The old straps worked fine, but these new ones should be way nicer!
It’s a victory for the working man

The double clips with logos are now here as well

these just left to go out to Chris in Seattle for a little testing

These are second gen proto’s and feature stainless hardware, this is not the final version of the hub, or the hardware.  Expect an even more beautiful product when it finally drops this Spring!

and randomly here’s an office shot of the Monarch, he’s always scolding, scolding and scorn

The biggest alleycat in the world happens once more in Minneapolis next weekend!

Tim Kainu shot this rad photo of Mike Carney 180’ing a four stair

Another look at some of the big tricks

clip sent over by one of our homies in the Cascades

I’m not but, they are coming to the Seattle Bicycle Expo on March 13 and 14.

MIDWEST MAYHEM!!! from Seth Root on Vimeo.

Acid Drop from Danny Mancuso on Vimeo.

Tom & John from Danny Mancuso on Vimeo.

Sparks from Danny Mancuso on Vimeo.

Back from Midwest Mayhem, it was an incredibile weekend.  So many good riders, so many good friends.  Here are some pics and video of what went down

check out Wonka way up there

Also a shout out to our man Mike Carney who rolled his ankle during warm ups.  Get well soon buddy!

Off to Milwaukee for the contest.  See you all on Monday

combining the best of the east and west coast riding styles, Mike brings you the “Stanky Leg”

In other news he’s also got two new big boy wheels

and peep Vinnie all cool in the background with his cigarettes. 

woop!

Jruff and Butcher Day Edit from chris clappe on Vimeo.

so excited for this!!!

After a few botched tries, I think I’ve finally got my 3 speed setup dialed

A few months ago Sturmey sent over a 3 Speed Fixed Hub for me to try out.  Embarrassingly I haven’t gotten it together until now and this morning was my first ride on it.  I had originally routed the shifter cable along the downtube to the chainstay, using a band clamp to act as the cable stop on the stay.  Within the first mile of my ride this morning the cable pulled free of the clamp rendering shifting impossible as all it would do is pull the cable housing further towards the hub and I was left pedalling a 43 X13 gear.  I stopped at a hardware store and bought a bigger band clamp, mounted both clamps and tried again.  No luck.  So this afternoon one of the homies from Bike Builder suggested I try using one of the Surly cable hangers as my stop, and run the cable along the seatstay. 

There were a couple of issues with attaching the hanger in the center of the post clamp, namely that it would rub on the stay, so I moved it to the outside of the bolt and presto, it works like magic. (sorry the  photos don’t do a good job of showing that the hanger is bolted to the outside of the collar instead of hanging in the center open area)

If you’re wondering why my dropouts look like that it’s because this is the original proto Big Block, before we had the nice forged versions

Sturmey’s shifter

Super stoked to try this out on the way home tonight.  I’ll let you know how it goes. Wish me luck.

Mike’s Minty Fresh new Dropout

so fresh, so clean

so exicted for this. 

our new homie Taylor Dwight just dropped this little edit

foolin around from Taylor Dwight on Vimeo.

Jake from Michigan sent over a pic of his Big Block in full midwest winter ass kicking trim

Nice build dude!

made a quick little one line edit because I was excited about my new bike

Dropout Mini Edit from BikeJerks on Vimeo.

here’s my new Dropout

I’m stoked to get out and try the production version.  The only thing is that the paint is a little girly.  I’m not digging it as much as my old dark blue one.   I’ve got no one to blame but myself, since I picked out all the colors.  Oh well, I guess I"ll just have to make it look tough by riding the crap out of it. 

For those of you keeping score:
All-City production Dropout frameset in a lovely Smurfway
Profile cranks
Milwaukee Stout guard
Odyssey plastic Pedals
OG Holdfast straps
All-City proto New Sherrif hubs
Velocity Chukker rims
Fyxation tires
Cane Creek headset
Spank bar and stem

We’re proud to announce our plans for the first run of Dropout framesets arriving in March

*since blog posts are no good without photos, here is one of Mike doing a tire grab

The first round of Dropouts will sport a murdered out color scheme of Black gloss powdercoat over ED finish on both the frame and fork.  The ED finish coats both the inside and outside of the frame tubes and serves to prevent rust.  The bike will come with white decals with green decals included.  Put them over the whites or stick them wherever you feel is appropriate, or simply remove the white’s and go stealth.  The decals are over the powdercoat and easily removable.

It’s a black frameset, I know big deal, well, the big deal (you like that sentence structure) is that the first run is coming brakeless.  We fully intend and hope that this bike will find multiple uses beyond just fixed gear freestyle.  It’s essentially a modern scorcher and is a blast to run on road or offroad.  We hope that people commute on it, run errands, drop stairs, ride parks, and destroy their local trails on this thing.  For the first offering however, we wanted to do something special for the core group that has supported this bike and is excited about it’s release.  The fixed gear freestylers.  The brakeless frameset is cleaner and lighter than it’s brake capable siblings, and we’re only going to do 130 of them.  If you want one. Don’t sleep.  Only 130 will be made before we switch to the 990 BMX compatible model in the Shades of Grey and Countertop Green motifs.

I also just wanted to take the time to say thank you so much to all of you out there who have supported All-City through our first year without you we wouldn’t be able to live this dream. 

Photos of Mike getting it done despite the snow and freezing temps.  I was supposed to ride with him the night they shot these but I decided not to leave my house.  It was like 7 degrees out.  Photos shot by Kevin O’meara

foot plant

this’ll give you an idea of what I got up to.  It was freaking cold, boy, for real.

mike, digging out spots