I’m off to Fruita to bro down (or brah down in Colorado parlance) and ride moutain bikes the rest of the week. 

I will respond to all emails and messages upon my return on Monday.  If you happen to be going to Fruita and spot me, please say hello.

the lovely and talented Chris Piascik sends over this image of his new Dropout

if Chris’ name sounds familiar it’s because he is the illustrator behind the Major Taylor quotes

Boo and Mark were in town from Milwaukee, Craiggles stands in the middle

Lemond mtb

AC’s buyer Rusty Jones on Bass

leaving day

Some pics from the AC sponsored Aloha Sunday!

check out this brah

Check out Mike and Jesse in the trailer!

Bootleg Sessions v.4 HD Fixed Gear DVD full trailer from Ride/Relax Productions on Vimeo.

here are photos from race day.  I took first place out of town and second overall thanks to an assist from local ace Matt Ungerman.
So much fun!

breakfast

sign up

outside Breakaway

manifest

the race was setup with four deliveries, two of which were round trip. There were two quick stops and four “call ins” you had to be at Breakaway during a half hour window to learn the stops

Like the Stupor Bowl the start was a mystery and we ended up on top of the reservoir. Not having the slightest clue how to get around Milwaukee, Wayne (owner of Breakaway) hooked me up with his smartest dude, Matt Ungerman aka Jade Leader. At first Jade was a little leary of having a tail, but as the race went on he seemed pretty stoked to have another guy fighting the wind with him. Milwaukee is both hilly (compared to MPLS) and the day was wicked windy.

I won’t bore you with the details of the race, but Matt and I finished 2nd and 3rd. We missed out on first place to James Lalonde by four minutes. The bummer thing is that we had to fix a flat and without that inconvenience may have taken the whole thing. Of course you can say “if I rode a perfect race I’d have won” all day, and in the end you take what you get and we were pretty f’ing stoked to have finished so well.

Towards the end of the race I told Matt that there was no way I was going to sprint him for it, as the dude with the route it was his town, and his honor to come in first. He replied that he wanted me to take it since I was on the sharp end most of the day. We went back and forth on this and in the end he allowed me the honor. Huge thanks to Matt, it was a blast to ride with you. Thank you so much for the good route and the good times. It will be my honor to have you ride with me during Stupor Bowl, I owe you one.

Finish

Prize table

First Place: James LaLonde

Second Place, First out of town Jeff Frane

Third Place, First Fixed Matt Ungerman

As some of you know I headed down to MMI this weekend.  The posts on this are going to be very photo heavy so I’m going to break down the events by day.

On Friday we spent the day rolling around town, exploring, and drinking.  Walk with me.

This is the skylight in the Breakaway bathroom, I was still in a daze from the long van ride and was super stoked on it, so I took a photo.

I know right. 

Then off to Miller Field for some sightseeing/pooping/drinking

Then off to Lakewood (I think) cemetary to see the “Valley of the Kings”.  Which is where the three big beer families of Milwaukee all have monuments that face each other.

Pabst

Schlitz

Blatz

In the cemetary was also this rad pond that I rode

I also took this photo of our esteemed host Mark, because I we are that mature

We then rode along this super rad aqueduct that was all Mad Max post apocalyptic.  Where we drank more beer and I sessioned some super fun banks

The Dropout is the best vehicle for urban exploration, you can trick on it or just ride gnarly stuff.  It’s perfect.

From the University of Purdue comes this Big Block Speed Machine

This one belongs to Tyler and it’s sick!  First custom build on the red version that I’ve seen

NYC messenger and two time national champ Austin Horse is a friend of ours.  As such we were sick of him riding around on hubs that aren’t All-City’s, so with the help of our homies at Handspun and Velocity we hooked him up with a bangin set of wheels built around our New Sherrif hubs. 

Austin both works and races on this bike, so the wheels needed to be both durable and very fast.  One call to Velocity had a pair of their Fusion’s on the way to the AC offices.  The Fusions are lighter and slightly shallower than the Deep V and are personal favorites of mine.  (I’ve been riding the same set since 2005)  They hold up well, are reasonably light, and have a great semi aero profile.

The hubs of course were to be a set of silver 32 hole second gen New Sherrif protos with an AC Stainless 17 tooth cog, and matching Stainless lockring

(sorry for the weird clear grease marks on the cog)

Spokes, nipples, and labor were provided by the pros over at Handspun.  The wheels were laced 3 cross with the front spokes being DT Revolutions, and the rear spokes being DT Competitions. Brass silver nips finished out the wheels, and both front and rear were tied and soldered.

That’s a serious strong and light wheelset that’s going to be ridden into the ground by one of the best messengers in the business.

We’re super stoked to have Austin testing these hubs!

Huge thanks to Velocity and Handspun for making this project happen. 

I will be out of the office on Friday to head down to Milwaukee for the MMI.  I am so freaking stoked to be back in Wisco (setting your feet on native soil always feels good) and have the opportunity to drink and ride the greater Milwaukee area.  I will respond to all email and phone messages upon my return on Monday. Polish Falcon here I come!

Hailing out of the Pearl Velo shop in Denver CO, comes Mike M’s Big Block

Setup
All city big block frame + fork
All city cranks
Velocity b43 rims
Cinelli plastic seat
Thompson stem and post
Nitto bars
Continental rubber

Our homies at City Grounds have full size run along with both black and white brakeless forks

They offer excellent customer service and have what you need!

If the name isn’t familiar to you, they are the same cats who do Long Beach Fixed Gear. 

I figured I’d spice up the blog a helpful little article on commuting apparel.  It’s spring here in Minnesota, which is pretty much the best season of the year.  The snow  has melted, and people are emerging from their seasonal depression into the bright sunlight of the oncoming summer.  The mornings have typically been in the mid 30’s with the afternoon’s in the low 50’s. 

This is what I wear for my commute when it’s 35 degrees F.  For reference, the trip is 15 miles each way.

Trainer, cap, DIY knickers, high socks, toe warmers

wool/cotton winter trainer

it’s about as warm as a sweatshirt, but breathes better

Under the trainer a long sleeve wool jersey

on the way home when it’s 50 I’ll just wear this

wool cycling cap

made locally from recycled materials by Grovecraft

Tall wool socks and toe warmers

gloves

It’s funny how my world works… just the same as yours

that’s the bridge we use in our dropouts and headbadge FYI

Chris posted a Bike Check up on Zlog

And Swoo from Trick Track posted some photos of his small Dropout on 26’s

loving the custom paint.

His small looks waaay better than my medium on those 26’s

At least in the eyes of Bicycling magazine, according to WCCO:

If you are a biker, Minneapolis is the best place to live according to Bicycling Magazine. The May issue of the magazine just came out and named Minneapolis the most bike-friendly city in America. The city moved into the number one spot after being named runner-up last year. Portland, Ore., Boulder, Colo., Seattle, Wash., and Eugene, Ore. are the cites that round out the top five. The cities are ranked based on the number of bike lanes and routes, bike commuters, cycling events and renowned bike shops. Minneapolis has 127 miles of bikeways, with 83 of those being off-street trails. There is more bike parking per capita in Minneapolis than any other city in the country. The city also has many bike amenities and big bicycling community. In June, Minneapolis will start the largest bike-share program in the country. The worst cycling cities are Birmingham, Ala., Jacksonville, Fla., and Memphis, Tenn.

After years of perrenial runner up status to Portland, Minneapolis is finally on top.  Freaking stoked for my adopted hometown.

As you may or may not be aware, depending on how closely you follow the meanderings and whimsy of the fixed gear freestyle (FGFS) community, many fixed gear freestylers are dropping their 700c wheels in favor of 26” ones. 

For comparison, my personal Dropout on 700’s

And on 26” wheels

Because I’ve been getting a barrage of questions about how the Dropout would do with 26” wheels and to satisfy my own curiousity I decided to try some out. 

My first call was of course to my homies at Velocity to procure a set of their 26” Chukkers. 

A word about my homies at Velocity: I now pretty much only ride Velocity rims.  Velocity makes a rock solid product and they have done as much for the urban cycling community (in terms of event support and sponsorship) as anyone has, and to top it off the whole crew over there are some of the best people you could ever hope to meet.  I’m a big believer in supporting those who support the community and Velocity has definitely done that.

While I was making the switch to 26” wheels I also mounted a new set cranks from the dudes over at Gusset

That’s right, Reynolds 853 steel BMX cranks.  So light, so strong, so awesome.

Anyway, getting back to the 26” wheels:

1. I’m running a 1.85 Michelin City on the front (you could go even bigger on the Dropout fork if you wanted)
2. A 1.75 Continental City Ride on the back (I could go bigger if I used a half link to place my wheel farther forward in the dropouts)
3. I think the bike looks ugly as hell with those wheels, the proportions of the frame are just all wrong
4. It rides awesome and makes bunny hopping and all tricks in which you bunny hop, including spinning easier
5. Riding for distance is not as fun, although I think it has more to do with the extra tire width than the wheel size

Yep, I hate to say it because I find it all so unnerving, but doing tricks on the 26” wheels is awesome and easier than a 700c.  Of course as my man Prolls pointed out to me (I’m paraphrasing here) “26” wheels may make it easier to do tricks, but so does a freewheel.” 

Well played John, well played.  He’s absolutely right.  So where do we go from here?

I think we can all agree that 26” wheels are more appropriate for smaller freestyle frames, I think we can also agree that 26” wheels are stronger.  However I’d be lying if I told you that I wasn’t saddened by the influx of these smaller wheels.  There is something primal inside that grabs me by the nuts (pardon the graphic language) when I see a brakeless fixed gear with fat 700c tires, it’s the same thing that grabs me when looking at a vintage muscle car.  I utter a low semi silent grunt, bob my head, close my eyes, and know in my heart that that thing (bike/car) is f’ing hott. 

There is just a certain aesthetic appeal to a monster track bike that is utterly lost when the 26” wheels are put on.  Am I saddened at this loss, yes.  But on the other hand I bunny hop all sorts of things that I could never clear before. 

I’m not sure where this’ll all end up, but for now I’m giving the darkside a try.  I’ll let you know how it goes. Now if I can only stop feeling so ashamed and dirty…

*bonus semi spooky photo of my 700c wheels in storage

After being put away for the winter my show pony white Big Block is back on the road and I am once more completely in love.
 
By far my favorite track bike for going real fast on!!

AC is proud to be one of the sponsors for the upcoming Duke City Classic

Photos that Brad Q from Urban Velo took of Mike doing the handrail this summer made it into Momentum mag.

Check it out!

Here’s Sophie’s build coming all the way from Belgium:

The bike is a dream come to life. You did a very fine job on that frame.

Here is the set up:

Frame: All city big block 46cm
Wheelset: velocity deep-v white front, checker rear, white and black spokes, all city white hubs
Tires: fyxation session black
Crankset: all city white
Chain: charges masher white
Pedals: mks gr9
Straps : holdfast
Seatpost: charges chopstick
Saddle : on the pic, turbo italia white, currently brooks B17 black
Stem: waiting for a leader trickstar
Headset: Cane Creek S3
Handlebar: charges spit
Brake lever: dirty harry

Photo credits to:

Jelle Tienstra Singlespeed Central

www.Singlespeed.nl

That’s a crazy Build!!