I'm moved.

Thanks to Andy my website is reworked and blog-driven so there is even less point to this blog now.

Lots of work left to do on the new page but it's running so check it out.

www.twothreesix.com

There is no god.

see over at pez

Logo placement...

Which jersey can you easily make out logos on?

winning a B race

Winning a B race at Bryan Park through a combination of sandbagging and having 6 teammates blocking is pretty cheap.

Shawn's Volume Creedence.

After two weeks of using loaner bikes at Go Fast Turn Left CBC rider Shawn Deal decided he wanted a track bike of his own.

After working out the ever important budget parameters with his wife we set to the task of finding the perfect bike. It is with a bit of irony that we made the decision to set up a Volume Creedence. Volume is a BMX company that happens to make a couple fixed gear bikes that make sense out of the box as a street fixed. So here we have a bike track racing bike that started life as a street bike that was designed because not that long ago bike messengers and other urban riders started taking old track bikes and riding them on the street.

I guess things have come full circle.

But enough history... on to the bike...



Shawn's Creedence is a sleek steel machine. Right out of the box it came with Andle cranks and sealed Novatec hubs built onto a rock solid cromoly frame. All I had to do was gear it up with a 14 tooth cog and swap the riser bars for some drops and hook them to a 130mm Origin8 stem. Race ready!



As you can tell from the maniacal look in his eyes Shaw is very happy with his Volume and counts down the hours at work every Monday before he can go race.

Dolan Kadet Race Build

When Dolan Bikes designed the Kadet they had to know many of these inexpensive but high quality track frames would end up on the street. This frame was bred for the track and they are starting to find their way to the banking. Steve Burton of Sportsquest and Tim Lamb of Team Invisible Bike have both been racing these frames at the Go Fast Turn Left races this year.

I thought it would be fun to build one up into a true "race ready" configuration but on a budget. Basic builds on this frame come in at under $900 but I wanted to use some higher end parts to really make one of these bikes a rocket.

Wheels:



H+Son Formation Face rims. 42mm of aero superiority laced to low flange Origin8 track hubs with adjustable sealed bearings. Throw some ceramics in there and you have a set of wheels on par with Zipp or Reynolds for about 25% of the price.

Cranks:



All-City's super BEEFY new 612 crank arms hopped up to a race gear with a FSA 49 tooth track ring. STIFF!

Bar and stem:



Origin8 again brings killer value to the table with their deep drop Pro Track handle bar and Alloy Ergo Stem.

The whole package comes in at under $1300 and is ready to mix it up with any $5000 super bike on the boards.

Alan's H+Son / Profile wheels

Alan Garvick heard about us on Tarckbike. Down in New Bern, North Carolina there are not bike shops that really do much fixed gear stuff and he had a specific set of wheels in mind to hook up his Surly Steamroller.

Alan hit us up with the request for some H+Son SL42 rims powdercoated white laced to purple Profile Racing fixed gear hubs. I told him "no problem."

After an email to my guy Tzusing all the way over in China and ordered up the rims. A week later they arrived and I laced them up.

Check them out...

Keith is my man...

I think Keith might own a time machine or at least have access to one. There really is no other possible explanation for how he managed to find these original Jan Ullrich Adidas cycling shoes.

Even cooler is that we wear the same size and he didn't need them so I have ended up with another pair of cycling shoes I don't need.

New stuff from Volume on the way

We have some new goodies from Volume coming in VERY soon.

First up... the Fu Manchu fork.



Beefy unicrown with BMX style dropouts to take whatever beating you feel like giving your fixed.



The Krull Spider. 48tooth splined with a 130mm bolt pattern. No more slipping sprockets on your street rig.

Still dreaming...

Come on Sportsquest... don't let me down!

Go Fast Turn Left KEIRIN Tournament

On Monday June 15th Carytown Bicycle Company and Sportsquest.biz bring you a night of fast paced race action at Southside Speedway.

The Keirin is one of the fastest and most exciting types of races in track cycling. If you want to give it a shot we have plenty of loaner bikes available at the track. Or if you just want to come watch the action it's 100% free to come spectate.

Work hard, play hard

They may not look like it but Andrew and Ian are great mechanics. They take fixing bikes VERY seriously. Anyone that knows them also knows they also take goofing off just a serious. On a much needed break between fixing bikes they decided perform some "stress tests" on Mavic wheel bags.





The good news is that Mavic wheel bags are just as high a quality as their wheels and passed their barrage of stress tests.

Tuesday night

Summer time in Richmond means many things. To many on two wheels it means just one though. The Bryan Park Tuesday night races.

This has been a staple of Richmond area bike racing for around 30 years now and continues to grow each year. Last night was the second race this season. Throughout the race several of the local teams slugged it out and in the end Dan King came up with the win. Carytown's Andrew Alli picked up 3rd to better his 4th place result from last week.

There are two races each week that are divided up by ability. A few times this summer there are even kids races.

Check out this video that CJ Congrove shot of the A race last night. No bike mounted camera antics but still very cool.

Tuesday Night at Bryan Park from CJ Congrove on Vimeo.

Could this be utopia?

Vauban, Germany has taken a neat approach to reducing auto traffic in their town. On many streets cars are banned and driveways are not even allowed to be built. To make things work they have designed the layout of the city to include important commercial zones that are spread evenly throughout the residential areas.
Many residents sill own cars but they are stored at the edge of town in large garages.



It would never happen here but I could easily see the fan working with this approach. There are plenty unused areas that could be turned to garage space and anyone living in the fan knows how close most of the needed business are.

I have lived in Richmond for over 10 years now and provided the weather is agreeable I can often go weeks without driving to run all my errands and commute to work.

Check out more about Vauban's approach in this article in The New York Times.

New today!

I finally got around to making t-shirts of the Richmond VA design we brought out back in the fall. Standard white on black and a VERY limited run of "Giro" Pink as well.

Awesome!

CJ from Team Invisible Bike brought his bike mount camera to the speedway last night and set it up on a few bikes. Check it out!

Track Racing w/ Bro's from CJ Congrove on Vimeo.

Finally!

Sunny skies and a high of 75. After two Tuesdays of lots of rain and no track racing things are looking up.

I can't wait until 5 o'clock!

Track racing on the speedway is a blast!

How many tarck points?

This guy means business.

3T Ergonova review part 3.

Continued from earlier...

The icing on the cake with this bar is the slight outward sweep that the drops have. Where the brake hoods mount to the bar is actually almost 2 whole centimeters narrower than in the drops. This works brilliantly by giving you the ability to run your brake hoods at a width you are normally comfortable (in my case 42 centimeters) but at the same time giving your a bit more leverage in the drops when you are sprinting. This flared design also pulls my forearms a bit further away from the tops of the bars which gives a much more open and stable feel when out of the saddle in the drops.



I found this to work so well in fact that I installed a pair of these bars on my track bike as well.



There are other companies out there that have designed bars that are similar to the 3T.

The FSA compact bar design is a great solution for smaller riders who are looking for some of the same benefits of the Ergonova but I have found that for my height and riding style they can be a bit too cramped if you like to ride in the drops a fair bit.

That aside however, I have found that the dimensions of the FSA compact bar (about 1 full centimeter smaller in reach and drop compared to the 3t) has worked wonders for shorter or less flexible riders that I have fit on their existing bikes and almost always allows them to use the drop bars far more than they ever had been able to in the past.

Ergonova review part 2.

Continued from earlier... After installing my new bars I wrapped them in my usual choice of Fizik microtex with the bar-gel pads. This improves ALL bars by giving a nice soft feel to the tops and more importantly allows you to smooth the transition between the brake hood and the top of the bar into a nice platform for the hands.

The next day I was finally able to get out onto my new bike and test things out. Ten minutes into the ride I knew I made the right choice. The ergonomics of the bar were perfect. No matter where my hands were perched they felt evenly supported and comfortable. From climbing to sprinting... or just relaxing on the tops things felt juuuust right.



The benefits semi-ergo design of this bar is most noticeable when riding in the drops. Unlike round bend or traditional ergonomic bars I am given a several positions in the drops that I can utilize for different moments during my ride.

I can can easily slide my hands from deep in the drop when I want to shift or brake...



...to further down towards the tip of the bar when sprinting or big-ringing it up the short hills that Richmond is known for.

Pic of the day

Classy and crude at the same time...



From Arndtmenke.

3T Ergonova review part 1.

The best bar ever?

No I'm not talking about Mojo's or Stickyrice... I'm talking about the 3T Ergonova.

When I built up my CAAD9 team frame earlier this year I decided I wanted to try out a new handlebar. I had been riding (or "rubbing" for the dedicated BSNYC fans out there) the same Controltech bar for about a year but that would be staying on another bike so it was time for something different.



I have been a fan of the "semi-ergo" bar design for a while and the new Ergnova from 3T looked interesting in that it combined a smooth transition in the bend of the drops with a over-sized and wing-shaped top section.

So onto the bike it went.

Two for the want list (part 2 of 2)

New crank? Check. Now what about that cheap Formula back hub?

The designers over at The Hive have me covered there as well. I picked up one of the Chub Hubs for my Brooklyn Machine Works fixed gear a while back. I really wanted to set one up on my singlespeed as well but I have never been much for freewheels. As if they could read my mind The Hive are coming out with a version of their hub that uses a VERY nice cassette interface as well as standard 6 bolt disc mounts. Their clever design bonds alloy flanges to a hugely over-sized thin-wall carbon center section for rigidity. The cross country version of the rear hub should come in at a very competitive sub 300 gram weight.

Unfortunately I have to wait until December for this one. But that's OK. One step at a time.

Joel with get a kick out of this...

Spotted over at HKfixed.



I would love to know who built this.

Pic of the day

Giant X Cinelli



Mike Giant came up with this portrait of his latest bike courtesy of the fine folks at Cinelli.

holy shit

amazing.

Possibly the best idea ever...

Ever have one of those "why didn't I think of that?" moments when you look at something so cool yet so simple?

This is one of those moments.



Goodmorning Technology has come out with something I'm sure just about everyone reading this post is kicking themselves for not thinking of already.



This easily is the most elegant approach to a basket I have ever seen.

Awesome

Give a hipster a hug... and a helmet. I love it.

new new new

Double butted 4130 cro-mo frame made in Canada

Tange lugged cro-mo fork.

Track ready geometry.

Deda Pista handle bars.

And a sweet paint job to cap it off...

Two for the want list (part 1 of 2)

Ever since i purchased a new single speed moutain bike this year I have been slowly upgrading the stock components. On the list of stuff to replace since day one was the fairly heavy Truvativ Firex crank. I think I have finally found a replacement.

The Hive's fifteen.G brand has a new crankset coming out later this summer that looks tasty. Much like Zipp did with their VUMA crank concept The Hive have found a way to build a crank around a 30mm aluminum spindle similar to what is used in the BB30 standard but still allowing it to be used in a standard bottombracket shell (like the eccentric one on my Caffine 29er).



Word is they will be under 800 grams and cost about $325. Not bad when you realize Shimano's XTR crank weighs about the and costs over twice as much.

They even have a single speed specifc version coming out... perfect.

Collage art

See over at Hipster Nascar...



More HERE.

Good weekend on the trails for CBC

It was a successful weekend for Team Carytown racers.

Up in Ashland at the Twisted Tire Spring Cup Donna Miller of the U-25 team entered her first off road race and took victory. She won the beginner women's class in clean fashion with a two and a half minute margin over second place. Donna was also the only woman in her race riding single-speed! I'm sure it won't be long before we see her move up to harder races.

In the Expert Vet category Rob Suydam took a VERY close second place behind Michael Hosang. In the end Rob gave up only 8 seconds to the winner.

Over in the single speed category Carytown continued their domination by taking 1st and 3rd aboard their Niner One9's. Ethan Lindbloom took the win with over a 5 minute margin over 2nd. Bill Rider rounded out the podium after he let John Gonyo take 2nd as a reward for stopping to help an injured fellow racer.

Lastly in sport vet men Jamison Baker took a close 2nd behind Trae Duty on his Air9.

East Greenbush

Relaxing in the hotel about to take a nap. Rode about 20 miles easy but with about 1300 feet of climbing (it's ALL hills here). Going to rest up as much as possible before tomorrows test.

I would be kidding myself if I said I was even remotely prepared for a 62 mile road race in the mountains.

You don't get too many chances to do rides like this though so I'll be more than happy just to be out there riding. It's nice to get that change of scenery too. I love living in Richmond but I would say the countryside here puts old Virginia to shame. I'll stay where I am though. 3 days of snow I can take... 3 months? You can keep that nonsense.

270 north

I think we're near Gettysburg. Sheetz makes a body sleepy.

Tour Of The Battenkill

Leaving at 5 today to head up to Cambridge, New York to compete in the 30+ race at the Tour of the Battenkill. Joining me will be Matt Marchal, John Messersmith, and Wayland Hundley of Altius, Jim Fisher of 3sports, and CBC's Jim Temple. Not only will we all be taking on an EPIC race but it's a good excuse for a road trip!

This is not your average 60 mile roadrace. There are tons of sectors like this:


I'm going to get brutalized but I can't wait.

Darts anyone?

Check it.

crack and pcp huh?

Somebody thinks they are being super cute using Beckmann's google login? I wonder who it could be?

New ride...

Got a new to me vehicle to replace the severely ailing minivan. I have not been this excited about a automobile since I got my first VW Golf.

Not this again...

4 hour ride turned into a 2 and a half hour ride. Left calf is acting up... again.

The worst part is that it's 100% my fault. I don't stretch enough... I don't drink enough... I don't eat right. Stupid.

Gotta get back on track.

Weezie's Kitchen

The Chicken-fried steak kicked my ass. Or was it the scrambled eggs, home fries, biscuits, and gravy? All I know is that from 9am to almost 9pm I was full. Fat boy breakfast is where it's at.

Long ride with Ian, Temple of Doom and others tomorrow. Can't wait. Need to blow off some steam.

Go Fast Tuesdays...

After 3 weeks we finally got off our asses to get results up on the website... pics to come soon.

Craigslist haters...

Make me laugh. Way to link our site. Can't wait to see our google stats tomorrow. Thanks bro!

GFTL #3

Two weeks... two wins. Got my teeth kicked in by Noah and CJ in the first two races but redeemed myself in the 3rd. Feeling kind of good.

Troy was on fire in the A race.

Good to see Matt Mega out there racing again. Better to see CBC smoking him.

LOLOLOLOL

"im pretty impressed with the kazane's. theyre built over seas, but apparently they are better aluminum than the caad9 and they ride much better."


Edit: I should point out that is in no way an attack on Kazane Racing, Keirin Culture or it's founder Stratton. Stratton has brought out some great affordable road and track components that I back personally as well as stock in my store. I mean what's not to love about a guy like this?