Bars.
The VO range of bars is huge and really cool. They’ve brought back a lot of the vintage city bike bars that came on old bikes that are way more comfortable than the flat bars that come on hybrids and fat bar road bikes. VO’s city bike bars mostly sweep back towards the rider, giving a comfortable hand-hold that leaves you wrists on a neutral relaxed angle. They also almost all come in two diameters so that you can choose to use either mountainbike levers or road levers on them.

A personal favourite of mine in their range is the Porteur bar – a swept-back bar that is reasonably narrow and sweeps forward before it sweeps back, meaning that you don’t need an absurdly long stem to compensate for the sweep. They can be set up in a few different ways. My favourite is the way Val has his set up – with road levers just near the bend so that your main position is at the front of the swept part of the bar. This allows easy use of bar end shifters, offers a few good hand positions, and looks really nice.  They also do the Postino Bar, the Leftbank, the Montmartre, the Belleville, the Milan and the Tourist bars, all different variations on the swept-back town bar.

Cork grips.
VO make a nice cork grip. Some bikes don’t look right with modern rubber grips and cork is a great replacement. It’s comfortable, it doesn’t degrade in UV like rubber and if you shellac it, it’s very durable.

Mud Guards.
VO make a nice range of traditional aluminium mud guards. They work really well and on the right bike they pull the whole thing together and give it an aesthetic unity. They take longer to fit than plastic guards but with a bit of patience they can give a perfect, smooth fender line and should last for a really long time.  They come in a range of sizes for 26″, 650b and 700c wheels.  There is a Smooth model, a Hammered model, a Stainless Steel model, and a Zeppelin.  The names are self-explanatory except the Zeppelin, which is like the smooth guards but with horizontal ribs.

Stems.
VO stems are exactly what most of us and our customers are looking for in a stem – they are available in a heap of sizes, they are silver, they’re relatively light, they have a four-bolt clamp, they’re fairly cheap and the finish is nice. There’s not that much to say about them really, they just quietly do what they’re supposed to do.

Seatpost.
The VO Grand Cru seatpost is lovely. It has more offset than standard, so it works well with Brooks saddles. It is a single piece so the head will not loosen and creak, it has a two-bolt clamp, so it’s easy to adjust and it is cheap for the good level of finish you get.

Racks.
VO make some really nice stainless steel racks. They make 2 small handlebar bag racks, the Randonneur that mounts of specific braze-ons or P-clamps and the Passhunter which mounts off canti bosses. They are modelled on the Nitto M12s and are very similar but quite a bit cheaper. They are also available with built-in decaleurs, which make a lot of sense, since the decaleur cannot twist around like a headset mounted one is sometimes want to do.

VO also make a nice Porteur Rack. It lets you load up the front of your bike and carry bulky things that a pair of panniers wouldn’t be suited to.

Finally, they make a rack called a Constructeur Rack which mounts to metal mud guards and rack eyelets. It’s a very elegant, minimalist rack which is suited to taking medium loads without turning your bike into a dedicated load carrying bike. They are light and airy so they disappear a bit when they’re not in use.

Decaleurs.
Decaleurs are for mounting handlebar bags. VO make some simple, good decaleurs which mount in place of a headset spacer. They do a good job of securing the bag.

Headsets.
VO make a large range of headsets. We stock their Gran Cru Sealed Bearing Headsets, their VO French Thread Headsets and their VO Roller Bearing ones. The cartridge bearings ones are similar to others on the market but with a nice finish, a classic look and good quality bearings. The threaded version is one of the few good, silver, sealed-bearing threaded headsets that isn’t expensive. The needle bearing headset can help a bike that is prone to shimmying, and should last for years and years. The French threaded headset is the best option for keeping a nice old French bike on the road.

Unusual Bottom Brackets.

We also stock VO’s unusual bottom brackets. Again, their French threaded Gran Cru bottom bracket serves as an affordable way to get a French bike back on the road. Likewise, their Gran Cru Threadless bottom bracket allows a bike with damaged thread another chance at life.

Bells.
The VO brass and alloy bells are great and so is their mounting hardware. Being able to mount them off a spacer bell mount in the headset is extremely neat and secure and can put the bell in a good spot to use it without letting go of your bars. They sound far better than most painted bells and look a lot nicer too. You can either periodically polish them, or let them get a tarnished, weathered-in look.  They come in two varieties – the Temple Bell, with a little spring to actuate the bell and the Striker Bell, with a hammer.

If you’re reading this from interstate we’re happy to send things.  We sell some of these items on Constructeur, our webshop.  Check them out here.  If you’re after something that’s not there just give us a buzz – we may have it, and if not we’re happy to order it in for you.

Read on for profiles of the bikes and mockery of the owners.

Huw.

In some ways the center of Huw’s fleet is his Pivot Mach 4. It’s a serious dual-suspension cross country bike. It was built up from scratch with a load of nice parts. When it comes to his own mountain bike Huw is a bit of a weight weenie. While he was building this one up he could have told you which parts saved weight compared to the ones on his last bike, and how much, to the gram.

From another perspective though, it’s his Batavus that is the central bike in his fleet. It’s the one he rides the most since he commutes on it and it gets pressed into service for a wide range of extra-curricular activities – cyclocross, Gravel Grinders, a Woods Point ride. At the moment it’s set up single-speed with a Porteur rack. This is not so that it’s a low-maintenance commuter though, he did it so that last time he raced it he wouldn’t be so embarrassed if he didn’t win. Fortunately he did pretty well anyway.

Tris.

Tris has the fastest-rotating line-up of bikes of anyone in the workshop. He’s always tinkering with some element or another and swapping parts between them (Huw once asked him if he’s noticed much premature wear on his parts from constantly putting them on and taking them off). Most of his bikes spend most of their lives with no bar tape, or scavenged secondhand bar tape because he’s trying out a new setup and will probably get around to taping the bars soon, and besides, he rides with gloves, and who can decide which bar tape to use, shellaced cotton would be cool, but he has that perfectly good orange Cinelli tape somewhere in the shed…. This means he has a lot of project bikes that aren’t really bikes so much as potential bikes. If he hadn’t pulled the wheels and headset off one to use in another it would be a bike. As it is it’s an impediment to get to the bike behind it, which has a seatpost on it he wants for the latest bike he’s working on.

He does have some rideable bikes at time of writing though, which is lucky since he can’t drive and doesn’t like public transport. Both these bikes are frames he built himself. One a road bike with a weird mix of Dura Ace 9 speed and Campy Victory and the other a touring bike with racks painted to match the frame. Neither of them have bar tape yet, but there’s some some splash tape somewhere which….

Scott.

Scott has carefully thought out compartments that his bikes fit into and his bikes are designed to do their job in that department. He’s not adverse to a bit of bling or trying out something unusual but all of that comes second to satisfying a functional role.

The bike he’s had longest (and it’s a long time… longer than anyone else at Commuter has had a bike) is his mid-90s Giant Iguana which he raced as a mountain bike as a youngster, then commuted on for years when it was powder coated reddy-orange and now has as his tourer (and sometime commuter) powdercoated grey. He recently realized that the only part on the frame he hadn’t replaced was the seatpost binder (he had even built a new fork for it), so he bought a NOS XTR seatpost binder for it to complete the process. If the frame ever needs to be replaced then it will raise philosophical questions about whether or not it is the same bike.

He has an Aluminium road bike made by Alchemy and an aluminium Giant XTC hardtail mountain bike with blinged-out cranks that he bought just to make Huw jealous.

His most exciting bike though is his polo bike. He made the frame himself. It has an extremely short wheel base, can turn on a dime and looks really mean.

He has also recently acquired a new secret weapon in the quirky-bike wars that have engulfed Melbourne of late.  This is a bike he drooled over as a teenager – an AMP research dual-suspension disc brake bike that harks from an era where front suspension and V brakes were new and exciting.

Jed.

Jed is the opposite to Tris in terms of getting bikes on the road. He takes his time, gathers the right parts and puts it together once. Or that’s the idea. As a result he has as many unrideable bike projects as Tris but where Tris’s were rideable for a few hours before he stole parts from them to put on another bike Jed is just one part short of the complete ensemble, and one day now he’ll probably have 6 amazing bikes finished all at once.

His regular rider was his theft-proof Crosscheck. It had ratty looking parts on it that were all in mechanically good order and were actually pretty sweet and blingy in their own way, but a bit scuffed, mismatched and generally cosmetically challenged. The problem is the bike actually looked quite nice in spite of all this, and it got stolen.  This left him one bike for both commuting and riding offroad – fortunately the bike was a Rawland Drakkar and more than capable of both.

Luke.

Luke come from a mountain biking background. And by mountain biking he means something the rest of us don’t even want to contemplate – something that needs lots of tyre, lots of suspension, great brakes and a willingness to hurt yourself if things don’t go according to plan. The bike that best expresses this side of Luke’s riding personality is his Santa Cruz, a big-hit dual suspension beast. But the Santa Cruz has also been pressed into service doing things its designers wouldn’t have anticipated. Overnight touring in the Victorian Alps? Sure. As it happened the bike was great for that. Cross country riding on the fairly non-technical Yarra trails? No worries. See for yourself most Wednesday nights.

Luke also has a singlespeed, fully rigid, rim brake mountain bike and a Doublecross which started out all Ultegra and is getting more and more idiosyncratic as he replaces the modern swanky bits with practical hard-wearing sensible bits.

Val.

It has been suggested that Val gets messages from God about how to build bikes. (True story – Matt said it and he meant it.) He normally takes fairly humble vintage frames and turns them into works of art. He has a touring Mixte, a chrome single-speed and a Raleigh gents bike which all mix up the old and the new in a way that is unmistakably Val’s. He’s working on a new bike as I write, and by new I mean genuinely new – non-secondhand. His first new bike in 16 years! Details about that one will be drip-fed later.

Jeff.

Jeff has the best collection of vintage bike of any of the Commuter staff. His collection even includes an Alex Singer. He has a thing for obscure shifting systems that require a bit more finesse to use and a lot more patience to install than modern things. Where most of us think of the early 70s as seriously vintage, Jeff is often on the lookout for a particular handlebar from the 40s to complete a build, or part of a brake from the 30s.

Photos of some of these to come.

We’ll be open this Saturday 26th from 9 till 1 pm as normal, but will be closed on Monday 28th for the Australia Day public holiday.

We’ll be using some of the time to get ready for Bikefest which is coming up quickly.  We’ll be there with Allegro cycles for the Bikefest Treadlie Market running from Feb 15 – 17. On Saturday the 16th we’ll also be running a swap meet.  More details to come, but in the meantime, check out the bikefest website http://www.melbournebikefest.com.au/

Hope you have a long weekend too!

We’ll be closed from mid afternoon Christmas Eve to Sunday 6th January, re-opening at 8am on the 7th.

There are still bookings left for the week before Christmas so call ahead to lock in a spot and a courtesy bike.

Finally, we keep getting asked if we do gift vouchers – the answer is yes.

The ride goes from Saturday 24th November through to Sunday 2nd December. It takes a combination of paved and dirt roads. There are mechanics on hand should your bike malfunction, but there are a few simple things you can go in advance to decrease the chances of that.

Luke, one of our mechanics, worked on the ride for a couple of years and got a sense of the most common issues. He’s also the best person at Commuter to ask about the suitability of different bike setups for the ride – tyre width, gears range required and so on. Here’s a quick guide though.

Mechanical Problems.
First off, the most common mechanical problems Luke dealt with on the ride are the most common ones we deal with in the workshop – broken spokes, worn bottom brackets and worn drivetrains. These can all be identified ahead of time and dealt with before you leave on the ride. If your bike is making creaking groaning noises you should get it looked at. It might be a simple thing which can get adjusted straight away, but it might also be an early sign of something malfunctioning. Sometimes getting in early just means replacing the offending component before it inconveniences you on a ride, but sometimes you can nip a problem in the bud before it requires replacement of a part.

If your gears sometimes skip under heavy pedaling then it is certainly wise to get this looked at before you go on a long ride. It can be caused by a number of things, but a worn chain and cogs is one of the most common causes, and once it starts to skip it will quickly get worse. On a harder-than-normal ride you will find that it skips more often because you are putting more force into pedaling and that the skipping will be more annoying, so get it looked at before you head off on the Great Vic.

Likewise, creaks can be caused by any number of different things. One potential cause is a worn bottom bracket – the bearings and axle that connect your cranks to your bike. This part is fairly cheap and easy to replace in a bike shop, but it is very inconvenient if it fails in use. Another potential cause of creaks is loose spokes. Continuing to use a wheel with loose spokes will stress these spokes and lead to premature failure. Again an easier thing to fix in a bike shop than on the road.

Bike Choice
If you’re thinking about doing the ride it’s worth dropping in and talking to Luke about bike choice, but here I’ll give a few rough pointers. First of all the terrain is a bit hillier than any you’ll find around Brunswick, so unless you are a fairly strong rider you’ll want a fairly wide gear range. The roads are also rougher so wider tyres are a good idea to soak up the bums and maintain traction. Knobby tyres probably aren’t necessary, and they will slow you down on the roads and make it harder work but if you can fit 30mm or wider tyres in your bike you’ll find it more comfortable.

Carrying Stuff
Because the ride is supported you won’t need to carry very much, but having your sunscreen, snacks, wallet, phone, camera, jacket, etc with you is a good thing, and if you can avoid carrying it on your back that’s an even better thing. A handlebar bag is great for this. It puts all this stuff in easy reach and a good one is waterproof. You should also carry water. The simplest and cheapest way on most bikes is to install bidon cages and carry a couple of water bottles. This way you don’t need a bag with a bladder on your back and the water is always easy to get to. With 1.5 litres carried this way you will only need to refill a couple of times and you won’t be carrying more weight than you need to. A rack and panniers is probably overkill for this ride, though if you already have them you can make them work.

We recently built a pair of custom Long Haul Truckers around Rohloffs. Rolhoffs are great for touring and commuting bikes because they offer a wide range of gears in even increments, they can shift gears while the pedals are not being turned, and because all the shifting takes place in the rear hub there are no gear combinations and so no combinations to avoid. They are unbelievably robust and reliable too, needing an infrequent oil change and not much else by way of maintenance.

Our first customer wanted a black bike with silver parts and the only bike left in her size was green, so we got it powder coated. This meant that we could make a few changes to the frame, getting the bike ready for a Rohloff without having to worry about the paint.

First of all we removed the downtube shifter bosses since she would not be needing them.

Next we modified some old school MTB cable stops to allow the outer cable to pass through them and added them to the top tube to neaten up the cable run.

While we were there we added a kickstand plate for good measure.

The other Rolhoff LHT was the right colour to begin with, so it didn’t get the frame mods, but it did get a Gilles Berthoud shifter, designed to work with drop bars.

For some of us the biggest downside to Rohloff hubs was that they forced you to either use some variant on a flat bar, or else required the addition of a handlebar stub to mount the shifter on. This Berthoud shifter is an incredibly elegant solution to the problem. It comes in parts and slides into the middle of the bars. Far neater than any of the other solutions on the market.

While on the topic of Rolhoffs, we have also started stocking a Rohloff equipped bike – the Tout Terrain. To read about this, look here.

We have also started stocking replacement cogs and seals for Rolhoffs as well as the oil change kits.

We’re closed the Monday and Tuesday of the Cup Day long weekend. Back on deck bright eyed and bushy tailed 8am Wednesday 7th November.

Hope you have a break too. Here is some inspiration from two of our customers who picked up their Pug tamden from us on Saturday morning and headed straight to the Warby Trail.

Cheers,

Huw

It’s a very German style of touring bike with flat handlebars, internal hub gearing, large tyres and disc brakes.

This set-up also really shines for commuting – a pair of rear panniers on the built-in rack are all most of us need to carry stuff to and from work and the upright set-up and powerful hydraulic disc brakes are great for getting around in traffic. The tyres it comes with are really tough and wide, so it will handle the less than perfect streets most of us find ourselves riding on. In this guise the bike is like the ultimate hybrid – easy to ride, tough, low maintenance and comfortable.

The Rohloff hub the bike is built around are legendary for their reliability and for how little maintenance they require – an oil change every 5000km and you should expect years of trouble-free use. They have 14 gear which cover a wide gear range (over 500%) in evenly spaced increments, and as with all gear hubs can be shifted while stationary. Because the whole gear system is driven by the one device there is only one shifter so changing gears requires no decisions and, unlike with a derailleur setup, there are no gear combinations which should be avoided.

The stock build also suits a lot of people as it is for touring.  It also provides ample opportunity to customize the setup by replacing the handlebars with the style you prefer.  It can take anything from swept-back city bars to trekking/butterfly bars and anything in between. Anything that uses flat bar brake levers and shifters is very simple to convert to. (Look here for a discussion of some of the options). The bike can also be converted to work with more road-style bars with a little more customization.

As you would expect from a bike of this calibre, all the parts are high quality, from double-butted spokes and strong Mavic rims to the Fizik saddle and the Ritchey grips. The frame is made from a steel which is a small step up from the cromoly most of our other bikes are made from. It has small quantities of exotic metals in the alloy which makes it stronger and allows less material to be used. The built-in rack is stainless steel, so that it will not rust where the panniers rub the paint off.

As of writing the Tout Terrain is $3925.  Here’s the Spec sheet.

Their site also has their complete range.

For many of us, every day is ride to work day, but this National event is a great opportunity to encourage other workmates to give riding a go. Every year we do something to sweeten the deal.

This year we are teaming up with The Lux Foundry Cafe to offer commuters a free tune-up & safety assessment in addition to free coffee & a banana, or a great breakfast deal. The cafe is located on Hope street, just West of the Upfield bikepath. If it’s nice weather, we’ll be in the courtyard out the front. If it happens to rain, we’ll be sheltering inside.  There is plenty of bike parking and the cafe is barely 50m off the path.

All we ask is that you register – this way the statistics are in that people are actually riding on the day. Councils and Government can then use this data to inform their policy making.

The details:

• Wednesday 17th October 2012 – From 6:30am to 9am
• Free tune-ups & safety assessments provided by Commuter Cycles mechanics
• Free coffee, banana, or a $9 breakfast deal for all riders – Choice of fruit salad or Egg & bacon panini with coffee/fresh juice.
• Lux Foundry cafe – Front courtyard, 21 Hope Street, Brunswick
• Register here