New custom Standard Byke Co. cross bike!

As many as you know, I love to support Standard Byke Company. Growing up, I always had a Standard, sometimes two or three, and I was always wearing some combination of Standard hat/shirt/belt/socks. SBC is located in my hometown, Davenport, Ia, and in the past ten years have moved their production completely to Davenport, formally the frames were made by Waterford in Wisconsin. Some may or may not know, but in that time they also moved heavily into full custom bike frames. With their heavy emphasis still on bmx and custom bmx frames, they have begun building all sorts of bike frames, because they like doing that too, and some of us that support Standard ride more than just one type of bike. Im now the proud owner of three custom frames, the first one being a 24" bmx that could stand up to park abuse, the next being my 29r the first for SBC, and now my Cyclocross frame. My brother, who was the one that got me started in SBC bmx, now has a full custom DJ frame and he is tearing it up out in Colorado.

For those of you who dont have a clue what Standard Byke Company is, or what they are about, here are a couple good videos for you to check out.
AFA  Freestyle 1988 Rick Moliterno
http://www.youtube.com/embed/LFWD7hhm6ps

Rodgers Garage, 1991
http://player.vimeo.com/video/7990515?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0

Rob Ridge and Rick Moliterno
http://www.youtube.com/embed/5OXFCXHVgV8
So, here's a bike check on my new Standard Byke Cyclocross Bike handbuilt by Rick Moliterno and Steve Tramen in Davenport, Ia USA

Frame: Standard Byke Custom Ox Platinum tubing 58cm 3lb 14oz.
Fork: Origin 8 Full carbon Cross fork
Wheelset: Ksyrium Elite
Crankset: Sram s600 Carbon set up with 1 ring
Rear Derailleur: Shimano Dura-Ace 10spd.
Cassette: Shimano Dura-Ace 12-27
Brifters: Shimano 105
Handle Bars: Salsa Cowbells
Stem: Thomson
Seatpost: Thomson
Seatpost clamp: Thomson
Brakes: Tektro w720's with Kool-Stop MTB pads
Seat: Selle Italia SLR Ti
Tires: Challenge Grifo
Chain: KMC X10SL Ti
Cables/housing: Sram Slick/Jagwire
Headset: Chris King
Pedals: Shimano SPD

Pretty good upgrade from my original bike...

Before:

One of its phases:

 And its final look before she got stripped. Polished turd.

Its first voyage. Rode about 30 minutes of half pavement, half gravel today and holy shit...Thats what a cross bike is suppose to feel like! My old frame was so stiff that it wasnt that comfortable of a ride. With this one, it feels much nicer and smooths out the ride a bit. The certified analog bathroom scale shows 19.5 lbs but in my opinion thats probably +/- a couple pounds. My guess its hovering right around 20 lbs. Not too bad for a large frame, and steel! Im very happy how everything turned out. Not only does it look good, but it performs awesome, and a killer bike company built it! With the high quality True Temper tubing, and the experience Standard has at frame building it it really turned  about to be very clean bike that ranks high compared to other cross bikes on the market. This is the first Cross frame they have built, but they are stoked to build more! Ill put it to the test this weekend at Jingle Cross, so ill know for sure how much better it is than the old 720.

For more info about Standard Byke Company and their custom frames, shoot them an email to them at info@standardbyke.com 

Peace!

-Adam

Treats for the people

Fun times at the shop this weekend, One year anniversary, Dans Birthday... So long weekend for me! Got to the shop on Saturday and had the project of making some bike bar stools for sale, and for myself.
Heres a couple shots, I recycle broken/worn out frames from the bike shop and build them into bike related bar stools. None will be the same, pretty much anything can be used, and I will be selling them for $150. If you would like one of your own, please contact me. I can ship them, and can make them in multiple pieces for easier transport.

Made myself a little Canti-brake boss jig so we could start welding on some mounts onto any bike we want at the shop.. I started off with my frame first for a Klunker build I had brewing.

 Everything was going great, until this happened...

Luckily, I had my xtracycle to come to the rescue

Any typical single track air time is the only that caused this. I consider myself a pretty smooth rider so It for sure was rider error... Although this isnt the first broken fork for this bike ... Original schwinn forks DO NOT hold up to quarter pipe air-outs.

But then again, I am REALLY hard on forks these days...My cross bike last season

Anyway, Will be taking a trip back to the Quad Cities this weekend to hopefully finish up my Cross bike and my 29er that Standard Byke company is building me. Im pretty excited about them and I cant wait to see how they turn out! Until next time...

Drop bar 29er SS for this weekend.

Hmmmm the SBC 29er gets a new look! Should be interesting!

Bits and pieces

Oh hello there folks,

Cross season is well off, bike projects are coming and going, brewing has started up again and winter is coming way too fast.

I started working at a new bike shop, Ichi Bike in Des Moines. http://ichibike.com/  We do all kinds of cool stuff, but mainly specialize in custom vintage bikes. Its a very cool scene, and its not another one of those big $$$ franchise bike shops. Very laid back setting, we work on all types of bikes, and no BS. Here's a couple bikes that we have built:

 A cool refurb for a lady. Modern Sturmey Archer 2spd. kickback hub with modern rims, Schwalbe Fat Franks, Brooks lady springer saddle. One classy cruiser.

 I built this one the other day. Kinda a free range build. We had this front end set up laying around... but it was way haggard. No steerer tube, the top plate and bottom plate on the trees were welded in place etc... So I cut the top plate off, welded a 1" steerer tube on and threaded the fork legs like a motorcycle fork. Add a tank, sissy bar, period correct pleated seat, modern wheels and boom bang done. A super ridiculous "easyrider" style  cruiser. Its name is "Curt"

This is my build. Schwinn American XL frame. Sting-ray Apes, Halo Combat DH rim laced to a Heavy Duty Bendix tandem hub. Sung Ringle BFR front rim, SBC sprocket and Tioga Freestyle tires. Oh boy.


Cross Season is going great. Just made the big jump to Cat 2 and what a jump. Here's a couple and results throughout the season so far.

Cattle Cross Senior M123 10/8/2011 2 338.46 Cattle Cross Senior M3 10/8/2011 1 367.96 Altoona Cyclocross Senior 0-99 Cat 1/2/3/4/5 10/2/2011 19 490.86 Altoona Cyclocross Senior 0-99 Cat 3/4 10/2/2011 3 374.55 Dirty Wooden Shoe Senior Cat 3 10/1/2011 1 390.87 Capitol City Cross Cat 3 Men 9/25/2011 2 398.87 Capitol City Cross Cat 3 Men 9/24/2011 8 431.88 Cory's Irish Cross Cat 1/2/3 9/17/2011 21 484.9

A couple wins so far, and several podiums. Its going great so far! Photos: Current ride- Taking the lead!!!

My Puch Maxi is really screaming now. 70cc reed kit, VM20 carb, custom intake, Aftermarket pipe, clutch springs, soft compound tires...51mph! The motorcycle club here at ISU was holding a parking lot time trial so me and another buddy brought our peds and raced. Made some people mad that day. I believe I finished with the 2nd or 3rd fastest time of the day. There were cbr600's, alcohol burning quads, camel joes racing sport bikes etc. It was pretty fun, once I actually had gas in my tank. Note... make sure you have a full tank before trying to race. Confidence really improves once you put on a leather jacket with armor!

More to come!

Its been awhile.

Well its been awhile since my last post. A bunch has been going on and I have had my hands in a few too many projects. Here it goes.

-One of my cycling buddies crashed it up pretty good at a crit a couple weeks ago... Long story short, the handle bars swung around in the crash (20ish mph probably) and cracked the Top tube pretty good. Fixed it up for him and his Specialized Tarmac SL3 is on the road again.

 Ready for compression

 A fancy package from SRAM came today. Nice.

 At only 8 ozs heavier than my steel rigid fork, I think the Reba will stay on for awhile.

 Standard Byke Co. knocked out another killer custom DJ frame. This one is for my brother. Pretty crazy how things work out in life. My brother bought me my first Standard for Christmas, and now I was involved in designing this custom frame for him!>

-Got my Moped running pretty good. Now has a ridiculous expansion chamber pipe on it. 34 MPH. It will soon have a 70 kit on it and it should cruise at 45 all day.

Moped stripped down for some cleaning.

 My buddy Jason is a Professor at ISU and his students built a "Cyclodrome" for a class project. This is actually "Unofficially" the worlds smallest Velodrome. At only 25 meters around, its even smaller than the Red Bull mini-drome.
 I brought four bikes with me. My Custom Standard 250-S Cruiser, Bamboo bike, Ibis Tandem and my cross bike for some friends to borrow. I took a lap on each and it was a blast. The surface was EXTREMELY slippery and finally decided I would race my 250-S.... and the Tandem!!! People thought I was nuts and riding the tandem wouldnt be possible because of how tight the turns were. Well I proved everybody wrong and rocked it on the tandem with my friend Kim stoking on the back.
-The race worked like this. You had two time trials and your fastest time over 6 laps seeded you into a bracket. Once you were in the bracket, we raced Pursuit style (two people racing against each other). First person to catch the other rider won, or the first person to finish 6 laps.
First heat, I started off fast, got one lap in, and on the leading turn, washed out terribly. My bike flew off the track, hit the wall and bounced back into the velodrome. Lowered my tire pressure, and knocked out the fastest 6 laps on my first go. 19.68 seconds.
Second Heat, I was still figuring out the track, but with no falls and trying to stay on the red line, I came in at a blistering 18.28 seconds. Over a full second faster than my first lap.

 Run number one. If you want to see how slippery it is, watch my foot slip and slide around before I start. Those were skate shoes with plenty of rummer on the bottom too.

 Tandem run. So fun. In the turns I could literally feel the fork flex from so much torque on the bars through the tight turn.

 Pursuing Kim Topp. The Womens World Champ, and Tandem World Champ!

The last race came down to me and a guy named Chris. We started and Chris wiped out on the 3rd turn. Bummer. I gave him another shot because I really didnt want to win that way. Second race, same thing. wiped out on turn 3. The third race was the final, it took a couple laps but I finally caught him and they called the race.  I won! I am the World Champion of the worlds smallest velodrome! And I won coolest bike with my Ibis tandem!

Because this was the World Championship of Cyclodrome racing, the Men's and Women's winner both get a trophy and a World Champ Cyclodrome tattoo from the one and only Dan from Yankee Doodle Dandy Tattoo in DSM and the owner of ICHI Bike. Awesome!!!! Me and Kim will be getting out matching tattoo's on Tuesday!

 Here is the tire mark I placed on the wall when I washed out. Pretty insane. Thats about 7' high!

Jason shot this picture after the cyclodrome was taken down. He didnt wash the mark off the wall and it will most likely stay there. Located at the King Pavillion in the College of Design building at ISU, its likely going to get some interesting looks. Kind of like this one.