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...