Not sure if everyone's seen this already, but...

I think it's pretty funny. Not sure where it's from.

Copenhagen Wheel

"CAMBRIDGE, Mass. —.... the Copenhagen Wheel — a revolutionary new bicycle wheel that not only boosts power, but can keep track of friends, fitness, smog and traffic. Though it looks like an ordinary bicycle wheel with an oversized center, the Wheel's bright red hub is a veritable Swiss army knife's worth of electronic gadgets and novel functions.

"Over the past few years we have seen a kind of biking renaissance, which started in Copenhagen and has spread from Paris to Barcelona to Montreal," says Carlo Ratti, director of the MIT SENSEable City Laboratory and the Copenhagen Wheel project. "It's sort of like 'Biking 2.0' — whereby cheap electronics allow us to augment bikes and convert them into a more flexible, on-demand system."

The first goal of the Copenhagen Wheel project is to promote cycling by extending the range of distance people can cover and by making the whole riding experience smoother so that even steep inclines are no longer a barrier to comfortable cycling.

Toward this end, the Wheel can store energy every time the rider puts on the brakes, and then give that power back to provide a boost when riding uphill or to add a burst of speed in traffic.

"The Wheel uses a technology similar to the KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), which has radically changed Formula One racing over the past couple of years,” says Ratti. "When you brake, your kinetic energy is recuperated by an electric motor and then stored by batteries within the wheel, so that you can have it back to you when you need it. The bike wheel contains all you need so that no sensors or additional electronics need to be added to the frame and an existing bike can be retrofitted with the blink of an eye."

"Our city's ambition is that 50 percent of the citizens will take their bike to work or school every day," says Ritt Bjerregaard, Lord Mayor of Copenhagen. "So for us, this project is part of the answer to how can we make using a bike even more attractive."

But there are also a variety of extra functions hidden within the hub of the Copenhagen Wheel. By using a series of sensors and a Bluetooth connection to the user's iPhone, which can be mounted on the handlebars, the wheel can monitor the bicycle's speed, direction and distance traveled, as well as collect data on air pollution and even the proximity of the rider's friends.

"One of the applications that we have discussed with the City of Copenhagen is that of an incentive scheme whereby citizens collect Green Miles — something similar to frequent flyer miles, but good for the environment," says Christine Outram, who led the team of MIT researchers.

The project also aims to create a platform for individual behavioral change.

"The Copenhagen Wheel is part of a more general trend: that of inserting intelligence in our everyday objects and of creating a smart support infrastructure around ourselves for everyday life," says Assaf Biderman, associate director of the project. “For example, the Wheel has a smart lock: if somebody tries to steal it, it goes into a mode where the brake regenerates the maximum amount of power, and sends you a text message. So in the worst case scenario the thief will have charged your batteries before you get back your bike."

The initial prototypes of the Copenhagen Wheel were developed along with company Ducati Energia and the Italian Ministry of the Environment. It is expected that the wheel will go into production next year, with a tag price competitive with that of a standard electric bike. According to Claus Juhl, CEO of Copenhagen, the city might place the first order and use bicycles retrofitted with the Copenhagen Wheel as a substitution for city employee cars as part of the city's goal to become the world's first carbon-neutral capital by 2025.

The Copenhagen Wheel team at MIT is composed of Christine Outram, Project Leader, Rex Britter, Andrea Cassi, Xiaoji Chen, Jennifer Dunnam, Paula Echeverri, Myshkin Ingawale, Ari Kardasis, E Roon Kang, Sey Min, Assaf Biderman and Carlo Ratti. The project was developed for the City of Copenhagen in cooperation with Ducati Energia and with the support of the Italian Ministry for the Environment. "

M.I.T. Website

Looks like a Cinelli Mystic Rats setup.

Not sure how that wheel design would hold up to city riding but its a cool idea. Plus it interfaces with my iPhone via bluetooth, what more could i ask for ?

More Toe Strap Lacing

In addition to the ways I posted last week. I spotted these images at tofixd for lacing doubles through MKS RX1 pedals. RX1s have a special tab on the back plate for slipping a strap through.

Thursday Night Fixed Gear Ride

Fausto Coppi riding a conversion?

peep those dropouts
via guccilife

Campy White Grease is Back!

Campagnolo professional lubricant grease, the famous "white grease" used at the industrial level for assembling Campagnolo components and wheels, is now available on the market.

Campagnolo decided to make this grease available based on the requests of many bike enthusiasts to be able to use a top level professional grease for servicing their bikes that is formulated and produced specially for bicycle maintenance, but which up to now was only available on the market in industrial sized packaging and therefore not accessible to individual customers.

Campagnolo professional lubricant grease is recommended for specific parts such as the steel or ceramic bearings and balls of wheels, cranksets, and derailleurs. Thanks to its special composition, it eliminates friction, maximises smoothness, protects from wear and tear, and prolongs the life of the mechanical parts of your bicycle.

Developed in collaboration with Klüber Lubrication, a leading producer of industrial lubricants, Campagnolo grease is available in 100 ml bottles.
via italiancyclingjournal

New Saddle

Black snakeskin Cinelli Volare SLX. The rails were a really weird width, I had to bend them out a few mm to fit my seatpost.

Spectrum Cycles

Handbuilt in the good ol' USA.

"Spectrum Cycles was founded in 1982 on a singular obsession, to create world-class custom bicycles hand-built to perfection. "

These guys are firm believers in lugged steel bikes. They have a great writeup on their site about why they choose to use lugs instead of welding.

Road, Track, Cross, and tandem frames are made to order, with bike fitting included.

Go check out Spectrum Cycles' Website , theyve got a 'Classifieds' section, and a photo gallery with some great lugwork photos.

Wheel Stiffness Test Data

Awhile back (the 90s) Damon Rinard of Harris Cyclery (Sheldon Brown's Jam) did some wheel stiffness tests and posted the data online. The results are pretty predictable, spoked wheels are on average, stiffer than composite ones with the exception of the Spinergy Rev-x, and 650c wheels are stiffer than 700c wheels. These tests are the earliest evidence available that aerospokes are the shittiest wheels in existence.

Absurd Mercian

Super weird sculpted fillets or welds or something and a long seat tube. Guess you can kind of date it to the early 90's with that Mavic 317 headset, which are sweet because the top nut tightens with an allen key instead of another 32mm nut. But the rest of the parts are pretty hodge-podge so who knows.

EDIT. Mercian Cycles says its filleted and was built around 1984.
via CLEfix

Toe Strap Lacing

I saw this picture on an ebay auction I was watching the other day and started wondering what the "right way," if there was one, to thread toe straps through a cage pedal was.
There is of course the traditional/intuitive method of threading the straps through all 4 slots.

Then theres the "twist" method people often use with single straps to keep them from slipping.

Heres how the great Mikashima (MKS) Pedal Manufacturing Corporation says to thread their α Keirin straps, which looks like the opposite of the threading in the first picture.

Theres many other ways of doing this. Heres how Mork threads his Kashimax dual sprint straps on his MKS Royal Nuevo Pedals.

And heres how I thread my Toshi double straps on my C-Record track pedals. This is mostly out of necessity, Toshi straps are way thicker than the slot in the pedals, I actually had to file down some of the suede to fit the strap in the slot. Luckily C-Record pedals have removable rear cages like MKS Royal and Custom Nuevos. If you've had trouble putting double straps on Sylvan pedals, the reason is most Keirin double straps are meant for pedals with removable cages.

Yahoo Auctions Japan - roundup

In japan there is no ebay, its all yahoo auctions. So from time to time ill troll through the track section of yahoo auctions.co.jp. I really think its an underutilized resource for japanese frames and parts.

Crazy Reversible Nitto Stem

Amanda pursuit track 60cm c-t

2-tone 56.4 cm c-t Vivalo

2-tone 55cm c-t Makino

59cm bridgestone njs

Dura ace 10 cranks - awesome condition

NOS Cinelli Helmet

BLK track 51 cm c-t ?

Tiny 49.0 c-t Makino

50.0 c-t Giro

51.5 cm c-t Makino

Gipiemme Tecno R424 track specific rim. Got a 28 version of this on my ride.

56 cm (c-t) S. Marco track frame

56.5 cm (c-t) geoffrey butler track frame

mint 55 cm 3rensho

If you live somewhere other than japan, the sellers probably wont sell to you. Its recommended to use a 3rd party service . My friend did this when he bought his white samson, got it for like 900 shipped.

I did a quick google search and found this intermediary service. Dont know how legit they are, i know there are others too.

Boulder Square Garden

Saturday January 23rd, buy tickets soon!

NOS Concor Supercorsa SPRINT - Perforated leather - Ebay Find

NOS Concor Supercorsa SPRINT - Perforated leather

You wanna talk to SAMSON ?

I got another fresh samson for your viewing pleasure. You might remember from way back when i made a post Samson x Furan. The frame in that post is now retired to Furan's desk after being hit by a car. His replacement is this white Samson you see today.

Lots of details on this bike: Custom Red anodized chainring, bio turbo saddle, chromed headtube and fork crown lugs, chrome seatstay bullets, polished thomsons, Ti chris king.

Wheelset: Front white pimplite rim -> red nipples -> dt swiss -> phil wood. Rear white aerospoke.

I know that hes looking to sell this bike so if your interested hit me up via email, and i can get you in touch with him: fm.produktions@gmail.com