Rapha: Gavia Day, June 5

Il Passo di Larch - cold, damp, some snow. 

Maybe Tuscany doesn't sound so bad now, does it?

In Praise of Velocipede Salon

Too Tall has spoken, let it be so

And a satisfied member writes:

I'm one of the new guys, and primarily just a lurker. But I've had a paean to Vsalon rattling around in my head for a long time. This thread seems like as good a place as any to put it.

Let me just say what a revelation this place was when I first stumbled across it. I had spent a little time at some other bike forums, but mostly those places were characterized by screeching and stupidity and hubris and misdirected venom. Mostly, those places just made me sad -- for our sport and for the people who posted there. 

I'm sure you've all experienced it, but I can't even explain what it was like to discover this place for the first time. It's full of people who love bikes -- just about all bikes, including a sick love for those in the Haters thread -- and know what they're talking about from long experience in the saddle. People who get (and in some cases made) the history of our sport and who don't accept as axiomatic that Carbon 'n Cunego are "better" than Moser and Alloy. People who have healthy (and, in most cases, well-earned) egos, but who also have enough respect, good humor and bonhomie to make this place work, so that ball-busting almost never begets hurt feelings and petty grudges. A place where somebody knows the answer to every technical question you could think to ask. A place where legit pros and hardmen associate with and are -gasp- friendly with, fat slow dudes like me.

A place where there is a Correct Way (or Ways, depending on the day) to design, build and ride a bike, but where the shared love of cycling is powerful enough to overcome a deviation from that appointed path. A place where white tape is de rigeur, but genuine and well-reasoned eccentricity is cherished above blind adherence to a norm.

I've learned more about the ethos of cycling here than I would have learned in a dozen years anywhere else.

This is a special place. I love it here. Thanks for being rad.

Ben

It doesn't get much better than this...

Buzz, Bob, and Susan ride with Eros Poli in Verona over on Italian Cycling Journal. But please - only Eros gets to wear white shorts!

Photo-lettering

I'm sure you hear it all the time: love the look, hate the font. You're sick of Microsoft Word, the font kit you paid boocoo bucks for in 2002 just isn't cutting it, and your little company's image needs freshening.

Photo-lettering from House is here, more to come from us on this crazy new application.

This seems like a good time to reiterate...

...that we almost exclusively sell hand-built wheels with 32 spokes that cross each other and don't leave you with that "let-down" feeling if a spoke breaks. Sorry to pick on Mavic - and we love their Open Pro rims - but it may be time for common sense to come back to the realm of wheel design.

Dang!

...but that is one fine-looking mountain bike. Image boosted from the Serotta forum, kudos to the owner for having such good taste.

Sound and Fury

The Seattle International Randonneurs are putting on their annual Populaire - a fun ride of 100k with the aim of attracting new members. I like going on these and 100k just happens to be the perfect distance for me - maybe I'm not their target rider?

Details are here, hope to see some familiar faces there. Biere apres.

Wheel Fanatyk

Fermaguiana proudly adds Wheel Fanatyk to our list of favorite blogs. If it's wheels and Rik Hjertberg doesn't know about it, it probably doesn't matter.

Martin at work

More right here

What It All Means

A friend, le Cirque, etc...

MAX

Pretty sure it sold, thanks to all who expressed interest.

On Carbon

The sharper-eyed among you have commented that we’ve replaced the Parlee Z1/Z2/Z3 page with our new Team Pro page. So true...

Short-story-made-long, the combination of the “new” economy, coupled with Parlee’s price hike of 18 months ago, has brought interest in carbon frames - at least among our customers - to a halt. I’ve had one nibble in the last year and a half for a custom carbon frame; a bicycle that will - let’s face it - retail for over ten thousand dollars. 

When Andy and I started our little enterprise ten years ago we never wanted to be the most exclusive or the most expensive. And a ten thousand dollar bicycle wasn’t even on anyone’s radar back then, couldn’t be done. But now with $7000 frames, $500 forks, $5000 wheels, $4000 parts kits - you do the math. These aren’t typical prices for most people, they aren’t what we sell, but there is a segment of the market that will pay those kind of prices. We have nothing against those products or people who are willing to spend that much - we just don’t want to be part of it.

Maybe it’s splitting hairs or the pot calling the kettle black to say that a bike for $6000 is ok but twice that is excessive, but there is a point after which - for me - it’s simply too much. I guess my own litmus test has become: can I afford to ride this bike, to keep it in my collection for at least a year? Will it drive sales if I do? If the answer to any of those questions is “no” then, Houston, we have a problem.

This isn’t about quality - Parlee’s bikes are top-notch, none better. And not about the people, either: I love Bob, Tom, Isabel - the whole crew. Their bikes ride perfectly, they look great, the construction is fantastic - no problems. But with the economy currently in the toilet my tendency is to look at what we do here at Hampsten Cycles and examine our basic beliefs, and to support our core business and focus our efforts where they need the attention.

We sell not-the-most-expensive-out-there custom steel and titanium frames and whole bikes with a smattering of aluminum frames thrown in. Our average frame price is $2800 and our average whole bike price is around $5500. To a certain extent we’re a company which specializes in welded metal bikes; sure, we do some lugged/brazed frames but they make up only around 20% of our output - important but not all-defining. We feel that carbon is an excellent material for a bicycle frame but maybe not the ideal match for us: perhaps it’s become a material too many when we’re already working with four. And if we can stimulate interest in magnesium...

I feel great about the 50-or-so carbon frames we sold over the last few years; they will be fully warranted if necessary and no one should have any qualms about owning or buying from Parlee. It was a huge deal to me and Andy when Bob told us he would be willing to work with us on carbon frames and I feel uncomfortable putting that relationship on hold. There are other builders who could supply us with carbon frames, possibly at a lower price, but it seems best now to keep the spotlight where it’s been for the last ten years.

Thanks for reading,

SH