Bike Shop Hub

The cyclist above is twittering wishing he had a new Dahon BioLogic Bike Mount

Like every other aspect of life, micro blogging  a.k.a. Twitter has exposed, updated and connected people in ways no one ever thought possible, cycling is no different.  Every bike racer, cycling organization, commuter, bike enthusiast, bike tourer and the like are updating their daily bike adventures with twitter, sharing their cycling lives with the world.  But it is not only twitter that has opened up the world of connections. Blogs and social media such as MySpace and Facebook provide forums and insight into peoples lives never available before.

Some criticize what social media has done to society, claiming that people are now exposed to things they were previously sheltered from, while this is true, there is a flip side to the coin, people can now share interests and information like never before.  Someone who lives in a small town in North Dakota can now, in real time, share their experiences about their favorite bike ride with someone in San Fransisco, and vice verse.

Until the the Lance era in the Tour De France, cycling in the US had remained relatively under the radar of main stream media, as that was all that existed for exposure.  The Lance era helped to bring cycling into peoples homes that otherwise were isolated or uninterested in cycling.  But with the advent of social media, large groups of people who share common interests, like the Tour De France can now create their own universe and communicate unhindered by traditional media.

Social media has not only has brought together cyclist in general but has allowed the blossoming of every sub niche that cycling has in it.  Take bike touring for example, people planning trips need information about routes, what kind of bike gear to use, or just a place to stay, can now reach out to all their fellow bike tourers across the country for help and information.

The use of social media helped level the playing field for the cycling industry in comparison to other more main stream industries.  The Bike Trailer Shop and Bike Bag Shop have benefited greatly from the use of social media applications.

“Using blogging as a marketing tool for our website has not only helped us to achieve high quality traffic and improve our search engine results for targeted key-words, it has also become a centerpiece in our involvement with the bicycling community, leading the way for both our customers to become much more aware of our business and broader range of interests and for our business to become much more aware of issues and opportunities in our industry.” -Josh Lipton,  featured in a Chicago Style SEO article.

Whether you are aware if it, we are creating our own bicycle web, that thickens ever time someone follows someone else on twitter, or one blog links to the next like  Bike Trailer Blog linking to Commute by Bike,  or Utility Cycling, one more person might be turned onto a new bike trailer, mountain bike route or idea that they previously weren’t aware of.

So next time you see someone talking about twittering, don’t turn your nose up, it not just for high school girls, or see a new blog, its not just another geek blathering on about nonsense, these are powerful tools that allow us, as cyclist to connect in ways we never thought possible.

Are you an internet marketing professional with a passion for cycling?  Or perhaps you are an active bicycling blogger who’s gotten to know the internet marketing game.  We are currently looking for someone to clean off our internet marketing machine!  Have a look at our detailed desription of the position at the About Us Page of Bike Trailer Shop.  To sum up, we are looking for someone to lead up our blogging efforts on our 3 blogs, UtilityCycling.org, Bike Trailer Blog and our shop blogging here at Bike Shop Hub.  Please send resumes to josh@bikeshophub.com

Hello readers! This being my first venture out into the blog-o-sphere, I figure introductions are in order. Casey Clark here, Wandertec product developer and friendly neighborhood bicycle mechanic, at your service. Nice to meet you.

We received a call from a fellow the other day who was having a little trouble figuring out how to attach a BOB trailer to his bike, which has a solid, bolt-on rear axle. In fact, we’ve been getting quite a few calls and emails on the subject lately, which tells me that we’ve got a “teachable moment” on our hands. I’m going to take off my Product Developer Hat and put on my Friendly Neighborhood Bicycle Mechanic Hat for a minute here and see if I can de-mystify the topic.

First off, the basics. A solid axle attaches to the frame via axle nuts, as opposed to a hollow axle with a quick release skewer.  If you’ve got a hub with a solid axle, and you want to tow a BOB trailer, you obviously can’t use the standard BOB Trailer quick release skewer hitch, so what you need are some BOB trailer Nutz.

There are four sizes of BOB nutz available.  To find out which one fits your bike, you need to determine your hub axle diameter and thread pitch.  (If you’re not savvy to thread concepts yet, read this page on the Park Tools website).  Measuring axle diameter is easy, set your calipers around the axle threads and get a reading.  This is the major diameter, which is slightly smaller than the listed size.  For example, a 10mm axle may measure at 9.8mm.

Thread pitch, or the frequency of threads along the length of the axle, is a little trickier to measure   Like the article says, the best tool to use is a pitch gauge, but in a pinch you can use high quality calipers.  Set your calipers for exactly one inch, and count how many thread crests fit between the caliper jaws.  This is your threads per inch (tpi) measurement, which all SAE (a.k.a. “standard”, Imperial, English) axles use.  ISO (metric) threaded axles don’t use a tpi measurement, but rather a crest-to-crest measurement.  As far as hub axles go, the threads  are always one millimeter apart, which would give you 25.4 tpi.  Be careful differentiating between 10 x 26tpi  and 10 x 1, they look very, very similar, but are not compatible.  Generally speaking, 10 x 1 axles are only found on Campagnolo hubs and a few other brands that produced Campy copies.

This chart shows the most common rear axle sizes, the kind of hubs they are commonly found in, and the corresponding BOB Nuts part number as listed at Bike Trailer Shop.  I lifted most of the info from the late Sheldon Brown.  Remember, this is more of a rough guide than a comprehensive chart.

Once you have the right BOB Nutz, use them to replace the stock nuts, hitch up your trailer, and you’re ready to ride.

Well, I hope that clears up some of the confusion.  If you have any more questions, you can always contact us directly, or ask your favorite local bike shop.

If we’ve left anything out please let us know in the comments below and we’ll update this post regularly to include it with any other new findings that we come across.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for riding bikes.

Everyone’s got one, the perfect post ride beer.  That mouth watering frothy malt beverage that consumes your thoughts towards the end of a great bike ride.  It temps your mind invoking a horse to the barn feeling even after the longest and hardest of rides.  The perfect post ride beer or PPRB, is something that is not only sought after but heavily debated amongst many cycling circles.

For some it might be what ever is the coldest thing in the fridge or cooler.  My personal experience form the circles that I have run in, is that it generally  comes down to two beers that are the most prevalent at the end of a ride, PBR a.k.a Pabst Blue Ribbon and Tecate.  Now I don’t know at what point PBR became the new beer of the cool kids.  Many baby boomers consider PBR to be the bottom of the barrel much like Old Milwaukee is today.  But every where you go in Flagstaff it is the cheep beer of choice.  Now Tecate is an obvious one, especially with a lime,  its the most refreshing Mexican beer, that Mexicans actually drink.  What more could you ask for.

If had my personal choice of post ride, cheep beers, it would be my old school go-to, Coors Banquet beer.  Umm yummy, I love me a cold yellow belly, reminds me of high school.  Not that I condone underage drinking.

There are two other camps that need to be considered besides just the go-to cheap beer.  We have the European lager/pilsner crowd and the U.S. small brewery crowd.  Now the European lager/pilsner crowd is a simple one, they get done with a ride, sometimes a road ride, and crack open a cold Heineken, Amstel light, Spatan or the like.  A little skunky but always refreshing.

Then we have the much deeper, wider ranged, small brewery crowd.  I have lumped this into one category but honestly this could be sliced up many different ways.  I know guys that will only drink New Belgium Fat Tire after a ride, its either that or nothing, a committed fan boy for sure.   There’s Anchor Steam, Dog Fish, Deschutes, Full Sail, the list goes on and on, as does the varieties and styles.  Many of these riders are tied to their brand and probably brought a couple of bottles already chilled in the cooler before the ride even starts.

If your really lucky and part of an elite circle of friends or employees of Gore you’ll have the honor of being treated to a post ride beer brewed up by Flagstaff’s own Handlebar Sandwich.  Here’s a guy that can not only ride a bike but can brew great beer as well, I wonder if he can brew beer while riding a bike, hmm. Check out this story, its a bring a whole lot of beer with ya kinda thing.  Or for smaller groups have a look at this suspended bike trailer pony keg hauling wonder.

So I’ve open the flood doors, chime in, tell us whats your favorite post ride beer is and why.

We have all seen it, a cyclist riding down a one way street going the wrong direction, blowing a stop sign, or just not obeying the rules of the road and riding all over the place with out any where with all, acting as if because they are on two wheels the have the right to ride how and where ever they want.  These acts seemingly small are at the heart of bike/motorist interaction, bicycle advocacy and how bikes are seen in the US in general.

In general there is a feeling among the majority of motorists that cyclists should not be on the road and that for the most part they just get in the way of auto traffic.  This has created some strong animosity between drivers and cyclist, sometimes ending  very unfortunately for both parties.  I have seen the trends my self, motorists see a small number of cyclist breaking what they consider equal road laws that both cars and cyclist are required to follow and become disgruntled towards such cyclist.  But Americans love their stereotypes and cyclist are just as susceptible.  Motorists seeing a deviant cyclist then assume all cyclist share the same deviance and the assumption that they can do what ever they want turns into an unfortunate and dangerous assumption.

But on the flip side, cyclist are forced to abide to laws that were written by motorist, I wonder how many cycling laws in this country were written by someone who rode their bike to work that morning.  Were cycling laws truly written with the idea of integrating cyclist into American transportation and for safety, or were they written  with the approach of keeping cyclist out of the way of motorist as much as possible?   Is it right to apply the same laws that  govern a solid metal mass weighing a half ton or more, to a small non-motorized entity that moves and behaves under a completely different set of physics?  Most cars require tens of feet to suddenly stop traveling at reasonable speed, most cyclist traveling at a reasonable speed can stop in six inches or so. The type of cyclomcy that cyclist use when riding has greater implications then we realize.

America is a driving culture, this is not the Netherlands or Denmark and it never will be, it is part of our society to travel long distances by auto, the great American road trip is an inherent part of our culture and most of our towns and urban structures are designed solely with auto transportation in mind.  But as gas prices rise and environmental awareness grows, more and more people are turning to their bikes for transportation and fun.  Is it the increase in the numbers of recreational cyclist and cyclist commuters on the roads that will force a revaluation of cycling legislature or will a change in legislature promote more people to take to using their bikes, feeling that the transportation environment is now safer.  It could almost be a chicken or egg argument.  When there are 100 cars and 5 cyclist it is easy to disregard the cyclist presence, but if there are 100 cars and 50 cycles things might be very different.

The future of cycling in the U.S. is bound to continue to be a controversial one, more and more people are riding everyday and motorist certainly aren’t going any where anytime soon.  I hope that the future holds greater understanding and patience on both sides. Motorists need to realize that most cyclist are law abiding citizens that are at an extreme and very dangerous disadvantage,  just remember, it is someones son, mother, father, or daughter on that bike that you feel is in your way.  And cyclist although the laws we adhere to were not written with our best interests in-mind, we still have an obligation to lesson the animosity between us and motorist and to increase our legislative presence.  I know it is not fair out there and we usually get the short end of the stick, but disregard and spite has never accomplished anything.

We have a new line of bike panniers and accessories that we are excited about, Lone Peak, American made in Salt Lake City, Utah since 1979, with affordable quality in mind.  Lone Peak offers a full line of bike panniers and bags to outfit your ride for any use, whether it is a big bike tour, the daily commute, or just running down to the store, Lone Peak has the right bag or pannier for you. Every component of a Lone Peak Pack is chosen to contribute to the functionality, durability, and visual appeal of the packs.

Lone Peak offers the same quality as brands such as Arkel, but at a more affordable price. Making Lone Peak a great choice for any biking needs. The Lone Peaks product line ranges from seat bags, front and rear panniers, frame packs,  rack-top  bags, around town and commuter panniers and handlebar bags. We especially like Lone Peak for its rack- top bags.  Rack Packs are a great way to carry gear in a simple streamlined set up, without the need of larger panniers.

Lone Peak also offers some cool frame packs  and commuter packs, something a little aside from the norm of pannier companies.  One great thing for all you office commuters is the garment bag pannier, with plenty of room to carry a suit to work, not ride in it. Many Lone Peak panniers are easily converted to a full waterproof pannier with optional rain covers.  Of course Lone Peak has great front and rear panniers for any set up as well.

Well its the weekend again, just in time.  Although to some this weekend holds a time honored tradition of eating and drinking to much and sitting in front of a large screen watching overpaid warriors of the grid iron battle it out for the ultimate prize to be had in a grass field that is 100×50 yards. Not that I’m against this tradition at all, I will be there as well on Sunday, stuffing my face and drinking till I pass out, go Colts!

That being said we are in that time of year were we are all just waiting around for spring.  I try to make it down to Sedona as much as possible, the single track is primo right now.  The other folks at the Bike Shop Hub are getting a little restless as well.  Our fearless leader Josh, has outfitted the Thorn tandem with snow tires, he’s planning on taking the GF out for a go round this weekend.

I’m sure Casey will be conjuring up the next idea to help evolve society by the resurgence of the classic road bike, society could be so lucky.  Next week will features some special posts discussing some of the great ideas that Casey has in development, so be sure to check  in for a sneak preview of the 2010 Wandertec line.

If you are doing something fun and exciting this weekend, right in and send us some pics, we would love to here about it, especially if it involves bikes or bike trailers.

Alright everybody, I hope you can hold your breath till we get back till Monday, here are some images to keep you busy.

The Bike Trailer Blog needs you!

Our sister blog, the  Bike Trailer Blog is getting a face lift.  We’re turning Bike Trailer Blog form a general catch all blog about bike trailers to a blog filled with and fueled by reader, customer and user content.  We want the Bike Trailer blog to become the peoples bike trailer blog, were the contributions of our reader, a.k.a. you guys, is the driving content of the site.  We want all your cool pictures and stories about the bike trailers you have purchased, created yourself or just the crazy trailers you have seen and how you use your favorite trailer  whether in your daily life or for special trips and loads.

You now have a place to share you stories with other bike trailer enthusiasts.  If your looking for a little inspiration then Bike Trailer Blog is the place to go.  We already have a good start thanks to some contributions form our readers.  Some of the stories are really entertaining and there are some really cool setups as well.  We will also be talking about or own Wandertec line of cargo trailers The Wandertec BONGO, and the accessories that we are developing to work with the BONGO.  We are designing the BONGO with our readers and customers in mind, the more feedback we receive the better we will be able to tailor the BONGO and its accessories to your needs .

So if you need to talk about your bike trailer, discover what other have done and are doing, need to purchase, or your just board, check out the new Bike Trailer Blog, and we would love to see your photos and hear what you have to say.

Welcome back to the amazing journey two friends had in Western New Mexico and how that journey provides a great platform for discussing the important points of preparing for and enjoying a bike tour.  Last time in part II John and I climbed up the Mogollon, a gnarly 5000 ft climb up Bursum Road to the second highest point of our trip and we discussed how to properly plan a route and the things to consider when looking at a map to pick out where you want to go.  Today we are going to continue the journey and discuss choosing the right bike gear for your trip, specifically bikes and bike setup.  I know this might sound like a fairly obvious task, but I have learned from experience, that when you are relying on pedal power and you are at the mercy of the elements having the right amount, of the correct gear, makes a big difference.

For John and I, we knew that our trip was going to consist of mostly dirt forest roads, some ATV track and some pavement, so fat tires were going to be a must. Whether you are into 29 or 26 mountain bikes, having fat tires when your touring off road makes a world of difference.  The geometry of a mountain bike is slacker then that of a road bike providing more stability off road while carrying a load.  This might be subjective, but I feel like the beefier design of an MTB also lends it self to carrying bike panniers or pulling a bike trailer.  It would be like putting a bunch of weight on a race horse when a donkey would do much better in the long run, but that’s just my personal opinion.

So pick your self out a nice MTB frame that either has pannier mounts or can pull a trailer, steel and titanium handle fatigue much better then aluminum, but aluminum is better then carbon fiber from a touring standpoint.  When choosing parts don’t think fast or light weight, think about whats gonna hold up and not need field service, you don’t want to try and overhaul a hub in the woods, trust me.  Get strong sturdy wheels, I prefer 36 spokes for extra strength, don’t worry about going tubeless, it ain’t gonna happen with a touring load.  Like in any situation, tires are you contact with the road, don’t  skimp here, I have done countless tours and have had to only change a flat when I ran lite weight tires that I knew I shouldn’t have.  I choose to go with a wide, high volume tire with low tred and a protective casing.  You might think you need some big nobbies but realize that your gonna be carrying around 50 extra pounds of gear, you’re not going to have any problems hooking up and the high volume with provide a cushier ride and help prevent against pinch flats.  And just for safety use some tubes pre-injected with sealant.

The parts on your bike should remain fairly common, things that any bike shop would carry, 9 spd drive train, cable disc brakes, hydrolics are a big no no for touring, if they brake your screwed.  The simpler the part the easier it is to fix and find replacements for.  I keep it simple 9spd xt drive train, bar-end shifters and Avid BB7 cable disc brakes, every body carries Shimano, you can’t go wrong.  Make sure your bike fit is for long hours and comfort not for racing.  Plan on spending alot of time just sitting and grinding, but the bright side is you’ll finally have time to look around.   Get a saddle you can spend all day in and maybe even a suspension seat post.  It is important that your hands and neck will be content as well, a case of numb hands or a kink in the neck can make a day of riding not so fun.

Always be sure to carry essential spare parts, tubes, cables, a few spokes, a couple of random m5/m4 bolts and some zip ties etc.  If your using a bike you already own make sure it is up to the task, if you are purchasing one with the intent of it being a touring bike, do your research and ask your self what type of touring you will be doing most.

So…. John and I crested the top of Silver Creek Divide almost 6000 ft above where we started that morning.  The great thing about long climbs is that they are followed by long descents.  It was a little misty at the top so we geared up and started down the back side of the climb.  It was amazingly beautiful up there, it was only a slight downhill at first weaving back and forth across a high ridge covered in Aspen and Spruce trees and amazing views on either side.  We were treated to a couple of mule deer sittings and other small forest critters.

The traverse across the unknown ridge lasted longer then we expected, but eventually we started to roll down hill, fast! It didn’t take long to get back into the ponderosa forests in to a badly burned area.  The camping area that we had originally chosen to stay the night at was closed due to a mud slide, no doubt from the erosion caused by the forest fire,  luckily we ran into a forest ranger and she was nice enough to point us towards another spot that she said would be quite lovely this time of year.  So we saddled back up and road another hour arriving at Dipping Vat Tank, I’ve seen alot of so called tanks in the Southwest but this was actually more like a lake.  The scenery was different on this side of the mountains then on our starting west side much dryer and more open grass areas mixed with  pine,   most likely caused by the rain shadow of the mountains.  We arrived to a nice camp ground over looking the lake and proceeded to exploded our gear all over the pick nick table and start eating and drink beer that out campground neighbor was kind enough to share with us.

Stay tuned for the next episode when we discuss and further gear selection and John and I tackle the toughest and highest point of our trip, the climb up to Bear Wallow look out!

Useful links mentioned in these posts: Adventure Cycling, Crazy Guy on a Bike, Bike Touring Tips, Bicycle Touring 101, Mountain Bike Riding.com

If you would like to catch up to where we are now, or just want to go back over the topics we have covered previously check out part I and part II

This January has been a tough one to get out on good rides, I mean it is January after all.   Yes those of us that are lucky enough to live in Flagstaff Arizona are spoiled, in the summer we get to ride some of the best alpine single track in the world and in the winter we have to drive to Sedona to ride red slick rock and twisty trails lined with juniper, rough I know.

It had been a while since I had been turned onto something new in Sedona, almost a year since I road some less then known stuff on the North West side of town.  This year the whispers were already spreading about a new section of trail to the South West of town, which is as much location detail as I’m going to go into, not that I think its cool to be all secret and covert about trails, but more to respect those that do feel that way and played a hand in making said trail.

It was a typical beautiful winter day in Sedona, sunny and 60, my best mate and I, John the “Leg” Benson headed down for a needed bro ride.  We parked at New Front-tires aka New Racketeers, aka New Frontiers as we always do and started our shred.  We road up and over Airport Mesa and headed down to Broken Arrow around to Chicken Point.  We took a moment to stare at the pink jeeps and tourists and then headed down under the hwy.  For the sake of respect I’m going to end the directional portion.

As we climbed up this new trail the views were amazing, there was certainly some exposure but nothing life threatening unless you really wanted it.  We hugged the bottom of a cliff and made our way across a ridge with a great slick rock descent.  I’m being vague on purpose.

Ultimately we popped out at Red Rock Crossing, and headed back up to the car via Carroll Canyon.  The Conditions were perfect, slightly tacky and moist, a little tricky on slick rock but the pay off on the single track was  worth it.  It was a great day, about 3 hrs of riding finished with a visit to the Wild Flower Bread Company. If you have never ridden in Sedona, you should slap your-self,  it offers some trails and views that will take your breath away.