A Ruota Libera

Sean Walling of Soulcraft (and formerly of Bruce Gordon Cycles) and Anthony Mangieri of Una Pizza Napoletana have put together an event to showcase the very best framebuilders and machine shops in the Bay Area.  Come have a pizza and a beer with us.  Give the flyer a click for more details.



A Visit from Dirt Rag

Maurice from Dirt Rag stopped by the shop this week to pick up a rack and some cantilever brakes.  While he was here, Maurice showed off a few tricks he's picked up over the years.  Look at the focus, the passion, the precision and grace of this trick, called "the Maurice":



A Brief History of the Rock 'n Road

It may be a bit rough around the edges, but we're nevertheless proud to present...

The Cross Review

Here's a nice ride report from Varun, who rode a Bruce Gordon Team Cyclocross bike (pictured above) in a few East Coast races over the winter:

"A while back when I was working with Bruce, he had asked me to ride and race a cross frame from his collection.  I was pleased to be asked to do so and he sent the frame to me.  All I needed to provide were a set of wheels, which worked out fine since I recently had acquired an extra wheelset for cross use. 

I quickly built the bike up as a 1x9 with Bruce's cantilever brakes.  The bike looked great put together and stood out among other cross bikes you see around today.  As Bruce kept telling me, "this is how we used to build cross bikes when tires weren't much bigger than 30mm."  The "team" Pepto-pink color drew a lot of attention from other riders and their eyes couldn't help but find the subtle gold and blue logo script and comment, "Oh, so that's what a Bruce Gordon frame looks like up close."

Surely the bike looks great as you would expect from a master builder with nearly 40 years experience.  I had been used to riding my other cross bike, also custom and also made out of steel, but designed more like a mountain bike with a short seat and head tubes and long top-tube.  That bike fits me well and surely whips around quickly, but greatly pales in comparison to the Bruce Gordon Team Cyclocross frame.  Bruce's bike is stiffer in the rear triangle and more supple up front, which is surely helped by the longer seat and head tubes respectively.  The frame measures about 60cm for the seat tube center-to-top and 58.5cm for the top tube center-to-center and works perfectly for my 6'2" frame.  I'm not exactly a heavyweight rider at a smudge under 160 pounds, but I can surely get my other cross frame to flex more than the Bruce Gordon.  I attribute most of that to the geometry.  In comparison, my Colnago Master road frame is a stiff race bike and can surely take the torque needed when putting the power down in a sprint.  However, the Colnago lacks a certain refinement that the Bruce Gordon frame has despite having a higher bottom bracket height needed for cross.  I'm not sure I can do it justice in words, but I'll try. 

The Bruce Gordon frame seems to directly translate each of my body's actions into a wonderful riding experience.  When pedaling hard, the stiffness of the frame concentrates that power directly to forward motion.  This bike feels as quick at accelerating as my Cannondale CAAD4 does and that is a stiff aluminum frame with a huge down tube.  While riding the Pittsburgh Roubaix in December, I thoroughly enjoyed climbing each hill in the cold and wet.  Some of the hills are featured on the annual Dirty Dozen race, but Canton Avenue, the argued steepest street in the world at 38% was not in the Roubaix.  A lot of the climbs and descents were on cobblestone roads and there's just no comparison to a steel frame when it comes to taking that kind of road shock.  The bike was comfortable throughout all 40 miles of the race.  Unfortunately, I lost the pack I was riding with when I slipped going up Buena Vista Avenue as the previous week's snow and ice were still lingering on the cobbles.  By losing the group I was with, I also lost my navigation as I hadn't checked the cue sheet prior to the race and worked out a route.  So, I did the last few hills I could remember before taking a nice long way to the finish at the Washington Boulevard Oval.  I hit some long descents on the route to the finish and this bike coasted like a dream at my top speed of nearly 35 mph.  And, I have to stay, the bike has Bruce's cantilever brakes on it, and those things stop better than any other brake I've used.  I find them to have very good modulation and a ton of stopping power.  They're as easy to set up as Paul Component brakes and stop just as well if not better.  I surely like them more than my TRP and Shimano brakes and the brakeset just looks so damn good!

A week later I headed across the state to Philadelphia hitching a ride with a friend's band, Secret Tombs.  They let me toss my bike in their van and we headed east.  I was going to race the Bilenky Junkyard Cross race.  This race has gained some East Coast infamy over the past five years of being hard, cold, often icy, and having some ridiculous technical sections.  Last year it snowed a lot before the race and the course was covered in inches of snow.  This year, there wasn't much snow but it was cold and windy as one would expect for December in Pennsylvania.  I woke up the morning of the race feeling pretty lousy, but I figured it was just my nervousness.  I had been told by a friend who raced in a previous year's race to watch out for slick ramps leading to high platforms.

I got to the race with my small cheering section consisting of my mom and a good friend who were wonderful sports for bearing the cold.  I rode a quick lap to get familiar with the course, and let me tell you, it was a really quick lap.  I rode the first switch back section from the start and over the hurdles to the staging area where all spectators were standing near the taco truck.  To go from this area to the single track and the rest of the course, one had to ride or run up to the top of a 15-plus-foot platform and run or ride down the other end.  I watched a lot of people run up and slip so I figured I'd just ride up it.  This wouldn't have been a bad call for me, but it wasn't executed exactly right.  I pre-selected my gear, and to be honest, I was in my lowest gear, and rode up the first ramp to the platform.  As my front wheel began to turn over the top onto the platform, I noticed I had no forward momentum and felt like I was about to start spinning.  Sure enough, my chain had dropped.  I looked down in time to see it slip off my chainring and I took a big fall as I slid down the ramp falling off.  I got up and dusted myself off and needed to stretch my legs so my shins didn't start to cramp.  It was a pretty rough fall so I wanted to make sure I wasn't really hurt. 

I waited as the junior's and women's race happened and hopped on for the B-race.  As luck would have it, my chain was problematic for the rest of the day.  It fell off a couple more times during my first lap until it finally split when a rivet popped out.  I had known before the race that I should replace it, but I guess I just thought I would be able to get a couple more rides out of it before really needing to.

I'm glad I went to the race.  As it turns out, I wasn't just feeling nervous in the morning.  I found out the hard way soon after the race that I had a stomach flu, which lasted until after the holidays were over. 

Thanks Bruce for sending me this bike!  It's honestly one of my favorite bikes and has become my go-to bike."

Introducing the BLTownie

Look!  The BLT!



As you can see, Bruce tweaked the build on this BLT to transform it into a citybike. We took it for a spin through downtown by the Petaluma River and we were both satisfied to discover just how versatile the BLT is.

It is clearly a Touring Bike, built for going long distances and carrying heavy loads.  But throw on some fenders, a more upright bar/stem combo, perhaps a fancy wooden box for a front basket*, and you have a nimble and functional grocery-getter, errand-runner, or everyday commuter.


This is a great solution for those of us who are seeking an affordable everything-bike.  Take the BLT on a day-, week-, or month-long vacation.  When you get back, take the BLT to the coffeeshop, on a country ramble, or perhaps for some light trail riding.


The BLT Deal still stands, regardless of how long your trip may be:
$750 (+ shipping & handling) for frame, fork, headset, stem, and Bruce Gordon front and rear Tubular Racks (made at our shop in California). 


The bike in the video included the Parts Package:
$975 (+ shipping & handling)  for Shimano SLX parts Group with XT Hubs, pedals and cages not included.

The BLT is made in Taiwan to our specs – tubing, drop outs, geometry and construction are

the same as the Rock ‘n Road Tour we have been making for over 23 years.  

* Thanks to Jason at Vine & Barrel for the snazzy wooden box.  His website is www.vineandbarrel.com

New Year

On January 1, 2011, many of you will wake up with a list of changes you'd like to make in your lives.  Perhaps you'll pledge to get more fit, quit a vice or two, eat better food, or ride your bicycle more often.

Those first three resolutions can take some serious commitment and planning.  But riding your bicycle more often is easy to do.  It's just a matter of making your daily bicycle more rideable.

When I say "daily bicycle", I mean the ol' workhorse, the town-, country-, or city-bike.  Something that's just right for riding to get your groceries, going on a spin around the neighborhood or to the next town over.

For those purposes, a "get on and go" bike is really the best thing- there's no need to change into bike gear!  All you need is a bicycle that you can ride immediately, with no planning and no hassle.

Some people swear by big, heavy, shin-destroying mountain bike pedals.  Some people insist that walking around in their SPDs isn't all that bad.  For those of you who know better, we suggest the Stainless Strapless Clips, HERE (Scroll down to the sixth item on the accessories page) or the Stainless Strapless Boot Clips, HERE .  They are $72 + shipping and handling, which is not very expensive considering they are the very best quality clips you can buy and they're made HERE in the USA.

For those of you who are looking for a proper town-, country-, or city-bike, we've been setting up the BLT with parts for those purposes, and it's looking really nice.  More to come on that in the first week of 2011.

Now, in keeping with my pledge to keep the BGlog updated with New Old Stuff (NOS), here are a few pages from the July 1982 issue of Playboy Magazine, featuring a Bruce Gordon road bike which "exudes clean lines and subdued elegance... crafted, like a custom suit, to a buyer's specifications":

Also, if you haven't yet done so, check out the BG Cycles Facebook page.  I'm cross-posting a bit of stuff here to there and vice-versa, but there are some photos and ephemera that are only on the FB page, which you can find HERE.

Thanks for reading and have a great New Year's Eve.

Updates

This is Nick in the office at BG Cycles.  I've been making the trip to Petaluma every Saturday to work on the blog and the NEW Facebook page.  I'll be updating as often as possible, at least once a week if not more, with pictures and video, interviews, old articles and photographs, new projects and peeks into the shop, and a lot of other crap that might tickle your fancy. 

For starters, here's an article from Bicycling magazine (March 1979).  This article is a couple of years older than I am, which is one of the reasons I find it so wonderful.  Bruce has been building functional and beautiful bicycles since 1974, and he continues to do so without any pretension or marketing panache. 

(click on the pictures to enlarge)

So bookmark this page, add Bruce Gordon Cycles on Facebook, and call the shop if you have any questions.