How To Make A Composite Rim

We had the great fortune to make a visit to Easton's composite factory (dubbed EMX) in Tijuana, Mexico this week. In addition to road and mountain rims, Easton builds a ton of composite hockey sticks at EMX, including custom sticks for hundreds of professional hockey players. At EMX they also make the rims and build the wheels that are being used by George Hincapie, Cadel Evans and the BMC Racing Team this year.

We thought we'd take you through the process of building an Easton rim step-by-step, from composite material all the way through to a finished wheel.



The raw material of a composite rim--sheets of hybrid material (carbon, fiberglass, aramid, etc.) combined with proprietary resin is cut by a computer controlled cutting table.




Once the material is cut into pieces of the correct size and fiber orientation, it can then be laid-up into the shape of the final product.




Two workers finalize the placement of the laid-up (but not cured) rim in a mold before rolling the several hundred pound assembly over to a press.




Placed firmly within a multi-piece mold, the rim is slid into a 150-ton press to be baked or cured for about a half-hour.




After the rim is removed from the press and the mold, the bladder is taken out (via a semi-secret process), extra resin cleaned off and the spoke holes and valve hole are drilled.




Next, the rim is lightly sanded and a light coat of paint applied. In order to use high quality water transfer decals, the surface of the rim must be ultra smooth and clean.




Once the rim has passed the final QC processes, it's turned into a complete wheel by adding a hub, spokes and nipples. Easton hand builds every single wheel in their line and trues them acoustically for super even tension (which ensures that the wheel stays truer, longer).

There you have it, the full process of turning limp composite material into a rim that can stand up to abuse from the world's best riders.

We saw some amazing new wheels while at the factory, but we promised to wait a few weeks before letting the secret out. Stay tuned.

Totally Foolproof Cleat Mounting System Part Deux

OK, so if you’ve done Part 1 of our cleat mounting process correctly, you’ve got a line on the inside of each foot and two sheets of 8.5 x 11” paper with tracings of your foot. Now let’s get into the challenging part.

Step 9: With the two foot drawings in hand, have a seat at a desk or comfortable table. Measure across the heel of each foot with a ruler or straight-edge and mark the exact middle of the heel of your foot.

Step 10: Take the straight-edge and run it in a line from your heel up to the center point of your second toe that you marked previously. Essentially, you’ll run the ruler the length of your foot along its mid-point.

Step 11: Using the mark that you made from the center of the ball of your foot, draw line that is exactly perpendicular to the first line that you’ve drawn. Now you should have a crosshairs with the crossing point of the two lines on the middle of the ball of your foot.

Step 12: Now’s where it might get a little tricky because we’re going to measure the drawing and transfer those measurements to the bottom of your shoe.

Measure from the heel on your drawing up to middle of crosshair (174-mm for my size 42-foot). Then deduct 2-mm off the number you measure so that you’ll take the center of the cleat slightly off the center of the bone you are locating it over.

Step 13: Measure from the inside ball of your foot to the center-point of the crosshairs (41mm on my size 42-foot) You’ll add 2-mm to this measurement because your shoe will stretch, allowing your foot to become wider when pressure is placed on it.

Step 14: Using your straight-edge, transfer the measurements you’ve made onto your shoe. For accuracy, you may need measure the width of the heel of your shoe and place marks on the center of the heel and at the inside ball of your foot.

Step 15: Once you’ve located the center of your heel and the center of the ball of the foot, measure out the numbers you took from your drawing.

Many cleats have a line or notch that indicates their center-point. Speedplay, for example, has a line, while Look & Shimano have bump on cleat to indicate the center point.

Step 16: Getting close now. Next, measure from the inside edge of the shoe, in a place on the shoe that is similar to where you made the initial black mark on your foot. You’ll measure to the middle of the ball of the foot using the number that you took from your drawing. Once you’ve centered the cleat on the center of the crosshairs you created on the bottom of your shoe, simply snug it down using the appropriate bolts.

Step 17: Now, to help locate the cleat side-to-side. You’ll want to measure from 1-cm off the centerline toward the outside of the shoe, straight up through to the middle of the shoe’s toe box. Try your best to make the cleat run right up the middle of the shoe in straight line. Most likely, you’ll need to experiment with this step to get your preferred release point.

Note: This step is not necessary for those using Speedplay pedals because they feature such a generous amount of float.


Well, did it work for you? Let us know if there are ways we can make our system easier or more clear.

Totally Foolproof Cleat Mounting System: Part I

Around the shop here, we're fortunate enough to have our bike fits done by former European pro racer and coach to the stars (he helped Kristin Armstrong win Olympic and World Championship gold), Craig Upton. After Craig helped fit me on a new bike not so long ago, one thing I realized is that his system for mounting cleats onto shoes is 100% spot-on and easy for just about anyone to repeat. Of course we wanted to share it.

To make things easier to follow, we’ve broken the process down into simple steps that we’ll feature in two different blog postings to make the whole thing easier to digest. The plan now is to do take some good photos and put the whole thing into a PowerPoint that will be easy to follow step-by-step.

Before you begin, you’ll want to round up the tools and supplies that you’ll need. They include: your shoes, cleats, screwdriver or hex wrench to tighten or loosen the cleats, a marker like a black or blue Sharpie, a few sheets of 8.5 x 11” paper, a ruler or good straight-edge, a tape measure (smaller is better here), a desk or kitchen chair.

Tools in place, here you go:
Step 1: Sit in a basic kitchen or desk chair and cross one leg over your knee, resting your ankle on the top of the opposite knee. (You’ll do this for both, so it doesn’t matter which you do first.)

Step 2: Pull your big toe back from the front of the toe toward your ankle and wiggle it around. Use your other hand to locate the joint between the back of your large toe bone (or phalanges) and the next bone back in your foot (or your first metatarsal). Once you’ve located the sharp, back edge of your phalanges, move your finger forward to the middle of that bone.

Step 3: With one finger on the middle of the phalanges, take a dark Sharpie or other marker in your opposite hand. Make a mark on the inside of your foot at the same spot that you’ve located the center of the phalanges.

Step 4: Repeat this last step with the other foot. At the end, you’ll have a black mark on the inside of each foot right where the middle of the ball of your foot is located.

Step 5: Stand and take a piece of standard 8.5” x 11” paper (unless your foot is rather long then you’ll need an 11” x 17” paper), place the paper against a straight section of wall. Stand on the paper and locate your heel firmly against wall.

Step 6: Trace completely around your foot with a pen or marker. You don’t need to trace between each toe. Just around the outer circumference of the foot.

Step 7: Take a moment to make a mark on the drawing that corresponds to the mark that is on the inside of your foot, right at the ball of your foot.

Step 8: Trace a line along each side of the toe right next to your big toe—the little piggy that stayed home in nursery rhyme parlance.

Step 9: Lift your foot off the drawing and repeat with the opposite foot.

This is a great place to break our system into another post as we’re about to move from the drawing to fiddling with your shoe.

If all this is a little too difficult to deal with, please call the shop and make an appointment to have Craig help you out.

A Crush On Campagnolo Explained

Seems that if you’d never heard of Apple Computer (let alone, seen the ‘1984’ commercial, had a PowerBook 100, first-edition iPod, spent thousands on iTunes, etc.) but happened to walk into one of their stores, put your hands on any of their products and started using it, you’d know that they were both different and, in my opinion anyway, better.

Seems like a lot of people feel exactly the same way about Campagnolo and stuff they’ve been making for 70-plus years. Surely Campy is no Apple. They generally deliver late, are rarely consistent in their marketing between their home country and foreign outposts, have made a lot of products that didn’t come anywhere near their mark (Syncro shifting? SGR clipless pedals?) and seem generally inefficient in their business practices. Yet their design, packaging, history of innovation, crispness of marketing, passion for their chosen subject matter, connection to riders and unrivaled race wins definitely inspires the same kind of dedication.

(Before anyone takes what I said about their products missing the mark the wrong way, I’m a huge supporter of their products. They’ve often led the way in the use of new materials: Early in the game in both titanium and aluminum and one only need to see their Hyperon Ultra Carbon Clincher from 2004 (a wheel that is still relevant a half-dozen years after) to know that their capabilities in carbon fiber outpaced nearly everyone.)

But that technical stuff isn’t what we’re here to talk about. How many people are really motivated by features and benefits one way or the other? Who remembers how many horsepower a Shelby Cobra has or how fast the processor was in the first iMac? What usually gets me (and I’m guessing most people) is some kind of deeper connection. Usually created by some kind of incredible experience or great marketing. When I try to decode my dedication to nearly anything Campagnolo, a bunch of things come to mind: 1034 hubs with their famed QR, the script logo emblazoned on the lid of a Campy tool kit, every Italian pro that ever mattered racing their gear, a Campy alloy freewheel, visiting the factory and having Valentino give me a silver corkscrew.


I love all those things, but the two specifics that sealed the deal between me and Campagnolo are:

The 1982 World Championships poster with Giuseppe Saronni winning at Goodwood, England:
Someone with more knowledge of Campy history that I would know when they started, but Campagnolo use to win pretty much every World Championship. Shimano? SRAM? Not so much. Campy sponsored most of the best teams and got the big wins. Somehow at the age of 14, when I was just getting into riding, someone gave me the poster of Saronni givin’ the what for to some hapless fools trailing in the distance. Saronni didn’t look like he was happy to win, he looked like it was somehow preordained. Of course he won. Who else would? He was Italian and on a Colnago and riding Campagnolo. I spent hours trying to decode all the words on the poster. ‘Vince’ and ‘Vicenza’ are really confusing to a 14 year-old with no context and barely the ability to read. All the better though. It really added to the mystery and mystique. I went on to have maybe a half dozen other Campy World’s posters that I can remember, but none were quite as transformative as that one from ’82. It was like the famed Farrah Fawcett poster it displaced, but in a different way.

By the way, I didn’t see the end of that race and all the controversy that surrounded it until a few years ago. Yet, I think anyone that believes Lemond didn’t take down Boyer for no good reason is plain crazy. This means you John Wilcockson.



The second deal maker with me and Campy was the Campagnolo Alphabet:

Maybe I’m over thinking it, but it seems to me that the Campagnolo Alphabet came along when an outfit like Campy would’ve stopped thinking of themselves as simply a maker of bike parts and started imagining themselves as something much bigger. It would’ve been about 1986 and Campagnolo made this sudden switch from a traditional, high quality, but lowbrow marketing approach to this very current feeling (even today) and minimal system of icons that would become known as the Campagnolo Alphabet. I wish I knew the story behind it, and I’ll try to make a point to discover it, but, even by today’s standards, the level of execution they exhibited with the Alphabet was amazing. The company carried it through in the packaging and marketing materials for its mid- to late-80’s products, many of which were not as good as the package they were in! Still, the Alphabet stands out to me as one of those things that only a visionary and entirely self-aware company like Campagnolo could produce. Did Simplex ever do something that good? Zeus? Omas? OK. I’ll rest my case at that.

BMC RACEMASTER: Full on race bike

Welcome to our latest long term bike review. This time we are going to focus on the BMC Racemaster. As with our past reviews and the ones still to come we are going to focus on the most important thing to us, how the bike rides and who we feel it's the best fit for.
The bike in question is a '09 52cm yellow BMC. We have put about 3,000 miles on it, the last 2000 in the past couple months. It has Campagnolo Chorus 11s and Speedplay pedals, but pretty much everything else has been changed up a bit, from the handlebars to the brake calipers and the wheels in an effort to see how the ride changes if it does, from component selection.


The Details




First the obvious ones; the BMC Racemaster has a carbon and aluminum frame. The majority of the down tube, seat tube and chain stays are aluminum while the top tube, head tube and small portion of the down tube are made of a single molded carbon construction. The seat stays are also carbon, but as you can see from the above picture, are not screwed into place but bonded to the aluminum dropouts.



A view of the unique top tube to seat tube intersection. I had an issue with the brake cable coming out at a weird angle and had issues with rubbing it my thighs while pedaling. Easy fix is the zip tie and the issue was gone. You can also see that the Racemaster has what at first glance looks like an integrated seatpost. We are happy to say that this is not the case and instead uses an internal expansion system that allows for full movement of the seat post and complete removal like any normal post. In fact we are happy to say that not one of the bikes we carry has an integrated seat post but will talk about that later! Last thing in regards to the seat post is that it is not round, so this is the only post that will work with frame.



Here is another shot of the seat post and the clean way it enters the seat tube. The top tube is much wider towards the head tube as well. At first I found my knees would hit the tube as I pedaled but never to the point of being annoying and now it does not happen at all as I've adapted to the frame.



The one piece carbon head tube. It's a standard 1&1/8th diameter top and bottom, but trust us, stiffness is not an issue here. We believe that an oversize head tube would in fact be overkill on this bike. A standard FSA top cap works as well, so there are a few different stack heights available...



The BMC Racemaster incorporates internal cable guides into the frame for the front and rear derailleurs and the rear brake. We tend to like external cables a little more for ease of cleaning and repair, but have not had any issues at all with shifting performance mainly due to the fact that we clean the bike often and keep the cables lubed...



The bottom bracket area is massive and aluminum which is the main reason the bike is so stiff. Next up is the ride and we'll let you know if that stiffness equals harshness on the road...


The Ride


Too Harsh?

The short answer is no. While this is no doubt one super stiff bike, it is surprisingly smooth. I used to ride a full aluminum Cramerotti built with Deda EM2 tubing and while that bike was one of the, no THE stiffest bike I have ever ridden, it was also by far the harshest as well. The kind of bike that just did not want to stay connected to the ground. That is not fun on a super bumpy 40mph downhill, you only have traction and grip when the tires are on the ground! While you feel this bike on bumpy roads it still tends to keep itself planted where it should. On smoother roads it is pure heaven.

Our Impression

This bike is a pure power riders dream. Hit a longish roller in the big ring with a little momentum and it seems easy to keep it going to the top. Short rollers are laughable and easily negotiated (of course, legs have a lot to do with this as well!). This is one of the best descending bikes I've been on, in the same league with my Pegoretti's and Magnesium Pinarello Dogma. It is an able climbing bike, but I would not put it up there with the best, and for pure climber types I'd recommend the BMC Pro Machine or the new SLR Team Machine for sure. But it is so good everywhere else that I wouldn't mind take it out on an epic climbing day. Remember, what comes up, must come down!
On the other side this is not an especially light bike. The frame is not too heavy but the fork is. On the '09 bikes it's over 500g! I have since replaced the fork with a full carbon one from Edge, but the bike still does not feel like a light bike. I'm not talking about the scale here, I'm talking out on the road. As built right now it's apprx. mid 16's, but just feels heavier than say my Pro Machine at the same weight. But it feels FAST. Keep the speed up and attack the rollers and the Racemaster shines!


Who is the BMC Racemaster for?


I'd recommend this bike for pretty much anybody except for the small super lean and light pure climber. But I'd really recommend it for the newer racer who is looking for something stiff and not too expensive (ie. something you can crash on and not feel like crap if you break it). Also for triathletes who compete in shorter course events like Jeff P, pictured above who used this bike with some Edge 68 tubulars to win a few triathlons on. He also tends to kick my ass up our climbs here with me on a lightweight "climbing" bike which takes us back to the 'legs' argument! The BMC seems very well made, super durable and depending on your style, beautiful, in a Swiss geometrical kind of way. If I could only have one bike I would not have an issue with this being it. The best thing about this bike though and something I have not touched on yet is the price. While we have some super exotic and as such very expensive bikes at Above Category, this frame fits nicely in but is only $1699 for the version with the aluminum fork! They also have a version with a full carbon fork that will cost you $300 more at $1999. This means that you can invest in some serious components and still keep the price down. In fact, you could build it up w/ SRAM Red and Lightwieghts and keep it well under 10K which is not an easy feet on most high end bikes! (Conversely, you can build it up with something like Campagnolo Athena, nice wheels, bars, stem, saddle etc. and have an incredible bike for well under $5000)


What's next?

In the next few days we'll talk about some of the specific components that we put on this bike to test. These include the Edge Composites 65 clinchers and Aero 2.0 fork. We also have been testing the new Hive Revl brake calipers and will cover those as well. Then we'll move on to our next long term test bikes. Kris has been killing it for over a year on his Pegoretti Marcelo in the local and national Pro-1 races and then we'll be looking at the BMC Pro Machine, Pinarello Dogma and Parlee Z5 among others... Stay tuned and thanks for reading! Also, remember, if you have any questions at all, stop by the shop to see these bikes in person or give us a call...

A Sunday in HELL...

Ummm, or not... Smiley, Tony and I had such a great ride on such a beautiful Marin day that I decided to snap a few shots and do a little writing in the spirit of sharing. And yes, for those of you who are still trapped in the snow, or sleet or by the malls, I am sorry...



Big news of the ride is that Tony just picked up his new Pinarello Dogma. It is an amazing looking bike, the black/white scheme is my favorite and after Tony demolished us on the long, technical Mt. Tam descents, I know it's an amazing ride as well. In fact, I just ordered my very own 53cm and we'll have a detailed account of building it up here...



Start of the ride, heading up Marion Ave, this is about 4min from the shop and to get to the top of Mt. Tam takes apprx. 50min to an hour. Smiley on the left on his Pinarello Prince and Tony on the new Dogma. Oh, this was supposed to be a SLOW ride today, I was smoked, Tony hasn't ridden in a bit and Smiley was into slow as well. Right here we were already going too fast for my tired legs! This was to be a common theme today, thanks guys!



Once a PRO, always a PRO. Smiley gets a flat and after both Tony and I fail to give up a wheel Craig waits for the team car... once he comes back to reality and the present, he changes tubes real quick and we start the 10min descent to Stinson Beach...



Sun, Pacific Ocean off to our left, green fields, cows... these roads do not suck. Smiley here working on holding a straight line while the wind blows his 68's all over the place....



Shhhhhh! Up by the bird Sanctuary near Bolinas. But we didn't tell you that. Where is Bolinas anyway?


Did I already say that these roads don't suck?? Tony and I have already shed the arm warmers, first time of the year for me. Above Category is right down the hill from here, or I guess over a few more of these rollers and then down the hill...



One of the few rollers (I think this is the 3rd bitch, not sure though) that someone was not trying to rip the legs off the other two... but Smiley is keeping an eye out just to make sure...



Just to prove I was actually on the ride! Rode the BMC Pro Machine and had the first ride on the Campagnolo Hyperon One's. Will have a report on this bike, and the BMC Racemaster and a bunch of other great parts soon. Thanks for taking a sec to read, hope you enjoyed and see you out there!

Shop Update: Lot's To Talk About!

Wanted to fill in the blanks this week with a little bit more of a news update than we usually do. Maybe it’s everyone sensing that Spring is just around the corner or the fact that tons of new equipment has showed up in the past few weeks, but there’s lot’s happening in the shop these days.



Pinarello Dogma 60.1 Team Sky
Call it a reward for having been a dedicated Pinarello dealer since the first day we opened the shop or maybe it was the super special customer that’s going to give it a home. Either way, we were the first shop in the United States to receive a Pinarello Dogma 60.1 Team Sky frameset. This is no replica, it’s a frame that’s pulled from the same batch that the team received frames from and is the only one to be seen in the USA for months. It’s a 55cm that we’re building up exactly like the bike that Juan Antonio Flecha won Het Volk on last week.

Here’s a gallery of Ben Swift’s Dogma on Bike Radar.
Is it just us, or is it strange that Pinarello barely mentions Team Sky on their website and has no pictures of the squad or the team colorway? Biggest new team to come along in a lot of years and a huge investment for the brand, you’d think they’d take advantage of it at least a little.

At any rate, swing into the shop in the next week or so and you’re likely to see us in the process of building it up with a full Di2 kit.



BMC Team Machine SLR
Following close on the heels of the Team Sky chassis, we took delivery of a fresh out of the mold BMC Team Machine SLR. Somewhere south of 900-grams, much more sophisticated design than past BMC chassis, the weapon of choice for World Champion Cadel Evans. More on this as we build it up.
Check out the Euro video of one here




Campag Bora Ultra II
With brands like Edge, Easton, Lightweight and Zipp all putting out great offerings, staying relevant in the wheel game is tougher than ever. Yet, Campagnolo continues to hold our attention with their amazing blend of technology and raw emotion. We received a few wheelsets from the Italian giant last week including the new Bora Ultra II and Bora I. The $3700 Bora Ultra Twos have 50mm deep carbon composite rims, CULT ceramic bearings and an aluminum freehub. As you can see in other posts and on our Twitter feed, we’ve been getting some miles in on the new wheels and are deeply enamored. Look for more of a review once we’ve gotten more miles on ‘em.

The plan is to add the Bora Ultra Two and Bora I to our demo wheel program that includes Lightweight Ventoux, Lightweight Standard, most Edge wheels and ultra-plush riding, hand-built, tubeless set-ups. Check with the guys in the shop to find out about riding a pair.


Service
Over the winter we’ve spent a lot of time and effort improving our service department. First we moved it into the main shop, then we added touches that’d make any mechanic happy including plush flooring, a perfectly positioned Park repair stand, tons of spares, a big flat screen and a networked computer. We finished the whole thing off with near perfect concrete countertops and a shiny new iMac.

The entire service area and Kris are ready to take on anything from a spring tune-up to building a super custom one-off Parlee to gluing on your new tubulars and applying new bar tape.

Drop in to check out the new set up and call Kris if you need to schedule any kind of service.





Friends of AC
As for racers that are friends of the shop, Joao Correia of the Cervelo Test Team just finished his second race of the year—the Classica de Almeria (and Murcia). Amazing to see a guy that, until a few months ago had a full time job in the fast paced world of NY publishing, keeping step with the world’s best. Check out his blog

The Juniors on our team had their first outing in the NorCal High School Mountain Bike league. There were over 500 kids that turned out to race! The NorCal league is blowing up and, with the expansion of the league nationwide, expect to see it become even larger.

Reigning national cross country champion, Spence Peterson, a Freshman at Tamalpais high, won the Division II JV race by a comfortable margin. Take a second to notice that Spence is a Freshman racing ‘up’ in the JV category and winning. Wait until he’s a few years older.

Bob Siegel nailed down the Sophomore Division 2 win while Alex Howard, Skyler Taylor and Jack Keane pulled down third, fourth and fifth in the Boys Freshman Division 2. Bunch of strong guys that should be ruling the roost in years to come.




Tour of California
Speaking of the Tour of California, what are you doing to watch the race this May? We’re trying to put a day or two of riding together with viewing of the race a epic locations. Let us know if there’s a program that would appeal to you. We’d love to load up the Sprinter and see the show.

Good Stuff From The North American Handmade Bike Show

(Photo compliments of BikeRadar.com)


Even without a massive NorEaster bearing down on the East Coast, it would’ve been tough for us to make it out to Virginia for last week’s NAHMBS. Long way to go, even if the venue was packed with bikes from 150 amazing builders. Based on those that we’ve talked to and the coverage on the web, here’s a few of our favorites:

Let’s get what has to be best in show out of the way first…..Dario’s involved of course.


110% Dario on this frame from his shop.


What must be a very light Indy Fab with Gates Carbon Drive.


One of the best Di2 integrations we’ve ever seen on this Sycip.


Another Sycip production, Chris King Cielo one-off.


This freaky single from Marty ‘the One Man Party’ at Geekhouse.


Tight looking track bike from Don Walker.


The 2010 ‘President’s Choice’ from a brand named Cherubim.


Of course we can’t do a blog post lately without mentioning the Moots RSL.


For full galleries of NAHMBS images follow the links below:

Urban Velo Day 1

Urban Velo Day 2

Cycling News Day 1

Cycling News Day 2

Cycling News Day 3