Vallie Components - bicycle part and accessory design

Wow.

Back on the west coast. Strange. Its been a long tough month of living in a van, crawling through caves, swimming in anything wet, mountain biking, stealing showers, driving, sight seeing, and building relations. 

I got to check out the Geekhouse shop, Bilenky Cycles, Serotta, Super Rat, Ground Up Designs as well as a bunch of other rad places. Everyone I met was super chill and great to talk with. Many thanks to those who invited us into their homes along the way.

Now that I'm back in Vancouver, I'm already back at work.  I've been meeting with people, and will be setting up a shop space shortly (as well as a home of course). I'll be working on the next run of hubs pretty soon as well. I've even got a three week apprenticeship deal worked out with one of my favorite builders, Sam Whittingham. He's currently going for the hour record in a fully faired recumbent down in Detroit, but when he gets back he's got a pile of CX frames to build. I'll be helping out with that. I'm pretty stoked to go work for him, to say the least.

I've been getting back into the Vancouver traffic flow as well. Or lack of flow? Stopping at lights, dealing with busses etc. Yesterday I tried out the 'newly completed' Central Valley Greenway, and it was pretty much as I expected. Slow, dirty, confusing. The signs are laminated paper hung by zip ties.  I'm not exactly sure who leaked out that it's complete, maybe I just imagined that part. Still, I won't be making it a part of my temporary commute from Surrey to Vancouver.  

I also tried out the new Burrard Bridge bike lane yesterday, and was pretty stoked. There's a lot more room than before, and a LOT more bikes. There's almost enough room to pass people going southbound, but I wouldn't want to spook anyone with wide bars on a bridge. That can lead to trouble.

Its good to see so many friendly Canadian faces again, and I'm looking forward to digging my roots back into this city. The rest of this summer is going to be really great.

 

 

 

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A formal introduction is in order. Duncan Lewis has been ripping things up since before the dawn of time. I first met him at a handful of years back at the Burnaby Velodrome's track clinic. Since then I've seen him progress as both a rider and artist. His paint is always fresh, and his bikes are in a constant state of 'thrashed'. Dude sews WITCH HUNT CLOTHING too!

Here he is BEFORE the Vallie Components Hub:

..and here he is now!

Name: Duncan James Gillespie Lewis
Age: 27
height: 6,2'
weight: 175
Hometown: rural regional district of area b
Currently: montreal
beard upkeep details: let it be
riding style: attempted creative use of my surroundings
riding goals: keep progressing and keep having fun
favorite place to ride: anywhere with good people
Dumbest thing you've done on two wheels: messengered all winter in Montreal (Ie:-35 and LOTS of snow)
Best thing you did on two wheels: meet most of my closest friends
ride/post ride rituals: nothing, its usually fairly spur of the moment
Music: a vast variety
Foods: poutine,beer,coffee

Bike Check:

Frame: brooklyn machine works
Fork: black market
Headset: fsa
Stem: dmr
Bars: bent/cheap/black
Saddle: broken
Post: see above
BB: profile
Cranks: profile
Pedals: very broken
Chainring: currently a bent profile, soon to be a tree splined.
Chain: a "colaboration" of many different chains from my past
Rear wheel: Sun rhyno lite/duh Vallie
Rear tire: 700/38
Front wheel: phil wood/sun rhyno lite
Front tire: 700/32

I've got reports that he's already trying his best to destroy his new rear wheel. Here's a link to a quick edit he shot this weekend. I'll get video embedding working on this site asap!  Welcome to the Team Duncan!

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Its been a while since an update. I guess I've been busier than I thought. The weather here on the East coast is finally starting to warm up, and it almost feels like spring. Even the Shaved Ice vendors are back out on the street (Even though its only like 10°C). I've been riding a whole bunch, but not just on my track bike lately. At the start of the month, I finally finished a project I had going all winter. The Time Trial Tall:

Bike Check:
Frame: 59cm Peugeot Carbolite to 58cm Fuji Ace
Fork: 1" to 1-1/4" internally sleeved extended steerer Quintana Roo Carbon 650c
Stem: ITM Carbon wrapped
Bar: Syntace Bullhorns
Brakes: Shimano 105 front, Tektro Rear, Dia Compe levers
Seat post: Stock Peugeot 24.0mm steel
Saddle: Avocet Turbo courtesy of John Prolly
Cranks: Shimano 600
Pedals: Shimano M520 SPD
Chain Ring: Shimano 52T
Chain: KMC 3/32"
Derailleur: Shimano 105 with 105 down tube shifter
Tires: Rear: Specialized All Conditions 700x23, Front: Ritchey Tom Slick 26"x1"
Rear Wheel: Tempest 2 asymetric hub lace to Velocity Deep V, 28H, half radial, 8speed cassette
Front Wheel: Spinergy Spox 26"

Other: The bike was CAD designed, and turned out exactly as I had hoped. Steerer tube angle is still 73° and there is minimal flex from the front end. The bike is stable under all conditions, and feels like a big road bike. So far I've put over 100km on it in Manhattan traffic, and will be taking it on some long road rides very soon.

In hub news, we're still doing destructive testing. I raced in the Randall's Island Tracklocross this past weekend, and really put my drive train through some abuse.

 

During the race I swear I heard my cog weeping as the chain rollers ground mud and sand into every trough and orifice of the hub. After cleaning it up I looked at my fork crown, and it has been ground down to the brazing. The race was super fun, and I came in in the top 10 out of 42 racers. After a couple more days of riding around on 32mm CX tires at 40psi on a 40/17 gear I got bored and switched my bike back to its usual street setup. Here's how it looked for the race though:

In Team news, Morgan is hopping onto a plane tonight, and will arrive in NYC tomorrow. He's got some clever bike box trickery going on to try and get the airlines to not charge him oversize or bike box fees. Who knows how that will work. I'm stoked to get to ride with him over the next couple of weeks.

My other rider DUNCAN LEWIS has also been hard at work. Both sewing rad clothes, and riding the shit out of his bike. After many issues with UPS, Customs, and the bike shop ordering his rim, its FINALLY on its way to him. Wow. that took forever. Sorry Duncan. I'll have a complete bio and bike check very soon. Shortly, he'll be filming for an upcoming movie called The Revival. Check out the Trailer. For now though, here's Duncan slaying a big ledge:

 

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Well, it seems my test riders are doing their jobs.

I just got word from Morgan Taylor that he hucked himself (along with his Rocky Mtn. Boroughs) off a 16 set in East Van. How gnar is that?  Apparently, he was hauling ass through a park, knowing there was a stair set coming up, but not knowing how big it was. He was going fast enough to be committed, and pulled up, making that leap of faith that is only familiar to BMXers, MTBers, backcountry skiers and snowboarders.

I imagine he was in the air for quite some time. Probably long enough to realize he wasn't going to make it. Word is he cased his rear wheel on the last step, and the front end of the bike came down HARD. 

Total damage:

• Rear Deep V pinched from stair impact
• Front Deep V ovalized with ripples where the spokes pulled
• Front fork (Bianchi Pista)  has one leg bent forwards
• Morgan's thumb is sprained, and he's banged up all over.

I think he's still in shock. I made him ride back and take the picture of the stairs. Tim Wyatt's GTB is in there for scale.  He measured it too. 8' overall height, 16 stairs at 6" each, 16' distance from the top stair to the bottom. I've witnessed some pretty retarded stunts on track bikes before, but this is probably the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

...oh yeah, the hub is fine. Morgan will be relacing it to another Deep V soon, and riding his track bike again once he finds another 1" fork.

In other news, my other (yet to be named) test rider is patiently waiting for his wheel to be delivered. Though, he just broke a Phil hub, and is getting less patient by the day. Stay tuned for his bio and bike check once he finally does get on my hub.

EDIT: Since this article is getting pasted all over the blogs I feel I should clear some things up. I did not see this happen. I am on the other side of the continent. I DO believe Morgan when he tells me this story for many reasons. He is a very close friend and I have ridden with him a LOT. He has nothing to gain by lying to me. I know this sort of thing is well within his physical and mental capacity. He rides BMX and smoothly hits lines I will not. I also know that he rides near the limits dictated by physics half the time he is on a bicycle (track, BMX, mini, tall, etc). He does NOT have a camera crew follow him around to record his indiscretions on a bike. When he hurts himself it's often in traffic, and often when he is by himself. That actually worries me a lot. I am glad he is okay, and look forward to riding BMX with him when he comes to visit in NYC. For all the internerd skeptics, I'm going to post the pictures of his bike. It actually fared pretty well considering the size of the drop. I would attribute that to someone who knows what they're doing when airing and landing a bicycle.

 

 

 

 

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