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This bike. This freaking bike. When I first built up my Sklar, it was built on the 700c wheel platform. At Lost & Found last year, I swapped out the i9 wheels for the new ENVE G27 650b gravel wheels and haven’t missed the 700c wheels one bit. From there, the bike slowly went under transformations but it wasn’t until I put the Crust Towel Rack Bars on it that I feel like this bike has finally come into its own.
This is such a magical project and everyone involved put in so much effort to put their best foot forward. It’s such a pleasure to kick off NAHBS weekend with a look at the Sierra Klunker, built with the new limited edition Paul Component Engineering Green parts!. Check out the press release and photos below!
Last year, during my Shop Visit to Petaluma’s White Industries, I got to check out their in-house wheel production shop, headed by Sean Walling from Soulcraft. White’s hope is to offer 100% made in house wheelsets and that dream begins with their new G25A Rim. See all the details below!
Political policies and power plays really do affect us all, even cyclists, and manufacturers of US-made components like White Industries, who just recently added a 4% tariff surcharge to orders…
“The surcharge is due to severe increases in material and bearing cost. Despite using US made aluminum, steel, and titanium, we have still seen an increase of well over 28% in raw material cost alone. For this reason we have had to start attaching a 4% surcharge on all orders. Rather than increasing our prices, the tariff surcharge is listed making it easy for us to adjust or hopefully eliminate this surcharge when/if the tariff situation stabilizes. Thank you for understanding.”
Considering they’re eating a 28% increase in raw material cost, I’d say a 4% surcharge is more than fair. Still, this is something I don’t think many people considered would be a side effect from the recent moves in Washington.
See more at White Industries.
Wow. Just wow. Robert from Blue Collar Bikes brought my favorite bike to the 2018 Grinduro Town Hall. Painted to match his iconic van, this Nigel 650G featured components from PAUL, 3T, WTB, White Industries, SRAM, and a Fabric saddle. There are so many NorCal brands on this bike, all within a short trip from Sacramento where Blue Collar is based.
There’s not much else to note about this bike, as it’s a prime example of a bike that tells its own story. My only regret was not taking this photo as well!
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Follow Blue Collar Bikes on Instagram and follow Grinduro on Instagram.
If you are looking to build a singlespeed ‘cross race bike, or a singlespeed mountain bike, and anything in between, you can run your favorite 30mm spindle cranks with the BEER Components Oner, as long as your frame has a PF30 shell. Recently, I swapped out the older 24mm Sugino cranks and Problem Solvers bottom bracket for the BEER Oner and White Industries cranks on my Urban Racer.
We just visited White Industries earlier this year for the first time and have a stout photo gallery showing the ins and outs of their operations, but for a motion picture version, check out this new video from the team at PAUL!
In 1991, with the advent of Shimano’s XTR drivetrain, Doug White felt a pinch. That pinch turned into a financial punch and it was the first time since White Industries opened in 1978 that the small fabrication shop was worried about shuttering their operations. Ironically, the thing that saved White Industries from Shimano’s pursuit of mountain bike drivetrains was the single speed freewheel and the community that embraced SSMTB racing and riding.
Stories like that really resonate with me. Hearing about a small company – by comparison to Shimano anyway – make it after fears of breaking it thanks to a grassroots scene like SSMTB shows just how much companies like White Industries matter to us, the consumers within the cycling industry.
When disaster strikes, it’s great to see brands in the cycling industry come together for the greater good and in the case of our recent fires here in California, Santa Cruz Bicycles teamed up with a number of California-based companies on a month-long fundraising campaign. These brands include FOX, Shimano, White Industries and WTB, together their efforts will benefit the Redwood Empire Mountain Bike Alliance (REMBA) and the Santa Barbara Mountain Bike Trail Volunteers (SBMTV), who will each spearhead reconstruction efforts in their respective regions.
Enter at BackonTrail.org, see the full details and more photos of these beautiful Santa Cruz Bicycles below!
Over here in the wild wild west, people build their Space Horse discs up in all kinds of ways. From dirt drops, to upright Nitto Albatross bars, to flat Bullmoose and everything in between, these bikes are incredibly versatile commuters and tourers but perhaps Kyle’s is one of the most unique builds I’ve seen. Sure, it’s got 27.5″ wheels, with Maxxis Refuse tires, Salsa dirt drops, Sim Works stem, Sim Works post, Sim Works Paul Klampers, Sim Works Paul skewers, a Berthoud saddle, a SON hub, White Industries Cranks, Camo Cinelli tape, Velocity Cliff Hanger rims, Pass and Stow rack and Gevenalle shifters, but the thing that was the veritable cherry on the cake, or milkshake, or whatever is the rudeboy rockabilly Outer Shell rack bag.
How can you look at this bike without seeing that loud-ass leopard print?!
Finding a way to describe bikes is one of my favorite parts of this whole process and usually my initial reaction is the way to go. With this bike, I wanted to fight the rockabilly label so bad, yet it just fits. It’s like a pair of creepers at a Cramps show. In fact, it’s like a bike Poison Ivy would ride. Kyle, you’ve really outdone yourself with this one.
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If you want a custom build like this and live in Los Angeles, hit up Golden Saddle Cyclery.
I’ve long admired the work of Rick Hunter, yet have never been able to get ahold of one in my size. Especially since he has closed his order queue. My thoughts were, one day a frame would pop up in my size and I’d have to swoop on it. That’s what happened, in a nutshell, when I drove up to Chico, California to hang out with Paul Component Engineering for a few days. The trip coincided with the recent Paul Camp, a media gathering at the Paul shop, featuring eleven bikes, built by select framebuilders, all around a joint theme: a monster cross or mountain bike. Oh, and the bikes had to use the same color scheme: red, white and blue. As a group, these bikes were marvelous and I had a blast both riding and photographing them, especially this very frame…
White Industries‘ headsets have been popping up sporadically here on the Radavist for almost a year and now, the Petaluma-based manufacturer has opened up a pre-order. All you’ve gotta do is go to your local shop and have them call in your order. These will be shipping October 2nd.
White Industries has widened their product range with their new headsets announcing officially at NAHBS this year. While these new headsets aren’t available just yet, but if all goes well, they will be for sale this year. Expect a variation of headset configurations, along with more information soon. If you’d like to drool over more photos, check out some more below.
Ever since first seeing the new White Industries 30mm spindle road cranks two years ago, I wanted to try a pair out. I love the VBC cranks, but don’t love square taper bottom brackets, so the idea of having a 30mm spindle crank was very appealing to me.
At Interbike this year I spoke with White and was able to finagle a pair in time to build up my OD green Speedvagen OG-1. They were the last piece of the puzzle so to speak. Thanks to the boys at GSC, the build is finally complete and today was the first ride. All this happeend just in time for a big, dumb ride we’re taking off on Wednesday through Friday.
A handful of us are embarking on a 3-day road ride in the Angeles National Forest, ending in Palm Springs. The ride’s total elevation gain will most likely topple 30,000′, so needless to say, I’m stoked to be able to do such an undertaking on a bike with a monster rear cassette and these new cranks…
If you’re interested in checking out the White Industries R30 road cranks, roll on over to your local dealer and order up a pair.
What’s this? Rim brakes? Yep. Steve Rex‘s submission to the Grinduro expo was the only bike that used traditional rim brakes and you know what? I like that. A lot. Especially when it comes to the stopping power of PAUL Minimotos. Steve chose White Industries T11 hubs to Pacenti rims, SRAM CX1 and even had some slick pinstriping added to the otherwise sleek and minimal frameset.
Void of ostentation, classic, timeless and ready to rip. Rex surely is king here…
Fenders aren’t exactly my favorite bicycle accessory. Granted I live in Texas where it “never rains” or so it didn’t really until this year. We’ve had a very wet spring and summer, resulting in a lot of unexpected rain riding. So much so that I finally broke down and decided to ditch the big, plump tread of my Bruce Gordon Rock n Roads for some fenders and the biggest tire I could find that would fit…
Blending steel with stainless can yield marvelous results, especially when done so through the use of chevrons. To then carry those lines into a frame’s paint is whole ‘nother level of beauty. Ian Sutton of Icarus Frames‘ latest road machine was recently built up at Mellow Johnny’s.
The owner, Lucas, wanted a classic road with modern componentry and a 26.0 bar. Campagnolo Athena 11-speed with a Nitto M179 STI bar and a custom fillet stem delivered the perfect kit for this bike, resulting in an elegant road machine. White Industries T11 to H+Son Archetypes and Paul skewers offer one of the nicest wheelsets for those looking for a classic flair and modern tech.
There are so many details in this bike, that I might have gone overboard with the photos: Stainless stays, stainless fork blades, internal routing and that head tube cluster, all matched with a beautiful chevron design at the bottom bracket. Ben Falcon at the Horse Cycles delivered one hell of a paint job!
Enjoy this bike, Lucas!
LoveBaum is a framebuilder pairing from Denver, Colorado started by Chad Lovings and Bryce Baumann. The two initially met in Rifle, Colorado at Yamaguchi’s framebuilding school. Shortly after leaving, they decided to begin building together under the name LoveBaum.
The two bikes at NAHBS bearing the LoveBaum name immediately caught my attention in the rookie builder hallway. The first being this curved seat tube track bike. Made from a mix of True Temper and Columbus Life tubing, Bryce intends to put its stiffness and design to the boards at his local velodrome.
White Industries hubs laced to no-name carbon rims and Challenge Pista tires are powered by the AARN chainring and Dura Ace cranks, polished to a shine. With custom leather work by Carson Leh, the contact points on this bike are different than your average track bike.
A Leh top tube protector keeps the custom fillet brazed bar and stem from chipping the top tube’s beautiful pearlescent paint. This is probably one of the most elegant track bikes at the show and has won me over.
