West 5 Cycles
Cycling, fixed-gear bike building and life on two wheels onlyArchive for Bike design
My very own superbike: Stealth Pro Carbon Aerospoke
Ok so I have been very silent of late and I have two excuses: one bad one - too much work and travel and a pretty good one: when not doing the above I have actually been out cycling, desperately trying to avoid the weather getting me down and sofa and TV-bound with a hot cup of tea. It can be very tempting, yet I have mostly managed to resist this temptation by forcing myself out for a ride and only then allowing myself to enjoy the comfort of a hot cuppa and the couch.
Also - what’s been keeping me out on two wheels only has been the sheer joy of realising my dream of the ultimate superbike - a while ago you will remember I got the Planet X Stealth Pro carbon frame and built it up to a nice speed-machine and enjoyed riding it a lot. Something was still missing, and that was the lush, glossy carbon Aerospoke wheels to complete the picture - my very own Samurai sword of cycle, the ultimate fixxer. Now Aerospoke wheels are hard to come by for a start, so I started combing Ebay with a fine tooth-brush and finally managed to get hold of a pair - from the guys at Drif in LA.
What is interesting is that the Aerospokes are actually not that light - they weigh in about 1,5kg per wheel and considerably heavier than the On-One track wheels I was using before, which made the complete bike come in at sub 7kgs - so good enough for Tour de France if anyone ever decided to ride that fixed again, as it was done in the good ol’ days when men were men and lycra, power-meters and energy food hadn’t even been invented, let alone gears.
The change from the On-one track wheels to the Aerospokes was like the maturing of a warrior. Skittish and nervous in its super lithe incarnation, the Stealth Pro Carbon became my weapon of choice through the superior smooth handling with the Aerospokes - it really feels like a train when it gets going and no thinking of British railways here, I mean high-speed maglev style! The slightly increased weight of the Aerospokes acts like a stabilising force on the otherwise nervous handling, the bike is lightning-fast and responsive, no longer skittish and nervous. It is a joy to ride and I have begun going out for long 70-80km spins to Surrey, Virginia Water and the Windsor Great Park. For sure, people look at me thinking - my G*D she is riding fixed, (out here?? she must be mad) but cruising past folks on expensive road machines, you get nothing but respect.
Have a look over at Flickr for the latest pics I’ve uploaded on the new guise of the superbike.
Fixie travels - Ritchey BreakAway Fixie frame
Forget getting somewhere nice and thinking how great it would be to explore the area on a bike, looking longingly at anyone passing on a bike. Moreover - perhaps you are such an avid fixxer that any old bike suitable for travel just won’t do - Brompton’s (for suit-wearing office workers?), Dahon’s (for less sophisticated and sentimental suit-wearing office workers on a tighter budget?), Molton’s (for folks with a penchant for clever design and far too much money to burn?), roadbike in a bike box (good idea, but the box is still huge!) - no, what you want is a folding fixie in a box!
And guess what - Tom Ritchey has just the thing for you. A very neat design for a fixie frame that breaks up into two parts - the Break Away steel frame uses the seat tube to help align the two halves of the frame and features an incredibly beautiful solution locking the two halves together both up at the seat collar and at the down tube. A very neat solution that comes complete with a hard-case featuring lots of neat innovations for protecting the frame and components inside and wheels on the outside for easy manouvering. The roadie versions of the Ritchey BreakAway has had brilliant reviews in the cycling press, the titanium frame earning accolades for being a timeless, beautiful and racy frame on par with many ‘normal’ bikes out there, so can’t imagine the fixie version is going to let the side down. Tom Ritchey takes bikes seriously and it shows!
Fixie travels - Ritchey BreakAway Fixie frame
Forget getting somewhere nice and thinking how great it would be to explore the area on a bike, looking longingly at anyone passing on a bike. Moreover - perhaps you are such an avid fixxer that any old bike suitable for travel just won’t do - Brompton’s (for suit-wearing office workers?), Dahon’s (for less sophisticated and sentimental suit-wearing office workers on a tighter budget?), Molton’s (for folks with a penchant for clever design and far too much money to burn?), roadbike in a bike box (good idea, but the box is still huge!) - no, what you want is a folding fixie in a box!
And guess what - Tom Ritchey has just the thing for you. A very neat design for a fixie frame that breaks up into two parts - the Break Away steel frame uses the seat tube to help align the two halves of the frame and features an incredibly beautiful solution locking the two halves together both up at the seat collar and at the down tube. A very neat solution that comes complete with a hard-case featuring lots of neat innovations for protecting the frame and components inside and wheels on the outside for easy manouvering. The roadie versions of the Ritchey BreakAway has had brilliant reviews in the cycling press, the titanium frame earning accolades for being a timeless, beautiful and racy frame on par with many ‘normal’ bikes out there, so can’t imagine the fixie version is going to let the side down. Tom Ritchey takes bikes seriously and it shows!
