Where Have We Met?

by Annette

Every so often we review where our marketing dollars should go, or not.

We avoid the topic for weeks, then we're suddenly facing a deadline. I rail equally against print media and web ads, which I never ever click on unless my finger slips. I moan that in the good old days (2006) all we needed was the VO Blog as our main advertising vehicle, since there weren't as many bike blogs then as there are now. And also in the good old days, under our old ecommerce platform, every order was linked to a point of entry (e.g., if you came to Velo Orange from, say, a lingerie site, we knew it.) Then we again table discussion and move on to how our new coffee maker is performing.

And so we repair to our focus group, you, because I don't think we've ever asked you before: Where did you first encounter Velo Orange? Did you look for a specific item on the web? Pass a VO frame on the trail? Peruse a style blog? We'd greatly appreciate your taking the poll below; if you choose "other," please tell us in the comments what that "other" is.

How did you find out about Velo Orange?
	Web search
	Friends
	Magazines
	Bike Shop
	Social Media
	Blogs
	Other: Please specify in comments
pollcode.com free polls

Bag Loops

We've wanted to make VO designed bag loops for a couple of years now. They are so handy if you ride a saddle without built-in loops. Saddle bags are the simplest way to carry a few things on a bike without racks. But we were having trouble coming up with a design that we liked, yet was economical to manufacture. By chance we stumbled upon these stainless steel bag loops already being made in Taiwan and decided to import them. We hope to have the first shipment in a month or two.

New Grand Cru Pedals and Other Stuff

We're testing our newest Grand Cru pedals. They are single sided pedals intended for folks who use toe clips or half clips. The design is inspired by the old Barelli pedals. The spindle is tapered and spins in giant double sealed bearings*. The platform is 100mm x 72mm, so there is plenty of support for big feet and soft street shoes; they are very comfortable. These pedals are also a little lighter than the Sabot pedals.

The production version will have a silver spindle and hardware. Except for the bearings and hardware, every part of this pedal is designed by VO.

In other news: we just got a few pallets of wheels from our builder, including some that had been out of stock.

These are my new city bike grips, I'm not sure if we'll sell them, but I love the colors and wanted some for my own bike. You like?

* This prototype has shielded ISK bearings installed (this note is only for you engineers out there).

More About the Pass Hunter

We sure got a lot of comments on that last post, so I thought I'd expound on why we designed the Pass Hunter frame as we did.

The bike is TIG welded, but with some "luggy" bits, such as the head tube reinforcement collars and seat cluster.  I can't see the advantage of lugged construction for a frame like this. Not having lugs lowers the cost by $200 to $300. Lugs are pretty, but really high quality TIG welding should be appreciated as well, and our builders do some of the best anywhere. Finally eliminating the lugs saves some weight.

The trail was described as "mid-trail". That is to say it's between traditional French geometry and modern race-inspired sport-touring geometry. It's based on extensive research and trial and error here at VO world headquarters. We had to learn to re-rake our own forks so we could adjust the trail until it was perfect. We think this geometry, which has been much praised on the Campeur, allows front or rear loading, stable high speed descending, and just the right balance of quick handling and stability.

We decided to go with the 1-1/8" fork for several reasons. 1-1/8" is more-or-less expected on high performance bikes today and we wanted to make this bike appealing to non- retro grouches. Most Pass Hunters will likely be bought by experienced cyclists who probably know exactly where to set their bars, so quick stem adjustability was not as high a priority. Likewise, the vast majority of these will be built with drop bars, or perhaps MTB bars if pass hunting on gravel roads. I also, personally, wanted to try something different, not just make what's basically the same bike over and over again. The threadless fork is a little lighter and stiffer. And a stiffer head tube and steerer tube can't be a bad thing when bombing down from those high passes. We plan to make one more frame with a threadless fork, but we also plan to keep the Campeur and Polyvalent 1" threaded, as well as the mixte (when it returns in a year or two).

The cost has not been determined, but we're trying to get it under $600. We're still shooting for fall availability.

Finally, we've decided, after reading your comments and discussing staff preferences, to make the frame red. The decals were a harder decision, but we decided to go with two. There will also be a small decal on the seat tube.

Pass Hunter Photos

Here are a few photos of Pass Hunter Prototypes. Basically this new frame is a randonneuse, but with canti brakes. The cantis allow wider tires with fenders and more powerful braking. The Pass Hunter is built using slightly lighter tubing than the Polyvalent or Campeur. It has mid-trail geometry, much like the Campeur.

The term "pass hunter" refers to the sport of riding over mountain passes, more popular in France and Japan than here. Rules are explained on this page. In addition to randoneuring and pass hunting, the Pass Hunter would make a nice sportiff or even a fast credit card tourer. We hope to have them in stock in early fall.

Casey built this one up as a lightweight

A new fork crow and plenty of fender/tire clearance

The fork crown in red

Cable stop with adjuster and integrated rack bosses

Seat cluster with semi-wrap stays

Scott is building this one up as his rando bike. 

One down tube decal, or two? Red or blue paint?

Eat to Ride to riding to eat

by Scott

Cyclists are a funny bunch when it comes to food. I've never seen such a crowd that has such diverse interests/needs when it comes to food. Some cyclists are all about food as fuel, while others ride to be able to eat.

When touring in Australia 20 + years ago, my eating habits were formed by two things- the cost of the food and ease of preparation. Considering I was 19 years old and not a great cook at home, this is not surprising. So a tin of pineapple for breakfast, a Chiko roll (a deep fried beef and veggie roll http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiko_roll ) and some fries at lunch and chunky soup out of a tin for supper. The pineapple and soup could be bought at any small town store in Tasmania and the Chiko roll could be bought at any gas station or such along the way. A combination of this diet and 60-70 miles on hilly roads on a loaded touring bike led to a 30 lb weight loss on that trip over 3 months.

Before working here at VO, I worked for GU energy gels in SF bay area. I worked in the production end of the company, organizing the delivery of the mountains of ingredients that made up the gels that we produced in Berkeley. I was surrounded by employees of GU who regularly ran marathons and took part in long distance cycling events. As a long distance cyclist myself, the easy access to energy gels was a great part of the job, as was the culture of endurance athletics. My fuel choice as an endurance cyclist was still driven like it had been when I was 19 and touring- ease of delivery and cost. The gels were easy to eat on the road, came in a variety of flavors to suit my palate, were easy to transport on long rides and fairly cheap given the number of calories.

Now as I ride, I find myself using gels and such less and less and trying to eat more “normal” food on our rides that pass through rural areas of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland. When I rode the Endless Mountain 1000 brevet a few years back, I carried gels with me, but I also used rice crispy squares as a supplement while riding and tried to have a good sit down meal during the day to keep my energy levels up. During the course of a three day event like the 1000, my taste buds would rebel against the sweet taste of the gels, so stopping to eat a pizza or other savory items made getting the calories needed easier to get. On our fleche ride this past month, one of my team mates had made his own rice bars to eat on the ride and we stopped for a great lunch at the Little Grill Collective in Harrisonburg VA. The meal and the questions about bike touring from the workers at the grill were a highlight of the ride.

(Chris Niebylski at our lunch stop on the Fleche)

Lots of riders have a favorite coffee shop to end a ride at. Judging by the number of comments we got when Annette asked about coffee makers, I think coffee may be the most popular "fuel" for cyclists.

With a rising interest in some rural gravel rides this year and some touring lined up for the late summer and fall, I think more small town deli's and cafe's may be in my future as I go from eating to ride to riding to eat.

What do you eat on long rides? Any suggestions for good foods to carry?

Mounting a Handlebar Bag, in Pictures

Since we've been talking about bar bags recently a few folks have asked questions about attaching them to the bike.

Traditionally handlebar bags were, in fact, attached to handlebars. Hardly anyone does this today. The bag is supported by a small rack. On some old rando bikes I've seen the bag sitting directly on the front fender, but the fender needs an extra stay in front if its to support the bag.

The elastic on the top flap was often drawn over the stem, making it easier to open the bag. It's still the way I often close my bag.

Rather than attaching the bag to the bars, it's far more convenient to attach it via a quick release mechanism called a decaleur. This way the bag is easy to lift off and take with you when you've parked the bike. Notice how the leather patch on the back of the bag slips over the rack's backstop; that's what really holds the bag in place. A set-up like this is fine for most road riding, but bumpy roads may require a strap underneath to further stabilize the bag.

Note that the decaleur bar may be mounted high on smaller bags or lower as on the Grand Cru bag above.

You add a separate decaleur that mounts to the fork. We make these in sizes to fit 1' and 1-1/8" forks. The tangs can be bent for precise fit, but they may not work on very large and very small frames.

I prefer to use a rack with an integrated decaleur. This allows the bag to work on any size frame. We make a version of both the Pass Hunter and Rando rack with a decaleur, and the front Campeur rack includes an integrated decaleur.

By the way, we have extra decaleur bars so you can use more that one bag on your bike. I have a big bag, a small bag, and a basket that work with the decaleurs on all my bikes.

If using a rack with a backstop, but no decaleur, slip the back patch over the back stop and...

...secure the bag to the rack with a strap.

If you want to use your bag on a rack without a narrow backstop, use two straps underneath. You might also try Igor's trick of securing it to the handlebar drops to keep the bag extra-stable on extra rough roads.

That's it. Do you have any bag mounting tips to share in the comments?

Bespoked Bristol Bike Show

Our friends at FreshTripe sent some pictures and a very good summary of the Bespoked Show over the weekend. Here's the write-up from Jamie and for the full album, check out our page here:

Another great Bespoked Bristol Show, filled with exciting bikes and passionate people, it was even more popular than last year with the show reaching capacity by 12pm on the Saturday! Our stand was busy with customer's getting up close to a large range of Velo Orange items including racks, mudguards, bars, leather goods, pedals, bottle cages and more. It was great putting faces to names and hearing the enthusiasm customer's have for their bikes. We had a couple of special builds planned for the stand and were pleased to see them go down well - Alex Hatfield's Lee Cooper built Chrome Porteur (Bespoked Bristol 2011 Best Utility Bike Award Winner) was flanked by our recently designed Hobo Bushwacker 650b MTB, created in collaboration with Hobo Bicycles; worlds apart but both frames were hand-made by talented frame builder Lee Cooper.

Photograph by Gold Seal Photographywww.GoldSealPhotography.co.uk

Both featured Velo Orange items; the Chrome Porteur sporting Constructeur Rear Rack, Porteur Front Rack and Chain guard whereas the Hobo Bushwacker featured VO Diagonale 650b Rims, Quick Release Skewers, Compact Double Crank set (with inner placed on outer spider), Grand Cru BB, Grand Cru Seatpost, Grand Cru Mirror Polished Aheadet, Ahead Stem & Sew-On Elk-hide Covers. As far as we were aware (and could see), this was the only 650b MTB at the show, though there were plenty of Touring/Rando in that wheel size and we were pleased to hear that some show goers had come specifically with an interest in that size of bike.

Other noteworthy builds at the show were other Hobo Bicycles builds including the Weirdy Beardy (which you've featured before) and their Cous'n Jack Track Bike. This featured Velo Orange Singlespeed Cranks, Grand Cru BB and Grand Cru Mirror Polished Threaded Headset.

Photograph by Gold Seal Photographywww.GoldSealPhotography.co.uk

Photograph by Gold Seal Photographywww.GoldSealPhotography.co.uk 

Paulus Quiros had some stunning builds on show with extraordinary attention to detail. Their 'X' bike created for an enthusiast of the Veteran Cycling Club had a beautiful dragonfly head badge which flowed into the dual top tube and also had a Belleville Handlebar mounted up high. Their 650b 'Jeffrey's Rando' was brimming with details such as a delightful twisted seat stay and was kitted out with neat leather wrapped Moderniste cages to match the Elk-hide wrapped VO Rando Bar out front. It also featured VO 650b Zeppelin Mudguards, Grand Cru Seatpost, braided Cables, Dia Compe ENE Down tube Shifters and 650b Diagonale Rimes laced to a Touring Rear hub and High Flange Front hub.

Photograph by Gold Seal Photographywww.GoldSealPhotography.co.uk

Brian Rourke had an excellent stainless steel Tourer on display with had masked decals that revealed the polished tubes underneath and a pair of PBP rims laced up.

Photograph by Gold Seal Photographywww.GoldSealPhotography.co.uk

Tom Donhou had a great selection of builds including this turquoise delight which had fine painted details on the VO 36mm Polished Mudguards (not vinyl) and sported carbon slats on the rear rack. 

Photograph by Gold Seal Photographywww.GoldSealPhotography.co.uk

Ricky Feather had a similarly coloured build that look splendid with it's hand made copper mudguards. There are many more highlights from the likes of Saffron Frameworks (stunning green build which won Best Utility), Ted James Design (Awesome stainless 29er MTB), Swallow, Winter Bicycles, Field Cycles, Shand, Faggin, Demon Frameworks and more so I suggest you check out some of the reports and images from the show if you haven't already:

http://www.headsetpress.co.uk/bespoked-bristol-2013-photos-part-1/

http://road.cc/content/news/80868-bespoked-bristol-2013-sneak-peek-video-donhou-feather-paulus-quiros-rourke

http://www.bikeradar.com/gallery/article/bespoked-bristol-2013-huge-gallery-37017

Minimalist Cyclo-touring (re-posted)

With the new Grand Cru handlebar bags in stock, I thought it might be fun to repeat this post from 2009:


The short summer "credit card tour" is the basis of cyclo-touring. You can take this sort of trip most any nice weekend. Stay at a nice B&B or small country hotel and take your breakfast and dinner at the local cafes or casual restaurants. Lunch is best a picnic of locally-bought treats.

The key is traveling light. I find that the more I travel the less stuff I need to take, and not just on bike trips. Even on a six-week trip to Europe, I require only a single bag that stows easily in the plane's overhead bin. The trick is to cut out anything that's not essential and to take light clothes that you can wash yourself. So here is what I take on a one or two-night summer bike trip

In the saddle bag:

A small saddle bag, like the VO Croissant, is perfect for everyday riding as well as overnight trips. It almost always stays on the bike and usually contains the following:

• multi-tool
• mini-pump
• two tubes
• tube patch kit
• rain jacket or windproof vest
• optional: tire irons, keys, power bar

Remember that you only need one pump and one set of tools for a small group.

In the handlebar bag:


The following stuff fits in a VO Campagne bar bag with room left over.

In the rear pockets:

• cell phone (that only gets turned on once or twice a day)
• small camera

Tip: it's usually lighter to take an extra battery rather than a battery charger.

In the main compartment:

• light travel pants (Patagonia Gi 2 are my favorite)
• Cool Max t-shirt 
• shirt with collar (quick dry)
• under shorts (Ex Officio quick dry)
• cycling socks
• book
• knife with corkscrew (for cutting fruit, cheese, hard sausage, and opening wine)
• snacks (nuts, fruit, hard cheese)
• optional: film camera, down vest or ultralight sweater, collapsible walking shoes (if you ride with cleats), small cable lock

I try to take some reasonably nice looking clothes. Looking grubby gives all cyclo-tourists a bad image. There is no need for fancy duds, but I do take a short sleeve shirt with a collar as my evening wear and try to keep it and my pants clean. All these clothes can be washed in a hotel sink with regular bar soap in just a few minutes. And they will dry overnight if hung someplace where there's a bit of air circulation.

In the front pocket :

• toilet kit with toothbrush and travel size deodorant and toothpaste (not shown)
• a few aspirin tablets
• bandanna

Side pockets:

• wallet
• more snacks

Of course your packing list won't be exactly the same as mine, but the point I'm trying to make is that you don't need to take much.

BTW, below is a size comparison of the Campagne and Grand Cru bags. The GC bag is also deeper.

The New Grand Cru Handlebar Bag

The new Grand Cru Handlebar bag's design is based on traditional French handlebar bags. These days almost no one attaches bags like this to the handlebar. Instead they sit on a small front rack and are attached with a decaleur.

This bag is made in an artisanal sewing shop right here in Maryland. The fabric is heavy dark green treated cotton canvas. Wickett and Craig of Pennsylvania provide the oiled bridle leather for trim.

The large main compartment holds about 9.5 liters. There is also a front pocket, two flat side pockets, and two small rear pockets which I use for a cell phone and a small camera. The top has a map pocket. One of the neat features is the stiffener which goes in a long sleeve so no plastic is exposed.

Outside dimensions are: Width = 28cm, depth = 21cm, and height = 25cm. This bag is considerably larger than the VO Campagne bag. (And a bit larger than the Ostritch bag that we used to stock.)

The Grand Cru handlebar bag is designed to be used with, or without, a decaleur. There are two webbing patches running front to back under the bag. these are spaced at the same width as the rails on most small front racks. You can pass a strap through them to attach the bag to the rack if you're not using a decaleur.  An old toe clip strap works well for this. We chose this method rather than Velcro because the latter seems to wear out after a few years of heavy use.

The bag comes with a shoulder strap, very useful when walking around. No handlebar straps are included, since hardly anyone uses them anymore, but there are slots for them in case you're a true traditionalist.

Winnifred's Unconventional Foot Retention

A guest post by Casey:

In my last blog post, Winnifred's Funky Cockpit, I talked about my attempts to find the most comfortable and utilitarian setup for my touring bike's cockpit. For the past few years I've been on a similar journey in terms of pedal setup.

When I first started cycle touring in high school I had already been mountain-biking for a few years. At the time it seemed natural to use the SPD system with which I mountain biked. Unfortunately, this didn't go so well for me: I eventually developed some nasty knee pain. It ended up taking about a year for me to figure the exact source of my knee pain and eliminate it. The problem came in part from the longer rides I was doing while touring. The SPD setup had been putting strain on my knees while mountain biking, but I hadn't noticed it because I wasn't riding long enough. The problem I was having came from the fact that when my knees are pointing straight my feet are pointing out. Most clipless pedal systems naturally point the riders feet straight, for me this meant that my knees were turned in at an odd angle. Of course, it took me a good while to figure this out, and a lot of trial and error with different clipless pedal systems.

By the way, if any of you are suffering from knee problems I've found this website to be exceptionally helpful.

I tried TIME, Speedplay, and Crank Brothers Candy pedals. I found the Candys to be the only clipless system that I could adjust in a way that didn't give me knee problems. After pushing the pedal body through the spindle on two different sets of the Candys, I decided they weren't going to work for me either. In a strangely backwards way this brought me to platform pedals. With platforms pedals, I don't have to worry about what direction my feet are pointing, they just move to what is comfortable and my knees are fine. The only problem is that if I am going to be wearing regular shoes while riding, I want to wear my regular shoes -  which, in my case, are boat shoes or espadrilles. But thin soled shoes are horribly uncomfortable on classic road pedals. For this reason we designed the Grand Cru Sabot Pedal, which is what I currently ride with on my touring/city build. I've loved the sabots; they are easily the most comfortable pedal I have ever ridden.

Despite how uncomfortable clipless pedals were for me, I still loved the solid connection that you have with them when you are clipped in. This is something that the Sabots are lacking on their own. Traditional toe clips don't go well with the Sabots because the pedal is so long. I also personally don't think that traditional toe clips would look very good on the Sabots. Thankfully the guys over at Hold Fast came to my rescue. They make a unique foot retention system designed to be used with large flat platform pedals like the Sabot. They were even nice enough to a make us a version in brown. 

Ignore the questionable fashion choice of wearing black ankle socks with boat shoes

So far I've been really impressed with Hold Fast foot straps. They're secure enough that I feel comfortable pulling up on them like I would clipless pedals. They're also amazingly easy to get into, and I never feel I need to look down to make sure my foot is in the right place. They also don't have any pressure points since they secure your foot with such wide strap. All in all, they feel very solid, and are exceptionally comfortable. They are also made right up the road from us in Baltimore, Maryland. The combination of Hold Fast foot straps and the Sabots alongside my current cockpit setup has made for an ideal touring setup. With nice weather suddenly upon us and my bike all set up and ready to go, I can't wait to get out on tour this summer.

Winnifred's Funky Cockpit

A guest post by Casey:

I have always had three primary obsessions with my bike's setup: saddle, cockpit, and pedals. These are all quite similar since they are the points of interface between the rider and the bike. In the pursuit of comfort and utility, Winnifred, my touring/city/all-rounder build, has had a very tumultuous life in terms of cockpit setup. I think I have finally found a cockpit that is nearly perfect in terms of comfort and utility.

Winnifred behind VO World Headquarters

I've spent a lot of time touring with different drop bar setups. In which case I ride almost exclusively on the hoods or the flats. For riding in the hoods, I prefer something like Chris's Rando Bar but then I'm not quite as comfortable on the flats. More recently I've been trying a bunch of funky bars. I've ridden with the On-One Mary Bar, the Surly Open Bar, and the VO Postino Bar. I found them to be great for riding out of the saddle or comfortably cruising around; however, their lack of hand positions doesn't suit long rides. Enter the Jeff Jones H-Bar. It has the wide swept back hand position like most other funky bars, but it also provides a narrow hand position similar to the flats on drops bars. I've ridden around with these bars for a while and I love how comfortable they are. For me there are really only two downsides. They are exceptionally wide,which has led to some close calls in tight city traffic. I also miss the position afforded by hoods on drop handlebars. There isn't much to be done about the width without sacrificing comfort. However, I can imagine a similar bar that would provide the wide swept back hand position of a funky bar and a position similar to riding on the hoods of a drop bar. Fortunately, I can do more than imagine, I should have a prototype of said bar within a few weeks.

The other thing that I'm really excited about with my current cockpit setup is the shifter placement. I can shift entirely with my thumb or pointer finger without having to move my hand from the grips.  I was able to do this using the VO thumb shifter mounts and the Dia-Compe ENE down tube shifters. The trick is to reverse the shifter mounts and shifters (e.g., left shifter/mount on the right side of the handlebar). As you can see the clearance is pretty tight between the shifter and the Tektro FL750 brake lever, but with a little bit of fiddling I was able to get it to work very smoothly. I can't rave enough about this setup, it feels a lot sturdier than any grip or trigger shifter setup but is just as accessible. Plus it's just so svelte. What's you're favorite cockpit setup?

Shiny Bits

Whatever happened to nice fender mounted reflectors, or any nice reflectors for that matter? The reflector above was a present from a Japanese distributor. It is really lovely, a little jewel on the rear fender.

I like how it's radiused at the back.

And the profile is perfect. It just makes me smile. We need to come up with more little bits like this, even if they're not strictly practical.