Monday, May 24, 2010

Mavic Paris-Roubaix SSC rims - not IMPOSSIBLE to find...


Just really hard to find, and doubly so at a reasonable price. A pair of new-old-stock rims seems to sell for approximately $500US - excessive to say the least.


Paris-Roubaix's are tough-as-nails rims, made to get down and dirty in the spring classics. They're made to be ridden, not hung on a wall and admired, so I was quite happy to find this gently used set, formerly the property of a Dutch rider from the Agu-Abus-Koga-Cordo team. Patience and careful watching let me pick up them for a fraction of the price of NOS - laced to a really nice set of Shimano Dura Ace 7403 hubs. They'll be relaced to a set of Mavic 571/2 hubs sometime between now and April, 2011 - at which point they'll revisit their cobbled past.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Mavic 631 v. 631/2

Not entirely sure what the difference between a Mavic 631 and a 631/2 is? Here are some pics that'll make the difference abundantly clear.


On the left, a 631. On the right, a 631/2. Most of the differences are pretty plain to see. The spider of the 631 narrows gracefully as it reaches its ends. The 631/2's spider largely stays consistent in width. The spider is a little shorter and stockier than the 631, which allows it to run a smaller chainring in the outermost position - down to a 42 I believe.

The crank arm itself is less rounded on the 631/2 as well. It's middle flat section is slightly wider.


The backside. The spider has much less material on the 631/2, with relief work evident on the backside. At the very top of the picture, you may also notice that the 631 has some material taken off the edges of the crank arm, while the 631/2 does not. There's also some material removed on the 631 around the spindle interface, while the 631/2 has none removed.

The 631/2 is quite a bit lighter than the 631 - though it's hardly a lightweight. This can probably be attributed to the shortening and relief work done to the spider.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Brooklyn Bike Jumble This Sunday!@#

The 2nd Annual Brooklyn Bike Jumble is going down this Sunday, 5/16/2010 at JJ Byrne Park at 4th St. + 5th Avenue in - you guessed it, Brooklyn, NY. I'll be there selling some cool items, including all sorts of vintage jerseys, NOS Campy bits + pieces, and a smattering of other cool items. Blog readers who say "hey" may even get better prices!

While you're there, check out Harry's Coney Island Velodrome exhibit as well!

Friday, May 07, 2010

A little Lemond Catalog reading for the weekend

Greg LeMond recently re-launched his personal website. To a lot of us, Greg represents everything good about pro cycling. He was an incredible talent, making winning seem easy in his earliest years. Following his unfortunate hunting accident, he used a combination of smarts, incredible bike handing skills, and sheer will to win an additional 2 Tour de France overalls and a Worlds title, to go with his pre-accidents wins.

Greg was an unfortunate victim of the pharmacological revolution in the pro peloton in the early 90's. Where natural talent and intelligence could compete with the cortisone and amphetamine jacked pro's of the '80's, contending in the face of EPO just wasn't going to happen. Greg's been pretty vocal about it, and has gotten a lot of shit from people for speaking his mind. I've seen the guy speak. He's not some ultra-polished PR-trained robot, but a normal guy, who speaks humbly and honestly about what he saw and sees as the undoing of cycling - and does so without an ounce of bitterness. 3 time tour champ. 2 time world champ. He has nothing in the world to be bitter about.

Anyhow, go check out his site, follow him on Twitter, be his friend on Facebook. Encourage and support the guy - he's awesome.

I'm disabling comments on this post - my blog, my soapbox. But in exchange for your forced silence on this topic, here are scans of the 1992 LeMond Bicycles catalog.


The Team Z version of the carbon frames were Calfee built. Where the consumer ones?



Carbon. Calfee or not? It has the webbing we associate with them, but I don't know...



Geometry. Long top tubes was (is?) the Lemond geom


TSX and SL. The rainbow TSX frame, along with the inverted version (black top tube) is the one I always associate with Lemond.

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