Hey Green Eyes!

Celeste. There is just some thing about it.

Some say it's the color of the Milan sky, some a mixture of military paints, and others the color of the former queen of Italy's eyes. [Thank you Wikipedia!] This is a timeless color that's been in our line for a number of years on our Deep V, Fusion, B43, Blunt, Aero, VXC, Aeroheat and Aerohead rims.

Regardless, all I know is our celeste comes from Australia.

Some of you have probably seen our new ad in Urban Velo. Sporting how versatile the Bottle Trap is and since we know how you love matching colors, yesterday we received the first batch of the Bottle Traps in celeste. Numbers are limited now but more are on the way!
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This Saturday is also a big day here in Grand Rapids, as it is the ribbon cutting/Mayor's Ride/'official' opening of the GR Bike Park. Join Ryan, J-Bolt and a slew of others at 9am for a trail day, then at 11am let the riding ensue!

Then Sunday, I'll be heading back to my homeland [Cedar Falls, IA] for an extended weekend and will be putting on a little urban ride with a few people; and yes, I'll be rocking the 16" folding fixie! It looks to be a good weekend here in the Midwest, so get out and ride!
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Finally a few videos for the weekend. The first two are from the Velo City 2010 Tour, the first is a recap of sorts followed by a teaser from the past LA event

The final video is from a film project in it's early stages of development. 'Career Courier' is a documentary on, you guessed it, career bicycle messengers. We're excited to be a part of this project and look forward to seeing Kenton put together his vision for the film. Share the love, click on the widget below to see the video and help support the cause.

Introducing Halo

A few months back we began to look into redeveloping a new reflective surfaced rim. Our previous design, the ELVS, had been an extremely popular rim and we have been very pleased with them. In our desire to continue to innovate and improve, we set out to find an equally durable reflective process that allowed for us to machine the braking surfaces with better precision and ease.

Enter the Halo Reflective Powder Coating Process. The Halo rims get it's name from our partnership with Halo Coatings, who have developed this powder coating process for a number of different applications including: highway safety, bicycle, motorcycle, and fishing applications, fencing solutions, and a number of other industrial applications. The powder coating process allows us to traditionally machine the sidewalls of the rims for braking and provide a surface that will hold up to the normal wear and tear of riding.

Part of the beauty of launching this new reflective rim is being able to offer it has a specific wheelset. As with all of our wheels and builds we can customize them to your specific needs and desires. Our standard build for the Halo series is offered with black Velocity hubs [track, road, mountain, all depending on application], black brass nipples, and black 14g spokes with one white spoke going through the Halo reflective sticker [shown to the right] which is offset 1 spoke hole from the valve.

Below is the second Halo set built. This is a Fusion track wheelset, with our upgraded Hollow Axle, Solid Flange Hubs with the standard Halo build of one white spoke. Sharp to say the least:

Shown below, are the 7 different models of rims offered with the Halo Reflective Design. The first 2 showing the rims in natural light, appearing black graphite to the eye:



The following 2 photos show how the reflective powder coating works. When direct light is shined on the rim, the rim shines bright white, providing an eye catching rim that helps to alert fellow riders and automobiles of your presence:



The 7 rims [Model : Size : Drilling : Machined Sidewall/Nonmachined Sidewall] offered in with the Halo reflective powder coating go as followed:

- Dyad : 700c : 32H 36H : Machined Sidewall/Nonmachined Sidewall
- Fusion : 700c : 32H : Machined Sidewall/Nonmachined Sidewall
- Deep V : 700c : 32H 36H : Machined Sidewall/Nonmachined Sidewall
- B43 : 700c : 32H : Nonmachined Sidewall
- Cliffhanger : 26" [559] : 36H : Machined Sidewall/Nonmachined Sidewall
- Aeroheat : 20" [406] 26" [559] : 32H : Machined Sidewall/Nonmachined Sidewall

All of these models are instock and available through your local bicycle shop.

Handmade and Urban Velo

Well, the crew over at Urban Velo are at it again. With it being the first of the month, issue number 18 is out and they also have a pretty stellar amount of photos from Handmade this past weekend. Check out day 1, day 2, and day 3. The site is loading a little slow today, I'm assuming from the high volume of people checking out everything they've got going. So be patient and enjoy or even stop into your Local Bike Shop to see if they have the hard copies, if they don't suggest they bring them in!

For our ad in the current issue, we've got our Road Disc wheelset. Which sport our Fusion rims on our sealed-bearing road disc hubs, which is simply a bomb-proof wheelset for commuting or if your 'cross bike is rocking discs.

Riding Velocity wheels and rims, one knows:

_ we pride ourselves in giving you the very best in quality and price on the market
_ all of our wheelsets are handbuilt here in Grand Rapids, Michigan
_ every rim is handcrafted in Brisbane, Australia
_ each wheel and wheelset is made to order specifically for you and your specifications by professional wheelbuilders

Just a few of the many reasons Velocity once again is 'the best name to ride with'.

1x, 2x, 3x, maybe with a Twist

Some things are great conversation starters, some are just appealing and we can't put our hands on why, others are so wrong they are right. I don't know if that describes what has come up in conversation a few times since Frostbike but this wheel sure does catch the eye.

Yes, we like it even more that it's a B43 but we can appreciate this unique lacing pattern done up by the guys at Handspun [if you were at the show you would have seen one of these in our booth or in their booth]. JBolt rocks a snowflake lacing on one of his rigs and was jazzed about this once he saw it.

Another unique project we had going for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show this weekend was that done by Jacobi. If you follow us on Twitter you've already seen this but it's part table, part display, and part pump. This came about through trying to find an original way to display all our spoke and nipple colors. Sure there are probably easier ways of doing it that might take up less room but leave it to Jacobi to come up with this concept.

Here are a few of the main parts you'd need if you feel like making one of your own:
1 - 32 hole, 20" [406] Fusion Rim
1 - old Schwinn pump
1 - 20" tire
1 - piece of glass cut to proper size

*You'll also need some sort of larger base for the pump so it won't fall over on you. Jacobi used an old chainring from a 1-piece crank. He also radial laced the wheel instead of any crossing pattern for a cleaner look. It's also good to note that the pump still pumps... sorta.

Our Rides, because We Ride

Today, a new little segment we'll be starting up called 'Our Rides, because We Ride' series. If you've frequented or stumbled onto the regular Velocity site you'll notice a section under the About Us there's a few links to some of the guys bikes. This will be similar to that, but hopefully with a little bit more depth on the bikes themselves, maybe a story or two from on the ride. Plus give you all the opportunity to familiarize yourself with more of the Velocity crew.

We'll start off with one my rides, my Cannondale Cyclocross Optimo 3. This bike only has a few stock pieces left on it and has taken quite a few different transformations over the past 2 years; I'm sure there will continue to be a few changes as time passes. For now I have upgraded the wheel set to a custom Velocity Brown Fusion rims [Velocity road hubs, 32 hole, 3 cross, DT Swiss Champion spokes, with blue alloy nipples, using Veloplugs], rocking it 1 x 9 [inspired by Carl Buchanan's cross set-up] a 105 crank set with a Salsa Crossing Guard and 41T Salsa Ring, topped off with Kore White Canti brakes and stem, a Brooks B17 saddle, and recently install new bright white bottle traps. All in all, She's a looker.

The bike has seen the gravel of Iowa for Trans Iowa last year and competed in a few of the Kisscross events here in GR. This bike is really my all around bike, I'll swap out tires quite frequently from the Bontrager 700 x 34 CXR's to Continental 700 x 25 Ultra Gators and rock the bike as a commuter when I feel the need for some gears. Of the 7 bikes I have, this is 1 of 3 that I would have a hard time parting with.

Spec on the bike:

2007 Cannondale Cyclocross Optimo 3

Frame: Cyclocross Optimo
Fork: Slice Ultra XR Carbon
Wheels: Velocity Fusion 32H
Spokes: DT Swiss Champion w/ Alloy Nipples
Tires: Bontrager CRX 700x34
Pedals: Crank Brothers Egg Beater SL
Crank: Shimano 105 41T w/ Salsa Crossing Guard
Chain: Shimano 9-speed
Rear Cogs SRAM PG-950, 12-26
Bottom Bracket: Shimano 105
Front Derailleur: None
Rear Derailleur: Shimano 105
Shifters: Shimano Tiagra
Handlebars: Cannondale C3, 31.8 mm,
Stem: Kore K34 100mm [+6 degree]
Headset: FSA Alloy integated
Brakeset: Kore Race + Canti
Saddle: Brooks B17
Seat Post: Cannondale C2 Carbon-wrapped