A Weekend Update

This weekend we had the privilege of being part of a number of different events around the nation.

Starting out on the west coast, Summer Fix LA, where all the fixed gear freestyle riders made it out to throw down with a number of different events. One of the judges was John Watson of Prolly is not Probably, his site has a great run down of the event along with photos as they make their way to the inter-web. Here's a link to a video from the freestyle competition. Hats off to Wonka for taking 1st in the Advanced division, nice custom P35s by the way!

The NUE Series stop in Colorado for the Breckenridge 100. Results are now up on the site. Another solid year and turn out from the looks of it. Remember that overall winners for the series have a chance to win a set of wheels from us.

The North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Championship in Madison, Wisconsin. From all reports this event went off great! There is a rumor that ESPN was there for a bit getting some footage. I wasn't able to find anything that has been posted but hopefully once some thing hits the web, I'll have it for you all. Congratulations to the Odds who won the tournament and got a ticket to Worlds in Berlin. Cheers to all of you who competed, remember to keep your can cool!

Finally, Bike Stock Dos here in Grand Rapids. Bike Stock is simply a day promoting bicycle advocacy around the city. Alex and JBolt made there way down to the festival of sorts to hang out, drink some good beer and talk shop at the booth. In the last few years alone, GR has been making great strides in becoming a bicycle friendly city and the push has continued with editorials like this.
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The answer to our Friday photo challenge as announced on our Twitter earlier today, after much review and valuable time spent researching, we'd say there are 9 different Velocity logos or product shown in the current issue of Urban Velo and at least 8 logos/products can be seen in the bonus photo. It's important to note that during our intensive search, we came to the conclusion that their are potentially more but we can not say without a doubt: 12 in Urban Velo and upwards of 49 in the bonus.

a picture challenge

In the last few weeks... we've mentioned our Benny Gold Special Edition rims, our Halo rims and the new batch of can koozies. All of which, if you didn't check out, you should.

For this Friday, we have a game for you... since we're not clever enough today to come up with a name for it; it's simply a picture challenge. We recently received hard copies of the latest edition of Urban Velo which promptly made it's way to the head office for review. After many 'meetings', we noticed quite a few of our logos, rims, and wheels showing up all over the place in.

Here's what to do:
- click on the picture above which will take you to the online edition of Urban Velo
- spend ample amounts of company and/or personal time working your way through the issue
- find all the Velocity products, logos and such in the issue
- submit your answer

What you'll win:
- pride
- potential joy... potentially.

Bonus challenge:
- find all the Velocity in this picture.

Answer will be given on Monday via our Twitter.

Remember, if you want your chance to get your hands on some real Velocity swag don't forget about the Velocity Temporary Tat Back-O-Goodies Give A Way. The deadline for submissions is fast approaching!

Enjoy the weekend!

more polo.

6 times year one of our favorite publications comes out, Urban Velo. We really can't express how much we enjoy the magazine itself or how much respect we have for Jeff and Brad for putting it all together and how great they are to work with it. We've highlighted a number of items so far this year in it; from the Halo Reflective Rims, to our ability to custom build wheels to your exact specification and need, and last issue the Bottle Trap. In this installment, since Matt and a few others of the GR crew making it to the Midwest 8 tournament in Minneapolis and being on the verge of the North American Tournament in Madison here in July; we wanted to simply say thanks to everyone in MPLS for a stellar time and advocate a bit for more to join in on this growing subculture of cycling.

Waaay back in June, we had the privilege to be part of another bicycle polo tournament down in Indiana. It was the first ever Indiana Invitational presented by the Bloomington Bike Polo crew, held in Bloomington, IN on the Indiana University campus. With a strong showing of around 60 players representing 7 states it's easy to say that it was a success. The tournament even garnered enough attention that the local paper did a write up on it. Check it out, in what I'll call great polo fashion the article seems to give a great snap shot of the growing polo culture.

We contributed one of our handbuilt Chukker wheelsets to the tournament, which ended up being awarded to the MVP of the day, Ben from St. Louis Dignified Gentlemen. The Dignified Gents also went on to win the tournament by beating the Butt Suckers from Columbus, Ohio. A great day for the Lou', and from all accounts a great event and time for everyone involved. Next time hopefully it works out for us to get a team together and head down.

For more pictures from the event, check out the comment section of their post or see a few here.

Hey-lo, Halo

If you might remember, a few months back we were excited to about the release of our newest reflective rims with Halo coatings. This extremely durable graphite black powder-coated rim that shines bright white with direct light has been a solid seller for us since its release.

We've been in contact with Arleigh over at CommutebyBike.com and Bikeshopgirl.com about doing a review on the them and this past week we were finally able to get a set built up for her with some Shimano Alfine hubs. We've outfitted her with some Halo Dyad's for review and can't wait for her to get some ride time on them. Be sure to be checking out her sites and we'll be reposting her thoughts here.

Back in January when we were prepping for the Halo release we did an ad with Urban Velo. The final product is shown above but I figured I could show you a few of the photos that didn't make the cut but are nevertheless show off the Halo powdercoating. We didn't use any sort of back light, simply just the flash of the camera, providing what the rims look naturally when light hits them. You can see more photos of the Halo rims in action on our Facebook page.

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.

Monday Videos

Another day. Another Monday. After a weekend, the mind is always a little sluggish; so why not keep it simple today with a few videos to hopefully stimulate the mind on this Monday morning.

First, if there was any question on bike polo, this video sure does clear it up. Well... it doesn't but it was posted over a on the Hardcourt Bike Polo website, which is a great site to get an idea of the ins and outs of this segment of the cycling world.

The next video was posted over at Urban Velo last week: the Red Bull Minidrome. Yes, you read this correctly, minidrome. And yes, it is that sweet.

Red Bull Minidrome from Radar Films on Vimeo.

I'll leave you with a video I stumbled onto this weekend on the GR Bike Park. With the Mayor's ride coming up this weekend, it's exciting to see how this park has developed and is developing [plus, you can see Ryan and J-Bolt doing a few runs on the pump track]:

Put that in your Trap

If you haven't made your way over to Urban Velo to check out the newly released May 2010 issue, I highly recommend it. We advertised again with them and this time decided to highlight the new Bottle Trap.

As we've mentioned in the past, we developed the Bottle Trap to replace the Velocage after the machine used to make them continued to break down. It was a sad day to see that decision be made since the Velocage had been with us from the beginning. We were adamant about whatever we decided to replace it with needed to be just as versatile, strong and light as it's predecessor.

The design of the Bottle Trap went beyond our expectations, after getting the prototypes we were blown away with how well they held a bottle in place. And truth be told, it was when we were taking product shots that it was discovered the massive array of containers that fit in it. The Bottle Trap truly allows you to pick your poison for 'hydration'. With a price between $6-$8, depending on your shop, the cost to weight ratio [29 grams], the Bottle Trap is hard to argue against.

In the months since it's release, the Bottle Trap as gotten a number of great reviews/recommendations from across the spectrum of riders:

'I've actually used these cages and they grip your bottle with authority! I highly doubt you will lose a bottle on a rough gravel road using one of these composite/plastic cages'

_ Guitar Ted, TwentyNineInches.com & TransIowa Founder

'I know I want one!'

_ Prolly is not Probably

'The Bottle Trap seem very minimal in the base area that holds the bottle. No wasted material needed. They seemed pretty lightweight to me right away as well so I set them on the scale to compare them to my carbon cages. The Velocity Bottle Traps came in at 30g each which is identical to the Profile Design Karbon Kages '

_ Carl Buchanan, Velo Syndikat


Jeff at Urban Velo did a little write up on them yesterday and to read all of Prolly's thoughts go here. More importantly, go to your local bicycle shop and ask for the Bottle Trap. If they do not stock them, your local shop can order them through most distributors or directly from us.

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'.

Revoked

We like videos here at Velocity and we're part of another one called Revoked by Chris Fonseca. Fonseca released his last project, No Cassettes, 10 months ago and his latest is called Revoked. Revoked will showcase the best riders and spots to date. Revoked is starring:

Justin (CONGO) Mitchell
Derek Joseph (ONE MAN WRECKING CREW) Mull
Gus (HONDURAN HAMMER) Molina
Matt (Silky) Spencer
Richard (MR. GLASS) Baldwin

They are now taking PRE-ORDERS @ revokedmovie.bigcartel.com and the film ships out the end of next month. A World Premier will be held in Long Beach at Downtown Showdown. Here are two of the trailers for the film:

REVOKED TRAILER from REVOKED MEDIA on Vimeo.

REVOKED FINAL TRAILER from REVOKED MEDIA on Vimeo.

In some more Frostbike news, the guys over at All-City introduced a new steed to their line up... the Nature Boy, a single speed 'cross bike:

Looks like it won't be available before July but that's plenty of time before 'cross season. Yep, those are B43's on there and yes, there is not a machined braking surface. Have no fear, just as the guys over at Urban Velo have seen, our ano rims without a machined sidewall can handle brakes just fine. Final spec on the complete bike doesn't look to be determined quite yet, either way this is a hot bike. I just might have to get my hands on one.

Chukk that out.

Yesterday over at Urban Velo, there was a little write up by Jeff on our Chukker wheelset. If you're ever wondering about how our anodized stuff holds up to braking, that question is addressed plus another reminder on how rock solid our hand-build wheels are. As always, enjoy.

Velocity Chukker Wheelset - On Test

I like to play bike polo. It’s a fun game, and with some exceptions not particularly hard on the body, but definitely fosters a lot of bike to bike contact. When you consider all the crashing, sprinting and hard braking, it’s not surprising that I’ve had a problem keeping my polo bike’s wheels true. I mentioned this to the guys at Velocity USA, and without hesitation they sent me a Chukker wheelset to see if it didn’t solve my problems. I told them that I was running a freewheel on my polo bike, and they were especially interested in my experiences running brakes with an anodized, non-machined rim. Having read Jobst Brandt’s theories on these subjects, I was quite interested myself.

Velocity’s Chukker rims are specifically designed for the more punishing disciplines of urban cycling—namely bike polo, as evidenced by the Chukker logo. With drillings of 32, 36 and 48 holes, they’re also geared towards freestyling, heavier cyclists and tandem riders. Of course they’re also a great choice for commuters who want to run a Deep V rim with high-volume tires. The rim’s profile is not entirely new, mind you. It’s a re-issue of Velocity’s proven Deep V ATB rolled into a 700c rim. At 24mm wide, they’re designed to hold high-volume mountain bike tires, they’re certainly at home with 35’s installed. And at 32mm tall, their strength and stiffness seem to be a force to be reckoned with.

Velocity’s complete wheelsets are hand-built in Grand Rapids. They came perfectly true with brass nipples and 14g straight gauge spokes laced to Velocity’s standard black track hubs. Some dedicated fixed gear riders may be disappointed that the Velocity hubs are threaded fixed/free, so you can’t run a fixed cog on both sides.

After one month of testing, I’m fairly convinced that these wheels are going to prove themselves to be bombproof. But only time will tell. Granted, I’m not hucking off staircases, but they’ve already taken some spills on the polo court, not to mention a few mallets to the spokes, and they’re still rolling straight and true. The brakes seem to lock up as well as they did on my old rims with machined sidewalls, even in wet conditions. I’ve been skidding all over the court and burning holes through tires. Most interestingly, even though I can hear that the pads are often gritty and wet, the anodization hasn’t even started to wear off. I’m fairly certain it will eventually give way to raw aluminum, but theoretically, that should only improve braking.

Available in black, silver, bronze and olive (shown) the Chukker rim weighs 650g. The complete wheelset (with standard hubs, as shown) retails for $330, or upgrade to solid-flange premium hubs for $375. The rims alone retail for $70 each. Stay tuned for an update down the road. In the meantime, visit www.velocityusa.com for more information.

And we're off again...

It's another short week here and we're getting as many orders out before another 4 day weekend. We'll be back to a normal work week starting on Monday, January 4. With the extended weekend what better thing to do than to get out and ride. So if you're in the West Michigan/Grand Rapids area there is a New Years Day ride being hosted by Founders Racing. They're hoping to get 100 people out for a nice little spin around town to help burn off the New Years Eve fog, plus it's just a great way to start fresh for 2010. More info click here. As if there were any doubt, some of the Velocity crew will be representing. Hopefully we'll see you there.

The latest issue of Urban Velo is now out and available for free download at their site; it's a pretty stellar publication to say the least. Sure, we're biased but we've got a good ad [seen above] in there on our new reflective powder coating that due out in February '10. The photo we used was not photoshopped, the rims shine bright white when direct light hits them and in daylight are black. Contact your local bike shop if you're interested for pricing!

So until next year, from all of us here at Velocity...

Have a safe and enjoyable New Years!

[Some of the crew from Interbike '09]