We have a set of the very limited edition Phil Wood Track Hubs coming to us. One set.
Before we move on any further, the price is $575 for the set. So, now that we are clear. Here are some pictures.

Bigger Pictures!

OF COURSE WE WILL
When we were offered these, we jumped at the chance. After all, Phil Wood makes the nicest stuff around. As of this posting, we still haven’t held these in our hands, but we are eager to see them in person. If you *have to* have these, please give us a call and they will be yours**.

**Unless, someone else pays us first.

Tires in Denver are a sore spot for some. Not us, though. We know what tires will work well and what tires Denver will KILL OFF IMMEDIATELY. If you ride in the city, you have only a few choices that will allow you to stay upright, not have to walk your bike home from flat tires and not kill your pocketbook. Here is our short list:

1. Continental Contact Series – People who get flat using these are typically trying to prove us wrong. An infamous messenger skidded through one of them: not one flat until he went through all the layers. Even at the end, he was dumbfounded (and probably still is). We had another commuter come in with well over 200 thorns in each tire. Only 1 huge thorn made it through. That is a pretty good ratio.

Continental Contact Tire

The Contacts come in sizes for 26″ and 700c, from pretty skinny to a touring fat size. They have several different tread patterns as well.

2. Continental Gatorskin Series – These tires are not only tough, but the rubber is nice to ride on. When the going gets nasty, the Gatorskin can take it. People generally report about 2,000 to 3,000 miles. The mile per dollar ratio is really nice on these!

3. Serfas Seca Series – No where near as fancy as the Contact or Gatorskins, the Serfas Seca tires have a built in strip that resists the nasty thorns that Denver throws at cyclists. Expect about 800 to 1,000 miles out of these tires before it is time to replace them.

We build custom wheels here if you cannot find what you are looking for, but many people do find a complete wheelset that makes them happier and faster without breaking their budget.

Mavic Completes
Please don’t misunderstand us when we say you will like your bike better. That same bike in your possession will magically turn into a new bike; a faster more responsive bike. With the Ksyrium SL or the R-sys wheel systems, your bike will be faster. The stiffness of the wheels lends itself to energy transfer from your power into the wheel turning. You will notice on the first tight turn you take that your bike is more responsive than ever. Mavic does a few unconventional things in wheel building:
The first thing is the materials used for spokes. On the Ksyrium SL, Mavic uses Aluminum for spokes. The reason they are able to do this is the tremendous tension that the rim can hold up to allows for the aluminum spokes to be virtually still through the movement of the wheel. The R-sys wheels use Carbon for spokes. The system is set up like a wagon wheel rather than a traditional wheel, so the carbon is holding you up, rather than you hanging on the spoke. It works. It works well.
The second thing is to offer a guarantee with their wheels. Simply buying the MP3 program at the time of wheel purchase gives you the freedom to push your wheels as hard as you want. If something does happen, Mavic will fix or replace the wheel at no extra charge to you. It is so simple; If you break wheels, you buy Mavic with an MP3 protection program.

Easton Completes
Easton does a few things we find amazing. They consistently make bombproof wheels at affordable prices and they do it with style. We sell many of the Easton EA50SL wheelsets because they offer an immediate upgrade to most entry level bikes and they last practically forever. The secret to their builds is the final human touch they offer. We cannot go to into detail on their ways, but let’s say that we rarely see problems come up with their wheels. The Owner of Salvagetti has a set of Easton EA90SLs on his Jamis Eclipse because they are light enough to fly with, but heavy duty enough to not be scared.

The fixed gear community as a whole has taken a turn for style, rather than performance. As long as you love your bike, and you long for it when it is not near, we aren’t going to question you. That being said, we are going to cover the parts that make a difference when riding in Denver. Track specific stuff is not going to work well in the city because it is intended to be rebuilt all of the time. If you ride in Denver, you can expect to need good quality parts. You can buy stuff that is nice, or you are gonna buy it twice.

WHEELS

Wheels need special attention for singlespeed and track bikes. We do not mess around on wheels. Your search far and wide for quality will lead you back to us. We build a great deal of wheels for Denver and we don’t hear complaints. Read More

TIRES

– Tires in Denver are a sore spot for some. Not us, though. We know what tires will work well and what tires Denver will KILL OFF IMMEDIATELY. If you ride in the city, you have only a few choices… Read More

CRANKS

– Cranksets are one of the best ways to turn your rig into a NON-RIG. We see a great deal of accidents from people not getting their chainline… Read More

Road bikes are made up of parts, hung on a frame, snugged together with bolts, pushed by a human, pushed by the desire to go really fast. In the world of road cycling, many changes have come about to make you go faster. We have seen so many things come and go that we felt compelled to make a list of the stuff that is going to make you faster and not make you sad.

WHEELS
The best way to get any bike faster is to upgrade the wheels. We build custom wheels here if you cannot find what you are looking for
Read More

TIRES
Good tires are an addiction. Once you start using good sticky tires, you will scoff at the idea of getting anything else.
Read More

CASSETTE to CHAINRING RATIO
Depending on where you are riding, what you are trying to accomplish and who you are, your bike needs to be set up with proper gearing.
Read More

Trail Riding in and around Denver

While you are flying down Chimney Gulch at breakneck speeds, you (hopefully) aren’t going to be thinking how great your headset feels or how light your seatpost is. People may ask you on the trail how you like your Chris King headset or Thomson stem. The truth is that the best equipment for mountain biking around Denver is the stuff that you don’t notice is there. A fork that can handle the big rocks and crazy terrain, a headset that never binds up regardless of weather, tires that grip on our trails when you need it and a frame that is as stiff as your riding requires. The idea on a mountain bike is to forget that you are using a tool to fly, you are just doing it. Denver trails are some of the most challenging in the world and knowing what is gonna get you out and back is of utmost importance to have a good time.

THE STUFF THAT MATTERS MOST:

FRAMES
– We could go on and on, but the most important thing about a frame on the Front Range is whether you like the geometry and the way the suspension (if you have any) works FOR YOU. Read More

FORKS
– Many people feel very strongly about one brand of fork or another. At a bike shop, a typical response to a fork is based on how often we see problems arise Read More

STOCK WHEELS
Wheels make the biggest difference in overall speed and stamina on a bike. When you take away rotational weight, your bike is more likely to do what you want it to do when you want (and hopefully how you want, too). Read More

CUSTOM WHEELS
Not everyone can find what they are looking for when building their mountain bike. Wheels are especially difficult for some people. A custom wheel means that each part is picked out for its quality, weight, price and specifications. Read More

TIRES
“It felt like cheating”. We like hearing that. It is one of the things that gets us more excited about tires. There is a difference between different treads and rubbers. Read More

Only the strong survive. Or the unridden.

THE BUILD

This is the biggest factor to whether a wheel comes out strong, stays strong and performs as you want it to.
We build our wheels in a very exact way. It is 5 parts an art form and 10 parts science. The lacing and preparation are the art. The tensioning and preconditioning are the science. We have built a tool that systematically lets us know which spokes need attention and which ones are ready to go. After we have made sure that your wheel will not want to go anywhere, we take out an insurance policy: we have a special adhesive that holds the spokes in place, but allows for movement under truing stand conditions. So, we can replace a spoke if we need to, but not because it jiggled loose.

HUBS

- There are a few shops that are selling some really crappy, inexpensive fixed gear hubs, laced poorly to crappy heavy rims (that look neat to the untrained eye). It is sort of a bait and switch. The issue with a not so great hub is that it will strip out. This leaves you with a bunch of parts to recycle, and nothing to be ridden ever again. We only sell hubs we know will last.

1. Phil Wood – Not a single problem with these hubs for going on 5 years. They make them right. If you can afford this, you should absolutely go with Phil Wood. Phil makes some crazy custom hubs, too. If you can dream it… more.

2. White Industries – With their introduction of the splined fixed gear set up, no more cogs ever have to slip again. Their track series the ENO (one backwards) hubs are the lightest hubs we have come across that are also super trustworthy. And who wouldn’t be excited about their ENO eccentric hub that allows us to convert virtually any style road bike to a ss/fixed gear?

3. Profile – Known worldwide for the toughest bmx cranks (pretty much ever), Profile jumped into the track hub market. We have set up several bikes with these without hearing so much as a whimper. Please be ready for some extra attention for these.

4. Formula – Within the Formula lineup, there is garbage to be had. And we flat out will not carry those hubs (though, we have been begged to carry them). They break. The good Formula Track Hubs do not have problems. As far as miles per dollar, these guys are hard to beat. They are reminiscent of the old Sheriff Badge Campagnolo Track hubs, but without the pain of shelling out tons of money (for nothing but style points). We sell many of these hubs and have only seen a very small number of them with problems. Those problems were caught before a single spoke was introduced to them, so we haven’t really had any problems with them.

RIMS

– Rims are what holds the tension of the spokes and has to spring back in place when you slam into a pothole or go up a curb. Getting a great rim is your best chance to not have to spend extra money when you didn’t want to. We build and ride a lot of wheels here, so we know which rims last the longest.

1. Mavic Open Pro – The rim that all others are compared to. Super light, super strong and great to build with. The eyelets are extra strong and the spoke tension can be taken nice and high using these rims. They are a great value, though they do cost about $40 more per wheel than our second choice.

2. Mavic Open Sport (MA-3) – Easily our most popular 700c track rim. Why? Because when you are on a budget, but you are following the “buy it nice, or buy it twice” theme, these are the only way to go. Still classic in style and tough, but without the extra weight loss of a racing rim. We have seen virtually no problems with these rims, other than the occasional run in with a car or fellow cyclist. Which, of course, isn’t really the rim’s fault.

3. Velocity Deep-V – These catch everyone’s eye. They can’t help it. And they come in a variety of colors and patterns that will match about any bike. Often imitated, but never quite matched in style and especially quality. These build up nicely and run fast. Sometimes, too fast.

SPOKES

You get one choice. The best. Sapim (or Phil Wood) spokes are what we build with. No reason to get anything less.