Schwinn Montague = Ritchey Breakaway - 20 years - lots of class

Saw this locked to a lamp post near the train station today. Apparently the Schwinn Montague had a two joint seat tube based break-apart mechanism which was functionally the same as the modern Ritchey BreakAway but, from the looks of it, less secure. I say less secure because the seat post joint uses more or less a bathroom stall hasp which can probably rotate and creak and contributes little to frame strength or stiffness. Anyway, someone still makes the Montague, albeit with a different, novel break-apart mechanism.

Ibis Tranny

I snapped this pic wondering what was going on with the new Ibis rigid carbon MTB, the Tranny. Does that rear triangle come off for repair, maintenance, swap out with a full suspension rear traingle?  No, no and no.  Apparently, his bike attempts to be all things to all people.  According to Ibis it is:

-A geared bike

-A single speed

-A travel bike

-A bottle opener

Now, when you see how it works as a bottle opener, you will say "what the hell, I have to take the rear wheel off to open my beer?"  Yes.  Once you have done something catastrophic like ripped off your rear derailler on a stump, or taco'd your front wheel, go ahead and lay the bike on its side just off the trail, sit down, remove the wheel and open the glass bottle you've been carrying around in your camel-back.  I have to say, Swobo's seat rail bottle opener seems more practical.

The geared/single features of the bike are modular cable stops and an adjustble rear triangle to take up extra chain length.  How does it adjust?  Watch the tranny hump itself* in this short animation:

http://www.ibiscycles.com/images/full/tranny_anim_1.gif

What interests me the most is that the rear triangle is removable for travel.  Up until now, I felt that the slickest travel system was the Ritchey Break Away.  Of course, that works best on my kind of bikes - metal ones with tubular members.  If you go to crazy box-section carbon tubes.  Go tranny.  I wonder if they will bring this travel modality to a road frame?  I'm sure there are some folks out there who would like to take their sporty carbon road frame to Europe and avoid paying through the nose to get a big bike box on the plane.  How about it Ibis, travel carbon road frame?

*I'll do anything to boost blog traffic.

Oddball tires - could use a hand here

Anyone know where I can find some super oddball 20 x 1 3/8" tires for this Montgomery Ward's folding bike? It would be fun to have, if I could just get it some new rubber. It's almost too much hassle, given that I can buy a Dahon folding bike brand new for $199...

SF MoMA - Biomega bike

I took a little trip to the San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art recently. I was surprised that I didn't see more industrial design. There was some graphic art and ID in one small exhibit, and one of the things on display was this Biomega bike from Denmark:

As I looked it over, it appeared to be a folding bike with a laid back riding position, some serious hydraulic disk brakes and some sort of integrated cable lock. I checked it out on the web and they call this model the "Boston" and claim that the cable is a structural component of the frame, and that if cut, the bike is "unrideable…but repairable". The cable didn't look like it was under any tension to me, so I'm assuming that the frame either flexes enough once you get on it to put it in tension or that claim is not entirely true. If it were in tension (a la the cable on a Slingshot frame) while no one was on the bike, I don't know how you'd get it unlocked. Also, notice no valve stems on the tires. I'm assuming that to avoid that wilted-tire look after a few months on display, they either filled the casings with something that doesn't leak out or put some sort of alternate tube (like Tire Balls) in.

First Cyclocross Race of the Season and Slingshots

Still hot here in Northern California and the first race of the season was a dust fest. The folks out in Livermore always put on a decent race. Inexpensive entrance fees, freebies for racers, and a good, classic cyclocross course. There's run ups, grass field riding, some mud and enough room to pass in on the course. My results - mid pack. Probably should have trained more before the season started, but life has a way of making other plans for you some times.
Next race, I hope not to be so cross eyed that I run into the tape, bouncing off of it like Wile E. Coyote and his enormous rubber band.

One interesting tech note - I saw a guy using a Slingshot cyclocross frame.
I chatted with him about it. He said it wasn't any lighter than a normal frame since the tubes were made of steel and reinforced for the flexing loads. He also showed that he had to shoulder it by grabbing the top tube and slipping his arm through. One cool feature, is that you can break it down for easy transport:

Best of luck to him and his Wile E. Coyote machine.

And you thought the Bianchi was velo origami

The recently completed Bianchi folding bike, while beautiful, functional, and classic, is nowhere near the Rubik's Cube of complexity that the Suitcase Bike is: