Shaggy B17 on Site

For the second year in a row, the kind people at Brooks have bestowed on us one of their Dealers of Excellence awards. The award this year was a B17 standard saddle with the fur intact.

The “Shaggy” B17 is number 57 out of the 100 in the world and fewer than 50 saddles were awarded in the United States. It’s somewhat comical to visit Brooks’ Stockists page and see DeKalb listed alongside the greater bike meccas of the world: Portland, LA, Sacramento, Denver, Davis, and more. The award is not so much a sales award as it is an award of congruence. Brooks recognizes the dealers who are, in their own words, “[their] best ambassadors.”

We can’t take full credit for the award, though. We really owe it to all the folks who believed us when we promised that the saddles would break in and the people who still choose to invest good money in well-made products designed to last. Thank you.

For more pics, check out our Flickr set.

And stay tuned, Brooks fans, because NCC has a special event coming up February 6th, 2010  that will need to be etched in your calendar.  Full disclosure coming soon…

 

The Bling Dummy

The Eddington Big Dummy Project deserves a post of its own. We can take very little credit for the spec on this bike, as it was mostly chosen before it was presented to us. Janice has excellent taste in components.

The red Rohloff came straight from Germany for this project. We matched the anodized red with a King front hub, King Headset, Crank Bros 50/50 Pedals, Salsa Skewers and Seat Clamp. The rest of the bike was black. The hbar is a Nitto Dove, over which we sewed black calfskin. Janice later added the XtraCycle Peapod which blacked out the rest of the longtail and made room for the whole family. It was quite a beast.

The Rohloff system has been written about online ad nauseam, so I won’t ramble on about the technology. It’s incredible.

Check out this video for a look inside the hub.

 

 

 

Back and Backed Up

The blog has been idle for the last week because I was on a very important recon mission in California Wine Country and Topanga Canyon. I’ll dedicate a post or two to the trip, but I will summarize with these two statements:

Topanga Creek Bicycles + North Central Cyclery = BFF

Trek Travel is everything they boast it to be… and more.

I am back at the shop and have a stockpile of posts to get out. If you don’t RSS the blog, you may want to start now.

Before I left, we finished an incredible build that will deserve a post of it’s own: A Surly Big Dummy with Rohloff Speedhub, handbuilt wheels, custom sewn leather bar covering, and other tasty bits from Salsa, Nitto, Chris King, and Surly.

While I was gone, the Slender Fungus movement began and is now in full swing. Weekly blends (mixed terrain rides) on Wednesdays and Sundays covering big miles. Ari, Russ, and Rich are the steadfasts, with other characters spotting the attendance. Ari explains Slender Fungus ethic on his blog here. Rich’s here. Be prepared, scouts.

The shop is humming with change. We’re working on some special renovations, physical and metaphysical, to launch in the new year. Stay tuned and stop in.

Stay movin.

t

 

 

Rainy Day Update

It seems we’ve skipped all the pretty parts of Autumn and slid into that bleak and ugly pre-winter, post-fall season that has none of the benefits of either season. And yet, there is action.

We’ve had a handful of very fun and very intricate projects present themselves to us over the last month and we’re working on those as the components arrive. Stay tuned for updates on those.

Ari and Russ have been rejoicing (like the madmen they are) for the early and frosty evenings with almost nightly mutant rides on gravel and road. Ari will take any excuse to bundle up to the eyeballs and expirement with at least 4 light systems at a time. This is his element.

We’re still seeing a nice flow of new goods come in. Here’s a smattering:

A little help

B43 on Surly New Disc Hub for Rich’s Rat Ride

It really works. Soy-based, Local(sorta), great.

New DT 465 Rims for Tim’s custom Gunnar

DeKalb County tires – Bonty All Weather tread

New Blaze 2, yes 2.

Abuse friendly Black Label pedals

Bonty Node 2

FrankenCivia

It’s gonna be big… and dumb…and black… and red…

A decent staff must be matured like tubular tires – down in the dark and damp.

 

whew. wow. ok.

It’s all a blur at this point. The Hopkins Cross Cup race has come and gone again. We had a truly stunning turnout of racers and spectators.

that's a lotta people

 

A good chunk of the fun was out of the way even before Sunday, too. Spending a couple days in my new muck boots, walking around Hopkins, marking the course, staking the course, taping the course, all with the great help and comedy that comes with my staff and the Half Acre crew was a reward I hadn’t anticipated. And the Pag’s pizza we had afterwards… let me tell you. They say hunger is the best spice, but some other good spices are 5 hours of misting rain, walking in heavy rubber boots, 3 miles of caution tape, and a really overworked cook taking his SWEET TIME on our pies. All that led to the best pizza i’ve ever tasted.

NCC and HAC BYOB at Pag's

Those Half Acre people are top notch folks. We couldn’t have done the race without them the last two years. Thanks again, all, for your hard work, your computer savvy, your baked goods, and your comforting shade of blue.

The course was fun, if I don’t say so myself. There were a few points in the race where I actually apologized to the guys around me for making the course just so. Especially the barriers in the woods…

Everyone we saw on the course looked like they were having a good time, that or having a heart attack. Either way, we took it as a compliment.

For a bunch more pics, click here.

Thanks to all our incredibly generous sponsors: Trek, Surly, Salsa, Schwalbe, Twin Six, Yojimbo’s Garage, and Hammer Nutrition.

t

 

305

DeKalb is in for a veritable cyclocross stampede on Sunday.

We have over 300 racers pre-registered for the Hopkins Park race.

Race-Day Registration opens at 8:30am for the rest of you. The 4A race is full. The 4B race has 22 spots left. Be there early.

Course Briefing: 

The course is long, really long, and pretty fast. There are sections through old oak trees with surface level roots so those of you with clinchers should beware. The finish is pretty fast, but getting close to it will be slow. I’d also say a fifth of the course is off-camber. It’s going to be fun…

 

Dyno-Might.

As daylight rapidly fades, we’re talking more and more about lights around here. There are so many lights to choose from that it gets dizzying to have too many options. We’ve been stocking a range of LED options from $25-99 for a while, and now we have a dyno option in stock. Dynos are a great option for the commuting cyclist riding through the seasons. No batteries, no hassle. It’s on, and it’s on.

Ari and I (finally) put together an economical dyno kit. He laced a Shimano dyno into a Salsa Delgado Cross rim and connected the Shimano LP-R600 headlight. The built wheel and light package is $239, $250 with a Schwalbe Advancer tire and Schwalbe tube.

We even have an “interactive” (cutting edge, really) display. Come in and give it a spin.

 

Ladies’ Night at the Bike Shop

 

Last week we hosted a Ladies’ Night Bike Clinic in coordination with the NIU Women’s Resource Center.

We had a great turnout. We had set out a nice spread of wine, cheese, and chocolate which was perfectly consumed by the end of the night. We did the clinic in our round-robin style with 3 stations: Wheels & Tires, Brakes, and Gears. The groups were small enough to answer all the questions and we appreciated eveyrone’s willingness to ask.

Thanks to all the attendees, the WRC for the opportunity, and my wife, who shocked us all by helping all of our customers that night (I think my employees were worried about their job security) (and they should be).

Check out photos here, and here, and press here

 

Cross Season Approacheth

Some people read tea leaves. Some people read coffee grounds. I read the grass clippings clinging to the side of my bathtub; and you know what they say?

Cross Season is upon us.

We’re getting a bunch of stuff ready for our Hopkins Park Cross Cup Race coming up Oct. 4th. It’s gonna be a blast.

New sludge boots are on order for the whole crew.

Limited Edition Hopkins Park CC Tees are on order. These aren’t the final colors, but let us know if you want one.

 

and our cowbells have arrived.

hup.

 

SURLY SALE SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY, and every day this month, actually

It feels really weird to put Surly stuff on sale, but here goes.We’ve had 3 days of cold rain and it’s put me in a November mood, so here are some November prices.

We have a handful of framesets, complete bikes, and even some knickknacks marked down.

Sale Sheet: www.northcentralcyclery.com/SURLYSALESHEET.pdf

All instock framesets: $320 – LHTs, CCs, SRs, and KMs available.

Surly hardgoods and softgoods instock – 19% off.

We’re blowing out the 1×1=11 Rat Rides at 1/2 price. All sizes available.

Big Dummies are also marked down to $1899 COMPLETE.These prices do not include shipping.

 

 

Get’em while they’re hot.

Shipping is available for all products. Call 815.758.2403 for more information. Ask for Gabe.  

Fine print: Sale ends 10.1.09. No returns on shipped merchandise.