At 4 years of age

We are 4 years old on Saturday. And for our birthday, we are giving away some stuff. What stuff? Well that has to be a surprise. If you are on the mailing list, you know some of the surprises, but you don't know everything. (By the way, feel free to share the "password" with friends who aren't on the mailing list yet.)

Come by the shop and celebrate with us from 10am till 7pm!

This is a thank you to everyone who has sent a friend in; To everyone who has come and shared their Sunday morning with us; To everyone who came out to the July 4th Bicycle Swappy Swap; To people who we love and who love us back.

When this business opened, people told us that if we lasted 1 year, we would be in the upper 75% and we would have made it. When we turned 1, "they" said it would take 3 years to be a sound business that would be around for a while. At the 3rd birthday, "they" moved it right up to 10 years. What are they gonna say at 10 years?!? 25? 40? Haha...

We are honored that Denver has responded to Salvagetti in this way. We plan to continue to make Denver a better place to live.

Join us.

This is how it should be done!

This is nutty. Just keep watching. It is worth it.

French Bottom Brackets and the like

Please note that Salvagetti Bicycle Workshop is here for the greater good, not to pick fights with people who have strong opinions about weak products.

We see lots of cool old Peugeots and Motobecanes at the shop here. Some of them are rare specimens and some are run-of-the-mill-but-loved-all-the-same. The trouble with French bikes is that the French felt (and who knows if they were right?) that they knew more than the rest of the planet about bicycles. In addition to the geometry being for a select few types of people (oh wait, am I saying they may have been wrong?), the stem and bottom bracket are completely proprietary. This means that the French would have needed to keep making the correct parts and tools in order to keep their good name alive.

And.
They.
Haven't.

And those who love the old French bikes are in for a few interesting discoveries which I will list quickly:

1. The geometry is entirely too long for most folks to ride comfortably.
2. The stems and headsets work together and must be swapped for similar spec'd (and not available new) parts. This limits severely the ability to fit bicycles to their owners.
3. And lastly (for now), the bottom bracket is its own thing all together. Phil Wood does make one but...

You cannot *easily* get the tools to repair any of the French threads. If you find old tools, you are lucky, but not necessarily set up, to get things done.

We recently ran into this problem with several bikes and we are searching out alternative solutions that don't involve a RIG*.
So, the lesson here is that if you MUST get a French bike then you MUST ride it and you MUST get it checked to see if it is something that will work out for you.


*Rigs are using something that isn't made for something else for a different purpose that is gonna probably FAIL!

Sort it out

We sold one of our better customers a nice wheelset yesterday...
We headed South out of the shop on his new-feeling-cause-it-should-be Trek...
And less than a minute later he came into the shop frantic:
He had been hit by a car at 12th Ave. It didn't come to a stop at Speer. He was okay, though getting stiffer by the moment. His bike, however, faired not so great. The new front wheel is way gone. The fork is bent.

Two sides of this coin:
Technically, he cannot ride his bike on the sidewalk.

Technically, he is on the bike path because of the construction blocking access to the bike path.

I don't know how Denver will see this one!

By the way, no tickets were given. The officer told them to "sort it out".

Watch out for cyclists

Sent from Matt M.:

Dang Gangsta (AKA Brooklyn Machine Works Gangsta Track)

First one complete... and then he let us ride it.

I know a great bike when I feel one. And a track bike that lets me confidently try to do a stand still whiplash is fun. Not just fun, but hilariously fun. Since I have ridden the Brooklyn Gangsta Track bike, I have craved its presence at least a dozen times. It has only been a few days since we were last together. Soon enough, she'll come back to me and I will successfully completely my trick of tricks.

We are building up at least one of them complete in the next week. How do you find out how fun a bike is without riding it? Well... you really can't. But, you will have to leave us some *serious* collateral to put it between your legs.

Frame : Brooklyn Gangsta Track (LRG)
Fork: Same as frame
Cranks: Truvativ Omniums
Wheels: Mavic Ellipse
Everything else: Nice but not too nice.

This Latest Breakfast Ride

So Saturday was out of control beautiful. People came out of their homes and GOT OUT THEIR BIKES!

Even Richard, one of our customers (who works at another shop in town (WINK WINK)) rode his bike 100 miles on Saturday. He got a sunburn, too.

But then we all went to bed in the 45 degree evening with visions of Spring and Summer fun. Poof! Snow again.

I put on my snow gear at 7:15am and started on my way. The big grumpies started to come out half way to the shop because my ready-for-spring fingers were chilly (poor baby) and my face wanted a balaclava again. Turning the corner to the shop alley, I could not believe my eyes...

3 cyclists ready for a ride to get some breakfast. We all went inside and warmed up. More people showed and came in. Then some more... We finally got to 10 before we decided to leave for Snooze. Like the rock stars we should be treated like, we were rewarded for our heroics with quick seating and amazing eating. We finished up and headed back for Metropolis for some more vibration inducing beverages and ran with the day.

Thank you to the tough folks who braved the cold and snow and depression to make a great ride.