Which MBC Bike Would We Take to This?

Deep inside, most of us at Ben's Cycle look at a race like The Hilly Billy and cringe.

Others start to grin.

It's 70 miles of gravel, dirt, mud, and some pavement outside of Morgantown, West Virginia. Watch this video from In The Crosshairs.

Here's the description: 
"This course will take you over dirt and paved "State Roads" around Monongalia County in Northern West Virginia. Finish times could be 6 plus hours for some riders. Road conditions may include missing bridges, car-sized potholes, gravel, mud, black top, cow paths,and maybe a piece of road kill or two.That's what we call good riding! Leave your expensive Flux-Capacitors and fancy wheels at home and maybe bring the cross bike. It might be the best tool for the job, but bring whatever you think is best for you. However,if you show up with Zipps on your road bike we may laugh and point at you. This race course has just about everything a cyclist says they want when they're talking it up with their buddies.Now let us see ya ride it! Course will have fully stocked aid stations along the way. "

So we're looking at our schedules and wondering about our sanity.

The race would clearly be a test of bike, rider, and will power. Looks like a boatload of fun.

CX Tape: Belgian Tape for Cross Tubulars

The only time our Milwaukee Bicycle Company racer Paul has ever had a broken bone in a cyclocross race (collar bone) was because of a rolled tubular tire.

boyauxbandit.blogspot.com

boyauxbandit.blogspot.com

While tubulars are by far your best option for racing cross, gluing the tires can be a challenge to get just right so that the tire doesn't roll off the rim at the wrong moment.


Ben's is running a special on tubular gluing right now to help you get ready for the cross season. Gluing tubulars is messy and best left to professionals to make sure the tire stays on the rim.

The key product in the gluing process is CX Tape, a double-sided tape that is wrapped around the rim to ensure the tire never rolls off. 

We have a love/hate relationship with CX Tape: if we ever need to change tires, the tape is a beast to remove. But that's the exact reason it works so well. In two years of racing wheels glued with CX Tape, we've never rolled a tire. The stuff works. 

Ben's stocks CX Tape in two-tire rolls for $7.99, available in the store or online.  

crossbikereview

It's the closest thing to a guarantee that your tubulars will never roll off the rim when you're flying around a corner. 

Good Luck to Racers at Tri Nationals, Iron Girl!

Ben's Cycle has been wildly busy the last three days, helping triathletes from around the country get their bikes prepped for two different events, USA Triathlon's Olympic and Sprint National Championships in Milwaukee and the Iron Girl Triathlon in Pleasant Prairie. 


 
We'll be in Pleasant Prairie Saturday talking about bike fits and custom orthotics with our Human Movement Scientist Brett Meinke. 

Brett is a highly experienced professional bike fitter who comes at bike fits from a unique angle: the feet. In a full bike fit, Brett will first work with a customer's gait and foot shape. He can create custom orthotics for both running shoes and bike shoes.

Once the foot position and cleat/ shoe position is dialed in, Brett will work on the rest of the body position. 

Whether you're gunning for a national championship, an age group win, a personal best, or just a finish in your first tri, nothing will make your run and ride more comfortable and fast than a good fit. 

Stop in at the shop or call Brett (414.384.2236) for an appointment or to discuss how a bike and shoe fit will help you.

Milwaukee Area Gets Federal Grants for Bicycle Transportation

Wisconsin was awarded $13.3 million in federal grants for bike and pedestrian projects around the state. It's good news for the community as we continue to build toward more safe bicycling in the Milwaukee area.

Wisconsin Bike Fed Safe Routes to School Program

See the Bike Fed article here.

The funding creates a larger bike share program in Milwaukee, West Allis, Wauwatosa, and Shorewood as well and provides backing for Safe Route to Schools programs run by the Bike Fed.

Midwest Bike Share is the non-profit that runs the Bublr, the bike share program was announced yesterday in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee County Parks received money for the Root River Parkway, and the City of Milwaukee received funding for bike parking and transportation planning. 

Pre-Season Cross Tire and Glue Special at Ben's Cycle

Ben's Cycle has quickly become the bike store cyclocross racers trust to find bikes, wheels, tires, and good service. From our race team to our Milwaukee Bicycle Company Mettle cyclocross race bike, from our top-notch service department to our cyclocross clinics, from our Specialized Crux bikes to our large stock of parts, wheels, tires, and accessories, we have what you need to start racing, or make you faster.

(Feedback Sports)

We'll give you three good reasons to stop in today and see what we have to offer:

Base glue (csmagazine)

1. We're running a pre-season special on tire gluing for  tubular wheels. While tubular wheels are far superior to any other for cyclocross since we can run them at such a low tire pressure, they are messy and annoying to glue. 

Adding tape to glue. (cxmagazine)

At Ben's, drop your wheels and tires off, and we'll glue them for $55 a set! Our highly-trained mechanics use CX Tape plus at least three layers of glue to assure that your tires won't roll off in tight corners. Our shop racers have their tires glued on here! And those race team members who glue their own wheels use CX Tape.

2. We are getting new stock of rims and hubs ready for cyclocross. And at Ben's, you can select your own choice of hubs and rims, and we'll build them for free. It's usually cheaper to have us build a set of wheels for you than buying pre-built wheels. And then you have exactly the wheels you want.

White Industries CX-11 hubs

Aileron clincher rim

We have White Industry, Shimano, Chris King, and DT Swiss hubs with Velocity, HED, Enve, Stans, H Plus, and Pacenti rims. These come in disc and non-disc hubs with tubular and clincher versions. 

For example, Velocity just came out with the Aileron, a wider clincher rim designed for cyclocross. And Shimano and White both have cyclocross-specific hubs available. 

If a hub or rim doesn't show up in inventory, call us and we'll get it ordered!

3. We're getting our cyclocross tires in stock, both clincher and tubular. We have tires from Clement, Challenge, Vittoria, Stans, Kenda, and other manufacturers. 

The hot tire this year seems to be the Challenge Chicane, a set of which are being glued to a Milwaukee Bicycle Company Race Team member today. The Chicane is a file tread, which allows the tire to go faster in dry and grassy conditions, but it has the side tread from the Challenge Limus, the mud tire. That fat tread on the side allows for tighter, more confident cornering.

Challenge Chicane. (cycle.tyresdirect.fr)

Stop at the shop or go online for more reasons to make Ben's Cycle your source for everything cyclocross this fall. 

And stay tuned for more reasons to shop for everything cyclocross at Ben's Cycle.

Farrier Bicycles Fills Small Road Bike Need

Farrier Bicycle Works began when the owner of Swobo, Peter Discoe could not find an affordable, well-built road bike that fit his eight-year-old son. 

So he created his own with parts that were meant to last and make the ride enjoyable for his son. 

Farrier has two models, both of which are available through Ben's Cycle. We have them available both through our store and the website.

The Stayer 24 is a 24-inch road bike made of 6061 aluminum. It features an eight-speed Claris drivetrain with a 34/46 chainring with 155mm cranks. It costs a very reasonable $699. 

Canary yellow Stayer 24

The Stayer 650 is a 650c wheel road bike made of the 6061 aluminum frame with an eight-speed Claris drivetrain. It has a longer crank arm (165mm) than the Stayer 24. It also lists for a reasonable $699. 

The fire-engine red Stayer 650c

Here's one review. 

Here's a mention from Dave Mirra. 

Here are the specifications for the parts on the bikes:
Handlebar: Satori Leopard LS 31.8mm x 380mm
Stem: Satori Limes-RL 31.8/90mm
Shifters: Shimano Claris 8-speed STI
Derailleurs: Claris 8-speed
Front Hub: Novatec/ Black/ 28h; Rear Hub: Novatec/ Black/ 32h. Both QR.
Bottom Bracket: Square taper cartridge bearing 111mm/ 68mm
Headset: Zero stack sealed cartridge bearing 1 1/8
Cassette: Shimano HG50 8-speed 12-25
Brakes: Promax black.