Another Miracle

Unbelievable bike returned from being stolen. Our customer lost his bike and miraculously it showed up back in our shop. No questions asked we accepted the bike back into bike sanctuary; and now Luis wants us to sell it for him. Feather-light Giant carbon fiber TCR C3 with full 105 gruppo, Xero lite wheelset and Carbon seatpost.

Luis was working and turned his back on his whip for a half an instant. In the blink of an eye he lost his trusty steed. She disappeared into the ether.

And as fast as she disappeared, she returned to our shop. A dude asking us how much she was worth, and we responded that it was already sold, to Luis. Like that, the bike was returned to
our fold.
Come check out the miracle bike before someone snaps it up.
As well I found a funny you-tube video. This dude reminds me of a goy-Andy Samburg. It is called Performance.
Perfect commentary on today's cycling scene.
Hope you get a few laughs from these hyjinx.

Lit Fuse Tatoo Run-About

We put together a little Raleigh Colt with some vintage parts and some modern parts for Lit Fuse Tattoo over in Japanther's second home OLYMPIA, Washington. For the hills we added a fully re-conditioned Sturmey-Archer three-speed hub and NOS shifter laced to 36 hole Mavic Open Pro rims by DT Swiss spokes. The front hub is an original Atom Hub made for the Raleigh Record that I reconditioned for the front wheel. It is the opposite of the vogue high flange... the bolt-on low flange hub with the Whitsworth 3/8" Raleigh logo track(ish) nuts. We added Soma Everwears with the white stripe for the Scenester homage to Oly's own styles.

Pictured here is Victor Mendoza the LFC mechanic behind the foundational work in lacing the wheels, prepping, aligning and assembling the parts onto the frame, and testing the ride at speed. I handled the fine tuning and dishing of the wheels, the three-speed hub overhaul clinic and the rear brake fitting and overhaul. Jim handled some trouble shooting on the rear hub and shifter, the wraps and seat-post shimming. Fenders are not full-coverage but they will suffice. Bars and stem by Cinelli and tape Schwinn leather saddle are rounded out with the Japanese 165mm Tourney cranks and Shimano rear calipers with tektro dual-pivots up front. The bottom bracket shell was re-threaded for the modern English Taiwanese cartridge bottom bracket and anchors the bike with smooth reliable service.
MKS Sylvan Tour pedals and re-greased, re-torqued chainwheel screwpegs lend some effort against annoying ticks and clicks. Full-length cable housing and the absence of a cable pulley offer more reliability and longevity to the shifting.
I only wish I still had some of my stash of Scott-Matthauser salmon brake pads. I would settle for the Kool-Stop continentals in salmon but the bank account is in the red again and I got many more items to order for urgent customers. Weinman brake levers are the cherry on the top of this multi-cultural bonanza.
The British-Belgian-French-Italian-Japanese-Taiwanese-American Lit Fuse Cyclery Flyer.
We have been struggling to keep up with a greedy rent and and a neglected basement that is holding us back from being what we intend to become. We are planning some events to celebrate our existence as tenuous as it is. No time like the present to appreciate life's wonders.
I love the re-furbishements that we have been doing. It is why I wanted to build this business. I hope that the Borough can come through for this refugee from Manhattan's gentrification so we can become a fixture in the landscape here. We know that we are not perfect, but we do a damn good job here when we are allowed a little latitude to get the job done.

Hoopty Fever

We converted Georgia's brass colored 1985 Trek 420 road bike to a single-speed the other day. She was as gleeful as we were upon completion of this beauty. The basic flip-flop cone-and-cup wheelset and single-speed 144mm bolt-circle-diameter alloy cranks and Action Messenger 700 X 23 tires were some of the new additions to this bicycle .

We added Wellgo track pedals and a used Velo saddle to the mix and Georgia elected to wrap the bars with red Deda tape with Jim's signiture twine binder. We charge an extra $15 for this touch which is longer-lasting than electrical tape or the lame end binder that comes with most wraps.

The process is fun to watch but and I have been fooling around with it feeling like a boyscout on a fishing expedition. It makes the bike look so classy that I want to do it to all bikes I can get my hands on. The problem is that it almost takes longer than wrapping the average bars including the electrical tape binder at the end of the job.

The nice quality electrical tape works pretty well to keep the bars anchored up top of the drops but eventually the adhesive dries out and your tape begins to unwind slowly but surely.

So far all the twine binders that I have seen have held up great. If you want a twine binder, just ask for Lataesha and he will get to it when he can.

Next project to be featured will be the Lit Fuse Tatoo Shop coffee runner. Stay tuned Brooklyn!

Beat's Custom Raliegh Lite Refurbish

We had the priveledge of fully refurbishing a Raleigh LTD-3 frame from the 70s for a dapper young professional man. We put on new 3 speed wheel-set with aluminum 26 X 13/8" rims, new cotter-less crank-set and cartridge bottom bracket, and vintage aluminum handlebars. We re-tapped the bottom bracket shell of the frame allowing the modern BB and cranks to be installed. This process is fun and takes full advantage of the great old British steel that these old frames are made out of.

Notice the MKS sylvan touring pedals and the modern crank-set. We installed refurbished old Japanese alloy calipers which stop the bicycle better than the steel calipers that came on the bike ever could. As well replacing all the Whitsworth with metric should go much appreciated by any mechanic that works on this bike.

With all these Japanese parts we had to reinforce the British roots with a genuine Brooks Saddle. The alloy post-style seat pillar and old Sturmey-Archer pulley cable-guide serve to lighten the bike up and reduce friction in the shifting cables.

This photo does not do justice to the beautiful alloy Phillips French three-speed bars and sweet clear cablehousing guiding the controls. Keeping the bike and rider cleaner and happier and lighter are some Planet Bike Cascadia fenders in black. Light for a three-speed is an understatement. This bike's brand new Sturmey-Archer three-speed hub shifts like a charm and the bike flies the way these were meant to glide through traffic and up bridges.

Stay tuned for the next installment where we feature a sweet conversion of a Trek road bike and the Raleigh Colt that was reborn as a Pacific North West tattoo parlor shuttle bike.

Gnarly Vines and Lit Fuse

Today is the Transportation Alternatives Park(ing) day.

Park(ing) Day NYC is a New York City Streets Renaissance collaboration which supports the conversion of parking spots throughout New York City's 5 boroughs into human-friendly places for a single day. These small, temporary public spaces provide a breath of relief from the auto-clogged reality of New York City, and aim to spark dialogue about our valuable public space and how we choose to use it.

As part of Park(ing) Day NYC, Gnarly Vines is reclaiming the parking spot in front of their store and transforming it into an engaging, people-friendly public space for wine tastings and bike repairs!

Angel and Sean will be tasting wine and helping our beloved Brooklynites with their human-powered cycles from 1pm to 4pm today while the wine tasting will last until 8pm.

A great partnering of vino and Cicli harkening to the days of Fausto Coppi.

Labor Day

Today my son turned 4 months! He is a cherub if ever I have seen one.
Those of us who work with our hands from time to time can slow down a little and enjoy a great barbecue. Today we are grilling for our forefathers.
Yesterday we completed Paul's lavish Tortelli refurbish. He has Miche 165 mm cold-forged-machined crannks with a 48 tooth-machined chainwheel and a set of blue Phil Woods fix/fixed flip-flop hubset laced onto 32 hole Mavic rims. His Nitto bars and stem give the bike solid steering and his blue-stripe Soma Everwears stick to the road like glue.
His frame pad is sewn up custom by my wife and his Keirin grips hold the horns while his cruising is on the Oury BMX grips. Shimano 105 brakes up front with Cane Creek Cross top lever, and Campy Headset.
Those of you who are close by, come visit us and celebrate labor day with us.

WE got dogs and refreshments

Stolen Bike Alert

A few weeks ago my mom gave me a cannondale that she picked up and stole the wheels off of. I was gonna offer it to my wife but rent is due and Chris needed a bike to go on a tour with his buddies this weekend. Unfortunately when he locked up his bike at Paragon in Union square he was probably followed by the 5P3C14L1Z3D gang or some other pro thief caught the flare riding through grammercy. Chris thought going in for 5 minutes to grab a last-minute necessity he could get away with a cheap Kryptkeeper chain. Sadly the stalker on a 5P3C14L1Z3D or whatever sized up the chain and knew exactly how to defeat it. Knowing that the rider on the hot cannondale would enter the store and almost surely be gone for enough time to snatch the bike and be off; the fiend was able to have confidence to swiftly swipe his Canyonsnail. Most bike thieves stalk their prey. I am not saying that a person should be paranoid and check out all the other cyclists suspiciously instead of paying attention to traffic. Cars are deadly, buss es and trucks?
What I am saying is if you have a sexy whip and are going to Manhattan below 86th street, you need the $100 Krypto NY lock chain or a Fahgettaboutit U'lock and mini for the rear wheel.
When my bike was stolen as when Jacks bike was stolen, it was seen again. The key is to keep the bike. We need to start a phone tree of people who can get the word out and post the photos on a blog or something so that these bikes can be RECOVERED! Follow the bike to the place where the rider locks it and when they enter their destination you lock it with your heavy chain. Photo the bike and call the gang up who will mobilize the recovery force.
Record your bike serial number in your phone and another place you will not forget.
Photograph your bike with you.
Have a bike shop give you a receipt for your bike with the serial number.
Talk about your bike with your friends so they get to know it (don't bore people to tears though)
Care for your bike so that if it is recovered it is more likely in better condition than being ruined because only you know how to ride it and the thief or moron who bought it from the thief who do not know your bike ruin something on your love, your ride.
Bike theft remains out of control in the city and this is truly the lowest form of thievery. Bikes usually belong to people who cannot really afford to replace their bike and pay rent at the same time. I know these are harsh times and car theft is so pasé these days. But bike chop shops are getting closed down or so goes the gossip around the chain vine. Can anyone tell me what happened to that bike shop on Albany? I am too mad to go back and check if the rumors that they were shut down are true or not.
Keep your eyes peeled and call us if you see the cannondale in the photo. Has a dent in the middle of the drive side seat stay and a full RSX gruppo with a new Alex rim on the back and a nondescript cassette freehub and a suntour front hub laced to a late 80s Black anodized Araya rim with 32 spokes and a kenda front tire that had some vulcanzing fluid on the sidewalls to bolster them for the tour. The rear tire was a Vittoria 700X28. The rack Chris painstakingly custom installed was an AXIOM streamliner.
Safe cycling, together we can take a bite out of bike theft...