The busy season is upon us with quite the vengeance. As most folks probably know by now, the bike industry (like many others) has been riddled with shipping delays, missed stock ETAs, and unsureness (is that a word?) as to when we’re going to be seeing more of…..anything. Globalization is not doing so hot during the pandemic. While all that makes sense and isn’t all the surprising, it has left a number of bikes hanging on the hook, waiting for that one last missing piece of the puzzle. BUT DESPITE ALL THAT, we’ve managed to get a handful of cool bikes out the door! Might have taken around four months to happen….but happen it did!

Tim’s Crust Bombora

Tim first dropped this frame off back in the beginning of December. We finally got it out the door first thing this week. Some very fun firsts for us on this build: Yokozuna Ultimo mechanical/hydro hybrid disc brakes and rotors, Yokozuna Reaction brake housing, and Ultradynamico Rosé Race tires (editor’s note: We don’t stock these, but we might some day!). The rest of the build is comprised of a great palette of White Industries, Velo Orange, Brooks, MKS, and SRAM. Schmidt will be doing the lighting duties front and back, once those lights are back in stock. Felt great to get another Crust frame out into the world.

Kona’s in the Shop!…but for how long??

Kona was the first brand we picked up when we started last year. We haven’t been able to get a whole lot of bikes from them (see my little blip about pandemic world delays above), but the ones we have gotten look great, work great, and have been flying off the shelves. Our latest shipment had a few Sutras that went out the door before we could snap some pics, but a couple of these Rove ALs have stuck around long enough to grab a shot or two!

Introducing, Keystone Semi-Customs!

Starting with the Raleigh Mountain Tour Seneca

Keystone Semi-Custom bikes are a concept we’ve been kicking around for a while. The frames are stripped down, built up with new wheels and tires, bearing systems, and a Microshift Advent X 1x10 group. the “custom” part is that customer can pick their choice from a selection of riser/alt bar, pedal color, grip color, cable housing color, and their choice of WTB saddle. Unfortunately, due to those pesky parts shortages, it’s been tough to get in a good spattering of colors for those options, or consistent stock of the various choices. We’ve gotten a couple built up with the parts we could get our hands on. Also, luckily for us, most customers have just wanted to go with black across the board. This Raleigh Seneca will be heading out the door some time this week.

If/when we can get the parts in hand, some ideas we’re talking about are upgrade packages for the semi-customs. Want to add a front rack and basket? Upgrade to Jones bars? Throw on some tubeless wheels and SimWorks Super Yummys? Maybe a dyno wheel??? All fun possibilities these bikes could handle!

Closing note: We’ve started to do indoor shopping on Fridays and Saturdays at the shop! A couple of rules (which are posted outside the shop on those days): must wear a mask at all times, no food or drink inside (cos that would mean taking off the mask!), 2 people from the same pod at a time, keeping the browsing to fifteen minutes (other folks might be waiting to get inside, also cdc rules about exposure). We’ll have a covid exposure form for you to fill out at the door (which is a general rule to access the Nextfab building).

That’s it for now! We’ll be back soon with some news about camping supplies, a future bike swap, and other little projects we’re getting into! Til next time!