We setup a Surly Long Haul Trucker for Colin in preparation for a round-Australia bicycle tour late last year. This email just came through from Colin with an update about how it’s been going.

>Hi Bill & Lewis & Moz & Joel & Val & Teagan & whoever else I’ve forgotten
> who worked on my Surly Long Haul Trucker
>
> Just thought I’d drop you a line to say thanks for all your help in getting
> set up for my Round Australia trip.
>
> I’m writing this in Gladstone (about 100 …

It all started with a sad Shogun Katana road bike in 1980’s fluro orange. In it’s previous life it had been given granny gears & been ridden hard on many a Great Vic bike ride.

Now it was time for retirement by the sea. The Surly Spew on frame prep lists linseed oil as a rust preventative for frame tubes. As I had this on hand it was syringed into every orifice, taking about a week to dry into a claggy mess anywhere I hadn’t been meticulous to clean up.

Stainless bolts …

I bumped into a fellow riding a noisy fixie on Merri Parade a few weeks back. I rode up beside him and said hi. We got talking and by the time we’d ridden across to Heidelberg road, he had made a couple of interesting points about cycling and Melbourne that stuck in my mind.
One of these points was mentioning he’d dropped in to Human Powered a few weeks before hand. “You guys have got some awesome gear but I wanted to set this one up on the cheap.” And I …

Some random happy snaps of some of the colourful stuff we have in the store

Fresh off the boat we’ve got a couple of the coolest all colour tyres we’ve seen, These tyres  have been getting rave reviews from fixed gear riders in the US and Japan who love the feel of the tyre and the colour co-ordination possibilities.

Extra thick tread so it stands up to skidding
Fitted with an anti-puncture strip for added durability out on the mean streets
Plus at 700×24C these innovative tyres will slip into most tight clearance frames.
120 Tpi casing
Steel Bead
Anti-puncture strip
White, Pink, Green or Purple for riders who love to make …

Fresh off the boat from france! Gilles Berthoud accessories are now available in Melbourne (by special order only at the moment, expect about 2-4 days turn around)
Gilles Berthoud hand make a range of canvas and leather panniers and other bicycle accessories in a small workshop in Pont-de-Vaux France.
The perfect accessories for your vintage weekender but practical enough for everyday use.
Prices and more details on the range will be available soon.

We’re back! And what a scorching start to the year… not just the temperature but also more people pedalling around town!
I’ve started with some local news from the shop and pasted in this month’s BikeFun newsletter after that.
Happy summer cycling. Cheers, Bill and the crew
MORE BIKES, BETTER BIKES(!)
As always, we’re keeping a beady eye peeled for sweet bikes to add to our range.
1. some of the Kona range have made the grade and are starting to appear on the showroom. Already the Dew City, Dew and Dew Plus are here
2. …

Here at Human Powered Cycles we like practical bikes, the sort of bike where you know if you get a sudden urge to buy a slab of beer, a bag of cement and a brompton you know you’ll be able to carry them all  home safely and securely.
Here a run down of what we’ve got and what they carry

Jai had some pretty extreme requirements: “Bill, I’ll be riding through rice paddys for about a year. I need to carry a stack of gear and I like the Big Dummy. I also like the Rohloff and the Son dyno lights.” This is a summary of the requirements but here’s what we produced for Jai:

Surly Big Dummy frame and fork set
Xtracycle long loader kit with bags
Twin bar setup to take accessories and give range of hand positions
Ortlieb Classic bar bag
FSA pig heavy duty headset
Tubus Tara front rack for Ortlieb Front …

Question: Who wants to modify a stock Allegro Pista to make it fully bling? using as much off the shelf stock as possible?
Question 2: Why would you want to do that?
Answer 1: Bill wanted to. Actually, not bling but fast and fun…
Answer 2: Because the Allegro Pista is a cool locally designed frame but it’s definitely not fitted with my choice of components
So, I spent quite a few months choosing the right parts. Here’s a summary of what’s been done:

cut down and thread the steerer
fit Stronglight threaded headset (an aheadset …

First, the Wasp Panther Tiger Eel… rare but highly sought after!
And second, Superman returns… strong, nimble, supple, beautiful
These bikes are on the showroom floor now. Swing on past for a test ride../

Stacks of old frames and complete bikes are kicking around which took 630mm/27″ wheels. Converting these frames to singles or fixies is a bit of a problem because it’s hard to get 27″ fixie wheels and if you run 622mm/700c wheels you need to work out long drop brakes which are tricky to find and often aren’t powerful. Also if you’re doing it on the cheap, a set of Velocity fixie wheels starts from $430 or Alex wheels from $300.
These alloy rim, stainless spoke flip flop 27″ wheels are $100 …

Most of the Allegro Pistas we sell end up with different bars on them. Ryan didn’t like the Allegro Pista bars because they put him too far over – fine for riding hard but not so cool for day to day city riding.
We swapped on:

Nitto Ramen bars, cut down to his shoulder width (using Wheels Manufacturing 25.4-31.8mm shims)
Promax dual pivot black caliper set
Tektro two finger brake levers
Bling cable guides on the top tube for the rear brake cable

Ryan had already done the tyre swap. He’s keen on taping the bars …

James liked the Allegro Pista but wanted some changes.
He wanted a higher gear (78″ approx) so we swapped on a Surly track cog, a 144pitch Cycle Underground chainring and fitted a nice Sram PC-7x chain.
He wanted riser bars so we fitted some Nitto Ramen riser bars, Nitto technomic stem and Champ grips. Oh yeh, that meant threading down the steerer and fitting a threaded headset… looks much better on the lugged steel frame (Well, that’s what Bill,Cat, Tess and Rob think … some of the crew like the 1″ ahead).
James …

Quentin spent the morning restoring this beautiful Peugeot mixte. It’s largely original but now has new cables and white housing, new brake pads, new pedals and a complete overhaul. He’s finish off the appearance with polishing up the mudguards and cleanign down the frame before it goes on the showroom floor.