Now in stock – IRD Defiant 165mm/46 tooth crank set… the old skool look but with JIS taper for easy bottom bracket sourcing (with a 110mm spindle – easy!).
Check ‘em out.

Wot IRD says:
“Designed to be reminiscent of the Campy Strada and Sugino Mighty cranks of the 1970′s. But instead of CNC’ing from billet, we cold forge these before adding the fluting details. This makes for a stronger, more reliable design.”

We’ve spent a lot of time hunting around for Australian made bike parts and accessories. And it’s been successful. This post covers some of the gear available from the local market.
Ok so we know the benefits of local stuff… mimising transport requirements reduces emissions. And warranties are much easier. The products are better supported and with lots of these businesses we can give feedback on what we like and what doesn’t work. They will sometimes be able to incorporate this feedback into future designs and manufacturing runs. Anyway, local gear …

A while back with some spare time, a few of the mechanics took to lacing up custom track wheels. Just for fun.
We’ve still got some of these hand built Velocity wheels available. Time to get them on the road! Only while stocks last….

Velocity Deep V rim
DT stainless Champion spokes
Flip flop 120mm spaced rear hub

And the price? $150 per wheel. Serious!

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 …

Welcome to 2010! We’re back in the workshop to keep you rolling. Our new bike range now includes Kona as well as the trusty Gazelle, Surly, Electra and Allegro bikes.
Stay tuned, we’ve got some awesome custom projects on the go…

Check it out. 700c aerospoke fixed gear wheel! We’re now offering these through the shop. With so many colours and options we don’t keep them as regular stock but you can drop in and check out Cat’s black rear pretty much any time.
Pricing varies for the natural black or painted finishes. There’s an unconfirmed rumour that they may be available in 650c as well… I’ll get back to you. In the mean time, feel free to swing past and order your 700c set!

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 …

Down in the workshop people ask us lots of questions. The latest thing that has come to mind is how to get chain tension on a frame with vertical dropouts. You might want to do this for single, fixed or hub gears. I’ll list them in order of complexity.
Use a chain tensioner, that could be an old rear mech (Dura-Ace or Record if you like) or something made for the purpose by Rohloff or Surly to name but a couple of brands. It almost goes without saying that this is …

Now available, classic Deep V track wheels from Velocity in 650c. Check the photos here of Cat’s front wheel for an example with red spokes. The coloured spokes add a bit to the price. The hubs are available in silver or black, spokes in a stack of colours (and even with a mix of spoke colours in the same wheel), and the rims in a good range of colours (see the colour samples on Velocity’s site).
And we’ve now got the Rubino folding 650c (23-571) tyres in stock (as fitted to …