Perennial Cycle

I received a note and a few pics from Mark, one of our Brompton US Championship 2012 Racers. Mark and his partner Deb were riding on Vancouver Island and had a flat on the rear of Deb's Brompton. Mark decided to try and patch the flat without removing the wheel. This seemed like great info to pass on as it's a nice trick that could work on any bike.

Thanks Mark!

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Hey Perennial Cycle-ites,

Just thought I’d share this with you. Deb and I were on a little tour of Victoria on Vancouver Island in British Columbia via Bromptons when Deb encountered a flat on her rear tire. All of the gearing and whatnot on the rear wheel can be a bit intimidating so thought I’d try a quick patch job without removing the rear wheel. I was able to pop the tire bead off and expose the tube and locate the metal staple in the tire pretty easily and made a pretty quick repair of the flat in about 10 minutes. One thing I’d do differently is pop the bead off the non drive side. Wouldn’t recommend this for all flat repairs, but this one proved to be easy to find the leak and the Park glueless patch held on the first try.

This may be old news, but I had not done this before. I actually saw them doing this on the Amazing Race in Africa, as one of the challenges, where the street mechanics often don’t have the proper wrench to remove the wheel or the axle is actually welded to the frame.

I have since watched the YouTube video from Brompton on the repair and now know that removing the tire wouldn’t have been that big of a deal, but this sure seemed quicker and cleaner, without having to remove and readjust everything.

Have got about 25,000 flight miles on the Brompton's B&W case and have been amazed at how well it’s held up. I use the Brompton in our tradeshow display and to get around while traveling. Did have a wheel housing crack due to some rough luggage handling and a drop onto the wheel, but it was easily replaceable with pop rivets and a lightning fast wheel assembly replacement from Perennial and Brompton.

Thanks Perennial staff and Brompton for all your help.

Cheers!

Mark and Deb

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Here are a few pictures. Two are from their ride and the others are Mark at BUSC • 2012
You can see from the great duct tape Union Jack helmet to the custom spray painted sport jacket that he's an awesomely creative guy.

I'd guess that Mark had all the tools he needed to make the repair, but for what he specifically did I'm thinking he used a tire lever (we like this one from PDW for the Brompton as well, the included wrench will remove the wheel) and a glueless patch. It's also possible Mark didn't have a tire lever; the Brompton tires can be wrestled off without one if absolutely necessary.

If you haven't seen the technical videos that Brompton has available (Mark mentions one in the note), you should check them out here.

Maria Boustead is a bag designer in Chicago making the fabulous Po Campo collection of products. Perennial Cycle has had a strong focus on carrying a wide range of high quality cycling bags, so it only makes sense that we would partner up with Po Campo.The midwest connection is a bonus…(ya sure, we understand each other and don't make fun of each others accent).

Over the past 5 years there has been a great deal of progress regarding what's available for everyday cyclists (commuters, milk & egg chasers, out about town riders, ect.). It has been more as an awakening by bike bag manufacturers that a wider market of real world cyclists exist and we are out here looking for better solutions. In spite of this progress, the reality is that cycling bag manufacturers have mostly come up with some clever solutions to make their BIKE bags functional for work, errand and out about town bags.

Unlike Anything We've Seen: On the other hand, Po Campo bags are the first cycling bags that I have ever seen that are bags first and bicycle-minded second. Maria hasn't tweaked a bike bag to be better looking and more fashionable, but rather she created awesome, beautiful bags for a variety of day-to-day (and night-to-night) outings. She has worked the bike orientation right into the bag design. The outcome is truly impressive. The Po Campo collection is truly designed to fit the needs of an urban dwelling cyclist. It appears to be pure bonus that the bags utilize a simple Connect™ attachment system to be easily mounted to your bicycle.

The details are quite obvious when you look at the bags: Water and fade proof fabrics, strategically placed pockets, compact profile with spacious interior, simple CONNECT™ Attachment hardware along with reflective details.

I promise you that in ten years the cycling industry will look at Maria Boustead as revolutionizing the cycling bag market through her Po Campo collection. Beautiful Bags with a sensible amount of practicality!

Perennial Cycle is very pleased (and more than a little proud: ) to have Po Campo in the shop.

Go To: Po Campo at Perennial Cycle

Po Campo has some videos online to help get a feel for the mounting system and general practicality of their bags.
Check out a couple of their videos below:

The Six Corners Wristlet is Po Campo's biggest selling product.
Here's a video showing the mounting system:

May 14th was a wet and windy day. It also was the day that Derek and I set out to ride the Royal 162. 162 mile gravel road race (OK, more of a ride for participant type riders like us...) was to be epic and we loved the idea. Driving down to Spring Valley early Saturday morning was wet and cold. I told Derek that I expected that he and I would be the only 2 people to show up. Wrong! There had to be at least 60 of us that took off at 7am. It was 49º at 7 and by nine it was 47º (oops, I guess the temp was going the wrong way for us: ).

At 38 miles we were in Preston for water and a piece of fried chicken for me.

We made a quick stop of it and headed out feeling pretty good.
A mere 20 miles later and a good amount of hard driving rain mixed with pretty tough winds and a great feeling of isolation (it did now seem as though we were the only 2 on the ride) and we were squished physically and mentally.

At about 58 miles we crossed a paved bike path and while I think we both knew that we weren't going to make the 162, we were trying to look at the ride in pieces and the current piece was to Harmony. Harmony was completely do-able for us even in the conditions...

15 yards past the bike path we stopped and looked at the cue sheets. We felt there was a bit of confusion about the cue sheets (probably made this up in our muddied brains) and determined that this was our moment to bail out.
Mind you, bailing out at mile 58 didn't mean we were done. Actually we had little sense of where we were and whether to take the bike path right or left (no, we had no clue of a direction they might be pointing). We turned right thinking that Harmony must be that way. Lucky for us it was Preston we came to (no more isolation) as by now the later starting Almanzo riders were all over the town.

Lunch at the café and back to Spring Valley on the highway.
At mile 82 we entered the parking lot. We survived. A little worse for the wear and our egos a bit bruised, but there it is.

Last year I did a ride report of the Almanzo 100. Check it out Here

You can check out more about the Almanzo 100 and Royal 162 Here

Yes, they're in the shop! The highly anticipated Brooks Team PRO Vans Limited Edition saddle has arrived. This is a limited edition of 500 saddles worldwide, with 200 being sold exclusively through Vans Stores and 300 through Supreme and Outstanding Brooks Dealers of Excellence (that’s us). Part of a the Vans Vault Collection, the saddle is embossed with a skull and flower pattern designed by Vans. By far the coolest saddle ever. We won't be able to get more -- so if you're interested order soon.

These saddles may have been sold through, but make sure to check out our current selection of Brooks Saddles HERE.