Jordan Carr is the marketing manager for Club Ride Apparel in Sun Valley, Idaho, a former tech editor at Mountain Flyer Magazine and a ripping rider who enjoys blasting singletrack around the West on his SS REEB with Gates Carbon Drive. Carr sent us these images of a recent trip to the White Rim outside Moab, Utah.
“Riding with friends in beautiful places is why so many of us appreciate the simple yet elegant contraption we all passionately refer to as the bicycle,” Jordan writes on the Club Ride blog.
Amen brother.
And just to make you all jealous of Jordan’s life in Sun Valley:
Back home in Ketchum, Idaho, on the Cow Creek trail.
Jordan Czajka is the technical services manager for Advanced Sports, the parent company of Breezer, Fuji and Kestrel, so he knows how to wrench a bike. Also, apparently, when it’s Miller time. Jordan sent us these photos of his customized Raleigh HiLife cyclocross bike that he retro-fitted with Carbon Drive.
Jordan knee slides over a barrier during a cross race, looking mighty stylish.
“I built the frame set up with a bunch of different parts trying to stick with the color theme of the frame,” Jordan says of the Miller High Life-inspired bike. “I rode and raced it for a while with a chain. Once I saw the Gates Carbon Drive system I knew I wanted it. My HiLife seemed like the perfect bike to set up with belt drive.”
“A buddy of mine who is a welder and a machinist carefully cut out a piece of the frame and the end of the drop out to allow the belt to pass through. He then welded a piece of bar stock in between the two dropout saver plates to fill in the cut out section of frame. The drop out savers slide onto the drop out from the rear and the bolts keep everything in place.”
While Gates encourages cyclists to buy a stock belt-compatible frame, Jordan clearly had the chops to do this retro-fit. The resulting bike has served him well for many years of cyclocross racing and commuting.
“HiLife is perfect for cyclocross: no gears to stop working, no chain to clog up and rust, just a perfect setup. Washing the bike after a race or ride is so simple. I ride this bike everywhere and love the simplicity of it.”
As the brewers at Miller might say, it’s the champagne of bikes.
The Beltway Infinity from Breezer featuring Gates Carbon Drive has won Bicycling Magazine’s prestigious Editors’ Choice award for best commuter bike of 2013. The Beltway Infinity is a fully equipped car-replacing transportation bike that features all the necessary components–racks, fenders, lights, bell, disc brakes, belt drive and Nuvinci internal hub gearing for low-maintenance all-weather cycling.
Breezer founder Joe Breeze is one of the great figures in American cycling, the guy who helped create the first mountain bikes–and who also jump-started the North American bike industry’s efforts to produce functional and practical commuter bikes. Anyone looking for a bike for urban transport, commuting or errands should check out the Beltway.
The Beltway Infinity’s win marks the second straight year that a bike with Carbon Drive has won the best commuter bike award from Bicycling, following last year’s choice of the Trek Soho Deluxe. For commuting, having a clean, smooth and easy belt is the way to go.
Learn more about the Beltway at BreezerBikes.com. In addition to the Beltway Infinity, Breezer makes a Beltway 11 (pictured below) with a Shimano Alfine 11-speed internally geared hub, and a Beltway singlespeed for stripped down city riding.
Congratulations to Breezer and Joe Breeze.
Attending the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, Calif., later this week? Look for these belt drive bikes in the expo area and take one for a demo ride.
Breezer Bicycles, the brand founded by pioneering mountain biker Joe Breeze, introduced the Beltway this year. The Beltway, offered in three models with different spec, is a fully equipped commuter bike whose geometry is based on Breezer’s acclaimed Finesse range bike. It’s made for speedy trips to work or across town. Breezer will be showing the Beltway Infinity, which features Carbon Drive and the Nuvinci N360 continuously variable planetary hub for smooth and silent shifting.
Redline will have the Monobelt 29er (below), a belt drive version of their legendary Monocog, available for demo rides.
Saturday is cyclocross day at Sea Otter, with a host of races in the afternoon. Watch for the speedy singlespeeders from Ritte Racing in the 5pm SS race. Ritte has some of the sexiest belt drive cross bikes on the planet (click here more pics).
Photo credit John Watson
Boo Bicycles, the bamboo specialists, are launching their new brand–Aluboo–at Sea Otter. These bikes will be a bamboo- aluminum hybrid and they offer consumers the choice of a Carbon Drive instead of a chain. Visit em in BOOth 220.
Boo will also have their new fashion bike brand Glissando, which elegantly mixes bamboo and titanium, on hand.
Visit Raleigh’s booth to see the XXIX…
And the Misceo iTrail 11:
BMC, maker of the BMC urbanchallenge (the official lifestyle bike of BMC Racing Team) will also be at the Otter:
The current issue of Bicycling Magazine has a great story about University Bikes founder Doug Emerson and his efforts to build a velodrome outside of Boulder, Colorado. Gates is a sponsor of that new velodrome and we believe it will be a huge asset for the Colorado cycling community. In anticipation of its opening, some of our mad scientists have built up a track bike that they plan to get out onto the banked walls as soon as the new facility opens.
The bike features a Primus Mootry frame and a humongous 70-tooth front sprocket, aka “the Beast,” with a 19-tooth rear sprocket. We will follow up with a ride report once the velodrome is open and we’ve had a chance to rock it through the banked corners. If the application works well and there is demand, perhaps Gates will put out a track-bike-specific system in future years. In the meantime, we salute Emerson and his “Field of Dreams” vision for a Boulder velodrome, knowing that if you build it they will come.
