Velocity Wheels: Service Above and Beyond the Call of Duty
I ordered a rim for my Venge the other day, sitting on the side of the road with yet another broken spoke from a lightweight set of wheels that I’d bought. That was Tuesday night.
Yesterday evening, sitting in a restaurant with my family, my daughter announced that a package had arrived for me. Less than 48 hours after placing the order, this was sitting next my Venge when we got home from a late dinner:
I placed the order at 6:45 pm on Tuesday. The hoop arrived at 6 pm on Thursday. I can’t believe that turnaround.
On a fluke, on Wednesday, I emailed Velocity because I’d removed the decal from the rear hoop when I had that wheel rebuilt because the spokes wouldn’t stay tight on the far too flexible original rim. I asked if they would be willing to send a replacement decal so my wheels could match.
Not only did they offer to send new decals, the guy who responded said he’d thought of a couple of different options that would dress the wheels up if I was interested…
I’ll have to see what comes but if it’s only the Fusion decal I’ll be plenty happy.
In any event, their hoops are bomb proof. A little on the heavy side, but I’ll take 1,580 grams and hassle free over 1,460 grams and in the shop every few weeks to have a broken spoke nipple replaced or the wheel trued, yet again, any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Now, if I’d only have gone with a set of their race wheels first, they come in at a scant sub 1,400 grams for less than $850. Live and learn.
I roll Velocity Dyads on the tandem. They’re solid. And fast.
If you’re looking for a good, all-around, alloy wheelset, I can’t recommend Velocity highly enough. Their customer service is spectacular and their product is excellent.
I was offered nothing to write this post and paid full pride for all Velocity rims I own. The Dyad wheels came on my Co-Motion bike as standard equipment. I just wanted to pass along my experience. Oh, and Velocity Wheels are made in the USA.
I will be receiving a free decal or three when they get here, but Velocity didn’t know me from any other normal customer when they offered to send them to me – this blog (meaning my site in its entirety, not the misuse of the word meaning “post”) was never mentioned in any correspondence with Velocity. In other words, nothing was bartered for their exceptional service as described in this post.
My Trick for Riding Comfortably in the Drops… and, for once, it ain’t the Setup.
Now that Title, if you aren’t familiar with the intricacies of setting a bike up, can be a little misleading. The setup is as important as owning the bike.
Comfortably riding in the drops, with the right drop bar, is a bit of an acquired taste though. It’s like strong, black coffee. A rookie can go for the gusto, but you’re sure to see a face-scrunched pucker and a shiver… you have to ease into it, Batman! You can’t just go all straight dark roast, you have to work up to that level of pure coffee bliss. It’s too much awesomeness all at once for a rook.
So, assuming you’ve had your bike setup done, and it’s right, you should be comfortable riding in the drops for an hour, straight. If you can’t last ten minutes, but feel comfortable with your hands on the hoods, I’m your guy and this is your post.
It is my pleasure, sister or brother. It’s what I do to stay such a happy guy.
Now, for you folks who were told you should have your saddle at the same height as the handlebar because it’s more comfortable, it’s not. When you sit upright on a bike that’s designed to be rigid, like a road bike, your back is like the blade of a jackhammer over bumps. How that is comfortable is beyond me. When you’re able to have some bend at the hips, your back and arms work as shock absorbers, or maybe dampeners would be a better word.
An Affable Hammer, by definition is a nice, approachable person who rides real fast. That is us.
Anyway, more important, notice no gut. Riding real low, like I do, requires a minimum amount of baggage in the guttural area. You can’t bend around a big gut. Work that off and you too can go low (I had to, you can too, it just takes time).
Now, we should be all square. Let’s teach our body to ride comfortably in the drops!
- Mount your bike.
- Clip your feet into the pedals as you normally would. If you don’t have pedals that you clip into, go get some, and some shoes. Then practice unclipping in the grass and come back to me… 😲😊😆😎
- Spin for ten minutes to warm up.
- Place your hands in the proper position in the drops*.
- Ride for as long as you can.
- Rinse and repeat until you get to an hour.
- Lower your stem and handlebar.
- Rinse and repeat points 1-6.
- Once you’re comfortable at an hour, choose one day a week as “drop day” and ride for an hour in the drops.
*Proper position for the hands in the drops will vary from person to person. I prefer to ride with my hands a little higher, closer to the hoods (see below).
Now I can’t vouch for all people, but I can for me: I used to have miserable lower back problems before cycling. Pain five or six days a week, excruciating at least two of them. Since I’ve been riding really low, I have one or two days a month with minor pain and no more excruciating days. Running helped (I ran before finding my fitness joy on a bike), but I never had days where I never thought about my back like I do on a bike. How low do I ride?
One final note: Notice the bend in my arms. That is critical to comfort. In the first photo, because I was turning to see what my friend was doing riding next to me, I’d locked my arms out. Locking the arms is bad, you don’t want any part of your body to be rigid when you hit a bump. It’ll send the shock all the way through your body. You want enough strength to keep your hands on the bars but enough flex that your arms and legs can absorb the bouncing. With rigid arms, your hands, wrists, shoulders, neck and butt take a beating on anything but excellent road surfaces.
It took about a year of lowering the bars, maybe two, to get comfortable in that position. A little bit at a time. Here’s my first properly set up bike the day I brought it home four years ago:
Here’s that same bike, as it is today:
And here’s my other bike:
I did not get there overnight. Those bulletpoint steps above are how I did it. Slowly, over time. A couple of final tips:
- My neck did get sore for a time, whenever I lowered my handlebar. That got better as I became accustomed to the position. Craning one’s neck to see up the road like that is not natural. It takes some getting used to.
- Your saddle will likely need to be adjusted, nose down, to accommodate the increased drop as you lower the bar. The saddle should cradle you, so it doesn’t push up in the front, which hurts, or slide you off the front of the saddle because the back is too high. This takes a minute to get dialed in right. When you do, it’s glorious.
Fit Recovery 