We are sill operating normal business hours as an essential service during SF’s Shelter in Place Ordinance. However, we have implemented the following guidelines to protect our workers and the community.

-Please call us at 415-431-9627 prior to your visit so we can create a work order for your bike or pull items for pick-up to minimize in person contact

-We sterilize each bike upon entry and exit, but PLEASE STAY HOME if you have any symptoms or suspect you’ve been exposed to COVID-19. Help keep us safe.

-We are helping one person at a time, through-the-gate transactions only. Please do not open the gate or enter the shop unless instructed to do so by one of our workers

-If someone is being helped when you arrive, please give them 6ft of space, minimum. We will help you as soon as we can. 

-Regrettably we are unable to accept any returns or loan or tools during this time. Thank you for understanding. 

We’re going to close, so we can ride WITH our customers! Sunday 2/9/20.

Our annual anti-Valentine's Day party!

This year we're hosting a little get together on/over the weekend, instead of the normally observed "holiday."

We may provide a beverage or snack, but please bring your own supplies and help keep the party going :)

My daily rider was featured a while back year on The Radavist. Link to that here - http://theradavist.com/2015/08/geoffs-raphael-cycles-touring-bike/#1 -

This was my ever first custom bike. Rafi, a good friend of mine, had built a dozen bikes or so before he took on my project. It would turn out to be his thirteenth. That was several years ago. We’ve been through a lot together. Countless camping trips, overnights, a couple short tours. I still ride my touring bike as if it were my commuter. I do just about everything on that darn thing.

Enter custom machine number two, or what I believe was Rafi’s twenty-fifth frame to come out of his shop. I had put in one or two seasons of racing cyclocross on an older Kelly Knobby-X which was too big for me. It wasn’t long before I knew I needed to be riding something more my size and style. Pictured above is how the build first turned out. It was a mix of SRAM Rival that I stripped from my old Look road bike, and a couple of a crucial bits from the Shimano CX-70 line (brakes, cranks, and front der.). I acted thrifty at first, re-using the cockpit from the Look I had to sell in order to finance this new bike. Consider the new, old-stock Mavic CXP 33 hoops, or the dead-stock Vittoria Cross XM rubber (in a color they’ve long discontinued!). Hell, we don’t even see too much mud here in Northern California, so that tire choice was purely a means to an end. And that saddle ~ woof ~ clearly an afterthought!

Here’s a more current iteration of what I prefer riding on this frame. Still got the Enve fork, Thomson cockpit, and King headset (this time in pink).

What else, there are Enve bars, some tacky Fizik tape, and a full Shimano ten-speed drivetrain.

Wheels are a funny story; rear is a 36h Velocity A23 paired to Dura-Ace, which I picked up from a race promoter after my pit wheels got walked off with (stolen? I may never know). The front wheel is a 24h HED Belgium Plus laced with Sapim CX-Ray spokes to Dura-Ace. Both are fitted with my favorite tubeless cross tire, the Vittoria Cross XG Pro.

You may have gathered my preference to stop with rim brakes (hashtag death before discs). Pictured here are the aforementioned CX70s, but if you want to get technical, those are Kool-Stop inserts (one of the loves of my life).

I stay clipped in with good ol’ SPDs and rotate on angular contact bearings. I like to gut Shimano external BBs once the stock bearings are dusted, and replace them with something special from Enduro.

The frame is fillet-brazed, using a unique Columbus tubeset ~ Spirit For Lugs, which is essentially a collaborative product designed by Richard Sachs and Dario Pegoretti. The decal on the seattube calls it PegoRichie. As you may be able to see, there’s a lot of headtube on the front end. This allows a bit more upright riding position for long days in the saddle, i.e., not racing. I’ve done rugged, mixed-terrain, 200k brevets on this bike and I would not want to tackle that kind of ride on any other machine. Slam that stem? No thank you.

Next time you see this bike I hope to have that Cinelli Unicanitor re-upholstered! The leather has begun to peel away.

Well, that’s that. Thanks for checking out my ride!

It’s been awhile since we’ve talked about why we all dig our flagship bicycle, The Pelican.

Since form follows function, it makes sense to talk about what the Pelican is designed for before we get into why it does its job so well.

The Pelican is designed for long distance, self supported, fast paced riding on both smooth and rough surfaces. Furthermore, it is designed to make any person look incredibly stylish. There are a ton of different ways to build up a Pelican frame, but most will have some common elements, big squishy tires, full fenders, dynamo lighting, low gearing, and the majority of the load up front.

Here are the specifics of the frame and why we, as bicycle enthusiasts and mechanics, dig the Pelican:

Frame material

Without getting too technical, (if you want all the specifics, stop by the shop or send us an email)  Pelicans are made of thin walled, small diameter steel tubing. This allows the frame to flex as it hits bumps in the road, which translates into a comfortable and efficient ride.  Not only does steel offer a great ride, it is also highly repairable, in the off chance something happens to the frame.  With the exception of something totally catastrophic, (like being ran over by a car) it is within reason for steel bicycle frame to last for multiple decades of heavy use.  All Pelicans are built by hand in the USA by highly skilled custom framebuilders.  We are very proud to be working with Joseph Ahearne and Christopher Igleheart of Page Street Cycles in Portland Oregon for the production of our most recent batch of frames.  

Frame geometry

The Pelican has low trail geometry, which basically means the fork is raked out further than a traditional road or mountain bike. There’s an overwhelming amount of editorial info out there about low trail geometry, but there are some distinct advantages that are worth mentioning: First, is that with a front load the weight is placed behind the front axle which makes for predictable handling even with a good amount of stuff up front. Second, is that low trail geometry is great for descending long technical roads because it allows the bike to make one fluid motion when turning around a corner, rather than a bunch of small choppy motions. Third, when climbing on a bike with low trail geometry it’s much easier to keep a straight line, especially when you’re fatigued.

Braze-ons and standards

The bottom bracket is standard 68mm width with English threading, simply because they very rarely have problems, especially compared to any sort of press fit.  The headset is 1″ threaded, which allows for the use of a quill stem.  This allows the rider to dial in their fit comfortable fit without a goofy looking stem or a ton of spacers.

The Pelican is designed to fit 650B x 42 tires with fenders.  This wheel/tire size allows for strong, lightweight wheels, with lots of air volume, and there are lots of great options for tires.  The frame will also clear 650bx48 tires without fenders for more aggressive off-road riding, or dirt touring.

We chose to use cantilever posts rather than disc brakes on the Pelican for a couple reasons.  First is that they allow us the use lightweight tubing for the fork, which allows for a more comfortable ride.  Disc brakes need much sturdier fork legs since all of the force is on one side and at the end of a long arm.  Second is that rim brakes are generally more reliable and almost always easier to diagnose and fix roadside should there be any problems.

For braze-ons, the Pelican has accommodations for nearly any front rack, (lowrider, porteur, rando, etc.) a small rear rack or saddle bag support, internal dynamo wiring, external shift/brake routing, and full coverage metal fenders.

If you’ve looked at a new bicycle recently, you’ve probably seen a pair of shiny rotors hanging off the hubs. And if you’ve been on a trail ride recently, you’ve probably heard a variation of the ear-splitting squeal of metal-on-metal. You may be telling yourself stuff like, “whats wrong with my Paul canti’s?”, or, “if I get disc brakes will everyone think I’m cool again?”, or, “I don’t think I need this but I know I definitely need this.”

The most popular selling point of disc brakes is stopping power, which you’ve probably heard before. And it’s true! Usually this means that you get to pull your brake lever with less force, or your lever requires less throw to bring the bike to a controlled stop. This is a blessing off-road, where traction is limited and obstacles abound. While increased stopping power is obviously a plus, the real benefits of disc brakes are in the wheels.

Conventional rims must have a brake track along the sidewall to allow for stopping (duh). As the brake pads contact the rim, they remove material from the braking surface. Because of this, conventional rims have a finite wear life, and are constrained in design by incorporating a brake track. By moving the braking surface onto a rotor, the disc brake rim is not subject to wear. Additionally, disc brake rim design is not constrained by the conventional brake track. This allows rim manufacturers to design stiffer, lighter rims, that wont wear out with use, (although knowing you, they’ll be dented within a month).

So now you have better stopping power (sick!), and stronger, lighter wheels (thanks!), what more could you want? Oh, right, you love 650b conversions. Disc brakes allow for simple changes in wheel size, allowing you to run any tire that will fit in your bike. With the industry on plus-tire overdrive, and modern bikes getting more and more clearance, things can get real shreddy real fast. For example: on a humble SOMA Double Cross Disc one can fit 650b x 48 Compass tires or even some slick 26x3s! No fake!

Well this is all great and good, indeed it is downright revolutionary, but what about that damned squeal? Disc brakes generally make more noise than rim brakes. The quietest disc brake will still make a rasping, scraping noise, especially under hard braking. “Bedding” disc brakes is absolutely essential to quiet operation: this is the process of transferring an even layer of brake pad material onto the rotor. Squeal occurs when this bedding layer is uneven, causing the pads to alternately skip and bite, creating resonance in the rotor and curse words from any humans nearby. Perfect bedding is hard to achieve! Most disc brakes will end up squealing some amount at some point in their lives. 

Finally, we come to cable vs. hydraulic systems. Hydraulic disc brakes are the bee’s knees. They offer insane modulation and power (think one-finger braking), self adjust for pad wear, and tend to squeal less. However, they require in depth maintenance (bleeding and replacing fluid), can fail at low temperature, and are rendered useless if the hose is breached by say, a sharp rock. Additionally, the rubber seals have a finite lifetime (usually a few years),  leading to system rebuilds or more frequently replacement of the whole system. For us, there is no question that Shimano hydraulic disc brakes are the best. They use mineral oil which is much easier to work with than SRAM’s DOT fluid, and setting them up is actually fun, instead of inducing murderous rage. Tektro also uses mineral oil (nice!), while Formula and Hayes use DOT fluid (boo!).

Cable actuated disc brakes address many of the shortcomings of their hydraulic brethren, but are more prone to squeal, require frequent pad adjustment, and their lever feel is very dependent on the cable housing. Compressionless cable housing is a must for good lever feel, and bedding must be executed with fanatical commitment (we like SwissStop’s instructions at the bottom of their product page). The most adjustable mechanical disc brakes are the Avid BB7, and the Paul Klamper, due to their dual external dials. A favorite of ours is the TRP Spyre and Spike, which mimic the actuation of a hydraulic system, though require hex wrenches to adjust.

Pictured below is our buddy and neighbor, Ryan’s cargo bike.

This was featured on the The Radavist last year when John Watson was in town. Ryan occasionally graces the shop with this steed in tow, be it for spare tubes or whathaveyou. His bike, as well as a lot of other machines that pass through our doors, are A) easy on the eyes, and B) reinforce the standards and quality that come from American manufacturing.

Joseph Ahearne has shared shop space in Portland, OR with Christopher Igleheart for a few years. The two of them have been recently collaborating on a few projects (see below). Just a few days ago the website of their joint efforts (Page Street Cycles) went live.

(image courtesy The Radavist)

In fact, when the two of them are not working on their custom one-off work, they are set up to build multiple bikes in a reasonable amount of time.

(image courtesy@mapbicycles Instagram)

A few months ago we learned that Mitch Pryor was packing up shop in Chico, moving his headquarters, and temporarily ceasing operations. At that time we decided it was best to forego his building of the Pelicans. As you can see from the surrounding images, moving a shop space is no small task.

While this was disappointing news to digest, it’s fully understandable ~ life gets in the way, there must always be room for the unforeseeable, etc. But there are no hard feelings. The show must go on, as they say. Box Dog wishes the very best for MAP and hopes that the dust has settled and his business is back to normal.

Soon after all this, we were relieved to hear from Ahearne about the possibility of building for us. The opportunity was a big one for a lot of reasons.

Spokes are on often overlooked part of a bike.  At a glance they pretty much all look the same, but when examined closely there’s a huge difference between low and high quality spokes.  Low quality spokes that often come on prebuilt wheels and stock bikes end up brake prematurely requiring either an entire rebuild or replacing the whole wheel.  Rims should wear out from braking long before good quality spokes ever break. On properly built wheels spokes have to withstand massive amounts of tension.  Most modern rims can withstand around 120 kilograms of force.  That’s right around 265 lbs pulling on each spoke.  Here’s a great visual of what 265lbs looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEeJF9HJ7mY

We stock four different styles of spokes all of which are made out of stainless steel by Sapim in Belgium. 

Sapim Leader

This is the most basic and least expensive spoke we stock.  It’s a straight gauge spoke.  It’s 2mm wide for the entire length of the spoke.  These spokes are good choice for basic wheels that are budget oriented. 

Weight: 64 pcs x 260 mm 431 g

Sapim Race

The Race is a double butted spoke which means it’s thicker on the ends and thinner in the middle.  It’s 2mm on the ends and 1.8mm in the middle.  Butting spoke not only saves weight, it makes spokes less likely to break.  Spokes generally break at the elbow or at the nipple, so by having a thinner middle section the spoke will flex in the middle instead of breaking at the end.  These are our most popular spoke and are great option for mountain bikes, road training wheels, cyclocross wheels, light-ish touring wheels.

Weight: 64 pcs x 260 mm 363 g

Sapim Strong

This spoke is specifically designed for super heavy duty uses, such as tandems, cargo bikes, and electric bikes.  It’s single butted going from 2.3mm at the elbow to 2mm for the rest of the spoke.  These spokes are the way to go for wheels where weight isn’t a concern and reliability is of utmost importance.

Weight: 64 pcs x 260 mm 446 g

Sapim CX-Ray

These spokes almost sound too good to be true.  They’re incredibly lightweight, aerodynamic, and can withstand the most amount of flex cycles of any spoke ever tested.  These are the most commonly used spokes in professional cycling, both on the road and the mountain.  They start off as a Sapim Laser double butted spoke (2.0-1.5-2.0mm) and are then forged into a bladed spoke.  Forging adds some tensile strength, but the biggest factor that makes these spokes so durable is that the flat aero section allows the wheel builder to hold the spoke from turning, effectively eliminating wind up in the building process.  Laser spokes can withstand 1.5 million flex cycles (this is still very good), after being forged into CX-Rays they can withstand 3.5 million flex cycles.

Hey friends,

We’re trying something new for group rides.  We’re going to shoot for two a month one on a Saturday and one on a Sunday.  The rides will be different each time.

The first one is this Sunday 6/5.  We’ll leave from the Dublin/Pleasonton BART station at 9:15 am.  The route will go over the backside of Mt. Hamiltion via Mines road.  Should be around 80 miles with 6,666 feet of climbing.  Be sure to bring lots of water (at least three bigger bottles) and snacks.  We’ll stop at the Junction around mile 40 to refill on water and food. The ride will end in downtown San Jose at Good Karma Cafe for bomb vegan food and beers.  Good Karma is super close to Cal Train to get back to San Francisco or the 181 express bus to Freemont bart.

Route:

https://www.strava.com/routes/5236295

Facebook Event:

Every year Box Dog kicks off our bike camping series with a low key worker (and close friends) camping trip. This year we decided to start off at China Camp State Park right outside of San Rafael.

The ride from the shop to China Camp is aprox 25 miles which is a little daunting after a day of work and not quite the daylight hours you’d like. So we planned to all take the ferry out to Larkspur and make the 7 mile ride to the campsite.

While we were all really excited about the trip it became obvious in the days leading up to it that we would have a little bit of wet weather. While the rain is welcome these days it’s still not always the most fun to work and then spend the night potentially getting soaked just to go back to work the next day.

The day of due to circumstance, bad planning, and the impending rain the riders slowly dwindled from our expected 10 to just me and Mariella (a friend of the shop). Everyone else carpooled out to the site.

Even in the drizzle the ride was beautiful. Marin in the springtime after a good rain is lush and looks like some kind of Lord of the Rings daydream. Mariella and I made the quick trip from Larkspur through San Rafael mostly on a nice bike path and then cut through a brief amount of suburban/stripmall/highway on ramp traffic to Point San Pedro Road.

The road goes all the way around the bay coast passing by a small beach and an old brickyard you notice for the giant kiln chimneys before you make a short but challenging ride into the park. The rest of the ride was a welcome site of more of those rolling hills, green lush redwood, bay, and oak, and low salt marshes.

We road into the camp site on a nice wide trail and set up for the night under this beautiful tree with it’s own porthole.

It was a weekend and so even though it was raining there were plenty of people in the campgrounds but we had two whole spacious sites to ourselves. The rain didn’t quite let up but it was surprisingly pleasant out and completely manageable, especially if you were close to the fire.

I was happy to spend another night out with my friends and co-workers out of work and on my bike and I’m so very happy to spend another summer camping with all of you!