Roll on by the shop between eleven & one o’clock on Friday, May 17th to partake of the awesome goodness rain or shine!

As Iowa’s first official bicycle friendly business, The Broken Spoke continues its bronze level certification by the League of American Bicyclists for another four years!

See the entire list of bicycle friendly businesses here:
http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bicyclefriendlyamerica/bicyclefriendlybusiness/pdfs/bfb_master_list_web_fall_2013.pdf

Orange handlebar tape & a Brooks B-17 leather saddle liven up the cockpit, while white toe clips & cream leather toe straps add some flair to the bottom end!

Also, this Surly is much more street-friendly with the 700×28 Continental Gatorskin tyres rolling smoothly.

Normally, the single speed Cross Check comes with a flat bar. But with a little swapping out of some key components, we have a much better suited drop bar version of it!

Here is a Shimano Alfine generator hub laced up to an Alex Adventurer with Wheelsmith double-butted spokes. An XT disc rotor is mounted to the hub for year-round commuting purposes!

Another Shimano generator hub laced up to an Alex Adventurer rim with Wheelsmith double-butted spokes.

Here is a beefy commuter wheel that should be a ‘set it & forget it’ component. It’s a Shimano Deore hub laced up to a Sun Rhyno Lite rim with 36 Wheelsmith straight-gauge spokes. The driveside spokes are silver, whilst the non-driveside are black. This results in a nice alternating black/silver pattern at the rim!

This is the front of a wheelset for a Surly Long Haul Trucker to be ridden year-round. It has yet another Shimano generator hub laced up to an Adventurer rim. It is using black DT alpine spokes to keep the hub married to the rim. A 700x40mm Nokian studded tyre is all business!

Here is the rear. It has a Shimano SLX hub laced up to an Adventurer rim using the same spokes as the front. A 700x35mm 45North tyre provides the push.

A before photo: regular derailleur-based drivetrain on a mid-90s Specialized Rockhopper.

The after: The Nuvinci N360 is a continuously variable planetary internally geared hub. What this means is that it has an infinite gear range between the lowest & highest gears. The shifter acts as an analogue dial that results in _always_ being in a gear. There are no missed shifts or clunky shifting with this set-up! A Paul Melvin chain tensioner was used since the Rockhopper has vertical dropouts. A chainguard keeps things neat. A keen eye will also see that the fork got replaced.

The Nuvinci uses the best optical gear indicator I have ever seen. Lower gears create a hill!

Classy leather grips that are oh so ergo!

Here’s a sweet side shot of the whole bike(before a Thomson seatpost & Brooks saddle got later installed!

So many parts. What to do with them all?

Presto-change-o! It’s a bike! Parts highlights are: Surly Nice Racks front & rear, Shimano Tigra 52/39t road double crankset, Thomson seatpost, MKS Touring Lite pedals, Shimano XT shifters & brake levers, SKS fenders, & Continental Touring Plus tyres!

It features this sweet front-end with a trekking bar for lots of hand positions.

Oh, you wanted hand-built wheels? A Shimano 105 hub laced up to an Alex Adventurer rim with thirty-six Wheelsmith double-butted spokes!

A Shimano SLX hub laced up to the same rim with the same spokes!

It’s a custom frame-up build with hand-built wheels, just like we like them!

Here is a photo of the shop with its new bike rack & grass!

Here are some things that have recently come out of the shop.

We built up this fine Soma Smoothie!

Pretty classy if I don’t say so myself. Plus, check out that sweet Shimergo set up it’s rocking!

I built up this rock solid wheelset using 105 hubs, Wheelsmith double-butted spokes, & Alex Adventurer rims.

Pete installed these awesome cork grips using twine onto a customer’s awesome Trek 520. They are grooved to accommodate the barend shifters. I had installed the Nitto Albatross handlebar, Nitto stem, & Paul brake levers beforehand.

We did a frame swap on a customer’s bike. This Dew has seen _many_ changes over the past few years. This time around it get’s a Surly Cross Check frame & fork!

Lookin’ mighty fine!

I also assembled this fantastic baby carriage that was imported from Italy back in 1973!