Amir is our shop manager, but he’s not all business- he’s know how to have some fun and nothing shows that better than his bikes. Here’s his “townie” build, ready for some city ripping. This stiff aluminum Cannondale road racing frame from the 90’s has been updated with a 1x drivetrain, some downhill bars, and a modern Mavic Open Pro wheelset.
Roz is best known for incredible design work. She’s worked with us on a lot of projects including kits, tee’s and logos. She also races CX and MTB and has some stunning bikes! She brought in her GT townie build to get some Deluxe Ti integrated bars, so naturally, we shot it!
This GT frame is special because it was built by Yamaguchi, who’s a legendary frame builder and is seen as one of the pillars of modern bicycle building. Roz built it up townie style with a front rack, the widest tires she could fit on this 90’s race machine (25c), and a 1x drivetrain! With an eclectic mix of Chris King hubs and headset, KCNC cranks, Deluxe Ti bar/stem, and a Thomson post, this machine is built like a tank.
We’re extremely excited and humbled to announce that we will be working with Weis Manufacturing in the near future! We recently made a shop visit to cross the T’s and dot the I’s and figured we’d bring the camera and document their workspace. Weis is a small handmade bicycle company based in Brooklyn. Their mission is to challenge the standard and push the bike industry forward all while keeping a modest price tag. We’re proud to consider them friends and excited to be working with them. More info to come soon!
The day started early.
After a rough night of sleep, Wilis and Amir – along with newest addition to the Deluxe team, Richard, girlfriend, Sidnee, and lovely dame, Rosie the French Bulldog, all embarked on a cold, damp, muddy trip.
Deluxe closed shop doors for the day to attend a quite gnarly mountain bike race over at the Cathedral Pines trail system, located a hour and a half drive from Brooklyn, out deep in Long Island, NY.
The 6 hour event, hosted by organizers Something Wicked, consisted of a 10 mile loop that was very fast, serpentine, tight, hard-packed single track, with minimal elevation change. The organizers offered the event in several catagories: Solo (in A, B, and C categories, both for Male and Female), Duo Relay, 4-Person Relay, Singlespeed, and Fat Bike. The event sold out at the 300 person cap.
For us, Duo Relay was the name of the game and not bonking out was our claim to fame. We went into the race with a chill mentality: just have fun and make it out alive. On that day, Richard blessed us with his mechanical prowess, tended to the field with neutral support. Sidnee and Rosie provided us with good vibes and kindred spirits.
We busted out our signature weapons. Wilis undusted his No22 Old King, built up with a Carbon Lefty, Enve wheels, full Thomson cockpit, complete with Ti Thomson straight bars, and a SRAM XX1 groupset.
Singletrack trails are a commonplace for Wilis so he is all too familiar with races similar to this one. A few months ago, he and a few friends rode D2R2, a 180K gravel ride thats loops through the Green Mountain range in the Appalachians. At the end of the day, Wilis is a seasoned Cat 1 XC racer, and although he won’t admit it, can shred on the trails with one arm and his eyes closed.
Amir on the other hand… He’s quite new. He had participated in a handful of track and cross races this past season but had never raced a MTB race before! However, he frequents local trails and is slowly learning the Art of Sending It.
Amir rode his freshly built Ritchey P-29, accompanied by a Rockshox SID fork, KS LEV dropper post, mismatched Mavic/Enve wheels, Deluxe Ti Integrated Bar/Stem combo, and the new 12-speed SRAM XX1 Eagle.
All went swell with the race, and at the end of it all, the Deluxe boys took home 7th place in the Duo Relay event. Lots of fun was had. Chili and cold pizza was served at the end for the racers and we shortly after embarked on our trek back to the city. See more of the experience below.
Thanks for tuning in! You’ll catch us next at Rainey Park CX coming up in December.
Jeremy brought this bike in to have us swap out his handlebars with the same set, but wider and with a longer integrated stem. This build was meant for some serious road miles with the endurance-oriented slack geometry, disc brakes, and wide rim/tire combo.
This Canyon Endurace is built up with Canyon’s own H31 ERGOCOCKPIT CF integrated bar/stem with their S15 VCLS 2.0 CF setback seatpost. A full Shimano Ultegra Di2 groupo, paired up with Zipp’s 30 Course aluminum wheelset assures sure reliability.
Richard may be new to the shop, but by no means is he new to our level of detail in wheel building. He’s already busted out a couple sets of our Deluxe carbon wheels, and they’re coming out beautifully. Here’s a little slideshow of his work process on this road rear wheel.
Jesse’s been dreaming of building up a townie with full Shimano 600 tricolor for 5 years and finally, that dream came true. Jesse got this Wheeler complete with Shimano 600, and put on his own 600 stem, San Marco saddle, PDW basket, and changed the drive train to a 1x system by getting a race face 40t narrow-wide and de-anodizing the black off to a nice polished silver. This bike is townie’d out with pinhead’s locking skewers, the basket, and cruiser bars!
Come by for your next townie build and we’ll help you build your dream commuter!
