Bloomfield Winter Whip
Since today was my first commute in the snow this season (a light snow but still snow on the ground!) I figured it was the right time to show you a different look that my Bloomfield takes on for riding out the long, sometimes difficult winters in Montréal. The summer build is unchanged, but the flexibility of the Bloomfield means it's pretty easy to swap parts for different seasons. For context, the winter conditions in Montréal are, outside of some outlier days, between 0°C and -15°C, ignoring wind chill since you've always got some extra wind on a bike. Precipitation is mostly snow, with some freezing rain days. Road conditions vary between: dry but filthy and salty; slushy; loose snow; packed snow; and black ice (sometimes with bonus snow on top). Bike paths are mostly well-cleared these days, particularly the REV arterials, but local streets are often treacherous and motorists extremely vicious, moreso than in Spring and Summer. The Sun tends to be up when I go to work, but sets well before the end of the workday, so a strong light is a must. On to the parts swaps! The big difference is the wheel size. The Bloomfield V1 was designed from the start to be able to use larger 700C wheels (narrow tire summer styles) or the smaller 650B size (wider tire and room in the frame for fenders). Going from a 700 x 32C slick tire to a studded 650 x 38B winter tire makes for a smaller total diameter and you can juuuuust about squeeze in some metal fenders. You've usually got to use different sidepull brakes for the different wheel sizes, but if you don't care too much about braking power on the front, it turns out old Mafac Racers just need to have their pads moved to the extremes of their adjustment range. OK, so that rear hub... I'm one of the reluctant Sturmey-Archer apologists at C&L, and this is the third winter bike I've built with an internally-geared hub (8-speed Sturmey and Shimano Nexus-3 if you're curious - the former is retired for being ridiculous and the latter is still going on a buddy's beater bike). The S2C is weird even by IGH standards, but when I found out I could get it in a coaster-brake, 120mm spaced version, a perverse part of my mind wouldn't let me use anything else. It's a 2-speed which is convenient around town, and shifts by moving the pedals backward a fraction of a turn. It's also got a coaster brake, which you brake by pushing backward on the pedals slightly more than to shift... Yes, that means you shift every time you brake. If you're coming to a stop from high gear, that means you'll be starting in low gear. Pretty clever stuff but very weird. I'm seeing how many winters it can survive, I opened it up and greased it to my own winter standards before initial setup. I've found that at -10°C and below, if you give the bike time to sit around and equalize to the ambient temperature, you can't shift anymore until it's moved and warmed up for a few km - but the braking still works perfectly. I normally try to steer people away from coaster brakes since most are made for light use or children, meaning they're not designed to stop a full-grown person who's really moving. This is a beefy one though, and works well enough that I don't often have to use my front brake! That's convenient since when braking on the front you have more power but lose some control, both potentially problematic on slippery surfaces. The chain is also one I only use in the winter, partly because I'd need to resize my summer chain for the larger cog, partly because my summer chain's pretty nice and I don't want it sitting in brine all season. The chain's rust-coloured because of the rust from storage - it's suspended in the chain oil and will come off when I clean it. Happily the chainline works great with the same crank and bottom bracket. Instead of drop handlebars, I've got this nice cozy and relaxed North Road-style handlebar, which I keep with its bell and stem in my storage once summer's over. It's a quick swap since my brake lever is hinged and comes off easily. These handlebars are way easier to use with big huge mittens than road bars would be. The Soma front mini-rack supports a bag, I actually leave it on for the summer now too, it's just too convenient, and Bassi forks are designed with this rack's dimensions in mind so it's the easiest one to fit. Its small size and thoughtful shapes make it look like a natural part of the bike, particularly when I remove the light for the winter. The front wheel's built with a dynamo hub. It's even more important in winter for reliability, since batteries don't keep their charge nearly as well when it's very cold. The light is the Kasai Trail Beam - being seen clearly is more important in a snow storm so a shaped beam is less useful than this one which just throws its light everywhere. Fenders are completely indispensable for winter riding, maybe even more so than the studded tires that are on this bike. There's almost always some moisture on the ground, and with road salt it becomes a brine. Having that thrown up all over me and the bike every day for months would make all the parts wear much, much faster. These are aluminium ones from Tanaka (Merry Sales), a 650 x 45B model. As you can see the fender line is awful, but with track dropouts I have to be able to move the wheel back to remove it. The front has a flap to protect my boots and bottom bracket, which I cut from leather scraps. The front fender's stays aren't cut because I didn't need to and didn't care, no other reason. The last little detail is the big ol' Blue Lug reflector on the saddle, a Peace Sports special collaboration. Isaac who runs Peace (and is like me a folder/minivelo enthusiast) is chums with Riv Bike's James and we had a little bike hang and chat when I visited San Francisco this fall. Thanks again for the reflector Isaac! Happy riding even in the dark months! Remember to always keep your stick on the ice, and have fun out there.
Bloomfield Fixie
Open images in a new tab to see huge 'uns As a young man in the early 2010's, it was hard to ignore the attractiveness of fixies as a concept, and it was equally obvious that most of the actual bikes were hideous. The exception, a bike that always managed to turn my head when I saw one about town, was that bright-yellow speeding streak that was the first-generation Bassi Roma-Tokyo, running fixed with track handlebars. Such beautiful lines, and such handling! Sadly, by the time I could afford a brand-new frame of my very own, the Roma-Tokyos had sold out. Since then, I've been agitating for its return, and got my wish this year, though it bears a different name now, to underline that it's more capable, flexible and useful than the old super-skinny, super-zippy track frame: Bloomfield, named after a street in Outremont. You may be aware that the Bloomfield is compatible with the new hotness, the trendy 650B size of wheel, which allows one to use higher-volume tires given the same frame size than the old, stodgy, boring 700C wheel size. I'm happily tall enough at a 86cm PBH not to have been eternally underserved in terms of proportional wheel sizes for my bikes, but 650B and 26-inch wheeled frames are a godsend for shorter or medium-height people! They're not necessary everywhere, however, and I've found I'm happiest with larger wheels with a mid-sized tire, in this case 32mm width. They roll well, have plenty of volume for comfort on streets and crushed-stone and dirt paths, have less rotating weight than a wheel with more rubber, and have a better-shaped contact patch. Of course, the benefit of the updated Bloomfield frame compared to a Roma-Tokyo is that I don't have to use unpleasantly harsh super-skinny tires, and could get one size skinnier tires if I wanted to have room for fenders. Luxury! THIS BIKE'S PARTS Super-cheap Alexrims on the smooth Bassi Classic track hubs, 32-spoke for that nice symmetrical pattern. Bassi Classic track crank to match. Gatorskin 700x32mm tires, which is very exactly the largest tire that fits in this frame. All-City 17t track cog. I liked the cutouts, not that the saved grams are worth anything. My old 13t steel cog is sitting on the other side, but I may not be young enough to push that one anymore. Call it nostalgia. Izumi track chain cause I always wanted one. The saddle is my first-ever Brooks, it's been going for about 8 years of city riding, long tours, rain and sun, and looks awesome. Well worn in, but still holding its shape to perfection. Sadly they stopped making this B17 Narrow with cut-out. Nitto Noodle 42cm handlebars, Nitto Technomic 9cm stem, I have yet to find anything prettier or more comfortable than Nitto's very careful and refined shapes. Newbaums cotton bar tape, covered with shellac, which I enjoy for its grippiness and slim look. The little piece of tape on the seatpost is its original colour, the shellac darkens it a little or a lot, depending on the grade you're using. This was super-blonde shellac. The brake lever is an old interrupter (cross-top) lever that I had in my parts bin. I wore straight through the pivot of the left one on an old bike, so this is the right-hand one, inverted and installed on the left. It was black but I removed the anodizing and sanded and polished it. This is an all-silver-parts build, after all. The housing is the same as on my Appaloosa, I had a little scrap left over. The Mafac Racer brake was a miracle find at a friend of a friend's bike garage that I had to insist on paying for. It's very nice to have bike friends! I took it apart, cleaned and polished it (try doing that with disc brakes!), and modified it a little to fit the recessed nut fitting on the Bloomfield's fork. Last, but possibly my favourite part on this bike: the 1994 Dura-Ace SPD pedals. They were a trash-score of a colleague, but he wound up hating the way they always hang at the exact same angle upside-down. It does require patience at first but now it's quite automatic muscle-memory to flip them up and clip in. They've been ridden regularly for decades now, are scuffed everywhere, have never been serviced as far as I know, and they're still going strong. And Graeme Obree uses the same ones! One of these days I'm sure I'll put a rack on the front since it's got the eyelets for it, but I enjoy having a minimal bike. It's a nice change of pace from my other whips and I can always put my Carradice on the saddle loops. Photos and words by yours truly
JD's Bloomfield
It had been a while since JD treated himself to a new bike. Knife making, building a cabin in the woods and being a father of two on top of running the shop left little time for riding anyway. He chose the Bloomfield as his freshest canvas, maybe as a throwback to the very first frame he co-designed for Bassi 13 years ago, the Roma-Tokyo. While the Bloomfield took the old R-T and asked why you would ever want to limit yourself to 25c tires, JD takes it a step further by questioning brake choice. Seeing as his Bloom would serve mainly for off-pavement shenanigans, why wouldn’t you opt for the strongest rim brakes available? So, being no stranger to the torch, he took it upon himself to answer that query. The result is a pretty badass looking ride that has already proven itself to be a blast to ride on the most unkempt dirt roads. Should the V2 Bloomfield feature posts for cantilevers/v-brakes? Let us know in the comments below! Pics by the master of the blade @devolution514
3 Staff Bloomfields
Bloom1, tracklothrowback: Fixed-gear brakeless like it’s 2009. The most direct nod to the now-retired Roma-Tokyo, the frame that started it all. 650x48B Ultradynamico Cava Races, 42x16 gearing, 3/32 Izumi Super Toughness and Sim Works MowMow keep it light, zippy and fun! Bloom2, bloomuter: The coaster-brake, dynamo and custom rando rack build showcase how this Bloomer is fit for purpose as a reliable, low-maintenance, commuter. 36-spoked front and rear wheels make it pretty bombproof too! This one will eventually be getting fenders and a front brake as soon as its owner makes up their mind. Bloom3, bloomdonneur: This rando-tastic build was made with long days of dirt road exploring in mind! Crust Towel rack, Ron’s Fabio’s Chest bag, Mone’s souped-up coaster-brake hub, White Industries crank, 650x43B Sim Works Homage tires and Honjo Fenders make for one dreamy Bloomie! Hit us up to get your dream Bloomie build started! Photos by @Jochhoo