Product Reviews – Part II – All City Star BMX Grips

This review is long overdue. I received these grips from All-City in January 2010.

I often review something once it has served its purpose and has been completely used up/annihilated. With these grips, this wasn’t the case. I ended up cutting them off when I decided to strip down my MTB and clean every bolt/bearing/etc. This was in May 2012.

The grips are a dual durometer, with the white stars being a tougher rubber than the black. The black rubber is pretty gummy and kept its grip their entire lifetime. Roughly 18 months into using them, the soft durometer (black) rubber started edging away from the tougher inner rubber (white). This was a visible issue, but not a functional issue at all.

The grips were also very easy to clean up. I often would get them filthy looking after four or five rides, but a touch of water and soap on a rag would clean them off in less than 30 seconds. The little stars were still very white the day I cut them off.

Since these were a set of “BMX” grips, the donut flanges at the end were pretty big, but not enough to be in the way of my brakes.

The only thing I could complain about is the colors of the grips. I really wish the black had been reversed with the white, but this is just so it would better match my bike ~_~

These grips are pretty flashy and a cheap piece of bling to put on your bike. Even the bar-end side of them were in great condition when I removed them. You know how often during crashes or overall neglect for the bar ends result in a smushed or crappy looking edge? Not these guys. They last forever, and are as comfy as grips get.

They MSRP for around $10, so you should go out and pick up a pair for your bike! They come in several colors: http://allcitycycles.com/products/star_bmx_grips

Numeric Review: 4/5.

These would have gotten a perfect score if they would have come in a colorway that fit my bike better. YMMV.

***FCC Mandatory Warning – I did receive these for a discounted price, please be aware that I am showing no bias for them, regardless of the costs or benefits.

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Product Review – Part 1 – RaceWareDirect Garmin Mount

Okay, now that academics are done for the summer, let’s get down to business. First product is a new accessory meant for the Garmin Edge series bike GPS units.

The mount is made by RaceWareDirect in the UK. A lot of people were getting finicky with how long garmin/quark were taking to create their mount, and a couple of companies have popped up to create an unofficial version.

I really liked the look of the PRO mount, so I looked around. K-Edge makes one for like $754,365, there’s a company named Barfly, and a few others on the market.

Raceware Direct is 3d printing their mounts, and it weighs less than 13 grams. If you are interested in a unique style to mount your garmin to your handlebars, Martyn at Raceware Direct is capable of making your ideas a reality.

The mount is very stable, places the garmin in a very nice place off of the handlebar and stem, and the clamp only takes about 10mm of space next to the stem.

I’ve had it for about three weeks now, and despise going back to the stem mount that was originally provided with the garmin when I ride my mountain bike. I can’t afford another one.

I also got a TT mount from Raceware Direct, and it is also of very high quality. It fits very snug and secure. This allows you to place the garmin wherever you want on your TT Bars.

I can’t exactly say this piece of equipment has made me ride faster or climb better, but it has made it easier to look at my garmin, and adjust angles and whatnot. If you want something like this, I would go with racewaredirect, because you are working with a small group of people, and they care whether or not you are enjoying your product! Will garmin ever email you and ask if you enjoy your products? I thought not.

Review Summary: 5/5 Stars.

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Genuine Innovations: Above and Beyond!

I contacted Genuine Innovations last week about my Ultraflate Plus CO2 inflator starting to fail due to the O-rings in the inflator being crushed a bit. This was causing about one out of every 3 of my CO2’s to prematurely release, and fail.
Here’s my email to them:

How did you hear about us: Bought one of your products from an IBD

Subject:  Gasket failures

Comments:  Dear GI, Love your products, and have been an evangelizing fan of your inflators for almost a decade. I still have this guy, (http://www.mcguckin.com/images/2203626.jpg) the Ultraflate Plus in the older colors. I’m wondering if you sell repair kits for the inflator, because any of your threadless co2 cartridges I use have… like… a 50% chance of success of not leaking. I’ve peeked into the puncturing area of the inflator, and the gasket next to the puncturing piece seems to have met its match. :sadface: This is a problem… I have a ton of your non-threaded canisters, since the 6-pk is several dollars cheaper than the threaded ones at my LBS, and everyone and their mother is still feeling the repercussions of this wonderful economic downturn. What can I do to fix my little inflator?

I was hoping they would send me an O-ring or two that I would niggle the old one out, and replace with a new one.

Here is there response:

FROM:    DJ Lopez
TO:    ———-@yahoo.com

Message flagged
Tuesday, April 3, 2012 11:23 AM

Good morning sir,

I will send you some o-rings to the address below,

Kind regards,

Dj Lopez – customer service
dj.lopez@innovationsaz.com
www.genuineinnovations.com
p.520-295-3936 ext 133 f.520-295-3938

2700 e. bilby road
Tucson AZ 85706
http://www.genuineinnovations.com/

Genuine Innovations , #1 In CO2 Inflator

Well… They did send me some O-rings…

Take a look:

To me, this kind of customer service really goes above the call of duty. I wasn’t expecting this kind of care at all.

Thanks Genuine Innovations!

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Feed Zone Cookbook – First Impression

Ordered this book from The Book Depository on December 24th, It finally arrived in my mailbox today…

Skimmed through it, and there seems to be lots of easy, yummy, and moderately fast to make meals confined in this hardcover book.

The pages are crisp, the colors pop, and it even comes with a little pagemarker tassel built-in! Most definitely worth the price!

I’ll be doing a formal review soon, but I thought I would share this info so far…

First Impression?

BUY IT!

 

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Part 3 of 3: Tire Review Week – Hutchinson CX Bulldog Tubeless Ready Tires

This week is Tire Review Week. For our second review, we have the Hutchinson CX Bulldog Tubeless Ready Tire:

Hutchinson has been making the Piranha and Bulldog tire for some while. In the past couple years, they have come out with yet another tubeless road/cross tire. This review is going to cover the Bulldog, but I am sure you could infer many of the same qualities to the Piranha tire as well.

I chose the Hutchinson Bulldog specifically for color. Yes, I wanted a gray cross tire on my bike, and it was either these or the Vittoria line of cross clinchers. The terrain in the West Virginia area can vary from mud, gravel (of all sizes!), tarmac, hardpack dirt, flat out rocky oil roads, or just cutting through farmland. If About the only terrain I have not experienced in this area is sand, and I’m sure I just haven’t looked hard enough for it.

I thought the tread on the tire would cause some rumbling sounds or rolling resistance issues, making the ride feel slower, on the way to our abandoned county roads or other offroad destinations, but this did not happen. Even with this tire being a tubeless tire, the casing is soft enough that the treads bow in on hard surfaces enough to still give a smooth ride. On less dense terrain, the knobs give a good grip, and the side knobs are angled perfectly for mud or gravel covered turns and descents. I feel these tires are real confidence builders on sketchy roads, and I never really doubt or overthink their ability to go over or through something.

When I first received these tires, I attempted to set them up as its intended tubeless ready system on my Neuvation M28 Aero wheels. This completely failed. I could not get the tires to seat or bead, even when using an air compressor to inflate the tire. This was a very tedious and frustrating process that wasted a lot of my time, and resources (stan’s juice). I then attempted to seat them onto my Flit Letica wheels, where I had a little more luck, but the rear tire just would not hold air. I was doing little rides around the neighborhood two or three times a day, inflating the tires every two hours while awake, and they would just not stay how they should have. Call it tire failure or operator error, but to put it frankly, they really pissed me off during this process.

Eventually I decided to just set them up as a standard tire with a tube, and see how it went. A year later, and I have had two flats, both of them due to pinching, but the loss of air was never dramatic or dangerous. The tire stayed on the rim, and it was easy to remove to replace the tube.

Like I said, these tires were chosen due to their style and color, and I was very satisfied. They handle well, and are comparable to other clincher cross tires in price and well, tread pattern… The Hutchinson Bulldogs do tend to wear pretty fast. I have about 700 miles on these tires, and the center tread has been depleted. I’m sure I should get a new pair, but they still run well for most of my uses.

These tires, being tubeless ready are significantly heavier than other cross tires. Coming in at 400g, they are portly, and you can feel it, but I think it is almost worth it due to handling qualities and lack of flats. My one last qualm about these tires is some kind of phenomenon where the casing seems to be blistering away from the inner sidewall. It is odd…. Like it is splitting or cracking. or… being over inflated (it isn’t! 60psi all the time!), or being overstressed in some way or another. The cracks concern me, due to my fear that little pebbles or glass shards are going to work their way in and give me flats. I haven’t contacted Hutchinson yet, but I plan on it. Hopefully this is just an isolated incident/atypical issue.

Pros:

Grippy while still being fast

Very reliable (low instances of flats)

Moderately fast, even on road terrain

Color!

Cons: Kinda heavy

Cracks/Blisters in casing

Rating: 3/4

Company Product Info:

http://www.hutchinsontires.com/en/catalogue-route.php?fiche=bulldog-cx-tlr.php&univers=4&pid=20

BULLDOG CX
Terrain boueux Pluie

Lightweight, Traction & Grip

* Semi-slick
* Excellent lateral grip
* Flexible unique silver compound
* Ultralight 127 tpi casing
* Tubeless Ready = weight + performance + safety
* Tube type or Tubeless possible

Use: Cyclo-cross
Section: 700 x 34
Tubetype (TT) Tubeless (TL): TT/TL
Folding bead(FB) / Steel (SB): FB
Weight: 405 g
Color: Silver

Can be purchased at:

Excel Sports

BULLDOG CX

 

Lightweight, Traction & Grip

• Semi-slick
• Excellent lateral grip
• Flexible unique silver compound
• Ultralight 127 tpi casing
• Tubeless Ready = weight + performance + safety
• Tube type or Tubeless possible

Related Articles

• Part 2 of 3: Tire Review Week – ITS System 29 XC Tire (wvcycling.wordpress.com)
• Part 1 of 3: Tire Review Week – Torelli Arezzo Open Tubular (wvcycling.wordpress.com)

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