Adam DiClaudio: Epic London BikeCheck.

Adam's bike shows as much attention to detail as his riding, and it's a great pleasure to present his custom bike check.

Text by Adam DiClaudio, photos by jm mckay:

I rock details. Enjoy…

FRAME:
London Bikes Custom made by Will Redd, my design, (Will did some geniustweaks) 75 degree Head Tube, 73 Degree Seat Tube, 18.5” Top Tube, 12.5” ChainStay (Middle of bottom bracket to back axle center), 13.75” Bottom BracketHeight. The frame has a Euro Bottom Bracket and Internal headset cups. Theframe weighs in at 4 lbs. Some special things about the frame are that the seattube has an overlapping tube that allows the top tube and top wishbone to hitevenly on the seat tube of a similar size. This adds support and looks trickedout.

And I designed the seat stays and the chain stays to hit the wishbone onthe outer edges so my foot would hit flush when foot stalling on the frame andtire. The top right seat stay is a little more squeezed together than the otherthree stays to help on spacing since my chain runs so close to the stay. (Youcan literally put just a piece of paper between the chain and the seat stayit’s so close) The color is bare steelthat is buffed and polished, then baked to give it a gold/bronze tint color,then clear coated. The welds on the frame are gorgeous. Will is a true artistand frame building master.

The reason I did the frame the wayI did is I want total space, less to get caught on, more maneuverability and toadd more control to some of my tricks. My bars are designed the same way.Reasons for the high bottom bracket: I've been practicing pedaling mega-spinsunder the bike. I feel very crunched trying to pedal, so by raising the bottom bracketit becomes lower when the bike is upside down, which allows you to extend yourlegs more, which should give me more comfort and more control while crankingthe spins. Raising the bottom bracket also allows for more space in Stick Bposition. Instead of having to step on the tire in front of the frame in astick B, the tire would be right under your foot allowing more surface area onthe tire to allow better controlled scuffing, pivoting on the tire, and tirestall tricks. Raising the bottom bracket should put the cranks directly underyou in a time machine/blender, so it will feel more like a unicycle, againgiving more control.

Raising the bottom bracket will allow your crank arms tobe more in line with the frame when sitting horizontal and farther away whenvertical while you’re doing jugglers, allowing more space to go under the framewithout hitting cranks or pedals. Raising the bottom bracket allows the downtube to rise giving more space to get your leg through to the other peg or tireabove the front wheel/tire. Raising the bottom bracket will bring your bodyhigher up while standing on the pedals, so when pushing forward into a nosewheelie position, your body would have to travel a shorter distance allowingyou to get to the position faster and it would be easier to stabilize (less ofa distance to travel means less force, which means it will be easier to stopthe foreword momentum on the way to the balance point).

HANDLEBARS:
London Bikes Custom made by Will, my designagain with Will’s input and tweaks to make them better. The Height is roughly9” tall (from bottom of clamp to top of grip tubes), 24” wide, 4 degree upsweepand back sweep, 26 mm reach and 2 degree forward tilt. Powder coated gloss black.

I made these again with space inmind. I always loved the KHE Swissmiss bars, so I started with that design andpushed everything together. These are currently my second handlebar design, andnow I’m working on a third. The new ones will have a little more reach and asmall separation in the rise tubes to have a brake cable go through, along witha lower crossbar and a special new clamp piece.

FORKS:
Odyssey Flatware Forks, zero offset, withremovable brake mounts, powder coated gloss black.

BAR ENDS:

Sequence Titanamighty Bar Ends (Titanium) Ialways make sure the set screws face directly down to the ground because thatis the only spot where it won’t get ground down from scratching the ground, andthey won’t interfere with my palms when I’m hand pivoting.

GRIPS:

Odyssey Chase Hawk with the flanges cut off.I like the feel of grips that don’t allow your hand to squeeze into them toomuch. I feel ring grips like ODI and Thumbtack styles cause your hand to “rock”back and forth from where you intend to squeeze and it throws my hand angle/pressureoff. I know, it’s a little ridiculous, but I feel a difference.

GRIP STOPPER:

This is custom made grip stopper that is heldon with a set screw like a bar end, but is very low profile, and it came out ofa mountain bike geared hub. I think one of those internal shifting ones. I’mnot positive the local shop Clown Dog Bikes handed it to me and said they makegreat grip stoppers. They were right. I filed down the outside edges and aroundthe set screws to remove all the sharp edges.

BRAKE LEVER:

Odyssey Monolever medium size in black. I runit only on the right hand side as a front brake only. I filed down all thesharp edges and any point that has a bad angle into my hand.

BRAKE CABLE:

Odyssey Slic Cable, black. I run the Sliccable because linear cables have too much soft plastic on the inside whichmakes the brakes feel squishy when the pads hit the rim. I like my brakes tofeel solid.

HEADSET CAP:

Tree Front Brake Headset Cap H24 in purple.

HEADSET SPACERS:

Mutiny Carbon Fiber. I run four all together,two on top of the clamp and two below. I have the top two filed down to fitbetween the fork steer tube and the two rise tubes of my handlebars.

HEADSET:

Odyssey Integrated Headset in black.

FRONT BRAKE:

Fly Front Brake in black. I went over theentire brake and took every sharp edge that could get caught on my legs andfeet off. I filed down the edges of the spring plates to be rounded. When Iadjust my tension, I make the brakes so they have hardly any tension at all sothey are super easy to pull.

BRAKE PADS:

Odyssey Slim by 4 in black. I replaced thelong allen key nuts with small regular nuts and cut the long excess threadedbrake studs off so they are flush with the outside of the nut. It’s much morecomfortable when I lean on the front wheel now that the brakes don’t stab me inmy calves.

PEGS:

Sequence Titanamighty Pegs on the front andback. They have a titanium insert cap on the ends of the pegs along with a hardanodized black duranotic finish on the knurling so they wear down very slowly.

SEAT:
KHE Watanabe in black.

SEATPOST:
KHE Prismatic in black. I filed down the sharp clamping pieces in the seat post guts.

SEATPOST CLAMP:

Odyssey Mr. Clampy2 in black.PEDALS: Welgo Nano pedals in black. 9/16”

CRANK ARMS:

Profile Flatland 150mm in black.

SPINDLE:
Profile Titanium

SPINDLE BOLTS:
Bluesix Titanium SAE Bolts in blue.

SPROCKET:
Profile Imperial Nano 18 tooth 3/32” in silver.

SPROCKET BOLT:
Harley Davidson chrome plated Nano size allen bolt. It happened to be the only bolt that would fit at my local hardware store.

CHAIN:
KHE Half link Hollow Pin 3/32” in chrome. I run my chain tight so when I set my cranks, they stay
.
BOTTOM BRACKET:
Odyssey Euro Bottom bracket with the drive side cup replaced with an Ares plastic bottom bracket cup. My chain was rubbing the frame with a regular cup so I filed down the Ares plastic cup as small as it could go and made it flush with the diameter of the bottom bracket diameter.

CHAIN TENSIONER:
London Bikes. They are as light weight and simple as you could go. A thin washer welded to a small threaded post. I cut the posts to be flush on the back of the tightening nuts and rounded off all the sharp edges.

TIRES:
KHE Mac foldable 20”x1.75” black for the front and back. I make sure the arrows point forward when I put them on my rim, and I make the writing on the sides of the tires line up with the tube valve stems. I run them at 120 psi when I’m riding and I remove the air down to 90 psi when I’m done so they don’t blow up in my car while I’m driving or when I’m sleeping in the middle of the night.

TUBES:
No Specific brand, just the regular 20” tubes from Clown Dog Bikes. I leave the valve caps off so I don’t get my fingers caught on them and since I’m constantly changing pressure, there is no reason to leave them on. I also cut old tubes to make a small valve stem base cover so the valve doesn’t get pinched on the sharp edge of the rim valve stem hole.

STEM PAD:
Chadwick (AKA Sickwick) gave this to me as a hand me down. It was originally a mountain bike stem pad that was flipped upside down, then I believe his mom sewed on the crown and diamond design for him. I cherish it and it works and fits perfectly.

WHEELSETS:

FRONT HUB:
KHE Geisha 36 Hole in Purple. I removed all the bearings, removed their dust covers, and greased them with a mix of regular grease and Triflow stirred up into a thin cream. Without the dust covers the wheels roll forever although I have to constantly keep them clean and free of dirt. It’s worth it for how much increase I got in performance.

BACK HUB:
KHE Geisha Light 9 tooth, 36 Hole in silver/purple hardware. I did the same thing with these bearings and the wheel rolls amazingly. On the non drive side I run a titanium axle stud, the other titanium stud got worn out, so I’m running just a regular stud on the drive side.
RIMS:
Odyssey Birdcage Rims 36 Hole Chrome plated. These rims are curved so they are very comfortable to hold. The valve stem sticks out at angle so you can easily access it with a pump. I made sure to have both wheels laced with the valve stems pointed the same direction and angled away from my dominant hand so it doesn’t stab into me.
NIPPLES:
DT Swiss ProLock brass nipples in black. These nipples keep their tension so there is less truing that has to be done.

SPOKES:

DT Swiss Stainless Steel Strait Gage insilver/polished.

SHOES:

Adidas Supermod ST size 10. These shoes are light, very padded, shell toes forprotection and have stiff bottoms. I use heel risers and therapeutic insolesthat have raised arches.

Things that I havewith me when I ride (in my car):

· A small IPod Player stereothat gets surprisingly loud for how small it is. I run it off of 4 rechargeablebatteries. It blasts at the OG at most sessions.
· A Lawn chair for when Ineed to rest and take a seat for meals.
· A Stihl Leaf blower. Worksgreat for cleaning the riding area spotless before every session.
· A foam roller. My back getscramped up and aches unless I roll it out throughout the sessions.
· A floor air pad forstretching.
· A high pressure air pump.
· A tool box with all mytools.
· My flatland journal thathas tons of link ideas and tricks to learn.
· Lunch Box with freezer iceblocks and some meals/snacks/water/Gatorade.
· Backpack with all my bikespecific tools, cell phone, wristbands, headbands, towels, and bandanas, (itgets hot and sweaty In Texas), my IPod, nail clippers, Air Pressure reader,deodorant, video camera with tripod, WESC headphones, chap stick, ibuprofen,and protein powder with shaker.

Oh and not that it matters, but I was curiousto know how much my bike would cost if you bought it brand new. I estimatedroughly $2,420.00 for those of you who are curious also. (I know, a littleridiculous) Ah…I think that’s it…Thanks for reading! - Adam