Worthington Cycles

Welcome To Worthington Cycles

2012-02-20T11:02:00.000-08:00

We specialize in high end custom made steel racing bicycles. Contact us to see if we can help you with the selection of a new bicycle, repairs, replacement parts, as well as the design and building of one-off hand made custom frames. We can provide hard to find parts and accessories, specialty replacement parts, and even custom designed and manufactured parts and accessories. We also specialize in bicycle photography services, both in studio or on assignment, in addition to bicycle racing photography.

Based in Santa Cruz California Worthington Cycles was founded in 1983 by Monty Worthington. Since 1983 we have built exclusive custom steel frames including; mountain bike frames, road frames, track frames, and cyclo-cross frames. We have also designed and built specialty handlebars, custom stems, cantilever brakes, custom wheels, and many other specialty parts. 2012 is the 29th year building bikes! We currently source high end racing components, bike kits, do frame repairs in house, and can design and build up an entire bicycle for you.

Take a look at our posts on Custom Frames, Cantilever Brakes, Custom Wheels, and Custom Steel Stems, each is summarized with photos, product information, and some history of the product.

All of our in house products are made in small custom quantities offering a limited supply, and depending on the season we may be out doing R&D Testing or racing, instead of just building parts.

Worthington Cycles also focuses some of our time on bicycle racing photography and product photography for the bicycle industry. Go to our Image Library (coming soon) to view some of our classic racing images from our many years of covering races freelance and on assignment for major publications.

Interbike 2011

2011-09-17T16:25:00.000-07:00

Interbike 2011 is a wrap - Yet another year at Interbike (my 27th year!). This year seemed like more of an evolution year with very little in the way of major announcements. I think part of this is the way many companies are revealing their products well in advance of Interbike, even as early as events like Sea Otter.

This year power meters are still part of the buzz. Garmin, Look, Brim Brothers, Rotor etc...all had new or updated versions of their power meters on display. However, none are shipping. I am still waiting for the rumored Shimano integration of power into the Di2 system. I wonder when that will happen.

Another trend that continues is the expansion of tubeless road wheel options. Easton, American Classic, Fulcrum, and Notubes, among others, showed several new wheelsets. The American Classic wheels seem to offer a nice wide wheel, with a interesting bead hook and they are very light weight (1179g Aluminum, 1108g mag). Prices are a bit high in my opinion and it will be hard to justify $1600 for the Magnesium wheels over say a HED or ZIPP carbon clincher. I would love to see American Classic offer just the 310gr Aluminum Clincher Rims for custom wheel builds, but based on their history of not offering their rims separately I don't see this happening. The Easton EA90RT wheels also are a great wheel for the price $850 and would be a good choice - even though they are much heavier at 1550g.

Unfortunately there is little in the way of new Tubeless Road tires - Hutchinson still has their 3 products; Fusion3, Intesive, and Atom, while Maxxis had their Padrone tires that are a bit expensive at $120 retail. Still waiting for more alternative tubeless tires and some lower cost options.

Some other trends included more disc brakes for cyclo-cross, hydraulic shifting, BB30, PF30, and BB86EVO on more bikes, official introduction of Ultegra Di2, and tons of wider and deeper carbon wheel options.

All in all it was a good show, but with less and less product introductions.

2011 New Years Resolutions

2011-01-01T14:58:00.000-08:00

I was thinking about everyone and their "Resolutions" for the new year and I thought I would mention a few things cyclists in 2011 should try if they haven't yet.

Tubeless Road Tires: I personally have been running tubeless road tires since 2009 and have yet to flat while running them - knock on wood!. The ride is just better, and with a splash of sealant from NoTubes or CaffeLatex you have even better insurance against flats.

Regular Spoke Nipples: With the rash of carbon wheels, aero wheels, and other lightweight wheels now on the market I suggest that you pick a set of wheels with standard components - especially normal nipples. If you are hard on you components having an easily serviced wheel makes life much easier. Plus, when you convert normal clincher rim to to tubeless it is a pain to do simple repairs and truing if you don't have regular spoke nipples. I suggest a good set of custom wheels from your favorite local builder - We can help with that also.

Lower your tire pressure: Weather you are running road tires, cyclo-cross, or mountain tires, try running them at a lower pressure for a week or two to see if you see a difference. I see people running much higher pressures than they should in many cases.

Enjoy riding your bike in 2011

Lightweight Steel Road Frames Under 3 Pounds???

2010-12-19T13:52:00.000-08:00

S3 Custom Steel Road Frame
We can build very lightweight custom road frames using the very unique TrueTemper S3 tubing. With this tubing we can build a frame that weighs just under three pounds, yet it still has the feel of steel that some people demand. The frame pictured above is a 54 CM frame and weighs 2.9lbs. This is an amazing frame that feels so nice on the road, and at just under 3 pounds is a perfect alternative to aluminum, carbon, or titanium frames. We feel that the long fatigue life steel typically exhibits will make this frame a long lasting lightweight winner, and since it is available as a custom frame from Worthington Cycles it can be designed to fit your needs and requirements perfectly.

NoTubes Alpha 340 Rim & Wheels

2010-12-17T12:04:00.000-08:00

After several months of waiting, we were able to get a set of the new Stans NoTubes Alpha 340 road wheels, as well as some rims to build up a custom wheelset.

These new rims are some of the lightest 700c aluminum clincher rims available and they offer the added benefit of the patented NoTubes BST (Bead Socket Technology) in a road/cyclocross rim. The idea behind the BST is that it increases the air volume of the tire and offers an different bead lock compared with a traditional rim. This lower bead area makes the tire have a wider profile.

Take the example of the Hutchinson Atom Tubeless road tire - on a standard 19mm wide clincher rim this tire measures only 19.5mm wide, which is pretty narrow and limits the use for anything but a front tire or for fly-wieght riders. However, on the Stans rim the same tire measure 22.9mm wide, and it feels very nice when riding it.

The star of this review has to be the ZTR Alpha 340 Pro Wheelset - these wheels weigh in at an incredible 1200g - our set weighed 1238g with rim tape and valve stems installed. This is one of the lightest production clincher wheelsets available. They do have a rider weight limit of 175 pounds, and I think for anyone close to that weight or someone with incredible amounts of raw power these wheels might be a little flexy. The 18 hole front and 24 hole triplet laced rear makes for very smooth, fast accelerating wheels. I noticed immediately that these wheels spun up quickly and were easier to follow accelerations in a pack or race situation. They have a decent aero profile but certainly are not to be confused as aero wheels. For someone who doesn't want to spend the money on carbon wheels, tubular tires and those additional hassles, these wheels offer a great alternative that is light, supports tubeless easily, and offers the increased air volume to make the ride amazing thanks to BST. All in all a great set of wheels. If you need stronger or stiffer wheels the rims are available to be custom built for your needs - 32 hole, 28 hole, 24 hole etc...

Interbike 2010

2010-09-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

Interbike 2010 is a wrap - spent 2 days walking the Sands show floor in Las Vegas looking for new interesting items. A few things caught my eye - I will be updating this as I go through my notes.

The new KS Suspension height adjustable seatpost seems like a nice product. The best part is that it is available in a 27.2mm size which is perfect for the steel frames we build at Worthington Cycles. This will have 100mm of travel, optional remote release lever and will weigh a respectable 530g.

NoTubes showed their complete line of Alpha 340 Road Wheels - the 1200g Pro wheels are very nice and are a perfect, lightweight top of the line wheel-set. However, the star is probably the $615 retail ZTR Alpha 340 Comp wheel-set that weighs 1430g. NoTubes also showed their updated valve stems, hubs, and valve extenders.

Big news at Interbike once again is pedal based power meters - with two "new" systems marketed, but as of yet still unavailable! First is the all new Polar/Look system the seems promising, but is still pretty expensive at ~$2500.00. Second is there is last years Interbike show stopper, Metrigear, which has been bought by Garmin and is still in development...I this more Vaporware???

SRAM had new versions of their S30 AL road wheels on display. We had some trouble with the 2010 models due to faulty Sapim spokes, plus some problems with the bearing preload having to be set correctly each time a wheel was removed. Changes for 2011 look to remedy this by putting a set screw on the bearing preload setting, and hopefully better spokes (from Sapim still?) for next year. The S30 AL wheel is a great low end aero wheel-set for budget conscious buyers.

And in the completely crazy realm there was the much hyped Fairwheel Bikes 6lb road bike on display - with the worlds lightest wheelset (~500g) pretty impressive and only $45,000.00, though it wasn't for sale!

TRP was showing their updated CX-9 "mini v-brake" for cyclo-cross. We built custom V-Brakes like this for our Cyclo-Cross bikes many years ago so we think this is a good option. It is kind of nice to see a large company embrace this style of braking. Using a mini v-brake on a cross bike feels like using disc brakes on a mountain bike...very powerful, but with great modulation, and lever feedback, plus, the added advantage of no front fork shudder and no brake fade under heavy braking.

Maxxis was finally showing their road tubeless tire design.

Not really new, but still one of the best fitting tools I have seen is the SICI X/Y Fitting tool. This tool allows for easy transfer of bike fit from one bike to another and will make custom bike fitting even easier. .

Worthington Cantilever Brakes

2010-09-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

For the 2010 Cyclo-Cross season, we still have our powerful cantilever brakes available for sale. This brake was originally made back in 1992 and was designed to be a powerful cantilever brake for Cyclo-Cross, mountain biking, and tandems. This Worthington Cycles brake design was initially licensed to Nicol Trading International to be manufactured and sold under the Worthington Cantilever Brake name by NTi. Worthington Cycles is now the only source for the Worthington Cantilever Brake.

The arms are CNC Machined from solid 2024-T3 billet making this brake one of the stiffest brakes available. We also use a close tolerance bronze bushing for reduced brake chatter and long life. It is designed as a low profile brake and sits close to the fork tubes or seat stays to prevent snags and improve braking power. Modulation can easily be tuned by changing the length of the straddle cable yoke angle and the position of the pads. These brakes are available in 4 anodized colors.
• Made in the USA
• Colors: Blue, Silver, Red or black
• Weight: 170 grams with pads (front or rear)
• Pricing: $99.00 per wheel

Shop Moving

2010-09-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

We are in the process of moving our frame building and machine shop - our new shop space won't be ready until next year some time, so in the meantime we are in temporary space just around the corner. I will be building out the temporary shop over the next few weeks.

Our office address and contact information is still the same - just the shop is in limbo now...

Worthington Irie™ Cantilever Brakes

2010-08-15T11:55:00.000-07:00

We have built and sold two different cantilever designs over the years. Our first brake design was the Irie Brake™, which is a pulley assisted brake, and was one of the first long arm cantilever brakes sold in the late 1980's. Now of course the Shimano^® V-Brake style brake is the standard rim brake used on most mountain bikes. The Irie Brake was very powerful but did not perform very well with standard cantilever type brake levers. Since a standard cantilever lever pulled less cable than the Irie brakes need there was too little pad clearance at the rim, so adjusting and maintaining these brakes was time consuming. With the advent of V-Brake, and the corresponding specific levers, that have more cable travel the Irie Brake works incredibly well.

CNC Machined from 6061-T6 solid billet the brake arms are then hand polished and black anodized. The pulleys are machined from 7075-T6 and use a sealed cartridge bearing for the pulleys to provide long lasting and smooth braking action.

• Color: Black
• Stainless Mounting Bolts
• Weight: 190 grams with pads
• Pricing: $99.00 per wheel - Front or Rear

Custom Wheels

2010-06-17T14:13:00.000-07:00

Worthington Cycles can custom build a perfect set of wheels for you. We can build ultralight road wheels, aero wheels, bomb-proof training wheels and Mountain wheels of any type. We do all of our building by hand and select each component to match your needs. Build with your choice of top of the line hubs, rims and spokes all in a hand built custom design. We can build wheels that are better than most of the factory sets now available.

• Rim Choices: Sun, DT, Velocity, MAVIC, Zipp, & Alex to name a few
• Hubs: Shimano, DT, SRAM, Campagnolo, American Classic etc...
• Spokes: DT, Wheelsmith
• 700C, 29er, 26" MTN, 650B, Tandem
• Road Clincher Wheel Sets as light as 1350g
• Tubeless Mountain Wheels
• Tubeless Road Wheels - Using NoTubes System
• Disc Wheels for Mountain or Cross
• Specialty Lacing Patterns Available

An example of a lightweight set of road wheels we recently built that weigh under 1350g. They use Kinlin Nio19 silver rims in 28H OCR Rear & 24H front drilling. They are laced with DT Revolution 14g spokes with silver alloy nipples. Lacing is 3x rear and radial (heads out) front. The rims are taped with Notubes rim tape for tubeless compatibility. The hubs are American Classic. This set was completed with a set of tubeless Hutchinson road tires. The wheels without tires weigh in at 1350 grams and ride very well.

New Hutchinson Atom Tubeless Road Tires In Stock

2010-05-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

The new Hutchinson Atom Tubeless Road Tires have arrived. They weigh in at a slightly disappointing 283 grams. This is only 13 grams more than the claimed weight, but I was looking forward to these being closer to, or even lower than, the 270 gram target weight. They do look nice in all black, and I hope they perform as well as the Fusion 2 Tubeless we have reviewed and still love to ride.

Update: The Atom tires when mounted on a 19mm wide rim only measure out at 20mm wide - while the Fusion 2 tires measure 22mm wide. This makes them very narrow, but suitable for lighter riders or even as a front tire.

During testing we had one front rim damaged by hitting a pot hole with the pressure at around 80psi. Of course if these wheels had normal tubes it probably would have caused a pinch flat!

NoTubes Alpha 340 Road Rims

2010-05-17T14:55:00.000-07:00

NoTubes has an exciting new 700c aluminum clincher road rim that weighs only 340g. The ZTR Alpha 340 700c road rim also uses NoTubes exclusive shorter rim bead. We will build a pair up as soon as we can order some rims - it looks like 28h and 32h are the first options on the way. I hope a 24h is available for lightweight front wheels soon.

Update: Originally rumors on the interweb had these rims as wide as 22-24mm, which is wider than even the HED Ardennes or the Velocity A23 rims. However, according to final specs and report on cyclingnews.com it appears that they are 20mm wide rims, which while closer in width to the Shimano tubeless wheels they are still slightly narrower. This means they should be good for a lightweight build.

New Press Fit 30 BB30 Bottom Bracket

2010-02-06T14:04:00.000-08:00

We are excited about the new Truvative/SRAM PressFit 30 bottom bracket. Instead of going with a standard BB30 setup Worthington Cycles will offer frames with the PF30 bottom bracket option instead of a threaded bottom bracket shell.

The PressFit 30 BB offers the performance advantages BB30 including larger bearings, and the 30mm dia. stiffer bb axle but it is a much more forgiving standard for both frame builders and bike owners. Instead of a bottom bracket shell that must be machined to very high accuracy (+.001, -.000 inches) the Press Fit 30 standard is more forgiving and can even have paint in I.D. so it is perfect for building with steel - If something goes wrong a new BB can be pressed in. New bottom brackets are $35-$50 with standard bearings (more for ceramic bearings).

It is also interesting but this BB shell diameter could also use a threaded eccentric bottom bracket adapter - so a frame could easily be converted from gears to single speed easily.

Interbike 2009

2009-09-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

Updates from Interbike 2009. Arrived Wednesday night for CrossVegas which as usual was a great time. I love night time cyclo-cross.

Walked the show on Thursday and Friday.

Some of the items I saw and thought need mentioning here are:

MetriGear Vector pedal spindle based power meters - This was probably the best new product at the show and is talked about all over the internet. I hope after they release the Speedplay version they quickly come up with a new version for Look Keo and Shimano XTR SPD pedals. Their website has most of the details.

Shimano WH-6700 Ultegra Tubeless Clincher Wheels - These wheels make it much easier to get into a tubeless setup right out of the box. We like the NoTubes tape conversions, but this wheel looks like a sure winner at only $649.00 per set retail. They use the same rim extrusion as the Dura-Ace wheelset but it is a ll aluminum rim versus the Dura-Ace which is a Scandium rim. The total weight is a respectable 1652g.

A-Class Alex Rims New R350 700c Clincher Rim - This rim is a new 700C scandium clincher rim that reportedly weighs only 320g. I hope this will be available for testing soon...

Serotta & Nuvinci both had high end sizing cycles/fitting tools on display. The NuVinci model was computer controlled and also offer PowerCranks on it. The best part about both systems was you could measure power while the rider is on the bike, from each pedal, and use that data as part of the fit analysis to help determine the optimum comfort and performance fit. The NuVinci reach and saddle height was adjustable electronically by a lap top, so a fitter could be sitting and watching the rider and the power output and slowly change the fit without the rider stopping. They plan on making this also apply to the saddle fore/aft as well. The Serotta fitting system had easily changeable manual adjustments that were also recorded on a laptop but they also had their technology paired with the Dartfish video analysis software.

Cateye Strada Wireless Adventure Computer - This was a new additon the Catey Strada Wireless lineup and this new cycling computer offers in addition to the normal speed, distance and other standard funtions it has an altimeter, %grade funtion, and a thermometer. This makes it useful for getting even more data about your rides in a small space. Now they just need to add in ANT+ so you can display power when you don't need to record it....

IRC Tubeless Road Tires - IRC was displaying their lineup of Tubeless Road Tires compatible with Hutchinson - However I still haven't seen any make it over to the USA yet, and the weight was around the same as the Hutchinson Fusion2 and Atom tires.

Cateye Strada Wireless RD300W Review

2009-09-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

After using the Cateye Strada Wireless RD300W computer I feel it may be the best basic cycling computer currently made. This computer always shows the current speed in very large numbers at the top of the LCD in either MPH or KPH. There are selectable functions on the lower part of the LCD including average speed, max speed, 2 trip distances, a programmable overall odometer, a ride timer with auto start/stop, a clock, a battery saving sleep mode, plus it has a average speed/pace arrow and it also allows for 2 settings for different wheel sizes. The clamp allows tool free and simple attachment to either the stem or to 26.0 or 31.8 handle bars. I prefer a computer to be attached to the stem and won't purchase one if it doesn't attach that way. This computer offers so many features that make it stand out from the rest of the competition including:
• Very Small Size
• Light Weight - Only 48g
• Of Course it is Wireless
• Mount it to your Stem Or Handle Bar
• Super Large Easy To Read LCD
• Sleep Mode & Auto Start
• Single Button Use - Just Push The Entire Unit

The only cons I see with this computer is the mount - it has a fairly large adjustable button that some people claim sticks out too much - I don't really mind it at all, but feel like it could be the only visual drawback of this computer. I would rate this computer as 5 stars out of 5, which is very high praise.

Hutchinson Tubeless Road Tire Test

2009-08-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

I have completed several hundred miles on a set of the Hutchinson Tubeless Road Tires setup with Stans rim tape and sealant - These tires offer a wonderful alternative to standard road tires with either butyl tubes or even latex tubes. The most interesting aspect of these tires is the sidewall stiffness. Now I am not a heavy rider by anyone's measure, but I was able to ride these tires with as little as 65psi for long road rides with little problems, and I never felt the tire come close to bottoming out or having any excessive deflection. I did notice on very steep climbs and during hill top sprints that at a lower pressure (sub 75psi) I could feel some movement of the tire. I settled on riding with around 75psi as my preferred pressure after starting in the 90's and working my way down.

Wear so far is negligible and I expect that they would last at least a few thousand miles. I have had no flats so far or any holes that I know of that the sealant may have sealed. I have also alarmingly started to get unconcerned with road debris and glass, so now I am worried about what will happen when I am riding with regular tires and tubes - I will probably forget to rub them after going through glass!

I like the comfort of the tires, the confidence that I won't flat in most situations, the cornering feel, and the idea that they have reduced rolling resistance (I can't confirm that).

My only cons on these tires are the weight (290-300g), the fact that they are bit narrow, Shimano's new Dura-Ace wheels have a wider rim to flatten out the profile of these tires, the apparent ease of cuts that destroy the tire (Two other riders I know have had 3 different cut failures during the same period I was testing these tires).

I would rate these tires, with the Stans sealant, at 4.5 stars out of 5.

Notubes Tubeless Road Tires

2009-05-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

Just built up a really nice set of custom built wheels and decided to use the Stans Notubes with Hutchinson tubeless Fusion 2 700x23c tires. I have to say this setup seems pretty nice. All you need to do is tape the rims with Stans Tape, put in a valve stem, install the Hutchinson Tires, soap and water it, then put in the sealant. Everything works as advertised, even with a floor pump! This is a great alternative to buying dedicated tubeless wheels, and you can always switch back to normal road tires and tubes at any time. So far the ride is great at 85psi. Check back for updates on the long term use of the tires & wheels.

Welcome to the Worthington Cycles Webspace

2008-03-19T16:52:00.000-07:00

Worthington Cycles webspace project - designed to keep you up to date on all new goings on with Worthington Cycles.

Look to us to help build high end custom bicycles. Whether you need parts, service, or a complete custom build contact us!

Cyclist Awareness Test

2008-03-19T12:21:00.000-07:00

Check out this video

Buy a bike trailer instead!

2008-03-17T12:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome To Worthington Cycles

2008-01-01T15:55:00.000-08:00