Superfly Cycles

Rotor’s Q-Rings are the latest attempt at an elliptical chainring.  A question not addressed on Rotor’s website is if the chain length needs to be longer or shorter because of the unique nature of the Q-Ring?  The Answer is: No!  Size the new chain the same way you would as if the chainring were a traditional shape.  No extra links needed! 

Back in November, we wrote a blog post highlighting how Enduro Bearings were used in a Hydrogen Race car being built by Los Altos Engineering Academy. We had lots of cyclists mention how cool this project was. We just got another update from the gang - in the words of one of the students - Alex Sosa. Their goal is to race the car in the Shell-Eco Marathon in Texas….For those of you who would like to contribute $ to help their goal, their contact information is at the end of this post.

“We tested out the Enduro bearings from Superfly Cycles, and the results astonished all of us at the academy. We got a bicycle wheel and rim together, added a sprocket, welded a 10-inch outer diameter cast iron pulley to the sprocket (as an adapter) and of course, added the bearings and we got our drive wheel for our car. The test was to see how long it would keep on spinning when it is not attached to the car. I spun the wheel with medium force and the wheel kept on spinning for more than a minute without any added force. The suspense was so great that someone in the background said (as a joke), “This might take awhile, I bet yah that if eat lunch, the wheel would still be spinning when I am done”. The wheel kept on spinning for a record of 85 seconds with a pulley that weighed somewhere around 25 pounds and was unbalanced. We are working on a Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine Prototype Car (HICE), which weighs 280 pounds and is going to roll on three bicycle wheels, and the three bearings had made a huge difference in performance. The bearings are crucial because the car has to roll with minimal effort so we can get high mileage.

The competition we are trying to enter in this year is the Shell-Eco marathon, which is a race for the highest mileage with the least amount of fuel consumed. We are in need of $15,000 by February 19, 2010 so we can go to Shell-Eco Marathon in Texas, so we need financial help/donations whether it is $100 or even $5, every little bit helps. Cash is okay and checks must be made payable to “LAAE Boosters”. Our website is www.lasv.org; phone numbers is (626)330-1096; and feel free to call us for a brochure, tour, or any questions. Our address is 15325 East Los Robles Avenue, Hacienda Heights, CA 91745. Thank you and thank Enduro for creating such a super bearing.”

Here’s the link from the review by Matt Pacocha on Bike Radar (we noticed that Matt moved from VeloNews to Bike Radar)…

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/first-look-rotor-3d-mountain-bike-cranks-24677

Eeek. It’s 2010 already. Here we go…

We are pleased and excited to announce that Superfly Cycles and Enduro are now sponsoring Craig Alexander (known as Crowie in the Tri world). I’m sure many of you already know who this uber athlete is but if not, he’s the 2-Time winner of Ironman Hawaii. We met Craig last summer and were impressed by his dedication and commitment to the sport and to his family. He has two young kids and works his grueling training schedule around his family. In the future, we’ll post an interview with Crowie and videos with the master of Tri.

Maybe just as exciting for some - Superfly Wheelsets are coming back! We got overwhelmed with the response this fall and had to take the wheels off the website because we had too many orders and couldn’t keep up. We’ve made some changes and now wheelsets are even better. These should be on the website within the next week …. or so.

For 2010 we are going to be at more events. First up is the Sea Otter this April in Monterey, CA.  We’re racing and will be at the Enduro booth - come by.

And….Enduro and Superfly are sponsoring a new homegrown mountain bike team this year…aptly named Enduro/Superfly. Based in Boulder, CO and Oakland, CA we’re comprised of Pro, Expert and Sport level riders. If you see us, give us a holler.

And of course, for 2010 let’s all try to Fly Faster.

Happy New Year.

Thank you to our customers for your business, input and loyalty during 2009. We greatly value you.

As we have done each year, for 2009 we donated money to social change and environmental action groups. This year we picked Heifer, Room to Read, Water for People and National Resources Defense Council. We picked these organizations for their dedication, effectiveness and % of donated money going to their programs.

Here are links to each organization if you are interested:

Heifer: http://www.heifer.org/

Room to Read: http://www.roomtoread.org/Page.aspx?pid=183

Water for People: http://www.waterforpeople.org/site/PageServer

National Resources Defense Council: http://www.nrdc.org/

Happy New Year!

Last Monday, the Superfly team, including our youngest elf, wrenched on donated bikes for the local Share-A-Gift event. In a huge warehouse we joined other bike mechanics from Boulder. We fixed tiny pink bikes, an old ‘centurion’ bike and even a batman bike. In all, there were 115 bikes that got fixed up to be donated to families in need. We wish we could see the huge smiles on the kids faces when they see the bike Santa brought for them.

Thank you to all of our customers and fans for making this year a success. We wish you a holiday season filled with laughter, family & friends and of course - an sweet ride.

Happy Holidays,

The Superfly Team

A couple months ago, we received a customer service call that was unlike any other. Alex, the guy on the line wanted Enduro bearings for a prototype hydrogen race car his school was building. After the team at Superfly/Enduro brainstormed together, we decided the Enduro Hybrid Ceramic Bearings were up to the task.

The Enduro bearings are now installed in the hydrogen race car and are being tested. Alex from Los Altos Engineering emailed  us,  ”Los Altos Academy of Engineering (www.lasv.org) used the Enduro Hybrid Ceramic Bearing MR1526 for a prototype vehicle dubbed HICE (Hydrogen Internal Combustion Engine). The bearings were tested in the front wheels and they performed beautifully. The wheels spun freely with very little effort and we are very happy that we found a bearing that has extremely low friction levels and high durability. Thank you Enduro and Superfly Cycles, you are the best.”

Here are some pictures of the vehicle being built by the students of Los Altos Engineering Academy - as well as a video showing testing the hydrogen engine 3 months before the Shell Eco Race. http://lasv.org/projects/hice/gallery.htm.

In the next coming months, HICE will be raced again by the students of Los Altos Engineering. We’ll let you know how HICE performs.

Cheers to a cleaner, more fuel-efficient future.

I’m sure many of you have seen the pictures from Interbike this year.  Unfortunately, you probably saw more than me even though I was at Interbike :-(  But I was with good company as I worked the Enduro booth.  The guys at Enduro are super nice besides making the best bearings in the industry.  Below are some pictures of the Enduro booth:

You can click on the thumbnail for a bigger picture.  The top left picture shows me (standing) and Matt from Enduro (kneeling).  It is late Friday and we are trying to break the booth down but we are still getting plenty of visitors.  The next two pictures show some of the bearings Enduro carries.  This is only a small sampling as they make many more (we stock almost every size).  The middle right picture is my favorite because it shows how the Enduro tools are cut from a solid block of billet.  Also of note are the two huge balls sitting on the display.  The left shiny one is a steel ball while the right gray one is a ceramic one.  The ceramic one on the right weighs half as much as the steel one yet is much harder.  These balls are real balls from heavy machinery so they are not just for display but are working bearings.  The last two pictures show the crank and hub displays.

The other interesting thing about the show is how many OEM bike companies came to Enduro for help or to purchase bearings for their bikes.  There is a good chance that a bike you purchase in 2010 will have Enduro bearings somewhere.

Good news!  The Rotor 3D cranks will be arriving next week.  We will be getting a wide selection but pre-ordering is recommended to make sure you get a set.  We will post more details as we get them.

James Huang of Bike Radar/Cyclingnews just posted this review of the Enduro Zero Bottom Bracket.  Check it out here at: Bike Radar Review