On Wednesday, February 29th at 6:30 pm Above Category will be hosting Darren Baum, founder of Baum Cycles all the way from Geelong, Australia!  Baum Cycles is fast becoming known for building some of the highest performing bicycles in the world.  His company’s steel and titanium frames are meticulous, beautiful and incredibly well handling works of art.

Above Category is the sole U.S. dealer and we are looking forward to having Darren here to talk about the finer points of custom frame building, fitting and the role of metal bikes in a market dominated by carbon.  We’ll have many complete Baum frames to look at as well due to Baums visit to the hand built bike show in Sacramento the following weekend.

Space will be limited, so please RSVP by emailing woody@abovecategorycycling.com as soon as you can. We’ll have appetizers and refreshments as well, but mainly we’ll have Baum!

Hope to see you all here!

Above Category's own Baum Corretto

Starting 2012 out right!  Great morning ride with some easy intervals on the top of Tam.  This picture was taken about 10 miles from the shop with all but one of those miles climbing.  Just another reminder that we are living in cycling paradise here!

As you can see, Dario painted this particular Responsorium with a white base, a little yellow, a little light blue and a lot of black.  He was also in a writing mood as there is a good portion of a book written on these stainless steel tubes.

Coming soon I’ll write a how-to on folding a tubular and tucking it under the saddle.  Then you’ll be one step closer to riding on the best tire system full time!  This particular set up includes one of our old stock Campagnolo toe strap.  If you have some of these laying around give us a shout!

We sent this Enve 1.0 fork to our painter and had all the logo’s removed and added a clear coat.  Simple changes that made big difference.  Dario’s bikes just look better without all the logos that come pasted over almost every bike part these days.  Let the frame do the talking right?

Pegoretti’s now famous head badge.  Fatti con le mani, or, made by hand.

We also sent this stem (Deda sc) to our painter to have it toned down just a bit from original.  We’ve done handlebars many times in the past as well, but it can be a bit of a pain in the butt and adds quite an added expense to an already expensive bar.  Not that we are against that, but sometimes the stock parts work just fine.

The solid and big chainstays on the responsorium keep things stiff out back and give Dario plenty of real estate for his creativity.

If we are not using King stainless or titanium cages, chances are we’re using something from Arundel.  Nice design, good looking, light and hold the bottles over the worse road conditions.  Also, take a look at the paint.  Love the hints of blue and yellow.

More paint and a WR seatpost from Italy.  Heavy and expensive, but also one of the few 30.0 posts out there.  You won’t have to worry about this on Dario’s 2012 frames as he’s increased seat tube diameter to 31.6.

Part of the novel Dario wrote on this particular Responsorium.

Nice burly dropouts and our favorite single pivot brakes from Campagnolo.

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High above the Pacific on the latest bike out of Ticino.  Much more to come on this rig in the following weeks…

Three quarters the way up Mt. Tam at ~7am…

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This is our latest Parlee Z5 builds which included a custom candy blue paint. With a SRAM Red build, Power Tap/Enve wheels (clincher), Zipp SC Bars, stem and post, Arundel cages and Fizik saddle and tape it weighs in at 14.7lbs.

The Parlee Z5 has nice twin seat stays which look good and are responsible for adding a bit less shock to the rider when compared to a mono stay. SRAM Red brakes look great in black and are super powerful while the Continental GP4 Season tires are the perfect choice for this time of year.

Sram Red rear derailleur in black.

We absolutely love the candy blue finish (Parlee calls this Z4 blue)! Even though this is a pretty simple paint scheme it really stands out.

A favorite saddle for most, the Fizik Antares. The saddle is bolted onto some of our favorite new components, the blacked out Zipp Service Course SL line.

Parlee is one of the few companies to actually mold the derailleur and brake stops onto their frames. Fewer holes equals more strength.

More of the new Zipp bars and stem in "Beyond Black". The bars are the "Super Short Reach" or SSR which have a slightly flattened section on top. We are now stocking the complete range of these bars, stems and seat posts.

Parlee also developed (years ago) this all carbon front derailleur clamp which is light, good looking and makes crushing the seat tube almost impossible.

Tapered Enve 2.0 fork.

The Sram Red Crank is our favorite looking BB30 crankset out there, though we'd personally love to see more sculpted chain rings. These are stiff for sure, but we know they can do better in the looks department...

SRAM Red cassette, 11X28.

The new CycleOps power meter is fabulous! SUPER light, especially as a wheel set with the ENVE rims and also the easiest power meter to move from bike to bike. These guys have come a long way and we are very happy with the new product and look forward to putting them on many bikes in the near future.

Parlee developed this carbon seat clamp as well. Complete with a titanium bolt.

Another shot of the Zipp Service Course bar and stem. Once the position has been established on this bike, all the extra spacers will be cut off. Also, we'll replace the top cap with a nice Chris King piece in black with a black aluminum bolt...

If you’re looking for that next high performance road bike give us a shout and we’ll find the best option for the type of riding you do.  Also, check out our gallery for more photo’s of Parlee (and other models) that we’ve done!  Thanks for reading…

Back from it's first ride in the rain...

The Ristretto has been built as follows:

• Baum Ristretto steel frame built with a mix of Dedacciai, Reynolds and Columbus tubing and based on how I wanted the bike to ride.  This is an easy step so don’t think it makes it too complicated, we’ll sort it out for you!
• Enve 2.0 fork painted to match.
• 3T LTD seat post, painted to match
• Deda Zero 100 SC stem.  120mm, painted to match
• Deda Newton Shallow drop bars, 44cm O-O
• Deda Logo Tape
• Fizik Antares OO
• Chris King headset
• Chris King bottom bracket
• King titanium cages, bead blasted by Baum
• Shimano Dura-Ace Group set
• Dura-Ace SRM 170mm, 53X39
• Speedplay titanium pedals
• Various wheels for testing.  On the above picture we’re using hand built custom wheels with old 1988 Dura-Ace 8spd hubs laced to Mavic Reflex tubular rims.  32 hole, DT Swiss spokes, brass nipples and Continental Competition tubular tires in the 25 width.  We taped this set so I could try that out instead of gluing.  Not that I’d do that on all my wheels, but it’s worked flawlessly up to this point and is super easy to do.  The Baum with these wheels weighed 18.5 lbs fully build including the SRM head unit.  Not bad as these wheels are anchors, but I’d prefer a lighter setup most of the year.

First ride in the dirt

As seen in the photo above we have done most of our riding on this bike with Mavic’s Ksyrium SLR clincher wheels.  With all the decals peeled, these are some of the nicest looking aluminum wheels we’ve seen in a long time.  We’ll cover the wheels themselves later, but in short they’ve been superb so far.  They also took a full pound off the bike compared to the hand built wheels, so we’re now looking at 17.49lbs for the complete bike.  Again, not bad for alloy clinchers, SRM, steel frame and the heaviest top level group set!

First ever ride on the Baum Ristretto

Not the best picture but the above was taken on the very first ride on this bike.  With the Lightweight Obermayers the complete bike came in under 16 lbs.  With a few tweaks and no SRM we’re pretty confident we could get this under 15 lbs and still use it as an everyday ride.

The custom painted 3T post and Fizik Antares OO saddle

Custom painted Deda Zero 100 SC stem and Chris King headset

King titanium water bottle cages and of course the water bottles we made to match the bike!

Mechanical or electronic, Shimano has perfect shifting up front. Have not dropped the chain since we built the bike (knocking on wood).

Dura-Ace 12X27 cassette and a Chris King alloy lock ring. The big cassette is essential for keeping the cadence up on slow days in the hills while the Chris King lock ring has just a couple more threads than the stock DA part so you can get it a bit tighter though we'd rather have the titanium model on here.

The cable mounts on the head tube work great. No difference at all compared with the ones mounted on the down tube.

The Shimano Dura-Ace brakes just plain work.

The hand built tubular wheels work great for training and rough road races but are a bit heavy (built as they are) for the hillier terrain around here.

Such nice hubs! Almost 25 years old and still compatible with the latest Dura-Ace group!

Big down tube works just fine with the standard threaded bottom bracket shell. No BB30 needed and trust me, you are not going to flex this crank axle. Best thing is that you get to use the best bottom bracket made. We get hardly 10 months out of BB30 bearings much less 10 years as with the Kings...

Nice legs

Like the bottom bracket the head tube junction is plenty stiff and we have no problem tearing down the technical descents around here.

So, how does it ride?  Awesome!  But it should be awesome, it fits me to the mm, every tube selected for the desired outcome and built by some of the best craftsmen in the industry.

I know there are a lot of people out there that would dismiss this bike pretty quickly due to the fact that it’s made from steel and not carbon.  Now, I’m not really from the “Steel is real” crowd, in fact that doesn’t even make much sense.  Of course it’s real, just like titanium, aluminum, magnesium and even (gasp) carbon fiber.  It’s as simple as this, steel is just one medium for building a bike frame.  It still gets down the road in the same manner as all the other materials do, but just feels a little different doing so.  I’m not trying to get too deep into this whole quagmire of a topic but I’ll explain how the Baum Ristretto feels in a few different riding situations and then later talk about how it compares to another Baum made from a different material.

Firstly, keep in mind that even though I have over a thousand miles on this bike so far, it’s been early season miles.  No full on sprints or long sustained climbing at high tempo or threshold.  But I’ve had plenty of miles with a few different wheels and day after day riding so I feel pretty confident of getting the point across.

Descending:

The Ristretto descends as well as any bike I’ve ever been on which is a very good thing.  This is mostly due to position.  Since we built this from scratch my weight is exactly where I need it to be and I’m perfectly balanced over the bike.  It feels as good on the super tight and technical descents as it does on the wide open ass on the top tube type.  The Baum has a little longer chain stays and the longer overall wheel base helps with stability.  I’d describe descending on this bike as super stable while being quick enough.  In the end, the less adjectives you use while describing a bikes descending mannerisms the better as that means there are not any surprises!  It just does what it’s supposed to, get you down the hill as fast as possible and as safely as possible.

Climbing:

One of our shop bikes is 13.5lbs fully built while the Baum is 15.9lb in it’s lightest configuration.  I can honestly say that I don’t feel the difference while climbing.  In fact this bike might even be a little faster feeling under acceleration as one of the benefits of GOOD steel tubing is the bit of spring it has in it.  Combine that with a stiff frame and it just jumps forward under hard pedaling.  The biggest differences I felt were with the different wheels we put on it.  It of course felt the best with the Lightweight Obermayers as they take a pound and a half off of rotating mass over the Mavic’s and a whole two and a half pounds off the hand built pair!  This again shows that rotating mass is so much more important than the static weight of a frame or other component.

Sprinting:

Most modern high performance bikes are pretty stiff.  The drive train components like the cranks, axles and wheels are pretty stiff as well.  For my 170lb frame (hopefully 160lb after this month of training!) the Ristretto was plenty stiff.  There was no bottom bracket sway like the steel bikes I rode 10-20 years ago.  So I’ll put this one down to the bike sprinted as fast as my legs could push it.  The bike was definitely not holding me back here.  I will admit that there is something different about sprinting on a good steel bike.  The spring and feedback is much more direct than on other materials I’ve ridden.  You feel much more connected to the bike, not just perched on top.

Final Thoughts:

This bike is the perfect starting point for a dream bike that will last a long, long time.  It is unique, beautifully finished and rides as well as anything I’ve been on.  It has been a long time since I’ve seen this level of attention to detail in any bike.  Taking that into account these bikes are meant to be ridden hard, so don’t be afraid to get them dirty or of putting a few scratches or chips on the frame!

Baum is set to make some major noise in the handbuilt cycling world due to their incredible attention to detail, knowledge and performance of their frames  and we are extremely excited and honored to be the exclusive distributor for them in the US.  So feel free to drop us a line or give us a call or even better come visit us to find out more about the Ristretto or any of the other models Baum builds.  Lastly, take a look at our most recent wallpaper addition under the Passion section on this website for the incredible shot of the Corretto which we’ll be covering next!

Thanks for reading!

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The day has finally come, it's been a long trip from Australia. Hopefully the frames have been packed well...

Both the Ristretto and the Corretto were perfectly packed and then all work stopped in the shop as we unpacked and oogled them.

The frameset as it comes from Baum. Frame, fork, headset, stem, seatpost and cages, ready to go...

Take weight off where ever you can! A small but elegant detail.

Baum chases all the faces in house and is as clean a job we've ever seen.

The King titanium cages are bead blasted to match the finish of Baum's titanium frames. Looks great on the steel frames as well.

The reason the shifter barrel adjusters are on the head tube instead of the down tube is because the down tube is so thin that you would burn right through it if you put them there...

The Deda Zero 100 SC stem painted to match. Even though we had a precise CAD drawing of our specs for the frame before building it, Baum kept 10mm of spacers available just in case. It was not needed and they'll be lopped off soon enough.

Baums Headbadge. Rumers are it will be changing for all bikes with the GT paint schemes.

Many layers of masking, perfectly executed.

Hard to see in this picture, but Baum uses the absolute minimum amount of threads in the BB shell that are needed. This is a small detail but was noticed right away. This allows for a thinner and thusly lighter BB shell.

Chris King tools are as nice as thier components and we look forward to every chance we have of using them.

The beautiful thing about threaded bottom bracket shells is that you can use the best bottem brackets made, Chris King.

Next thing to go on the bike is our trusty Dura-Ace SRM. This is the 4th bike that this particular unit has been on and has not missed a beat.

Getting there. Did the first ride with the Lightweights but have been trying a few different wheels with this bike since.

The competed bike with Mavic's Ksyrium SLR wheel set in place.

In the next day or so we’ll have the important details, like how it rides!  We’ll break down the parts used and how they change the ride characteristics of the overall package.  Then it will be on to the Corretto, but all in due time.

Thanks for reading and please come in or give us a call to find out more about these incredible bikes!

Here are 7 of the 8 tubes.  The head tube is internally butted while the other 7 are externally butted.  Here David weighs the tubes and marks them where they will be butted.  The sheet at the bottom gives him all the information he’ll need for the butting.  The chain stays have already been butted, formed and notched and are ready to have the scallops welded in.

The stems and seat posts that will be painted along with the frames.  One set is for the Corretto and the other for our Ristretto.  As you can see, we used Deda stems and 3T Ltd. Posts, but the standard for the frames now are 3T Team stems and Enve Posts.

All the tubes have been butted and mitered and are now in the jig waiting for Darren to do the welding.

The posts and stems have been sanded down and prepped and are ready for priming and painting.

The Enve fork also gets the same treatment as the stem and post.

The Corretto is now in the sandblaster having only the section that will be exposed titanium getting its surface treated.  This is a two stage process, first step is with Gamet and then the glass bead.  With the Gamet Jared doesn’t need to work the tubes as aggressively to get rid of all the heat discoloration caused by welding.  If you were to skip this process and go straight to glass bead you would need to work the tube more and run the risk of flattening the welds.

Once the glass bead has been done Jared hand brushes the tubes to put Baums signature finish on them.

Hand brushing the frame.

From there they apply the back masking is put on anywhere there will be graphics on the titanium and then blasted with Gamet.

Then the frame goes back into the sandblasting machine to have the last of its surface treatment done.

The grade of gamet Baum uses works perfectly with the primer Jared will use for the paint.  Get these steps right and you can basically eliminate any chance of the paint d-laminating (easier said than done).

After all the back masking is taken off he inspects for any blowouts from the sandblasting.

From here the frame goes into a detergent tank to remove any grease residue that is left over from the fabrication process.  It’s also another great chance to get any leftover deposits out from inside the tubes.  Once scrubbed and repeatedly dunked it goes into a water tank for rinsing.  It is then blow dried with an air compressor and then put into the paint oven for 2-3 hours to completely dry.

Once the frame has completely dried and cooled Jared wipes all the painted sections with a spirit wipe.  This removes any last possible bit of grease/glue etc. that will give him grief in the painting stage.

Then he uses a tack rag/cloth to remove the little fragments of paper cloth that was used for the spirit wipe.  On this picture you can also see that the frame is back masked where he wants the titanium left.  On the top of the seat tube he has masked out where the seat clamp will sit.  The mask he uses perfectly fits the inner diameter of the clamp they use and avoids the paint getting crunched when the seat collar gets tightened and loosened repeatedly.

Now the fun part, painting!  As you can see here all the frames have had their first round of priming and are about to receive a dose of 60 degree C heat for 3 hours.  Once they have been cured they come out and cool down for 2 hours and then their surfacing treatment begins.

Two of our bikes in the oven…

Cooling on the rack…

Once the first round of primer is fully cured and the frame has cooled down he proceeds to surface finish the tubes.  This entails rubbing the entire frame with a medium grade wet/dry rub paper to take off any surface imperfections.

Then he re-primers the frame and lets it sit for 30 minutes at room temperature and then proceeds to de-nib it with the red abrasion pad seen above.  This gets rid of any remaining (don’t see how that’s possible after all the above!) contaminants before color goes down.  Then the frame gets sprayed black.  Black is always used first as it shows up any areas of the frame that may have been missed.  Any part of the frames surface he is unhappy with gets attention now before he goes any further.  Ignore this step and it will bite you in the ass later especially when using pearls and metallic paint.  Once this is done he applies another coat of black paint to ensure full coverage on the frame.  Frame/fork, stem and post are now ready to have the graphic masks applied.

The techniques used for painting are propriety but I know that it is just as detailed or even more so than anything that has happened up to now.  Come into the shop and check one of these frames out in person to see what I’m talking about.

More masking and getting closer…

The Fork, stem and post have gone through much of the same processes as the frame has, also the same amount of attention to detail.

I think this is right before the final clear.

Masking coming off revealing a first glimpse of the end product…

The two new Above Category bikes side by side.  On the left, the Ristretto and on the right, the Corretto.

From the other side…

Frame, fork, stem and seatpost all finished.  Even the King titanium bottle cages have been custom finished to match the bare titanium on the stays.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this post.  I know that maybe sanding and painting a bike may not be the most exciting part of the process for everybody but what I’m hoping is that it gives a good impression of what’s involved in finishing a Baum frame.  This is a 20+ hour process of hands on work and you can tell when looking at the finish in person.

We just received this Parlee Z5 in today.  This is the first one we’ve done in matte black (besides the stock Z5sl) and it turned out great.  The customer also had the panels done in glossy white paint with light blue for the borders.  Great combination and thanks to him has given us some new ideas for our custom shop bike and customers bikes in the future.  This is what we love about Parlee’s custom paint program, so many options and a great way to add some personality to your ride.

We’ve gone over the Z5′s ride many times in the past, but again, we love the simplicity of the bike.  Super smooth, simple and potent.  Amazing climber, super capable descender and a stable well handling bike that allows you to concentrate on your riding, not guessing what’s going to happen next.

Matte black meets glossy white.  Parlee did a great job with the paint on this frame.  It has a nice smooth transition from the matte finish to the glossy painted finish.

Simple, classy and effective round tubes on the Parlee.  Carbon seat clamp with titanium hardware.

BB30 bottom bracket.  Parlee is switching over to press fit in the future and already have a Shimano adapter to work with that though this frame will have a Campagnolo Super Record build which has an adapter for BB30 and Press Fit 30.  We still like and miss the standard threaded BB’s, but that’s just us, and these have proven to work well.

This frame is in the process of being built and we’ll have the finished photo’s tomorrow.  Have been deciding on tape, cables and hoods.  We’ll see soon!