More info is here.

In other news, 48 hole Fixed hubs are going out for anodizing in Black and Purple this week, so we should have them ready to sell by the end of April.

I am testing a prototype 5.25" (5.75" is the normal length) bottom bracket spindle out, it seems like it's working pretty well, so we may produce some of those in the future. Why this is exciting is it means that you can get Profile cranks much closer to your frame and have a narrower stance. So there's that to look forward to.

I talked to Tony Fast the other day. He reports that the final sessions for Bootleg Sessions 3 were pretty hard on both Tom and himself, leaving Tom with a broken wrist and Tony with a sprained wrist and some trashed rims.

Speaking of trashed rims, you'll no doubt remember the last news I posted about the first set of Profile 48 hole Fixed hubs. Looks like they're already due for a new rim: No Cassettes. Dang, yo. That one kind of made me feel a little queasy.

In further 48 hole hub news, the production run is completed, and we'll start sending them out to the anodizer soon. Black, Polished, and Purple, to start.

News from Burd:

Hi Christian,

Just wanted to let you know that I got my new bike up and running...

It's solid as hell. Huge, huge thanks again for all the parts!

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I've been busting my ass to get Bootleg Sessions v.3 done. There is some really amazing riding in this one, I think people are going to be blown away by a lot of what's going down in it.

Thanks!

-Burd

I still have a couple of loose ends to tie up (Keo, call me!) but I would like to welcome Tony Fast, John "Prolly" Watson, and Tampa's Pete Young to the Profile Fixed team. I haven't updated the team page yet, because I am a slacker, but I will soon, with more pics and stuff. It will be exciting, you can be certain of that.

Tony and John are no strangers to Profile, both of them having appeared in Bootleg Sessions and being major players in the NYC/Philly fixed scene. Hopefully, the back end web guys will get it figured out, and John will be able to post content here soon, in addition to all the stuff he posts on his own website, Prolly is not Probably.

Pete is pretty much the fastest guy in Florida on a fixed gear. I think he won or was top three at pretty much every alley cat last year, and I know he was the overall series champion, winning a set of Profile Hubs for his efforts, which I then made superflous by offering him even more free stuff. He's one of those guys who's a natural talent, he can win the alley cat and turn around and win the trick competition afterwards. He also podiumed at the Florida State Cyclocross race on a borrowed single speed cross bike. And, he's a sweet dude. And he sent in a news update before I even got around to announcing that he was on the team. Good stuff, there.

Late on this, but thanks so much for the product. I'm loving the hubs and stoked to get the crank/stem on my new freestyle frame.

The past 2 months have been insane for me. I got ridiculously sick and lost loads of weight and strength. It was brutal! But thankfully I'm getting my health back and this weekend did well at a trick contest in Orlando winning most of the categories. Also, took 2nd in a Sprint Series the 407Fixed kids are hosting. Still not feeling my strongest, but we're getting there. Attached some pics. The sprint pic is the semi final against some dude who used to race BMX and was gnarly! We actually bumped each other going around the turns! Epic finish as well!

Things are getting back to normal now. And I'm loving being back in the saddle.

Sprint!

Spin!

pics by Melissa Smith (shortformelissa)

And that guess would be that folding a 32 hole wheel in half and then trying to ride it for the rest of the game and then home afterwards is just no fun at all.

Here's the very first pair of 48 hole Fixed/Fixed hubs we've made so far. We'll probably run some more of these in a few, and have them ready to sell by the time the weather turns nice in most places. In other words, April-ish.

Drop me an email at christian atprofileracing dotcom.

-gob

Check out this new Track bike shop that just opened in London: Shop14.

Damn, that is sexy.

--gob

Yo Christian, our trip to Europe/London was amazing. There should be tons of photos in the next issue of Fixed, or popping up online any day now. We're trying to get those fools to come over the pond now and get up and down the east coast. Talking about paying a visit down south possibly, we'll see how it pans out.

Started running a 33/12 with a big ol' bolt from home depot and a split washer in between, I haven't had any slippage issues yet with it.

Tom Lamarche

While I am emailing you I figured I would send you the setup I am running for the Profile cranks. I attached some pictures.

1. I made a spacer out of a thing washer that I found on a work bench. I haven't been able to figure out what it is that I used. I know this isn't much help. I cut spacer because otherwise the bolt wouldn't fit.

2. I worked the spacer to fit into the hole in the chainring so that it fit nice and snug. Sorry it's an Animal sprocket, Milwaukee just made some 12t cogs and it was the only 33t I had.

3. I bought a 3/8 split washer and 1 inch 3/8 fine bolt. I put red loctite on the bolt.

4. I put the whole assembly together.

With this setup you can use a big wrench to torque down the bolt nice and good. I can generally go about four or more weeks with out having to tighten everything down at all.

So thats that.

Have a good one and thanks for the new opportunity.

Tony Fast

The only thing I can add to that is that for the shim/spacer, it will take a little less material for the shim on a new sprocket than it will for a used sprocket where the sprocket bolt hole has widened a bit. I used a thin strip of aluminum from a soda can, which I had to trim a few times to get the proper width and thickness. Also, the bolt is our standard crank bolt sized, but you can get 3/8 - 24 bolts in most hardware stores, and the split washer as well.

If you have questions on this, please email christian (at) profile racing (dot) com.

Overhauling Profile Fixed hubs is pretty simple, if you have the correct tools. The front and rear hubs work exactly the same, although they used different sized bearings and cone spacers. In a perfect world, you'll have a bearing press, a rubber mallet, 2 long handled 3/16" allen keys, a bench vice, hub bearing installation tools, and steel donuts. You can do this with the hub built into the wheel, but it's a lot easier with it de-laced.

rubber mallet, 2 front hub bearing installation tools, 2 rear hub bearing installation tools, steel donuts (l-r)

The bare minimum you need for this is the bench vise, the allen keys, and the rubber mallet, but a bearing press is going to install the bearings a lot easier, as well as much more precisely than the vice will. A homemade bearing press is pretty easy to make for about $5.00 at your local hardware store. More info on homemade bearing presses can be found here, and an image of one is here

So now that we have the tools, lets get to the fun stuff. Start out with your allen keys. Loosen one of the hub cones. We loc-tite the cones in place, so you'll need a bit of grunt to move them in most cases. One of them will loosen, however. Go ahead and remove it. Then, put it back in the axle and tighten it about 3 turns. Remove both allen keys from the hub, and place the hub/wheel in a steel donut or between the jaws of your vice so that the axle can be pressed out from the top.

Hit the top cone with your rubber mallet. This should be enough to get the bearing, axle and cone out of the hub body.

If the hub is still laced into the wheel, you have to make a decision here. Check the bearing that still in the hub body. If it's still smooth, great, leave it in there. If it's not smooth, you're going to want to remove the bearing from the hub body itself. You'll need a solid cylindrical object for this step. We use an old BB spindle, you can use a socket and extension, or any similar device you have in your toolbox. Put it on the back of the bearing, and hit it with the mallet.

So now the bearings are out of the hub body. But there's still that stubborn conespacer holding a bearing onto the aluminum center axle. Here's where the vice is needed. Hopefully, your vice has a v cut into each jaw to help it grip round objects. If not, then you'll need more muscle to hold the axle.

If you have trouble loosening the cone, then you can apply a little heat to the aluminum center axle (1-2 seconds worth of blow torch) to get the loc-tite to let go. Do not overheat the axle. You have been warned.

So that's it, you've completley disassembled your hub. Clean and inspect your hubshell, bearings, cones, and center axle for any damage. Make sure the bearings roll smoothly with no side to side play. Make sure the center axles aren't deformed in any way. Inspect the cones for any damage. If you need them, replacement parts are available at Profileracing.com.

Now you'll be wanting to put it back together. Take one hub bearing, one cone, and the center axle. Combine them in the way that makes the most sense to you. My advice is Cone, Bearing, and then Center axle. Tighten the cone down all the way.

Take the other bearing, and either put it on the vice or the bearing press as shown in the illustration. It's much easier to be precise with the bearing press and the hub bearing installation tools, but not everyone has access to those. You need to get the bearing as square as possible. Take care not to damage the softer aluminum hubshell on the harder steel jaws of the vice. Press the bearing so that it's flush with the edge of the hubshell.

If you still have your hub laced into a wheel, getting this first bearing installed is a little more complicated. The best way to install it is to make your own bearing press out of a long bolt, a nut, and two largish flat washers. Not pretty, but actually a pretty good way to reinstall the bearings.

So, however you press the first bearing in (it doesn't matter which side of the hub you do), do it carefully, and when it's flush with the hubshell, you're ready for the next step.

Insert the cone, bearing, and center axle assembly into the hubshell. Using your vice, or your (standard) bearing press, gently squeeze the bearing into the hubshell far enough so that you can get the other cone threaded onto the center axle. Tighten the cone spacers down.

Tighten them down until they stop.

Both cone spacers should look more or less like this. Now, try and roll the axle. It probably feels pretty rough, right? This is because the bearings aren't seated perfectly perpendicular to each other. The best way to fix this is pretty simple. Strike the cone on a hard surface, such as the top of the bearing press, or the vice, or any flat solid surface. You should hit it solidly, maybe 4 on a scale of 10. Spin the axle again. If it's still rough, try hitting the opposite side. If this doesn't make it roll smoothly, then repeat this process, hitting a little harder, but if you've repeated it more than 3 times and it still isn't smooth, then something is wrong, and you should call us before any further damage has been done. When I did these pictures, it only took one hit for the axle to roll perfectly smooth. It shouldn't take much.

If it's smooth, put your axle bolts back on, thread on the cog and lockring, and go ride.

Hey Christian just wanted to say thanks a ton for the profile bits! I posted a little blurb about it here.

Getting the hubs all laced up and getting everything ready for europe. The white looks like porcelain! We're going to be filming a ton of stuff in Europe with Ted and the fixed gear london boys for the third bootleg sessions.

Tom

Hi Christian,

Lots of Profile riders in the new issue of Urban Velo... Burd,Tom, John Prolly Watson, and Keo doing a wheelie on a Red Line. See it all here: Urban Velo.
Pretty cool.

Peace,

-Burd

There's a bunch more pics of Tom, Tony, and John on Andrew Temkin's photostream.

John "Prolly" Watson has built up a new wheelest on his BMW recently. 29er rims are the new Deep V's?

There's tons of content at John's website, you should probably bookmark it if you haven't already... prollyisnotprobably.com.