Coasties builds custom Coaster Brake wheelsets and the bikes who love them.

All of our wheels are Handbuilt in Port Townsend, Washington by people with a collective 40+ years of wheel building experience.

Welcome to the home of the Coaster Brake.

YEP!

We finally got another shipment of these fine Sun doublewalled aluminum hoops.

Unlocked the site so Y’all can order CR18 wheel sets again.

And, sadly,

PRICES ARE GOING UP!

It’s a tricky business to balance quality and price when you hand build wheels.

Lot of different factors are at play over here;

• We raised the per-wheel rate for our local builders so they can survive better.
• We are a medium/low volume business that buys our parts in the states. We like it that way, but it costs more.
• Our cost for shipping wheels has continued to increase and now we subsidize shipping on every order. $25 flat fee just begins to cover it ;(

Bottom line is…your dollars – we need more of them in order to be profitable and keep this enterprise rolling.

$20 per set cost across the board.

A continuation of our 12-part series on converting your 10 speed road bike into a single speed Coastie.

Video #6 -Single speed crank set

• Crankset overview
• Single speed Chain ring bolts
• How to remove stuck chain ring bolts
• Cottered crank vs. Square taper  vs. mountain bike
• How to Convert your 10 speed crankset to a single speed crankset

Video #7 -Replacing your worn-out saddle

• Bike Anatomy lesson. Seat vs. saddle
• Minimum safe hight for a seatpost
• Once piece seatpost vs. seatpost and seperate seatpost clamp
• Tricks for workin’ on stuff

Wait… is that Arquimedes in the background!?!

Yep.

We don’t know when they will be back in stock, as we are looking for a new supplier for these hoops.

Meanwhile everything else is getting built but these.

We’re celebrating the holidays at Coasties with crazy bike stilt pictures

and

Free shipping on all domestic Coasties orders from today until monday 12/12/11.

Order that new wheel set, hub or goodie you have been waiting for in this window of time and receive them before Christmas!

All the way from Belguim we have the Tim and Tom!

A Second hand bike bought for 90$ by Tim.V that had been in an accident.  Tom.S, a bike mechanic that has a sister who dates Tim,  turned it over in a retro-coastie inspired by the livery of old British racing cars.”

A list of the new parts used:

British racing green paintjob
Dia Compe Dirt Harry brake lever
Charge U-bend bartape
Charge Bucket saddle
All-City Standard track pedals
Halo Aerotrack rims
Curana C-Lite fenders
And the Coastie of course

And….drumroll please – the Voor and Na!

Tom says

Haha,  he also just said that when he uses another bike to go to class, 
people ask him why he didn’t come with his ‘cool bike’ 

Thank you two for sending in all the cool photos!

More How-To videos on converting a 10 speed steel road bike into a single speed bike

Video #4 -Removing the stem and the shifters

• Remove a stuck stem with closeup video
• Remove stem-mounted friction shifter assembly
• Talks about different type of friction shifters (down tube, stem, etc)

Video #5- removing the brakes

• Shows you how the brake levers attach to the handlebars and how to remove them
• How to remove the brake calipers themselves
• Introduces cable housing and braze-ons
• Talks about brakes
• Shows you how to use an adjustable wrench effectively

All the way from former USSR, we have the Velosteel rear hub for your Coaster wheel pleasure.

Velosteel is different than our standard faire, and here are the main differences:

It uses a roller clutch instead of a cone clutch to brake. Totally different internal mechanism.

Pros: Smoother operation. Less rolling resistance, higher casting quality and overall beauty

Cons: Weighs more. More working parts to go wrong. Less easy to rebuild.

If you are looking to try something more exotic and don’t mind the extra weight, check these out.

Come complete with hardware package and 18t cog.

Get Coastin’ Czech style!

Our homebody Arquimedes P from Cal Berkeley had the BACK COASTIES WHEEL stolen off his bike.

Lovers of Coaster Brakes gone wrong?!

The theft lined up pretty close to Halloween. Pics below in chronological order;

Keep on Coastin’ Arquimedes!

 Video 2 – Why

• Points out different parts of a 10 speed bike so you can learn their names
• Speaks about the advantages of converting a bike to single speed and lists some common reasons why people do
• Shows you a 10 speed to single speed conversion bike

Video 3 – removing the chain and derailleurs

• Up close video of using a chain tool
• Clipping derailleur cables
• Removing derailleurs