While interstate and overseas travel continues to be more accessible, tourists wishing to travel with their bicycle must endure excessive fees for the transport of their beloved and, oftentimes, expensive vehicles. Paul Ku, of the Long Beach, California shop City Grounds, has proven that the Bicycle Torque Couplings™ produced by S and S Machine, also located in California, don’t have to be limited to luggage-heavy touring bikes and randonneurs.
S and S couplers, as they’re commonly known, are machined from a solid bar of metal and allow the frame to be ‘broken’ in two so it can fit in a 26″ x 26″ x 10″ case which allows a bicycle to travel as regular luggage—an economical incentive for regular travelers. The Cinelli Priest bars on Paul’s NJS-approved Panasonic is currently dressed with cork tape and a dressing of shellac—a treatment usually reserved for aforementioned tourers. Campagnolo Record cranks line the drive train, and the silver metal-flake paint of the Keirin frame provide a complement to the polished couplers.
To see Paul’s Panasonic in it’s current guise, have a look at this edit. Someone in the City Grounds crew has some exemplary typographic skills. And if Tustin, CA isn’t on your itinerary, City Grounds has one of the most well-designed online shops around.
PS: If you like what we’re up to with The Spoken, take a moment to vote for us in the 2011 Crank World Cycling Blog Honors and Directory. We’ve been nominated in the ‘Lifestyle’ category, which is cool, bikes are our life!
