Back in Stock: Chainrings and Canti Brakes
Another shipment has arrived in Seattle, and two popular items are back in stock. Both of them are parts that I used on the bike I rode in the Oregon Cascades Volcanic Arc 400 last week (above).
The first are our superlight cantilever brakes. Our crowdfunding drive last winter was a big success. So big that we ran out of parts as soon as we shipped the pre-ordered brakes. We’ve got plenty of the forged arms, but there are more than a dozen custom parts in these brakes, from the pad holders to the bolts.

One of those are the Straddle Cable Yokes. They are essential for the brake’s performance: The roller self-centers the arms the first time you apply the brake after removing a wheel. The yoke is a complex part that’s machined and polished by hand. Now it (and all the other parts for our canti brakes) are back in stock.

The second are our 28-tooth chainrings. For full disclosure, I built the bike I rode last week with 44×28 rings (above)—and rode it like that for the Oregon Outback FKT almost five years ago. For the steep climbs of the OCVA 400, I swapped in a slightly smaller 26-tooth ring. That’s the beauty of custom gearing: You can fine-tune your chainring combo based on your riding style and the terrain you’re going to encounter. All chainrings for Rene Herse cranks, from 24- to 50-tooth, are now in stock again. So are all crankarms, from 165 to 177 mm, for single, double, triple chainrings and even tandems.
In a future post, I’ll talk about what it’s like to ride an analog bike on such a demanding course, and why I chose it, and not one of my other bikes, for the FKT ride on the Oregon Cascades Volcanic Arc 400.
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