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NAHBS 2015: Connor Wood Bicycles Hits a Home Run with Louisville Slugger Bike

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Connor Wood Bicycles Louisville Slugger bike sram xo force 11 speed 10 (5)

Wooden bicycles are nothing new in the world of NAHBS, but the show’s location in Louisville this year made it perfect for a collaboration. Yes, we’re talking about that famous lumber that ends up as one of the thousands of baseball bats to come out of the Louisville Slugger factory. After receiving the American White Ash billets straight from Louisville Slugger, Chris Connor set out to turn the wood into one of his namesake bicycles. The completed frame was then shipped back to Louisville Slugger so they could brand the frame and finish it with the same varnish used on actual bats.

A fully functional bike, the one off show piece will soon be installed in the Louisville Slugger museum as an interactive display…

Connor Wood Bicycles Louisville Slugger bike sram xo force 11 speed 10 (9)

Connor Wood Bicycles Louisville Slugger bike sram xo force 11 speed 10 (6)

Remember the days of clipping a baseball card to your bike so it would rattle off the spokes? That baseball-centric nostalgia is what the Slugger museum is shooting for with the new Connor Cycles exhibit. Due to the fact that museum goers are expected to spin the cranks and cause the rear wheel to move, the bike was fitted with a Gates Belt Drive and coaster brake hub and custom wooden chain guards as a safety precaution.

Connor Wood Bicycles Louisville Slugger bike sram xo force 11 speed 10 (15)

Connor Wood Bicycles Louisville Slugger bike sram xo force 11 speed 10 (14)

Connor Wood Bicycles Louisville Slugger bike sram xo force 11 speed 10 (10) Connor Wood Bicycles Louisville Slugger bike sram xo force 11 speed 10 (7)

The baseball theme extends throughout the bike with an ash handlebar, Lizard Skins DSP bat tape for grips, and a custom saddle made by Carson Leh from the actual leather used in Slugger’s baseball gloves. Carson’s work was on a number of show bikes and is simply fantastic.

Connor Wood Bicycles Louisville Slugger bike sram xo force 11 speed 10 (11) Connor Wood Bicycles Louisville Slugger bike sram xo force 11 speed 10 (12)

Connor Wood Bicycles Louisville Slugger bike sram xo force 11 speed 10 (2)

Connor Wood Bicycles Louisville Slugger bike sram xo force 11 speed 10 (3)

 

Connor had one other bike on display that was a cross/gravel build made from reclaimed urban lumber with black walnut and reinforced with Kevlar and carbon fiber. The frame is certainly beautiful, but it was the drivetrain that caught our attention. Chris told us that he had planned to have to hack some kind of monster cross drivetrain together, but after ordering a set of SRAM Force 11 speed shifters, an 11 speed SRAM wide range cassette, and a 10 speed SRAM X0 Type 2 rear derailleur, everything worked together right out of the box. We didn’t get to ride it to verify the function, but it is very interesting if true.

connorcycles.com

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Heffe
Heffe
9 years ago

Despite the obviously false warnings issued by SRAM, any 10 or 11 speed ‘Exact Actuation’ rear derailleur will work perfectly with any ‘Exact Actuation’ 10 or 11 speed shifters. IRD makes the little cable adjuster that you see slotted into the ferrule port on the XO rear derailleur, costs less than $10.

Interestingly enough, you can also change the XX1 11 speed rear to ‘Exact Actuation’ by swapping out the black plastic cable routing/clamp thingie for the one from the CX Force rear derailleur.

The list of official ‘Exact Actuation’ components is here: https://www.sram.com/sram/road/technologies/exact-actuation

PBJoe
PBJoe
8 years ago

Great idea, you never hear of ash bats breaking.

priority drinker
priority drinker
8 years ago

Nor do you ever hear of steel, aluminum, titanium or carbon bike frames breaking, lol!

Big Bear
Big Bear
8 years ago

Very cool!

Janijer jarin
8 years ago

That was a great idea.
We believe in the amazing freedom and confidence a run bike gives kids.Great article. Might be worth mentioning that even before the camping gear has been strapped aboard, using a trail-a-bike or similar will have a significant adverse effect on the handling of your bike. Can make off-road riding very ‘interesting’ but climbing will give you Quads Of Steel 🙂

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