First Ride on the Siren John Henry 02/23/2010
After a spritzing of Framesaver on the insides of the John Henry frame's tubes, it was time to build her up. Carried over most of the parts from the Zaka, but installed a Chris King BB and a Syntace cockpit. A Syntace seatpost is in transit as well and will join its other German brethren on the John Henry (aka Manila Vanilla). Inaugural ride was during a dawn patrol at the Camp Aguinaldo trail. So, here are initial impressions: The bike feels low and long, not sure why, but this to me is a good thing. Will compare geometries with my former ride and see. The JH goes where it's pointed and there's no unwanted flex from the rear end. Seems what little leg power I have goes to driving the bike forward. The Syntace goodies also help with steering precision - it felt like I was taking corners faster. Especially switchbacks. The JH was nimble, yet stable. Contradictory I know but that's the best way I could describe it. While not as supple as the ride of titanium, I personally dig the smooth all the time, stiff when needed qualities of steel. Can't wait to get more saddle time!  Hanging out with some heavy metal. Photo by Gary  Hammer time. Siren John Henry style. Photo by Gary.  Lean in, carve, then power through the corner. Buttah. Photo by Gary.  Managed to get some air too. Photo by Gary.  Back at the home base. Dirt matches the vanilla powdercoat job perfectly. Meet the 2010 VooDoo Soukri 12/13/2009
What's crafted out of Reynolds 631 tubing, is singlespeed or geared capable, runs 29" tires, has the legendary, mystical VooDoo ride? Well. the 2010 VooDoo Soukri of course! Other details include: - under the top tube cable routing - accommodates a 100-125mm fork - downtube reinforcing gussets - v or disc brake ready - white-hot paint job with red panels, and human spine details - "soukri" means "sacred temple", and this frame will be your new place of worship in 2010!  Brendan Collier Q&A 10/23/2009
While trawling (not trolling!) the interwebs we came across this March 2009 interview of Siren Bicycles' Brendan Collier. Guitar Ted and TwentyNineInches.com did profiles of master builders and Brendan was one of their resource people. Guitar Ted gave us permission to feature the interview here on the site. You, rock, GT! Click here for the jump. The John Henry Files 10/18/2009
Almost there! Everything's coming together nicely. Our frames are scheduled to go to the powdercoater later this week, can't wait to see them in our custom colors too! Details on the John Henry frame include: Paragon Machine Works sliding dropouts AND bottom bracket, True Temper top tube and Brendan's own proprietary, size-specific mix of steel tubing for the rest of the frame. Thanks to Brendan@Siren for the photos and updates regarding the build process! My Next Ambition by Jay Perez 10/16/2009
I’ve always loved steel and I always will. I think this stems from my early days of biking. 20 years ago when I first started biking (yoiks!) I broke the dropout on my Fuji Tahoe. I went to Performance bike shop in Cartimar (no relation to the mail order shop it stole its name from) to get myself a new frame. I got myself a white bike with a smoke finish made out of “high-tension” which was all I could afford. Gorgeous smoke finish- did they really put a lit cigarette beside the bike when they added the topcaot it? I never really found out but the results were awesome. Sadly that bike was MASSIVE. I had a sneaking suspicion that high-tension was a code word for “pipes stolen from the plumber”. The dream back then was to get a Chromoly frame in a bright neon color. Preferably the brighter the better. I dreamed of one of those elevated chainstay chromoly bikes in Tryon with the cantilever brake booster going for (gasp) 5,000PHP. One dream even better than that was to get a custom frame from Nonet near aurora who used to do the frames for the Tour of Luzon racers. Years later that same bike frame is in an unused doghouse right outside my bedroom window I’ve had many bikes since then but the dream for Steel continues. Now that My Next Bike brings in Siren, maybe its time to get that custom job steel job I’ve always dreamed about. Custom colors? Sure. Custom measurements? No problem Brendan himself can walk you through the requirements. Oh dear is this the dream come true? Dang I’m excited. To be continued. Arnel's Wanga 10/16/2009
 Voodoo Wanga Reynolds 631 frame (16") XT '09 groupset Chris King headset Ritchey WCS carbon handle bar Thomson - seatpost / stem Fizik Arione saddle Sun Ringle disc O'flea wheeelset with DT swiss revo spokes and Dt swiss nipples Kenda excavator 1.95 rear / front tires Pol's VooDoo Wanga 10/14/2009
 Here's what Pol had to say about his geared Wanga: The ride was awesome. Its a perfect frame especially for XC riders like me. Perfect Geometry and sexy bike but its deadly...hehehehe... Thanks and more power VOODOO cycles!!! Looking for my next bike ulit.... Wishing for Voodoo 29er naman... Lets get it ON! Build details: Fox Fork 2009 F100 with Remote Lockout XT drive train and hydro brakes FSA 2009 Carbon Handle Bar HOPE Hubs, Grip Doctors, Seat Collar,Floating Rotors (Disc), Headset, Spacers Thomson Stem, Seatpost Fizik Gobi 2009 Saddle 2 tone Schwalbe Nobby Nic Tires 2.25 Mavic 719 Rim XM Exustar Clipless Pedals E-PM25 Topeak Saddle Bag Cateye Cyclocomp Wireless Jag wire cables Velo Grips Somewhere in this pile of tubes... 10/13/2009
 is/are my/your next bike! Work's going smoothly at Siren Bicycles and our first batch of John Henry's should be off to the powdercoater by the weekend. Then comes the fun wait as they make their way across the Pacific Ocean to our shores. Our first batch consists of the following: 1 John Henry in ML, Granite, with red decals 1 John Henry in M, Flame Red, black decals, white border 1 John Henry in M, Royal Blue, with white decals, silver border 1 John Henry in M, Vanilla, with mango decals, black border (SOLD!) Want to be one of the first Siren riders in the Philippines? Contact us now! Thanks to Brendan for the build updates and the shop pic! VooDoo Dambala review by Jeibi 10/06/2009
 Specs: 19" Voodoo Dambala frame ENO crankset 32T X 18T SS Avid Juicy Hydro Brakes Chris King Headset  Ride: The bike is pretty much lighter than my other geared bike and handling is superb! Going downhill on a rocky trail is hell! Good thing my wrists are as strong as Hulk Hogan's =). Full rigid setup so my pedal to torque ratio would be close to 1:1. Riding it on a climb is like having sex! ILOVEIT! Santa wish lists: DT Swiss wheelset Stronger knees Bigger lungs I LOVE MY VOODOO MORE THAN ANY MATERIAL THING I OWN! =)  I finally got to take the Wanga on it's maiden yesterday. We did a 26 mile road ride (we forgot our ID's so we couldn't get into Timberland) that included The Wall and some back roads from Timberland to Marikina Heights. It took a few minutes of adjusting the seat angle, height, and setback to get it to my liking since the Wanga is a little bit shorter than the 19" Ionic I was riding but after about 1 hour of riding, the position felt natural (even though I'm running a shorter fork than what the Wanga is designed for). The Wanga's cockpit was very similar to my 575 however so it felt natural after a bit (it normally takes me a few weeks to get used to a new position). I also had to make some chain length adjustments to the sliders to be able to run dingle. Obviously, the bike is a little bit heavier than the Ti frame that it replaced but since the components swapped over (specially the wheels), the bike still accelerated crisply and climbed well. It has different qualities than the bike it replaced but that is to be expected. It's a little stiffer than the Ti bike but also less compliant in the rough stuff. I really like the top of the top tube cable routing as it gets the cable guides out of my knee's way which is VERY important since I do most of my climbing off the saddle and on my Ionic, my knees frequently hit the cable guides (enough to draw blood) when I'm really swaying the bike back and forth. In looking at the mtbr posts about the Wanga, I was super concerned with the sliders slipping but they held tight even under the steepest part of The Wall. Neither SJ nor I could make it slip so it passed that test with flying colors. I also credit this to the setup by the wrenches at All Terra. They've had some Wanga's pass through their allens so they knew what they were doing (and probably knew the type of climbing SJ and I will put the bike through)... I ran the road gear on the way home (36X16) and it didn't slip on the climbs in Marikina Heights either. There was some squealing with the V's and I attribute this to the way the brake studs are attached to the frame. A bit of loctite and some proper tightening of the stud mounting bolts should quiet them nicely. Highlights of the frame design is the massive tire clearance, the sliders which allow me to run geared, single or dingle and the clean lines of steel. The only thing I would change would be a shorter head tube to allow me to run a 100mm+ fork without choppering the front end out too much... I'm leaving this bike in the PI and I can already tell that she'll be a fun rig. We were supposed to give her the dirty maiden today but because of the rain, it's been postponed until tomorrow morning... Review by Gary (FlipnIdaho) - former NORBA racer, SS guru, MTB coach |