News

2022 Tailwind CCC Cyclocross Package

Let us take care of your muddy bike!

Cross is here! For 2022, we have the official return of the Chicago Cyclocross Cup, and we’re back with our cyclocross support package. We’re going to keep most everything the same as in past years. You will bring your bike into the shop before the official start of the series on October 2nd for a full tune up to get your bike in top racing shape for the start of the season. Then, you will get one bike wash and lube/ race tune in between every race in the series. You have the option of having your bike transported to or from each race in the series. You also have access to mechanical support at the Tailwind tent on race day for any last minute adjustments or mechanical needs before your race. If you are racing in the higher categories and have a pit bike, we can even pit for you during your race.

The Tailwind Cyclocross Package will be $270.00 for 2022. That price is based on the seven race schedule posted on the CCC website as of August. Same as last year, if one of the races happens to get cancelled, we will issue a shop credit for a bike wash and lube Also, as in the past we will give our customers the option to pay for the package in two installments, the first half to be paid when we tune up your bike, and then the balance due by the first race on October 2nd. Once again, anyone who signs up for the cross package will get 15% off parts for their race bike and 20% off tubular gluing services.

It will be great to see everyone out at the races this fall!

2021 Chicago Cross Cup* Service Package

Well, it’s been a pretty wild ride since 2019 when we last had a cyclocross racing season in Chicago! We sincerely hope all of our customers (past and present) and friends of the shop are hanging in there and doing well. We apologize for the delay on this, but we have finally hammered out the details of what will be the Tailwind Cycles cyclocross service package for the 2021 season. It’s important to note that while the Chicago Cyclocross Cup itself has been canceled this year, the promotors of the individual races have been given the option to still run their events as they see fit. As it stands right now (September 23rd, 2021), five races have confirmed they are still planning to hold their event, and two races are listed as “TBD”, so those are up in the air.

We are basing the  $230 price of the Tailwind CX Package this year around the idea that there will be at least four races. If we have customers purchase the package and there ends up being less than four races, we will issue a shop credit for the unused labor. If we actually get to have seven races this year, the Tailwind CX Package will be an even better value! Once again, the CX Package also includes a 15% discount on in-stock parts to keep you rolling this season and also a 20% discount on tubular gluing services. As in years past, we include one full tune up to get your bike into top racing shape, then a bike wash either before or after each race in addition to bike transportation to or from each race in the series. We are limiting the CX Package to the number of bikes we are able to transport to and from the races, so give us a call or email ASAP if you want to sign up.

race-day support

20 percent off tubular gluing labor!

Tailwind Cycles is also planning to be involved with USAC Cyclocross Nationals this year, which are conveniently in the Chicago area . We are planning to release our plans for CX Nationals later in the season, but if you are already thinking about looking for support at the Nationals races, please feel free to contact the shop and start talking about that.

2020 Santa Cruz Jackal

We just had the chance to build up another Santa Cruz Jackal dirt jumper and deliver the bike to it’s new owner. These builds are always fun for the shop since the Jackal is only offered in a frame from Santa Cruz for $799. This means we get to work with the customer to spec out every part on the bike. Normally, we take a “sky is the limit” approach to this and work with the customer to help them build their dream bike from the vast array of BMX and dirtjump parts our suppliers carry. But, as everyone knows, 2020 has been unlike any other year, and like most bike shops we struggled to find enough parts to assemble a complete, custom bike.  Despite that, we were able to come up with a really awesome build, and really only had to compromise on one part. Our customer comes from a BMX background, and wanted us to get a nice set of BMX cranks for the bike. We were unable to do that in a timely-enough manner for him to pick up the bike and get some fall riding in, so we installed a set of Sram NX Eagle Dub cranks on the bike. These are a really solid, budget conscious option which will definitely keep him riding through next year when the bike parts shortage will hopefully ease up and we can upgrade him to his preferred setup.

With a dirtjump bike we always like to start the build with the fork. The Rock Shox Pike DJ is our go-to for a bike like this, and luckily we were able to backorder one with silver lowers and get it delivered to the shop in time to complete the build. The silver and black color scheme on the Pike DJ matched the rest of the bike perfectly, and you can’t beat this fork for durability and performance. Since there is a shortage of high quality 26″ mountain bike wheels at the moment, we decided to custom build a set of wheels. Hand-built wheels will be stronger for this application anyway, so this really wasn’t a compromise. We started the build with a pair of Sram 6 bolt through-axle hubs and laced them to a pair of Sun Ringle MTX33 eyleted rims  using Sapim Strong spokes. This is an extremely robust setup, and should be able to handle just about anything the rider is able to dish out. We finished off the wheels with Maxxis Ikon 26×2.2″ tires. The Ikon is a fast rolling tire which will work well on smooth dirt jumps, park riding, and also have enough knobs to work well in light trail riding.

For the handlebars and stem we went with a 35mm clamp diameter for some extra strength and stiffness. We paired a Spoon 35x 800 bar to the Spank Split 35 stem, with a touch of red. We capped off the bars with a pair of Spank Spoon grips. The Seatpost we used is a Race Face Turbine in 30.9mm diameter. A Cromag Overture saddle and Crank Brothers Stamp pedals round out the contact points.

A Sram Level TLM rear brake system mated to a 160mm rotor will take care of slowing the bike down, should the need arise. We used a Wolf Tooth 20-tooth cog and black KMC bmx chain to finish off the drivetrain. One thing we were really impressed with on the newer Jackal frames is the dropouts. They use a 142x12mm through axle and are very well thought out when it comes to securing and adjusting the rear wheel and chain tension. We would have no worries hucking the biggest jumps with this setup.

We hope our customer enjoys riding the new Jackal as much as we enjoyed building it. Shoot us an email  at the bottom of the page if you would like to start planning your own Jackal build!

Shop News/ New Shop!

We’ve got some big news coming out of Tailwind Cycles during these strange and unprecedented times. We’re moving the shop to a new and bigger location! It might not seem like the best or most logical time to do something like that right in the middle of a pandemic, but the wheels were set in motion earlier this year, and we passed the point of no return in early February. Effective Tuesday, May 19th, we will be fully operational in the new store front at 3259 W Lawrence Ave, Chicago, IL. 60625. 

Tailwind Cycles New Location at 3259 W Lawrence

It was very important for us to remain in the Albany Park neighborhood on the Northwest side of Chicago. The shop has been a part of the neighborhood for three years, and we couldn’t see ourselves moving to another part of the city. We did have to move north a little bit to Lawrence Avenue, but we’re only a 4 minute bike ride away from the old shop location on Montrose. The new shop location is only two blocks from the Kimball station on the CTA Brown Line, so that should be convenient for many of our customers. 

There will be a few changes with the new shop location. The biggest change is simply more space for us to operate. Our service area will be significantly bigger, and will allow us to comfortably expand our staff without mechanics being right on top of each other. One of the exciting changes will be the dedicated bike fit area. We wanted to expand our fit offerings, and provide a comfortable, more private area in the shop to do bike fits. The expanded retail area in the new shop will also allow us to display more models of the bikes we sell, and help us stock more parts, accessories, nutrition, and apparel.  We are excited to share this all with our customers. 

Painting the walls after receiving the keys

Early in the construction process

Tailwind Cycles Fit Studio

There are some important things that won’t be changing with the move. All of our current staff will be making the move to the new location, and we will be dedicated to continuing the level of service and technical expertise you have come to expect from Tailwind Cycles. We will continue to work with the same bike brands as we have all along, and hope to be able to expand the number of bikes we keep in stock with the extra floor space. Our bike wash station will be making the move too, and every full tune up and overhaul will include a bike wash and lube.

Our 10″ stainless steel bike wash being installed

We are extremely excited to share the new shop with our customers and friends! However, we have to ask that you respect social distancing guidelines during the current health crisis. We will be operating during normal business hours for the time being, but we will continue to limit access to the shop to one customer at a time. We are also going to be enforcing the City of Chicago guidelines about wearing face masks in public spaces, and ask that you not come into the shop if you don’t have a protective mask or other face covering. As excited we are to show you the new shop, and as excited as you may be to see it, we also you not to come into the shop just to check it out or say “hi”. We are happy to help you with your cycling needs, but please wait until the crisis is over to come to the shop and hang out. We will also be suspending our bike fits for the time being until further notice. We don’t feel it is possible at the moment to practice social distancing while properly performing a bike fit.

We can’t wait until this crisis is over, and we can have a proper opening party again to break in the new shop with our customers and friends. Hang in there everyone and we hope to see you soon.

2019 Chicago Cross Cup Service Package

Here we go again! Whether you are ready or not, ‘cross season is upon us.  And, once again Tailwind Cycles is back with our ‘Cross Cup service package.  The package will stay the same as last year. Bring your bike into the shop for a full tune-up before the season officially starts on September 29th. During the season, we will have our mobile service van at each race to help you out on race day. Then, between each of the 11 Chicago Cyclocross Cup races we will wash and go over your race bike before the next week.

You can choose either to have us transport your bike back to the shop after the race and we will take care of it on Monday or Tuesday. Or, if you are planning to practice during the week you can drop your bike off with us by Friday and we will wash it, go over it, and bring it out to the race so you can have a fresh, clean bike on race day. Same as lat year, the package is $300, which can be split into two payments anytime between now and October 1st.

The Tailwind Cycles ‘cross package also gives you access to our mechanical support on race day.

We will even pit for you if you have a pit bike, which is especially helpful in muddy races.

We can also discuss support at the two World Cup races in September. These races aren’t part of the Chicago Cross Cup, so they aren’t included in the service package, but if there is enough interest we will work out the details to go to Waterloo and Iowa City for those races.

Once again, the Tailwind Cycles Cross Cup Package also gets you a 20% discount on tubular gluing labor and a 15% discount on parts for you race bike through the end of our season on December 18. We are giving people who have bought the service package in the past first chance to sign up. There are spots available, but space is limited so call or email the shop soon to reserve your spot.

Custom Highball

The mission: build a custom mountain bike weighing 20lbs with gears and front suspension, and make it durable enough to hold up to endurance mountain bike racing and trail riding on chunky East Coast trails. Not an easy task, but also not impossible. Obviously, carbon fiber would be the material a majority of the bike would need to be made of, and we wanted to make sure that we used carbon with a reputation for quality and durability, which is where Santa Cruz comes in, with their lifetime warranty on carbon frames and Reserve wheels.

For the drivetrain and brakes, our customer wanted to go with the newest 12-speed version of Shimano’s XTR 9100 group. We went with 2-piston brakes to stick with the cross-country theme of the bike. A Fox Fatory 32 step cast fork was installed to take care of suspension duties on the bike. Santa Cruz updated the paint colors for this frame around the time we were getting the bike together for our customer. Since they weren’t changing the frame aside from the color, we decided to stick with the 2019 version in Gloss Fog since it looks so good with the ice grey and black finish of the XTR components.

We paired a Wolf Tooth 32 tooth chainring to the Race Face Next carbon cranks using the Wolf Tooth CAMO system. The crankset is mated to the frame with a Kogel ceramic bottom bracket. We went with the cross-seals on the bottom bracket to help out with durability. The 32 tooth ring drives the 10-51 tooth 12-speed XTR cassette for an impressively wide gearing range.

The cockpit starts out with the Santa Cruz Reserve carbon flat bar, finished off with Wolf Tooth Fat Paw grips.  This was our first time installing these grips on a bike, and the initial impression is they feel awesome. Shimano’s I-spec system cleans things up by allowing us to attach the shifter directly to the brake lever, rather than needing to use another clamp on the bars.

Detail image of the Gloss Fog paint and Cane Creek Hellbender headset.

Custom wheelbuilding is one of the services we take a lot of pride in. The Santa Cruz Reserve wheelsets aren’t offered in an XTR hub version from the factory, so it only made sense to build the wheels in-house. Sapim CX Ray spokes were used to keep with the theme of durability and weight savings. The micro spline XTR hubs are beautifully finished, and we were extremely please how the wheels turned out.

We love Maxxis tires, so the Aspen EXO was the obvious choice to mount on our wheels.

New bike day!

Carbon Carbon Carbon Chameleon!

We just finished up a fun build for a customer this week, a custom Santa Cruz Chameleon. We started out with the top-of-the-line SE+ kit on the carbon frame and upgraded a few things from there.

You really need to see the metallic copper paint in person to appreciate how good it looks! The blue accents on the bike really pop against the copper color.

One of the coolest things about the SE build kit is the wheels that come stock with that kit. They are Santa Cruz Reserve 37mm carbon rims laced to blue Hope Pro 4 hubs, which match the blue Hope IS headset. Usually wheels are one of the first upgrades we recommend to our customers, but in this case Santa Cruz took care of that by sending the bike with amazing wheels.

However, we did upgrade the drivetrain. The bike came stock with a mixture of mostly Sram GX Eagle shifters and drivetrain with a Sram XO carbon crank. The GX Eagle components work great, and the main reason to upgrade to the higher level Sram MTB components is to save weight. All of the Sram Eagle components are interchangeable between the different component levels, so you can mix and match to suit your needs and budget. If a customer is looking to make their mountain bike lighter, and they already have light wheels, we usually look at putting some carbon cranks on the bike, and then a higher level cassette. Again, Santa Cruz already took care of part of this by including carbon cranks in the build kit, so we decided to go with an XX Eagle cassette to save an additional 100 grams over the stock GX cassette. We couldn’t put the gold Eagle cassette on this bike without the matching gold chain, so that got swapped out as well.

The other things we upgraded were swapping out the stock Race Face alloy handlebars for a Santa Cruz Reserve 760 Carbon riser bar. We found some ESI extra chunky grips in blue which matches the downtube logos, so we swapped them out for the stock SC lock-on grips.

Overall, this bike is the perfect combination of lightweight, rugged, and most importantly fun! Speaking of fun, if you haven’t seen the Santa Cruz launch video for the carbon Chameleon, you should probably do that right now.

Custom Santa Cruz Tallboy CC Featuring Sram XX1 AXS

It’s always a pleasure bringing a customer’s custom dream bike to life, especially when budget isn’t the main concern. It gets even better when the customer is eager to incorporate the latest technology into the build and we get some hands-on time with the best components on the market. Here is what we came up with: The concept for this bike was to start with a Santa Cruz Tallboy CC carbon frame and build up a mountain bike which would be light and snappy enough to feel at home in a cross-country or endurance mountain bike race, but at the same time be capable enough to handle rugged, back-country trails. We went with the top of the line CC carbon version of the Tallboy frame in Forest Green with Baby Blue logos. The Tallboy is the perfect frame for this project with it’s 110mm of VPP suspension, 68 degree headtube angle, and boost spacing, placing it firmly at the trail end of the cross-country category.

A Fox Step-cast 34 120mm fork is the highlight of the suspension package. The Step-cast version saves a half a pound of weight over a regular Fox 34 fork while retaining the same stiffness. The fork is paired to a custom-tuned Fox Float Factory shock at 110mm to handle the suspension duties at the rear of the bike. We also went with a Fox Transfer dropper post at 125mm.

You can buy Santa Cruz Reserve x Chris King wheels straight from the Santa Cruz factory, but we decided to source the parts and build the wheels in-house. We mated Chris King ISO B hubs in turquoise to Reserve 27 rims using Sapim Race spokes.  The carbon rims carry a lifetime warranty through Santa Cruz, and Chris King hubs have one of the best reputations in the industry for durability and longevity, so we are confident these wheels will be able to handle many miles and years of hard riding. We covered the wheels with Maxxis tubeless tires; a Minion DHF on the front and an Aggressor on the rear.

A Santa Cruz 760 carbon riser bar with ESI Extra Chunky grips will control the bike. We also used a Chris King Dropset that matches the hubs.

The most exciting part of the build is the Sram XX1 Eagle AXS electronic drivetrain. Like their previous road groups, the AXS wireless shifting was easy to set up and shifts flawlessly.

The rainbow coating on the chain and cassette is stunning in person.

The shift button is very ergonomic, and feels natural to use if you have been using Sram mountain bike shifters in the past.

One of the coolest features of the new AXS system is the ability to customize the system through the companion app. You just pair the system to your phone and you can adjust the shift functions, check for firmware updates, and check your battery levels.

Custom Santa Cruz Jackal

“Who mountain bikes in Chicago?” “There are no mountains here.” “This isn’t Colorado, California, Arizona, or North Carolina. Why would I get a pricey mountain bike if I live in this big city with no mountains?”

We hear things like that all the time in the shop. It gets a little frustrating because while all of those places offer amazing trails and riding, you shouldn’t just dismiss our city all together and give up on mountain biking here. Sure, you have to get a little creative within the city limits, and need to drive a bit to get to sanctioned, maintained trails with singletrack. Which is why a 26″ dirt jump bike makes a lot of sense if you live here and want to scratch your mountain bike itch more than once or twice per week. Just 1.5 miles from the front door of our shop, and soon to have an off-street bike path covering almost that entire distance along the river is The Garden- Chicago Dirt Jumps. The Garden is in the heart of the city and has something for everyone with a pump track featuring table top jumps for beginners and small, medium, and large jump lines for everyone to hone their skills. Also within the city limits, but further away from the shop on the South Side of the city is Big Marsh Bike Park. Big Marsh is much newer than the Garden, but the first phase of the park has been completed and features some great jump lines, a street section, pump track, and short singletrack loops with progressive features to help you build up your skills.

There are also skateparks in the City of Chicago where you can get creative with your riding. Wilson Skatepark and the Logan Square Skatepark in particular are fun places to get your transition on. You can also just ride around the city and find plenty of spots to session and mess around with like Brandon Semenuk did when he visited Chicago a few years ago.

You would be hard pressed to find a better 26″ dirt jump bike than the Santa Cruz Jackal. The Jackal is available as a frame-only from Santa Cruz for $745, and then you custom build the bike with your choice of parts from there.  Here is one we just built up for a customer:

The highlight of the build is the Rockshox Pike DJ fork. In our opinion, this is the nicest 26″ dirt jump specific fork on the market. It’s got 35mm chassis for plenty of strength and support, a custom tuned Charger Damper to smooth out rough landings, and a solo airspring with built in bottom-out resistance to give the fork good, smooth progression while also keeping it from bottoming out after a big drop. The fork came with an extra set of stickers for the lowers, so we removed the traditional white, black, and red ones and replaced them with black-on-black to match the subdued color sceme of the rest of the bike.

The Jackal comes with sliding rear dropouts with an integrated derailleur hanger, so you can easily run the bike with or without gears. We opted to go single-speed on this build. The frame has a 73mm English-threaded bottom bracket shell with ISCG tabs. We decided to use Truvativ Descendant cranks with a Dub spindle and bottom bracket to give the cranks some stiffness. The 32 tooth chainring pulls a 17 tooth Surly cog on the back wheel.

We installed Truvativ Hussefelt bars, stem, and seatpost on the bike. This gave us the strength and support we were looking for without breaking the bank. The bars are finished with ODI x Vans grips in natural rubber color. The 90’s skateboarder in us appreciates these grips. There was a bit of debate about what to do with the brakes on this bike. At first, we were just going to build the bike with only one basic brake on the rear, which would be totally suitable for park riding. But then we talked it over with the customer and decided to run both brakes, since the bike would be ridden in busy urban streets as well as being used at the park. The customer already had a NOS pair of Shimano XT levers, so we just got a simple set of Shimano calipers to mate with them. We left plenty of extra hose on the rear brake, and ran the front brake hose through the topcap and steerer tube to allow the bars to spin around freely, either for tricks or in case of bike-bails so the bars can spin around without kinking or breaking the hoses.

We used Standard Issue wheels from Atomlab on the build. Again, we wanted to prioritize durability without breaking the bank. These are great wheels, but we found the stickers on the rims to be a bit much, so we removed those also to preserve the clean look of the bike. We topped off the wheels with Maxxis DTS tires in 26″x2.1″ in skinwall. We think these tires look great on this bike, and we have had nothing but good luck with Maxxis mountain bike tires. The last fun detail on the bike is the Chromag Overture saddle in Rawhide finish.

We hope the owner has as much fun riding this bike as we did building it!

2018 Tailwind Cycles Chicago Cyclocross Cup Service Package

Well, cyclocross season is upon us once again. Tailwind Cycles is back with our ‘Cross Cup service package. The package will stay largely the same, with a few minor changes. The service will stay the same. Bring your bike into the shop for a full tune-up before the season officially starts on September 9th. During the season, we will have our mobile service van at each race to help you out on race day. Then, between each of the 11 Chicago Cyclocross Cup races we will wash and go over your race bike before the next week.

We are making one change a few people have requested to the service package for this season. You can now choose to have your bike transported either to the shop and washed after your race, or you can drop your bike off at the shop late in the week and we will wash it and transport your bike to the race on race-day. This way, you can get your muddy bike transported to the shop after your race by us, and not have to deal with a muddy bike yourself. Or, if you do ‘cross practice during the week and want a clean and freshly looked over bike for race day, you can keep your bike all week and then drop it off on Friday for us to take care of it and bring it out to the race on Sunday.

We are also giving customers the option to split the $300 cost of the service package into two installments this year. You can pay half when you get your bike tuned up and then pay the balance by October 1st.

Don’t forget we offer service package customers a 15% discount on parts for your race bike and 20% off tubular gluing services through the end of our local cross season on December 3rd.

Space is limited, so make sure to send us an email or call the shop if you would like to sign up. We’ll see everyone out at the races!