CYCLING NOTEBOOK Yao bike like no other By STEVE SIEVERT For the Chronicle Building a bicycle for a guy who is 7-foot-6 is a tall order, but West U Cycles has proven it is up to the task. Rockets trainer Keith Jones approached the bike shop last year about making a custom bike for Yao Ming. The star center rode a bike for much of his life while growing up China. Bikes are such a way of life in his native land that Yao did not even have a driver's license when he came to the United States to play in the NBA in 2002. Constructing a mountain bike for someone who is that tall isn't easy, but if there was someone in Houston who could make it happen, it was Jeff Nielsen. Nielsen, the owner of West U Cycles, has become something of a bike-builder to the stars in Houston. "I've built bikes for Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley," Nielsen said. "It's just not feasible for these guys to get a bike off the shelf. It takes some time to search for all the right parts to build a specially made bike like this, but I think it's worth it in the end." The process to build Yao's ride began about 1 1/2 years ago. It started with Yao visiting the Rice Village shop so Nielsen could make note of some specific body measurements. Then it was time to locate a frame builder. "Once I managed to get the frame, I had to source out most of the other parts," Nielsen said. "It wasn't as simple as just adding parts to the frame. You got a guy who's 7-6 tall. The bike wasn't going to take normal-size handlebars. It wasn't going to take a normal-size seat. The bike had to be able to handle a guy who weighs 310 pounds." In fact, normal size and the Yao bike really can't be said in the same breath. The top of the seat of this all-black, slick-looking bike with knobby tires is more than 4 1/2 feet from the ground. It has reinforced handlebar posts and seat post, 29-inch wheels and extra-long pedals to accommodate Yao's size-18 shoe. Collecting all the necessary parts from bike shops and custom bike builders from across the country was the most time-consuming part. Once all the parts arrived at his shop, Nielsen and his crew at West U spent about two days putting them all together. Amazingly, even with all this custom work and ultra-durable parts, the bike only weighs 28 1/2 pounds. And as if there was any danger of someone mistaking this bike for their own if they stumbled upon it on the street, Nielsen added a special touch with Yao's name painted in white on the top tube. All this custom work does come at a price. Nielsen estimates the total cost of the bike is around $12,000. Yao's ride spent a few days on the display in September in Las Vegas at InterBike, the annual international bike trade show that features all that is hot in cycling. Nielsen says they are still working out the details about how the bike will be presented to the Yao. "It's one of the most unusual projects I've ever worked on," he said. "I hope he likes it." http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2870480
Can't wait til the next edition of Yao stalker weekly. Maybe they'll interview his cook or the bowl they use to cut his hair.
Yao stalking? No one is stalking. It's pure coincidence that they are interviewing the guy who makes his underwear, and planning a piece on how he trims his nose hair....
Didn't Yao ride bikes in China? What did he ride back there? But man, 12K is a lot for a bike... any bike.
now all the rappers and little kids are gonna be saying forget the escalade i need me one of them yao bikes with the 29'
LOL remember the article 2 years ago when Yao wanted to ride his bike to Rox practices? HAHAHA The Rox organization was like "hell No!" could you imagine Yao riding his bike through Houston to get to practice? J
The pic of Yao's bike can be seen through this link: http://www.speedgoat.com/popup.asp?id=images/blog/ib04-ming-B.jpg&cap=Custom+Gunnar
Haha... I would laugh if i ever saw Yao on that. And then I would go eat a sandwhich at a sandwhich shop.
LOL thats one funny looking bike.. they should have at least made it longer to make it look more proportionate. J
* You know for a bike that big, maybe they should have made it into one of those old-timey bikes with one gigantic wheel. That would have been badass to see Yao tooling around on one of those. *Unless otherwise noted, all Images used on speedgoat.com are the sole and exclusive property of Speedgoat Bicycles Inc. Use for ANY commercial purpose (ie: eBay) without express written permission is stricly forbidden. All noncommercial use must be fully credited and contain this site's master URL; www.speedgoat.com.
The bike needs a "X" top tube design because of the very size, making a traditional diamond-frame design difficult (it would need larger/heavier tubing and extreme gusseting). A number of newer full suspension design use similar "X" designs due to the stresses caused by the suspension and the desire to make FS bikes lighter.
I'm not surprised by the cost. Super high-end bikes can get up there. And, considering the size of the thing, it is pretty light. They didn't scrimp on the parts or anything.
