Last year we built up a set of purple LEVEL hubs for the overall winner of New York City’s Goldsprints. In case you don’t know, LEVEL hubs are AMAZING! They don’t use a traditional cog and lockring, instead their cog slides into place and bolts onto the hub. Easy to use, easy to change, impossible to strip; LEVEL Components makes smart track hubs. Here’s a photo of the wheels we built for Luke Stiles – the overall winner in NYC. We built a 36-hole, 3 cross rear and a 32-hole, 3 cross front. (If you click on the photo, you’ll get a close-up of the wheels, and it’s easy to see how the rear cog assembly differs from standard track hubs.)

Unfortunately, Luke was doored recently. We wish you a speedy recovery, Luke. Click below for the story and testimonial.

“I gots a little story for you. Remember when y’all built some wheels for one of our winner’s last winter? Purple Level hubs on purple velocity rims? My man Luke Stiles won those. He’s been riding them on his everyday bike for most of the year. About two weeks ago he’s riding down Broadway and this really aggressive driver gets up behind him and just rides his wheel, honking and cursing him. He gets way over and tries to avoid the jack ass and the guy blasts around him, cuts off his lane, brakes hard, and throws open his door, pretty much intentionally dooring Luke. Luke goes down and the guy starts screaming at him “why’d you hit my door?” Driver gets back in his car laughing and takes off leaving Luke sitting on the curb gasping for air. Luke thinks he’s pretty much alright and starts to walk off when he realizes that the top of the door caught him in the chest and he’s got a 3 inch chunk torn out of his pec. Turns out Luke’s pretty much alright. had to have some stitches, but looks like no real damage.

Afterwards, he tried to work out how he go hurt (here’s where you guys come in)… he figures out that the front wheel took most of the impact and his chest just caught the top of the door. He hit it hard enough to be gashed up, but, except for a few scratches, the wheel is still true and intact even after hitting a door dead on at speed. Nice job guys!”

Thanks for keeping us posted Chris. Keep your eyes open out there – what happened to Luke could happen to anyone, so ride safe and keep an eye out for angry assholes.