Firefly Fe Road Dropouts

These went live today. So cool. It’s been interesting watching all of this unfold.

A year or so ago, I designed a pair of titanium road dropouts for Firefly Bicycles. They turned out pretty good. Everyone was really stoked on how they looked and worked within the bike. Recently, Jamie contacted me about a pair of steel dropouts that would be similar to those titaniums. I agreed thinking that it would be a simple affair taking just a couple of hours. I was wrong. Changing material from titanium to 4130 cro-mo meant a nearly full redesign of the road dropouts. So many factors drove so many changes that the design was essentially all new but kept very familiar elements from the originals. These took a real bit of effort to get done, especially quickly. I pulled out the stops and went big and the results are super nice. Both strong and delicate. Light and tough. The 4130 has been additionally heat treated to improve it’s mechanical properties within the design.

These are featured on the very special new bike, the ‘Bones Project’ from Firefly. A collaboration of many forces. Check it out. It’s going to be so nice to see a set of these on a bike in person.

A quick rendering. Note the fancy chamfers and delicate arcs.

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Sitting in the CNC mill at Cantibrigian Mechanics. So shinny.

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Built into the frame and covered in fancy paint designed by Eric Bones.

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