This is something that I’d been doing in my head for years. I was always guessing. An educate guess, but still a guess. Now, I have it solved. Designing dirt going bicycles is difficult. There are many crucial details that need to be figured out and understood to produce a design. If a few hundred … Read more
Let’s talk about the front of the bike. This has been the part of the bike getting renewed attention in the past few years. New stem products and 32″ wheels have gained some traction in the mountain bike marketplace. As these encroach on what I’ve been doing for so long and do the most advanced … Read more
I’ve long acknowledged a problem with my method of geometry development. I wasn’t prepared to deal with or thought that I could run the clock. The day has come to get it resolved. Looking back in time, being forced to build my special handlebar systems in 2018, and even before that when I started working … Read more
I’ve continued to refine my SolidWorks modeling methodology and have been bringing older files into accordance with the new strategies. A new video explains more of this. I’d just completed the huge project of breaking down the CAD model for the dropouts so that I could build it back up a lot better. This doesn’t … Read more
I got caught up in a machine of my own making. A machine built to catch me exactly as it did. This is my Accountability Mechanism. It swallowed me whole, right after my previous post on handlebars. Accountability Mechanisms I thought that I had completed the work required on the handlebar component of the new … Read more
I’m wondering how much sense all of this is going to make for folks out there. I wanted to talk a bit about handlebars as they’ve taken over during the last week. New tooling and math. A new bike in production. It’s always wild in these moments. Bars, stems, and spacers There isn’t a lot … Read more
This is a bit of a continuation of a past post about the new mathematical considerations that the newer all-road/gravel suspension forks have in calculating bike geometry. Because the sliders are set at an angle to the steerer (and thus, the head tube), calculating the bike geometry at a given location in the fork travel … Read more
I’m probably known best these days for my hardtail mountain and all-road bikes. What some may not know is that I have a long history riding and tuning suspension bikes and sport motorcycle. I’ve had big enduro bikes and downhill bikes. I’ve changed shims, fluid, and springs to alter the performance of these systems. This … Read more
I’ve decided to share a couple of my dimensioning templates for others to use. I’m thinking that this can move some others forward in an easy way. One of the more powerful components within BikeCAD Pro are the templates that a user is able to construct, save, and share. Custom title blocks, notes, paint schemes, … Read more
This is some seriously nerdy stuff. Since I haven’t seen any folks discuss it so, once again, I have to. I’ve just sent files to the printer for a new all-road bike for me. After most of the real work had been done, I began fine tuning and evaluating my expectations and decisions. This last … Read more
When we work in engineering and design, we refer as much as possible to ‘first principles’, those datums or facts on which the entire project rests. “A basic assumption that cannot be deduced any further”. Everything comes back to these. They are both our lighthouse and safe harbor. In bicycle design, there are many of … Read more
For those familiar with my work, it’s known that I try to push my models hard in the design of my bikes and the parts that go onto them. Because of that, equation driven construction geometry for entire bikes and groupings of parts turn into hundreds of parameters and equations for any given configuration and … Read more
I develop a lot of equations for use in my designs. Math is behind most of what I make. Generally, I’m using MS Excel while going through the math and drawings to arrive at the system that I want to use. That gets added to master spreadsheets along with all my other calculations that I’ve … Read more
This is something interesting that came up in the shop yesterday. My friend, Tim Murko, has been working with wood in recent years. He’s been doing various furniture and wall art types of things. For a while, he was content with just wood and fasteners (along with some fun electronics as Tim is an electrical … Read more
Skateboard steering is a very challenging thing to model. I’m used to doing some incredibly complex calculations for my bicycle projects but producing this calculator pushed me to my limit. It took me three days of full time work to finally get the math correct. I had done a calculator like this 20 years ago. … Read more
I have a feeling that there’s going to be some discussion about math on the internets very soon so I’m going to start with something fun and maybe useful for a lot of people in the current era. I was on a ride yesterday where so many of my ideas come from. I was thinking … Read more
In photography and filmmaking, the joke is often made that “it can be fixed in post” to justify doing very low quality work. It’s true that there are a several small issues that can be fixed after the image has been captured. Some colors can be shifted, a smudge removed, subtle white balance changes, the … Read more
This is an important thing for novice modelers and designers to think about. It’s tied up in this example. While drawing up a tool I was thinking of making, I chose to give it a knurl as it was a handle and that is what you do. Knurls provide grip. We see them all around … Read more
Today, we don’t design on paper… I was recently reminded of this topic by a message board thread. A kid wanted advice advice on drawing a frame. Countless people chimed in giving horrible advice. I often find that the less someone knows the more they will pass off their opinion as truth, while lacking any … Read more
I’m a very lazy mechanic. I don’t want to do any more work or pay any more attention than I need to when I’m repairing something or tuning a system. Because of that, like most mechanics, rather than use a torque wrench on every bolt I turn I’ve learned a feel for the metal, parts, … Read more
Here’s something fun and useful. I love when I get to get all math-y… A long time ago (2006), I put a blurb up on my wiki. It was a re-post from long ago that I had posted onto a skateboarding message board, probably back in 1998 or so. My web site, wiki, and now … Read more
The stem is an incredibly important detail on a bicycle. It places the handlebar in the proper position relative to the bottom bracket and the saddle regardless of what lies beneath it. Where the stem holds the handlebars can make a bike fast on climbs, or fast on descents, or great for all day comfort. There … Read more
I absolutely love trigonometry. It’s how we come to understand circles and curves. I work at the Physics & Astronomy Department at San Francisco State University. Every semester a few students will express their unease, confusion, and problem doing trigonometric work. Over the years, it’s been shown that, all of them, have never been given … Read more