I went down to Fox Racing Shox for Dealer Day. It was pretty cool. We were able to see the new museum, R&D, and HQ in Scotts Valley and tour the manufacturing and service in Watsonville. Defiantly worth doing if you never have. I was impressed. I wish that we were able to see the machine … Read more
“The stopwatch doesn’t lie. The tape measure doesn’t lie.” Daley Thompson Long before Strava came on the scene, a few people and myself in Fairfax were trying to devise good ways of having ‘non-sanctioned’ races in the hills around us. Doing runs at different times would take attention away from the crime we were looking to commit. Compact GPS … Read more
A lot of work was done this past winter let primarily by Davey Simon, Jim Jacobson and a few other main players and a ton of volunteers. The result is the Endor Flow Trail in Camp Tamarancho, BSA. So much work was done on this trail by so many volunteers that I’d have a hard … Read more
I hate the BB30/PF30 bottom bracket interface. It’s pretty much common knowledge that I do. I’ve shown why its lame in theory. I also pull out my hair when I have to work with them in practice. Wtf happened with the drinking water in the bicycle industry that allowed this garbage to be widely adopted? I’m in … Read more
Sea Otter Classic 2013. Fun I used Sea Otter this year as an excuse to get in shape and down on weight. It worked. I started in January and by race day I was down a legit 15 pounds and feeling strong. I’ve eaten so many raw vegetables in the past few months I don’t … Read more
A while back, I took the time to design a very elegant spider for SRAM cranks. I loved the result but it was buried inside a digital world. I wasn’t going to make it out so it lived there. This happens often enough. A nice idea, some time put into it, and a completed design … Read more
I tend to use a bit of oil in my shop. I do a bit of suspension tuning and bleeding of hydraulic brakes. As the brakes on my bikes use mineral oil, I end up with a fair amount of high quality waste oil. As we all know with the “Four R’s” or Waste Hierarchy, reusing suspension and … Read more
With all the buzz lately on carbon fibre long travel bikes, 650b wheels, and enduro racing, the lowly singlespeed has fallen to the back of the cool kid pile. Recent rain has got me to dust off my singlespeed bike. Thus, I’ve got some stuff to say. Singlespeed bikes are my more hated bikes. They hurt … Read more
Mary Moncorge is a great friend of ours here in Fairfax, CA. Besides being the reigning Strava Queen of the Mountain on pretty much any patch of dirt you’re going to end up rolling over (50 pages!), She’s super nice and takes care of her folks. Jake Harrell, Bryan Harrell’s son, needed a squishy bike … Read more
What the fuck is this? How is this even possible. This comes out of a $10,000 bike. It was ridden this way for over 500 miles, probably a lot more. This wasn’t a college beater. I just don’t know what to say. I’m absolutely appalled. I’m not an inocent. Not by a long shot. I … 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 recently set a bike with an X-Fusion Velvet fork. The wheel diameter is 704mm so I had the fork set up for 650b and 80mm of travel. That choice proved to be poor as it increased the length of the fork more than I designed for (478 vs 467mm) and I actually had plenty of … Read more
Here’s some nice stuff for bleeding Shimano brakes. This allows you to push fluid through the system in both directions. Each method has advantages. My preferred fluid is Pentosin CHF 7.1 (BMW# 81221468879). It’s nicer than the Shimano fluid. Waste oil goes into my chain lube bottle because it’s also my favorite chain lube. Another … Read more
This was super cool. May 1st, 2013. 7:30am. I’m riding my motorcycle to work the nicest way I know how. Marin back roads and twisties. Getting from Fairfax to the Golden Gate Bridge is awesome. Bolinas/Fairfax (BoFax) Rd. to Ridgecrest Blvd. to Panoramic Hwy. to Rt. 1. People take long vacations to ride these kinds … Read more
I’ve been riding mountain bikes for over 20 years. In that time I’ve had to walk out of the woods, run from weather, try to start a fire to avoid freezing, ride a bare rim for 20 miles, and do a host of other crazy fixes on the trail. Things will go wrong. Things always go … Read more
This is good. From Repack to Rwanda: The Origins, Evolution, and Global Reach of the Mountain Bike. From July 2012 to February 2013 an amazing exhibit of bicycles and their development was shown in the international terminal of the San Francisco International Airport Museum at (SFO). The curator of the show worked very closely with Joe … Read more
These cranks are for Jake Harrell’s PodRacerOne. Bombshell Velocity 155mm cranks drilled to accept 64mm rings so that he could have a 2×9 drivetrain on his bike. The little man needs some gears to get up those hills! It’s hard to get high quality 165mm cranks for multi speed mountain bike. Hell, it’s even harder to … Read more
This post is going to catch a lot of little things. I usually post on a single topic but a lot of small things have been piling up. I just ordered some very odd sized allen wrenches. In larger increments, 13, 15, 16, 18, 23mm allen keys are next to non-existent in the US. Needing one of … Read more
This is a fun little bike. An interesting exercise in design. After participatin in all five of the Bay Area Prestige Cyclocross races in series and the first of the mixed-terrain Grasshopper Adventure series, a need truly arose for a different kind of bike for me to use. I had been using a well converted 29er bike, but that still … Read more
The other day, Steve Garro of Coconino Cycles posted an image to his Facebook wall that got a bit of attention. This probably isn’t a new image for some people to see but it got a lot of attention. Specifically, it got my attention. I was in the mood to really think about some bike design … Read more
Saddle Setback is often referenced when transferring a rider fit from bike to bike. There is a danger to generalize this setup dimension and get religious without paying attention to true details. The point of this post is that a rider and fitter need to pay close attention to the details of this saddle placement. … Read more
Fairfax is the cycling epicenter of the Bay Area. A perfect combination of road riding and mountain riding close to a lot of people and the San Francisco Bay Area. Of course, it’s known as the birthplace of mountain biking. I’m lucky to live there. A lot of folks in town have participated in changing … Read more
The road bike was finally completed. A nice comfortable road bike. Solid. A note on seat tube angle. Some will instantly comment on the 71 degree seat tube angle on this frame. This frame was designed for use with a 0mm offset seatpost. Using a traditional 25mm offset post would have resulted in a 73 … Read more
On my holiday Europe trip and skating around Paris on Christmas Day, I ended up at the base of the Eiffel Tower with it a bit too crowded to hike up the stairs to the top as I had planned. I was chilling out on the Pont d’lena Bridge across from the tower watching people … Read more
While in Paris, France recently (xmas eve, 2012) and skating up the Avenue des Champs-Élysées toward the Arc de Triomphe, I came across the Toyota concept store. This is one of the most important retail locations on earth so this store is selling the brand ‘Toyota’, not specific cars. They set up their own little museum culminating with their hybrid technology ala Prius and … Read more
“I can make a streetfighter out of anything!” That was the title of a post made by some internet clown in the BARF-Garage forum a few years a go. It really stuck out as the whole “streetfighter” thing was in full bloom around then. Essentially, this guy had ‘invested’ in a $3.60 hack saw and figured … Read more
I found someone’s old Nikon Coolpix P2 while cleaning up the other day. It was missing a battery and charger that would have been far to expensive to replace on an old camera that I didn’t even need. What to do……? HACK! Hacking into something for fun is a great way to learn. You learn how to … Read more
I’m not a great photographer. I don’t really claim to be. I use photos to document what I see. This means I need to keep a camera close by. Camera phones are a nice tool for folks, but a real camera high resolution (18MP APS-C) and interchangable lenses is irreplaceable. The help with this I’ve … Read more
Daniel needed a nice adapter for his fancy new bike. He’s running fixed LSD with Profile type cranks. Needed adapters to the PF30 we built into his frame. Simple stuff and problem solved. On most bikes these adapters could have been made of delrin. The issue is that Daniel does a bit of crank and … Read more
Over the years, I’ve had the luck of being able to meet, know, and work with some of the best people in the hand-built bicycle industry. It’s very cool being able to talk with peers about how they see the bicycle and what they want to do with it. I hope to be able to … Read more