Friday, March 29, 2013

In the jig: Pamela and Don

I got halfway done with Don's frame when I realized I was out of the chainstays I want to use. Doh. Time to call Joe B and find something else to do - luckily I've always got more stuff waiting. So I started Pamela's CX frame.

And yes, these are the least exciting pictures ever. Sorry. The only interesting note is that you really have to move the head tube fixture a long way when you're transitioning between a 65.5cm toptube (Don) and a 51cm (Pamela). It's quite disconcerting.



Thursday, March 28, 2013

Thursday afternoon quick rant: you can't manual

I hear constantly about how this or that bike doesn't "manual" easily enough. Often I hear this from obvious freds or 50 pound overweight retired dentists online.

Folks, this is a manual. It means you get up on your rear wheel and balance there, without pedaling, and roll along. It's not a wheelie, it's not just lifting your front wheel for a second to get it over a dip or a rock in the trail. Almost no mountain bikers can do it (including most pros), and it's not even a particularly useful skill for most people for trail riding. It's a skill that often coincides with being a really good bike handler and it's occasionally useful, but if you're skilled enough to do a real manual, you can basically do one on ANY bike.

So if you want to complain that a bike doesn't manual well, I'll be happy to listen provided you go grab your trials bike or BMX and manual that for me. Otherwise, you can't manual because you can't manual, no matter what bike you're on, and furthermore, manualing won't really help you on the trail, so don't worry about it.


Yours truly, 36 year old fred who can't really manual Walt

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Photography fail

I promised some sort of real bike building post for Monday, but I failed to follow through. So you'll have to settle for a late-night (Sarah is writing grant proposals) effort with some of my worst photography yet.

This is Chris' huge "cross" frame. I used the "airquotes" because he has no intention of doing any racing on it. He described it as a "fun bike". As in, not sure what kind of ride you want to do, just grab the bike and go. Sounds fun to me, but I can't call it that or the weekend warriors (sigh, I'm now one of them) won't cough up their hard-earned money for my bikes...

At WW World HQ, we take "fun" seriously. Apparently we can't say the same for "composition" or "lighting"


So 'cross bike it is.

Here's the geometry rundown:
-Built for a VERY large rider with very long legs. It's impolite to mention exact numbers here but I'll say that Chris is twice the man I am. Consequently the tubing is pretty beefy - True Temper Supertherm pipes and a 44mm/tapered headtube matched up to a set of NOS tandem chainstays and some BD cargo bike seatstays. Total frame weight, amazingly (at least IMO) is about 5.5 pounds.
-Takes a 31.6 post. No, not so Chris can run a dropper (though that would be hilarious and awesome and due to the fact that he works in the bike industry he'd have no trouble sourcing one). Just so he can run a bit stronger post than 27.2.
-71.5 head and 73 seat angles. Pretty boring numbers there, but she should be pretty stable for most types of "fun" riding (ie gravel, easy singletrack, pavement, farmer's market, work, bar, etc).
-66mm of trail (with a tapered-steerer Enve disc cross fork) and 637mm front center.
-61cm seat tube and 20cm (!!) head tube. Chris runs an amazing 85cm saddle height - so this is actually a *compact* frame at 61cm!
-About a 28cm BB height with 35-40c tires (it'll clear up to about 45, depending on the exact tire, with fenders).
-45cm chainstays.
-Ready for 1x or multiple front chainrings, disc only.

Sounds fun to me, assuming you've got long enough legs to actually jump on.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Go sign a petition or, GFY UCI and USAC

As I think I've pointed out before, mountain bike racing, like running or any other endurance sport, is not very much fun to watch, but it's pretty darn fun (for some of us) to participate in.

Go Bret!
The folks who organize triathalons figured this out a long time ago- if you want to pay the "pros" and make money organizing races, you're not going to succeed by hoping to get a TV contract. Watching skinny people bob up and down among 1000 other swim caps, ride bikes mostly in a straight line, and then jog for 2.5 hours is not appealing to anyone, even other skinny people who like to do those things. Even a "highlights" reel of a triathalon is yawn-inducing.

But triathalons are super popular/fun and profitable, because the organizers have made a conscious decision that the participants enjoying and challenging themselves is their goal. There are lots of categories and age groups so you'll have someone to race against and can see improvement as you train and gain experience, there are training groups to make friends, there are activities for friends and family to do near/at the race venue, etc. That's how an endurance sport succeeds as a competitive activity.

The UCI and NORBA (now USAC) have always had a very different idea - which is that people are inherently interested in watching cycling and that they should do everything they can to promote that. Participant-oriented events are seen as a threat, I think, and hence we have rules like the infamous UCI 1.2.09 - which prevents UCI athletes (I was one for about 10 years and violated this rule many, many times) from racing in non-UCI/USAC sanctioned races. That means no Breck Epic, no local Wednesday night 45 minute XC series, etc. Lots of people like seeing JHK or Trebon or whoever at their local race, maybe say hello, check out their equipment, compare times with them, etc. Lots of those racers also depend on making a few bucks at local races to make ends meet (I funded a few summers of road tripping and racing with non-sanctioned race winnings back in the day) - it's win/win.

The rule is an obvious attempt to undermine grassroots racing and independent races, put in place by an entrenched and corrupt bureaucracy who have only their own interests in mind. This rule, and others like it, are keeping many people from making a living riding their bikes or promoting races, and more importantly, preventing a ton of people from experiencing a really fun competitive or non-competitive cycling event.

So go sign this petition. In an ideal world the UCI and USAC would work for the everyday participants who have a job, a mortgage, and an extra 10 pounds and will never win anything but a plastic medal. And we'd all have a pony.

While we're waiting for that, maybe at least you can help shame these folks into repealing the rule by signing this petition. 

Pictures and semi-interesting stuff tomorrow involving actual bikes instead of just whining, I promise! In the meantime, here's a mediocre photo of the beefiest CX frame ever.


Saturday, March 23, 2013

Lee - Complete!

Thanks to Zack for the photo. Enve, XX1, King, Easton, etc. 23# without pedals. Bling! Backstory here.


Thursday, March 21, 2013

Chris pt. 1

I think this is the biggest CX frame I have ever built. Probably. Chris is "only" 6'3" or so but he's got an 85cm saddle height - wow. It's once in a blue moon that I do a bike for someone with legs as long as mine (my saddle is at 81.5cm) but he's me, scaled up. Crazy!

Might want to deburr these...

Um, yeah. Big.

1/4 welded. 

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

No cycling content

But hey, no baby pictures either. Instead, a fine portrait of the world's most difficult dog. I do not know how Jenn managed to get him to hold still for this, she was basically just getting set up for some photos of my frames and bikes for a feature in Cycling Utah.


And yes, if you live in UT, Jenn can shoot a picture of your pet (or wedding, or kids, or bike frames) and make them look this good. Check out her website here:  www.leahyphotography.com.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

To my anonymous benefactor...

...who sent the Squatter's gift card: you are awesome.

Yes, it is a very good IPA, actually. Yes, in UT.

Monday, March 18, 2013

How far can 1x drivetrains go?

As I've noted before, I think front derailleurs are dead. There's still some controversy about this amongst mountain bikers but I think in a few more years it will be rare to see a front derailleur on a high end mountain bike. I could be wrong.

I was recently interviewed (though I don't think they used any of my gibberish) for BRAIN about whether or not I thought single chainrings would become popular for road/cross bikes as well, which honestly I hadn't thought much about. But when I did think about it, I'd be surprised if we didn't see some form of 1x road drivetrain soon, because it makes a ton of sense:

-Let's assume you want to get at least as much gear range as a typical compact double - for the sake of argument, that's a 34/50 chainring combo in the front (note that a non-compact crankset is inherently going to have a *smaller* range of gears) and an 11-28 (the widest ratio commonly used) in the back.  That's a (50/34)*(28/11) = 3.74:1 overdrive (meaning the highest gear is 3.74 times the ratio of the lowest).

-Now assume we don't want to lose any of the top end, so we need a top gear that's equivalent to 50x11 (or 4.55:1). If we're using something like the XX1 cassette (with a 10t as the highest gear on the cassette) then we'll need a 46t chainring (rounding up to be conservative).

-Let's also match the lowest gear - 34x28 (or 1.21:1). That will mean our easiest gear will be 46x38 - actually a considerably smaller cog than the existing 42t on the XX1 cassette. So the total range can easily be achieved.

-The downside, of course, is the gaps between gears. With an 11-28 Dura-Ace 11sp cassette, the gearing looks like this:
11,12,13,14,15,17,19,21,23,25,28

So our biggest gaps, percentage-wise, are the 15-17 and the 25-28 which are 13/12%.

Contrast that with an XT 10 speed cassette:
 11,13,15,17,19,21,24,28,32,36

Now, we're going to add a 10t, and then jump up by 5 teeth after the 28th (so 10, 11,13,15,17,19,21,24,28,33,38) to minimize gaps and still get us the range we need, but we now have some big gaps: 11 to 13, 28 to 33 (18% each, roughly).

For folks who don't need as big of a range, you could go to a 10-34 or even 10-32/30 depending on your local terrain and needs, but there's no question that the gaps between gears are going to be bigger if you throw away the front derailleur.

-So the gaps between gears are about 50% bigger through a significant portion of the range of the cassette. For recreational riders or folks who aren't super cadence sensitive, this probably isn't a big deal and getting rid of the weight and hassle of the front derailleur is most likely worthwhile. For very serious racers or time trialists, or someone who wants both a big range and tight gears, the front derailleur will probably stay.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Spring cleaning!

For those folks who don't regularly check out the garage sale link:


Bike parts:

Fox Float RLC 29" 100mm travel fork. 2011 model year, in decent shape but probably needs a new left fork seal soon. 9" of steerer tube (1 1/8"). $300.

Front Dura-Ace wheel. 28 spokes, some kind of old Sun clincher rim (true and dent/ding free), double butted spokes. $50.

Shimano 105/Ultegra 34t compact chainring. Brand new. $20.

Thomson Masterpiece 27.2x330 straight seatpost. Used and dingy/scratched a bit from insertion, mechanically perfect and a sweet addition to any bike. Too short for all my bikes. $65.


FREE STUFF!

-"3-finger" hydro guides (steel). I have a big bag of these, please take them.

Framebuilding:

-Reynolds 953 stainless mountain bike chainstays. These are round/ovalish/round and single taper, 22.2x440, "cranked" (bent) to 10 degrees. Not sure if they are still made. $40.

-True Temper HOXPLAT05 (7/4/7 28.6 toptube). I've got 9 left. $15 each.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

WW = ?

White walker, perhaps?

Minh's frame, back from ceramic coating. Based on the fingerprints I've already gotten on it it'll be a dingy grey pretty soon but for now it's spooky with those blue bits!


Even Walt finishes stuff faster than GRRM

Edit: As I mentioned in the original post about this frame, it's got 16" chainstays and limited tire clearance at most forward dropout setting - but it's not bad, either. Here's a picture of an Ikon 2.2 with the sliders slammed forward.


Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Daniel - done

And the snow in the yard has finally all melted! I even went and flailed around on the big climb behind Sarah's office (if you are a pro, you *might* be able to clean it in your 22x36 - it is that steep, and it goes up 1500 feet without a break). Is spring here?


Tuesday, March 12, 2013

95%

Gotta finish welding in fiddly bits but I'm very close to being done with Daniel's frame.

Ready for Pisgah? Not yet, but I'm getting there.

Now, geeks, gather round:
-120mm travel front/rear
-69 degree head tube angle, 72 degree (effective) seat tube angle
-68.1cm front center, 111.4cm/43.9" wheelbase, 62cm/24.4" toptube
-35cm/13.75" BB height (unsprung)
-43.5cm/17.1" chainstays
-About 31" standover
-For a tapered steerer fork TALAS fork (head tube angle goes to 70.5 degrees in 95mm travel mode) and XX1/front derailleur free drivetrain

Daniel rides and lives in the Pisgah national forest area (ie Asheville) and he was looking for a bike that would let him clean rough climbs but have a blast going down the descent on the other side. BB height was a big question mark on this bike and we eventually settled on about 13.75" - which will require some pedal timing in the rocks but not perch Daniel up too high for the steep stuff going back down. Short chainstays should help keep things a little bit snappy on tighter terrain even with the 69 degree HTA. I haven't weighed the frame yet but I'm guessing weight will be similar (ie about 3000g) to McCalla's.


Monday, March 11, 2013

Photo dump - Daniel

A 120mm 29er for the woods in Pisgah. Details and geometry info tomorrow or Wednesday, for now, some photos.

Main pivot

Rocker mount sleeve

This operation saves about 20g. Not a huge deal, but hey, it's a custom bike.


Tacked to a sacrifice piece to hold in the mill vise with Si Bronze (nice and easy to break when I'm done machining it)

Lower seat tube main pivot plug

Lower seat tube assembly, tacked (note plug is fused now)

Everything but the toptube and shock mounts

BB cluster. Pencil marks butt transition in tube.


Friday, March 08, 2013

McCalla - after powder

Powdercoat made it gain about 60g, for those folks who are curious. Yes, this is the "Team" blue - RAL 5015.

Read more here, here, or here if you're bored.

McKiller

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

The race that sold out?

I just want to know how they will incorporate the peddling. Door to door? Lemonade stand? Some other system? How will it be scored? Also, if you really want to get people to sign up, using the slogan "Run, Paddle, Cheapjack" would be more effective.


Another sick day

Yes, I'm posting at 2am. Yes, there is a reason for that. No, you don't want the details.

Suffice to say I'm not recovered, in fact my intestines seem to be doing worse than they were a few days ago. I'm hoping to avoid the hospital but another few days of this will probably put me there whether I want to go or not.

So anyway, don't expect lightning fast progress on building frames.

Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Another data point...

...for folks considering a ceramic finish. Photos/weights (same frame, with powdercoat on the right and with ceramic on the left) courtesy of Minh.



Monday, March 04, 2013

I tried...

...to do some work today, but I realized I'd left the oxygen tank valve open (and the regulator has a tiny leak) so I decided to go refill.

Let's just say driving after a ~72 hour involuntary fast/enforced master cleanse/barfing extravaganza is not a very good idea. I did not crash the car but I could barely stand up when I got home and I passed out for the next 5 hours.

Long story short, nothing got done today. I seem to be able to keep down sorbet (woot!) so I can start making up the 10,000 calorie deficit I'm in, maybe. Looking at the nutrition info, I'm going to have to eat 3 or 4 cartons just to keep up with my base metabolic rate for today, though. Not sure that will happen.

If you tried to call me today, sorry I didn't answer. I am pretty sure tomorrow will go better.

Edit: for the framebuilders/bike nerds out there, I know I've said that front derailleurs are dead, but if you are building for one, and you want to use a direct mount, there's no better mount than the new ones that Joel at Clockwork has just had made. Simpler and lighter than the Paragon ones, cheaper too at $8. Want some? Drop him a line. 


Sunday, March 03, 2013

T M I


Expect next to nothing to get done tomorrow. I stopped counting how many times I barfed in the last 24 hours at 10 and you don't want to know about the other end of me...on the plus side, I am currently 10 pounds lighter than I was 2 days ago and existing entirely on pedialyte so that I don't end up in the ER. Fun.

So long story short, if you email me, don't expect a quick reply, and if you do get one, it might not make a whole lot of sense.

Saturday, March 02, 2013

In it for the long haul?

Framebuilders come and go awfully fast - I have lost count of the folks who have put up a shingle and then gone out of business within a year or two (mostly they're pretty good at building bikes but bad at doing math/running a business - though of course some are bad at building bikes as well). After *almost* a decade of this I think I'm pretty much a lifer unless everyone decides they hate 29ers, or custom bikes, or me (maybe I should start showering more often...)

Shoulder workout!
Anyway, a custom bike with a great warranty isn't of much use if the company doesn't exist anymore. So if you're not sure about my commitment, here's something to assuage your concern - 1000 pounds of frame boxes (that's 220 frames worth).

And yes, if anyone is wondering, getting a half ton of cardboard into your attic when the "stairs" are really a rickety pull-down ladder and the entry is about the same size as the boxes themselves is not very fun. Thank god for Car Talk, I would have gone insane this morning moving them up there.



Friday, March 01, 2013

Sam + sick kid update

I am back on full-time dad duty today (yesterday did not go well, today our nanny's little guy ended up in the ER) so no work is getting done.

But I can blog while the Bean stuffs his face with food. What a pig. I have taken to calling him Rygel.

This is Sam's frame. Sam lives about a mile from us in SLC and he was looking for something that fit and handled a bit better than his old Vassago. So we sat down and came up with a semi-short chainstay bike with some curves (some functional, some just for fun) that should put a big grin on his face whenever our trails dry out.


Artsy Fence Pic
Here's the geometry breakdown:
-29" wheels, duh. 
-69.5 degree head tube angle, 66.3cm front center.
-74 degree seat tube angle, so he can run a setback post for a little extra give.
-30 cm/11.8" BB height, on the low side for carving turns on the Bobsled.
-42cm chainstays (41.5cm effective), built for XX1 (ie no front derailleur). 
-For a tapered steerer 100mm Fox.
-Paragon sliders in case of need for SS use. 
-Frame weight is around 2100g, so 4.6#, give or take. 

Note that, assuming you don't count the BB shell and the head tube, this frame has only _1_ straight tube on it. Whew. That's a lot of bends. I'm gonna have huge arms from rolling tubes in my bender!


Not-Artsy Garage Door Pic