Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Pics from Steven - S&S + Lefty



Steven writes:

"Hey Walt,

Thanks for the help.  The XT front derailleur worked great.  I re-built the bike from a fun single speeder to a speedy race machine.  The bike is extremely fun to ride in both configurations.  Loving every minute of it and the sporadic warmer weather up here in Minot. The bike will be traveling with my to Japan and spending the better part of the next 3 year riding in the Pacific.  I attached a few picture for your enjoyment.

Thanks again for the awesome bike,
Steven"



Monday, April 29, 2013

Monday Night Rant: Stunts Are Dumb

You've seen them, lurking up in the trees on some overgrown offshoot of your local trail. A few rotting planks, rusty nails and deck screws protruding at odd angles, leading to a drop to a transition down a fall line that's now a giant rut after a rainstorm.

That right. It's a stunt. The bane of mountain bikers everywhere. Stunts are stupid and here's why I say that:

-They're almost never a good investment of trailbuilding time and effort. Keep in mind that wooden ladders and bridges were used extensively (and very successfully) in old-growth forests in BC in the 90s and 2000s (and still today) to allow bikes to traverse terrain where fallen trees would have otherwise made trailbuilding VERY difficult. In the right place (ie BC) they make a trail exist where otherwise none would. Not so in most other places where 4' diameter downed trees aren't strewn over every square inch of forest - in the time it takes to build a little ladder (assuming you'll do the job right) you could build hundreds and hundreds of feet of "regular" trail on most terrain.

What a waste

-They're expensive. If you're going to do it right, you need pressure treated lumber, good quality fasteners, and real planning and tools. And a budget to replace those things every 5 years or so as they wear out. These things cost serious money. Of course, in most cases people just use scrap lumber and old nails, which leads to my next point...

-They fall apart. You really have to put a lot of maintenance into even a small wooden structure that's left outside in the elements year round. Unless you have a dedicated crew of trail workers who will maintain your stunt(s) every spring (or more often in some cases) you'll soon have an unrideable and/or dangerous structure.

-They upset non-bike trail users and land managers. There's nothing like some illegal construction on a trail to give mountain bikers a bad name. Many people who won't raise an eyebrow at some brake bumps, a berm, or a rut or two in the trail will definitely notice and be upset by a random wooden structure (especially if it's falling apart, which it probably will be) in the middle of their hike.

-They're built by morons. Half of the stunts I see get built are destroyed in the first rainstorm because they've been placed in such a way that the trail (or the structure) is on the fall line and becomes a river when it rains (or snow melts). The other half are so half-assedly built that after 20 riders have hit them over the course of a week or two, the planks have broken or fallen off all over the place.

-And last but not least: They're not very fun. How many times do you really want to ride that same line? Sure, drops are fun. Balancing on narrow things is fun too. But unless you incorporate the drop into the flow of the trail (see: Morons) it's going to get really boring really quickly.

Folks, nature already gave us everything we need to build great trails - dirt, rocks, trees, and mountains (though sometimes you have to make do with just dirt or just rocks...) The best trails work with the terrain to allow you to enjoy what's already there, and the best trail designers can see what given terrain will offer and make the best possible use of it so that you end up with a trail that rides well, is safe to share with other users, and will last with minimal maintenance. Wooden structures very, very seldom need to be a part of that process.

Yes, more pictures from Minh



Minh claims to have actually ridden his suspiciously clean and color coordinated short-stay 29er now... he writes:


"Now that i've had a good amount of seat time can say this: the new bike is really fantastic. whatever handling superlatives you may have apply. everything I asked for. faster downhill than my SS. check! front end super easy to unweight. check! rear end doesn't feel like it's on a time-delay with the front (vs. the REDACTED 18" chainstay-er, not my WW SS). seems faster uphill too. (at least that's what GPS says). didn't expect that. bonus! with that REDACTED I felt I was right over the front wheel which was a little terrifying on downhills. this is much better. I did what you suggested and removed the chainguide and have yet to drop a chain. it's so quiet that I have to remind myself that there are gears and I should take advantage of them. too many good things to say in one email. "full of win" as the cool kids say. anyway- just wanted to let you know it's awesome! thanks for building it! and look! it's dirty! also- the road bike in ceramic."





Friday, April 26, 2013

Don's big-ass 29er, all built up.

Don rides a big bike, because he's a big guy. More about geometry here.

Build:
-XX1 drivetrain (hopefully soon they will come out with some 180 cranks!)
-Tapered/15mm Fox 100mm fork
-Hope/Flow wheels
-Thomson/King/Racing Ralph 2.35
-XT brakes

Very close to the smart money build. For the curious, it's exactly 25# without pedals.

Also, Pele is a jerk who thinks he should be in every photo.


Thursday, April 25, 2013

Picture from Mike - White Rim



Mike writes:



Hey, Walt-

Just wanted to let you know how the new rig is working out.
In short, just dandy.  I took it on my recent White Rim trip (152 miles in 2.5 days) and was loving every minute of it.  Pic is from the top of Hardscrabble.

My lower back pain for long rides is pretty much gone, though somewhat replaced by wrist pain and some tightness between my shoulderblades. I attribute the wrist/shoulder pain to the low-rise-small-sweep handlebars, I might have to go back to my goofy big sweep bars.
Climbing is outrageous, though I have to think a bit more about keeping the front end weighted than I used to.

Descending is now very fun.  I have never been a very good descender, and this bike has upped by game from shitty descender to terrible descender.  That is in some part due to the Fox but also seems to be the geometry.  It used to be that by the time I felt the front end starting to wash out it was almost too late to save whereas now I can feel that I have more time to recover from a sliding front wheel.  By the end of the summer I might be a merely bad descender.
Paragon sliders are wonderful.

Thanks again,

Mike

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Man, things have changed

I'm in my 10th year of building frames, and I still get a kick out of how much things have changed just since I started. Nathan recently sent me this picture of him racing his fairly long-in-the-tooth WW 29er and it made me smile (and ponder how out of shape I am right now).

At least I talked him into a disc tab...


Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Under the Radar: Spencer

I do a lot of work that never appears on the waitlist - repairs for both WW owners and other frames, consulting work on design for individuals and a few companies, and also projects for friends and family.

Barney?

Here's the most recent of those - a truly astounding color combo with a couple of curved tubes (toptube for standover, seat tube just 'cause), Rohloff speedhub, and a belt drive for our good friend Spencer to ride around town and get groceries. This is the *polar opposite* of a low-profile townie, of course - better get a darn good lock!

Gates requires frames that will use a Rohloff and a belt to undergo stiffness testing at their testing facility in Golden - I have to admit I was a little nervous sending off the frame (if you fail, you can always run a chain, I guess) as I've never spent a lot of time worrying about making things ultra-stiff. Fortunately she passed with flying colors. 

The business
Still need fenders, lights, and all that other fun jazz but she's ready to roll, basically. Just in time for spring!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Um, because driving is boring and crappy?

The Washington Post's Wonkblog examines the trend of (especially younger) Americans driving cars less and posits some possible explanations.


I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that maybe it's because driving is a tedious, expensive, and dangerous way to get around and you don't get any exercise in the process. That's leaving out all the external costs of digging up, transporting, and protecting the infrastructure needed for the fuel, of course. Duh. The real question in my mind is why it's mostly just younger people who have figured this out.

Edit: did not realize it was Earth day... serendipity?

Friday, April 19, 2013

Matt's frame - powdercoated and in the mail

Just a quick picture. Nothing exciting today, sorry (well, unless you're Matt).

RAL 3020

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Sarah's new frame - with extra-slim seat tube

No collar

W/collar
Total weight savings: just under 10 grams. Which is actually more than I would expect, but that's what you get if you calculate it out. Worth the trouble? Well, it's not much trouble, so if you want me to do this for you, just ask.

Terrible, terrible graphics on that seat collar, though. I might have to polish it up.

For those who are confused, more on sleeving seat tubes here and here. This is the method I use on all frames with 28.6mm seat tubes, just FYI.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Sarah is laughing her ass off...

Yes, this is an ad for the national lab in my hometown of Los Alamos, and yes, Sarah could get a job there as a biophysicist or biochemist if she wanted one. Plus she could apparently spin her wheels before work!



Joking aside, Los Alamos is actually pretty awesome for outdoor recreation year-round so if you're a scientist and you don't mind living in a town with only one grocery store (and no single people), it's a huge win.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Quick pic - 140mm postmount

As I guessed earlier, pulley bosses are awesome for making post mount setups. Also, fillet brazing the bosses in does not save any time if you suck at fillet brazing as much as I do, especially once you account for cleaning the flux off the fixture. Doh.


Gold star to whoever figures out what the derailleur cable sticking out of the fork is there for.


Sunday, April 14, 2013

Apparently I'm too fast - also Danny's frame back from powdercoat.

No, not at riding bikes. I'm getting slower and slower at that.

I'm too fast at getting work done, apparently. As those of you who follow the waitlist may have noticed, the official wait time is usually listed as 6-7 months. You may have also noticed that I'm often 4-6 weeks or more ahead of that (there are also occasional projects that get delayed for a variety of reasons and take longer, of course).

This has become a bit of a problem, believe it or not, because some folks aren't actually ready for me to design and build their bike ahead of schedule. I think perhaps most people expect their bike to take a lot longer than I estimate, just because the custom bike "industry" seems to operate that way in many cases.

In any case, public service announcement: Get your fit info to me within a month or two of when you put down your deposit if at all possible. You are *always* welcome to update/modify the fit sheet and when I'm ready to design I'll use your most recent version. Please don't be surprised if I contact you to start design work well ahead of the published wait time (don't be surprised if I'm not ahead of schedule either, of course). If you need more time to save up the balance to pay for your bike, no problem - just let me know as far in advance as you can so that I can bump you down a few places on the waitlist if needed.

In actual bike news, I got Danny's frame back from the powdercoater a few days ago (it'll ship out on Monday, about 1 month ahead of schedule). It's a neat orange color that probably the photo doesn't do justice to - kind of an orange creamsicle thing. More about it here and here for folks who are bored.





This is a 120mm travel aggro-XC bike for the woods of NC (ie Pisgah).

Geometry:
-69 degree HTA and 97mm trail (with the TALAS fork at 120mm, at 95mm subtract 1.5 degrees and 10mm of trail)
-66.9cm front center, 43.5cm chainstays
-72 (because everyone knows it's more awesome) seat tube angle
-35cm/13.75" BB height (unsprung)
-3100g (6.8#) with seat collar and all hardware/shock, which IMO is not bad for a bike intended for abuse on some seriously rough trails.


Friday, April 12, 2013

Pictures from Minh


Minh says: "shamefully, that's a gold chain to match the kashima". Details and geekery here.

Minh's garage is a bit cleaner than mine.


At least the tires are dirty.





Friday Morning Fast Rant: Your Seat Tube Angle Doesn't Matter

I read on a bike website recently that "all the best riders know slack seat angles are the way to go" or some such (I am paraphrasing). By slack it appeared that the author meant 72 degrees or so (so 1 degree slacker than a boring old NORBA racer from 1995/80%+ of all the XC or road bikes ever made)

Folks, let's get in the way-back machine and remember some high school trigonometry.
-Assume you've got kind of average length legs and your saddle is at 75 cm (that's a pretty normal average for a 6' tall male cyclist and not all that much higher than many average 5'7" women either as they often have longer legs).
-At a 73 degree seat tube angle, your saddle is 21.9cm behind your bottom bracket and 71.7cm above it (we'll assume there isn't any suspension sagging or anything to confuse us). SOHCAHTOA, baby!
-Now we'll do 72 degrees: 23.2cm back, 71.3cm up. We've moved back 13mm, or about half an inch for those of you troglodytes still using SAE.

Now, don't get me wrong. Moving back 13mm will make a difference in how your bike rides - but it's a difference you could accomplish any number of ways without needing to change the actual seat tube angle on the frame. Most saddles have 40-50mm of total adjustment so you can go forward 20mm or back 20mm - a degree and a half each way. You can put a setback post (up to 25mm is commonly available) and go back even further if you want to.

Of course, where you sit also affects your reach to the bars, weight balance, etc, which is why it's important to remember to design with front center if you're doing a frame design from scratch. If you're just trying to fit yourself to an existing frame and you're worried that the seat tube angle isn't as slack as you need it to be - just push your saddle back on the rails and you're all set.

But that's not the important part, really. Here's the real kicker - when you're riding fast, rough terrain (whether descending or on rolling/flat terrain) YOU AREN'T SITTING DOWN. No matter WHAT seat tube angle your bike has, it's irrelevant because your weight is on the pedals and the handlebars (hopefully not too much on the bars!) The seat tube angle could be 45 degrees for all it matters when you're out of the saddle, and 95% of the time when the handling and weight distribution of the bike matters the most, you're out of the saddle.

So does seat tube angle matter? Yes. But it's pretty far down the list of important things when you're designing a bike.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Totally Unbiased Review: Stupidmobile

First off, just to make sure we're clear - the manufacturer of this bicycle made me do something like 10 hours of work, for no pay, just so I could ride it. The company made me pay for all the parts as well as powdercoating the frame and didn't even give me an employee discount. Apparently if I break it, I have to fix it myself.

Bastards.

Sorry about all the shadows. 
So I decided to name it "Stupidmobile". Why? Well, mostly because this bike has the most ridiculously short chainstays you've ever heard of (40 cm, or 394cm if measured horizontally). A 2.1" 29er tire only has 15mm of clearance to the BB shell itself. There's not much way to go a whole lot shorter and for someone who has a 36" inseam, the whole idea of chainstays this short is... well, stupid. Right?

Well, not so fast. My first ride (around the block, in the rain) had me pretty worried - so much so that I pulled out the angle finder to check things over, because it seemed MUCH too twitchy for a bike with a 69 degree head tube angle. After confirming things were right, a little cogitation solved the mystery: I had been riding exclusively on the cargo bike (7' wheelbase!) all winter. Any "normal" single bike was going to feel weird.

Nevertheless, I was still nervous last week when the trails dried out enough to get some real rides in. I set out to find out just how stupid Stupidmobile actually was by riding a number of variations on our local (literally a 10 minute ride from the door) trail system. The Shoreline trail is mostly bench cut singletrack on steep, semi-rocky (limestone) soil. It occasionally wanders up a drainage (the Dry Creek section is a classic) or a mountain (Mt. Van Cott is a fun way to cough up a lung) and it features what might be the most fun section of singletrack in Utah - the Bobsled (yes, it's really berms the whole way, yes, those guys are jerks for riding it when it's muddy). Long story short, it's got most of your types of XC terrain to test frame geometry.

I have to admit that at first, I wasn't riding the bike very well. I was oversteering everything due to the super short wheelbase - the bike steers much quicker than you'd expect from something with a 69 degree head tube angle and coming from an FS bike (my main ride in 2012) with almost an extra 1.5" of wheelbase, it was a bit of a shock. If you leave your butt in the saddle over any kind of rough terrain the tucked-under rear wheel will let you know in a hurry by attempting to eject you. I managed to not crash up the Dry Creek climb and figured I'd take it easy on the Bobsled. Unfortunately, I was with my buddy Paz Ortiz who is not only the only non-douche realtor I know in SLC but also a really badass descender and enduro/SuperD racer. He and I always duke it out on the descents so I ended up riding way faster than I should have.

Man, that rear tire is close to that bottom bracket. 
The results were stunningly awesome. Stupidmobile's short wheelbase let me rip through the berms and the slack front end made things manageable on the rougher and straighter stuff (though to be fair I think a longer bike would be better on the rough/fast/straight sections). I've got experience with this type of geometry and in fact I've been riding similar bikes for years - but I figured there would be diminishing returns under 42cm or so of chainstay length and 42" wheelbase (at least for me). I was wrong. The bike is probably not *faster* on most terrain but it's not slower than a longer bike either and it's super, duper fun for trails where jumping, flying, and general silliness are your goal. Would you be faster in a race? Probably not - the bike is pretty unforgiving of mistakes and a poorly executed bunnyhop that comes up short over a log or rock is going to result in an ass-over-teakettle disaster. I don't even want to imagine how hard it would be to keep things under control after a few hard climbing efforts with your whole body exhausted and your brain on autopilot. It would be bad.

But for rides under 2 hours, or short races, or anything where the goal is fun and not playing chicken with your lactate threshold? Awesome. I love it, I don't regret a thing. I'd recommend it to customers, even, with a few caveats (see the bullet points below).

Awesome stuff:

-Very "intuitive" and hip/lean steering action. If body english is your preferred steering method, this is the kind of bike for you. If you like to jump over/wheelie over/roll up the berm to the side of obstacles, this geometry will help you do it.

-Great climbing traction whether standing or sitting. Man, there's a lot of weight on that rear wheel.

-It's very easy to unweight the front wheel (shocking, I know) for getting up over obstacles whether you're going uphill or down.

-Just plain fun. But then again, it's a mountain bike. Pretty much all mountain bikes are fun unless you're a seriously grouchy individual.

Not much creativity from the Waltworks photography div. on display here.
Not so awesome:

-Mistakes will be punished severely. If you come up short on that jump over the little rocky section your dentist will be getting another mistress and/or boat, probably. Kidding aside, this is a terrible geometry for riding where you'll be trying to go fast when you're not fresh and alert. You need to be on the gas and be paying attention to your lines because the bike won't bail you out of a lot of mistakes that a longer one would.

-Unless your technique is very good or you run a very low bar position, it's hard to keep the front wheel down on some steep climbs. The lack of weight on the front wheel and general high trail number mean that this bike does want to wander on slow technical climbing - those who really enjoy that type of stuff may want an adjustable travel fork or a bit different geometry. It's not unmanageable but it's also far from a perfect climbing bike.

-This frame requires a zero-dish (hub offset to the driveside by 5mm) rear wheel and you can *only* run an outboard position (~56mm chainline) ring. That means no crank mounted bashguard (ISCG can be done, though) and no front derailleur. XX1 cranks are a no-go. A Rohloff hub could work reasonably well as they use a 54mm chainline if you are a planetary gears kind of person.
EDIT: Actually, with a 28t MRP bling ring running at 51mm chainline, XX1 will work. In theory you could avoid the offset rear end here.

-Even with the whole rear end moved outboard to line up with the ring the chainline is not especially good in the highest or lowest gear. The stays are so short that the angle just gets extreme. I've had good luck running 9 out of 10 cogs on a 10 speed cassette, which is plenty for me, but those who want a full range will not be happy with the drivetrain performance. Singlespeeders will have no problems. EDIT: With a 28t Bling Ring, chainline is much better and I get full use of all 10/11 gears.

-Tire clearance is somewhat limited - a 2.3 will fit fine but anything bigger is a tight squeeze. Adding 5mm to the chainstays or using an 83mm BB shell (which brings another set of issues that I won't go into now) would take care of this.

So bottom line: I love this bike. I like it even better than my previous short-stay setup from a few years ago and for the right rider (ie more interested in having fun on 2 hour rides than absolute speed or 24 hour solo sufferfests) I think this sort of geometry is a great fit.

I should also note that the new Paragon Polydrops (which Mark asked me to test prototypes of with this frame) are working great after probably 15 hours of riding and I'm happy to build with them (no extra charge) for anyone who is interested. They are probably not the ideal dropout for this bike due to their length (makes it hard to use the second bend on s-bend chainstays to get any heel clearance) but they offer some cool flexibility in terms of bike setup and I have had zero problems with them thus far. Most riders may prefer the low mount or classic DR2010 (or sliders for the singlespeed crowd) but that's a decision that's complex enough that I'm not going to go into it here.



Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Almost Famous, and go vote for my friends' bike park idea

First, I'm in Cycling Utah (scroll to page 14). I must say I look quite dour in the photo, though. Not sure what happened there. Here's another grumpy one taken of me this morning by a fellow who teaches urban planning at the U and was really excited about the bike (something along these lines happens about every 30 minutes on the cargo bike around here, which was fun at first but now... not as much).

Second, you should vote for my friends Krista and Eric's proposal for a bike park in Steamboat Springs so that they'll get $33k from Bell and can build it!

Yes, it's a facebook thing. Here are the instructions as related to me by Krista, since I am not a FB person and don't have any idea how to do it. Wow, that picture is awesome, too. Who could say no to a baby who wants a bike park?



Be sure to be logged in to FB. 
Choose the Pump Track Projects category 
Our project is the Bear River Bike Park, select this projectSubmit your vote!A pop-up window opens that asks you to 'Go to App'.  This will not download stupid stuff to your FB acct.  It is just the app that they use to tally the votes. 
Click 'Go to App'Most times a new window pops open that asks if you would like to 'Allow' or 'Skip' the app from updating your status.  Either option will count your vote (and even if you allow, I have never seen it update someones status or news feed).The page will refresh and say "Thank you for voting"You will have an option to vote in the other categories as well.  We would recommend voting for the Tahoe project in the Flow Trail category and the Sandy Ridge project in the Downhill category.   
Want to help more?Ask your cycling friends or non-cycling friends that are just awesome to vote.  This includes spouses, children, co-workers, extended family . . . anyone with a FB acct.

Monday, April 08, 2013

Sam = Done

It's extra fun for me when I get to help do the final assembly and watch a bike roll for the first time. Sam should have a blast with this new ride. Read more about it here if you're interested.

Unfortunately, not great weather for a break-in ride.

For all you weight weenies, the whole bike is 25# even. Once we get Sam on some hydro brakes and tubelessify the tires it'll be more like 24. This is very close (except the brakes/cranks/handlebars that Sam supplied) to the 2013 Smart Money build.

Sunday, April 07, 2013

The All-New "How to Order a Waltworks" Post

The old FAQ answer to "how do I get a bike from you?" was getting pretty creaky and old, so I'm rewriting from scratch.

So, you want a Waltworks...here's what to do.

First, drop me an email or call me at 303 359 9392 to introduce yourself and tell me what you're looking for. I will not accept a deposit from you (for any item I make) without this introduction, because it may be that what you want and what I can build don't match up well, or that one of us decides the other one is crazy. Better to know that before money changes hands.

Full squish? Yes, I'll do it.
Next, I'll email you a copy of my fit sheet and deposit instructions. You can pay the $500 deposit by check (preferred), credit card (call me), or paypal. You can even bring me a bag of nickels if you want. I'm not picky. If you're not in the United States paypal is generally the easiest way to go. Keep in mind that the deposit is non-refundable unless you have a serious family emergency or something along those lines (ie, I'll give you your money back if you *need* it because something horrible happened, but not if you just decided you don't want a bike anymore). Bikes are built in the order that I receive deposits.

If you're local (ie willing to come visit me in SLC) we will do fitting and design work in person and there is no need to fill out the fit sheet. Generally I will ask you to bring all of your current bikes (road, CX, mountain, whatever) so that I can get a lot of data on how you fit and what you like (or dislike). I will also want to talk extensively with you about what you want out of the bike and what parts/accessories you'll use.

The best part.
Generally, my waitlist is at least 6 months long, so there is no need to rush through filling out the fit sheet. I prefer accurate, voluminous data to hasty, sketchy gibberish! If you have questions about how to measure something or aren't sure how to answer a question on the sheet, just call or email me and I'll walk you through it.

I am sometimes *ahead* of schedule so please be ready to start with the design process sooner than the official wait time - this isn't a promise that I'll finish early but if you follow the waitlist for a while you'll notice that in general I'm 4-6 weeks faster than my wait time estimate.

Design work will happen about 2 weeks before I'm ready to actually start building your frame. Yes, I could do your design further in advance but I prefer to have the information fresh in my mind when I'm building the bike (and I build a lot of bikes so if the info isn't fresh it's easy for me to get confused). This also prevents us from doing 50 iterations of the design over the entire waiting period and allows me to focus on doing a great job for the folks ahead of you in line.

Curvy tubes, no extra charge.
As part of doing the design, I'll ask you about what parts we'll be using. You may want to purchase them from me (I sell parts, in many cases, for *below wholesale* cost as I have OEM accounts with all the major components manufacturers) or you may already have what you need. You are welcome to buy just *some* parts - there is no obligation to get a complete bike. If you are ordering parts I like to have a finalized parts list by the time I am ready to start cutting tubes on your frame - in some cases it takes a few weeks to track down  certain items and the longer you wait to figure out what you need, the higher the chance you'll be stuck waiting for parts after your frame is done and ready to ship out. Fox forks and custom wheels can take even longer so please let me know ASAP if you are looking for those items.

I'll build your frame, and take it to the powdercoater (you'll need to have picked a color out as well as choosing some decals) and order your parts. You do not owe me any further money until I have everything ready to ship unless you are ordering VERY unusual or expensive (ie Enve wheels) parts.

RAL 6018=Kawasaki Green
When everything is ready to go, you'll pay your final balance and I'll ship your frame and parts. I install a headset and bottom bracket in EVERY FRAME that leaves the shop - even if you are not buying those items from me I will ask you to ship them here so that I can install them. Why? Simple, really - those are the items that can cause serious problems with assembly if they're not installed correctly, and it also prevents me from shipping your frame and forgetting to ream, chase, and face everything. I do not ship complete bikes - if you don't have the knowledge and tools to do the final assembly yourself, I'm happy to ship your bike to a shop of your choice. If you are local and picking up the bike in person I can assemble and tune for $75.

Other random thoughts:
-I have built more 29ers than anyone else on earth, but I also love to build bikes with other wheel sizes - 20? 24? 26" 650b? 36"? I love them all, I've ridden them all, and I'm happy to talk you through what might work best for you.
-I don't just build mountain bikes. Need a sweet roadie? Town bike? Cargo bike? Cross, bmx, dirtjump, downhill, unicycle? I've done it all and I'm happy to take on most projects.
-I am happy to consult with you about parts - I've ridden and worn out or broken just about everything made and I can give you some great ideas about what to buy (and what not to).
-Yes, I want to go riding with you! Come visit UT and I'll take you on a tour of any kind of trail you want - from fast and buff to rocky hike-a-bike slogfest (we even have road rides), right out my back door. Also, we do actually have beer. Seriously.

So that's what you can expect when ordering a bike - if something isn't clear, post a comment/question and I'll update this post.



Thursday, April 04, 2013

Don

Don's mostly a singlespeeder and he's got a SS I built for him 7 or 8 years ago, but he wanted a geared bike with a suspension fork for longer, rougher rides. Or maybe he just got old and lame like me and figured out gears and suspension can make up for creaky knees and wrists a little.


In any case, it's a big bike for a tall fellow, built to handle everything the Wasatch can throw at him. Geometry:
-69.5 HTA, 73 (effective) STA
-For a 100mm travel tapered steerer fork
-65.5cm effective toptube, 71.3cm front center (yeah, that's long!), 93mm trail
-43cm chainstays, clearance for a 2.4" tire, no front derailleur
-Curves (toptube, seat tube, stays) for tire clearance and fun.
-32.5cm/12.8" BB height (Don uses 180mm cranks and doesn't like to hit his pedals on stuff)
-Supertherm front end mostly with Deda chainstays and trusty Paragon DR2010 dropouts. Frame weight is about 2300g.

So basically, a bike built for all-around XC adventure, on the stable side for long days in the saddle and rough terrain. Should be a blast!

Nick, this picture is for you - big as a garden gate, as you like to say!

Wednesday, April 03, 2013

Pamela - complete

The Bean has fallen asleep after his birthday morning of Swedish House Mafia and chocolate chip pancakes (his current two favorite things) so it's time for a blog post!

There are really two ways of looking at a cyclocross bike, and I think you can learn a lot about a builder or rider's attitude about riding on dirt from figuring out which kind of cyclocross bike person they are.

Please take note - I don't think either way is wrong or right. I am firmly on one side (I'll let you guess which) but it's not at all an adversarial thing. Some people like chocolate, some like vanilla.

Type 1 cyclocross bikes are really just road bikes with mountain bike brakes (well, mountain bike brakes from 20 years ago) and lots of tire clearance. They're usually 73/73 square/level toptube frames (I'm referring to the head and seat tube angles) and often built with lugs. This type of bike is great for riding on pavement and dirt roads and makes a decent touring setup too if you put mounting points on for fenders and racks and such. If you try to take it on even mellow singletrack or race a cross race, though, it's much too twitchy and unforgiving of errors (which you will make when you've been redlined for 40 minutes, trust me) on rough terrain so you'll tend to wipe out a lot and generally hate life.

Type 2 bikes, on the other hand, aren't at all road bikes. They're usually at least somewhat sloping toptube setups (making the tradeoff between dismounting ease and shouldering ease is one of the toughest decisions when designing one) and use mountain bike-like head tube angles (ie around 71 degrees). They also have lots of tire clearance but are seldom built with lugs simply because it's a bit harder to find or modify lugs to work right for the geometry. They're fine on the road or dirt roads (because basically anything with skinny tires is fine on the road) but they shine when the trails get rough and twisty, or the racecourse gets slick, because they're designed to be much more stable and capable of holding a line on rough terrain.

As you might have guessed, I mostly build mountain bikes dressed up as cyclocross bikes (ie Type 2), because I figure you want to design for the gnarliest terrain you think you'll ride and figure the bike will do fine on all the easier stuff. Most of my customers are not exactly casual riders (maybe if stopped making fun of casual-riding dentists I'd make more money...) so they tend to want cyclocross bikes that can get dirty, race, go exploring, and maybe even fill in for a mountain bike in a pinch.

Pamela's bike is one of those. Here's the geometry:
-71 head tube/75 seat tube
-For a 47mm offset tapered steerer Enve fork, 570mm front center and 70mm trail.
-51cm toptube, sloping 11 degrees.
-42cm chainstays, clearance for a 35c tire.
-Disc specific, ready for a compact double or single ring setup (front derailleurs are dead, Pamela!)
-275mm/10.8" BB height.
-S-bendy stays for style, True Temper OX platinum pipes, 3.6# frame.

Is it a mountain bike? Obviously not, but it's not just a road bike with big tires, either.

Also pictured: Waltworks Zero, the first bike I ever built. Now sadly relegated to snow-day commuting only for Sarah.

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

You have only a few hours left...

...to put down a deposit for a frame at the $1400 price. Starting tomorrow you'll be helping me put a down payment on my new yacht add to the Bean's college fund. If you get me your "hi I want a bike" email by midnight tonight I'll accept your actual deposit for a few more days, too, just because I'm a nice guy.

And oh man, he's going to need all the help he can get because so far he's not so smart... This was his first try at a whole piece of fruit. It didn't go well, needless to say, but it was funny to watch him gleefully shove it into his mouth like a snake with a rat.