Sunday, September 29, 2013

You can now address me...

... as "Mr. Wayanard" - and the scary thing is that I actually *spelled* my name for her!

First human to fail the Turing test? We report, you decide:


Saturday, September 28, 2013

Saturday morning photos from Max

Downward-curving toptube FTW! I'm so used to seeing them curved up that it's actually kinda disconcerting...



Friday, September 27, 2013

Luke=done.

Welcome back from your deployment, man!


Geometry dorks, hark:
-69 HTA and 72.5 (effective) STA.
-95mm trail and 70.6cm front center (that's a 65cm effective toptube for those of you who like to know).
-41.5cm actual/41cm effective chainstays with plenty of room for fat tires (not Knards, though!)
-31cm/12.2" BB height.
-Built for 100mm travel, tapered steerer, singlespeed madness!
-Shockingly only features one curved tube on the front end (the seat tube, for tire clearance). I've somehow become that guy who makes curvy toptube bikes and it almost seems weird not to have to bust out the bender for this one.


Thursday, September 26, 2013

Random photo dump: Luke

Presented without too many of my usual annoying words.





Wednesday, September 25, 2013

An Open Letter to Shimano - Make Us Some 11 Speed!

So, a few facts:
-I've sold ONE Shimano drivetrain in the last year.
-I've sold probably 25-30 XX1 drivetrains in that time.
-I've heard stories from bike shop friends about people *refusing to buy* high end bikes that did not have XX1.
-Almost everyone I know things the XX1 is awesome, but also thinks it's too expensive.

Shimano, you gotta step up. Nobody is going to buy XTR anymore. Heck, nobody is going to buy XT when for an extra few hundred bucks they could get XX1.

Here's the thing - XX1 is a racer/top end product. It's the nicest stuff you can buy. Every effort has been made to get rid of every last gram (witness, the $450 cassette) and for a lot of people, that's not necessary. I'd guess that $300 of the cassette price is JUST getting rid of the last 50g or so of weight.

So, here's what you do, Shimano: Make us a $500-800 retail price XT-level 1x11 group. Swallow your pride and use the SRAM driver standard for the cassette so that we don't have to all go buy ANOTHER driver. Make a couple of different gearings (10-42, 10-39, 10-36?) and don't spend a fortune to make the cassette weigh nothing - 350-400g is fine. If your grouppo is a pound heavier than XX1, that's ok. Just make it reliable and durable and inexpensive.

I'd buy a set. Heck, I'd buy several. I'd sell a ton of it. Yes, the serious weightweenies and racers will still want to throw that extra five hundred clams at a few grams of weight savings. That's fine, you can work on an XTR-level group next year. And yes, SRAM will make an X-9 level 11 speed soon, I'm sure. But you gotta have a product to compete.

I want to see you stay in the mountain bike market, Shimano - and I think you're risking losing the entire high end as well as the middle of the road bikes if you don't do something here. The opportunity is there, make it happen.

-Walt

Monday, September 23, 2013

John - Done!

This is an interesting one (maybe even to you, rather than just to me, for once). Why?
-650b wheels. Ok, not that unusual these days.
-Coupled. With a custom Ritchey-style seat lug and S&S on the downtube.


I get a lot of questions about travel bikes and couplings, so here's a quick rundown (you can also read my old FAQ, from, gah, 2007, on S&S here)

-Dual S&S couplers are the most flexible system in terms of tube choices (any diameter, basically) and can allow big, big bikes to fit in a case, thanks to the fact that they can go pretty much anywhere on the top and downtubes. They are heavy (300+g for a pair) and require a special wrench to keep tight. They're not cheap - $500 for parts and labor to get them on your frame. If they do come loose during a ride you won't destroy your frame - you'll just notice that something is rattling/feels weird and have to stop and tighten them.

-The Ritchey Breakaway system is cheaper ($250) and lighter (only adds maybe 150g). Downsides are tube choice (downtube has to be 32 or 35mm) and the seat lug/coupler placement means that larger mountain bike frames won't fit in the case sometimes. Some people also don't like the look, and if the downtube coupler (a hinge clamp held together by a single M5 bolt) did loosen/release when riding, I think you'd break your frame in half.  It also has to be modified for most mountain bikes. The seat lug supplied by Ritchey is also made of petrified whale poop or something and is not a good size for attaching anything but a very small toptube. You're stuck with a 27.2 post, too - though that's usually not a big deal for this kind of bike.




-The system I've decided I like best (assuming you're not just going to get an FS bike and take the rear end off to pack it - that works great!) is to use an S&S coupler on the downtube and a custom-made seat lug (allowing some choice of toptube size and seatpost diameter). It's *mostly* the best of both worlds, though if you're riding a bigger frame it's not always workable if you want to fit your frame in the S&S case. Weight is in the middle (200 extra grams, maybe?) and so is cost ($400).


And that's the system I used here for John's bike. I think it came out pretty nice!

Geometry details tomorrow.


Friday, September 20, 2013

Why no posts, Walt?

Well...
-A giant flood destroyed Boulder and our place there has a bunch of flood damage that I'm trying to get fixed without actually being there.
-Our nanny's husband got a job in Durango (congrats Adam!) and so we've suddenly gotta find new childcare.
-There was a dropout snafu and I've been waiting on a replacement part to finish up John's frame.

So long story short, not as much bike work got done this week as I would like. Here are a few random pictures of what I did accomplish, plus a ride photo of Tom and Sarah after Sarah had to play Florence Nightingale for him. Look out for that root, Tom!

S&S down low

Breakaway ala Waltworks at the top. Funky dingus is a heat sink.

Business in the front, no party yet in the back. 650b FTW!
Blood donations are Tom's speciality

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Guess who...

...spent all day on the bed with the sick Bean guarding him?


Sunday morning picture

Bean refused to sleep last night so he and Sarah are now snoozing - while I drowsily attempt to entertain myself (going out to the shop would just result in me sleepily cutting off my hand or something). Here's a photo from Mark of his 36er. Enjoy!


Saturday, September 14, 2013

Slow days!

I've been (remotely) trying to deal with the flooding of our place in Boulder (luckily a friend lives there and is doing great work helping deal with the damage) so I've been slow answering emails and getting work done. Just FYI. My apologies to everyone, I should be able to get more done this week but it's going to be an ongoing headache sorting it all out there.

And we are the lucky ones - some carpet and drywall is really all that we lost. Several people (nobody knows how many yet) lost their lives and there are countless houses completely destroyed. I have to imagine the damage will run into the billions of dollars.

On a more trivial but still sad note, most of the roads and trails I rode throughout graduate school over the last 15 years are literally wiped off the face of the earth. I'm not sure when anyone will be able to ride a mountain bike in Boulder county again but it will be a long time and require a lot of work. If you're interested you can see some pictures here.

I did start working on John's 650b travel frame. It's going to be a neat mix of S&S (downtube) and seatpost/dual clamp (ala Ritchey Breakaway) joinery. Here's the lower seatpost clamp piece in progress. Yes, that's the hillbilly way to make a tap handle when you know you won't ever use it in a tight spot...

Gotta chase the threads after brazing - they get a little cooked on a small part like this

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Hang on, Boulder!

To all my pals in Boulder, be safe, we're thinking about you here! Call me and update me, or just say hi - we're worried about you!

For those not familiar: massive flooding. Boulder is practically underwater.


Monday, September 09, 2013

Max - done!

Details to follow, here are a couple of photos.



Edit: Ok, geometry info. 

-71.5 HTA, 77mm trail, 63.2cm front center. Max likes snappy handling and the front wheel tucked in close. We tried to move the wheel just a *little* forward to eliminate some toe rub he was having on his previous bike, but it's still going to be very close.
-41.5cm chainstays (41cm effective) that will adjust back to 43.5cm with a few extra links added. 
-Around 30cm BB height, just a little on the low side but that's what Max likes - and he's running 170s. 
-Crazy short 103.7cm/40.8" wheelbase (with the sliders slammed). Man, that's short. She'll definitely love the tight stuff!
-Built with a nice mix of TT OX Platinum and Verus (OX Platinum + tubing roller = disaster, so the curved seat/top tubes have to be made with more bender-friendly stuff), plus some Deda chainstays. Around 4.5#.
-Clearance for a ~2.3" rear tire. 
-Singlespeed only, despite the (dummy) slider inserts shown in the pictures.
-Built for a 100mm tapered steerer fork.

This is just about as short and snappy as a 29er will get without throwing caution to the wind and running a goofy chainline like Stupidmobile. I halfway wonder if Max will end up slamming the sliders back for longer races/events just to calm her down a bit. Should be super fun in either setting, though. 


Friday, September 06, 2013

The Ericmobile!

140mm of single-pivot plushness, baby (actually, it gets more like 150mm, but who's counting?)






Not sure if I ever posted geometry numbers on this bad boy, I'll check on that later tonight.

Edit: Nope, never posted anything. Here's the vitals:
-140mm travel front/140+mm travel rear. A swap of rockers will get you to 160 (but also require a longer fork to keep the geometry dialed)
-67 degree head tube angle, 104mm trail, 71cm front center
-43cm chainstays
-63.2cm effective toptube
-ISCG mount, single ring only, 31.6mm dropper post, built with TT Supertherm beefy tubes for Eric's shredding pleasure
-From somewhat fuzzy memory, the frame with shock and hardware was around 7.5#

And yes, folks ordering an FS frame - I can have the rear end (though not the rockers) powdercoated to match (or not match) the color of the front. Upcharge varies from $50-100 depending on whether the color matches the front.

Thursday, September 05, 2013

Curved... down?

Max's front triangle. He wanted the downward curve for standover, and, I think, just to be a little different since almost everyone these days seems to want an upward-curved toptube (when was the last time I got to build a bike with straight tubes?!?)