David - done

Another Pinhead fork, too.

Super aggro long front center/slack/low/short chainstay 27.5+?

Another customer bike I'd like for myself. Damn you, Dave!

Dave also has the distinction of being the first to get a boost (110x15) spaced rigid fork. In his case it'll swap out with one of the fancy new Lyrik 27.5+ units. Yes, another dummy axle joins the fleet...

I think for steeps and technical riding, the aggro geometry and big tires is hard to beat. For getting big air? Less great - but Dave could run some 29x2.5 Minions for that kind of thing, should he choose.

A few leaves starting to fall/change!

Geometry below. All supertherm, all stealth, 148x12 with some offset for a dishless rear wheel, etc.

This is the *short travel setting* "XC" mode!

Mike - done!

After a powdercoat snafu (the acronym is quite literal with powdercoating...) it's finally ready to go!

This is an all-arounder with most of the bells and whistles (stealth dropper, tapered steerer, short stays, etc) but with nice normal QR 135 dropouts. Which is what I do on my own hardtails, too, because the through axle does nothing for me on a rigid bike and my legacy collection of QR wheels is going to last a looong time...

Red Baron and new scribble decals!

Lock prevents tipping over.

Give me a brake!

...says Bean. Good thing you can adjust the reach like crazy on old plastic SRAM 5.0 brake levers!

Frankenbike started out as Dora the Explorer from Walmart by way of garage sale. Yes, that's a Thomson post.

This was the old system:

Happy Weekend...

... says Stupidmobile 2: Non-Electric Boogaloo.

Details and more photos to come, but some numbers to clue you in: 29x3, 100mm, 42.5cm, 69 degrees, 30.9, goes to 11.

#braaap

Brian's frame class bike - complete!

I did nothing but stand by and advise/run my mouth. Brian built this sucker from the ground up about a month ago - 150mm travel 27.5 hardtail with slack angles, super short stays, and all the modern bells and whistles. Nice work!

Edit: frame class details here. A couple spots still open for fall this year!

Prepare to be shredded, Marquette

If I ran the circus: Plus Bikes, Chainline, and Short Chainstays

As the world of mountain bikes gets more and more diverse, things get... more interesting for a framebuilder. I've got a big drawer of obsolete tools and parts that are only 5 years old (need a jig to install an ISCG mount or direct mount front derailleur, anyone? 150x12 through axle dummy? 1 1/8" head tube stock? Didn't think so...) and I'm constantly getting presented with odd new problems to solve.

But hey, interesting times. And all the options out there are just simply awesome for riders. The bad old days of 71/73 and 2.1" tires are long gone (though you can still have that if you want it!)

Because I build a decent number of plus size (ie, ~3" tire) bikes lately, and I have a lot of picky customers who don't want just a big tire slammed into really long chainstays to make it all work, here's the plus-bike wish list, as brought to you by someone who builds them and rides them too.

First off, if you're someone who fits nicely on a 29er, consider that 29+ is really 30.5" diameter, give or take a few mm. If you're close to toe overlap on your 29er, or you really feel like the bike is close to too long/unwieldy - then you should do 27.5+ (about 29" diameter), not 29+. Likewise if you're pretty small, 26+ exists and is a great option (it's basically the same diameter as 27.5, but wider tires). Don't just decide you want fatter tires and automatically upsize your wheels at the same time - that might not be appropriate for you and what you want to do.

The most important thing to do for these bikes (regardless of wheel diameter): wider than normal chainline. Let's assume you won't run a front derailleur. That's a pretty safe assumption these days with 1x giving up to 4.4x1 overdrive - enough for anything that will mostly be ridden on a trail for 95% of riders.

The battle, as always, is fitting the chainstays, tire, and chainring all into the same small area near the BB shell. A quick look at any mountain bike will show you why this is trouble. Every extra millimeter we can squeeze out is worth it's weight in gold, so throw the usual ~50mm chainline out the window.

How? Lots of ways, in order of max tire clearance/short chainstay awesomeness:
1. Boost (ie 148mm hub spacing, ~52mm chainline)! It only gets us 2mm of extra space, but that's not a bad thing. If you do nothing else, you can do a boost rear end/crank.
2. Run your chainring on the outboard position of a triple crank (~56mm chainline) and offset rear dropouts/hub to match. Alternately run a direct-mount chainring flipped over (ala Raceface Cinch) or BB30 ring on GXP crank (SRAM). This helps a ton and also has the sidebenefit of a mostly dishless rear wheel.
3. Run an 83mm BB (~55mm chainline) and matching cranks. There are lots of great options out there now though finding 175mm cranks in XC-ish configuration can be challenging. Offset rear wheel to match. Or build around a 150/157mm through axle rear hub.
4. Run an 83mm BB and offset ring (~60mm chainline). Offset rear end 10mm or so to match or run a 170/177mm fatbike rear end (ala Kevin's low-Q fatbike). My favorite option, this actually gives enough room to run a 4" fatbike tire if you so desire and plenty of space for short, short chainstays with loads of tire clearance.
5. Run a 100mm BB and 170mm rear end. If you're going for a fatbike with plus-tire/summer setup, this is the next step up. Some folks won't like the Q factor, though.

I get a lot of pushback on all of these ideas from people because it seems some folks are really stuck in the "bike should be symmetrical" mindset. Here's the thing: your bike is already not symmetrical. You have a drivetrain on one side, brakes on the other (assuming disc brakes). Your wheels have the spokes coming out of the flanges at dramatically different angles. In some cases your rims are drilled offset to one side...etc. My goal is to make the bike that rides the best for you - and in most cases, having the rear end symmetrical is going to detract from doing that with many of the plus sized tires that are out there. Yes, you'll have to have a dedicated rear wheel for your plus bike that you won't be able to swap around with your other bikes without redishing it. C'est la vie. Wheels are cheap (relatively speaking).

Q factor is another question. If you really want narrow Q, options get limited. But fatbikes have proven (for *most* people) that Q factor isn't as crucial as you might think. Adding 5mm to each side (ie using an 83mm shell instead of 73mm) isn't even noticeable to most riders. You might be the exception, of course, but there's no reason to think you need to worry about it unless you have a preexisting knee problem and you know the Q factor is going to be trouble.

So bottom line: if you want a semi-fat/plus bike, consider letting me go a little nuts to make it awesome. It's going to be weird, yes. But much more fun than a cookie-cutter setup with 45cm chainstays (unless 45cm chainstays is what you need, of course!)

What you've all been waiting for... 2015 build kits: Smart Money

Hey, 2015 is... more than half over. And I finally got around to doing a new set of build kits.

Here's this year's "Smart" money kit. Notes: no pedals or saddle, shipping not included. GX cranks may be unappealing to some, but you're better off spending that money elsewhere IMO. Front derailleurs are still dead.


Smart Money 2015:

$3600 geared

$3200 singlespeed

$4600 full squish

Replace that old-school rigid post with a Thomson dropper for an extra $200!

Frame	Waltworks Custom
Fork	Rockshox Reba
Headset	King
Stem	Thomson X4
Handlebar	Easton EC70
Shifters	X1 trigger
Front derailleur	None
Rear derailleur	X1
Bottom Bracket	w/cranks
Chain	X1
Cassette	X1 10-42
Crankset	SRAM GX w/32t ring and BB
Pedals	None
Cables/housing	Included w/shifter
Seatpost	Thomson Elite
Brakes	Shimano XT w/160mm rotors
Skewers	Included
Wheelset	ZTR Crest/Arch/Flow wheelset w/XD driver
RimStrips	Included
Tubes	None, tubeless!
Tires	Bontrager XR team series TLR (I like the XR2 for all-around fun)
Grips/tape	Ritchey WCS

Weekly random shop photos

Word on the street is I might have an actual website at some point soon...

In the meantime, I'm still making stuff out of metal.

Getting close

All mitered

Sideways Solidbikes 30.9 plug

Soon you'll be covered up by the downtube...

Oh, what the heck... one more

Sarah's (not my Sarah) new 29x4" bike. Featuring BB wrench counterweight and no shock bushings yet! It's friday...

No decals either? Walt's not even trying...

Pretty normal modern XC geometry, dropper post compatibility, and remote lockouts and adjustable travel out the wazoo. Sooner or later I gotta modernize my own stuff, my own FS bike looks pretty darn obsolete these days.

This thing would fit me pretty well if the seat tube and head tube were both 2" longer

And another one!

We squeezed Carey onto a 120mm travel 29er... not nearly the squeeze job that Sam's bike is, of course, but still a little work to make him fit.

And no, I didn't finish all these bikes within a few days of each other. They are all just ending up being done or shipped out around the same time because of the vagaries of powdercoating (especially now that the Powderworks of UT guys have, well, fired themselves).

Carey's is more on the XC/all around side (in both geometry/travel and components) than Gal's longer-travel, slacker version. But it's pretty capable of being whatever you want it to with the right fork.

When the weird turn pro...

With apologies to Hunter S.  Sam is pretty small in stature. 4'10", to be exact. She wanted a bike that could, as much as possible, do it all (ie XC, trail/enduro, maybe even huck?)

If you go more compact, the seatstays hit the collar!

Even with 26" wheels, 100mm travel was pushing standover too high for comfort... until we went old school (props to Cannondale) and threw the usual front triangle configuration out the window. We also got one of the excellent new Syntace Flatforce stems (*excellent* for folks struggling with handlebar height) Result? Plenty of standover, 100+mm travel, and an appropriate geometry for someone on the short side.

415mm chainstays. Eat your hearts out, tall people.

Here's the print:

Flatforce stem gets the bars level, not shown here.

Gal's Slack/Short/Long FS bike... done!

Well, it still needs cable guides. But mostly done.

Really squeezing to get everything to fit with those short stays!

DBinline is hot hot hot - 140mm travel here.

And, of course, the geometry (with magic invisible rear end). No sag shown here. Gal also has a fun 29+ hardtail I built for him a few years back.

Short rear end, slack, long travel... sound familiar? 

Walt finishes something!

It's been an epic week of tonsillectomy chaos (along with: teaching a framebuilding class, selling a house, possibly buying a house, our usual daycare shutting down...) I am finally back at the bench and finished up a couple of frames that have taken *way* too long.

I'll post up just one for now. John's short-stay 29er.

And of course, geometry info, now presented in a nice easy drawing instead of voluminous text. It's got some offset at the dropouts to allow a decent sized tire along with a 34t chainring running at 55mm chainline, and all the usual bells and whistles (but no front derailleur). 

Pics from Christine!

Fruita

Laramie shout out from Christine, who says,

"This is a very belated thank you for my bike, which is going to be my first bike to earn a name, I just haven’t decided on her name yet. I think Felix told you, she feels like an extension of my body when I ride. Riding has never been so fast and fun, and yet also feeling so secure.

Here are a couple of photos, including two from today when I won the women’s intermediate Gowdy Grinder. My only complaint is now that I’ll have to do the advanced race next year. The third is in Fruita on the classic Kessel Run… the first time I rode the bike, not counting around the block before we left.

Thanks also for hosting Felix in a dream bike building week, to build (another) dream bike."

Gowdy

Followup to the Jamboree!

Nekkid!

Dust it off...

Don't call it a comeback, I've been in the basement for years.

Pulled Sarah's first (ok, only... she's a hardtail gal) FS frame out of the basement today to get it ready for a trip to NM in May (these FS frames are great for travel because you can unbolt the whole rear end and pack them up in an S&S case super easily). First time it's been out in... maybe 6 or 7 years?

Funny to look at it now - no tapered steerer, no through axle, front derailleur mount (this was one of the first direct-mount front derailleur frames on earth, I think), 27.2 non-dropper seatpost... things have certainly moved on.

But in many ways it was ahead of it's time. 69 degree HTA (now sort of the norm for XC bikes), 43cm chainstays. The geometry is still totally appropriate for all-around XC. It'll be fun to see what Sarah thinks of it after all these years.

And by "fun" I mean that Sarah will probably hate the fact that the rear suspension functions at all and have me pump the shock up to 300psi. Sigh.

Joe's Geometry Jamboree

By popular (ok, one person) request!

Executive summary: short and semi-slack racey bike for attacking the twisties in TX.

New bandsaw says, "I am not impressed"

-69.5 HTA and 90mm trail, designed for a Niner carbon rigid fork or 80-100mm travel suspension

-60.5cm ETT, 66.9cm front center, 107.8cm wheelbase. 

-42cm chainstays, plenty of room for a 2.3 and a 34t oval chainring (lotsa runout on those bad boys - I had to have Joe send me the crank and ring to double check clearances)

-295mm BB height. Just a smidge on the low side if you were running suspension but with a rigid fork you can go a hair lower and Joe likes low.

-Curved seat tube for tire clearance. Joe took it easy on me and let me use straight tubes for the rest of the front end. 

-Built for a nice normal 27.2 post and using nice skinny-ish 35mm/28.6mm down and toptubes for a steel-is-real ride with a little give. Joe is not a huge dude either, so fat tubes were never on the radar.

-Paragon rockers for SS fun if needed, plus chainstay length adjustability.

Pikes Peak!

Some manner of velocipede in the foreground. Curious.

Couple pictures from John

Short-stay (though he's running the wheel slammed...back?) 29er, baby!

Bar ends are so 1995

I like DT cable routing on these curved-toptube bikes

Ken, 148x12, the future, Keanu Reeves

As promised, here's part 1 of my thoughts, musings, ramblings... incoherent gibberish about new axle standards.

I'm not even going into the new 110x15 fork standard right now, we'll concentrate on 148x12.

First, remember: if you are buying a hardtail, a through axle has no actual benefit over a QR unless you weigh 400 pounds or are constantly forgetting to tighten your skewer. Your pathetic excuses for legs won't get any more power to the ground than they did before - the rear end of a hardtail really doesn't flex much, so adding a big fat axle make zero difference in how the bike rides. Of course, I build them all the time, and if/when I get around to building myself a new bike, that's what I'll do. Why? Because time marches on, and it's harder and harder to get nice QR parts - just like it's hard to find a really nice set of v-brakes these days. C'est la vie. Take the red pill. Or maybe the blue one? I can't remember, the sequels have caused me to block all Matrix-related knowledge from my brain to avoid the pain.

142x12 came out about 3 years ago and quickly took the world by storm. Why? It promised a bit stiffer rear ends on FS bikes, compatibility via adapter for most existing hubs as the cassette and disc rotor stayed in exactly the same place, and something new to sell to the bike-buying public. Which I would roundly condemn, except that I'm one of the purveyors of said new stuff.

27.5+? My doing.

As a giant world of diverse wheel/tire and drivetrain options has opened up in the post-29er glasnost, lots of manufacturers realized that cramming 3x29/27.5" tires into frames built around 73mm BB shells and 50mm chainlines (just a quick pause for a definition here: "chainline" here means the distance from the center of the frame to the center of the middle chainring, though these days that mostly means the *only* chainring. Here's Sheldon Brown's definition) would cause some terrible problems fitting everything where it needed to go. The chainstay, tire, and chainring all fight for space on a typical mountain bike frame (FS or hardtail) and if you have to give too much to the tire - you've either gotta lengthen the chainstays or do *something* to move the chainring out of the way. As more and more gears get crammed onto cassettes, the flanges of the hub have also gotten closer together (this has been going on for 20 years, really) which is generally bad, as the spoke tension between driveside/non driveside gets out of whack and the wheel gets less laterally stiff and weaker. Bigger rims (ie 27.5, 29) exaggerate these problems. Something had to give (well, ok, maybe "had" is too strong a word). Something is giving, anyway.

Enter "Boost" (why didn't 142x12 get a cool name?) 148x12 rear ends. The idea here is that you move both the cassette and disc rotor outboard 3mm, and move the flanges out to match. Result, you can move the *chainring* out a bit to make more room for the tire, keep a decent chainline, and end up with a bit stronger rear wheel to boot.

Now, there's another solution out there that I've been doing for over a decade along with a few other weirdos. It's to stick with 135x10 (or now142x12) spacing, but move the *entire* rear end (meaning, the hub/dropouts/stays) about 5-10mm to the driveside (the exact amount depending on application). This gives you a great chainline for single ring bikes and loads of room for short chainstays and big tires. It's also a near-dishless/even tension rear wheel. Great stuff, IMO. Cannondale ripped me off this year with their "AI system" (here's C'dale's explanation of the setup). Stupidmobile (you know, the 29er with 40cm chainstays?) was built this way. So are many bikes I build for customers, because it gives you a ton of benefits and really only has a few drawbacks. You can also do fun stuff like an 83mm low-q-factor fatbike by using various amounts of rear end offset (Felix's runs a 135x10 rear hub offset 10mm).

Whew. Did that all make sense? No? That's what I run into a lot. Many people don't like the idea of asymmetry, so the whole idea is off the table. I think that's a big part of the 148x12 idea - easier to explain, inherently less weird and threatening...but we don't do normal and unthreatening around here!

Ken wanted it *all*. 148x12, lots of tire clearance (in his case 27.5x2.8-3 or so) and short, short chainstays (well, not totally insane - we did 41.5cm). So we went nuts and did an *offset 148x12* setup. In this case, it's just 2mm of offset to get the chainline we wanted, but it still felt weird to take a brand new Anvil dummy axle and chuck it up on the lathe!

So long story short, Ken's bike is weird but should be awesome. Your bike can be awesome too if you think outside the box a bit and let me get creative - it's custom, folks. The world is your oyster.

Or we can just do 148x12, because what the heck, I already paid for the dummy axle, and the writing is on the wall...