pverdone I’m not easily impressed when it comes to seeing bikes out in the wild. I’m not saying that there aren’t a lot of people doing great things, but when you’ve been looking closely at the finer points of cycle design and fabrication for close to 25 years it takes something special to stand out. This … Read more
The Light Cycles in the movie TRON have always been an inspiration to me as a cyclist, motorcyclist, and a skateboarder. Who among us hasn’t dreamed of hammering out a few fast laps on one of those things? Such a connection, so ripping! Cycle after cycle. Around and around… just like in a cyclocross race. Here’s the … Read more
We often hear about the search for the vehicle of the future. Americans like to believe that it’s an electric car and that we are still years away. It’s not that. It’s not even a car. It’s the lowly scooter and it’s been very available around the world for over 60 years. The truth is the … Read more
The PVD Warp Drive Engin. Named for the source of the speed and advantage of the NCC-1701 Starship Enterprise. Literally, built for speed. Faster than light speed. Drew at Engin Cycles is making me a couple of bikes. This is the first. It’s a hardtail Enduro style bike. 27.5″ wheels, a stealth dropper, low, slack, and … Read more
This is a brand new (one week old) Cunningham road bike (#E5GH). Utterly amazing. While Charlie Cunningham had done a small run (5-10) of road bikes back in ancient times, this is just one of two road bikes build since, the other being Charlie’s personal road bike. Cunningham’s are a probably one of the most … Read more
This Sunday I rode the MCBC Locust ride. A fully legal and friendly ride done at a quick pace. It’s not a race but folks like to see where they stack up. This was the second in a series of three rides. This route was Loma Alta, Big Rock, 680, and White Hill. The first … Read more
…. or non-consensual product testing. (Note: I am currently in communication with Shimano regarding this issue.) The new Shadow+ clutch system is an incredible addition to an already incredible 10-speed drivetrain (Dyna-Sys). Originally, the 10-speed offroad shifting was better than any other off road system they’d produced to date. Light, precise shifts with the most rare of … Read more
I’m a known hater. I love some things though and one of those things is skateboards. Riding them specifically. Because of that, I really don’t like stupid gimmick skateboards like the 4 foot longboards or toy plastic novelty decks that have become all the rage lately. The pain inside me that occurs when seeing people riding … Read more
In the last post, I updated the spring and bottoming function in the Boxxer on my DH bike. I rode it after and it was very much improved. Now, I’ve be swapped out the damping fluid and lubing the seals. OEM production rarely provides very good seal lubrication. Lubing the seals with the right lube … Read more
After my first real weekend riding the new Glory at Northstar, I obviously had some tuning to do. The 2013 Boxxer Team/R2C2 fork was the main focus. I was only getting about 165mm of 200mm of travel out of it and only sagging the fork about 25%. Rockshox does provide a tuning guide and a service manual, … Read more
I live in a fantastic part of the country. We get a lot of passionate people using a lot of cool hardware in front of everyone. Here are three that I’ve come across in the past week. I saw this Morgan 3 on Bryant St. in SF while picking up some parts from SMP Machine. … Read more
This is a post long overdue. Way back in 2001, I was in San Francisco and Oakland visiting for a west coast marriage reception for my new wife and I (a long since dissolved affair). I had needed to move back to Massachusetts to pick up the pieces of the family business after my father … Read more
2013 Giant Glory. A real DH bike. 8″ of rear wheel travel front and rear. Perfect for complete trail annihilation. Every mountain biker should get out chairlifting on a real DH bike at least once a season. More if possible. Downhill riding is one of the best ways of improving your trail riding/Enduro skills. I’m … Read more
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