Bicycle

The other day, I came upon a Facebook post from GMBN to a video: “10 Easy Ways To Get Faster On Your Mountain Bike”. The video gives some perfectly good technical advice but ignores the single biggest problem slow riders have. For almost every one of them, they simply don’t have a good reason for … Read more

I swapped out the pedals on the Spitfire the other day. The bearings of the Spank Spike pedals needed to be serviced and I wanted to just get going on a ride. I had made a big modification to the Spike pedals four years ago, Nice long sharp pins. It was a really nice upgrade. … Read more

The other day, I was chasing down the problem on a slow leaking tire. In the era of tubeless tires with Cushcore, flat fixing, while rare, isn’t trivial. It’s nice when a puncture is obvious but often now, it isn’t. So we need to go to the dunk tank. Until recently this was my kitchen … Read more

I like to do an update on my bikes from time to time. Sometimes, I’m just repurposing them. Other times I’m cleaning them up and I decide it’s time to talk about them. It’s not often a designer talks about how well something is working long after it is released. Doing this gives me some … Read more

The rise of the machines… TL;DR: This isn’t just another Arctos frame fixture clone. It’s a better solution and one you’ve never seen. The rules of the game have been re-written. If I were to say where this began, it would probably be back at the 2016 NAHBS show in Sacramento. I had spent the … Read more

There’s a special power in saying what you’ll do and doing what you’ve said. Action is everything and words just connect actions. That became clearer than ever for me today. After Greg White stole the balance due on my frame fixture, $1901 due on the $4000 sale, I was in a pickle. After three weeks, … Read more

POST NOTE, 10:35AM: Since going live with this post late last night, I have received about a dozen emails and phone calls from people that have been victims of Gregory White. People whose lives have been truly damaged. Suppliers who are owed thousands of dollars in a tight market. Even people who almost became his … Read more

A while back, I wrote a piece on recognizing expertise in those around us. It’s pretty good, you should check it out. In that essay, I talk about how an expert can recognize systems around them and build those systems into other systems, better, that they can explain all this. I’ve been doing just that … Read more

“I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.” -Blaise Pascal COVID-19 is a bad thing but many of us keep trying to find and see the good things. One thing that I have enjoyed about the COVIDs is the time I can spend really savoring the design process. As … Read more

SRAM Guide and Level brakes work pretty well. I use them. In general, they do what is needed. Not perfect, but nothing seems to be right now. For flat bar all-road conversions that have flat mount calipers, we use the Level levers, not the Guide. This keeps the leverages correct. Level levers can also be … Read more

This is the time of the all-road bike. It’s been the bike to have for the past 3 months as COVID-19 has brought a whole new mode for my bike rides with my wife, Windy. Many mountain biking areas near us have been closed for a long while. At the same time, Bolinas/Fairfax Road and … Read more

Back in November 2019, I posted  a stream of consciousness, ending in an enlightening concept: PVD/RAD. It looked promising even in that primordial state. The problem with that post is that it was confusing and left folks with more questions about the process than the answers it could have. Six months later, I’m still excited … Read more

Today is my day to eat some crow. Attentive readers will know of my work on brake caliper mount locations and a tool for attaching flat mount caliper bosses in the correct location. I’ve been pretty proud of this work. It cleans up a big mess. Devin Bodony of Lichen Precision, a machinist bro that … Read more

After all the drama of the winter injury season has subsided and the lazy days of COVID-19 are here, I finally got back to the fork test video that I had intended to do on the day I broke my clavicle….and then big toe. Originally, I had intended to do this filming with a GoPro … Read more

2020-04-17 All-road tire test: Subject: Maxxis Velocita AR, 622-40,120TPI, 380g, tubeless. Setup: 50psi with Cushcore CX insert on both wheels, Orange Seal endurance. WTB KOM i25 rims. Tire width measures 42.25mm on the i25 rim. Bike: PVD T-47 Airspeeder All-Road. 40/10-50 gearing. Rider: PVD, 205 lbs, fat, out of shape, expert dirt. Conditions: Dry but … Read more

In photography and filmmaking, the joke is often made that “it can be fixed in post” to justify doing very low quality work. It’s true that there are a several small issues that can be fixed after the image has been captured. Some colors can be shifted, a smudge removed, subtle white balance changes, the … Read more

This came up in a discussion the other day. I figured that I’d bring it up here as it is current in what I’ve done in a recent design. I’ve been working with my klunker platform enthusiastically and have just produced the Supermarine Spitfire which was building on the Sopwith Camel. It makes use of … Read more

Here we are, well into 2020. The bike industry has just two products to sell: ebikes and all-road bikes. Nothing else matters. Those are the money makers and all that folks are really paying attention to. Everybody is trying to stake a claim. On February 15th, I saw a few images on someone’s Instagram that … Read more

Just touching base on what has been keeping me busy recently. After the Supermarine Spitfire crash, I took a deeper look at the materials that I use in my handlebars. A greater safety factor was needed at the cost of a little bit of flex. Some of these bars have been in service for next … Read more

Gambling is an art with a vicious side to it. We bet on black and by magic, we get black…over and over. We get cocky. We think we know what we are doing. Then, up comes red and we are busted again. The gambler always loses. Dunkirk. The first ride on the PVD Supermarine Spitfire … Read more

Here’s a problem some may have come across when setting up a high performance bike. It’s a little tricky. I needed to actuate a OneUp dropper post using an older style BikeYoke Triggy lever that used the 4.3mm (diameter) x 4.4mm (long) derailleur cable end at the lever. Typically, for this seatpost, we will clamp … Read more

Supermarine Spitfire. Today is new bike day. I try to raise my bar when I build a new bike. Each has to be an improvement on the past. Better, faster, funner. Whatever it takes just push farther. Maximize, minimize, optimize. There’s so much room for development. This is another next level bike where few see … Read more

The current trend in bicycle marketing is to talk about frame reach, the horizontal distance from the bottom bracket axis to the center of the top of the headtube. The ‘long’ in long/low/slack is for “longer reach” or “longer top tube”. Although this is just flagging that they don’t understand much about what they are … Read more

POST: 2020/02/15 – An attempt has been made to refine the content you see here in a newer post. This should help a bit as it is clearer and more straightforward. Last year, PinkBike published an article describing Lee McCormack’s concept of fitting bikes using his Rider Area Distance (LLB-RAD) method of bike fitting. McCormack … Read more

It’s time for the Philadelphia Bike Expo! I wanted to be there this year but lots of important work got in the way. The design for this tool was done a couple of weeks ago. The tool was supposed to be finished before PBE and show to folks in real life but thanks to late … Read more

Generally, I like the motto “Move fast and break things.” It’s punk rock. It’s what tech needs to do. It pushes hard, fearlessly. It’s better to take the risk now than just pudder along doing the same old thing. Move the ball forward! This, except when things do get broke…and it took forever to do … Read more

I got these new brakes from the UK just before a hard BREXIT hit on Halloween. What an insane situation for a trade company. Spooky AF. #thanksobama The moving target that is mountain bikes never fails to disappoint. Everything has changed and will again. We can’t rest. Generally, things keep getting better. I’ve been saying … Read more