This last weekend was the 2019 NAHBS in Sacramento, California. It’s local to me so it was easy to go and enjoy the event as I like to; by working hard taking photos, recording interviews, and networking with bros. This year I decided to step up my game by trying to do audio and photo … Read more
It’s that time again. The North American Handmade Bike Show (NAHBS). It will be in Sacramento this weekend and I’ll be there taking photos of the details and doing interviews with folks. Hopefully work hard for a few days and mine some gold in the gold rush city. The funny thing about NAHBS, you don’t … Read more
I’ve needed this tool for a long time. I knew I did but never really went down the road to it. Moving a nice Kurt D688 vise to my shop from another had me looking at my setup. Much of this late winter has been devoted to improving my CAD models and tooling. Much of … Read more
This bike is named after the Incom T-47 Airspeeder. It’s such a badass low altitude combat fighter. It seemed fitting for what this bike is intended for. A flat bar all-road bike that is better in every way than all others in the class. After building the Bird of Prey I was a little sad. … Read more
Talking with another framebuilder bro today. He seemed to not know about 110×12 hubs and axles for the front of narrow gauge bikes. I got a little bit mad. Everyone should know. The market is currently flooded with fancy 100×12 wheels and exotic forks for road and gravel bikes. Cheap and expensive bikes are the … Read more
The winter time in Northern California is a great time to really visualize the pathetic tuning skills of most mountain bikers and roadies in the dirt. Regular rain and winter storms cover the ground with water and mud. This extends for 3-4 months. It’s painfully obvious as each rider goes by, on the wet and … Read more
I’m not a hipster. Really. I hope not. Anyway, I came across this thing on Craigslist the other day. A De FietsFabriek Bakfiets Classic dutch cargo bike. The ad explained the big problem. It had a broken kingpin but the rest of the bike was otherwise all there. A fix had been attempted that had failed … Read more
I know folks all over and going way back. Social media lets me see some of the cool stuff they do. Every now and then I see something they think up and I’m force to face palm myself. Obvious simple solutions that nobody sees until someone does. A month or so ago, Scott Parsley from … Read more
This post is about something few people hear but many need to. You are not an expert on bikes. You aren’t. No matter what you’ve convinced yourself of, you’re not. You make YouTube videos, you comment in forums, you go on lots of rides. Still, you really don’t know a lot about bikes. Everyone in … Read more
You may know who Joshua Ogle is. He’s a pretty well known guy from the US bike making scene as he’s been making things for a very long time. One of the reference personalities for sure. Jericho Bikes (long since gone) is what he may be best known for when he was building frames in … Read more
Under normal circumstances most folks wouldn’t bother with such a repair. They would just throw these cranks away. This isn’t one of those circumstances. This is different. I also don’t like to waste money and know exactly what I want. This part will be repaired. (I also like good content here) I have a couple … Read more
Here’s a cool tool. It’s a replacement #745 Radial Centering Cone on the Park Tool #HTR-HS Head Tube Reaming and Facing Handle. It more optimizes use of the tool for bores from 41mm to 56mm without the need for a Park Tool # 750.2 Oversized Centering Cone Adapter (which doesn’t actually come up to a 56mm … Read more
This bike was yet another journey into the creative pain cave. It was not something I had wanted to do. It was something I had to do. The war must be fought and we need the best tools. This is the magic bullet that goes around corners. Now, it’s inspiring further exploration in design. This … Read more
Some bikes can stop a whole show. At Interbike 2018, the annual US bicycle trade show, that’s exactly what this one did. Over and over you’d hear, “Did you see the Wonder Woman bike?”, “Did you…?” No other bike got more attention. It was an amazing piece of work by Nick Lee Airbrushing. The quality … Read more
It was time to really test the Bird of Prey on dirt and in a more aggressive urban sense. Just a few mountain bike rides on it. Hopefully another few before it gets road tires for getting to work. Enough time for a general fit and gearing. 36t gear and 10-50 gearing to keep it … Read more
The PVD Red Baron has long been the king of all the klunkers. Krunker. The dankest and rawest bitch in town. The bike isn’t a rehashing of old aesthetics. It’s a real modern ‘low’ performance bike. It flys down trail and feels good doing it. The original build was intended as an experiment on what … Read more
Ok. The winner is the winner and second place is the first loser. We learned that a long time ago. Have you looked any deeper into your race results? Were you actually “mid-pack”? A top rider? Shitty? Sure, you can see what order you came in but knowing more about the race isn’t often discussed. … Read more
On August 1, 1981, a brand new cable station, MTV, aired the first of many music videos in it’s programming. They were to be the first 24/7 music television station. They weren’t the first to air music videos to homes but they were the first that claimed to be all about music and their accompanying video … Read more
The general rule in the machine shop is to never make when you can buy. With some exceptions, you’re usually doing yourself a huge disservice by choosing to make something that is otherwise available commercially at reasonable prices. There are some exceptions to this but often you’ll end up spending more money than it would … Read more
I’m not a big fan of the recent trend of tooled axles in all bikes. It has a place, but most of the time it’s a nuisance. They look clean. They are slightly lighter. But that’s really not everything when it comes to the use value of a bicycle. In real use most road going … Read more
Now that I’m back from my Whistler trip and ready to replace the brutalized rim of the rear wheel on my bike, I’m looking into the spoke lengths needed to do the job. The Chromag BA30 rim has a nipple stagger of about 5.2mm, 2.6mm to either side. This threw a wrench into my usual … Read more
Here’s the question: Do you need a downhill bike? In other words, have enduro bikes progressed to the point of usurping their larger brothers? About fifteen years ago, if you were going to ride at a properly set up bike in a park like Whistler or Northstar, you’d have to be on a real downhill … Read more
There’s an issue that the modern bicycle mechanic needs to address; When working with flat mount calipers and centerlock rotors and 12mm axles, a MTB large spline lockring can’t be used as they cause interference with the caliper or brackets with many front forks and adapters. The more streamline type are used. Instead of the … Read more
In my RockShox Super Deluxe RT w/Remote Trunnion shock (205 x 60mm. Trunnion/8×30) in my 2018 Kona Process 153 29 DL/AL, I felt I needed more compression damping. I’d constantly blow through all my travel when big trail riding. That left nothing in reserve for DH riding. With a trip to Whistler coming up and … Read more
It has been a little slow posting here in PVD land. Not because nothing has been going on. Exactly the opposite. So much that my head is spinning. A new bike. All-road 3.0. This bike has been the largest scale bike project that I’ve done in a while. So many details to be designed, engineered, … Read more
Warning! Some of the information below has been superseded by new information. I’ve been doing a ton of work with disc brake standards lately. For my own new bike and because recent proposed “standards” needed correction. This post is intended to pass on what I’ve come up with and communicate to the industry a path … Read more
Here’s another post in the never ending saga of the new FM140 mount I’ve been working on. I decided to go with a special variant to work better with SRAM calipers. SRAM calipers are shifted about 0.3mm outboard. Along with some manufacturing and tooling tolerances as well as paint and clear coat, the 1.omm slot … Read more
Flat mount has been the topic of the week in PVD land. I can’t wait until this is over. The flat mount specification was released a few years ago and had everyone pulling out their hair. It is a fine system but it was specified so poorly and in such a confusing way that it … Read more
What’s old is new again. Circa 1997. The Hayes 22mm caliper mount. Believe it or not, this is what changed mountain bike braking forever and truly brought disc brakes to every day mountain bikes. Back in ’97 or ’98, I bought a bike with these brakes on it. I was the first in my crew … Read more
I started this project last fall and I’m finally getting it done. I’m trying to clear the counters in the shop and I’m hoping to stay on track. I like to use my PVD StepDown brake mount on frames and forks. After welding, some calibration of the mount is good to do. This will help. … Read more