This past week, at the Sea Otter Classic, Shimano officially unveiled their new premier off-road group-set. The XTR M9000. Attempting to directly compete and regain traction against SRAM’s now dominant XX1 group, the new Shimano group has eleven speeds and a single chainring option. There are some differences with how the rear derailleurs function. The … Read more
I went down to Sea Otter again. I raced the downhill and spent most of my energy on practice and the race. I was able to get some time in the pits and booths for some pics. There are several things to mention. XTR Front Derailleur – Truly amazing. I’m a fan of 2X shifting … Read more
2014. It’s time for another Sea Otter Classic. It’s always such a great weekend and so much fun. If you’ve never gone and raced then you are really missing out. Don’t just go, race! It makes a difference. You become part of the show and it’s a whole different thing. The weather looks to be … Read more
I love going to the North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS). Now in it’s tenth year, this show is an event where some of the most dedicated, inspired, and serious bicycle crafts people display and sell their work. Also, it’s a place where the geeks and aficionados can meet with the crafts people, to not … Read more
Due to the drought that we’ve been facing in California, this post is coming up a lot later in the season than I would have expected. We finally have a little bit of rain and the trails no longer resemble dry summertime conditions. The slippery dusty hard trails has been replaced by soft slop and … Read more
This is something sweet that we’ll see at NAHBS. Drew Guldalian, of Engin Cycles, is one of the finest frambuilders in the United States. A 3 time winner of Best Mountain Bike prize at NAHBS. He’s, in my opinion, a framebuilder’s framebuilder. Like the folks at Firefly or Carl Strong, the work he does contributes … Read more
Over the years and more subtly throughout the year, how your bike fits you and how you fit your bike will change. This change isn’t just the simple bio-mechanical fit, but also how you relate to and use the bike. It is a commonly held myth in the cycling world that the ‘fit’ of a … Read more
I recently got a call on the phone about a print that I had put up somewhere online with the details of a Shimano hyperglide 9 spd cassette interface. It turns out that it was the only dimentioned print of a Shimano Hyperglide interface found on the web. I had forgotten about it. It was … Read more
Here’s something fun and useful. I love when I get to get all math-y… A long time ago (2006), I put a blurb up on my wiki. It was a re-post from long ago that I had posted onto a skateboarding message board, probably back in 1998 or so. My web site, wiki, and now … Read more
I build bikes, I tune bikes, and I ride bikes. I design them to work just right and then I ride them and find out if they really do. As a constructor, I’m ensuring that what’s on the paper matches what gets painted but most importantly, that what get’s painted isn’t going to get somebody … Read more
There are a few legends in the cycling world. For geeks like me and for the shredders, Hadley is up near the top of the list. Mike Hadley has been making hubs for a long time. You could make an argument that they are the best hubs ever made. You could also make an argument … Read more
I had some old Independent 101 mm skate trucks laying around and a set of wheels collecting dust. I figured I’d put them to work. An Indy 101 mm truck is very narrow. Typically, you’d be using side set wheels in a modern context to make these work for anything but a child’s board. I … Read more
I hate calling these things bash rings. The only bike of mine that really has a bash ring is my full on DH bike. That lands ring first on rocks. For the rest of my bikes I like to think of them as guide rings. They keep the chain from falling off the big ring … Read more
The San Francisco Bay Area is an incredible place to be a bicycle rider. There are so many incredible places to ride road and dirt in pretty much any direction coming out of San Francicso. You can do some sweet road rides directly out of the city or ride killer singeltrack in Marin. Some rides … Read more
Here’s one of my favorite new bike setups. Skinny multi-speed mountain bike cranks. XX1 cranks with two chainrings and a guide ring. This setup is going on my Firefly 29er Hardtail and I just did it on my Anthem 27.5. I’ll have just 7mm of clearance from the fat Ti chainstays. Sick! Enough, I hope. I’ve been a Shimano guy … Read more
I’ve got a real problem with hipsters. They completely lack authenticity but they are also compelled to blaze this into everyone’s faces and with such arrogance hidden beneath faux irony. Everything they do seems to be for show and they suck the life out of anything that was once cool. Then, when the corpse of the … Read more
***This bike was updated: See here*** I broke. I needed a faster bike. I got my ass handed to me at Annadel State Park a few weeks ago by a couple guys on tight FS 29ers. I was on my heavy Butcher. Proabably the worst tool for the job of XC dash and run. 26″ wheels … Read more
Ever have a buddy destroy a fancy carbon frame in a crash for something as silly as the handlebars smashing the top tube. It’s an epidemic. Fuck that. For the past few years I’ve been struggling with fit on my mountain bikes. Even with my own designed bikes, I know where I want the grips to … Read more
These went live today. So cool. It’s been interesting watching all of this unfold. A year or so ago, I designed a pair of titanium road dropouts for Firefly Bicycles. They turned out pretty good. Everyone was really stoked on how they looked and worked within the bike. Recently, Jamie contacted me about a pair … Read more
The long term update. Three years ago, I put together a new Santa Cruz Butcher APP bike. I was looking for a super tough, cheap, simple play bike that I could do anything with. That turned out to be quite the learning curve for setting up longer travel trail bikes. The way that I initially put … Read more
There are right ways of doing a job and wrong. People talk about this a lot but somehow few really stick to it. Recently, while trying to solve some gearing issues, I ordered a custom chainring from Warhawk Industries. I wanted to get a 32t and 34t ring in 80BCD. I ordered the part with 2.5 … Read more
I’m a Shimano fan. Some things about Shimano just can’t be argued; they make the best brakes, pedals, and cranks….PERIOD. I’m also a big fan of RockShox forks, Truvativ stems, posts, and bars. My big problem is that lately I’ve been buying SRAM cranks. Sorry, I do love Shimano cranks. Many years ago, Shimano introduced … Read more
My new (to me) Yamaha Majesty scooter had an issue. The gearing was way too tall for it. It kept the bike feeling pretty mild. Something many people like in a scooter but not something I do. I want every bit of the bike working. This gearing was so tall it left a lot on … Read more
This Saturday was the annual Biketoberfest party in Fairfax. Typically everything you see is as expected. This year was a bit different as there were some serious klunkers and folk surrounding the Koski tent. Pretty insane stuff. Many things I hadn’t seen.
Things have been changing a lot with modern mountain bike specifications. Dropper posts, long front centers, cable routing, and 142mm rear spacing to name just a few things. When it comes to dropper posts, it’s settled that internal or ‘stealth’ routing is the standard and preferred way of doing things. Bike frames that are just a year or two … Read more
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