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
This post is going to catch a lot of little things. I usually post on a single topic but a lot of small things have been piling up. I just ordered some very odd sized allen wrenches. In larger increments, 13, 15, 16, 18, 23mm allen keys are next to non-existent in the US. Needing one of … Read more
This is a fun little bike. An interesting exercise in design. After participatin in all five of the Bay Area Prestige Cyclocross races in series and the first of the mixed-terrain Grasshopper Adventure series, a need truly arose for a different kind of bike for me to use. I had been using a well converted 29er bike, but that still … Read more
The other day, Steve Garro of Coconino Cycles posted an image to his Facebook wall that got a bit of attention. This probably isn’t a new image for some people to see but it got a lot of attention. Specifically, it got my attention. I was in the mood to really think about some bike design … Read more
Saddle Setback is often referenced when transferring a rider fit from bike to bike. There is a danger to generalize this setup dimension and get religious without paying attention to true details. The point of this post is that a rider and fitter need to pay close attention to the details of this saddle placement. … Read more
Fairfax is the cycling epicenter of the Bay Area. A perfect combination of road riding and mountain riding close to a lot of people and the San Francisco Bay Area. Of course, it’s known as the birthplace of mountain biking. I’m lucky to live there. A lot of folks in town have participated in changing … Read more
The road bike was finally completed. A nice comfortable road bike. Solid. A note on seat tube angle. Some will instantly comment on the 71 degree seat tube angle on this frame. This frame was designed for use with a 0mm offset seatpost. Using a traditional 25mm offset post would have resulted in a 73 … Read more
On my holiday Europe trip and skating around Paris on Christmas Day, I ended up at the base of the Eiffel Tower with it a bit too crowded to hike up the stairs to the top as I had planned. I was chilling out on the Pont d’lena Bridge across from the tower watching people … Read more
While in Paris, France recently (xmas eve, 2012) and skating up the Avenue des Champs-Élysées toward the Arc de Triomphe, I came across the Toyota concept store. This is one of the most important retail locations on earth so this store is selling the brand ‘Toyota’, not specific cars. They set up their own little museum culminating with their hybrid technology ala Prius and … Read more
“I can make a streetfighter out of anything!” That was the title of a post made by some internet clown in the BARF-Garage forum a few years a go. It really stuck out as the whole “streetfighter” thing was in full bloom around then. Essentially, this guy had ‘invested’ in a $3.60 hack saw and figured … Read more
I found someone’s old Nikon Coolpix P2 while cleaning up the other day. It was missing a battery and charger that would have been far to expensive to replace on an old camera that I didn’t even need. What to do……? HACK! Hacking into something for fun is a great way to learn. You learn how to … Read more
I’m not a great photographer. I don’t really claim to be. I use photos to document what I see. This means I need to keep a camera close by. Camera phones are a nice tool for folks, but a real camera high resolution (18MP APS-C) and interchangable lenses is irreplaceable. The help with this I’ve … Read more
Daniel needed a nice adapter for his fancy new bike. He’s running fixed LSD with Profile type cranks. Needed adapters to the PF30 we built into his frame. Simple stuff and problem solved. On most bikes these adapters could have been made of delrin. The issue is that Daniel does a bit of crank and … Read more
Over the years, I’ve had the luck of being able to meet, know, and work with some of the best people in the hand-built bicycle industry. It’s very cool being able to talk with peers about how they see the bicycle and what they want to do with it. I hope to be able to … Read more
Daniel came by the shop today with a nice little job. He’s starting to build up the fixxie freestyle frame he built in the shop. He needed a left side drive 135mm spaced fixed hub with 14mm axle for pegs. Not the easiest thing to find. It would be even nicer if it had a … Read more
I’ve been putting off a new camera purchase for a few years. When my last ‘point and shoot’ died, I was left with my Canon 40D DSLR and a camera phone. I love the 40D but it’s really not fun to have with me all the time. Also, it’s pretty dated compared to even the … Read more
I made this handy tool a while back. A Spreader Bar. It works very well. This bar was intended for hanging from the ceiling and suspending from or in-line on the ground connecting hands and feet. It’s a little long for some uses but will cover a very many. It’s 5 feet long, only weighs … Read more
This month, I’ve broken two Shimano XT cassettes (11-32, CS-M771-10-bL). The smaller cog carrier, #Y1YR98040 (18,20,22), has failed in exactly the same way both times. This is something that is very rarely seen and even rarer to see it the same way so soon for one person. This is certain to be an engineering or manufacturing … Read more
Geeking out on camera stuff lately. An interesting project is the quality Canon EOS pinhole lens. I’ve got it completely engineered and the hard parts solved. I just need to get up off my butt and make it. It’s funny how some simple projects sit. Maybe posting this will spike some interest. Designed around 34mm EF-S … Read more
Healing up from my wrist injury last September has been quite a journey. It’s been very discouraging but giving the situation I’m glad that I got out the way I did. Things could have been much worse and I am grateful. Still, I miss cycling well. The past month has seen a bit of improvement … Read more
The other day, I was having a conversation via Facebook with an old friend, Dave. We were talking about something having to do with his new bicycle. This and that. At some point, he flashes a picture on the message saying “Hey! look.” I was blown away. A world from so long ago… It was … Read more