June 13th, 2008 David
Here is one for you, Phil: this road bike is built around long reach caliper brakes and room for 35C tires or more. The owner has back problems, so the frame is build with a lot of head tube extension to get the bars higher without loosing stand over clearance. The frame is titanium with curved seatstays for a softer ride. Between the Ti frame and the 30C tires, the ride will be smooth without compromising drive train stiffness. With a full Ultegra SL build and a full carbon Alpha Q CS25 fork, the bike is very light. We are using Schwalbe’s 700x30C folding bead Marathon Racer tires, which are light and fast.
Posted in New Bikes | 1 Comment »
June 9th, 2008 David
This bike is a singlespeed 29er specifically for endurance racing. The rider is a 5’7″ woman who was looking for a bike for endurance races such as the upcoming “Crank the Shield” stage race – lots of hours in rough terrain. The custom frame is built from True Temper OX Platinum tubes and is designed around the Pace RC29 S80 suspension fork. The down tube features a large gusset for stiffness and for good clearance of the fork crown. The bike is designed to have the same bar height and geometry as her rigid 29er at the ‘active’ height of the suspension during hard riding. Our ‘test pilot’ just raced the bike to 1st place at the Kelso O-cup and is very happy with the bike’s handling, and the performance of the Pace fork.
Posted in New Bikes | 2 Comments »
May 28th, 2008 Hugh
I haven’t really had an opportunity to build a mountain bike around Kirk Pacenti’s 27.5″ mtn bike tires. These tires mount on a 650b rim. The overall wheel size ends up being half way between a normal 26 inch wheel and a 29 inch wheel. I am going to try to build Christine a combo style of bike. She needs a bike for commuting and for trail riding. I have designed the bike so it will handle properly as a commuter with a 650b X 38c tire or as a rigid mtb with the 27.5 inch tires. The BB height is critical and can be adjusted accordingly with the eccentric bottom bracket.
The frame is being built out of True Temper Platinum tubing. I am not sure what the final paint scheme will be. So far a brown/pink combo seems to in the running.
For years I have dreaded reaming seat tubes. I never really seemed to have an efficient system that didn’t require a huge amount of elbow grease. A little while back I found a number of 1.5 hp motors with gears boxes attached and thought that some day I might have a chance to use them for a reaming machine. My friend Wheelspinner put this machine together for around $200 and a couple of afternoons of work. It works like a dream!
Posted in Cool Projects, Custom Frames, Prototype Frames | No Comments »
