"Use the product" is one piece of advice I've gotten from a friend who makes high-end, custom guitars. So here it is: the Métier Vélo Classic Race, my personal ride. Fabricated with 6/4 3D printed titanium lugs and carbon tubes from Rockwest Composites here in Salt Lake City.
Keep reading for details and some Bike Porn.
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Métier Vélo is pleased to offer custom, filament wound carbon fiber tubes from Tim Crossman Cycles. Tim is a framebuilder and custom tube entrepreneur based in Ukraine. Tim selects a carbon filament composition based on your requirements and fabricates a tubeset unique to your needs.
We are excited that Tim has designed a tubeset specifically for Métier Vélo frames. The Métier-Vélo-specific tubes include ovalized, tapered chainstays, a tapered top tube, a seat tube with reinforced clamp region, and super-slim, elegant 11mm seatstays. In addition, Tim Crossman tubes come in a range of standard sizes to meet every rider’s need. Stay tuned for some great frames built with Crossman tubes!
Consider a ready-to-race Métier Vélo bicycle. Complete with high-end wheels, powermeter, and top components, a complete Métier Vélo bicycle is in the same price range as a high-end manufactured bicycle from Cannondale or Trek.
With Métier Vélo, you're getting a full-custom bike, guaranteed for the life of the builder, with full no-questions crash repair or replacement. You're paying directly for the design, frame and components, not marketing, distribution, and dealers. Check out this blog entry on why you might consider a Métier Vélo bicycle. Here are some package examples from the Bicycles page. Prices updated 5 April 2017.
Back to our regularly scheduled life…
I don't know what all the Rules are, but this should be one of them. You’re not getting the most out of your frame if you’re not riding high-quality wheels and tires. I recommend tubular tires in almost all situations. Tubular tires provide the highest ride quality, better handling and comfort, and in many situations, superior safety. I’ve ridden tubulars since the 1980’s, and exclusively for the last decade. If you’re riding road, gravel, cyclocross, or cross-country on a hardtail mountain bike (yes, even offroad), you should be riding tubulars. Here’s why.
On Memorial Day, 30 May 2016, after two hard days on the bike, I was out on a recovery ride on UT-65 headed up Big Mountain when I was hit without warning from behind. I remained conscious the entire time after I was hit, and I landed so that I was looking at the rear of the car that hit me, so I saw that the driver had not swerved, did not brake, and accelerated as he left the point of impact. I have no reason to believe the collision was anything but intentional.
The MASM is the ultimate in saddle adjustability and security. Here's a short video demonstrating height adjustment. More to come!
Métier Vélo was recently featured in articles in Bikerumor and CyclingTips. Check them out if you haven't already. Bikerumor features my interview with Anna Schwinn at NAHBS2016. CyclingTips gives a more general overview of 3D printed parts in custom bicycle building. http://www.bikerumor.com/2016/04/05/nahbs-2016-metier-velo-carrer-biwakoguma-journey-and-patrick-in-new-builder-round-up/ http://cyclingtips.com/2016/03/nahbs-2016-3d-printing-hits-its-stride/ For every new frame model, big name bicycle manufactures build a number of prototypes and test them to destruction to see where they fail. But for a small builder doing full custom, every frame is a prototype. Without extensive prototyping and destructive testing, how do you know a frame from a custom builder is safe?
I address safety in five ways:
Having made these points, fellow builders at NAHBS 2016 offered to test a frame to failure for me at minimal cost. It is very generous of them. Most likely, the NAHBS Winter Training Bike will be sacrificed sometime this summer. After I do a post-mortem, I'll send the lugs back to GPI for evaluation. I’ll post the results here. In the meantime, read on for more detail. |
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