I prefer to build complete bicycles so that I can make sure everything fits just right. I can build to specifications, but there is nothing like having a part in your hand. Quality Bicycle Products is a national distributor of bicycle components and bike related products. QBP is based in Minnesota, and supplies bicycle shops all over the US with regional distribution centers. QBP is great about supporting small builders; even though Métier Vélo is a small volume operation, QBP was very generous in providing an OEM account. QBP's support is the reason I can equip your Métier Vélo frame with components at competitive prices. QBP supplies Métier Vélo with almost all parts: SRAM and Campagnolo component groups, forks, cockpit components, wheels, and most everything else you can put on your frame. When you order a complete Métier Vélo bicycle, one of the first things I do is order your components so that I have them in-hand while I am designing your frame.
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Rolf Prima Wheel Systems hand builds wheels one-at-a time in Eugene Oregon. Rolf Prima fits with the Métier Vélo ethos of building by hand, one-at-a time, using US-sourced parts. You can recognize Rolf Prima wheels by their distinctive paired spoke design. The company, owned by Brian Roddy, is a reincarnation of the original Rolf Prima , which died due to the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent retirement of founder Rolf Dietrich. Each Rolf Prima wheel comes with a card signed by the individual who built it. Rolf Prima wheels are built around their proprietary hubs, most of which are manufactured in the US. The rear hubs feature Differential Flange Diameter to transfer driving forces and a Dish-Reducing Design to further strengthen the rear wheel. Rolf Prima wheelsets have a number of innovative technical features, look great, and have a 2-year warranty. Rolf Prima also has a lifetime crash-replacement program. Rolf Prima has been great to work with and is very supportive of small builders; many of the complete bikes at NAHBS feature Rolf Prima wheels. Métier Vélo has an OEM agreement with Rolf Prima, so you can have really great wheels on your Métier Vélo bicycle at a great price. Two forthcoming Métier Vélo bicycles will feature Rolf Prima wheels: Cross CX thru-axle tubulars on one and another with a set of Ares 4 clinchers built up with thru-axle hub front & rear.
For much of 2015, I’ve been working with GPI Prototype & Manufacturing Services, Inc. to optimize lug design for titanium 3D printing. Designs needed to be optimized for shape, amount of material, and build orientation; GPI was very generous with time and expertise in helping come up with the final lug shapes and other designs. They have been excellent to work with and the quality of the titanium prints continues to exceed my expectations. Titanium printing is pricey, and GPI has worked hard to help reduce the cost of a set of parts by approximately 40%, putting Métier Vélo bicycles in the same price bracket as a top-end manufactured bike from Trek or Cannondale. In addition to bicycle lugs, GPI prints rocket engines, implanted medical devices, among many other cool things. You can learn about GPI in this video (keep an eye out at 36s for a Métier Vélo head tube lug in production). Here are some of the final lugs after printing and cleanup: 3D printing describes a number of new manufacturing techniques that build a part by adding raw material one layer at a time to the three dimensional design. One advantage of 3D printing is that it allows complex shapes and details (such as cable guides and internal bracing) that can’t be achieved by machining (removing material from a billet) or molding. Métier Vélo uses two 3D printing processes: one for plastic and one for titanium. Printers that make things in plastic are relatively inexpensive so Métier Vélo has its own; the machines that print in titantium are expensive, big, and complex, so for printing the final titanium parts I send the final designs out for production In the shop, I use a MakerBot 2X to rapidly produce plastic prototypes. It prints in durable ABS plastic, so I also use the 2x to produce usable custom plastic parts. Once I have a final design, I send it to GPI Prototype for production in 6/4 titanium. There are important differences between printing in plastic and titanium, and GPI has been super-helpful in making sure Métier Vélo designs produce top-quality parts in titanium. Below are a few photos to give you an idea of the process: TRP Brakes are located right up the road from Métier Vélo in Ogden, Utah. TRP makes great OEM and aftermarket brakes. This year TRP came out with a thoughtfully designed thru-axle disc brake front fork for cross and gravel bicycles, one of the first aftermarket thru-axle carbon forks. TRP products often fill design gaps left by the Big Three component manufacturers (SRAM / Shimano / Campagnolo), and they have their own manufacturing facility in Taiwan, which lets TRP rapidly respond to market demands. TRP is a reliable presence at NAHBS, and does a great job of supporting small builders. You’ll find TRP carbon forks and TRP Hy/Rd hybrid cable-hydraulic brakes on upcoming Métier Vélo gravel bicycles. TRP is an OEM supplier for Métier Vélo , so whenever you specify TRP parts on Métier Vélo frames, you’re getting great performance at the best possible price. Last week I returned from racing the Tour of the Gila in Silver City, New Mexico. If you are not familiar with the race, it is a five day stage race in the Gila wilderness in and around Silver City. There are UCI races for both men and women, so the top riders in the country are in Silver City for the week. The cool thing about it is that the USAC amateur races run concurrently and on the same roads as the pros. The Gila is the only UCI event that I know of with this feature, and it make the racing super-cool. With five days of racing, altitude, climbing, technical descents, and wind, the Gila is hands down the hardest amateur event in the country. It is also the best organized race I've ever participated in, and the residents of Silver City do a great job of hosting the race. I rode for Cicada Racing Inc. in USAC Category 3 races with two teammates, Joergen and Gary. I had debated riding the Masters A category, but I was hoping the Cat 3 field would be larger and give me more places to hide from the wind, and Cicada Racing had planned on having a few more racers in Category 3. Both anticipated advantages turned out not to be the case: the Cat 3 field was about the same size as the Masters, and Cicada had the same number of riders in each. I went into the race fitter and lighter than last year, with more racing miles in this season and better crit skills, and it was a good thing; my Strava files showed I burned more energy and spent more time at higher heartrate zones than last year, leading me to conclude that the racing was harder this year than last. Joergen and Gary both did well; Joergen was just off the podium at 4th overall, and Gary was first in the 35+ competition and 10th overall. They are great racers and teammates and it was a privilege to race with them. I survived at 35th (out of 43). What follows is my impressions of each day of racing. The headset and bottom bracket are part of the soul of the bicycle, and essential for performance and reliability of the frame/fork ensemble. Unless you have very good reasons and can persuade me otherwise, a Métier Vélo frame fuselage (frame and fork together) will have a Chris King headset and bottom bracket pre-installed. Chris King components have a legendary reputation for performance and reliability. They are super-durable, well-designed and of the highest quality, so they have become the de facto standard on a majority of handbuilt custom bicycles. There are very few bicycles at NAHBS that do not use Chris King headsets and bottom brackets. As a business, Chris King Precision Components represents the best of US manufacturing; their parts are made in Portland, Oregon, and they support their community and small builders. My personal experience with Chris King headsets is typical: I have a mountain bike with a Chris King headset that was installed in 1998 and has never needed adjustment; it still feels like new. Chris King backs up their headsets with an unheard-of 10-year warranty, and warranty their bottom brackets for five years. Métier Vélo is a Chris King OEM partner, which means that not only are you getting the best headsets and bottom brackets on your frame, you’re also getting a great deal. What builders and brain surgeons should have in commonThe topic of this post has been keeping me up at night so I am going to get it off my chest. One of my upcoming builds is (of course) a disc-brake gravel bicycle (gravé, not pavé, no grinding here, just floating over the washboard like The Professor over cobbles). Everyone wants one. The data are clear that a disc brake bike should have thru-axles to control frame flex during braking; the rear thru-axle is essentially part of the frame (the front thru-axle is part of the fork). I designed custom rear thru-axle dropouts to accept the Syntace X-12 axle and a derailleur compatible with Shimano/SRAM road and SRAM cyclocross derailleurs. When I was at NAHBS 2015, one of the first bicycles to catch my attention was the Broken Arrow Cyclocross Bicycle by No22 Bicycles because it also uses a Syntace X-12 thru-axle. It was tricky to design a road hangar for the X-12 system, so I was eager to see No22’s take on the problem. However, I was disappointed: The Broken Arrow uses a standard X-12 hangar that was designed for a subset of mountain bike derailleurs, not the SRAM Force CX1 derailleur. At this point, you may have labelled me a obsessive quibbler, but being an obsessive quibbler is important in certain contexts: like brain surgery, flying an airliner, and framebuilding. The rest of this post is about:
Quibblers forever!
Bourbon, Beer & Beautiful Bikes | Wheels, Pieces and Parts I just returned from my second North America Handbuilt Bicycle Show in Louisville, Kentucky. NAHBS does a great job of showcasing custom bicycle builders and the companies that encourage and support them. If you’d like to know more about the show, check out the 2015 NAHBS website or online news coverage at Bikerumor, roadbikereview.com or Cyclocross Magazine. My wife Alexa went with me to keep me company and also on track (focus, Jamie). We had a great time at the show and experiencing a little bit of Louisville.
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