Bike Writes (drwelby.net)
Bike Writes (drwelby.net)
Marc Pfister
Writing towards a deeper understanding of cycling and bicycle design.
Latest Posts
I was at a local trialhead and under the trail map kiosk I spotted a lime green anodized metal cube. I figured it was another vaping device so I picked it up with the intention of either extracting a nice rechargeable battery, or...
Not-so-fat Bike Winter was a total bust. We barely had any snow down in town. So little that I questioned whether I should bother with a fat bike any more, if winters were going to be like this. But we also have plenty of sand here. I...
A few months ago, I took my gravel bike apart and put the frame up in the attic. I liked riding it, but I rode it less and less. Earlier in the year I'd been thinking a lot about handlebars, mostly as an aerodynamics thing. My gravel...
Dang. Still lagging on getting things written. So here's a flurry of updates that I cranked out in one sitting. It got a little long, so some sections got split out to post separately, and those will get posted as I finish editing them...
I've messed around with alcohol stoves for years since they're fun to mess with. There's no end to new designs. Some have amazing craftsmanship while others are mindboggling simple. The classic Fancy Feast stove is no more than a cat...
I got seriously into bikes back in high school (Class of 1991, if you're wondering). Or maybe bikes found me - they were the perfect match of not mainstream, yet sort of tough athletically. There was lots of engineering stuff to think...
Blog meta I have not fussed with the blog, so we're still on Zola. As site generators go, Zola seems to be gaining popularity for its stability, which is another way to say the developers haven't broken things in the name of "upgrades"....
With SC-3 and the Ruby Roubaix behind me, it was time to build a new trail bike to take over from the fat bike's temporary role filling the need. I had really liked the first fat bike as a rigid 29+ trail bike, so I thought I'd use that...
Number 3 in the "Short Crank" series is a formal replacement for SC-1. While it rode fine it was meant to be a test mule and there were a few things I wanted to update too. This year I also was planning to ride the 200k "Ruby Roubaix"...
The first full frame build for the "Short Crank" series was a fat bike frame but being the second project in the series it gets the designation of SC-2. The choice of a fat bike frame was because winter was coming and I felt like my...
Here's a closer look at "SC-1" the first bike in my "short crank" series. I also contrast it to my previous gravel frame which give a bit more context to the geometry changes that are going into the SC series. This frame was originally...
Updated 2025-10-11 with information from Hinault's book Current bike fit trends (both on road and off) have riders moving forwards on the bike. At some point in any online discussion, the topic of the old fit rule "Knee Over Pedal...
If you've spent any time in mountain bike wheel discourse since the 29" tire came out, you've probably heard about "the tractor study". If you haven't, even though 29" wheels are 20 years old and more or less the standard, you'll...
These days crank arm length is a hot topic. I almost avoided it - I've been happily turning over 175s for 35 years and didn't see a need to change. I even did some experiments 20 years ago. But the topic wouldn't disappear, and in the...
These days crank arm length is a hot topic. I almost avoided it - I've been happily turning over 175s for 35 years and didn't see a need to change. I even did some experiments 20 years ago. But the topic wouldn't disappear, and in the...