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" long loop so I wanted a new whip to take on the challenge. First design change was...

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 previous fat bike wasn't cutting it around here. It was built around 27.5 x 4" tires...

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 #14, built in 2019. Progressive mountain bike geometry was starting to be a thing...

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 Spindle" (KOPS) will come up, and usually by someone referring to an article written...

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 probably still hear about it since people are still experimenting with even bigger...

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 middle of 2023 of course I got curious. So this series of posts covers what I...

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 middle of 2023 of course I got curious. So this series of posts covers what I...

Back in the golden age of blogs I started multiple sites on Wordpress.com but they had hometown-specific names and every time I moved I felt obligated to start a new one. Then social media happened and everyone stopped, but these days social media doesn't seem to be cutting it and the blogs are coming back. Many...