chris@canootervalve.com

Fafunding

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Nov 092012

A while back I asked for some opinions about launching Project Danzig, my little bike design, on Kickstarter. While I consider both of the guys who read these posts to be infinitely wise and well-traveled in the world of bicycles, making sense of the responses has proven difficult. I got a lot of responses (OK, there are more than two of you out there), but zero consensus. Like a total 50/50 split.

Now I know some of you just vote the “no” ticket across the board, from supporting cheesy-sounding new “social micro-financing invention sites” to rescuing a bus filled with puppies from a volcano, but for the split to be so balanced wasn’t expected.

What’s up with that?

Either way, I’m taking a break from banging my head against the keyboard to point out one particularly upscale Kickstarter project, Fabike (I don’t know either–it’s like a cross between “Fabio,” the designer, and “bike”).

To my thinking, Fabike marks a few key changes to the bike projects I normally see on Kickstarter.

For one thing, most Kickstarter projects tend to skew toward hippie-capitalism–“it’s about all of us, man” kind of vibe. In contrast, Fabio’s baked his name right into the bike. He’s bringing a little bravado and swagger to the party, and why the hell not? If my name were Fabio, I would, too. There’s no “i” in “teamwork,” but there’s a lot of “fa” in the “fabike.”

More importantly, this is clearly a company, not a dude. You don’t set out to “fund your little labor of love” by offering a carbon fiber frameset and a full assortment of private label branded parts, from crankset to wheelset–to laser-etched BB30 adapter cup set.

I’m not for or against here. I’m just curious to see what’s clearly a company using Kickstarter to fund what appears to be a pretty sophisticated project. Why half of you don’t like Kickstarter, I may never know (unless you comment), but I’m wondering how Kickstarter has changed in the last year. I suspect it’s become a target for companies capitalized enough to have developed something without it, but using it to hedge their bets.

Interesting to see how all of this will change in the next week, let alone the next six months.

Still drawing.

Fine Tune #9,493

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Nov 082012

So what I discovered when I reviewed the patent on this thing last night is that the forward lower pivot does not need to be below the rearward lower pivot. Does that make any sense, or have I gone full redrum at this point? I had to impose constraints about the relationship between the upper and lower pivots, but not the vertical relationship between pivots on the same rocker. OK, I’m pretty sure that one didn’t make any sense. Redrum.

Basically, I can rotate the front of the lower linkage up, away from the bottom bracket shell. There are some interesting things that happen when you do this but overall it’s just an option, and I’m at the point where design options damn near make me weep. Right now options are cause for celebration the way finding out you can scratch your nose against the ground when buried to your neck in sand is cause for celebration. A little wiggle room when you thought you were all out of that sort of thing can be a pretty big deal.

Still no magic wand, though. Because the real beauty of the system is how the lower link tracks right along the chain, you really can’t just go putting it anywhere without screwing up the system.

Anyway, back to the drawing board.

Dear Diary

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Nov 072012

Dear diary,

A very good friend of many years suggested I should begin a blog entry with “Dear diary,” so there it is. It’s kind of nice, you know, writing notes to yourself. Except I find me so boring that I hardly ever read anything I’ve written, as anyone who reads this blog has already realized.

Looks like we elected a president again last night. I did my part. Other than hoping he also carries the popular vote to minimize the chance of a shooting spree or two over the coming months, I keep politics well out of my Canootervalve. Let’s all agree to dislike one another while hoping for the best.

Also on the subject of writing notes to oneself, I ended up having to read my own patent tonight. Hard to believe I didn’t drink back then.

The good news is that I learned something that will make creating bikes a hell of a lot easier. It’s like the me of 2007 knew the me of 2012 would be a distracted dumbass and would need clear instructions–written in legalese or not–regarding the removal of one’s head from one’s ass. Go me!

What I discovered should go a long way toward solving the pivot size and front derailleur issues, and sort of gives me a whole new parameter of adjustment I didn’t realize was available. It’s like being a painter for twenty years and then discovering the color blue.

Lots of drawing to do.

Optimal Placement and Suing Toward Viability

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Nov 062012

Two posts today? Yep. To prove I was sufficiently exhausted when I queued up yesterday’s post late Sunday night, I ended up failing to actually post it. I believe I fell asleep on the keyboard, woke up and went to bed.

Anyway, tonight I received the optimal location of my pivots in light of clearances and structure. Or something. Basically, the pivot locations you see above would play nice with things like front derailleurs, bottom brackets and giant pivot axles.

They just wouldn’t work right from a suspension standpoint.

So the challenge now becomes how to provide as much room for derailleurs and everything as possible, while staying true to my design. The pivots really do need to be in very specific locations for this to work. There are little pockets, though, small ranges of potential locations.

That’s what I’ll be doing with my late nights for a while now. At least I know now that any problems I have with the design I can blame on the UCI.

Seriously, happy as I am to see the vultures descending on Messrs. McQuaid and Verbruggen, they are still vultures.

The Fine Tuning Month

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Nov 052012

November’s really the perfect month for messing around with a suspension system. I’m in the middle of a few optimizations of Danzig’s pivot locations to improve shock and front derailleur clearance. I was really happy with the results of some initial work I did over the weekend, but working with a fabricator is a little like working with an editor. I create. He critiques. I go back to the drawing board. I’m ready for that process to take a while, but “move the lower pivot forward a quarter inch” is the type of casual request that takes about twelve hours to really make possible. (Front derailleur blues.) Overall, I’m really enjoying learning everything I can about the process.

Then there’s the green light on a major site redesign I’m helping make happen. It’s going to be difficult as hell, but very worth it I think. Consulting, programming, writing copy and “curating content” (whatever the hell that really is) every night makes for an interesting part-time job. Also makes for some long days.

On the day-job front, there’s the looming dark mass of obligations that are The Holidays. Spread across three sites and a whole lot of responsibility, opportunities for the mind to wander to thoughts of frame designs are few and far between.

At any rate, the results of the Kickstarter poll are decidedly inconclusive–about half of you don’t recommend going that route, while the other half think it sounds fine. Anyone who’d like to offer some insight into his or her vote, please feel free to comment.

Meanwhile, I have some pivots to move.

The Look In Your Eye

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Nov 022012

Forget Google Glass, Oakley has started off the post-Lance era with a bang.

Heads up display is comingg to ski goggles, though I suppose you could ride in them if you wanted to, or sit around the house in them, pretending to be rad.

The feature list includes just about everything except laser beam incineration, and I’m damn glad I’m not an actual journalist so I don’t have to list all that bullshit out here, but suffice to say, you can do some freaky shit. Sync to your iPhone, is one example. Track friends and get GPS display to help you find your way home are some others.

Being officially Old and Cranky, I’m bound to be a little snarky about this sort of thing, but less so than some. Surely (or “surly”) anyone who believes something as quaint as riding while wearing headphones to be a sin will have to feel wearing these googles is tantamount to full-scale Satanism.

Just how much is packed into these goggles? According to CNET, they’re pretty “boss.”

Featuring a passel of sensors including GPS, Bluetooth, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and more, the Airwave is meant to give skiers an entirely new level of information about where they are and what they’re doing than has been possible before.

Like it or not, you have to admit this looks a lot like the future. The semi-intrusive, blinky and beepy future, wherein one gathers a great deal of information about what one is currently doing, as opposed to doing it.

Finally for this long, long week, a truly bizarre opportunity presented itself for Project Danzig today. I can’t talk about it, which is good, because probably nothing will come of it. If it did, though, two of my planets would align. I’ve heard good things about that happening.

Either way, more Danzig next week, assuming I make it there to join you.

New Scats and Old Thumpers

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Nov 012012

Well then. Here on Bikerumor today’s pretty much the carbon disc ‘cross frame I was considering bringing to market, except Performance made some frame decisions I would not have made–and I think putting white bar tape on a ‘cross bike makes about as much sense as bathing in your toilet.

But really I don’t know whether to be encouraged or discouraged. I’ve sort of made a habit of always doing the exact opposite of anything Performance does (including make shit-tons of money). Now my life is in turmoil or something.

Certainly looking like 2013 is going to be the year of the photocopied carbon fiber disc ‘cross frameset instead of the year we spend wading through endless clones of 650b carbon hardtails. But I’m OK with that. I really like frames like this. I just want to make a nicer one.

Meanwhile, can anyone tell me why Hammerhead Bikes has a page dedicated to Charles Coker and the great Titus-derived bike he created, and then offers a 29er? Coker’s 100x was a long travel Racer-X. It still had 26-inch wheels.

But Coker wasn’t nearly crazy enough to create a Titus Racer-X with 29-inch wheels. Convincing Chris Cocalis of Titus to build not only a new front triangle, but also an entirely new chainstay and seatstay assembly for bigger wheels would’ve been the work of a madman, and building a bike like that more than a decade ago would’ve been pure stupidity. Only a raving lunatic would think to put big wheels on a Racer-X to create some unholy monster truck of a bike that absolutely hauled ass through the medieval graveyard-looking rock gardens of Southwestern PA. Frankly, it’d be tough for me to even imagine a bike like that if weren’t for the revolutionary new Hammerhead Thumper 29, or this bike I keep in my garage for old time’s sake.

Kickstart or Kickstop for Danzig

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Oct 312012

I know it’s been a long week of posts for anyone not particularly interested in the ecommerce side of my ramblings, but I’ve been eyeball-deep in that lately. As in “work on it all day, come home and work on another version of it” deep. Tough to get your brain out of that gear after a while. Even Halloween, traditionally a favorite holiday of mine, has crept up on me unexpectedly, so to speak.

But other projects are afoot and all. I’ve been paying particular attention to bikes and frames that’ve been appearing on Kickstarter. Volagi seemed to kill it with some pretty compelling offers on what’s going to be a very interesting new frameset, and now I’m seeing a Kickstarter project from a little company back on the East Coast. At least, let’s hope they’re still on the East Coast–after the past few days of hurricane conditons, they might well be located in Indiana now. (I have a lot of friends up and down that coast. Hope everyone’s well tonight.)

So: Danzig. The first prototype is in its early development stages now, but production is a whole separate serious of costs. If the prototype shows promise, should we use Kickstarter to offer t-shirts, new bike company stuff, and most importantly frames? I’m thinking we’d price at a “supporter” level that’d be about the same as a shop’s EP price.

What I’m wondering is this: is Kickstarter worth considering? As usual I turn to my favorite people in the world for guidance. Should we make Danzig frames available on Kickstarter? Let me know.

Chained Reaction

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Oct 302012

I don’t often get up on my soapbox, largely because I never really come down off it in the first place, but my vex du jour in the bike industry is actually a personal one. I’m pissed off about the trade war currently raging in the bike industry.

No, not that one–though, yeah, I suspect it’ll be a while before consumers in China develop a need for King headsets.

I’m talking about unique import practices–like the BMWs sawed in half you see up there. Doing that doesn’t do much for resale value, but it does let you import a BMW into the Ukraine for much less than a whole car would cost in fees.

As long as there have been different governments and currencies, somebody’s been making out on the differences, and it’s pretty common in the bike industry. But today I’m not talking about China, or even the Ukraine.

I’m talking about the problem of Irish imports.

Maybe best I be specific: I’m talking about Chain Reaction Cycles. It’s utter bullshit that a company like Chain Reaction can be based in a country that permits zero pricing regulation from distributors or manufacturers while still being allowed to sell into the U.S. market–a market where both online and brick and mortar dealers have their hands tied when it comes to pricing. Sure, the story of Chain Reaction is hard work and smart planning, but there’s also something to be said for handcuffing your opponent before proceeding to beat the living shit out of him, and that’s been their business model for years.

Reps tell tales of this company’s shipping rates being subsidized by the Irish government because they employ like a tenth of Ireland or something. Some say they’re all eight feet tall and can rip phone books in half (also provided free by the Irish government). Others say one year employment there automatically makes you a member of Irish parliament and gives you papal dispensation to kill in the name of God.

Reps sometimes exaggerate.

At any rate, bullshit, this, or bollocks. Whatever. Sour milk, sure, but there’s insult amidst the injury here, too.

Last Friday, one of the more recognizable companies in the bike industry lurched back into their three year cycle of baseball batting the knees of online retailers in the U.S.. Meanwhile, almost all their products are available at prices at or near our cost from Chain Reaction, who’ll gladly ship them right to your door here in these Americas.

But the worst is shoes. Back when Chain Reaction was first starting to advertise in the U.S. market, I literally had a rep for a shoe manufacturer tell me they were–and I am serious–“poor potato farmers just trying to sell anything they can to survive.”

Um. OK.

Fast forward over a decade and now we’re being told we have to raise prices even on shoes that have been replacing with newer models here in the U.S., lest we be able to sell those shoes into parts of Europe, where they’re still current.

So up we go to MSRP.

On the shoe in question, Chain Reaction is advertising it openly for $100 less than MSRP.

Sympathy isn’t the goal here. I’m a “mail order” guy by brick and mortar standards, and though my path to bike ecommerce was carved through the solid rock of custom bicycle assembly and absurdly time-consuming phone and email customer service, I still get that some shops hate the online guys. Guilty. We send shit in the mail.

But seriously. There’s a big difference between any online retailer in the U.S. and one free to operate with no pricing rules. It’s bad enough that we have to compete with both hands tired behind our back. I’d be nice if the manufacturers helping drive both online and brick and mortar bike shops out of business didn’t pretend it was a level playing field out there. It’s not.

We’re not even playing the right kind of football.

Instant Gratification of the Future

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Oct 292012

Long before he took up debating chairs, back when men were men and cops held pistols like teacups, Clint Easton was Dirty Harry, and Dirty Harry said, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”

I’ve been reminded of that a lot lately, based mostly on how few hours I tend to sleep a night, but plenty of other things as well. While I can’t speak for Clint, I think Harry Callahan would’ve recommended corporations don’t go getting too far ahead of themselves either.

Case in point, the newest use for my favorite pet world-changing technology: Google’s self-driving cars.

Apparently, being ferried to work while unconscious isn’t the only visionary implementation on the to-do list. The real beauty of self-driving cars is their ability to deliver products to your house.

No, seriously.

According to the article on AndroidAuthority.com, your deliveries will eventually be brought to you by driverless cars. And it will be awesome.

Delivery without human contact has so many advantages. For one thing, unless the vehicle doing the delivery is a cross between an armored car and one of those 24-hour theft-proof convenience store windows, you’ll presumably be able to also pick up those Frankline Mint collectors’ coins your neighbors had ordered and anything else that looks good, too, including the delivery car itself.

They’ll get that all sorted out, of course, with lasers and self-driving police cars and stuff. Much hazier is how self-driving cars are any real advantage to consumers. Aside from UPS’s obsessive compulsive routing system that eliminates costly left turns, it’s difficult to imagine benefiting much from the actual “vehicle drives to your house” phase of the shopping experience. Compared to the logistics stuff that’s already going on with hubs and airplanes, the part where the shit gets driven to your house doesn’t seem to be any area for much improvement.

But apparently I’m missing the point. According to AndroidAuthority’s article, instant gratification is about to get even more instanter.

Other companies, such as Walmart, Amazon, eBay, and others have been developing the idea of same day shipping. In essence, you order an item and it’s delivered to your door step in just a few hours. This would be fantastic for the online shopping community. Google has been making plans to do this as well.

The service has been live in San Francisco for a little while now. However, it is currently only for Google employees, their families, and their friends. Instead of getting into commerce and keeping warehouses, Google’s plan is to partner up with companies that have these things and simply deliver the items. According to the New York Times, a well known apparel company is already involved in this concept with Google.

Never mind the fact that Google’s entrance into a massive warehouse logistics endeavor would make even less sense than their purchase of Motorola. What’s weirdly adorable about this article is its unbounded optimism about a future in which basic cognitive skills no longer guarantee humans a job. The article continues,

Okay, so Google’s plan for same day deliveries is awesome. What’s even more awesome is that they plan on using their self-driving cars to do it. Just imagine, a legion of cars without drivers delivering your new gadget or clothing items directly to your curb. Then you can retrieve it and the car goes off to its next delivery.

This is an amazing concept. With no drivers to pay and, thus, no scheduling conflicts, Google’s self-driving cars can deliver things day and night. So when that wine you’re drinking makes you impulse buy that Star Wars themed Android charger in the middle of the night, Google’s self-driving cars will have it there before morning.

Online shopping is already pretty popular. People buy things online all the time. So would the addition of same day shipping be the next big thing and make it even more popular? More importantly, would you use a service like this? Let us know.

Yes, because when I order my Star Wars-themed Android charger in the middle of the night, it’ll be so much more convenient to have the package arrive at three or four in the morning.

And what the fuck is, “Online shopping is already pretty popular”? Yes, I believe I’ve heard of this “online shopping” of which you speak. Of all the moving parts required to make delivery within hours happen, I believe self-driving cars would be the least impressive. Near the top, however, would be having warehouses within hours of everyone’s homes and replicating your inventory in every one of them.

Once that miracle is solved, then yes, I’ll be the first to “online shop” myself a pair of “road closed” signs and see if I can roadblock a Google car into an existential crisis.

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