On the heels of yesterday’s disc brakes for road comes today’s disc brakes for cross. If ever there was a screaming need for discs it’s on a cross bike. I promise that today’s entry will have many fewer words and lots more photos.

This is my 3rd and final show bike for NAHBS and it’s my personal cross bike for the 2012 race season. It’s made with a mix of OS and XL tubes and all the main tubes are Reynolds 853 Pro. They are all filleted to my special Kirk by Reynolds chain and Terraplane seat stays. It will be shown as is, in the raw and ready for paint, and as soon as I get it back from the show it will go off to JB so he can work his magic.

I’m excited by the wheels I have coming for this bike – Enve carbon with DT hubs, 6 bolt disc mounts and 135 rear spacing. Should be tough and light and kick butt on the rough stuff and in the mud – especially without having rubber blocks grinding the sidewalls of the rims away during muddy events.

I’ll shut up now and let you look at the photos – 201 words today – not bad!

Dave

It has been the longest fall I’ve ever experienced with very little snow here in the valley and warmish temperatures. This has really not done the skiing any favors but it’s been great winter riding weather and perfect for product testing. This soft and friendly weather has allowed me to move ahead on the testing of disc brakes on my road bike that I hadn’t planned on doing until spring.

So – I took the plunge and had the good guys at Joe Young Wheels build me up a set of wheels using DT rims and DT 6 bolt hubs – the rear being spaced at 135 mm. I then got to work and made some custom disc brake tabs to work with my frame and fork design. The designing of the tabs was the time consuming part as there are many considerations in getting it right – they need to be stiff enough both laterally and rotationally, they need to be light, they need to distribute the braking load well and they need to be attractive. After cutting them from steel plate I dove in and ruined an otherwise perfect paint job (sorry Joe Bell) and fillet brazed them in place. I didn’t bother doing any finish work or polishing as I just wanted to see how the set up worked and thought I may just end up removing them anyway.

Now I can hear the mix or reactions out there right now and imagine they range from “very cool!” to “no one needs disc brakes on a road bike!” and for what it’s worth I was thinking both of these things myself at first. Disc brakes have been around in the larger world for a very long time. They were first made popular by Dunlap on the Jaguar C Type of 1953 after having been proven on aircraft. Discs have been in common use on mountain bikes for a solid 15 years now and the bugs have been worked out of the system. So when the UCI approved discs for use on cross bikes recently I could very easily see a further cross over to road bikes.

What advantages does a disc brake have over a traditional rim brake and what are the disadvantages? I’ll jump right to the disadvantages -

* disc brakes add weight – how much depends on what type of brakes you are replacing. The disc caliper is a bit heavier than most rim brake calipers and there is a disc rotor for the caliper to grab that you otherwise don’t need. It’s not a lot of weight but there is some.

* disc brakes require ‘bedding in’ – when you first set up a disc brake in the work stand they seem to work well and then take it out for a test ride and to be frank they dont’ work very well…….at least at first. Disc brakes require heat to bed the pads to the rotors and until this occurs the braking power is just not there. It takes just a little bit to bed them in and I did it on my bike by going down a hill near my house dragging the brakes until they got really hot. Once this happens the braking is sublime.

* disc brakes require different skills to set up – when you think about it a rim brake is really a big disc brake with the rim doubling as the braking rotor. A disc brake works the same way but the braking force is applied to a small rotor bolted to the hub – you squeeze the lever and the disc pads clamp the rotor and the bike stops. The real difference in setting the two type of brakes up boils down to how one sets up the disc caliper on the frame/fork. This technique will be specific to the brand of brake used but with the Avid BB-7′s I’m using right now it could literally not be easier. You leave the two main caliper bolts a bit loose, squeeze the brake lever to align the caliper to the rotor and tighten the bolts and you are now 95% of the way there. All that’s left is to spin the two dials to set the pads the right distance from the rotor and you are done. I see this as less of a disadvantage and more of something new to learn. Once you learn it I think it’s as easy and quick as dealing with a rim brake.

Advantages -

* disc brakes are safer on long fast descents – The issue with rim brakes with long downhills is that they heat up the rim and this in turn heats up the air in the tire and increases the air pressure. Not a big deal on regular hills but a very big deal when riding in the high mountains. This increased air pressure can lead to the tire blowing off the rim or in the case of carbon rims can cause the rim to fail. This is rare frankly but it does happen. You can also have your rim glue holding on your tubular tires soften allowing the tire to roll off. We saw this a number of years ago in the Tour when Beloki hit a patch of goo on the road on a fast downhill that had lots of braking. His bike slid in the warm tar and when it hit the grippy stuff his tire rolled off and it effectively ended his career. Again – this is very rare but it’s something that those of us that ride in the mountains now have to keep in mind and manage.

* disc brakes work in all weather conditions – the issue with rims brakes in the wet is well known. The problem is that the braking surface is right down next to the wet road constantly being doused with water. Add road grit and oils and the braking can be downright bad. Discs on the other hand are up and out of the road slime and since they get hot almost instantly they burn the water off the rotor within a single rotation of the wheel and you get the same braking you get in the dry. Think of how well your car brakes work in the rain. Hit the pedal and stop. Bike discs are the same way, even in the wet.

* disc brakes don’t wear out your expensive rims – normal rim brakes grab the rims with pads and grind what ever dirt and grit on them into the rims. This in time wears the brake track of the rims and can actually wear the rims out. This doesn’t happen often with aluminum rims but it’s all too common on carbon rims.

* disc brakes don’t care what size tire you run or if you want to use fenders – A rim brake has packaging issue around the tire. You can only run a tire so large under a short reach caliper brake and fenders can be difficult to fit unless the bike is designed for a long reach brake. A disc brake doesn’t care what size tire you use. If the tire fits in the frame/fork it will work. You also have the added benefit that you don’t need to quick release the brake to remove the wheel – just undo the skewer and the wheel drops out.

* disc brakes don’t care if your wheel is true – with a rim brake a broken spoke can be a minor pain or make for a long walk as the rim won’t spin between the pads. With a disc brake the wheel will turn as long at it clears the frame.

* disc rims can be lighter – this is an as yet unrealized advantage. Rims designed and made without the need to have brake tracks will end up being lighter. The rim brake type rim needs to have a flat surface for the pads, needs to be able to deal with the compressive force the brakes apply to them and needs to act as a heat sink. A rim designed to just hold the tire will be lighter and the word on the street is that we will see rims weights drop soon for disc wheels.

* disc brakes have the best modulation – this is the BIG one IMO and more than enough reason on its own to consider discs. Most types of brakes, rim or disc, will provide enough power to lock the wheel when dry but a disc brake will provide much better modulation. This may not seem to be a big deal until you try it for yourself. With a rim set up you can have a hard time feeling what the tire’s contact patch is don’t on the ground and how close it is to locking up. With a disc you get much better feedback and consistent braking power and this allows you to carry more speed  deeper into a corner and then brake later and harder. This means you’ve got a longer distance at a higher speed and in the end you will get to the bottom of the hill sooner than you would have with rim brakes. Cars and motorcycles have been working on brakes for a very long time in order to carry more speed deeper into a turn but it’s rarely talked about on a bicycle. I think we will see that change as road discs become more common. One thing I can’t over-stress here is just how much fun it is to do this – barrel into a corner and then drop anchor to get to your corner speed instead of feathering your rim brakes to keep speed in check all of the time. There are very few things that can actually make you faster on downhills and discs are one of them.

According to my word counter I’ve put down 1539 words so far and that seems like enough but I have a few things to add. I don’t think you are going to die in a great flaming crash using rims brakes the next time you go down a hill and I don’t think discs are for everyone. If you live in a place without steep long hills and you only ride in the dry then I doubt you would see much advantage to having discs. I spoke to a friend the other day who said he only needs enough brake to not his his garage door when he gets home from a ride and I understand that. But if you ride in the wet and/or in the mountains I think you would enjoy the advantage disc brakes give. I’ve been riding mine for a few months now and abusing them big time and I’m very pleased and can’t picture going back to rim brakes on either my road or cross bike. One thing I feel confident in saying is that Pro Tour guys will all be riding discs in the next few years. The advantages will so outweigh the downsides for them that it will be a done deal and we will see safer descending in the hight mountains of the grand tours. The strong rumors have it that both Shimano and Sram will be offering a high end disc set up that will be lighter and more simple this next model year. We should also see a move toward hydraulic actuation soon from both these guys and the already great modulation will only get better without cable stretch.

I will be offering disc brakes builds on road and cross bikes as soon as I can. It will no doubt be a few months down the road at least but I will offer them as an option as soon as I can. At this point I don’t know how it will affect the pricing but I expect it will be a slight upcharge. As soon as I know more I’ll pass it on.

1994 words – wow, that might be a record. Thanks for sticking with me.

Dave

I live in the suburbs. Not in the middle of nowhere but just a few miles from the center of the city of Bozeman. Now Bozeman isn’t a big city but it’s a city nonetheless and yet the wildlife in and around town is something I never get used to – and something I didn’t see growing up in rural Central New York state.

One of the common animals here is the Mule Deer. We have a lot of them in our area and driving after dark is sketchy and one is best off going slow and watching very carefully. There is a road very close to our home that has a large open field next to it and unfortunately there are often dead mule deer in the field as a result of getting hit by a car. Mule deer are big heavy animals. So with this fresh meat out there for the taking we sometimes see scavengers show up for a big meal. The other day I knew I’d be driving by so I brought the camera and sure enough there were a few bald eagles hanging around trying to get a meal while being bothered by the magpies and crows. I snapped a few shots and went on my way. On the way home we went past the same spot and saw a rare sight – a coyote right out in the open. We hear them all the time on summer nights but it’s very rare to see them. This guy apparently thought it was worth the risk to be out in the open of this huge field to get the goods. It’s interesting to note that while coyotes aren’t all that big they aren’t like lap dogs either. If you compare the size of the coyote to the rib cage of the deer and then compare the eagle to the same you’ll see just how HUGE those eagles are. They are about the size of a fence post while standing and have a wingspan of about 6-7 feet. They are awesome to behold.

So – a little glimpse into life outside of a small Montana town. It never gets old for me.

Dave

It’s once again that time of year when most of my waking hours are in some way occupied by getting ready for the annual NAHBS event at the end of February. To that end I finished up one of the 3 bikes I’ll be bringing to the show and it’s about to head off to JB’s so he can do his thing.

This is a JKS Classic with side tack seat stays. it will be assembled with Campy Super Record and 3T components and is a traditional road race bike in the finest European tradition.

Here are a few in progress shots along with some of it all done and ready for paint. I’m excited to get this painted and to hang the kit on it. be sure to stop by my booth and take a look at it in person.

Thanks for looking.

Dave

Here are a pair of fillet coupled bikes for a couple that wanted complementary but not matching bikes. The paint technique is known as ‘marbleizing’ and looks to be a foot deep even in low light let alone the sun. I like how the marbleizing shows off the contours of the fillets – I put a lot of work into those fillets so like when the paint really shows them off.

I’m off to the shop now to work on some show bikes for this years NAHBS. For the next few months it will be NAHBS all day – everyday! I hope you can make the trip to the show.

Dave

One doesn’t come to Montana to ride their bikes in the winter – ski yes – bike no. But this winter is really odd and the skiing is not good but the riding is great. It was 48° when I headed out for a ride on my cross bike this afternoon which is a solid 20° above ‘normal’ so I couldn’t resist going out for an hour after work.

I ran across some horses that really wanted me to toss one of their hay bales over the fence to them. They started to run along the fence next to me as I left them. Good horses.

Get it while it lasts.

Dave

Today is January 1^st, 2012 and it being cold and gray outside it seems like an ideal time to sit for a few minutes and reflect on the year 2011. So here are a few brief (or not so brief) thoughts in bulleted form -

• I doubt many would argue that 2011 was a great year. Many of my friends and customers have be experiencing hard times and this of course effected my business. I did have a number of folks who put down deposits in 2010 ask me to put them to the back of the line when I got to their spot in the queue. Who can blame them? – when things get tight a new handbuilt bike usually isn’t at the top of the priority list. That said it was a good year overall for Kirk Frameworks. Both deposits and deliveries were higher in 2011 than either of the two previous years and the business was solidly in the black. I have no complaints considering how many framebuilders closed shop and sold all their tools on eBay. I am truly fortunate and I thank all of my customers for making this possible. Seriously – thank you very much.
• The year 2011 saw a dramatic increase in overseas sales/deliveries for the business. I sent bikes to Belgium, Norway, Scotland, Canada, Australia, Sweden, and Switzerland and of course a large number of bikes went to Taiwan. All tolled a solid 38% of my work went out of the country in 2011. A big thank you to all of my overseas customers who are happy to deal with the time differences, language barriers and shipping costs in order to ride one of my bikes. It means more than you know.
• I was proud to introduce a few new products and features this year. It was the first year of the JKS Classic and the JKS X. Both have been selling well and the first JKS X has been delivered to a happy customer. I love that bike. This was also the first full production year using the ‘new’ Triple F rear dropouts. I say ‘new’ because they have been in the works in my head for so long they seem anything but new. They have worked out extremely well and I’m very proud of the way they work and look. I think my entire design philosophy can be neatly wrapped up in their design.
• 2011 was the first year I brought my ‘Booth in a Box’ to the annual NAHBS event. After a number of years of packing and unpacking cardboard boxes to get stuff to the show I broke down and invested a huge amount of time into the crate that hold the goods and then opens to become the display. It was worth every minute of time invested to be able to hang the bikes on the wall of the booth at the end of the show, close the box and then not worry about it. Couple that with the fact that I really like the look and things are good.
• I ended up building a wide variety of bikes this year. Most of them were members of the JKS family but I also did a lot of Full Customs. I designed and built fixed gear road bikes, MRB’s, expedition touring bikes, sport bikes, bikes with smaller tubes for lighter riders and bigger tubes for heavier riders, bikes to work with Di2 and so many others. I love that there is nothing cookie cutter about them and that each is made for that rider and how they will use the bike. This keeps it fun and fresh for me after 22 years of framebuilding and many thousands of bikes. So thanks for thinking of different uses and asking me to help you.
• This was also the year I got back into racing my bike. In a previous life racing was almost all I did and at some point I lost my excitement and enjoyment of racing and stopped. Then I was hit by some health troubles and racing wasn’t something I could have done even if I was motivated to do so. But over the past two years I’ve slowly and carefully worked my way back into better health and with it came the desire to ride much more and do some racing. So after something like 15 years of not racing I entered a cross race here in Bozeman. The last cross race I did before this was in the mid 1980’s. I had a ball and very much look forward to continuing to ramp it up for next year and race a good bit more. In fact I’m building myself a new cross race bike for next year with some new features and it will be shown in my booth this year at NAHBS.
• As many of you probably know I work from home – I build my frames in ½ of my garage and split the room above the garage with Karin (she also works from home) as our home office. It works well but one thing that was really needed was more light and better ventilation – in both the shop and the office. So after nearly 8 years of having very little natural light in the shop during the winter months I now have 3 new huge windows and a garage door with windows. It no longer feels like a sweatshop and I can even tell if it’s light or dark outside! The photos show the new windows installed but still needing a bit of trim and paint. This will be done soon and I’ll move my bench across the room to these south-facing windows and bask in the flood of natural light. We have also added windows and skylights to the office above and now we’ll have much more light and cool fresh air up there in the summer. It used to get into the mid 90’s up there in the summer and you would just drip sweat onto your keyboard. Not good. But no longer.
• It was also a very active year for me with autocross racing. I’m a member of the Southwest Montana chapter of the SCCA and we host about 10-12 events a season here in Bozeman and about 1 ½ hours north of here in Helena MT. I had a very good season racing my Lotus Elise and this year took on the role of the main course designer for our events. This is a huge challenge and hugely rewarding I design the courses ahead of time on paper to scale and then set the courses the morning of the event. This means I’m usually the first one there on a cold Sunday morning setting up cones but I love it. The club seems OK with it as they keep asking me to do it – good by me.

I’ll bet that gives you more info than you really wanted or needed so I’ll wrap it up with what I expect from 2012 –

• I think we will see more electronic shifting systems and the firm move of disc brakes from MTBs to cross and then, in the next few years to high end road. I’m excited for all of it.
• I hope to get fitter and race more next year – mostly cross with a bit road and MTB tossed in.
• There will be a few new products and features offered this year and I’m excited for them. I don’t offer new stuff just for the sake of it and feel that anything new needs to offer something the old didn’t so I roll out the new stuff slowly. But some cool new stuff is in the works.
• I look forward to racing my car again this season and working to continually improve as a driver. Having a fast car is easy – being a fast driver is not.
• I will take a vacation this coming year. Last year it just never happened but this year I vow to make it happen. Maybe a visit back east to do some cross racing in the North East – that would be fun.

That’s all I got – thanks so much for a good 2011 and I look forward to an even better 2012.

Be well and Happy New Year.

Dave

It’s a bit of a slow week here with the Holidays and it’s been nice to have a few free moments to sit and reflect.

The other day I was sitting and looking out the office window and noticed all the birds in the back yard looking upset and agitated. I wondered what was going on and opened the living room shade and looked straight down outside right below the window to see what all the fuss was about. There was a falcon sitting and eating a black bird while I, and a yard full of birds watched. He was about 3 1/2 feet from me and I managed to slip away and come back with the camera to get a few photos. It was hard shooting through the glass but a few came out OK. He was surprisingly small but very powerful looking and seeing a wild creature do what he is designed to do is awe inspiring. After taking a good number of photos I knew were mediocre I tried to ease the other window shade open to get a better line of sight but he spooked and took his catch and was gone. Just seconds later all the black birds came back to the feeders near the house like nothing happened and the only sign of the incident was the pile of feathers and prints in the snow. I was lucky to see it.

Now to get back to work on the bikes and getting ready for the upcoming show.

Dave

It seems there are some creatures that pass through our lives that have bigger personalities than their size would make you believe possible. Amasa was one of those creatures.

Karin and I were living in Saratoga Springs NY in 1996 and we had two cats, Poky and Spaulding and they were great friends with each other and us. One day Poky didn’t come home……………one day turned into one week and then two and three and we figured we’d never see him again. His pal Spaulding was obviously upset and he just wandered around the house never seeming settled. So after almost a month we decided to get Spaulding some company of his own kind and went to the shelter and picked out an orange kitten they called ‘Tad’. He was less than a year old and full of personality and energy. He had long fur and these earnest eyes that seemed to look at you and understand. We brought him home and named him ‘Amasa’ after the color of the burnt orange sandstone on the Amasa-back mountain bike trail in Moab Utah.

The first night we had Amasa home we heard a mournful crying at the backdoor in the middle of the night and I thought it must be the kitten but I got up to check and much to everyone’s surprise Poky was at the back door – home after nearly a month missing. He came in and the first thing I said was to Poky – “Poky, we have some explaining to do’ as Amasa ran up to him like he owned the place. So now we had three cats.

Not all that long later we picked up and moved almost 3000 miles west to Bozeman and the boys came along for the ride. Sneaking them into hotels at night was the challenge of that trip – we always asked for a room near the rear entrance so we didn’t have to carry their boxes past the front desk.

Once in Bozeman the three boys settled in quickly and all seemed to love it here. Amasa in particular loved the warm sun and cool air and would go out onto the back deck and sun himself with all four feet straight up in the air. A few years later we fell for a little girl kitten at the shelter and with the addition of Inga we now had four cats. Yes, we were that crazy couple without kids and a house full of cats.

So we had three New Yorker cats and one Montana local living with us and over the next few years we lost Poky at the age of 15 and then Spaulding at 17. This left Amasa as the only transplanted New Yorker – a distinction he somehow seemed to wear with pride. At some point we welcomed an all white Manx we named Pearl into the house and then there were three. They all got along so well and was a joy to watch them play or all nap together in the warm afternoon sun.

About 6 weeks ago Amasa started acting funny – uncomfortable and unsettled. He seemed to not want to eat as much and he never seemed to really sleep. He lost a lot of weight. At some point recently he stopped eating even his most favorite food (canned tuna) and we knew this wasn’t good. We brought him to our trusted Vet Ruth and made one of the hardest decisions we’ve ever made. Ruth thought he had some kind of cancer and that there was nothing that could realistically be done. Amasa was 15 years old.

We miss him very much and he left a huge hole here. His personality was so big and he was always in the middle of the action. We loved seeing him at Christmas – he’d sit under the tree and play in the pile of ripped open wrapping paper. One time many years ago Karin’s family came to visit and we set up a train-set under the Christmas tree and everyone gathered around to watch it go round and Amasa got right in line with everyone else to watch. He was one of us. So it’s especially sad that he left us right before the holidays. I wish we could have him under the tree again but we will have to just remember him and the 15 years of smiles and joy he brought into our house and shared with us and our guests.

I could tell endless stories of how he’d chase dogs out of the yard or how he’s come out to the driveway to greet me when I got home from a ride but I won’t bore you with those personal details. He was a real force to be reckoned with. It’s enough to say he was a big part of our lives and that he will be missed for a very long time to come.

Merry Christmas Old Friend.

Dave

Just yesterday I had the distinct pleasure of doing a phone-in radio interview with Diane Lees of WJCU in Ohio. She has a weekly show called ‘The Outspoken Cyclist’ that deals with all manners of cycling and all her interviews and stories are archived on their site. I’ve really enjoyed going back through the different interviews a and listening to the different builders talking about their work and history. The interview with Steve Garro of Coconino was especially good. That guy kicks ass.

My interview will be broadcast tomorrow, Saturday the 17th, at 5:30 EST and I’m hoping you can tune in and listen live. If you can’t catch it tomorrow it will be there later for you to check out. If you go now the most recent show features interviews with Charles Pelkey of Velonews and the authors of a photo book about cyclists in the Tucson area. Good stuff. The link to my spot will be posted at the top of the page when the time comes. Please check it out – http://www.wjcu.org/media/audio/shows/outspokencyclist

My sincere thanks to Diane Lees and WJCU for allowing me to ramble some – anyone that knows me knows I can ramble with the best of them.

Have a great weekend.

Dave