11/30/2023 0 Comments Arch bikesYes, we had multiple CAD jockeys, but there is no substitute for seeing real things in person. So I talked to him about mocking up a “looking sample” for us to gauge appearance and frame clearance. And Manitou had a great fabricator with a fully equipped shop. Some of the people that have most impressed me during my thirty-two years in the bicycle industry are the ones that make things with their hands, seemingly out of thin air – the fabricators. I told Joel about this crazy idea of putting the arch on the back, and after walking him through my thought process, we talked about the possibility of the arch contacting the frame’s down tube during fork compression. Joel led our marketing team, was a very skilled rider, and had a heady childhood growing up a son of motorcycle legend Malcolm Smith (see the movie On Any Sunday). When I returned to work after the REI visit, I stopped in Joel Smith’s office. But adding inside wrap was limited because the cantilever (now V-Brake style) needed to open for wheel removal. During this process we discovered that adding material to the inside wrap dramatically improved stiffness compared to adding to the outside. Consequently, arches got bigger, and the “wrap” of the arch around the inside and outside of the lower legs became pronounced. The lack of torsional and fore-aft stiffness was a performance limitation, and we were all chasing improvement. I asked myself if arches could/should be on the back side of the fork.Īlso during the late nineties and early two-thousands, suspension fork development was in high gear, and one of the areas needing improvement was fork chassis stiffness. ![]() In the late 1990’s when disc brakes started becoming relevant on mountain bikes, the last reason for the front-mounted arch disappeared, yet arches remained on the front. A few years later one-piece lowers were introduced, but the arch remained on the front along with the brake bosses. ![]() Since the brakes were on the front, the arch needed to be on the front. The two legs were bolted together via an arch, and that arch was a handy location for the cantilever brake bosses. Having done multiple runs up to Neptune's Net, it never gets old.The early mountain bike suspension forks were multi piece designs that needed to be connected and aligned. Blasted along the Santa Monica Mountains and was able to lean lower on this cruiser than I ever thought was possible. Living near their headquarters means I was able to stop in the factory and see my partially-completed bike in various stages of being assembled/welded together.įeb - 2020 - took delivery of the machine. Nov 2019 to Jan 2020 - wait for my KRGT-1 to be built. ![]() Rode with an eclectic and fascinating group of entrepreneurs & creatives (and yes, this includes Mr Keanu Reeves AKA John Wick himself) for three days along wine country up in Sonoma. While everyone else brought their own KRGT-1 bikes, mine didn't exist yet, so they handed me key to an internal shop bike. Oct 2019 - while bike was being built, invited to hang with other Arch owners at their annual owner's event. Arch sent me a few digital mockups of KRGT-1s based on our conversations, and we iterate back and forth until I confirmed the exact configuration Booked meeting with Arch founder to discuss what I wanted in a made-to-order machine. Sept 2019 - paid my deposit for the outrageous KRGT-1 made by Arch Motorcycles. ![]() Join us on Discord! Showing off Bikes or Gear? Click Here Looking for purchase advice? Click Here
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