Tonic Fab News

Hey-

Here’s a tidy Magnum CX Disc Build from Mitchell in Hood River at Dirty Fingers Bikes.

Tonic Headset / Fork / Headset / and press fit BB means a clean and lean set-up.

Word-Up.

Here’s Teisuke’s Supernaut Road. Crazy nice build. No?

“That’s what a Chinese War Sword is all about..”

Last bike movie I saw was Follow Me.  3 tricks repeated over and over, the word “epic”, and free-riders sped up to look faster than world cup guys usually inspire the gag reflex, but for some reason all I wanted to do was sleep.  Brilliant production and good riders have never been so boring.

Last good bike movie; Darin Read’s Trails Edit.  D.R.’s riding reminds me of Bruce Lee smashing his heel into some poor dude’s sternum. He’s got Purpose. Makes other “trick” riding look like something figure skaters do in the off season.

Besides the riding-the edit is brilliant. Perfect length, and very stripped down. Riding like this doesn’t need special effects.

Finally, the music. Witch’s Rip Van Winkle.  Thank You!  That is all. 

Darin Read Diamondback Web Teaser from brennen britton on Vimeo.

Which brings me to this video…

I can’t believe the talent of everyone involved with this. Gifted riding, gifted film making and exciting to watch.

Nike 6.0 Standby Barcelona - 1st Place France from Nike 6.0 on Vimeo.

The Barnstormer is our take on a mountain bike. It’s low of top tube and bb, slack of head tube angle, and short of chain stay.  Although it owes a great deal to our dual slalom bike, the Howie R/T, the Barnstormer certainly wasn’t built with any formal competitive use in mind.

A standard geometry Barnstormer is designed around a 100mm fork with a 67 degree head tube angle and 12.5″ BB height. Chain stays are at 16″.  This creates a riding experience closest to the original intent of the Barnstormer-a dual slalom bike you can actually sit on.

However, because these are built to order, you can have one fit your particular needs.  Including 29″ wheels.  The frame construction details which make this such a happening bike with 26″ wheels play well to over coming some of the challenges 29″ wheeled bikes face.   29r problems like excessive chain stay length and too high stand over height are pretty effectively handled with on the Barnstormer.

Again, the Barnstormer will be built to order, so you can have it how you want it.

Pricing? Expect to pay $1200 built how you want it. Painted nearly any color you want.

For example, Mitchell’s bike.  Designed around a 150mm fork yet with a 67 degree HT angle and 12.5″ BB.  Even with such a tall fork, this one had amazing stand-over height.

It’s the small details which really set the Barnstormer apart.

Low Top Tube.

As much as we love low top tubes, we really don’t like the braces often seen on bike like this.

Our solution? A huge 35mm seat tube butted with a 5″ bonded-in aluminum shim which simultaneously  strengthens this area and steps down the ID of the seat tube to 30.9.   Also note-seat dropper cable routing.

Chain Stay Yoke

We’ve had years of experience with these. They work. There’s no better way of maximizing tire and chain ring clearance than with a properly designed and executed yoke. Ours is laser cut, machined then heat treated before it goes into a frame. It allows the Barnstormer to have 16″ chain stays and clear a 2.4 Conti Trail King (easy), and have loads of chain ring clearance.

Chain Stay Mounted Disc Brake.

Our signature double bend stays finally have a purpose beyond just “looking cool.”

Disc Brake clearance.

Why chainstay mounted disc brakes? Mostly so that if someone wants a single speed version, horizontal drop-outs will work without excuse. Placing the mount on the seat stay just means wheel removal will be a pain.

Why not use “slider” drop outs then? They just aren’t very “Tonic.” They are typically enormous and adding a bunch of bolts to a frame is last thing we want to do. If running a single speed with a QR wheel is a priority for you, I’d suggest an eccentric BB with vertical DO’s.

Other tasty details on this particular build:

ISCG 05 mounts for running either a legit chain guide or a legit front shifting system like Hammerschmitt.

Dropper seat post cable routing-these seatposts work too well to ignore. If you ride mountain bikes and aren’t broke or afraid of adding a pound to your bike it’s only a matter of time before you have one.

Wow. Amanda and Kyle put together something special once again. An event like this needs original ideas and a whole lotta get-up-and-go. Last year’s Backyard Blam was very home-spun, while the “Hustle” was very pro, especially the first night. I think everyone involved, be it riders, audience, or sponsors got a helluva deal with this. My photojournalism was a little spotty the first night, so some imagination, and photo searching is in order for the (more) curious.

What a TREAT! Amanda handed Tony, Erik and myself the Freestylin’ Book. I got another one in my prize loot. Anyway, if you know Freestylin’ Mag, you’ll love this. Behind us is the art show, with a DJ and a bar. In front of us is the room with Gold Sprints. Outside…some wooden kickers and obstacles to dork around on to get ready for the Bunny Hop Competition.

A bad photo of the Gold Sprints. I didn’t really hang out here long, but the room was packed and there was lotsa cheering.

Outside, Gilles showed up. Dude rides 25+ year old CW bars, and has one of the coolest riding styles I’ve seen.  Let the good times roll.

Really wish I got more photos of the bunny hop competition, but hey, I was ridin’ in it!  Was anyone surprised Mr.Blacksmith won?   Goods BMX’s Shad Johnson for second and CHAZ rounding out the podium.   I was stoked with 4th. Good Times!

A small bike technology intermission.  At Tonic we are fans of integrated headsets and BB’s. Here’s something we’ve been running for about 2 years on a few bikes…press-fit BB’s for modern 2 piece cranks. Shimano, SRAM, and FSA have these and they work well, look good and are lighter than a standard euro set-up. I think I want to make this standard on our 700c stuff except the Supernaut.  That is all.

The next day the Hustle moved from a posh SE Design house to the ragged edge of NoPo gentrification. Unfortunately, a soggy pump track did want to cooperate.  No matter how many Hobo Yoga Mats we threw on the track, it just wasn’t happening.  At least Seth B got a few laps out of it.   No Problem…

….we simply pulled out The Gremlin and ran an around-the-block Time Trial.

Long Distance Relationship Kyle won this one pretty handily.  Considering the shortness of the course, and the fact that each racer had the same gearing, I’m going to have to say this race was won in the corners.

Seth B got into the action too.

Product Toss. The loot at the Hustle was pretty incredible.

After the Gremlin TT, it was time for the trick competitions.  Here’s the crowd for the Fixed Gear class.  The comp was held  in a basket ball court.

Here’s the set-up for the freewheel trick competition.

Some legit riding went down.  ’Nuff said.

Coolest Truck in Portland?

Next, we “Hustled” over to a park for the DH slalom Comp.

For some reason, Tony rode the Gremlin.

Kyle and Amanda taped up the course with a quickness. By now, it had started raining, and flat/off camber corners on wet grass made for a very “dynamic” riding experience.

Amanda getting folks signed up on the back of an extra cycle.  Hustle! So impressed!

This was so FUN!  Wanna go fast?  Better be able to slide your bike  AND DUCK under branches at the same time.  Didn’t crash (amazing) and ended up second.  Probably would been 3rd if Kyle has been able to stay up right.

After that, Waffles and Beer at Kyle and Amanda’s place.

That is ALL.  Amazingly fun week-end.  Thank you Kyle and Amanda!

-L