Bike Hugger 

We left Taipei and the Tern launch to get to PressCamp before asking Josh Hon more about it. He followed up in email.

Updated

Added a video presentation of Josh’s response to questions about the brand.

Telling the world about Tern

Josh answers questions about the Tern brand.

The ride is attributed to the OS hinge. How much larger is it and stiffer?

Well we’ve got a lot of things all contributing to the stiff ride.

First is the frame with OCL Joint. The joint is taller and all things being equal, a 15% increase in height translates to a doubling strength.

The OCL Joint is also optimized so material gets put where its needed for stress.

The Joint is also manufactured by the same guys who do all the Syntace stuff - so precision is on a completely different level. Precision is key because it means we eliminate slop and play.

Bottom line - we took our five new frames to the Taiwan R&D center and had them put them on a vibration test rig. Every new Tern frame went up to 150,000 cycles without failure before we stopped the test. Other frames failed at less then 1/2 the cycles.

We’ve also got a patented DoubleTruss technology where the seat stays wrap around the seat tube and go all the way to the hinge. This turns the entire frame behind the hinge into a 3D truss shape which improves stiffness and power transfer to wheels. See pic below.

The same patented technologies that went into the frame joint also go into our handlepost joint. As you know, that thing is mighty stiff. The handlepost joint has the same attributes as the frame joint but it also benefits from more surface area contact with the fork steerer. An unnamed manufacturer has 16mm of contact between handlepost and fork steerer. We’ve increased that to 40mm - a 150% increase. Some of the stiffness also derives from our patented new Flux technology where we’ve gotten rid of the headset top cover and simply machined the top cover interface into the base of our handlepost.

The frames and handlepost together have five all new patents.

We’ve got all sorts of really techy details that we’d love to dive into (and we will) but in the end it all comes down to the ride.

3D truss frame

Word has gotten back to me from several sources that riders are getting their Brooks saddles stolen from their parked bikes in Seattle, particularly from downtown. Suspiciously coinciding with this spree of saddle swiping, a couple of guys had earlier approached our shop hawking used Brooks. My boss turned them away, but in retrospect it would have been nice to have snapped a picture. Without the picture, the description is mainly limited to “scuzzy looking white guys”. Whether or not these guys are the culprits, someone is stealing Brooks in broad daylight in a calculated m.o. Keep an eye out.

College in the late 70s early 80s, as shown in this Apple user manual, was riding around the Stanford Campus with a Mac in your bike basket. Hat Tip: Merlin Mann.

Uploaded by peterme | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Looking good on the Mountain. Really good.

Ridley is Cross

Before riding the Parlee CX, I met with Ridley and interviewed them about who they are and their bikes. I’d admired Ridleys before, at the USGP in Portland and talked with the sales team briefly. I noticed then, “lots of mud clearance,” beefy dropouts, and was enthused to take the bike out.

In this video, Todd Schmidt, Ridley USA Sales Manager tells us about a company that is Cross and their updated X-Fire

I rode three Cross bikes during PressCamp (more on the Blue and Ridley this week) and what was funny about the Parlee CX, is I was more enthused by it than the Parlee Team. As I learned, that’s because the bike is a stock Parlee with cross-specific features. The superb ride is just what Parlee does. How they do, in other words.

Sidewalk swagger

I told Bob later that he could’ve said the CX was built just for Cross with special tubing and layup schedule, but that’s not his or the company’s style. Parlee lets the bikes speak for themselves and, of course, this is a bike you build for yourself.

Bob Parlee

As Tom Rodi tells me in a video interview below, you can spec the custom build to your style, terrain, and stiffness.

If you want to run your cables oddly like this, they’ll do it.