mountain bikes ⁽¹³⁾

Patrick January 1, 2022

MK5 Geometry

The numbers below are from Bike Insights, from Stooge and from Kris' drawings I imported into QCAD, an open-source 2D CAD system. While some people totally geek out about bike geometry and could hold a 2-hour monologue on head tube angles alone, I'm really not a numbers expert when it comes to cycling. Whether the topic is frame geometry or watts and whatnot, I'm not the expert to talk to despite 36 years of cycling. I don't sit on enough bikes to have an expert opinion on what a slacker head tube or longer trail do to a bike. Sure, I have an idea about it, but with the rather small number of bikes I've ridden over the years, I'm still far from having earned the degree of "armchair geometry wizard." The 36 years in the sport have given me the ability to know what works for me; no more, no less. Changes I've made over the years happened gradually. Being limited to riding only the bikes I purchased, my experience and knowledge of the sport are fairly narrow. I know nothing about suspension and bikes equipped with it. I know even less about bikes powered by motors and honestly don't care to know anything about them. When the time comes to look for a new bike, and it's not made to measure by a bike builder, I usually compare the geometry to the bikes I already own. Often, I draw the frames up in CAD and overlay them for comparison. This also helps to figure out what stem to select to achieve a similar position on a new bike.

Patrick November 28, 2021

Building A Bike During The Pandemic (Part III)

This is a continuation of Part I from July 18th and Part II from July 24th, in case you missed them. When Andy launched the MK5 in the spring, ETA for the framesets was August. Because a certain percentage of the population has forgotten that living in a modern, democratic society doesn't just come with personal liberties but with responsibilities as well, we live in a seemingly never-ending pandemic. And as long as the Coronavirus has the upper hand, our economies will continue to stutter each time case numbers explode, supply chains will remain broken, and bike components will be in short supply.

Patrick July 24, 2021

Building A Bike During The Pandemic (Part II)

At the end of 2019, my wife and I moved eastwards. Switzerland being as small as it is, it was a move across borders into a different canton. With the move, my bike territory changed. While we're once again living at the foot of the Jura mountains, now slightly elevated at 550m (1800ft), the flanks north of our house are considerably steeper than they were in my old mountain bike playground. They're too steep for my 44 Marauder single-speed, and I quickly discovered that my 44 Big Boy fat-bike was also not the ideal machine for my new trails. So, I sold it in the summer of 2020 and started making plans for a bike that would feel more at home in steep terrain. In May of 2021, I pulled the trigger on a Stooge MK5 and used the following months to purchase components for it.

Patrick July 18, 2021

Building A Bike During The Pandemic (Part I)

The pandemic broke supply chains, slowed production, and threw global shipping into absolute chaos. Combine that with people discovering cycling because their gyms were closed since the start of the pandemic and you have a bike market that can’t fulfill the growing demand. Much has been reported about bikes quickly selling out, component shortages, and long lead times. People can’t get the bikes they would like or build them with the components they would love. Many custom builders can currently not build complete bikes. They happily build frames but have to tell their clients that they’re on their own to build them up.

Patrick May 17, 2021

Pulled The Trigger On An MK5

I've always been a huge fan of the Stooge MK series of bikes. There was the plum crazy purple MK1, the redberry MK2, and probably my favorite, the plum crazier purple MK3. The MK1 was specifically designed around a 29×3 front/29×2.3 rear combo, whereas the MK2 received enough clearance on the rear to run 27.5x3" tires. Otherwise, the geometry remained unaltered. A lot of changes were made to the MK3. It had a 44 mm head tube, a tapered steel fork, and a shorter rear triangle. The MK3 was designed around B+ and was up to that point the most agile of the Stooges. With the MK4 Andy Stevenson pushed the boundaries and came up with a pretty radical geometry. It had a slack and low geometry and was designed around an 80 mm offset rigid bi-plane fork. It lost the 44 mm headtube and went back to a straight steerer tube. The frame was designed around a 29x3"/2.6" combo but kept room for 27.5x3" in the back. Whether you wanted a single-speed, an all-mountain trail bike, or a bike-packing rig – it did it all.