Quiring Cycles

August in Michigan brings about the Ore to Shore Mountain Bike Epic (http://www.oretoshore.com/) which attracts thousands of racers to the northern Upper Peninsula.  Starting off on the Main Street of the city called Negaunee, the race travels 48 miles off-road over hill and dale to the finish line in Marquette at the shores of Lake Superior. 

With many of the top Pros of the race switching to 29 inch wheels and demonstrating success over the last five years, several others are jumping on board to give the momentum of the bigger wheel a try on the course that involves the luge run climb, abandoned railroad beds, ORV trails, dirt roads, misery hill, slick-rock shale, deep sand, pavement, single-track, and rolling Nordic ski paths. 

One such racer came to me looking for an efficient 29'er to help tackle this mission.

Traditionally speaking, at 6'3" this customer is very powerful and appreciates frames that tend to be on the stiffer side of things.  Thus, the decision was made to build the Quiring from a custom blend of Dedacciai 7000 Series Alloy and to incorporate a BB30 crank that uses a 30 mm axle. In my opinion this would give the lowest weight and the highest stiffness rating.  Never the less, the unique shape and butting of the Dedacciai tubing helps to "smooth" out the ride when compared to other types of aluminum tubesets.  Additionally, the customer wanted me to make sure the fit and feel of the 29'er (i.e. cockpit layout, geometry angles, BB height, saddle setup) was matched perfectly to the fit of his 26 inch wheeled hardtail as best as possible.

In the assembly of the 29'er, this rider also expressed his fanatical tendency and desire of having light equipment whenever he sorties out to duty.  Therefore, a Niner fork was used in place of a suspension fork because the bigger wheel is more comfortable in the rough terrain and in the past overall winners using 29'ers have successfully afforded to go rigid (Mike Simonson, Bell's Brewery/ Quiring Cycles Team, 2006-2007).  The result for this customer was a 18.6 lb bike (weighed without pedals) as shown in the pictures. 

Lastly, the finish was a tactical stealth-like flat black to go along with the enthusiastic spirited nature of the customer's involvement in the U.S. Marine Corps.  The Quiring Logos were painted in gloss black. 

All in all, this build looks to be a mighty powerful weapon in the assault to the finish line for 2010.  Ooh-rah!

Parts build:       18.6 lbs (w/o pedals)

 

Frame	Custom Quiring MTB 29'er Dedacciai 7000 Series Alloy
Wheels	Stans Alpine/Crest DT Revolution Spokes, AM Classic Hubs
Fork	Niner Carbon Fork
Grouppo	Sram XX
	28/42 Cranks BB30
Headset	Cane Creek AER Classic
Tire	WTB Vulpine
Seatpost	FSA K-Force Light 0 mm setback
Stem	FSA OS-99 CSI
Handlebar	FSA K-Force XC Flat bar
Grips	Cane Creek Dual Ply
BB bearings	Truvative BB30

Recently, a longtime supporter and patron of my framebuilding company came to me with a unique custom he wanted fabricated.  The frame would be a 29'er Quiring Titanium with the provision for using conventional single speed configurations, multi-gear'd setups, or a Gates belt drive.  Additionally he wanted to upgrade to BB30 bottom bracket/crank combinations. 

With the versatility required in the design this ultimately lead to the use of Paragon Slider dropouts (where a derailleur hanger slider can be substituted in for multi-gear'd formats) and a small bolt detachment point where the Gates belt could be slipped into the rear triangle of the frame.  

Below are the pictures of the resulting frame with one showing the paragon Slider and the small bolt needed to separate the stays in order to insert the belt drive.  The other pictures include his early summer riding in Colorado.  Happy Trails Ken!