Quiring Cycles

Stainless Steel Snowbike Specs:

2012-01-04T16:17:00.001-08:00

Construction: TIG welded Reynolds 953 Mar-aging Stainless Steel Triple Butted Tubing (rust-proof), proprietary weld TIG rod, 4 lbs, 6 ounces.

Headtube: Custom length, 1 1/8"

Top Tube: Custom length

Seattube: Custom length, 73 degrees

Headtube angle: 70 degrees

Bottom Bracket: 100mm English, internally and externally relieved

Dropouts: Paragon Machine Works Flanged Slider dropouts, Singlespeed, full Gear'd Setup, and Gates Belt Drive compatible design (spitter in seatstay)

Water bottle bosses: Three sets

Fork: Axle-to-Crown 465 mm

Rear Spacing: 170 mm

Rear Tire: 3.8" Larry (other sizes upon request), CNC machined yoke connector makes a solid connection between bottom bracket and dropouts, but allows for sizeable rear tire clearance

Cable Routing: Continuous brake and derailleur housing under top tube

Finish: Raw Satin Stainless, shot peen with Etched Quiring Logos

Headtube Badge: Quiring Cycles, Fine Silver 99% pure

Fabrication, Welding and Final Touches: Scott Quiring

Frame Price: $1800

Notes:

953 is a super high strength stainless alloy specifically developed by Carpenter Alloys for Reynolds in the use of high performance light-weight bicycle frames. The Young's Modulus of stainless steel is the same as other types of steel. Therefore by selecting the correct diameter and wall thicknesses, a stainless bicycle frame can have the "classic" feel of other high end steel frames (except in the case of stainless, it requires no paint to save weight and it does not rust).

This snowbike frame is one of a kind and hopefully one of many more to come. I am also looking into other types of stainless steel to construct snow bike (or other off-road) frames from. One of these is called Reynolds 931, a material similar to 17-5 PH stainless. The second is a patented air hardening version made by KVA called MS2. Both of these tubesets are butted for light weight, have a high impact strength, an excellent resistance to fatigue, and are designed for high performance bicycle use.

Please see the pictures above to review the quality of my stainless welds and frame construction. Thanks for check out my site!--Q

Burning the Midnight Oil; Reynolds 953 Snow Bike

2011-12-22T20:47:00.001-08:00

Last evening the "After-hours" guy welded and manipulated some of the raw Reynolds 953 stainless tubing into a complex 3D shape that will soon be used in the snow bike frame layout. The labor consisted of cold working the stays into a shape that will fit around a fat bike tire. Then the rear triangle was stuck together in a tack-welded state.

Before further welding was done, the rear wheel, using an 80mm Rolling Darryl rim with an inflated 3.8" Larry tire and a crankset, was installed on this rear-end to make sure all critical clearance between these parts and the frame were achieved. The pictures included in this post show the frame layout and tire clearance at the minimum distance with the sliders pushed all the way forward in the hooded Paragon dropouts. However, most riding will be done with the sliders pulled back a little from this forward position. As hinted to by the presence of two button screw heads, please note there is a "splitter" installed on the right seatstay so that a Gates Belt drive can be used.

Soon we will start on the front triangle, but we are waiting for a re-supply of TIG rod needed to complete the 953 stainless welds. This special welding rod should get here next week. We also look forward to getting the Gates parts so we can check out how that will work on this stainless frame. During this project, one notable discovery in working with the 953 is that the seatstays are really tough to bend!

More to come….over and out--Q

Snow Bike Mania

2011-12-18T16:50:00.001-08:00

Snow bikes with their fat tires are sure getting popular these days! So, here at Quiring Cycles, LLC we decided to add to this growing snowball of momentum and build these bikes too.

As you can imagine, building a snow bike is not a simple task, but with the help of the after-hours guy I think we can get the job done (wait, the after-hours guy is me?!)

The first snow bike is going to be made of a custom blend of Dedacciai Zero/Zero Uno, an Italian super-steel tubing, which is going to a 6'5" rider in Northern Michigan.

Since I couldn't think of a better material for the second snow bike frame, I will build this one using super tough and lightweight Reynolds 953 Mar-aging stainless steel. The great aspect of this material is that it won't rust or need a paint job. Considering that snow bikes are used in extreme environments which consists of road salt, snow, mud, and just some plain yucky conditions, a stainless steel snow bike sounds perfect!

For the 953 stainless snow bike, I am going to build it around an 100 mm BB shell, an 1 1/8" headtube, an 170mm rear spacing, Paragon Slider Dropouts, and a splitter in the seatstay so I can install a Gates Belt Drive, if I want too. It will also have extra cable guides which will allow the 953 snow bike to run a conventional drivetrain. Finally, a slacker headtube angle set at 70 degrees, a more upright rider position, and longer chainstays will help this bike plow through the snow.

To help facilitate the proper tire clearance of a 3.8" tire and the chainline clearance, a box-style chainstay yoke design is going to make a solid junction connecting the BB shell and head towards the rear dropouts. This layout idea came from a snow bike owned by Mike Curiak (http://lacemine29.com/), a famed rider of the Iditarod Trail.

From the pictures above you can see how this stainless yoke design is coming together. First, I started out with some CAD/CAM computer programing, followed by the making of the parts on the CNC mill. Then this yoke was tack-welded together, and finally all the welds were put in place.

The plan is to get these two custom Quiring snow bikes ready for a couple of local Michigan fat bike events. The first is to be held in January at the Versluis Orchards in Walker, Michigan. Riders will compete over a three-hour period, and count how many laps were completed on a defined course.

For more info see here: http://www.farmteamracing.com/2011/11/farmers-fat-bike-race.html

The second snow bike race is held in the Upper Peninsula and is a point-to-point race held in conjunction with the Noquemanon Ski race. Info on the Noquemanon event can be found at this link:

http://www.noquemanon.com/snow-bike/

Please check back to this site to find out how these snow bikes are coming together.

Holiday Cheers!- Q

Purpose-Bent Titanium Top Tubes

2011-12-15T16:29:00.001-08:00

One of the great features of the recent move of Quiring Cycles, LLC into a larger building is that there is more room for production equipment and that these machines can all be housed under one roof. Such was not the case in the past.

The power operated Di-Acro Model 6 tubing bender (http://www.diacro.com/) was a machine owned by the business for many years, but it did not see much action until it was brought to the new shop from out of storage. The result is that I can now play around with custom bending tubing to improve the functionality of a frame.

On 29'ers it is especially useful for riders with shorter inseams to have a frame custom built with more standover clearance with the top tube. A way to do this is to bend the top tube in a downward arc.

Above are two titanium frames I made in late 2011 for people who wanted (or needed) more standover clearance. The first was a 29'er with pearl true-blue panels. The second bike was also a 29'er with the addition of a Lefty fork using an integrated Lefty headtube and a Ventana FS rear swing-arm set at 80 mm of travel. This Ti FS 29'er frame was built for a rider who was 5 foot , 4.4 inches tall.

In theory, I could also bend seattubes for shorter chainstay lengths on 29'er single speeds and 1 x 10 setups. Shorter chainstays usually means better climbing traction and a quicker bike for singletrack. I will experiment with this idea as time progresses.

For more pictures of the hardtail Ti 29'er, please see here: http://www.quiringcycles.net/igallery/igallery.asp?D=\multi+gear'd+mountain+bikes\ti+29'er+bent+top+tube\

For more pictures of the Ti FS 29'er frame, please see here:

http://www.quiringcycles.net/igallery/igallery.asp?d=\full+suspension+using+ventana+rear+swingarms\ti+29'er+lefty+fork,+80+mm+travel+ventana+bent+top+tube\

Photos of this post are courtesy of Daniel Sterling.

-Posted by Scott Quiring

Columbus XCr Stainless Steel

2011-12-07T07:15:00.001-08:00

In the late 1880s, the best bicycle frames were fabricated out of steel as skilled artisans joined the tubes together by brazing them over an open hearth. Constructing frames predominately out of steel still continued for over 100 years, but along the way the quality of the steel alloy tubing improved and so did the method of joining this steel. During that time, frames got lighter and stronger and, respectfully, the ride quality of steel frames improved too.

While it seems that most bike frames are made of other types of materials these days, steel frames have still seen advancements. One such example is the recently released stainless steel tubing called XCr, made by the famed Columbus tubing manufacturer of Milan, Italy.

At Quiring Cycles, LLC, Scott has taken to the challenge of making several of these frames over the last few years. He speaks very highly of the quality of the XCr stainless tubing and also notes the extraordinary skill needed to make a frame from it. His personal road bike that he loves to ride is made from XCr.

While attending the NAHBS in both Richmond, VA and Austin, TX, Quiring has had a chance to speak with Mauro Mondonico, the Sales Manager for Columbus, about the unique characteristics of the XCr stainless. It turns out that XCr is made from a solid billet bar of stainless steel, and it is drawn out into a tube continuously until it reaches its final impressively thin walls. For example, the top tube in mm has a butted .6/.4/.6 profile wall thickness, which is comparable to the upper ranges of other super-steel tubesets by Columbus and Dedacciai (another Italian tubing maker). The downtube has a remarkably thin wall of .65/.4/.65 mm, and other areas reach a wall in the weld zone as thin as .5 mm.

One might ask the question, if it is so thin, how does it stay together? The secret is in the incredible tensile strength of the XCr material, which is around 200,000 psi. Or, in other words, it is 500% more than the tensile strength of typical aluminum alloys, and a little more than 60% stronger in tensile strength when compared with 3/2.5 titanium in a cold-worked-stress-relieved state.

Despite thin walls to save weight, XCr's larger than normal sized seattube, top tube and downtube contribute to the frame's balanced stiffness and liveliness. What we mean by oversized is a 31.5 mm diameter top tube and seattube, and a 38 mm diameter downtube.

What does all this above info mean? Since XCr does not rust, it does not need paint (paint adds weight). And, since XCr has super thin butted walls, it rivals aluminum and titanium frames in weight. Yet, the XCr has the classic "feel of steel" for all-day comfort, a desired trait by many cyclists.

Due to the thin tubing, careful construction of an XCr frame must be taken into consideration since stainless is very hard to miter and to weld. Fortunately for Quiring, part of his TIG welding instruction many years ago at Grand Rapids Community College included the joining of stainless. Generally speaking, Quiring says, during the welding phase, stainless has a relatively high coefficient of thermal expansion and a low rate of thermal conductivity when compared to welding conventional carbon steel tubing. What this means is that the heat needed to TIG weld the material must be precisely directed and the miters must be very tight so there is minimal gaps to fill. Furthermore, an inert welding environment is key to join stainless because it will help prevent the metal's carbide precipitation effect that happens during the molten stage. Lastly, careful consideration in weld sequence should be carried out so the frame comes out straight.

In terms of visual appearance of a weld, XCr is thin so the weld bead width will be very small. Also, a light copper color in the weld bead is desired when the raw weld is viewed. A darker burnt color in the weld bead is a sign that this joint may have gotten a little too hot and, as a result, the latter may not be as strong. As with other steel tubing, XCr only receives one pass around with the TIG torch at each joint, so it must be done right the first time!

The above photos show our tight tube miters and the weld zone in a raw state as an indication of what we believe are desired traits and techniques used in constructing an XCr frame.

This frame is for a long-time customer in Maryland, and will be used as a performance-oriented machine with fatter road tires, a CX fork, and canti brakes. So when he wants to hit a few dirt roads, he can do that too!

As centuries have passed, cyclists have taken to their steel frames, but today's steel frames are much lighter and more fine- tuned when compared to the bicycles of yesteryears. Imagine that feeling as your ride begins and you pedal effortlessly down an endless winding road, and you can imagine the feel of a high-quality Quiring built XCr stainless frame.

--Posted by Peekster

Quiring Titanium FS frame with Ventana rear swingarm

2011-12-07T06:56:00.001-08:00

I can remember a time when mountain bike suspension meant letting a little extra air out of the tires. That was almost 25 years ago, and we were on heavy bikes that were primarily available in very stout-riding double diamond frames and rigid forks. After a bumpy race, this sometimes also meant bent seatposts, bent handlebars, sore body parts, hurting hands, and dizzied vision! Wow, how times have changed. Today's suspension design has undergone over two decades of refinements and lead to reliable designs and improved performance.

In creating a full-suspension frame design, it is important to make a strong and stiff swing-arm. Second, it is important to locate the pivots and linkages so the suspension design works well over the rough terrain. Last but not least, a solid performing air-sprung shock such as one with platform dampening or pro-pedal technology helps the rider not waste as much energy that he puts into the cranks.

Fitting the bill for some of these above traits in design has been swing-arms made by Ventana Mountain Bikes, which are made in USA. I was flattered to find out that Sherwood Gibson, the president of the company, and Treasa Franco, the business guru of Ventana, were willing to sell small builders such as myself their super high quality Ventana rear swing-arm assemblies in 26 inch, 650b, and 29 inch wheel sizes.

The Ventana designed swing-arms are very stiff from side to side. They have replaceable and serviceable cartridge bearings at each pivot point for a longer life. Lastly, the design is very progressive, which means that it has active travel, but at the same time it is very hard to bottom out the suspension. Using the Ventana swing-arms in my frames means that I can focus on the fabrication and custom fit of the front triangle and not waste time re-inventing the wheel in terms of the rear end of the bike. The best option for the ultimate performance is a front triangle made of titanium.

Starting in the fall of 2010 I was sent some of the first swing-arm parts from Ventana, and fabricating front triangles began. In keeping with our goal of showcasing some of the top builds in 2011, above is one such tasty mountain bike: a full suspension Quiring titanium frame using 26-inch wheels and 100 mm of travel front and rear. The headtube badge was custom made to the customer's tastes by Jen Green (http://www.headbadges.com/). Additionally, I etched the snowflake pattern into the frame to match this headtube badge design. Another interesting design feature of this frame is the use of the 44 mm Chris King headset, which allows for the use of 1.5" x 1.125" tapered steerers or straight 1.125" steerers.

Mountain bikes sure have come a long way in 25 years!

Photos courtesy of Rob G.

--Posted by Scott Quiring

2011-12-03T07:46:00.000-08:00

Alas, the Quiring Cycles t-shirts have finally arrived!! Sorry for the delay, we know that many of you were expecting them at Iceman back in November, but due to equipment malfunctions at the printer they didn't arrive until last week. Please don't think we're blaming the printer! Life sure would be easy if everything worked correctly all the time, right? We have a limited quantity of these t-shirts, and they are going fast!

For this order we decided to see how the ladies t-shirts would fly. And they are! These are black with a pink logo, and as of now we only have sizes M-XL left.

The men's t-shirts come in two colors. You can choose either black with a green logo, or olive green with a black logo. Or heck, these are so cool you can buy one in each color. Sizes M-XL are available in each color.

T-shirts will be priced at $20 each (MI residents expect to pay sales tax), plus $5 shipping and handling.

Please call us at 231-464-5611 and order yours today!

-- Posted by Peekster

Home of Quiring Cycles

2011-12-02T06:15:00.001-08:00

As many of you know, 2011 has been a transitional year for Quiring Cycles, LLC, as we have moved into a new shop with the goal of not only expanding our manufacturing capability, but our talents as well. We want to thank all of you for your patience during this period, and as well thank the many people who have helped along the way. It is our pleasure to report that we are 100% set-up and ready for business. Unlike many other small companies, we do not broker our frame fabrication to other builders, nor do we outsource our production to overseas vendors. We believe that by building in house, we can control quality to the highest standard and fine-tune bikes to the taste of the consumer.

Over the last two decades, Quiring has heavily invested in the tools and equipment needed to make some of the world's best custom frames. Priding himself as a precision machinist and craftsman who can artfully use a TIG welder to tastefully join together the highest-tech aluminum alloys, super steels, proprietary stainless steels and aero-space grade titanium, Scott Quiring still builds each frame one-at-a-time, to meet your needs, all by himself! As a capstone to any framebuilding process, Scott is also a talented frame painter and adds to the finishing touch, where needed, by truly completing each frame from start to finish. Whether you are a road rider, daily commuter, touring adventurer, or avid mountain biker, we encourage you to consider a Made-in-Michigan bike frame as we move into the new season! Cheers! --Posted by Peekster

Close-up photos of Titanium Welds

2011-12-01T08:17:00.001-08:00

As the 2011 season draws to an end, we at Quiring Cycles thought it would be cool to showcase some of the bikes we've built during the last year. Above is one particular Titanium 29'er highlighting the kick-ass welds all done by the hands of the Q-man himself. This is the quality you can expect when you order a Quiring-built Ti frame. Photos courtesy of Daniel Sterling at Cycle to Fitness (Thanks Daniel!) -- Post by Peekster

Bike production at the new Quiring Cycles location!

2011-07-20T06:59:00.001-07:00

Greetings! Here at Quiring Cycles, LLC it has been very busy with setting up the shop over the last few months at the new Freesoil, Michigan facility and also getting some quality frames, forks and bikes out the door. Above are some of the pictures of these frames to include several 29'er steel frames, a couple 29'er titanium frames, a super touring frame, a super small 29'er titanium bike, a couple great credit-card touring bikes, and a nicely outfitted high performace steel 29'er bike. Please stay tuned for more postings.--Scott Quiring

Warning!

2011-06-30T06:47:00.001-07:00

Please do no go to the link in the previous posting!!! It is a link to malware which a hacker posted on the blog. It could harm your computer.

2011-06-16T20:25:00.001-07:00

http://uvnsales.com/safealliance.html

IMPORTANT! Change in Shop Phone Number and Address!!!

2011-04-14T11:44:00.001-07:00

Starting on April 18th 2011, the shop location of Quiring Cycles, LLC will change. There will no longer be a shop located in Charlotte, MI.

The new phone number will be: 231-464-5611

The new physical location as will as the shipping and billing address will be:

Quiring Cycles, LLC

8736 N. US-31

Freesoil, Michigan

Everyone I have talked to is looking forward to the exciting opportunities that this site has to offer for bicycle manufacture and as well a chance to go for some great bike rides in the local area.

Thanks for hanging in there while I get settled into the new shop and location!

New Shop Location; Freesoil, Michigan welcomes Quiring Cycles, LLC

2011-04-12T20:37:00.001-07:00

Getting Back To Production:

In the last several mouths at Quiring Cycles it has been very busy.

With the tireless help of numerous family and friends, I have relocated the shop to a beautiful, yet resourceful site, nestled neatly in the Manistee National Forest lands on US-31 between the cities of Ludington and Manistee, Michigan, U.S.A. These two small Michigan cities are on the west coast of Lake Michigan, which is the second largest body of fresh water in the world.

The new building will feature 4000 sq feet for key manufacturing production space, a retail area to showcase Quiring bikes, and the building can offer custom customer fittings for those who can stop by. A private off-street parking lot for visitors will help people feel welcome. From the back of the property the forested hills of Big M, the home of the Lumberjack 100 miler NUE mountain bike race, can be seen in the distance. A short trip from the new shop will take you to 50 plus miles of some of the greatest off-road wooded singletrack the Midwest has to offer. Furthermore, the area offers some great road riding as well! My personal favorite is to start in Manistee and ride north to Frankfort via the paved roads that form a ribbon along the Lake Michigan's waters edge and the scenic vistas it provides.

The good news to report is that soon I will be finished with many of the tasks (i.e. zoning, permits, legal issues, electrical upgrades, and the move etc.) that were required and I will be able to 100% devote my time to building frames again. I sincerely believe the new building will be a positive strategic move which will help me to continue to make quality frames well into the future.

Below are some pictures of the machines and equipment as they were transported to the new site when the winter broke and spring came into season.

For those people who are interested in a timeline, I will be back to frame production on April 15th, 2011.

To my many patrons, thank you for hanging in there while I have had the extra duty this last several months of getting the new shop up and running. It has been a lot of work, but I will get your frame done shortly.

Thanks for checking in on my website and more progress reports will be posted soon.

North American Handmade Bike Show, Austin, TX Feb. 25-27th

2011-02-22T08:59:00.000-08:00

For the remainder of the week I will be attending 2011 NAHBS and I will have a display of Quiring custom built frames and bikes. http://www.2011.handmadebicycleshow.com/ If you need to contact me please e-mail me at squiring@sbcglobal.net.

Quiring Ti 29’er/Cannondale Lefty: Endless Creations, building a NAHBS show bike...

2011-02-18T09:39:00.001-08:00

The mountain bike crowd has shown a lot of interest in using the Cannondale XLR Carbon Lefty on their 29'er these days!

About three months ago I started on this project to integrate a Quiring Titanium frame with the Lefty, the Cannondale SI stem and, the bearing system. The benefits to this are simple to explain. When using the integrated system, the Cannondale engineers have found a way to make a bike using a lot less material. For example, much of the headset weight is eliminated since the bearings are pressed directly into the Quiring frame. Also the SI stem is extremely light because it is one piece with the steerer and does not use extra fasteners, or pinch bolts, or material overlap to join together. Additionally, the Lefty itself, being carbon fiber, is the lightest suspension device out there that joins the front wheel to the frame. This means the Cannondale components integrated together are a lot lighter when compared to conventional headsets, stems, and forks. Last but not least, the Lefty XLR Carbon fork has top notch suspension characteristics which include threshold dampening and adjustments that can be made remotely at the handlebar, such as a lockout mode.

The challenge for a titanium framebuilder, such as myself, was in creating a headtube that would integrate with the Lefty and the rest of the Cannondale integrated system. First, I had to tightly machine a headtube to its outer profile. Step two in the development was that I used a custom-built proprietary system during the welding stage to maintain proper tolerances of the titanium headtube. Titanium has a high degree of thermal expansion and a good deal of thermal conductivity so it is easy during welding for the headtube to become extremely distorted and "out of round". Therefore, the technique I used is essential to provide a stable atmosphere and structural integrity needed to keep the headtube straight and true to size. This then allowed for the final step which was the precise post-weld machining of the bearing seats using a specially created process where we sweated over +/- .0001 inch in the precision. The result was a perfect bearing press fit where the headtube bearings run true. And no play or tightness in the headtube bearings could be found so the bearings will run smooth for years. I also have production setup so that I can make more of these frames and also help to provide Cannondale SI components.

Not withstanding, the custom Quiring Titanium 29'er frame is top notch quality as well using seamless 3/2.5 tubing, 6/4 ELI double-pass continuous back-purged welds and some fancy dropouts and other parts from Paragon Machine Works. The finish was etched logos with a satin overlay and a fine silver Quiring headtube badge.

Also note a BB30 has been used on the frame and is ready for Cannondale Hollogram SL XX cranks, which are also very light and stiff. We will build later today into a complete bike and post some pictures soon. I am excited to see the results as I believe it will be one of the most amazing setups that could be used for cross country racing yet!-- Scott Quiring

Paint Inspiration?

2010-12-29T13:34:00.001-08:00

. . . more pictures can be seen at http://www.quiringcycles.net/igallery/igallery.asp?d=\single+speed+mountain+bikes\glowing+metal+29'er\

Lefty Headtubes machined in Ti

2010-11-22T17:13:00.001-08:00

Many discerning cross-country mountain bikers riding 29'er these days are falling in love with Cannondale Lefty suspension forks due to the unique look, light weight, stiffness, and suspension features, i.e. fluid suspension and lockout ability. At 1333 grams it is hard to beat a Lefty in weight when comparing it to other traditional styled suspension forks. The best way to outfit a Lefty onto a custom frame is to have a special headtube welded in place which allows for perfect component integration. Pictured above are some titanium headtubes I machined up over the weekend that will fit the Lefty fork. Stay tuned ....these custom Lefty headtubes will be used on several new ti frames I will be working on in the next few weeks.--Scott Quiring

Ti 29'er with headtube for Tapered Steers

2010-10-22T19:32:00.001-07:00

Fresh out of the shop this week is a custom Quiring titanium 29'er frame fabricated to fit the next generation of suspension forks that use tapered steerers in 2011. In other words, this is evolution in design at work! The headtube on this frame will fit a 1.5 " lower bearing race and the upper takes the 1 1/8 " bearing. For and added touch this frame also used a BB30 bottom bracket and some fancy disk dropouts machined by Paragon Machine Works.

Titanium/Carbon Frame with Tapered Steerer Headtube

2010-09-29T13:42:00.000-07:00

The pictures above show the week's progress made on a newly developed titanium/carbon Quiring road frame design. It is the first frame made at the shop to use the new style headset that works with carbon tapered steerer forks (i.e. 1.5" / 1 1/8"). The frame also uses a Dedacciai carbon integrated seatpost mast and a ti BB30 shell. To complete the frame I have some special paint work and etchings planned. Please stay tuned for the final finished look.--Scott Quiring

Taper Steerers and custom Quiring built Frames 2011

2010-09-26T21:13:00.001-07:00

As many of you know, tapered steerer forks are showing up more and more on high end road and mountain bike frames. It is a fork with a headset system that uses a 1.5 inch lower bearing and a 1 1/8" upper bearing.

It is my belief that the tapered steerer fork is something that the industry is moving to and will be more common especially in the high end market. This is driven by the move of carbon fiber composite manufacturers to build all-carbon forks that have stronger steerer tubes that can pass new European safety standard tests.

In order to accommodate the industry shift and the many inquiries I have received about the taper steerer, I have worked to offer an option for customers. If desired, for all new frame orders going into 2011, I can weld in a headtube that will work for a tapered steerer (I am still working on pricing for this upgrade).

Never the less, I will still offer frame builds with 1 1/8" headtubes. Therefore, all the people who are not concerned with tapered steerer forks can still use the tried and trusted 1 1/8 inch size that has been common on frames for 15 years and, I believe, for much more time to come.

In the picture above is an example of a Cane Creek headset which will work with taper steerers. It is a traditional lower cup and an inset bearing cup for the upper. I will be able to assist customers in sourcing taper steerer headsets when ordering a Quiring frame. The nice thing about this design is that with a different base plate, a standard 1 1/8 inch steer fork (e.g. a custom Quiring steel fork http://www.quiringcycles.net/igallery/igallery.asp?d=\forks\ ) could still be installed on the frame. Also it is my understanding that Chris King will offer a headset like this.

The other two pictures are of differant headtube types. One shows two different length headtubes machined from titanium for tapered steerers. The second shows the same length headtubes, but what is illustrated is the difference in diameter between a standard 1 1/8 inch steerer verses a new (slightly larger) titanium tapered steerer headtube. Because I did some machining to the tapered steerer headtube, I was able to make it the same weight as the standard 1 1/8 inch headtube.

Please stay tuned to view some pictures of frames welded up with this new tapered steerer headtube.

In closing, I am happy to share these exciting developments and I hope that offering an option for taper steerers will help custom built Quiring frames and customers advance with the industry as everyone moves into the future.

Quiring Ti Full Suspension (using Ventana Rear Swingarm)

2010-09-17T14:30:00.001-07:00

The frame above was recently completed for Steve. It is a 26 inch cross country frame that uses 100 mm of rear travel. In order to get the right top tube length for Steve's particular desire and to soothe his fetish for titanium, the front triangle was fabricated from 3/2.5 and 6/4 at the Quiring Cycles shop location. The rear swing-arm came from Ventana USA (http://www.ventanausa.com/). Ventana is well known for their durable high quality full suspension designs (all pivots are sealed cartridge type). The CNC machining on the aluminum swing-arm is very trick and the welds are top notch. I plan to expand my framebuilding to use other Ventana rear swing-arms as well. These include rear swing-arms for 29'ers, 650b, and tandems in various lengths of travel. Also it is possible for me to build either steel front or titanium front triangles. I am currently working on making a couple custom sized 7005 aluminum framed 29'er tandem as well. If any of this is something of interest to you, please feel free to contact me at squiring@sbcglobal.net. ---Scott Quiring

More pictures of this custom Full Suspension Quiring built frame can be seen here http://www.quiringcycles.net/igallery/igallery.asp?D=\full+suspension+using+ventana+rear+swingarms\steve's+26+ti+100+mm+travel\

Niner Fork Paint Job

2010-09-17T13:23:00.001-07:00

Above it a carbon Niner fork I custom painted pearl white. It was painted to match Tom's custom Titanium Quiring 29'er frame.

Through-Axle Fork

2010-09-17T13:16:00.001-07:00

By special request I have made a couple through axle forks for customers by using custom drawn 4130 uni-crown taper-bladed fork legs. The fork uses a 20 mm through axle (Marzocchi QR20 Bolt-on 20 mm) and a hub spaced at 110 mm. The length (i.e axle to crown race) of the fork can range from 435mm to 510 mm. Fork rake can be spec'd from 42-52 mm. Price: $250 (Black Paint)

Stealth Build 29’er

2010-07-27T14:05:00.001-07:00

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

Gates Belt Drive Frame

2010-07-22T15:22:00.001-07:00

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!

July 2010 Report

2010-07-15T16:11:00.001-07:00

Well, mid July is almost half over and I have been busy working on frames since my last post in winter 2010.

Here are a few from this week:

Ti 29'er with pearl panels and BB30 bottom bracket shell

Ti 29'er with Paragon Slider dropouts for Rohloff hub setup painted ambassador red

Steel 29'er Single Speed with Paragon Sliders painted orange with white panels

North American Handmade Bicycle Show 2010

2009-11-18T19:58:00.001-08:00

Okay, the rumor is true. I will be attending NAHBS in Richmond Virginia on Feb. 26-28, 2010.

According to the event information, "The North American Handmade Bicycle Show is the world's premier showcase for frame builders and our mission is to celebrate the artistry, skill, and inspiration of their craft." The annual event was founded by framebuilder Don Walker in 2005.

The inventory of custom Quiring Cycles bicycles I would like to bring will range in many different frame material offerings from high end steel, titanium, stainless steel, and aluminum in mountain bike, road, cyclo-cross, and tandem formats. Additionally, for the 2010 Bell's Brewery/Quiring Cycles Mountain Bike Team, I plan to showcase one of their 29'er race bikes at my booth with a special color layout I am inspired to paint for the event.

More information can be found at www.handmadebicycleshow.com

Please stop by the booth and say "Hi"—Scott Quiring

BB30 bottom brackets

2009-11-18T07:48:00.001-08:00

Due to recent tooling upgrades, I am pleased to offer BB30 style bottom bracket technology on many of the frames I build in titanium, steel, and aluminum for cyclo-cross, road, or MTB. For more information see http://www.bb30standard.com/ Shown in the picture is a BB30 crank on a XCR stainless steel road frame. Of course, I will continue to offer traditional English bottom brackets as well.--Scott Quiring