650B S&S Hardtail for Sale

I'm selling a custom 650B steel hardtail frame with S&S couplers. This frame was built for my friend Lennie and it turns out the standover height is too tall....a new frame for him is already in the works to replace this one. The frame features Columbus Zona tubing, Paragon BB shell and Paragon ISO Disc dropouts.  It is sized MEDIUM with 23.5" effective top tube length.  Frame price is $1200 including King headset and I will gladly provide a very low-price for the X-Fusion Velvet 65B fork this frame requires. Drop me a line if you are interested, I need to sell this black and gold beauty to make room for new projects!

Edgar's Cali 26er Hardtail

 Here are some pictures of Edgar's new steel hardtail.  Full XT drivetrain, Fox fork, King wheelset, the works.  Note the California flag motif on the 'A' graphic - sweet! 

Pizza, Bikes and Beer!

WiseCracker Titanium

Ahrens Bicycles is proud to offer the WiseCracker bottle opener in 6/4 titanium. This is the latest edition to our family of unique bicycle-mounted bottle openers. Here are some images of the design and manufacturing process:

Part design using Solid Works 3D CAD

Omada LC3015 laser programmed directly from Solid Works

Raw material bolted to the machine table

After cutting, the parts fall onto a conveyor belt

Sub 10 grams!

After machining, each part is bead-blasted, laser marked and ready to be shipped!  These run $25 each and can be purchased HERE at the webstore.

Meet Your Maker Tour

Announcing the Meet Your Maker Tour!

Special thanks to Sean at Soulcraft for getting this thing started!  This is an actual outdoor ride miles away from the nearest convention hall.  The Meet Your Maker Tour is your invitation to ride and hang out with some of Northern California's best bicycle frame builders and component makers. If you're in the market for custom bike, come on out and talk to the local builders in person while we spend time doing what we really love, riding bikes! 

Point your internet web site browser over to www.meetyourmakertour.com, follow us on the Twitter, the Facebook, and add us to your Rolodex(tm)! Whatever. We'll be riding bikes and you should join us!

Aluminate Feedback

Sometimes shit just works out well - thanks to Jason Grove, Jason Montano, Nate Barnett, Alta Design and Willow Glen bike shop for helping me bring this concept to reality.

Text message from Nate today:

"The bike rides like a dream! It is amazing how much control I have and how responsive it is without being twitchy. It climbs SF hills like a beast too!"

I promise to get better pictures at NAHBS of this bike - look for it in the Broakland booth if you're going to Sactown!

Aluminate Prototype Parts

I picked up the prototype batch of CNC parts for the Aluminate project and all I can say is they turned out awesome. The dropouts are lower yoke are stout but not overly heavy. Interest in track frames has been increasing since I started posting about this project - looking forward to next steps in getting some frames built!

Aluminate Prototype Dropouts and Yoke

Today I was stoked to pickup the Aluminate prototype parts. All of these parts were used to validate CNC tool paths and won't be used on an actual bike frame. The fit checks between mating parts went very well and I hope to have a small batch ready early next week. Next step is gathering the 7005 aluminum frame tubes and getting some frames built.

The aluminum-bronze insert slides tightly into the 7005 aluminum dropout body for a snug fit. This design provides an all-encompassing wear surface for the rear track hub...if the insert gets chewed up it's easy to replace - this means a longer lasting frame. I've sourced M3 Torx head screws for attachment - these are difficult to find in the US and special thanks to my contacts at Pencom for the hookup...these little metric screws came straight from Singapore!

The lower yoke is dainty but will provide ample clearance for a 35mm rear tire. I slid the yoke over a 37mm high air volume tire and it was snug getting past the yoke entrance, but after that no problem. My feeling is that it will also work well for some criterium frames I plan to build later this year.

The AHRENS engraving also turned out nicely - great job to the machining masters at Alta Design for their fast turnaround and high-quality work. I will never get bored of designing parts in 3D and watching billet get transformed into highly functional products. F*cking awesome.

Aluminate Project

For the last five years, I've worked very closely with Jason Montano, owner of Montano Velo in Oakland, on a variety of steel track frames under the Broakland brand. In this role, I took design direction from Jason Montano, the architect of the Broakland brand. Jason's vision for his track frames came from many years of riding experience and the desire to build a well-balanced bike with very specific ride characteristics. I came into the picture by offering computer-aided design (CAD) skills to translate the initial hand-sketeched concepts to the computer and ultimately onto paper. I must emphasize that Jason Montano communicated his vision to me, in terms of geometry, tubing selection, and aesthetic. In turn I used my engineering background in product development to model the track frame concepts into manufacturable form. I truly value the working relationship that has evolved with both Jason Montano and Jason Grove in developing so many unique frame designs.

The high-end Broakland frames became popular immediately due to their precise geometry, neutral balance, distinct aesthetic and nearly flawless craftmanship by Jason Grove of El Camino Fabrication. While studying the nuances of track frame geometry I knew I wanted to design my own version using aluminum as the base material. I absolutely love steel but I also love the challenge of designing new frames - I knew this one would be special.

My main challenge would involve a new rear dropout design that was functional and durable since rear wheel swaps can chew up even steel frames after a while. After sourcing some aluminum dropouts with questionable origin, I knew I could design something vastly better. The 'off the shelf' dropouts had stainless outer plates that I knew would slip under heavy load - obviously not good. The next issue is that they were very thin and the inside surfaces of the dropouts were raw aluminum which would wear for sure.

To alleviate the wear issue, I designed an insert that cups all critical surfaces of the dropout. This insert is made from aluminum-bronze, a common material found in ship building due to its excellent corrosion and wear resistance. The material is harder than aluminum yet soft enough for the axle bolts to bite and remain tight. If the insert gets worn out after dozens of wheel swaps, it can be replaced with (2) M3 bolts located on the inside dropout faces. The dropouts measure 9mm across the faces and weigh in at 130 grams per pair.

Last fall I met with local rider Nate to bring him into the project. Nate had direct experience riding production aluminum track frames and I wanted to pick his brain. It's no coincidence that Nate also home brews craft beers - thus the ALUMINATE name was born.

Nate's frame is a 55.5cm with 55.5cm top tube and parallel 73 degree head and seat angles. The BB drop is 50mm and the overall geometry is snappy but not too aggressive. The horizontal dropouts have a sweet spot at 395mm but can be adjusted in either direction easily. We plan to run an 1-1/8" Wound Up fork, King headset and a bunch of custom bits to round out the build.

The lower yoke is similar to my other yoke designs but smaller to meet the needs of this application. It has a hollow box-section behind the bottom bracket to provide added stiffness during pedaling. The angled surfaces accommodate 25mm tall rectangular chainstays commonly found on my mountain frames. Why rectangular? Because the shape is stiff as hell and minimal power output is lost while pedaling.

This approach also provides enough clearance for 175mm cranks (Nate plans to run 172.5mm) and 46T front chainring. Larger chainrings will require the chainstay to be shaved slightly, but since they are fairly thick walled, I don't see any strength issues at this point. This approach also allows for a fairly large 32mm rear tire to be used - and I think a 34mm may be possible with some subtle tweaks to chain length.

This will be a busy month getting the Aluminate parts machined and the frame fabricated. Looking forward to seeing this project materialize into a highly functional bike!

Nebraska Girl

This has been a busy week getting the Nebraska Girl completed for Joie. I'm very pleased with the results even though this project took a long time - thanks Joie for your patience!

The frame is custom-designed with compact geometry suitable for both training and racing. Raw material is steel and the tubing is a mixture of True Temper S3 and Columbus Spirit. The end result is a light but durable frame weighing in at 3.15lbs. The precursor to this bike is a mountain frame I designed for Joie's husband Isaias, a long-time college friend of mine and bike geek like me. Joie had a chance to ride that bike many times and was sold on the S3 ride quality...as a result this project got started.

The frame was fabricated by Jason Grove at El Camino Fab using Anvil tooling for tube mitering, fixturing, etc. This is close to the 100th frame Jason has built for me and honestly they keep getting better. Jason understands my design style and overall design intent which makes it easy to communicate every last technical detail.

The S3 down tube is bi-axially ovalized which means there is more material at the bottom bracket and head tube to spread the load. This tube provides excellent ride quality and a distinct look unmatched by other tubes.

The frame is powdercoated white by Mass Bros, clear coated with gold pearl, stickered, then clear coated again in pure-clear to protect the stickers. The end result is classy and the gold pearl picks up the sunlight nicely.

Graphics are custom by VC Graphix and include black logos with gold outline to match the gold Nokon cables. The Enve carbon fork is wet painted to match the frame by Flyworks in Soquel,CA. The SRAM Rival drivetrain, Chris King headset, King Cage stainless cages, and Chris King R45 hubs laced to Mavic Open Pro rims with Sapim CX-Ray spokes round out the build.

Rear dropouts are Paragon 'micro-hoods' that mate very nicely to the Columbus Spirit rear triangle tubing. These dropouts feature a replaceable hanger machined from 7075 aluminum. For that added custom touch, I had 'Nebraska Girl laser marked onto Nokon cable housing...subtle and I'm still waiting for Joie to discover this little gold nugget!

Special thanks to Ryan Bontrager for the wheel build and final assembly. Ryan also understands my design intent with these projects and brings everything together in the cleanest way possible. The wheels on this bike were built, tensioned, re-tensioned, and tweaked until they are as perfect as they can be. I ran out of time to weigh the complete bike but my guess is 16.75lbs - respectable for steel and definitely light enough to hammer on!

Movember Projects

Movember will be a busy month for Ahrens Bicycles with the start of (2) new steel road frames and my continued effort for stellar facial hair growth. Movember is changing the face of men's health awareness as they say. My daughters recently told me that I looked like an old-man with the facial hair and that was funny because I felt like an old man when they said that!

The first road frame is for my long-time college friend Scott and the second is for myself of course....it's not too hard for me to find a reason to build a new bike. Both will receive a mixture of Columbus Life tubing, Paragon dropouts, Paragon BB shells and of course custom geometry.

Scott's frame will be built up with Campy Ultra Record 10-speed from a previous project and will be rounded off with handmade DT Swiss/Mavic Open Pro wheels and an Enve carbon fork.

My frame gets an extra-tall Reynolds 853 seat tube for added stiffness plus it looks cool. I plan to swap Dura Ace 7700 parts from my existing road frame with the exception of the cranks...special thanks to Ryan for hooking me up with some brand new Ultegra 34/50T compact cranks...much easier on the knees for this old man.

I'm also developing a very new, ultra-stiff aluminum track frame for NAHBS....very stoked about this project but too early to show anything so stay tuned.

Holiday WiseCracker Pre-Order

I woke up today and realized the holiday season is rapidly approaching. To get into that special holiday spirit, I'm offering limited edition WiseCracker bottle openers with a special message. Drop me an email to pre-order one because they will go fast. Cheers!

Torx Upgrade Kit for Sliding Dropouts

Ahrens Bicycles is now offering a Torx upgrade kit for our sliding dropouts. The upgrade kit replaces the (4) M8x20 Pan Head/Socket mounting screws with (4) M8x20 Pan Head/Torx mounting screws. Why? Because Torx screws have much larger surface area at the head for improved load spreading.

Local racer and 324 LABS business partner 'Timmy C' requested this upgrade since he races a Rock Lobster 'cross frame with sliding dropouts (and disc brakes with 324 Labs adapters!). After numerous rear wheel swaps, the standard M8 pan head bolt heads started to strip - obviously
not good.

Special thanks to Pro Stainless for helping me source these babies! You can use a T40 Torx bit when torquing them down.

The upgrade kit contains (4) M8x20 Torx screws and will run you $10 including domestic shipping. Send an email or Pay Pal payment to 'mike at ahrensbicyles dot com' to order a set.

15QR Fork Dropout Concept

I've been developing a 15QR steel fork dropout with some local frame builders for a while. Why? Because most of our customers already have 15QR suspension forks on one of their bikes and it makes sense to re-use front wheels between bikes. Not to mention that thru-axle systems provide excellent steering precision. Since the economy is in the tank, saving money on bike parts is always a good thing.


I just finished off the conceptual design and have teamed up with Paragon Machine Works to prototype the concept. Special thanks to Rick Hunter at Hunter Cycles for design feedback over the last few weeks. The design features 32mm-wide 'hooded' dropouts that accommodate the Rock Shox Maxle 15mm thru-axle. The hoods allow the frame builder to construct various fork geometries easily....as shown this design can be used for 26", 650B and 29" rigid forks. If the frame builder decides to use tapered fork blades, excess dropout material can be easily removed using conventional machining methods.

The Maxle Lite's skewer handle can be easily clocked (to clear the fork leg when tightening) without having to clock the actual nut it attaches to. In this case I was able to eliminate the clocking hardware normally found on Fox forks to keep things simple. I do like the Fox/Shimano system but it is more difficult to source and requires more parts than the Maxle system.

The 15mm axle threads directly into an aluminum nut that is 'keyed' directly into the dropout body. The opposing flat surfaces on the nut will prevent the it from spinning freely when tightening down the axle. On the drive-side, a simple aluminum spacer is used to position the axle perfectly.

Mass Analysis:

Left Dropout Body = 58g
Right Dropout Body = 52g
15mm Keyed Nut = 14g
15mm Spacer = 14g

Total = 136g