Call (612) 845-0668

Category

Bikes

Almanzo/Gravel Crusher

Those of few of you who have been following this blog since its inception will recall that in January of 2012, not long after the birth of my first son, Eddy, I sold my Salsa Las Cruces frame and fork. I’m pretty sure I did that so I could flip funds into the bike biz, but I honestly don’t remember where that money went.

I’ve regretted that choice several times over the past years, and…

Bicycle Innovations

Bicycle innovations come and go.  That’s just the nature of the beast—in a market saturated with manufacturers, there is a great deal of innovation as businesses try to out-do one another in the rush for sales, and the results can vary. Ultimately, I’d argue that the nature of innovation in the industry, while frustrating at times, has been highly beneficial for riders.

In som…

Steel Cyclocross

With the amount of abuse dealt to a bike in the event, I think a steel cyclocross frame is the way to go. I’m not saying that just because I build with steel, but because it has certain properties and lends itself to abuse in a way that aluminum and carbon don’t.
Strengths of a Steel Cyclocross Frame
Durability is a necessary thing in CX, unless you’re a pro who can afford to lose a rac…

Bicycle Stability

When building a bicycle, there are numerous factors to consider when determining how stable the end product will be.  Each contributes, to some degree, to the handling of the bike.  The problem here is that you will hear no end of debate as to which of these characteristics is the most important factor to consider and how much each actually impact the ride.

Because stability is…

Brand Loyalty

Four Cycling Brands to Which I’m Highly Loyal

1. Oakley
Over the years, I have owned, quite literally, probably two dozen of pairs of Oakleys, and in that time I have broken exactly one pair, when it fell off the top of my truck and I ran it over. (I was in a rush to leave for vacation.) I haven’t fallen in love with a lot of their more recent designs, but my Half Jackets and Flak…

Personal Projects

My first build, a personal 29er frame. Test mockup before paint.

3 Personal Projects I’d Like to Undertake

1. Cyclocross frame. Occasionally, I joke with the guys on BikeHugger (via Twitter) about an aero cyclocross frame, something with a nice S-bend in the seatpost. But there are times when I can’t stop thinking about how friggin’ awesome that would look — nevermind that the ga…

Busy Saturday

So I’m writing this from between classes at Wordcamp Minneapolis — I’m here to learn how to get more out of Wordpress, which is the platform I use to run this site. Thus far, it’s been mixed bag — the first 9AM session I attended wasn’t very useful, but did go quickly, so I jumped into the last half of another talk, and it was much more useful. The 10AM session was pretty good, and I’m…

April Fool’s

Cannondale Motorcycle

I briefly contemplated putting up a fancy-schmancy April Fool’s joke here, but ultimately discarded the idea. Not because I deemed it unprofessional or anything — I do love a great practical joke — but because I couldn’t get the idea of Cannondale’s failed attempt at creating motorcycles out of my head. So instead of crafting some elaborate joke, I find myself writing more about t…

New Site Feature

So this weekend, I’ve put together a new little bit of functionality on the site that I’ve been wanting to add for awhile now. Specifically, if you own one of our custom steel bicycles, you can type the serial number into the search box on the site (located in the footer), and it’ll bring up a link specifically to your bike, with pictures, etc.

The plan is to create a historical log for…

I Killed a Bike

I’m sure you can see the crack in the weld in that picture up there — you’d have to be blind not to. I could have just poured a little more bronze in there and no one would have been the wiser. But I would. And given that the front triangle was finished, it wasn’t a situation where, “Oh, I can just scrap this subassembly and re-do it.” No, it was having to craft a whole new front triangle.

Current Build Queue

  • Bilaminate Road Frame
  • Fat Bike
  • Adventure Road Bike
  • CX/Gravel Crusher

Email Newsletter

© Copyright 2012, Pallas Athena Custom Bicycles, LLC. All Rights Reserved.