Bike Writes (drwelby.net)
Bike Writes (drwelby.net)
Marc Pfister
Writing towards a deeper understanding of cycling and bicycle design.
Latest Posts
I've messed around with alcohol stoves for years since they're fun to mess with. There's no end to new designs. Some have amazing craftsmanship while others are mindboggling simple. The classic Fancy Feast stove is no more than a cat...
I got seriously into bikes back in high school (Class of 1991, if you're wondering). Or maybe bikes found me - they were the perfect match of not mainstream, yet sort of tough athletically. There was lots of engineering stuff to think...
Blog meta I have not fussed with the blog, so we're still on Zola. As site generators go, Zola seems to be gaining popularity for its stability, which is another way to say the developers haven't broken things in the name of "upgrades"....
With SC-3 and the Ruby Roubaix behind me, it was time to build a new trail bike to take over from the fat bike's temporary role filling the need. I had really liked the first fat bike as a rigid 29+ trail bike, so I thought I'd use that...
Number 3 in the "Short Crank" series is a formal replacement for SC-1. While it rode fine it was meant to be a test mule and there were a few things I wanted to update too. This year I also was planning to ride the 200k "Ruby Roubaix"...
The first full frame build for the "Short Crank" series was a fat bike frame but being the second project in the series it gets the designation of SC-2. The choice of a fat bike frame was because winter was coming and I felt like my...
Updated 2025-10-11 with information from Hinault's book Current bike fit trends (both on road and off) have riders moving forwards on the bike. At some point in any online discussion, the topic of the old fit rule "Knee Over Pedal...
Here's a closer look at "SC-1" the first bike in my "short crank" series. I also contrast it to my previous gravel frame which give a bit more context to the geometry changes that are going into the SC series. This frame was originally...
If you've spent any time in mountain bike wheel discourse since the 29" tire came out, you've probably heard about "the tractor study". If you haven't, even though 29" wheels are 20 years old and more or less the standard, you'll...
These days crank arm length is a hot topic. I almost avoided it - I've been happily turning over 175s for 35 years and didn't see a need to change. I even did some experiments 20 years ago. But the topic wouldn't disappear, and in the...
These days crank arm length is a hot topic. I almost avoided it - I've been happily turning over 175s for 35 years and didn't see a need to change. I even did some experiments 20 years ago. But the topic wouldn't disappear, and in the...
Back in the golden age of blogs I started multiple sites on Wordpress.com but they had hometown-specific names and every time I moved I felt obligated to start a new one. Then social media happened and everyone stopped, but these days...