Bonavia Cycles

I was out riding my mountain bike yesterday. My friend and Bonavia cycles supported track racer and all round nice guy Dylan Davies tooks some photos. It is always nice to see oneself in a nice photo.

Another great article from Jan heine and Bicycle Quarterly. If you have ever wanted to know why a steel bicycle is and always will be relevant. Give this article a read.

This has been a real last minute development but we have a booth a the Vancouver Bike Show this week end! So if any of you guys, who are local to Van want to pop by and say Hi this would be awesome! Booth #B318 we are here all weekend folks!

So here is another bit of a photo dump, These shots are all related to a restoration project I undertook for a set of competition rollers. It was a challenging project mainly due to the condition that the gearbox was in when I received it and the difficulty I had with taking accurate measurements from a lot of the component parts. Our goal was to keep (for now) the gearbox as original as possible, yet make the repairs and parts needed for the rollers to be fully operational.... With this brief I decided that the components that needed to be replace were the worm gear carriers. These components take the rotary motion of the rollers and their cables and transfer it through the worm into a linear motion that drives a fine toothed brass gear that in turn drives what appears to be a old school BMX chain ring that is connected to the indicator arms on the "clock face". I found the gearbox itself to be a wonderful example of bicycle workshop ingenuity and a "use what you have mentality". For example all of the threaded shafts that carried the worm gears and all other threads on the part were 5/16th keyed bicycle axles cut to size. The bearing cups and cones were brazed in place and looked like they had been re-purposed from bicycle hubs. All of the components that made up these parts were hand cut and filed with the only exceptions being the gears, cogs and bearing cones and races. I did feel like a bit of a cheat using my lathe and mill and replacing the cup and cones with cartridge bearings but...... I like using my tools. I also wanted to make whatever parts I made for this rig to be serviceable so cartridge bearings it was and nice and accurately drilled, tapped and countersunk holes they had to be. When all was said and done, the mechanism worked great, my friend and client Keyln was stoked and a piece of Vancouver cycling history was brought back from the grave. So in creating this post it does remind me that in an effort better inform you lovely readers I need to take more process shots. I will do my best to remember this when the chips are flying. All the best.

T-shirts and Koozies. I have just a few of these left from my summer order, Super Champion Cycle Shop has a few more shirts. I will be doing a new order soon but for now I would like to see what stock i do have go to good homes. Out door can sipping season never ends, and its is almost time to wear t-shirts! look sharp and be prepared. T's $25 CAD Kooz's $10 CAD... + postage If you are interested send me your address and I will quote for postage.

Hello all, it sure has been a while! Here are a few pictures of some riding I got up to when Debra and I were in the Bay Area over the New Year. There are a couple from the "gents" ride in Marin, one from the solo rides I did in the Peninsula in a spot that is locally called Boggs. Boggs has a bunch of great trails and it is pretty much all up or down, this equates to equal measures of awsome and suck if your on a single speed, IMO. I do really like riding there though. I will try and find a few more photos and post them up.

I was talking to a friend at Portland Oregon's annual bikes and beer festival that I am totally sold on bike touring. If you would have told me that I would be saying this a three years ago I would have been skeptical. Not because bike touring did not appeal but because I did not think I could fall this hard for it. [ 2,036 more words ] http://bonaviacycles.com/2015/10/10/pdx2thecoast

Below is a bunch of shot in no particular order. The shots presented are of the parts fitting and assembling of two of a run of three 650B camping bikes made in 2015. These bike were heavily influenced by the camping bikes made by French builders and Constructeurs of the post-war era. Low BB height, Low trail, thinned and dressed lugs and light yet robust tubing selection were all elements of the bikes design and esthetic. [ 98 more words ] http://bonaviacycles.com//14/assembling-the-650b-camp-bikes

So posting this a couple years late. Media and marketing definitely not being my strong suits!! (I can hear every one who knows me laughing) Anyway, The show was great and it was wonderful to see people enjoying my work. For organizing the show thanks again go to Matt Braun of Skyland Cycles and Mussette Cafe. thanks again guys! Below are a few shots from the show. http://bonaviacycles.com///the-1st-vancouver-builders-show

So this post is late, real late to be honest. For the last two years I have been slowly putting the pieces together and setting up a shop space in order to start building Bonavia bicycles again. The road has been long and with a few forks to get to where I am at now: in a shared shop with all my tools set up and ready for work. [ 91 more words ] http://bonaviacycles.com//12/08/new-shop-new-year-last-year

So, my wife Debra and I are back from our annual trip down to the San Francisco Bay Area to see family and friends and it's raining in Vancouver, in January, strange right!? After ten days of festivities and mountain biking with a bunch of great folks from Santa Cruz Bikes (thanks, Ian and Kyle!) and some old friends who made the trip down from Portland OR, 2014 Shredmas happened! [ 206 more words ] http://bonaviacycles.com/2015/01/04/happy-new-year