Lars Tribus Featured in German Mountain Bike Rider Magazine

World Champion and long-time CHUMBA rider Lars Tribus was featured in German Mountain Bike Rider Magazine.  Lars was photographed by legendary photographer Francois Portmann - and has posted pics of himself and the "proving grounds" (his backyard).

You can check it all out here: http://larstribus.loopd.com/

French Magazine Velo Vert Visits CHUMBA

France's renown mountain biking publication Velo Vert paid a visit to CHUMBA in Anaheim last week.  Yannick, a journalist for the magazine, attempted a touring bike trip from northern California down to Anaheim, but pouring rain and winds prevented him from finishing the bike trip.  Fortunately, he was able to rent a car and pay us a visit.  Here's a few pics he took, the rest are available via the link here: http://www.velovert.com/Reportage_VTT_en_direct/52/342/Visite-Chumba

 

 

Here's some words from Yannick:

Hey les amis !

I finally started my touring biketrip Sunday afternoon and reach San Luis Obispo Wednesday evening andstayed there a couple of days in order to cover all the bike historyhere + posting Chumba pics on web ! I'll hit the road again tomorrow(Saturday) toward Big Sur. 

So, Chumba in reports on homepage on www.velovert.com. Direct link is: http://www.velovert.com/Reportages_VTT_live , then click on ''Visite Chumba''

Thanks again for all your friendly help, it was great time there !  

 

Yannick Oven - Journaliste testeur 

2009 CHUMBA Race Season Recap

2009 was one of CHUMBA's most successful race seasons in the company's 16 year history.  We launched one of the nation's largest grassroots racing program.  Using a dedicated 50 feet RV to transport our race bikes and provide race support nationwide.  It was a large investment for the company, but we had an unprecedented number of CHUMBA riders at all racing levels representing on the bikes, putting up impressive results, but more importantly, having great camaraderie and moving the sport forward.

Up and coming Junior Expert rider Jake Payne had many top 3 finishes including the Fontana National, the Santa Ynez National, and Brianhead NMBS #6.

                                      

At the UCI World Cup, CHUMBA was represented by 2x National Champion Duncan Riffle and Pro Rider Brad Benedict.  Duncan had one of his most successful years, coming in early in the season with impressive finishes, and ending up as one of the top 20 fastest racers in the world. Duncan made a big statement for his sponsors through his efforts and top-notch representation. Duncan came in first at the IXS Downhill Cup among over 300 participants from 19 nations.  You can find more information here: http://www.sicklines.com/2009/06/02/ixs-european-downhill-cup-race-1-in-verbier-31st-may-2009/

 We hope 2010 will be equally as successful for all of the riders and the rest of the industry.  Everyone putting their time, effort, and heart into the sport through racing deserves mention and we thank the entire industry for all of the contributions.

                                          

CHUMBA Racing Facilities Remodel Completion!

Part 1 of 2

Dear CHUMBA Riders, Friends, and Family:

So far, the new year has been great!  We've completely remodeled the interior of our building, improved our bike assembly, warehousing, and production equipment; and we are extremely proud of our new facilities - so we thought we'd share and give all of you a virtual tour.

First, we started off with a new showroom - we've displayed all of our frames, past articles of our championship-winning bikes, and added jerseys of Lars Tribus, Lisa Sher - and other current and past famous CHUMBA Riders.

Here are 2 shots of the showroom from different angles:

We then moved on to our conference room and studio - adding a 10 feet logo to the glass panels, and decorating with marketing images from our industry for inspiration.

                           

                         

Afterwards, we thought we'd add some style to our hallway - to represent the company heritage and team colors of red, white, and black.  The red, white, and black jersey have graced the likes of Shaums March, Duncan Riffle, Lars Tribus, and numerous other top American racers.  So as a tribute to our racing heritage the hallway got the CHUMBA race treatment.

                        

Then, we moved on to our offices - to help create some inspiration in our day - we installed 10 feet wide images to add some colorful backdrop to our daily work area.  Walking into our offices has become a much more enjoyable experience. 

                        

                        

Finally, we did some work to our R&D area, but we can't show you too much of that. ; )

                      

Well, thanks for coming along on the tour, and remember, we always love meeting our customers from all over the country and the world, so feel free to call us if you want to stop by.  Stay tuned for Part II where we will show your our warehouse, production facilities, and bike assembly area.

Happy trails!

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CHUMBA Rider Pins It at Australian National Champs!

The Australian Mountain Bike Nationals at Adelaide, South Australia took place this week.  Known to locals and regulars as RADelaide, it's one of the nation's premier spots for biking in the country - and had a list of premier riders representing.

Our CHUMBA Rider came in 6th overall and provided these amazing photos.

                                           

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Interview w/ Ted Tanouye - Headtube Sizes

Ted Tanouye is CHUMBA's head designer and founder.  The son of a NASA engineer with mulitple ground-breaking designs under his belt that have competed successfully in national and international races, Ted is one of the sport's true legends.

Interviewer: The rage these days seems to be on tapered headtubes, do you think they will become an industry standard?

Ted: I can't say for certain what will happen in the future; however, building frames for over 20 years, I have seen ovalization of head tubes at the lower cup area on race frames, and we have seen manufacturers react to this.  What they have done, including myself, is add headtube wall thickness and gussetting of the headtube junction areas.  For instance, on the F5, we do use a 1.5" outer diameter, as well as wrap most of the headtube with a reinforcing gusset.  The number of reported instances of stress risers and ovalization on recent DH frames is almost zero.

Interviewer: What about trailbikes?  What is your experience with ovalization?

Ted: Aluminum will always have a fatigue life.  And, depending on the type of usage these bikes expose themselves to, you could see massive amounts of force applied to the lower area of these bikes.  10 years ago, I woud never have imagined that trail bikes would be subjected to the type of abuse that they undergo today.  Also, it's not only the ordinary usage, but flat-landings and slip-ups during jumps and drops could mean that the head tube is subjected to forces that are far magnified compared to ordinary trail-riding or if you were to have a smooth transition or landing.  Taking all of this into consideration, manufacturers  seem to be trying to deal with this problem by increasing the head tube size by using a larger bearing to dissipate stress, and increased surface area for mitering; however, it's tough to say how effectively these proposed solutions will work out in the long-run.  However, we can say with some certainty that the lower head tube area will usually ovalize first over time wth repeated stress.

Interviewer: So what is the future of CHUMBA's headtubes?

Ted: Any time we propose a change in the frame, we deliberate over the change, and try to review as much data as possible to make sure that the change really affects performance and durability in the long run.  We really try to resist the urge to jump on the band-wagon, as there is a lot of pressure from industry hype to adopt new standards.  We will take a wait-and-see approach before committing to a change.

Interviewer: Thanks for the information, and hope to talk again soon.

[END]

Custom-made F5 frames from Spain

Our distributor in Spain, Gavarres bike, has made these custom frames based off of the F5 chassis, using new geometry, custom graphics, and a new top tube.  These bikes are not yet available, as they are still in prototyping phase, but you can check out pictures here and e-mail us for more information.

Let us know what you think!

The Beauty is in Simplicity

In Malcolm Gladwell's best-selling book "Blink," he describes a phenomenon of rapid cognition - meaning the mind makes a split-second decision on a person, a product, or an idea - and has a gut feeling or intuition that is often times correct.  When we set out to design the VF2 - this book heavily influenced our design philosophy - we wanted a bike that just "looked" and "felt" right without any excuses.  We aimed for simplicity in design, we didn't want too many moving parts, forced pivot locations, or excessive tube bending and shaping - what we aimed to do is make a bike that "flowed" and had a natural elegance to it.

We emphasized our constantly linear suspension - one designed around a simplistic yet enduring engineering philosophy - don't over engineer the linkage - keep it predictable and constant.  So, we naturally went with a 4 bar fully active linkage.  Second, we wanted the bike's proportions - front and rear triangle to look natural to the eye - and we didn't want to warp parts of the bikes just to fit in pivot points and make the linkage work.

What we came up with, is what we believe to be one of the most beautiful frames on the market - you can see how the competition stacks up and judge for yourself.

Compare different designs - 2 different philosophies - complexity vs. simplicity:

Coil or Air?

Some people swear by air shocks - others by coil.  Sure, there are obvious benefits to air shocks, such as generally being lightweight, and less expensive than a coil with titanium spring.  However, the way these shocks work with different suspension linkages also influence people's decisions.  Since air shocks increase dampening exponentially as a shock compresses, frame designers often use a regressive leverage rate towards bottom-out to create the desired "linear" feel.  This is why some frames like the Ibis HD, which uses the DW Link, instruct riders to only use air shocks with their frames.  If a coil shock was used on this bike the suspension would end up feeling softer as you compress the linkage past the sag point towards full compression - essentially providing little bottom-out resistance.

On the other hand, many 4 bar frames have linear linkage feels, this gives the option to either run a coil shock or an air shock.  A coil shock - which is inherently linear coupled with a linear linkage - will give a feeling of controlled and predictable travel.  This is largely because the suspension would compress with an equivalent amount of force throughout its travel.  Conversely, if you ran a progressive air shock on this type of linkage, you would get a progressive feeling suspension.  So you have the option to run either coil or air with a linkage like the CHUMBA VF2 or XCL.

It's conceivable that some riders have used coil shocks on frames not designed to accept the linear rates of these dampers.  It's important to always double check with manufacturers first before swapping out different shocks to make sure that the results of the damper change will coincide with the desired ride feel.

You can shoot any suspension set up or tuning questions to tech@chumbaracing.com. Just to be clear though, all of CHUMBA frames were designed to accept either coil or air shocks, and we encourage the use of coil shocks.

Happy trails.

CHUMBA Rider Takes 1st Place at Fontana

Here are the words from Adam:

     I have just raced my Chumba F5 at the first Fontana Winter Series and won First Place by over 4 seconds in Junior Expert.. The course was sandy, blown out, and included a few off-cambered sections too, but my F5 tracked through it all with ease, even with bald tires.. I couldn't believe the difference when I rode a run down the course on my buddy's bike, his bike just did not compare to the handling and pedaling efficiency of my F5. With my time that would have earned me 7th out of 40 Pros, I know that my bike had something to do with the result. I would just like to thank you guys for making such an awesome bike!

Thanks a Ton,

     Adam

What Makes a High-end Frame, High-End? Part 2 of 3

This is the second installment of our series.  So, in the first installment, we determined that having an in-house fabrication facility assists in reducing prototyping costs while giving the company increased depth in engineering and manufacturing of high quality frames.

Now, we consider the production methods used when mass-producing frames.  The variance in quality of frame manufacturers can be day and night - and one traditional piece of criteria that has stood the test of time is to look at weld quality.  A high-end frame, whether made in the United States or overseas, will always have a consistent weld-bead, and what we often like to refer as "dimes" or "pearls" to describe this feature.

Here is a picture of the CHUMBA F5 - which showcases a quality weld:

As you can see - there are minimal blotches, and a uniform, clean look to the craftsmanship showcased in the frame.  Additionally, you can see this XCL picture:

Weld quality is a good indicator of the level of care and craftsmanship the manufacturer puts into their frame.  Usually, a frame with consistent weld beads is a sign the manufacturer was willing to incur the extra expense to ensure good frame alignment, finish, and materials when manufacturing the frame.

So it's often not so much just the simple question of what country the frame was made in, but rather, what level of manufacturing and engineering depth does the bicycle company have in-house; and after producing workable models in-house; to what length does the company go to ensure pristine welds, frame alignment, and a beautiful finish.  Often times, the subtle details in the frame will reveal this information.