We’re not gloating but we do want to make a post congratulating the democratic process. Good on ya, America! That said, we have a lot of work to do to re-unite this country.

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We’re not gloating but we do want to make a post congratulating the democratic process. Good on ya, America! That said, we have a lot of work to do to re-unite this country.
Intro by California Travis:
Every Monday at 11 am, the entire PAUL Component shop staff has an “All-Hands” meeting to catch up on any changes or shop news or projects. For the last few months, this has been in the backyard with masks and everybody yelling across the yard to each other. It’s weird but no weirder than our usual shop vibes. Last Monday, Paul announced that November 2nd is International Singlespeed Day. We all looked at him like “Huh? Says who?” Then he said it was him and his friend Amanda’s birthday that day, and it was Amanda’s idea, and why the hell not?
Having never created an International Holiday before, I wasn’t quite sure what to do, so I got on the phone with a bunch of framebuilders and friends and said “Hey. It’s Paul’s birthday on November 2nd, and he wants everybody to ride singlespeeds. You down?” And of course, everybody said yes, I mean what the hell else are you going to do right now? So how do you join us? It’s pretty simple really, go for a ride on your singlespeed, wherever you live, post a photo on Instagram and hashtag it #InternationalSinglespeedDay, and wish Paul and Amanda a happy birthday if you want. Don’t have a singlespeed bike? Zip tie your shifters, or take the battery off your derailleur, maybe? Get creative, there are no rules!
Post your singlespeed bikes up in the comments too.
We asked Paul what the big deal is and this is what he wrote… Read on below!
Paul Component Engineering has a lifelong legacy of making parts you can rely on, for just about any bike. This legacy is only possible due to the fact that the team at Paul live, eat, dream, drink, sleep, and travel for all things bike! Part of their tradeshow and bike race fleet is this Sprinter van, which recently got a facelift thanks to Chris McNally. Let’s take a look at this van’s new vinyl wrap in detail below.
Today we dropped a big ol’ gallery of the Sierra Explorer thanks to California Travis and to compliment the photos, there’s even a video. Watch it here to give some more insight into this cool project. Remember, you can win this bike!
Is this an article written by Cjell, about a bike built by Cjell? Yes, indeed. Not too many other people around here to tell ya about it, so it’s me you’ll have to listen to.
My operation has a couple of facets to it. One being stock frames that I have the privilege of working with a shop in Taiwan. They’re faster and much better equipped to put together frames more efficiently, and their neighborhood is full of toolmakers, tube benders, casters, etc. The fact that they put up with me trying to keep up in the shop is a testament to their patience and capacity.
I guess this is a little embarrassing. I built this bike from a single part: the stem. When Paul released the first version of the Eddie Van Halen Boxcar stem, I just had to have it! To be clear, I am not a Van Halen fan.
The first-place prize for Sim Works’ Social Reform Benefit Raffle is this Doppo ATB tourer, built by Shin in Japan, and decked out with a selection of Sim Works, Chris King, and Paul parts. Let’s check it out in detail in order to ramp up support of this great cause…
Matt bought this classic Fisher MTB frame for $50 with the hopes of having a good ’round towner. Like all bikes, it’s going through various iterations over the years, with what you’re seeing now being the most current and arguably the best. I guess it depends how the parts bin and jewelry box are lookin’ ya know?
Paul Component Engineering makes a lot of cool stuff and the whole team over there in Chico is friends with many framebuilders. Real recognize real, right? For his latest bike, he chose Cameron Falconer to weld him up something special. Check it out here!
With the pandemic putting a halt to NAHBS and our post-NAHBS framebuilder ride/showcase in Sedona this year, we decided to pull something together with our friends at ENVE to commemorate their new Foundation AM30 MTB wheel launch. When ENVE moved into its new carbon manufacturing and testing facility, they worked hard to push the progression of carbon wheel design and manufacturing. Over three years later and thousands of hours developing, today they launched their Foundation Collection, a completely new wheel line that marks a new milestone in wheel design. In short, for those of us who aren’t interested in graphs or projections, ENVE launched a $1600 made in the USA wheelset and to help showcase these new wheels, we pinged three frame builders to showcase these wheels. The last in the series is Retrotec with a beautiful Funduro 29er.
Behold, a timeless diamond in the crust. The “cantibolt” is the “sign a waiver” lightest tubed-cantilever-1” threaded offering from Crust Bikes; the first name in Boastfully Poor Business Decisions Index Weekly. A riff on the Jan Mule that so famously/infamously dons just about every other page of Bicycle Quarterly; the Crust version has coincidentally received praise from its muse… the sultan of supple; the prince of planing himself… Jan Heine uuuuuuvvv Bicycle Quarterly.
The seed was planted last summer during a weekend visit to Cameron Falconer’s compound in Quincy to ride singletrack in Plumas National Forest, one of my favorite local playgrounds. I already had a 5-year-old Falconer hardtail that I loved and rode everywhere, and there was nothing wrong with it.
Well, there actually was something wrong with my bike on that Saturday (a component failure), so I borrowed one of Cameron’s personal steel hardtails to ride on Sunday. Luckily for me we ride roughly the same size bike. Cameron has experimented with quite a few geometries over the years since he made my last bike, and the loaner I was on happened to be one of his latest designs. We were riding big chunky rough stuff in the Lakes Basin area and I was bouncing through big rock gardens more comfortably than with my old bike, feeling a lot more stable, and by the end of the ride I was like, “BUILD ME ONE LIKE THIS.
That suntanned, SUNTOURist, king of the grandiose, the beausage factory himself, Mr. Ronnie Romance, aka Ultra Romance, really knows how to put a bicycle together, even a simple one such as a fixed gear. Yet we’re not talking a Kierin bike, those NJS-stamped sparkle machines, or even a British Path Racer. This is a bike designed specifically for a plump, rough and tumble tire, with a relaxed fit, eons past the aggressive saddle-to-bar drop bikes of yesteryear, yet somewhere in-between the monster-truck abilities of a tracklocross bike. This Madrean Fabrications ‘country fixed’ is unlike anything I’ve seen in recent memory… or maybe it’s just my old age.
PAUL and his team of merry machinists made yet another super-limited batch of Boxcar Stems – 5 of each size – as an homage to Eddie Van Halen’s iconic home-painted “79′ Bumblebee” guitar as it appeared on the back cover of Van Halen II and throughout their 1979 Tour.
It’s a little known fact that Eddie himself brought the original guitar to Dimebag Darrell’s funeral in 2004 where it was placed in his coffin and buried with him. Much like the guitar, each one of these stems is totally unique, artistically splattered in black and gold anodizing by Scooter himself. Somebody get me a doctor!
“Where’s your Dreamer?” “What happened to the green Dreamer?” “Do you ever ride your Dreamer?”
Since posting up the gallery of my Crust Bikes Dreamer, it’s been the bike people email me about the most. I get various questions, ranging from the ones I listed above, to questions on the Microshift and how I like the Dreamer platform. When I first got the bike, Crust Bikes and Darren Larkin, the builder of the Dreamer frames, were working on a few details. What I ended up with was a bike that was in-between versions and a few things weren’t working out so well. This prompted me and Darren to talk about the bike in detail and him offering to take it back to update and fix a few things. Read on below to find out what happened between these two models.
It’s the third year of the Paul Component Engineering and Sierra Nevada collaboration bike build. This year, Paul pinged BTCHN Bikes for the Sierra Explorer. Read on below on this kick-ass project!
With clearance for a 26″ x 3″ tire and a bright, rambunctious color combination, this Beardman Bicycles was a real attention grabber at the Philly Bike Expo. The bright colors normally could distract from the details of a bike but it’s impossible to glance over some of the unique features. For example, it has a front and rear rack, with removable rails, in case you’ve gotta bring a big ol’ pizza pie back home.
The theme of this year’s Beardman was spooky, with a skeleton losing its hand to the King Cage Many Things cargo cage and a RIP grave marker on the front rack, precisely cut by Derek at Kannaly Metal Works. Beardman makes custom racks, which pair nicely with their segmented forks and precision welded frames.
Did we mention this beaut’s for sale? Holler at Beardman for the scoop! It’d look so good covered in your home dirt.
30 years of making dang fine parts in Chico, California is something worth celebrating! Paul Component is celebrating three decades of millin’ metal with this run of limited edition box sets. Included in the hand-numbered kit are 2 Short-Pull I.S. Klamper Brakes, 1 Pair of Short-Pull Brake Levers, 1 Quick Release Seat Collar, and 1 Bottle Opener.
Each part is finished in a beautiful, alternating Pewter n Purple anodizing, with “30” engraved. Each kit comes packaged in a CNC machined and individually numbered wooden box (1/30-30/30). Only 30 of these were made and when they’re gone, they’re gone.
This kit looks amazing and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for PAUL and crew!
Head to Paul Component Engineering to pick up a set for you or someone you really want to stoke out.