PB Road Trip - Tour De California Part 2
Feb 8, 2012 at 22:42
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 Rain! Wasn't this the stuff we were trying to escape? Pinkbike's Suburban towed our BC weather into Santa Cruz, where locals actually thanked us for ending a three-week drought. |
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| Bell Sport's wall of fame: For 57 years, Bell helmets have protected champions of every action sport, bomb-squads, heavy construction workers, and soldiers. Can any other brand make that claim? |
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| A few steps away: signed team jerseys in beautiful monochromatic yellow. |
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| An entire room full of employee commuter bikes made Easton Bell's commitment to cycling self-evident - and this was a rainy day. |
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| Inside the test laboratory, an Easton wheel is undergoing a protracted fatigue test that repeatedly stresses the drive-side spokes and freehub body with a torque load that surpasses any mortal man's leg power. Easton wheels must pass industry standards at home and abroad - and then make it through its more-stringent in-house testing before they get the nod for future production and sales. Impressive. |
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| We easily identified the various wheels and handlebars that were being subjected to stress testing in the lab, but RC had never seen a carbon fiber Lacrosse racket being put through its paces (left). Handlebar destruction testing will be enhanced by a swivelling weight (right), which Director of Product Testing Niko Henderson explained, will better emulate the flexible human wrist. |
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| Helmets are buckled into special head forms and then rammed onto a series of anvils, rounded, wedge-shaped and flat, with a measured amount of force. The flat test being demonstrated is surprisingly, one of the most destructive. |
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| A weighted wheel is forced down on a huge roller drum with a number of steel strips attached to its circumference to measure the effects of riding over millions of bumps. This is the road wheel setup, although the mountain bike 'bumps' are only about 1/4 inch taller. Technicians say that a full test may run almost two days |
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| A closer look at the wheel testing drum. Like many of the machines in Bell Sport's test facility, the drum testing dyno was designed and built in-house. |
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| Easton's wheel-building department assembles experimental and race wheels in addition to wheel repairs and warranty service. Easton's top dog, Wylie Johnson, demonstrated the Acoustic tuning method developed there to ensure that each spoke is evenly tensioned. Johnson uses a guitar pick to pluck the spokes as well as a calibrated tension meter. Each wheel is then computer-mapped and physically rechecked for quality control purposes. |
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| Santa Cruz is rumored to be second only to Vancouver in the number of restaurants per resident. Jia's has been a PB fave for years. |
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| Cambodian Ice tea |
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| Videographer Aaron Laroque prepares to descend upon Fox Racing Shox's new HQ in Scotts Valley near Santa Cruz |
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| Fox was mid-way through a complete remodel of its new facility in Scotts Valley. Wraps depicting its bike, snow and off-road products will ultimately grace each room. Mark Jordan (right) was our host at Fox Racing Shox. Jordan left Decline Magazine to take a marketing position, where his excellent bike-handling and communication skill sets will be powerful assets. |
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| We were not allowed to even crack open the door of Mark Fitzsimmons racing shop. Evidence of 2013 suspension components was everywhere. |
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| Seen in the tech area |
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| Side-by-side off road vehicles are the fastest growing segment of Fox Racing Shox's business, which includes motorcycle, snowmobile and off road cars and trucks. |
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| Race Shop Mojo |
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| Pinkbike Ping Pong in the Fox lunch room. Fox moved its research and development, administration and sales staff to Scotts Valley in order to consolidate operations and to make room for more manufacturing at its Watsonville complex. |
