State of The Shop

By blackmountaincycles, May 24, 2018

Filed under: Black Mountain Cycles frames, Shop stuff

Sometimes, the day-to-day aspects of life don’t let you look at the bigger picture of what’s happening. Wake up, go for a run or a ride, answer emails, get stuff done in the shop, ship a frame or two, bleed some brakes, tune-up a bike, ride home (maybe the long way – 3 instead of 2 miles), repeat.

The day-to-day life gets in the way of realizing what really is going on in the shop. I started this little thing almost 11 years ago with an inkling that these steel frames that fit bigger tires than what was the norm would be “a thing.” It took me a few years to get the first frames. Once I did get those frames, I’ve been able to continually reorder frames – which is a good thing, because that means there is demand and they are selling. That’s the simplistic goal of any business, right?

The one thing I have not yet figured out is forecasting. That’s always been a dark arts science. Crystal ball stuff. No matter how many of a certain size/color you order, it’s not going to match demand at that time. So you adjust and reorder and, yep, that’s a bit off too. Readjust and move on and not freak out about it. It’s pretty well known that the bell curve method is time-proven. However, where the majority of that bell lands on the size range is in constant state of movement. The goal is to not run out of the middle/average sizes before you run out of the very small and very large sizes.

So it was with the latest order of the Monstercross V5.3 frames. I ran out of 56cm and 60cm Monster cross frames in short order. Although, I do have 60cm frames in the V5.2 version, which is the same as the V5.3 except for the color (Aurora Red and Semi-gloss Black). That shows the fickle nature of demand or color preference. High demand for the Gentian Blue and Greenery 60cm frames, less demand for the red or black. Go figure.

This sweet ride is heading to its new home on the gravel roads of Iceland.

The mystery of size forecasting isn’t limited to the Monstercross frames. I ran out of 54cm and 58cm Road frames recently too. All is not lost, though. I am working on getting a fill-in order placed for both the Monstercross and Road frames. Same orange color for the Road frame. Not sure about color for the Monstercross. Maybe the same. Maybe not.

About 3 weeks ago, I opened the window for deposits on the incoming disc brake frames and was blown away by the demand. In only a couple of days, the 59cm and 56cm MCD frames were sold out. Actually, it looks like there is one 56cm pink MCD available as of now (May 24, 2018). There’s still plenty of 53cm and smaller frames, though and plenty of all sizes of Road+ frames. Plenty is a relative term, as prior to this, I would have thought it to be plenty, but I was taken aback by the demand of these new disc frames. The crystal ball needs some polishing.

In the mean time, I did put together some prospective complete specs for the incoming disc frames. Both the Road+ and MCD got a Shimano 105 and SRAM Rival spec in both a mechanical disc and hydraulic disc version. I’ll put up some wheel builds for each soon as well. I was uncertain for a while about what to do with regards to wheels, but learned not too long ago that Shimano’s new 105 group, the R7000, series will have 12mm thru-axle hubs that will work great with my frames.

To whet your appetite, here are some more detail shots of the new disc frames.