My Custom frame project.

[byke]

Brand : PIR
Model Name :  ________


The Start :
Wow, where do I start?
The past 48 hours has been crazy.
As many of you in the world of Flatland and Facebook, you may have seen 2 pictures posted via PIR on Facebook and what almost seems as viral amount of shares discussing this frame. In such a way that I never expected it to gain so much attention.


Geometry :
First and foremost, many of you may notice that the geometry specs are a little odd.
I want to clarify this straight from the start, this is because of my personal taste …. I have a very odd taste in geometry (compared to the "norm").
But I want to emphasize that that this "New" design isn't restricted to my personal geometry …. That means this shape could be used with more common geometry. 


Top Tube : 19.78" (A frame should never be measured in terms of this measurement)
Head Angle 74 °
Seatpost Angle : 67.7 ° (and offset) - thus making the TT look even longer.
BB Height : +18mm (Super low)
Rear End : 13.84" +
Removable brake mounts under the chain stays (with gyro tabs on the BB)
Oversized seat tube.
34.9mm Seat Post (largest commercially available seat post size)
Strawberry style internal Seat clamp.

The Beginning :
Well, it's been a project thats been in my mind for a very long time (years in fact) but I have never been able to find the right shaped tubes to go forward.


Anyway, fast forward to about a year ago and I found myself looking to design a new frame again. I had always wanted to design a monocoque based frame, but never found the right combination of commercially available tubing and design for it to be able to work in harmony. Malo (PIR) had posted up some pics of his personal ride where some of the tubes he used had been heavily modified to create specific new tube shapes. And with this knowledge that PIR had reached such a point in its own development, where they were able to do such custom shaped tubing. I set forth in trying to design a new frame. Ensuring that it was as simple as possible, yet featured these ideas I wanted to achieve.


I knew I wanted a lower stand over height as I had a couple of issues previously where I had clipped my feet on my previous frame.
I also knew I wanted a frame that could be disassembled easily for traveling with. But I never envisioned such a low standover height until I properly sat down and started to look at how I could create something different.


I have to be honest in the beginning of the process I had made a few designs which quite frankly were "ok" designs but they were thinking inside the box so to speak and influenced too greatly by past bikes. Eventually after many different ideas I penned up a design I was happy with and sent it off to Malo, expecting a reply of "why would you want to do that" - But actually got a reply from Malo of great enthusiasm regarding this idea and very happy and eager to not only work with the idea but to also add his ideas ….


The original design featured a singular 2" front tube and some square rear tubing, with what I thought at the time may be a design that would be easier to build than a normal frame (Boy, was I was wrong) And this is where the project became interesting. Malo started to put all the info from my illustrator 2D file into a solidworks 3D file. And it soon became apparent that the original design had a flaw in the rear triangle area as there just wasn't enough space for me to be able to get some brake mounts in (as I had originally planned). Malo then came up with this idea of an angled wishbone connection (previously it had been a straight wishbone) and after some back and forth ideas we settled on this change. Then Malo was faced with the daunting task of having to make custom tubes for the rear end. The chain stays are in fact 4 separate pieces of plate that had to be welded together to make just one chain stay.


Inspiration :
While many people may draw similarities to the single front tube to JAD bikes (old 1990's bike company) - the first and real inspiration came to me from reminiscing over my first bike that started my love for bikes, a Raleigh Budgie. It was a 16"? wheeled bike which I had learnt to bunny hop on and even do kick turns on a dirt bank as a kid. Way before BMX bikes were commercially available in the small town I lived in as a kid (Folkestone, Kent - England - circa 1980-81) - And while I have nothing against JAD and hold great respect for the company that pioneered some amazing designs in the mid nineties, I wanted to make sure that credit was placed to the right concept. As while JAD brought the attention of the single top tube to the Pro BMX market, they hadn't (in my eyes) invented it.


The Look :
Now, like any new concept or idea … there will be those who like it, and those who don't.
Especially based on the way it looks, rather than the what it looks to change.
Just remember, at present this is just 1 custom frame … made for me. I didn't work on this concept, specifically to make it get attention.
No other brand as far as I know of is producing anything similar for the mass market - and the only way to get something similar is to make one yourself (or have it made). So if you are one of the people who feels threatened by this design, don't worry. Or better still, start drawing something better.


How it rides :
The honest answer is, I have no idea.
At the moment the frame is still in France where its been made, and I am trying to source a few parts needed so that when it arrives I can build it up.
When I do get all the bits together I will update this post and let you know. There are some parts I would really like to build this with but due to availability or price - I can't get ahold of said parts at the moment (pedals, pegs, seatpost).


I will post up photos and a parts list when its ready.


Last Words :
The biggest thanks goes out to Malo.
It would be wrong for me to take all the credit on this design, as we really did work on this together.
Since this is a custom frame I haven't felt the need to give it a model name, apart from the reference to PIR (The custom bike maker).
But if I had to give it a model name …. it would be "Hello / Bonjour" (in regards to credit).


Links :
PIR CUSTOM BIKE PARTS : https://www.facebook.com/Pir.Malo

[Bri-jon]

Nice write up. Really look forward to the build    well done Mark and Malo ! ! !

[Mr.Archon]

amazing!

[K.Wong]

yeah, props to both of you - for constant innovation and dedicated work.

[bransyeah]

I really like the industrial look of the frame. ¿Are you going to paint it?

Hope you enjoy it and that you keep posting your impressions about it.

[byke]

Cheers Bram,
At the moment I am slightly taken back by the amount of interest thats been shown by many.
I personally like the Raw look .... so hadn't been planning to paint it anything (apart from clear)

[Phatman]

This really is an interesting piece of work, i look forward to seeing it built up & i also hope you will do a little write up of how it rides when you've had it a few weeks.

[Sequencebmx]

I think it looks pretty good. The more I look at it the more I like it. Good  luck with this project Mark.

[tod miller]

Interesting take on a monocoque frame.   Craftsmanship on this is art in itself.  Ofcourse, the design is not for everyone...but hey, it's a custom!  Keep this thread updated please.


Byke, you remember the Haro Megatube DV8?  Around 93?  I wonder what happened with that design.  The first commercially available flat frame of that design, if I remember correctly. 

[clone0001]

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Can't wait to see this built up.

[mare]

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Can't wait to see this built up.

[sakis]

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Can't wait to see this built up.

[Flatman5]

Very interesting design cant wait to see it built up, great to see such out of the box thinking, very inspirational well done Byke