Last Wednesday was Bike to Work day. Our friend Bill helped organize the event. One of the things he helped put together were breakfast stations where people could stop for a bike and a drink on their way to work. Over 30,000 people were registered and even more took part in the event. The grand prize was a Yeti bicycle. Thursday we got to visit where they are constructed. It was very cool to see how they make their bikes. I was expecting a more factory looking place but in fact it was all very simple stuff. Each bike is made by hand. The frames are constructed by Shaggy. They are then sent out to be powder coated and then sent back to be assembled. Shaggy can make 3-5 frames in a day, depending on which bike style he is working on. He says the order in which the items are welded together is very important. The molecules in metal are arranged in a sort of wood grain like fashion. When the metal is welded the molecules migrate to different sections of the metal. They move back as it cools. If you weld things in the wrong order they will more around once cooled and result in an ill fit. Once it is all together it is then "cooked" for at least 8 hours in something that looks like a pizza oven. This ages the metal and makes it strong. He says that cheap bikes are not aged, making the metal more brittle. We also got to meet Jason, a young man who is competing in the BMX Olympic trials. Some of the bikes shown in these photos were used by people who own other Olympic and World Cup races. Yeti is best known for their mountain bikes, but they make other excellent ones as well. They run about $4,800 or more, depending on what components you have on it. It was very interesting to see.
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