Hello and good day to you from episode 43. Of our podcast series Project Breakaway. A metaphorical and a literal time in the day when we here at Predator Cycling. Take some time away from working in the back shop to come and share with our listeners. What we're doing, how we're doing it, what it takes to do it, our ideas, our innovative. Success stories and even our mess ups and failures. If you find yourself with an interest in bicycles, composite manufacturing, out of the box. Design or even curiosities beyond, I encourage you to stick with us. Settle in and learn a little. I'm Courtney B, co-owner and project manager of Predator Cycling. I'm here with my partner Aram Goan, the other co-owner, CEO, lead designer and engineer. And professional snow sledder. How's it going, Aram? It's going good. I I got to say, it's like the highlight of the week to figure out how my intro is coming in. That's the highlight of the week. Sometimes, yeah. There's quite a few highlights. Also, snow and snow in Tennessee was a highlight. Yeah, no, no, no. There's highlights. It wasn't snow. It was it was like rain. And then ice. And then snow. And then melted. And then ice and then melt. And then snow again. So. It made for really good sledding. Not like really good. Tennessee good. Good enough for you and a four-year-old. Yes. And a one-year-old. Yes. So. Yeah, we actually were uh, yeah. For thought this year and bought a sled. Yeah, and a snow shovel. And a snow shovel because we've only been here for five years. And every year we're like, it won't be that bad. And then we get stuck. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then there's like McGyvering some uh two by fours and angle rods to build a scraper. To like clear the driveway. Yeah, no, we uh we have a sled now. We have a sled and we have a snow shovel. So. Okay, so happy Kwanza to those who celebrate. And happy post Christmas pre New Year's. Is it Kwanza? Is today Kwanza? I looked it up, Kwanza started yesterday. Through the first. Oh, okay. I didn't realize it was like a week celebration. That's awesome. So. It's cool. Um, yeah. So Christmas is over. And we're in that weird week. Well, what? Like, I mean, okay, like US Christian Christmas is over. And Armenian Christmas is in January 6th. Yeah, real Christmas is still coming. So, um. We're back, we're in that weird week between Christmas and New Year's. We're either you get everything done or nothing gets done. Yeah, well, I mean, we're in between, you know, Christmas one and New Year's and then real Christmas. So we should just not do any work until January 7th. I mean, I would be all for it, but that's not going to happen. Yeah, exactly. So, um. We wanted to pop on this last week and do a quick uh 2022. End of the year review. Mhm. Predator cycling style. So, uh. that we could do highs or lows or like cool things that happened or not so cool things that happened. Um, currently my not so cool thing, um, is the holiday, the Arctic blast that we just had. That was. Because we're in Tennessee and they are not prepared. Nope. And the pipes are freezing and bursting everywhere. And currently we here have no water at the shop. We have no water. Because the pipes burst. Yes. There's an excavator out front fixing it, but. Yes. Yes, burst pipes suck. Luckily, it didn't burst inside the building. No. Because we had enough for thought to make sure that we had heat. Well, we have to heat and cool the shop, I mean. No. All the time. Not our problem. No. Work neighbor's problem. Yes, work neighbors and. We just get the residual no water. Yes. Luckily that's all we get. Anyway. So, let's begin. Uh, 2022. Mhm. Uh, began basically just an extension of 2020, 2021. It it did. It's the COVID year decade. I don't know. Yeah, something. Something. So, the bike business and basically every other industry, manufacturing, retail, whatever, um, just kind of struggling this year. It's been a strange year. It's been a strange year. Major supply issues. Mhm. Um, wait times on parts. Mhm. Um, just. I mean, even on supplies, inconsistencies on supplies. I mean, you just. One week they're there, one week they're not. You know, it's it's like. Oh yeah. My parents I think waited six months for an oven to deliver. Oh yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, we had problems with torque skis and like, I mean, um, um, uh, some of our like supported like tapes and stuff that we use. And just like things that you don't really think like, oh yeah. And then it's like, you don't have it and you're like, oh boy. But just even like, um, quality. Oh yeah. Well, even last night, I was children's gloves. Oh yeah. I was literally packing up clothes, um, because boys got stuff for Christmas. And I obviously need to go something. And I'm like, I think I already have this. And I found the old one and I found the new one. And they're both the same exact size, same company. I mean, same size on the tag. Yeah. And then I put them next to each other and they're completely two different sizes. Like sewn together. Oh yeah. It's wrong. Yeah. Well, we got it with some of our parts that we got where we had issues where we bought like multiples of the same piece. And then, you know, half of them fit and half of them didn't. Discrepancies. And this is like. I mean, it's just like and not like within an acceptable tolerance. Like, even our shipping boxes. Just tiny little shipping boxes. I got a whole order where, you know, I fold them together to ship stuff out. And I fold them together and the ends don't even meet. Yeah. And they're catle catle wompus. Oh. Using big words. I got to look it up later. Okay. So, um, yeah, from my four-year-old's big big words for little geniuses book. Yeah. Yeah. Um, anyway, yeah, no, so it's just a lot of issues. Uh, yeah. So it's just a lot of issues. definitely been, I mean it kind of and it it rolls into everything, but um, yeah, it makes it makes things more interesting. Yeah. So, um, I went through my camera roll on to look at predator pictures from the past year. Hmm. So, um, Did we do cool stuff? We did some cool stuff. Um, so back in January of 2022, um, we started printing and testing the new number holders. Oh, yeah. And the computer rib mounts. Yes. Oh my God, you know, to be honest, like the last three years just seem like a blur. I know, that's, yeah. I don't know when what year was what and when what happened. Yeah, so we did. That those were two small parts that we, so we decided that this year we were restructured and we were going to do a lot more like 3D printing of small component pieces. And those were kind of our first test ones. Yeah. And those were also our first test ones with the ceramic coating, like it was like kind of a test phase. Yeah. Yeah, that was a good one too because those actually those those bars went straight to uh South America and did really well on some testing and some. What bars? I'm not the bars, I'm sorry, number holders, number holders. Number holders. Number holders. Yeah. Um, so that was January. In February, we introduced the speed plug hooks. And the speed plug spires, again, another 3D printed ceramic coated. Because we kind of got it down. Yeah. We got the recipe. And we did the spires and the hooks, which we needed to actually start printing more hooks because there was a little bit demand there on Amazon. Yes, we need to do hooks and. Um, the spires are. We have some left in stock. And then there's there's uh. They need an update. Oh, right. Because the cone or whatever is now too too long. Too long. For the new UCI rules. Yeah, and then the hooks are. You're going to have to run shorter bars if you're going to run the hooks. And I have to redo the hooks a little bit too. The shape. So, so January, February, 2020, 2023, you have to redesign those things. Yeah, we're going to just have to make some changes. I mean, the hooks are going to become for track racing and for road racing, um, for UCI events, the hooks are going to become less. Um. Helpful. Um, for sure, they're going to be less helpful just because of the way the rules are written now. Um, but they're actually I was actually surprised, a lot of people are buying hooks for tri bikes. Which was very interesting to me. Um, and they're using them with um the remote satellite shifters on their arrow bars. And I thought that was pretty clever. Like I never really kind of thought about it. I don't know what that means. So like the on some of the electronic group now, you can basically have these like remote buttons that you can stick different places. So you don't have to put it in the bar end itself. So when you're in the arrow bars, you can put that button anywhere. Um, so you can put it down lower and then have that as a button. And then put your hands on that hook position and kind of hold up into like a better position. Why don't you just put the button on your shifter? It is a shifter. Well, the button is the shifter. But you can put it in the bar. but you can also put it like not on the bar and put on the side or like on the bottom of the bar. You can move it around. So I've seen a couple of people setups where they've like literally mounted the button someplace else. Like on the inside of the bar and then they have the hook on the end. I was like, oh, that's kind of cool. Like, Anyways, there's some cool, there's some clever, people have done some clever things. There are there are a few clever people in this world. Yes, yes, there's there's there's definitely a few. Um, okay. And then you also in February did Corey's uh first Aero bar extension. Um, Yeah. design and wrap and then the first version of the arm cups. Yeah, so Corey got his first prototypes out. Yeah, it was February. Um, Yeah, that was pretty cool. It was uh it was very exciting. Because those are the first ones of our um uh 3D printed skeleton with the the fused carbon fiber. Um, system and that was the first we've been doing a bunch of testing on it. And that was the first part that hit the road. He raced on this and then he gave you like feedback for updating them. Yeah, because the big question that we had was not so much about the integrity, the structural integrity of the part. But more of like how it feels on the road, like racing. Like actual racing and like that feel. And stability. And like, um, and then, you know, we had some pretty ridiculous numbers that we thought we're going to improve his performance. Like we thought it was pretty. I mean, it was pretty big numbers that we had come up with. And so, you know, we really wanted to test the whole system and see if it worked. And it was pretty cool because the first big test that he had. Um, it came. I mean, they were. They were right on. They were real close. I mean, considering we were going from simulated data to like real world data. We were, I mean, very close. And then he got. Um, did more testing and more um more races. And. Yeah, I mean, it worked out pretty good. And we got a lot of good feedback from him on um ride quality and like what he liked and didn't like. And we've made some improvements. And that's how we came out with the production versions. Mhm. All right. And then also in February, you did we got the shipment from the safeguard shims. That you designed, but they were cut third party. Yeah, yeah. We had those um uh manufacture house. We don't have a. uh prospect big enough. But um, yeah. Those are the first ones. Um, those were cool. They've done pretty well. Um, Mhm. Um, and they're. The thing that's really cool about those is um, is how thin they are. Um, they are. Um, they're about 40%, 50%, almost 50% thinner than the original speed play. Um, protectors they did. And they are the thinnest ones you can possibly get. Um, nobody else has anything that's even close to as thin as as those. Um, and what's so cool is that reduces your stock height. And the material is actually really cool. Because it's actually. Um, uh it comes from a um a shim material. So it's very, very flat. I mean, it's plus or minus like a tenth of a, you know, a tenth of an inch. a tenth of a thou. So it's very, very, very, very flat. So that when that cleat amounts to it, it is not um it's it's giving a really good surface to be attached to. Cool. And then also it's a 304 stainless, it's US source stainless and manufactured in the US. So that's cool. Mhm. Yep. And then in March, we began testing for the cleat wedges. printing in the 3D printer. Yep. And then we also did the first pressure pilot cockpit test wrap. Mhm. Yeah, that was the um, yeah. Those were the we've been waiting to do those bars for quite a bit of time. Um and the big tester was actually the arrow bars. The testing of the arrow bars was um validating the process that was going to go into the pilots. Um, so yeah. And that was cool and then those have done um we've gotten quite a few of those little rolling out um for the first batches. Um and it's been a cool bar. It's exciting. So April through May, we just kind of continued improving all those products. Because those were not just like, hey, we did it. And they're done. Right. There was a lot of testing and changing and testing and changing. And there's a lot of Yeah, and there's also there's a big version from like, you know, building the first ones and prototypes. And then getting it into production. Um, you know, there's a lot of little things you learn. It's like, oh, like that's taking too much time. We got to fix that. And this is, you know, this is too difficult. Or, you know, this is this is where inconsistencies coming from here. I mean, we really try and pick our processes apart. So. Um, yeah, there's definitely a a process that happens. You were also making that custom computer mount for Corey's airbar extension. I like goofy side one. Yeah, goofy side one. Yes. And it broke, right? He hit a rock or a thing or Um, he he he broke the mount where the computer comes on when he was at um at the um um the games in in the UK. Uh Commonwealth games. Okay. There was a descent that was like ridiculously bumpy. And had But that was just like a weird custom thing we were trying. really bad road conditions. Yeah, so we did it. And um uh yeah, he the the clip the mount uh area broke. Um. But he'd been riding it previously for a couple, I mean, a couple weeks. And he didn't have any issues. And I guess there was a handful of people that had broken um mounts. But um, yeah, so it's a canlever mount that was designed to um have some arrow benefits on how the computer is mounted. Um and then we remade it, modified the system a little bit. And um he's been rocking the new ones ever since. Mhm. Yeah. And then also during that time, we got the custom the custom cleat wedge builder on the website. I don't think a lot of people know. I think a lot of people are familiar with cleat wedges. Like for look, K, SPD, SL, whatever. And I think they stack them. They're two degree, one degree. But then what you did is you made a custom builder on the site. So if you actually go to predatorcycling.com and look for the cleat I just click on the custom, it has the degrees as well as the stack height. Yep. Yep. So, it's like all-in-one thing. I don't think a lot of people, I mean, it's cool, we sold a handful, but I don't think a lot of people know or Yeah, I mean, I think that we've been so custom to just stacking them. I think it's definitely we should just do a video on it here in the year. Yeah, we should. video. Um, for sure. Um, it it's definitely a big one. Um, it's cool. To be honest, that's how that's how that project started. Because I didn't want to stack them anymore and I have a Anyways. I have a a very small stack height that's done because I have a little bit of hip roll when I ride. Um, and so I wanted to have a custom setup so that I didn't I didn't have to like basically use four shims in order to make my How do you know you have hip roll when you ride? Do you know you have hip roll or did someone tell you you have your hips? Someone I got my fit. That's that's that's how. I noticed. You make sure you have bad leg doing the hula. It's very slight, I I drop my my right hip a little bit when I pedal. Um. Mm. I just I kind of have like a little a little pivot that I do. Um, and when I when I shim my right foot a little bit extra, um, about a half mil. mil. Um, it it helps quite a bit. Um, and then I also, um, I do two and a half degrees on my right. So, on my shim. You have to custom one. So that was the whole point. And I didn't want. So even before we made them, how did you get two and a half? You can't. Oh. You can't get it. You just get two. Um, and so. Anyways. So that's how I did it. But. Um, yeah, and I ended up using a whole bunch of shims to be able to do it. And I didn't want that anymore. And so I. Um. I had to use um. I wanted the custom one. Um, and also the thing too is is that, you know, you have. Anyways. You can get all into the technicalities of it, but there is an efficiency loss. The more you stack. You do lose efficiency. You do lose efficiency. There's a little bit. There is movement. Um, there's um. There's a little bit of compression that happens, the cleat, the the alignment of the cleat gets messed up a little bit. There's a bunch of little things that happen. None of which are like major deals. Yeah. But when you're racing after performance, it's something that you need to start thinking about. Yeah. Plus it's. I mean, they move. It's really hard to line them up perfectly and they they always want to slide and move. Even with ours that are like specifically designed for each cleat. Um. They it's still hard to stack when you're trying to stack, you know, three of them, four of them. Yeah. Okay. Oh, excuse me. Yeah, long holiday. So, um, June, July and August of this year. We basically had a lot of family time. And you also started on the road bar design and test prints for that. Mhm. And then we got the call at the end of the summer. to hurry up and build a custom RF 20 for Autodesk University. Yep. So, um. Which was that was a challenge because we'd already had some RF 20s and ordered. we didn't have enough parts and part shortages and that was a challenge for sure. That was like you have six six weeks, seven, six weeks, seven weeks. Some stupid thing like seven weeks. to get it to us. Yeah, and that was the stack in on top of our current production schedule. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, we did it. We did it. September, we went to Autodesk University. And we showcased RF 20 along with the new road bar, um, cockpits, uh, um, our friends at the Lenova booth. Yep. And that was cool and we have a whole podcast dedicated to that, which I think was two or three podcasts ago. Something like that. Um, to that experience. Uh, yeah. No, that was a, that was a big one. Um, and it was really good, it was the first time we really got to show off the RF 20 at a show. Um, um, that was, that was really exciting. Um, because it's the RF 20 has been a massive project of ours, um, in concept and it's just, um, Plus we hadn't been to a show in like since 2020, since no, since 2019. Yeah. Something like that. It's like the first first time getting out. It was, it was first time getting out. Mom and dad got out for a little bit. Yeah, and it was the first time we ever showed off that bike and I don't know. I was a little nervous because it's like you're at Autodesk University. Which is not like a bike show. But there's a lot of. It's not a show. Um, there's a lot of cyclists, there's a lot of, um, um, designers, engineers, um, so it's, it's pretty cool. And it did well. So, that was awesome. Yeah. And then in October, you were doing more custom mounts, uh, computer mounts for a side job, not a side job, but people come at us with custom work. Yeah, so we made some custom carbon fiber computer mounts, front mounts. So we did that. Um, yeah, um, we're trying to come up with the process and doing it smoother and easier to do. So, um, it's it's it's a complicated, it's they're tricky to make those front mounts. So. Yeah. Because you're dealing with the cantilevered force and also the compression from the the clamps. Yeah, I don't know, I mean, people obviously know that if they have custom requirements, it takes a long time. But I don't think they realize like how much you sit your computer and design stuff out. Yeah, like this was not a project that we probably would have taken on unless I had been, I have been itching to do this for a very long time and I've made a handful. So, having the opportunity like, oh, like I want. I've wanted to do this and this is like the excuse to actually do it. Um, yeah, because otherwise it doesn't make any sense, the amount of labor that you spend in it. It you'll never, you'll never make it back. On that custom part. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it was cool, so I it's been exciting and, you know, that might be something we roll out in the future. Mhm. So then there's uh November and now we're here in December and we had some surprise end of the year RF 20 orders. Which I mean, just end of the year usually is not the time. Yeah. Yeah. No, this end of year is always is always. a slow time for us. We never really have a lot of traction going on. Um and it's been surprising this year we've had quite a bit. So that's been super cool. Well into the year bump. Yeah, it's an awesome. Um. So. And then all that time during the year, carbon repairs, custom work, custom designs. Yeah, custom designs. repairs. Uh yeah, we've done a couple carbon repairs. Carbon repair kits. Yes. Me and my carbon repair kit. That's why I need my elves for to make those kits. Yes, right. Um carbon repair kits, carbon repairs, uh custom work. Yes, um RF 20s. Um yeah, I mean just all of our product line. Just, you know. Mhm. Okay. So that's 2022. It was tough. For not just for us. For business. It has been. For personal. Definitely. For weather, for inflation, for travel, for COVID. Yes. All of that. It's it's been a roller coaster of a year. But hopefully we're coming out of all of this. Um. So tell me about 2023. 2023 is going to be exciting. Um, I'm excited. You know, we've come up with a lot of new systems, a lot of new processes that are um that we've like mainstreamed now. And we kind of got it and we've gotten into production. So, um I think you're going to see a lot of um a lot more of our products rolling out. That we have it now in production and we're not just releasing them. Um and I think you're going to see some cool new products from us. We got a couple ones. Nothing I think that's going to be, I mean there's no new RF 20 or anything coming out. But um. Definitely um we have a couple small parts that are coming out and um you'll be seeing a lot more content from us. And a lot more um production. Mhm. And hopefully more bike builds and then more an expanded partnership with our pals at Lavo. I know we've discussed through the news. Yeah. We've discussed a couple of our partnerships. We've discussed that there's, you know, um we're going to be doing some more stuff with that. Um you should see some new more techy stuff from us coming out. Um. Yeah, um and now with like parts being much more readily available. Um, we're definitely going to be cranking out a lot more bikes. And you want to get on the bike more anyway this summer. I do. I'm getting my I'm getting my RF 20 finally this year. Um. Well any bike really. Like we have a tandem that also needs. Yes. We have a tandem that we it was sad the last bike ride of the year. We were going to go with the whole family, had it all set up and the tire, the sidewall blew out. So. Yeah. That and then you have to make a 16-inch wheel and that kids bike. Yes. Yep, we're making a kids bike that may see itself into production. May. May. May. I don't know how many people go all out on their kids bikes. I would. I know, that's why we are making one. Uh, anyway. Um, let's see. Um. Things to mention again, like last week. Cleat wedges are back at Amazon. Mhm. And they're selling out. And that's it. We're wrapping up the new year. Yeah. New Year party. Hopefully everyone has a good New Year's Eve and a new good year new good good New Year's Day. And I will be in bed by 9:30. Yes, yes, early bed, early bedtime, it sounds nice. Cuz I will have a little hand poking me at 6:00 in the morning going, Mommy, mommy, why are you in bed? Get up. Time to get up. Sun's up. So. Anyway, that's it. Awesome. We. Thank you for choosing to take some time with us. And we look forward to future breakaways. Look for us on Instagram and LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and in person here in Tennessee. We ask our listeners to please share, like, and subscribe. We're available on all major streaming platforms. Thanks for listening. Have a good one and find some time to break away.
EpisodeDec 29, 2022 · 24:56
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Project Breakaway with Predator Cycling
43: Predator's Year End Review, EP. 043
In this year-end review for Predator Cycling, hosts Courtney B and Aram Goan reflect on the challenges of 2022, including persistent supply chain issues and quality inconsistencies across various industries. Despite these hurdles, they highlight key product developments like new 3D-printed, ceramic-coated number holders, computer rib mounts, and speed plug hooks and spires. Looking ahead, they discuss the need to redesign some components to meet upcoming UCI regulations.
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