Who I Am

I am Damon Rinard, a lover of road and track bicycle technology. I've been racing and designing bikes since 1978. I've worked in many retail bike shops, at Holland Cycles (Bill makes custom titanium frames), and at Kestrel, a composite frame and fork maker. Since 1995 I've worked for GKN Aerospace Chem-tronics Aviation Repair.

Bikes I've Built

I've built six bike frames so far, including a lugged Columbus SL TT bike, two TIG welded track frames and two recumbents. To help answer questions I get, I have begun to put together a page of links to framebuilding resources.

In the summer of 1995 I made the composite frame pictured here. It took about three months, cost about $1000, and I did the whole thing in my garage! I even tested the deflection and strength of the beam before (and during) riding it. I wrote a short article about it, complete with photos of the frame under construction. Here's the article about How I Built A Composite Bike in my Garage.

Here are a few sources of information on composite materials:

• Barry Berenberg's center for composite information of all kinds.
• Gougeon Brothers, makers of West System epoxies. I used their 105 resin and 205 hardener. http://gougeon.com/
• Aircraft Spruce and Specialty, suppliers to homebuilt aircraft makers. I get "AS4" woven carbon cloth here.
• FibreGlast Developments Corp., leader in sales of small amounts of composite materials. http://www.FibreGlast.com

Bicycle Testing

Over the years I've become curious enough to perform a few tests on various aspects of bicycle performance.

For instance, I've measured the stiffness of over 50 road and track bicycle frames. Do you know how your frame's stiffness compares to other frames? Take a look at the results of the Rinard Frame Deflection Test to find out.

I am currently measuring the stiffness of over 100 wheels. Read the discussion and see the numbers in the Rinard Wheel Stiffness Test.

I also measured the stiffness of many road forks, from the straight bladed steel Colnago fork, to the most popular after-market composite forks. Do you know whether lateral or longitudinal stiffness is more important? Do you know the stiffness of the fork you might be planning to buy? Read the discussion and see the numbers in the Rinard Fork Deflection Test to find out.

Around 1995, Holland Cycles asked me to set them up to do some stem fatigue testing. You can see the results on my Stem Fatigue Test page.

Component Weights

I have weighed many, many road and track bike parts. I've listed them all on my component weights page.

Other Interests

My friend Shaun Wallace is a pro cyclist interested in altitude training. You can read about his Wallace Altitude Tent here, which shows the hypoxic unit which makes altitude training possible while you're in bed.

In real life I worked [as of the year 2000] at GKN Aerospace Chemtronics Aviation Repair, a San Diego aerospace components manufacturer and aviation repair facility. I look after all the CNC machining programs and write the scripts that tell OASIS (our Optical Airfoil Surface Inspection System) how to measure critical dimensions on the commercial jet engine fan blades we've repaired. If you've flown the friendly skies, you've probably benefitted from Chem-tronics' work.

Copyright © 1995-2001 

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