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Services
For Custom Made Electric
Downhill Mountain Bikes
David
Flather and Pinnacle Innovations have over 40 years of experience in
custom fabricating and machining all types of metals including the commonly
used 6061 aircraft aluminum that we use for machining new electric downhill
mountain bike parts. In addition, I have over 35 years of spraying automotive
and industrial paints - with some 30+ complete car paint jobs, several
boats and countless bike frames under my belt.
We will
give you exactly what you want:
- Custom machining
of rear suspension linkage plates to give you more travel, multiple
adjustments and add bearings if none existed. See
some machining pics down the page...
- Custom machining
of DH bike stems
- Custom machining
of custom chain tensioners
- Custom painting
of bike frames, forks and rims. I prefer to use the super durable
Endura line of industrial aircraft polyurethane paint as it is not
only cost effective but we can mix any colour under the sun. A variety
of metallics are also available. If you want a super high gloss,
we can also spray a second layer of Endura Kappa Clearcoat which
we can then carefully sand to 5,000 grit and polish. Before painting,
I will completely disassemble your mountain bike. I guarantee you
a perfect finish everytime!
In most cases I will recommend we use Endura polyurethane aircraft
paint as it is by far the most scratch resistant paint available,
we can match any colour that you bring us and it happens to be one
of the most cost effective paints available. We can also spray other
top quality finishes such as Glasurit automotive paint, BASF automotive
paint and DuPont automotive paint. Custom metallics can also be
chosen. See the photo below of my 26 year old Endura paint job on
my yellow 1999 Norco VPS long travel cross-country bike with over
55,000 km on the original paint - it still looks great!
Worth noting is that roughly 90% of the time spent on custom painting
is all in the surface preparation with sanding to 400 or 500 grit,
filling any deficiencies, masking and removing all of the wax and
grease. The actual spray time is only about 10% of the work and
I use a variety of sized automotive spray guns - some valued at
over $1,700.
People often ask me why I paint my bikes in such bright colours?
Well, the answer is simple, the bright colours make up for my dull
personality (laughs). Actually, I have found by chance there can
be benefits from custom paint and bright colours that can include:
1. Far greater visibilty if you are ever riding in traffic.
2. Anti-theft. Yes - it is true. My bikes have become pretty recognizable
in the North Shore Community diue to their customization and bright
paint jobs and back in 2005 I actually had a breakin at my home
shop where my 1999 Norco VPS was stolen from my locked and secured
garage/ machine shop. Below is a pic of this bike (which has the
original paint job on it that now has over 55,000 km of all types
of riding on it without any noticeable paint wear) that as you can
see is custom painted bright yellow and also has my name in vinyl
letters on it. I actually got a phone call before I even knew the
bike was missing from my West 20th St. address asking if I was missing
a bike. I quickly went and discovered to my horror that I was. It
turns out a neighbour from across a small river and park had found
the bike off the side of a trail when walking their dog in a nearby
park trail, saw the name and website address on it and called me.
I was then able to go over to their house and pick up my missing
bike.
I suppose that the thief soon realized that he would never be able
to fence such a custom bike and simply ditched it. He did however
make off with a standard/ non custom mountain bike and some of my
tools which were never recovered.
3. Your mountain bike is an important part of your life and should
also reflect your personality. So why not customize it to suit your
style?
- Custom installation
of electric bike conversion kits. We can provide a variety of kits
including mid-mounted Bafang geared kits as well as rear hub motor
kits. Direct drive kits tend last about twice as long as geared
electric motor kits but also weigh close to twice as much. About
the minimum level of power that I would recommend is 350 Watts and
the maximum is about 750 to 1,000 Watts. This will provide most
riders the ability to climb any mountain and still keep the battery
size/ weight and overall cost reasonable. Generally, we use 51 Volt
or higher systems and we can offer a variety of controls and displays
- as well as a battery charger.
Generally, 750 Watts is about the maximum power level that is "Street
Legal" which is the case here in BC. Also, the speed must be
limited to 32km/h whether pedalling or not on flat ground with the
power turned On.
- Custom decals for
many brands of forks, rims and frames. If we repaint your parts
why not put a fresh set of decals on them?
- Custom airbrush
graphics. If you want to go that extra step I can always contract
out custom airbrush work for you and then we can clear coat over
this.
Everthing
that I do is done in-house with the exception of anodizing or chrome
plating of polished aluminum parts, any TIG welding that may be required
(although I do have the capability to simple aluminum welding now and
plan to add a TIG welder to my toolkit) and wheelbuilds - which often
require the creation of custom made spoke lengths for specialty hub
motors as well as the Rohloff hubs. Equipment in my shop includes:
- Heavy duty vertical
milling machine
- 5hp 80 gallon air
compressor
- Band saws
- Gear reduction cold
cut metal saw
- Drill press
- MIG welder with
spool gun for welding steel and aluminum
- Professional automotive
spray guns
- Just about any hand
and air tool that you can imagine!
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Some
of the motor and hub systems that I offer:
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Bafang
mid mounted ebike geared motor kits.
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GrinTech All
axle direct drive rear mountain bike electric hubs that fit
a variety of axle sizes and axle spacing.
These are made
in Canada and wherever possible we try to steer Clients to products
made in Canada, the USA or Mexico and away from Chinese made
products.
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