A Recommendation: Bikesmith Design 155mm Cranks

Tony said:

... If you're considering "going shorter", give the Bikesmith Design crank a look.

Tony,

You should have put one of those cranks on the Dragonflyer before you sold it to me! 😉

Tom Sherman - Planet Earth

Quoted message said:

Mark Stonich to the rescue! Mark is now offering a custom 155mm triple crank through his Bikesmith
Design company (www.bikesmithdesign.com).

I have had good experiences in my two purchases from Mark. He has been very helpful and informative.
His workmanship is first-rate. He is exceedingly prompt. And I believe some of the prices he charged
me were less than retail by a substantial margin, even though the total package was ~$135. But I
think that if he was charging by the hour he'd go on welfare.

Quoted message said:

(no, Mark didn't pay me to say nice things about his work - I'm just a happy customer)

Ditto.

(Mark, use the same Paypal account for this next check :-)

GeoB

Tom Sherman said:

Quoted message said:

If you're considering "going shorter", give the Bikesmith Design crank a look.

Tony,

You should have put one of those cranks on the Dragonflyer before you sold it to me! 😉

Ah, but then it would have lost that certain "factory" cachet. :-)

I recently discovered the photos I took of the Dragonflyer; a few wistful moments later, I realized
it was in good hands. It sure was a fun machine, though.

I meant to ask you sometime - have you ever seen the Earthcycles SWB? The bike was pictured in an
Earthcycles ad in RCN. My guess is that the Earth will continue to wobble on its axis until you
complete the trifecta.

Best,

Tony

Tony said:

... I meant to ask you sometime - have you ever seen the Earthcycles SWB? The bike was pictured in
an Earthcycles ad in RCN. My guess is that the Earth will continue to wobble on its axis until you
complete the trifecta.

Tony,

I was aware that such a bike existed but have never seen one in person.

I was not actually looking to purchase a Sunset or a Dragonflyer, but they ended up coming my way.
So who knows, an Earth Cycles SWB may well show up at some point.

Tom Sherman - Planet Earth Red Sunset and Blue Dragonflyer 🙂

Tom and Tony, that's a new one on me, have a picture of the Earth cycles swb?

Tom Sherman said:

Tony said:

... I meant to ask you sometime - have you ever seen the Earthcycles SWB? The bike was pictured in
an Earthcycles ad in RCN. My guess is that the Earth will continue to wobble on its axis until you
complete the trifecta.

Tony,

I was aware that such a bike existed but have never seen one in person.

I was not actually looking to purchase a Sunset or a Dragonflyer, but they ended up coming my way.
So who knows, an Earth Cycles SWB may well show up at some point.

Tom Sherman - Planet Earth Red Sunset and Blue Dragonflyer 🙂

[email hidden] (GeoB) wrote in message

Quoted message said:

I have had good experiences in my two purchases from Mark. He has been very helpful and
informative. His workmanship is first-rate. He is exceedingly prompt. And I believe some of the
prices he charged me were less than retail by a substantial margin, even though the total package
was ~$135.

I want to make it clear that the only production bike parts I sell are the chainrings, bolts and
spacers needed to assemble complete 155mm cranksets. Even on these, I don't like the idea of
undercutting retail pricing. I believe it's important to support local bike shops. Bike shops are
where a lot of my friends earn their grocery money.

However, given the huge difference in price between buying a factory assembled crankset and buying
the parts separately, it's necessary to offer some price reduction. It's bad enough I have to ask
Ultegra prices for something based on $30 crank arms.

Quoted message said:

But I think that if he was charging by the hour he'd go on welfare.

I only do a few hours of "for profit" bike work a week. Just enough to make my bike addiction
self-supporting. My hourly earnings aren't half bad. I only provide the types of services (design,
prototyping, light manufacturing) that bike shop can't offer. In fact almost all of my work is
either for bike shops or due to referrals from shops.