Machining a Podium Pedal part 2

Check out part 2 of Sicklines coverage on machining a Podium Pedal. Click the link for more photos, text and video!

1. How did you come up with the name Point One?

Point One – Before we started the company we all raced pretty regularly, so we understood that racers strive for products with an excellent stiffness to weight ratio to give them a leg up. The name Point One represents that fraction of a second or “0.1″ of a second between winning and losing a race. Creating great looking, lightweight products is what we’re all about, so we felt the name suited the company well.

2. How did Point One Racing get started? Why did you want to start a new company?

Point One – Point One Racing got started with a dream, to manufacturer our own products that will stand up to the hard demands of downhill racing, that will in turn be desired by the mountain bike community as a whole. The company got started because we were tired of the cookie cutter products that were all over the market. There were a few industry benchmarks whom we know would be tough competition, but the rest just seemed like inexpensive stuff that is all the same with a different logo on it. We wanted to have proudly made in the USA products that not only made sense performance wise, but also added clean design.

3. A lot of the parts you make, lots of other manufacturers already offer as well. How do you pick which parts you wanted to create?

Point One – We want to take a component and make it better, period. Originally we had ideas for several products, but it was stems that made the most sense at first. Stems can come in many different lengths and rises and every bike needs one. For the market to accept a new high-end stem was not that difficult, considering that there were only a couple manufacturers who were at or near that level. We did not want to make cheap stuff, we wanted to strive to be the best. Since we all primarily rode gravity, 50mm stems and direct-mounts was what we initially offered. Soon came a 70mm (and now a 90mm) that added to our market share and made it more appealing to a greater audience. For the pedals we asked our customers who really liked the stems and by far they wanted to see our take on the flat pedal. Another market with a lot of brands, but not many high end.

4. Any future parts you guys are working on?

Point One – For 2011 we have a 90mm version of our Split-Second stems for both road and XC use. With ti bolts it is coming in at around 104 grams which is lighter than most carbon stems that are twice the price. We also have an adjustable version of our direct-mount called the Infinite DM. It will allow riders who utilize a triple-clamp fork to adjust not only the reach, but also the height of their handlebars. For 2012 and beyond, you’ll just have to wait and see.

5. Is there anything you think Point One brings to the table that no one else can or did when you started?

Point One – I think what we do best is think outside the box, how can we take a product and make it better, unique, simple? Our stems feature an integrated top cap and this was something we had not really seen in the past. It saves weight, adds stiffness and makes it look clean. Our pedals have a visible axle design which so far we have found on only one other company. The design allows us to use sealed bearings as opposed to bushings which last a lot longer and gives us a very thin profile, usually half the thickness of most competitors out there. Only now, almost 2 years after our original Podium Pedal design are we starting to see manufacturers try and make thinner profile pedals. Another thing that I think we bring to the table if great design. We work very had when designing our products to find that delicate balance of engineering and industrial design.

6. Where are your parts made? What machines are used? Who assembles them?

Point One – All our parts are proudly made in San Jose, CA. We use Kitamura mills and lathes. All the products are assembled by us.

7. Any stand out tools that you guys use during development?

Point One – Nothing out of the ordinary that you wouldn’t find at another machine shop. The advantage we have is our shop specializes in close tolerances. We design our products in accordance to what specific machines they will be ran on and work closely with the programmers, this allows us to cut machining time down as much as we can, which saves us time and allow us to incorporate more complicated machining, which also allows us to save more weight. We do of course use finite element analysis before prototyping. After we properly field and lab test our products using custom fixtures and gages that allow us to measure loads, flex and other attributes, before they go out to our consumers.

8. Any plans for expansion or growth? Where do you see Point One in 5 years?

Point One – We moved into a separate building earlier this year and the place is already full! There is always something that needs to be done, always new customers and always new products on the horizon, so that is certainly keeping everybody busy. In 5 years we will have a larger place, more employees and still some of the best products out there.

9. Who’s the fastest person in the office?

Point One – Jimmy Amaral hands down. He has been racing at a pro level for a while now, which makes him an excellent in house test rider as well as engineer.

10. How many guys work at Point One?

Point One – Right now it’s the four us working here.

11. What bikes do you ride?

Point One – I remember when we all use to have multiple bikes, these days we are keeping things simple. Jimmy Amaral rides an Intense 951 that he
converts back and forth for DH racing and AM riding. That bike is as light and as trick as they come, in full DH mode it comes in around 33 lbs. Jonathan Cofer has an Iron Horse MKII and Tim Lukko rides an Intense Socom and Tracer. We want to build an office pump track, so who knows, everyone might have a hardtail next time!

12. Anything else to add?

Point One – Thanks to Sicklines for doing this interview! Keep up with the blog and facebook to continue to see what is happening with the company.

FREE SHIPPING

Only three days left for free international shipping! Final day is Saturday January 1, 2011...Happy New Year!

Trail Bike Stem Length?

Head over to the VitalMTB forum and give your opinion on the best trail length stem. So far Point One Racing Split-Second 50, 70, and 90 are popular!

Machining a Podium Pedal

Sicklines took the time earlier this year to visit our machine shop in San Jose, CA. Check out this video they filmed of us going through the steps on how to machine a Podium Pedal. Stay tuned for part 2.

Moto Training with Jordan Lopez

Check out Jordan Lopez doing some off-season training on his CRF250...

Light Years Ahead

Singletrack Magazine out of the UK, voted our Podium Pedal as one of the best components for 2010...check it out!

"Point One Racing flats
It’s another ‘expensive-thing-that-is-really-good’ shocker, but these pedals are light years ahead of anything else I’ve tried in terms of stability and grip. No flat pedal and sticky shoe combo will ever beat clipless pedals for pedaling efficiency but I can’t see how these could be bettered."

Do It All Bike Build Guide 2011

Looking to upgrade your bike for next year? Or building up a new one? Check out Sicklines "Do It All Bike Build Guide 2011."

For high end components make sure you pick our Podium Pedals and Split-Second line of stems. Here is what they had to say about our pedals...

"Point One’s Podium wins in our book for lightweight and thin, but it comes at a price."

Also are stems were ranked among the likes of Easton and Thomson, two manufacturers who have set the bar for high-end stems over the years.

2011 Race Stable and Winter Training - Max Houtzager

Christmas came early this year! New XC bike came, and the 2011 race stable is complete. A few more tweaks soon (mainly some nice white accents to the xc bike with a white carbon silverado, some esi grips, and bottle cage). Oh yeah, and it RIPS! SO much more stiff laterally. As soon as you hop on you can tell the difference from 2010, the bike wants to go no where but forward. On the trail it feels more solid all around. I'm not afraid to pump real hard and throw my rear end around the trail as hard as I want. Every time I get out of the saddle it feels stiffer. I think it will actually make a difference in efficiency over an entire race as well as when sprinting all out. Got some sweet new S Works shoes and helmet as well!

I’ve been training away and it’s been pretty nice, starting to feel real improvement. Some big cold gnarly rainy road rides but it’s all worth it and feels pretty good (epic tea/soup/baked goods afterwards always a plus). I’m also forced to shred different trails that drain more, so it’s been cool to mix it up as well. However, it’s a little annoying taking an extra 5 minutes to get ready to venture out into the cold in spandex (so many more layers/accessories).

In other news, I AM DONE WITH SENIOR YEAR SEMESTER UNO. Less classes next semester and grades don’t matter now!!! Way less stressful. It’s XMAS break and I get to snowboard, surf, and bake / cook plenty of yummies. Peppermint Bark, Persimmon Bread, No bake Bars as of recent, with potential pies, apple oat muffins, and marzipan to come.

CCCX Finals

CCCX Finals for the 2010 season are in the books! Great weather, great course and a great group of racers made the journey to see how they would end up. Jimmy Amaral and John Hauer were neck and neck in points leading up to the finals. Jimmy would have to win, with John taking 3rd in order for him to take the overall, not impossible. With favorite Ben Cruz out, it looked as though Jimmy could win on this fast and technical course. However in the end, it was Ian Massey who walked away with a first place finish, securing him third in the final standings. Jimmy received a third place, second overall. John had a few mistakes which gave him fourth, but still had enough points to win the overall.

Point One Racing took 5 out of 5 on the Pro Men's podium with Alex Amaral, Ben Vickery, Ian Massey, Jimmy Amaral and John Hauer. Along with a few other first place overalls for Mike Amaral (Expert 45-54) and Tim Lukko (Sport 19-34).

Special thanks to all our athletes who raced and supported us during this series and throughout the year. We look forward to seeing you all again in the Spring!









Results

King Of The Castle 2010

King Of The Castle is the most important urban downhill race of Italy. The location is the old town of Cagliari (Sardegna). Check out Emmeline Ragot and her 1st place finish!

More info

Shop Tour: Fanatik Bike CO

Check out a great shop tour of Fanatik Bike in Bellingham, WA. They are one of the best custom build shops anywhere!

See some of their latest creations using Point One Racing products!

Free Shipping?

Happy Holidays! Point One Racing is offering FREE worldwide shipping until January 1, 2011. Order now to take advantage of this deal!

CCCX Finals Preview

2010 CCCX DH Division Champions will be crowned this Sunday in Toro Park.

At press time, the course for the Series Final will be the extremely fast Hauer/Amaral trail. This race route opens with a bombing fire road roller coaster ride, with gravity heavy portions that streak the speeds upward of 40 miles per hour. The trail then dives into tree lined single track, with small jumps, berms, and off camber sections. More switchback trail send riders toward the lower portion of the route where there is some pedaling near the end. This course is one of the fastest and rolls down the most steep route of the series. Please remember that Toro Park features really good trail riding, so pedal hard, rip up the trails as fast as you can, and have fun doing it!

Overall points after 6 rounds

Santa Cruz with Josh Maurer

Check out a taste of Josh's Saturday Santa Cruz Ride:

CCCX DH #6

Clear skies brought out the crowd for the second to last CCCX DH race for Thanksgiving weekend 2010. Using almost a carbon copy course of the last race, only a couple turns were changed, adding roughly 12-15 seconds. Recent rains also softened up the dirt, making the traction some of the best we have seen all year.

Big congratulations to all our athletes, we had four on the podium! The overall scores will be mixed up a bit after this race, so stayed tuned for the finals on December 12th.

Scott Seery - 3:46.42 1st place Expert 55+


Alex Amaral - 3:26.90 8th place Pro


Jimmy Amaral - 3:24.64 5th place Pro


John Hauer - 3:20.66 4th place Pro


Ian Massey - 3:15.93 2nd place Pro


Tim Lukko - 4:03.95 7th place Sport 19-34


Mike Amaral - 4:03.55 4th place Expert 45-54


Josh Maurer - 3:45.70 14th place Pro


Ben Vickery - 3:30.23 10th place Pro

Rick Rasmussen photos

Hike Up


Off-camber turn


Flat out pedal to the finish

Quincey Sigona photos


Full results

Mt. Tam DH helmet cam

Check out this Mt. Tam DH helmet cam footage from Point One Racing athlete Max Houtzager.

Turkey Day and the Snow - Max Houtzager

Looks like Winter may have come a little earlier than planned, meaning no Downieville or Ashland shredding unless the snow spontaneously melts. That just means more riding other sick spots and SNOWBOARDING! Thanksgiving break this week = only two days of school, so I made the most of it.

I can’t not go snowboarding when it is supposed to be clear skies, 90” combined of fresh from one storm, only 16ºF, AND no school. So Tuesday night I finished off the WA team night ride, scarfed down a burrito from Mi Pueblo, and drove to Grass Valley to stay with David Lowe and the rest of his friends. Although the traffic getting to and from Tahoe the next day was the worst I’ve ever been in, I got a solid amount of pow pow in without tiring myself out for the Turkey Day Ride the next day.

Getting ready in the morning for the Appetite Seminar was interesting, since it was 32º out. I thought, “Now I am going to go biking, not snowboarding, in similar temperatures, except I have use layers of spandex?”.

It ended up not being too bad although I got really hot. Besides the fact that it’s a nice change to rip fireroads as fast as possible, the traction was like velcro where there was no mud (especially with Bronson-Nano as usual), and you get to see every mountain biker you know -about 1000- in one ride (whether racing around them on downhills or saying hi while stopped), most of the WA team was back together which was cool. We also finished off with the end of Tamarancho, and I was in the zone. I couldn’t of clipped in any faster on corners or slid around switchbacks more perfectly. Fireroads are fun, but singletracks are what it’s all about. Now to finish off the rest of my break, maybe race CCCX DH on Sunday, hopefully not spend too much time on UC apps... Oh yeah, and Turkey Day Dinner was amazing. I spent all afternoon cooking/baking and am now a pie master. Check it out HERE

Banshee Legend MK-2

Speaking of Team Geronimo, Sicklines is working on another fantastic project bike, the Banshee Legend MK-2. Check out the complete build and review here.

Team Geronimo's End of Season Re-Cap

Hello from Team Geronimo!

It's been an incredibly busy few months and we'd like to catch you up to speed on TG's latest developments and successes.

Below is a quick list of highlights following the conclusion of the MSC series, including media appearances and general team news:

Brian Buell came on incredibly strong toward the end of the season, racking up several wins. His amazing results earned him appearances in a few of the professionally made MSC series videos: Action kicks off around the 3:00 mark in this video from Keystone, and concludes with a few clips showing Brian's win. In the Telluride video, Brian has a short interview around 0:50 and a few riding clips. The conclusion of the Winter Park video features Brian's BIG win in the series finals.

Brian took another win at the Oredigger Challenge at Sol Vista, a local collegiate event. Here he is after the win. Thumbs up!



Following Brian's win at Sol Vista, Brian, Mike and Brandon spent two days filming in the fall colors. This footage will appear as a Spotlight Feature on Vital MTB in the coming weeks. Here's a quick clip from the film shoot and a few teaser pics:





Cody returned to Australia, where he is preparing for the upcoming Australian National Series. Here's a great video capturing Cody and his good friend Ryan on some Aussie turf. He has also been riding/racing motocross as a cross training measure.



Following Interbike, both Brian and Mike headed off to the Utah desert for a 3-day photo/video shoot. The videographers were aided by the use of a helicopter, so it was an amazing experience for both of them. Here is a full photo gallery from the trip. The final video is still being processed, and we're anxious to see what turns up. A few random clips can be found in this rough video preview. Nick Simcik also captured some of the action in his webisode.







Brian took a few weeks off and headed to Mexico for a break before winter hit. Here he is enjoying a fresh coconut for breakfast:



Mike helped with a Vital MTB review of the Leatt brace. We used a pretty unique helmet cam setup ;) The test video is the second video on this page.



A full-page photo of Cody appeared in a recent edition of Mountain Flyer Magazine, thanks to photographer Eddie Clark:



Graeme got his cast off and started the rehab process around interbike. During that time, he attended a few events as a spectator and to lend a helping hand to his local friends/teams. He's now back on the bike 'til the snow hits. Can you tell which one was broken?



Brandon's wrist has *finally* healed to the point where he was able to ride again with the use of a brace. Much love to Allsport Dynamics for getting him on two wheels again! He's starting slow because he still has very limited range of motion, but he is getting there.



Keep an eye on Team Geronimo for their 2011 team announcement, as well as continued updates over the Winter!

Best time of the year: Fall - Max Houtzager

Perfect surf, tacky trails, windless road rides. Not too mention all the food (pomegranates, PERSIMMONS, squash, pumpkin, candy corn, Halloween and Thanksgiving).

I’ve been soaking it all up! Started base training, meaning some real hours (about 14) on the bike and it feels good. Been riding my Epic a lot, mainly just because it’s so capable and easy to climb. Got 2/4 of my trips out of the way so far (Tahoe and Santa Cruz), leaving just Ashland and Downieville hopefully before Winter sets in.



I went to Santa Cruz for the day with Bobby Zidek and Tony Smith, picking up Will Patterson from Stanford and meeting Nick Newcomb and Will Curtis at UCSC for some upper campus SHRALPING, Whole Athlete-Specialized style! It was pouring rain, but that would not stop us. We high posted all the same trails I’ve sessioned before on my dh bike, but in the SUPER wet! Too many berms and turns to count = too much fun. Plus being with everyone on the team again, hanging out and getting some bomb burritos afterwards made the day. Still running the Bronson-Nano combo and my bike corners on rails (mud and hardpack)!



Tahoe, more like Grass Valley, was the best last minute decision I’ve made in a while. Skipping my physics exam to drive up with Daniel Thomson (Redwood MTB) to stay and ride with David Lowe was an all around epic experience. From fro-yo, to 4 wheeling in the mud at night, to doing 8 shuttle runs in an hour at one spot and 2 at another, to ending with some fine Indian food, I had a blast. the first spot was steep, loamy, sweeping, flowy and a little rocky, while the second was just fresh berm slapping the whole way down with some jumps and drops mixed in. And the dirt was like CLAY too.