# Keener Cycle Works 36 inch mountain bikes.



## ZeffKS (Jun 27, 2013)

Hello everybody! I'm Zeff Keener (Bryan Keeners son) and I wanted to share some pictures and words on 36ers and big-wheeled mountain bikes

*quick disclaimer, this seemed like the right place to put this as 36ers don't have their own board yet, if it's not the best place mods feel free to move it/contact me (Long time listener, first time caller kinda stuff)

I'm going to try to keep it more pictures than words but who knows.

This is Keener Cycle Works latest project; The 140mm(5.5in) travel singlespeed 36'' custom mountain bike.










Made to fit him (Bryan Keener, my father) this bike as many know is shot #2 at making a 36er mountain bike. Weighing in at a bit too far north of 40 it rides and feels better than the previous gen #1.










Keeping the same ~185mm hub spacing most the wheels are interchangeable, that is all besides the custom Lefty front wheel.










With making your own custom everything you're not limited to what bike companies give you all the time. Using a oversize bearing for the front wheel came easy, but a oversize front disc? That ended up being a bit tricky. Using the Shimano Zee brake set, the rotor was already locked into a set size range, couldn't be too thick and couldn't be too tall. Settling for a custom 210mm rotor that Bryan drew up and had made. It took a little while to break in and some teeth grinding, but the one 210 seems to be just enough stopping power. As-suppose to the two 203mm's on gen #1 that could rip the actiontec stem right off if you grabbed too much brake.


















The first night gen #2 was a complete bike it didn't go very far, as interbike was just a couple days away sleep was rationed carefully.










Carole, Bryan's wife and the one who leads the Keener Cycle Works FaceBook, made the custom top pad that later got the gen2 bike nicknamed "The Butterfly Bike."

(If you want to contact Keener quickly, the best way would be through the Keener Cycle Works FaceBook page)

Building any bike comes with it's problems and it's interesting ways of solving them. With the ~185mm hub spacing the chain line get's kinda....wide, not fat, but wide. The best fix Bryan could see, was to use a square chainstay. Was it used in a engineering way? Or was it used to say that bikes are a-symmetrical? Both.










The chainstay quickly acquired fridge magnets that would almost just stay on if it wasn't windy or the bike wasn't moving.









Shots taken at the 24hour course, Tucson, AZ.









How does a bike like this ride?! I hope you are asking instead of painfully scrolling through this post just for pictures. In summary, it rides great! Like all bikes it could be lighter and it's not for everyone, but it's going to work for more people than you think.

This is a video I took at the Out Door Demo Interbike course. On the second day I finally got to ride a bike around the course and loved it, the problem was I rode a fatbike. A nice fatbike but the trail beat me up, late in the day I mustered up enough energy to convince my dad and myself that we needed to do this on the 36ers.

The result? Pure enjoyment.





(Incase the embed doesn't work well, here's the link to the actual video and channel where once I have more cameras, I will post more videos at: 36er's on dirt singletrack at Out Door Demo Interbike - YouTube)

The wind was blazing and the trail was beat up. Tons of riders who didn't know the bike and didn't know the trail made everything choppy, but the 36ers glided over everything and some things almost too smoothly.

Still doesn't do it for you? Recently Gary Fisher came to Tucson and hosted a little mobile-social ride. At first Mr. Fisher was handed a brand new Trek that looked as if it had been built that day, but what did he end up riding? The 36er.










But we weren't the only ones there on 36'ers, Todwil (@todwil? Somehow link to his MTBR here maybe?) from Payson cycles had two of his fancy alloy 36'ers out. Where I got the pleasure of getting all four bikes for a photoshoot.


































Much information was learned from both parties and it was great to see them all in person










Overall everyone had a lot of fun at Interbike and many-many-many people gave the thumbs up. By the second day of the actual event (after I had run off away from Bryan and Carole to enjoy the show) it was common to place the bike 15 feet away and just watch everyone come up and look at it, a lot of great fun!

If you've been paying attention to the pictures more than the rest then I bet you've noticed the seat posts have danced around. The seat-post in the first picture isn't the same as clearly shown in the ones that follow. Cane creek has been making the signature Thud-Buster for a long time now, and it's been an amazing seat-post at that. Absorbing the big hits to make us ridged riders still be proud of our ridged frames. But the last couple years the people at Cirrus Cycles have been making the next big thing, the BodyFloat. Instead of absorbing the bumps, it isolated them through springs.

In a simple way, a solid seatpost is like riding a completely ridged car with no suspension, where the Thudbuster is like having leaf springs, and the BodyFloat is like having custom 2.5" swing arm suspension that makes the ride a whole-hellvualot-better.

I had bought my seatpost a couple weeks before interbike happened but the great people of Cirrus cycles made the new 36er ride like how it should.










The post still rides like a ridged post the only way you can tell what it's doing is the small motions in your feet.









With interbike being about bikes, it was common to ride everywhere we went. Staying with the Xtracycle crew there was plenty of opportunity to snap a pic if I just acted like the tourist I was.










































Everyone was trackstand-happy








The 1st Richey mountain bike with my DSLR attached to the Trail-Rail mount








20" vs 36"








Wheelie-able? Oh-yeah

Thank you everyone we met at Interbike and beyond, your support means a lot!









Everyone loves a singlespeed, I love a single gear and how good I feel is the speed as where I to go.


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## MTB Pharm (Mar 10, 2007)

Bad a$$. Very cool build. 

Show us some more pics of the new Lefty crown and front hub.


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## Bro (Dec 20, 2010)

Interesting geometry/design changes to allow those giant wheels to be stuffed into the frame. Is that a dual-disc front brake on the rigid bike?


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## SlowPokePete (Mar 27, 2006)

Would LOVE to try riding one.

SPP


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## Cygnus (Jan 7, 2004)

toe overlap with front wheel?


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## ZeffKS (Jun 27, 2013)

MTB Pharm said:


> Bad a$$. Very cool build.
> 
> Show us some more pics of the new Lefty crown and front hub.


Here's a picture of the lower section fork crown in it's mid-late stages of assembly.










and here's a picture of the front hub in it's assembly, not entirely sure what stage it was taken in but you can see most of the actual hub assembly.












Bro said:


> Interesting geometry/design changes to allow those giant wheels to be stuffed into the frame. Is that a dual-disc front brake on the rigid bike?


Correct! Dual discs on the (was rigid but now has a ~2.5" actiontec in it) bike. With dual avid bb7's and 203mm rotors it's got more than enough stopping power.

Both bikes are essentially a 18" frame just the stand-over height increases...quickly.



Cygnus said:


> toe overlap with front wheel?


It's not as much of a problem after a while, although I personally have more of a problem with the knee overlap on the front wheel.


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