Geek Warning Bonus ep: A carbon fork nearly broke Bridge Bike Works before it even got started

Spin Cycle

Escape Collective

Escape, Gravel Bikes, Bikes, Mountain Bikes, Cycling, Sports, Road Bikes, Bicycle Technology, News, Bike Tech, Sports News, Professional Cycling, Bicycles, Escape Collective, Equipment, Pro Cycling

4.9 • 960 Ratings

🗓️ 29 March 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bridge Bike Works is an upstart brand that's trying to make a go at building premium carbon fiber bikes in Canada. It's not just a geographic thing or a point of national pride here, though. Bridge says it's obviously proud of making bikes in its own backyard, but it's also striving to make better product, period, by keeping the entire process – from R&D to lay-up and curing to paint – under a single unobtrusive industrial roof in Cervelo's old stomping grounds. In this Geek Warning episode, James sits down with Bridge co-founders Frank Gairdner and Mike Yakubowicz to see just what makes the company tick, why it might be smart to start asking about hobbies the next time you interview someone for a job, and how the quest to build its own fork nearly broke them.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone welcome to another bonus episode of the Geek Warning
0:12.1	podcast from the Escape Collective.
0:14.0	I'm James Wong and a few weeks ago we brought you a super in-depth interview with
0:17.2	Jonathan Kennedy at Framework Bicycles in Hamilton, Ontario.
0:20.6	If you haven't listened to that one yet, you absolutely want to go back and bookmark that one because it really is pretty mind-blowing what he's doing pretty much all by himself over there.
0:28.0	During that same trip, though, I also paid a visit to the folks at Bridge Bike Works in nearby Toronto, Ontario.
0:34.1	And that's the subject of this week's Members Only Geek Warning Show.
0:37.4	Bridge put a pretty hefty task in front of them when they established their business
0:41.1	just a few years ago.
0:42.6	That task being manufacturing carbon frames in Toronto,
0:45.6	as in like actually making stuff, not just like designing here and making over there.
0:49.5	Even more impressive is the fact that they're making their own carbon forks too which like
0:53.0	apparently nearly broken in the process because making carbon forks is
0:56.2	actually pretty darn hard. So what exactly is involved in turning nearly
0:59.5	800 pieces of pre-pre-prec carbon fiber into a complete frame set and like why is making a carbon
1:04.1	fork so hard?
1:05.1	Why did Toronto end up actually being maybe the perfect place to kick something like this off?
1:09.7	Well if you want to find out more you'll have to keep listening to my interview with bridge co-founder is Frank
1:14.1	Gerner and Mike Yagabovic. Keep in mind though that this is a members only
1:18.2	episode and it's only going to be available in full to escape collective members.
1:21.8	It's a big show too, it's about 100 minutes,
1:23.8	so lots of information here.
	...

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