I first met Chris McGovern a year ago at NAHBS where he was displaying as a new builder. By the time I chatted with him, it was probably Sunday and I was all biked-out. He was an interesting builder to talk to even then, as a carbon framebuilder who had recently transitioned from metal frames. In a row of many new builders nervous of how they would be received, or if they would be noticed, Chris was nonchalant and cool.
A year later, Chris is killing it with beautiful and smart frame designs. This show was an opportunity to witness the beginning of his transition into custom tooling for his bikes with a new chainstay assembly…
To understand what’s going on here, there should be a little background on Chris himself. As he came from metal framebuilding, he was used to having an infrastructure of tubes and frame parts through companies like Paragon or Nova.
When he changed mediums from metal to carbon fiber, he discovered things would be a little less simple for him. “I go to build these bikes and there are no bits!” There weren’t companies making and selling carbon fiber frame parts for the small builder market, and tubing was far less available. This means that there are certain chainstay or seatstay assemblies that you see used repeatedly throughout the small carbon builder segment from companies like Dedacciai. As a result, carbon frames can look similar. They can also be bound by the same functionality, or lack thereof, from Chris’s perspective.
“I’m a bike rider guy trying to build a bike. I don’t consider myself a framebuilder.” As a result, Chris has his eyes on a final product and rider experience. How he gets there is how it just needs to happen. As a coach for USA Cycling’s Junior Cyclocross program and a racer himself, that performance experience is always on his mind.
When he was unsatisfied with the available chainstays he could find through carbon suppliers (they did not allow for the rear triangle shape, tire clearance, and rear-center he was was trying to accomplish for a fast cyclocross bike), he made his own. “I wanted a sweet carbon chainstay for a cross bike,” with a 425mm rear-center. “There wasn’t anything out there- nothing jived with what I wanted to do.”
But it wouldn’t be cheap. “You have to understand, for me to make a stay, even if it works, is two thousand dollars. But you have to commit because no one is going to do it for you.”
