First Look: Chewmac Bikes - Steel Frame Fabricators from Quebec
Steel frames seem to be popping up everywhere, like Chewmac Bikes in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada, and there's good reasoning behind that. The material is readily available and less complex to work with for manufacturers with smaller-scale equipment, and all of Chewmac's frame components are designed and manufactured near the town of Sherbrooke.
Chewmac's journey began in 2016 when the founder, Benjamin Macé, built his first frame, a dual-link trail bike with 130mm of rear-wheel travel. Since then, two passionate employees have joined the company and aim to have a hardtail frame and complete parts package ready to roll in just a few weeks. Following closely behind, there is a 155mm chromoly enduro frame that will be available in August, followed by a parts kit next year.
By using bolt-on aluminum dropouts, all Chewmac bikes offer the ability to swap rear wheels between 29" and 27.5" without affecting the geometry. Those modular pieces, which include the forward shock mount, open up possibilities for future tuning. Other specs are seen as standards today, like an IS42/56 headset, 31.6mm seat tube, Boost hub spacing, and a threaded 73mm bottom bracket shell.
Looking closer at Chewmac's $1,799 CAD Balance frame, the geometry is aggressive without being too outlandish for a hardtail with a 140mm fork. The numbers, like the 63.7-degree head angle, sit close to their full-suspension option, the Ginger, although the chainstays are much shorter at 432mm and the reach creeps up a few millimeters per size.
The $3,899 CAD frame Ginger runs on a progressive dual-link suspension design coined as the "Beni-S" kinematic. A high anti-squat starts near 185% but steadily drops down to around 130% at sag, or one-third of the travel. The anti-rise starts just above 105% to retain the geometry under braking and the pedal kickback is claimed to stay very low. A bracing tube parallels the shock placement to resist side loading and the headtube is fitted with a burly-looking gusset; fork travel is suggested at 160mm, but can run 10mm longer if desired.
As for sizing, four options span reach numbers from 432mm on the SM to 507mm for the XL, but all chainstay lengths resort to a fixed 448mm across the board. Other numbers like a 63.5-degree head tube and 76.4-degree seat tube angles place the Ginger in the modern realm of geometry. You can check out all of the geometry numbers on Chewmac Bikes' website.
Chewmac Balance frame - $1,799 CAD, complete - $4,799 CAD
Chewmac Ginger frame - $3,899 CAD, complete - $7,299 CAD
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
He popped into the comments of a new bike/brand out of Quebec to say HE did it better.
That’s pretty friggin “cringe” if you ask me…l
Can you even drink the "steel is real" cool-aid if there's no bottle mounts?
I'm stoked to see a company carrying the torch that balfa and xprezo once held high in the Easter townships. Kudos on the nice bikes and best of luck.
We dont need steel fs frames, why are they a thing? I thought people like steel because they claim its forgiving, so what's the benefit on a dual suspension frame exactly? Steel is heavy af too, which a fs already is heavy af, so why compound this problem?
I just don't understand the benefit. I think all these steel fs frames are just coming out because it was a "genre" of bikes that people didn't have so it is seen as an easy market to grab a share of, not because it's actually beneficial in a fs frame.
I welcome the PB crowd to politely enlighten me on the subject.
Maybe it's the food they choose to eat - burgers, fries and a shake certainly won't help your digestive tract or your energy levels, but the exquisit taste and blood sugar high is worth it (in the short term).
Maybe it's the bike they ride, sure steel is heavy and doesnt climb as well, but it looks great and perhaps reminds people of simpler times... hard to rationally argue with a shot of nostalgia.
If you compare it to other choices many people make, it just another one in a long line of human behavioural idiosyncrasies
So in the end, it's not a steel bike you choose over alu or carbon. It is a locally made bike over a big corpo bike made overseas.
Plus read the other Tech Blog features, it's all explained here: weight, stiffness, ride quality...
Steel FS bikes aren't heavy. I'm building 140mm travel bikes at 14.5kg and 170mm enduro bikes around 15.5-16kg. Lighter than some production carbon bikes. Yes, steel is a denser material than the other materials used but for example, the steels that Columbus uses in their high end tubing is stronger than Ti and aluminium. Carbon is a mixed bag. Designed right it can be incredibly strong but then weight and bulk come into play as well.
Steel isn't flexy. It's stiffer than Ti and aluminium. Again carbon is a mixed bag. The old way of building with skinny tubes on road bikes made for flexy bikes. The reason is because the steels of the past weren't strong enough to draw as thin as they can be now so the tubes had to be smaller to try and make the weight acceptable. This meant the tubing wasn't as stiff. The new super steels allow for different tube geometries to be made which allow us to make stronger stiff and fairly light structures.
Steel has better elongation than Aluminium and carbon which means when designed correctly the fatigue limits are very high and will last a long time.
So what we have is a material that is forgiving to work with, still not easy when you want to push the limits of design. The super steels are hard and they are strong making manipulation hard. It's high stiffness, strength and elongation allows it to be made into awesome tubes for building structures with. It's tough and has a great spring to it.
It is cheaper to tool up to make steel bikes. Ti, aluminium and carbon all can have very big buy in costs. Having said that. The amount of money I've pumped into building up the capabilities in my workshop is eyewatering and I still need to invest more.
It's not marketing BS that I use steel. It's an awesome material. It makes an bike taht is awesome to ride whether you are making road or mtb, hardtails of FS. My 140mm 14.5kg trail bikes climbs faster and better than my 13.9kg carbon rocky mountain. Even my enudro frame can be pedalled around all day because it's been designed to be pedalled. My local 6km road climb, my best time has been on one of my steel road bikes, a full 1-1.5kg heavier than lots of fancy high end carbon road bikes that I have been able to ride up there. Steel can climb when the bike is designed right.
If you want to hold onto the old urban myths about steel that's your choice. All the materials have their merits. Carbon is an incredible material but it's also a mixed bag and really depends on a lot of factors to get it right. Even then, working as a mechanic I have seen so many flogged out carbon frames where a metal frame (steel, Ti or aluminium) would be still going. Hard points and interfaces with other components, especially where movement is involved is the carbon down fall and frames that are built to be crazy light don't last very long in the real world.
Yeah, I am passionate biased but I chose the material based on it's merits to make an awesome bike that will last. Not on what I think I can make a buck on. There are enough steel brands around now, some have been building for a while, to prove that steel has it's place in the market. I've been at it nearly 10 years now making road bikes and a couple years into my FS bikes. None of it has come over night.
Check out this for a real world review on what a steel FS bike can achieve.....
www.ambmag.com.au/feature/tested-devlin-oisin-574549
The presence of a rear shock doesn't completely eliminate any effect on chassis dynamics from frame material. Is that what you were trying to argue?
The steel FS frames I've ridden have a softer ride feel, cutting out a lot of small chatter and giving increased grip as you lean the bike over. It's very noticeable on something like a Starling and it can definitely translate to riding faster.
Personally, I'm surprised there aren't more steel FS bikes already.
I suspect chassis feel is going to be the new geometry, now that we've got that sorted out.
that comment was aimed at the wanderingasshat btw
Columbus Omnicrom UTS=1300MPa, Ys≥920 MPa, Ap5>15%,
4130 Chromoly UTS=560MPa, Ys≥460 MPa, Ap5>21.5%
grade 9 Ti 3Al 2.5V UTS=620MPa, Ys≥530 MPa, Ap5>20%
6061 T6 UTS=310MPa, Ys≥2760 MPa, Ap5>12%
@thewanderingtramp :
Dude if you can't comprehend the point I am making then Im no help but thanks for the personal attack, I can now go back to my dark little hole and bash bits of steel together because that's all the skill I have, I hope you get to ride some sick trails this weekend.
Seems impressively stretched with no immediately apparent cracks
www.facebook.com/CHEWMAC-238752976829343
youtu.be/34idLHmNedU
Carbon or premium aluminum.
My bike has been bulletproof for over 2 years now
Idk if it’s the curves or the random support braces down center. The Balance is nice though.
Where, exactly?