24-HOUR BIKE BUILD
Intense Cycles turn our concept into reality
In a relaxed state that suggests he’s where he belongs, Jeff Steber expertly trims off excess material from my new down tube by hand, using just a pair of cutters and his finely honed eye. While you or I would be focusing intensely, Jeff is chatting away about the early days of Intense, his love of guitar building and how the company restructure is giving him more time to build frames. It’s always great watching an artist at work, and Jeff is definitely a creative guy – I feel privileged watching this iconic frame builder at work.
It’s not often that a company owner is so hands-on, but until recently Jeff was largely responsible for everything Intense did – a situation that left him burning the candle at both ends. Once the decision was made to elevate the business to a new level, a new management team got to work pulling things into shape, allowing him to concentrate on the development of new bikes.
Intense’s Tracer T275 carbon fibre super bike is attracting a lot of attention right now, not least because it’s a radical departure for the US company to have bikes built in Taiwan. Financially it makes sense, but it’s also a reflection of the fact that the most advanced carbon manufacturing now takes place in the Far East. All development work, prototyping and aluminium construction is still carried out in Temecula, California, though, and Jeff has invited us here to show us how things are done in-house. With the resources here he can build a test mule frame from scratch in a day, and be out test riding it the next – true ‘rapid prototyping’.
Dream ride
Instead of building an offthe-peg frame, Jeff asks me for my preferred geometry so he can show how he builds prototypes. I want the frame to be based around a Tracer 275 with 160mm (6.3in) of VPP suspension, but with a longer front triangle to suit my height (6ft 3in) and preference for
short stems. Jeff inputs the figures into a CAD program, makes a few necessary tweaks, then starts rounding up suitable tubes.
Because the top and down tubes I’ve requested are longer than on any frames he currently makes, he has to get creative. He digs out a couple of pre-formed down tubes for a lightweight downhill frame he never got round to making that are long enough. Then he gets a partially formed tube that’s plenty long enough for the top tube, though he’ll need to make a custom pivot mount and seat tube brace, because they’re normally incorporated in the Tracer’s semi-monocoque top tube.
This is where Jeff’s artisan tendencies come in handy. Stepping back, he envisions the line the top tube will make and tells me he’ll use a brace from a 951 DH frame and adapt the upper linkage mount from its bigger brother, the M9.
Made in Temecula
I didn’t realise that aluminium was so soft before heat treatment, so it surprises me when Jeff starts trimming bits off the tubeset with a pair of cutters. Using just his expert eye, he ensures the top tube and down tube meet each other perfectly. The next job is solving the upper pivot placement. Jeff takes the CNC machined pivot plate from an M9 and cuts off the material he doesn’t need. He then attaches the two parts of the plate to a shock for spacing, holds it in place with wire, and then, piece by piece, welds tacks in place to make sure the tubes are where they should be for welding.
Today Rick the Welder is here specially to weld my frame, and with a steady hand and an eye for perfection he soon has it finished and ready for heat treating. This is also done in-house, in a huge oven – alongside the $400,000 worth of CNC machines and other metal working rigs – to keep quality control tight. Intense ran into problems when they tried out-sourcing the heat treating, but in the controlled environment here they have no such issues. One of the only things done outside the factory is the painting and powder coating, though Jeff insists on using a local business.
Despite Intense moving on to big things in the carbon world, the aluminium side of the business is still as raw as ever and with 35 employees working flat out, Intense are now putting
I didn’t realise aluminium was so soft – it surprises me when Jeff starts trimming bits off with a pair of cutters
complete bikes on shop floors, which is changing the reach of the brand. They’re growing, rapidly.
Gas mark 11
Heat treating is the final and most important stage of frame building because it tempers the aluminium to its final finish. This is done in three stages. The first is the quench cycle, in which the frame is cooked at 1,100°F for an hour to soften all the alloys to the same level. Straight out of the oven the frame is dunked in a glycol solution to cool it down, then there’s a 72-hour window in which it must be aligned. This is done on specific jigs to ensure everything is straight and the shock mounts are within tolerance. The last stage is an overnight eight-hour bake at 350°F, before final frame finishing is carried out.
The Intense factory is laid out in an intuitive order. When my frame comes out of the oven it’s checked for alignment by Dave, who then completes it, reaming the seat tube, facing the head tube and BB shell, tapping the threads into the BB shell and pressing the bearings into the mainframe. Dave operates almost automatically, which pleases me. I like watching someone with a proper method at work – his attention to detail is amazing and he won’t let the frame go any further unless he’s 100 per cent happy with it.
Moment of truth
Jeff insists on doing the finishing touches on all prototype frames himself, as if he’s nursing them into the world. He installs the shock hardware and collet pivot axles with plenty of grease and threadlock, while technician Johnny rounds up a drivetrain and components to bolt on to the frame.
After a tag-team bike build with Johnny, Jeff applies decals and casts an approving eye over the bike before wheeling it past me. With a sly grin, he tells me he’s always the first to sling a leg over a new bike, and rides straight out the factory doors and into the sweltering Temecula sunshine. Rolling back in with a nod of approval, he sends me off to the local 951 trails to give it a ride.
As I hike up the rocky trails I find myself with a new appreciation for bike construction – the painstakingly precise welds, the hand cut tubing and how I watched Jeff put it together so nonchalantly. It’s amazing to think that just 24 hours earlier I was signing in at the factory reception for a tour, and now I’m riding trails on a bike that took shape in front of my eyes. “I’d ask you how it was,” says Jeff when I return to the factory, “but that grin says it all.”