Improving the Line

The 1999 Catalog featured Lloyd on the cover brazing cable guides. Employing a larger format, the catalog added a section on custom frames. The custom frame section depicted the beautifully painted tandem (called the, "Co-Dependent") which Steve and his friend Rob Mossman rode to second place in the Leadville 100 in 1998 and won with a new course record for tandems in 1999.

1999 saw the continued growth and maturation of the company. IF was able to attract several talented welders, Tom Burnett and Tyler Evans, from Merlin - adding depth and talent to what had been a bottleneck area. Wages were increased and full health insurance benefits were added. IF made it through 1999 maintaining very competitive lead times. Tim Johnson placed third among Espoirs in the Cyclocross World Championship race aboard a Planet Cross, the first American ever to medal in this event.

IF attended the Sea Otter Classic in California as part of a 2-week road trip to current and potential dealers. The response of the west coast folk to our frames was outstanding - for many the first time to see our work close up. Unfortunately, one of our riders, Cristina Begy, crashed on the last lap and ended up with a broken collar bone. The folks at Swobo Clothing gave Steven a place to stay while in Northern California - not the first or last time they would be helpful to us. In turn, Steven opened his home to the Swobo crew when they appeared in Boston.

The effort to improve our frames continued with a systematic review of each of our models, incorporating feedback from recreational riders and racers alike. We also evaluated available materials to determine which would allow us to come closest to our design criteria of light weight, durability and ride quality. We particularly focused on the following:

Working with the suppliers to determine available shapes and sizes and the degree to which they would customize to our needs, the following decisions were made for the 2000 model year. We retained Reynolds 853 double butted air hardening tubes for the main triangle of all of our frames.

The review of the Deluxe/Special found that we could provide more tire clearance and improve the esthetics of the frame by employing Columbus Nivacrom chain stays. This material could be worked to make the S-bend required to achieve our objective. Columbus also provided IF with custom Nivacrom seat stays made to our design and specifications which tapered beautifully into the dropouts.

There was considerable debate over the notion of changing the Crown Jewel. Those favoring no change argued persuasively that the bike had achieved such an enthusiastic following - why monkey with success. We built a prototype employing new, single butted Columbus Foco oval chain stays and round double tapered Columbus Nivacrom seat stays. We were able to retain the outstanding ride quality for which the Crown Jewel was famous and reduce the weight by 1/4 pound. The testing of the prototype convinced us to adopt these changes for 2000.

The R&D team was busy in 1999. The development of our mountain bike fork employed the services of Massachusetts Materials Research, Inc., a testing lab. We got samples of competitive forks and subjected them and our initial prototypes to both static and fatigues testing. We tweaked our design until we were confident that we had the strongest and lightest mountain bike fork available.

Tyler Evans took the lead in designing our unique universal disc mount integrated with the dropouts. Not only was the design esthetically pleasing (thanks, Mass. College of Art), but it also directed the torque of braking into a compressive force on the seat stay instead of tensile stresses in other mounts. The seat stays cope with the compressive loads very well, but tensile stresses have led to minor deflections of the seat stays in other mounts that can induce chatter.

The Club Racer

Our resident touring specialist, Mike Flanigan, developed our light touring bike now known as the Club Racer. Starting with our proven Crown Jewel, Mike lengthened the chain stays to provide room for rear panniers. He equipped the bike with a heavier fork with rack mounts for low riders. Set up with long reach brakes, brazeons for fenders and racks, the Club Racer can be stripped for a race on Saturday and loaded up for light touring on Sunday.

1999 Interbike

The IF presence at the 1999 Las Vegas Interbike Trade Show was a hit in a 20' X 20' open format booth with models updated with Columbus stays, new rigid mtb fork, new disc brake dropout mount, new Club Racer, new colors and the presence of Tim Johnson, Cristina Begy and other supporters. Because of bad weather, half our crew were caught in Memphis and missed the first day of the show. Ed Magrecke, Tim Johnson, Cristina Begy and Joanne Carilli came to our rescue, pitching in to help us cover the booth and no one was the wiser. They were great.

The 2000 catalog was expanded to 22 pages and featured local bike racer, Jason Suderman, on the cover and pics and brief biographies of the IFers on the inside. Larger pictures of the frames and other products were included as well as more coverage of custom frames and custom painting. More Help From Our Friends.

Support for the further growth and development of IF was received in January, 2000, in the form of a $50,000 loan from the Local Enterprise Assistance Fund of Boston, a creation of The ICA Group, the non-profit organization that had helped us to get started.

In the Spring of 2000, IF Crown Jewel road bikes were introduced into Mavic's Neutral Support fleet and used by Mavic Technicians during their 10 week shop tour across the country. Equipped with Ksyrium wheels and Mavic's Mectronic shifting system, the IFs became the hit of Mavic's tour. Numerous dealers called requesting information on the IF line. Mavic personnel reported the overwhelmingly positive response to the bikes and requested to increase the IF presence in the next season.

Grass Roots Racing

Grassroots racing has been an integral part of our effort to tell the IF story. In our first year, IF hit the local series and several of the NORBA National races with its rag tag group of racers. Steven spent countless hours building wheels, building bikes, offering words of encouragement and financial help, when possible, to see that our racers made it to the races.

Over the past few years, IF has sponsored a rapidly growing grass roots team with over 50 members nation wide racing in all disciplines: road racing, mountain and cyclocross. What was once considered to be a fringe sport, cyclocross has become an important event on both coasts.

Starting with a 2-person team in New England in 1996, IF now sponsors one of the most well-known and competitive cross teams in the country. IF riders have won the New England women's title in 1998 and 1999, taking the top two places in 1998 and top three places in 1999. On the national scene, the IF team has brought home three National Championships and placed women in the top five of the Super Cup Series for the last two years.