How a small custom shop is helping Canada’s Olympic track team in their pursuit of speed in Paris
Diving into the details to chase tenths of a second at the Olympics
Photo by:
Nick Iwanyshyn
In the hard-fought world of Olympic track racing, riders chase every tiny improvement and efficiency in the hopes of earning a tenth, or even a hundredth of a second improvement. Margins are so tight at the top level that seemingly tiny changes can have a significant impact. In Paris, when Canada’s track team takes to the boards at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome they’ll be armed with one very cool, very custom and very unassuming upgrade from a small Canadian bike brand.
Armed or, rather, their arms will be resting in them. The pursuit team are all kitted out with individually customized riser bars from Hamilton, Ont.’s Framework Bikes.
“Track bikes these days are getting more and more advanced so I felt like we needed to push the limits a little further on our setup,” explains Canadian Olympian Mathias Guillemette. “The stock material on the bikes we use are very adjustable and modular but we reached a point where we do not need the modularity and adjustability anymore.”
Guillemette had an idea of where he wanted to go. But knowing what you want and being able to manufacture something at an Olympic level are different things. He’d followed Jonathan Hornell-Kennedy, a.k.a. Framwork Bikes, on Instagram for a while. Knowing he might have the machining skill to help, Guillemette reached out.
“I think at first he was a little bit confused with my ideas. But he was definitely really interested in the project right away,” Guillemette says.
Little changes make important differences
The idea is simple, in theory. Taking the combination of modular risers and turning it into a solid piece. That might not seem like a big difference to most riders. In the world of track cycling, though, every advantage is a worthwhile one.
“These risers make the connection between the base bar (aka bull horns) and the aerobars. Being fully customized, they help clean up the airflow slightly and provide an unmatched rigidity to our system,” Guillemette explains.
Avery Gervais, Canadian team mechanic for the track squad, expanded on that idea.
“The custom risers that Jonathan created for us offered an aerodynamic advantage that we both validated in the RWDI wind tunnel as well as some on track aerotesting,” Gervais says. “The aluminium construction of the risers is stiffer than the standard riser hardware that we have been using which the riders prefer. We were also able to save some weight with each riser being a few grams lighter than the older set-up. This helps us get our bikes down to the UCI limit of 6.8 kg.”
Finally, while riders have set heights, Framework’s risers allow more freedom to move the extensions without sacrificing the overall stiffness of the system. Which is important, when you’re trying to throw several hundred watts at the bike.
“One more thing,” Guillemette adds, “A bike that looks good normally goes fast.”
Making dreams a reality to try make dreams happen
Once connected, Guillemette and Hornell-Kennedy were able to get an initial prototype together reasonably quickly. If you need a proof of the concept, Guillemette’s prototype immediately attracted attention from the rest of team.
“I was able to test it on the track and in the wind tunnel before the Nations Cups in 2024. By then, the national team took interest in my project,” Guillemette recalls. “Jonathan stepped it up to the next level, designing 10 completely custom sets of risers for each pursuiter’s needs.”
Custom work can slow. Frameworks is a somewhat new and, made up of just Jonathan and Elysse Hornell-Kennedy, it is a small operation. Adding 10 custom sets of risers to Framework’s existing projects is a big ask. It’s one Jonathan Hornell-Kennedy was happy to take on.
“A lot goes in to it, but it doesn’t feel that way. It was an engaging project and I was really happy to support the athletes with our time and the resources I have at my disposal. Overall it took us a few months to develop things and produce the 10 unique sets for the athletes.”
Making the project work within the limited timeframe between prototype and the Olympics required a combined effort. Framework and Gervais had to work together to maximize each of their expertises.
“Working with Jonathan and Elysse at Frameworks was really easy and they produce very high quality work,” Gervais says. “They came and visited the velodrome when we first came up with the idea. I later visited their machine shop a couple times in Hamilton to meet with them and go over the design.”
“My role was to coalesce the needs of the athletes, the mechanical requirements of their existing equipment and the manufacturing capability I have; and deliver a product worthy of the olympic stage,” Hornell-Kennedy adds. “The measuring and fitment side of things is handled by the mechanics.”
Working smarter, not harder
While it could sound like a lot of work, Hornell-Kennedy says the project dovetailed perfectly with Framework’s approach to custom work.
“From my perspective there aren’t really any “challenges” to the project. Designing a system that can handle all the rider’s various configurations, and produce the corresponding risers without issue, is at the heart of “who we are”. Every bike I make is a bespoke one-off. The impressive thing is not the bikes we make, but the system developed to produce each unique bike without any additional work. The risers were approached with the same idea. The 3D model that drives the production of the risers takes inputs from each athlete. So I guess the “challenge” is the initial development of this system based on a thorough understanding of the parameter space. Said another way, the system needs to accommodate the tallest rider, shortest rider, rider with the most offset…etc. That took a few meetings and back and forth with Mathias and Avery Gervais (the mechanic). We tested prototypes and the methodology for Avery to capture the required values for each of the variables described above.”
With bikes and industry “standards” being what they are, this required some detail. For each athlete, Gervais collected stack, fore/aft offset, side offset, angle front-to-back (hood angle vertically), yaw angle (how much the hoods point towards one another) and bolt patterns for each bar and aero riser.
Once each rider was set and confident in their riding position, Gervais went to work. With a protractor, vernier callipers, a digital level and a good old measuring tape, he measured each bike.
Hornell-Kennedy then turned all this data into polished, shiny riser bars. For an Olympic-quality touch of detail, he also engraved each piece with the athlete’s name.
Just the start?
Obviously this is a lot of time invested, especially for a smaller custom shop like Framework. But, with Hornell-Kennedy’s approach making the project repeatable, he says it’s something his shop could do again. In fact, if you’re looking to elevate your track bike with some custom bling, he’s willing to help out.
“Anything is commercially viable if the price is right,” Hornell-Kennedy says. “So yes, we will offer this as a bespoke product.” With the effort involved, though, making your perfect track set-up that little bit more perfect won’t be cheap. “I’m targeting $1000-1200 CAD,” the Hamilton bike maker says. “The only challenge is that the customer needs to be able to submit their measurements accurately.”
Mathias Guillemette and the Canadian track team take to the boards of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome for the Paris Olympic Games from August 5-11. Follow the action on CBC Gem. Try to catch a glimpse of Framework’s custom work, if the Pursuit squad slow down enough for you to see.
