The Tree was designed around being eco-friendly in so many aspects, from it’s concept to creation to it’s name. The colour we chose is directly associated with the name we chose, it was up to me to decide where we where going with the colour scheme.

We talked about browns and greens, very earthy colours the whole time. Eventually we decided on the matt black, by a combination of peoples interest and our needs as a far as what we wanted the bike to represent. It is not a sporty colour it is solid and dependable. They don’t say flash. The bike grabs your attention by what it is, not how nice it looks.

When I came along in the production of the bike we already had the name. The name kinda sells itself. In the end we found it a representation of our vision and the ethic of the shop.

When looking at a graphic we explored both rural and urban trees.  Coming from a rural island lifestyle I went with more of a mountain side tree at first but then through some feedback I decided to go for more an urban tree something you would see while biking to work.

The one graphic we finally choose was the single tree with a great silhouette. It was originally going to be on the top of the bike and have lines wrap around the bar, all designs change a little bit before production. There was a simplicity to it that everyone just really liked.

The bike is a workhorse.

If you know what your looking at. Your going to look at the bike and say that is really well made, it is really though out. I think all of the stuff we brainstormed about showed up in the end product really well.

I was unable to visit the factory with Darcy and ilan. But from what they told me the bike looked pretty sharp.

When I first saw it, I got to see it in the box all packed up. Living in a consumer culture you love opening new products some time your impressed, sometimes your not so much. This time it had a more personal touch, seeing something of mine on a pretty major product I was excited.

When it was built and realized that the simplicity of the design, the colours we chose and the placement of logo everything just turned out really wonderfully.

We aren’t really trying to brand the bike, we’re trying people to get people to look at the quality of the bike itself, not at who made it or who made the parts we wanted people to look at a quality that make it a nicely designed bike.

We styled the Tree logo much like Devinci’s current style, not out of any request, but I out of fairness to Devinci. They have their styles going and their branding. It helps us to work with them in that way to create something in their current styles, straight up it just looks good.

Category: Story

Tags: bicycle, branding, city, concept, design, handwelded, logo, sketches, sustainable, Tree bike

In February 2009, ilan Handelsman (general manager) and I, Darcy McCord (service manager) had the opportunity to visit the Devinci factory in Chicoutimi, QC, while The Tree was in production. It was an incredibly valuable experience. I have been working in the bike industry for many years now. I know a lot about bikes, frame materials, components and so on, and I even know a fair bit about the history of bicycles and bicycle manufacturing, but I had only the faintest clue of how bicycles are actually made.

When we arrived at the factory I was immediately impressed by how large and clean the facility was. All aspects of production take place in this one facility, from making custom dropouts with CNC machines, to welding and heat-treating the frames, to painting the frames (although we had The Tree frames outsourced to a powder-coating facility instead), to wheel building, to testing finished products in-house, to final assembly and boxing up the bikes for shipping. I suspected at first glance (and it was confirmed continually throughout the visit) that this is a well-organized operation.

Devinci currently manufactures about 20,000-25,000 bicycles in-house per year, making it one of the largest producers of bicycles in Canada and the largest producer of high-quality specialty bicycles in the country. Their current in-house production represents over half of all Devinci bicycles sold; the remainder are welded overseas in an effort to remain competitive. This is where The Tree comes in. All of Devinci’s hybrid bikes are welded in Asia (some of the models are still assembled at their factory in Chicoutimi, and some are assembled entirely overseas). This is the case with virtually all other Canadian brands as well. We believe, however, that there is a demand for a Canadian-made hybrid bicycle, and since Devinci still has a strong production facility here in Canada, they are well-suited for the job.

We were hosted by our customer service reps Scott and Dave. As we walked around the facility, we were introduced to the factory staff at each of the various stations. Although neither ilan nor I is particularly good at speaking French, it was clear to us that the relationships among staff, including between the office and factory staff, is always friendly. We really got the impression that this is a fun place to work.

The Tree frames were already welded and painted when we got there. I did, however, get to participate in some aspects of the assembly of our bike. I started at the wheel building machine, where the spokes are all laced by one machine, then sent through a tensioning and truing machine, which, frankly, boggles my mind. The lacing machine requires manual operation, but it nonetheless takes only about a minute (less if you’re good at it) to fasten all 36 spokes to the rim (in our shop, it takes about 10 minutes by hand). The rest is done by a computerized machine that I can only assume is powered by magic. A finished wheel rolls out the other end of the machine. The end product is pretty good, but I dare say I can do a better job by hand. It just takes about 10 times longer.

After the wheel building, we moved on to the assembly of the frames.

This was our first look at the frames, and we were very impressed. The powder coat and the decals looked great! We got to follow the very first frame down the assembly line, which consists of about 6-8 people at various stations. The headset cups are pressed in with a very cool machine, the fork column is measured and cut by hand, the handlebars are set up then installed, then the brakes, the bottom bracket and crank, then the derailleurs, then the rear wheel, then the cables are attached and adjusted, then it’s all packed up and put in a box, and it’s ready to go. All the while, the people putting it together are chatting and seeming to have a good time. I got to follow another bike down the line and assemble it myself. I wasn’t quite as fast as they are, but I managed to get it together eventually. Again, despite the language barrier, everyone was quite friendly and willing to help me along, and they were only slightly upset that I was slowing down the line.

We visited the welding stations and heat-treating stations as well. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, they were done for the day. However, Scott and Dave described the process and emphasized that great care is taken to ensure a quality product.

The frame is first tacked together, and then welded in an order that results in the least shifting of the tubes. It is then bathed and heat-treated. After this heat-treatment, the metal is soft and malleable, and it is at this point that each frame is checked for alignment and corrected by hand. It is then ‘aged’ (a second heat-treating process), then bathed in another series of vats to clean out impurities and prepare the frames for painting.

Devinci also has a research and testing facility on site. Frames are testing for stress-resistance by using machines that apply torque from side to side or up and down hundreds of thousands of times before the frame fails. They also check frames for crash resistance and monitor how they fail. This helps them design bikes that are strong in the right places.

It was clear to us that everyone was experienced at their job. This was important to us because it demonstrates that the end product is of a high quality and that it is built with pride. The visit really impressed on us that Devinci is a professional company that takes care to ensure that their staff are experienced and well-treated, and that their product is well-made. We are very excited, then, to introduce The Tree at our shop; a commuter hybrid bike that is made with pride right here in Canada.

Category: Story

Tags: assembly, bicycle, bike, Canadian, commuter, cro-mo, Devinci, factory, handwelded

The second part of the inspiration for The Tree took over when the owner brought the bike home.

“A bike is designed to sell, it is made to look good on the showroom floor,” said Darcy McCord, the knowledgeable  service manager at the shop.

Much like anything, manufacturers up-scale parts on the bike that the consumer can see, and to save money downscale parts that have less visibility.

“It is really problematic from a service perspective, because we see a lot of bikes that are relatively new, and some of the better parts on the bike are in great shape and some of the less good parts are in really bad shape after not too much riding. In particular one of the worst cases of that is the hubs, which often they (manufacturers) will use off-brand hubs that are one, not very good quality and two, when they do fail you can’t get replacement parts for them.”

BOTD also found that manufacturers were trying to edge out each other in weight of their mid-range consumer bikes regardless of the quality of the Components in the bike.

“We decided to favour robustness over weight for the tree,” replied ilan.

BOTD decided to go with Shimano Deore on the entire drive train and many components because of the high degree to which component parts can be replaced and serviced. In short, a great balance between durability, performance and price.

“When your bike does need servicing, all parts are either repairable or replaceable,” said Darcy.

The headset is a FSA conventional headset with pressed-in cups as opposed to an integrated headset, which is harder to service and harder to replace.

“So instead of up-spec-ing some parts and down-spec-ing others. We went medium specifications on everything, and in the long run it will be a much better deal for the owner,” said Darcy.

One of the benefits to living on the West Coast is the ability for the general commuter to bike year round to work, but with all the wet weather we are used to in Vancouver over the winter the rims can take a real beating from the constant braking as a result of mucky/wet brake pads. The disc brakes upgrade does come as an option and is completely upgradeable after the fact. But we have included this opinion because over the long run it will save you from replacing rims.

BOTD also requested that the bike be painted by powder coating as opposed to spraying because it has a longer lasting finish and it is gentler on the environment. All the unused powder can be reused on the next bike.

“Power coating is a long lasting finish process than a liquid paint,” according to ilan. “It is a much better process for the environment.”

Category: Story

Tags: bicycle, Canadian, commuter, False Creek, handwelded, Shimano Deore, sustainable

The Tree was conceived not in a moment of inspiration but from a general frustration happening to the mid-range-hybrid commuter bikes.

Reasons were many, but a couple of years ago ilan Handelsman, manager of Bikes on the Drive (BOTD), started seeing changes in the mid-range bikes being sold by all manufacturers. These included moving the welding and painting off shore, reducing the robustness of wheels and hubs and making the bike less versatile to disc-brake upgrades.

“We want Canadian made, we want disc brake upgradability… We wanted a bike that was a bit more sustainable.” coined ilan

Spoke counts were dropping from 32/36 to 24. Bikes were no longer coming with disc brake tabs and environmental standards are much less stringent off shore.

“We don’t want to have to replace the parts on a bike more often than necessary,” said ilan. “We prefer to repair parts as opposed to replacing them. It is much more sustainable.”

Handelsman had an idea to build his own bike and with having his hand forced by trends he saw in the industry, he went to find a way he could have all he wanted in a Canadian-made commuter bike. He knew the technology was still available in Canada to build and weld bikes, but he didn’t know who would jump on board.

Devinci still has a manufacturing shop based in Chicoutimi, Quebec and currently manufactures about 20,000-25,000 bicycles in-house per year. It was a perfect candidate to build the bike. We weren’t the only ones who have ever asked a bike manufacturer for a custom build, but now we had to convince Devinci to make a bike it had essentially stopped selling years ago.

In November 2007, ilan traveled to Devinci’s offices in Chicoutimi and spoke with Max, sales manager, and Yvan, vice president and production manager for Devinci.

ilan gave the reasons why he wanted to produce The Tree but was met with some resistance at first. ilan asked them to bring out a 2007 Devinci Oslo (the bike The Tree was based on) from the plant and show how he would showcase the selling features of the Oslo.

The people at Devinci were impressed with ilan’s candour, knowledge and passion for the project and what he wanted to do with the bike. They agreed and a year later they were touring the factory in Chicoutimi,viewing their creation.

In part two find out what is going into The Tree and why we have chosen to use the components we have.

Category: Story

Tags: bicycle, bike, Canadian, commercial drive, commuter, Devinci, False Creek, handwelded, sustainable, Tree bike