Homebrewed Components was founded single speed aficionado Dan Wilcox. After being a Machinist/Engineer for his entire working life, he decided to start his own machine shop. Granted, doing it in the height of the economic recession was probably not the greatest of ideas (Dan’s words).
Dan first started making parts for other companies and building tooling for people he had worked for in the past. While this was progress, it wasn’t really what he wanted to do. Also, taking pride in what he does, if he’s going to make something, it needs his name on it, not someone else’ name.
Now here’s where Dan started thinking…
What do I like to do the most? Well, that would be creating things and mountain biking. How can I put those 2 together? Well duh, make bike parts! At first it was just going to be a hobby to cure some boredom in between the normal work. I started making chain tensioners using part of a design that I had made a few years ago. The only modifications I did to it were basically a little material removal to lighten them up. I posted them up on a web forum and got some decent feedback along with a few orders.
I decided it was time to expand a bit from there. I had some titanium kicking around so I whipped up a cog for myself and one for my buddy Rodd, who was moving to Wisconsin. I posted those up and once again, I got some pretty good feedback.
The next stage was fairly obvious, it was time to make some chainrings. It took me a bit to come up with a design i liked, but i managed to find something that was light, strong, and visually apealing.
Dan has been working his tail off to complete all the designs, tooling, and programing for all the different bolt patterns and tooth counts. It’s still leading to a good 12+ hour work day 7 days a week, it has become more of a full time gig and he’s treating it as such. In chatting with Dan he has informed me of a new addition to his milling operation that should cut production times significantly. Dan is exactly the kind of guy that SOPWAMTOS loves to have in our ranks. And who knows, when he’s not cutting chain rings, he might swing by the blog on occasion to drop some works of small business wisdom. Or just talk about squirrels, ’cause everyone knows Dan likes squirrels.
Homebrewed Components Products
Homebrewed Components - Stainless & Titanium 2 piece Cogs
Homebrewed Components newest innovation is the two-piece cog. They consist of an aluminum Shimano compatible spider – anodized in black – and titanium or stainless teeth to help bring weight down without compromising longevity. The ring is press fit into the pockets so you actually have both pins and pockets driving the cog instead of More Info »Homebrewed Components - Stainless Standard Rear Cogs
These cogs are made from heat treated 17-4 stainless steel, which is more wear and corrosion resistant than 304 which most people use (because it’s cheap). They have a 5mm base to keep from damaging the splines on your Shimano freehub body. Also, the teeth are central to the base, so you can flip it More Info »Homebrewed Components - Aluminum Spiderless Chainrings (SRAM/Truvativ)
These chainrings are fully CNC machined from high quality 7075-T6 aluminum and held to tight tolerances, producing a ROUND chainring. You know how much you hate tight/loose spots in your chain, right? This is the first step to eliminating that. These are also one of the lightest chainrings on the market. The lightening pockets are More Info »Homebrewed Components - Aluminum 104bcd 4 bolt Chainrings
These single speed chainrings are fully CNC machined from high quality 7075-T6 aluminum and held to tight tolerances, producing a ROUND chainring. You know how much you hate tight/loose spots in your chain, right? This is the first step to eliminating that. These are also one of the lightest chainrings on the market, weighing in More Info »
Over 13 weeks since I placed an order with HBC. 4 emails with no response. Still no products delivered.
Hi Chris – You haven’t heard anything from Dan? Interesting. I’ll drop him a note and see what’s going on. Have you checked him out on facebook? He’s usually pretty quick to respond there. I know his lead times can be long being a small operation and he can be tough to get a hold of. But I’m surprised. I’ll post back here if I hear of anything.