Tool on Their Radical Machined High-Pivot Bike (Ep.199)

Tool has been developing a stunning-looking made-in-Quebec machined high-pivot Trail / Enduro bike with some radical geometry and design details, and for this week’s episode of Bikes & Big Ideas, we sat down with founder and designer William Boisvert to hear all about it.
Tool Prototype

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William Boisvert made his first bike frame — a machined front triangle for a Devinci Troy — in just seven weeks for a college project, and despite the challenges that arose (and the fact that that first frame didn’t survive very long), he’s continued the development of a CNC-machined high-pivot Enduro frame, and founded Tool to bring it to market. The prototypes are visually stunning (and quite interesting technically), and we sat down with William to hear all about their design and the concepts behind it; why he’s opting to machine and bond his frames; what’s next with their development and when they might be available to buy; and a whole lot more.

RELATED LINKS:
BLISTER+ Membership
BLISTER+ Real World Testimonials
Blister Labs
This Week’s Gear Giveaway
Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

TOPICS & TIMES:
William’s first bike project (7:12)
The difficulty of building something (11:44)
William’s first ground-up design (18:12)
Suspension travel, geometry, & modularity (30:23)
Prototypes (33:42)
Machining frames & “human scale” manufacturing (36:50)
Moving toward production (44:25)

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