Dragon Bicycles

Our final sale of the year is nearly over! We’re down to our last few bikes, a couple size mediums and two size smalls.

Act soon and you’ll save $700 off our amazing to ride, and super comfortable Dragon carbon fiber road bike. Free delivery to your home, and no assembly required. Discount automatically taken at checkout.

Additionally we will donate the whole value of your order, $1099 after the discount, to emergency services in Israel who are in desperate need of financial support. The donation would go to American Friends of Magen David Adom , Israel’s version of the Red Cross. It’s a win win, get an amazing bike, support medics who help any person in need regardless of nationality.

Dragon Bicycles Dragon Bicycles was created to bring premium road bicycles to riders of all abilities.

We’re down to our last size medium carbon fiber road Dragon! Save a massive $700 off the retail price, discount automatically applied at checkout dragonbicycles.com

Unleashes the Dragon in all of us.

Behind the spandex: get to know the bicycle industry series. If you have a bike made in the past fifty years, there’s a great chance your bicycle is outfitted with Shimano components. Shimano is by far the most popular bike parts maker for years now. 95% of all bicycles are equipped with Shimano components. HQ in Japan, Shimano innovated modern day gear shifting (Shimano Index Shifting), designed and perfected the modern day caliper rim brake design, and introduced the next generation of electronic shifting to the bike market. The second and third most important component makers, by a large gap are SRAM, hq in beautiful Chicago, and Campagnolo, hq in even more beautiful Vicenza, Italy. SRAM and Campy own about 4% of the bike component market, with SRAM very popular in the mountain bike community, and Campy popular with Euro bike brands. What’s interesting about all three of these component brands is their relationship with a rather unfamiliar Taiwanese component maker called Tektro. Tektro has been around for over three decades, and while not nearly as recognizable as Shimano or SRAM, it’s a good chance your Shimano parts were actually made by Tektro. What I’ve discovered after years of walking bicycle trade shows and touring bike manufacturers in Taiwan and China, is that Tektro makes nearly all of the opening price point and mid level components for Shimano and SRAM. Component makers offer a hierarchy of price levels, a good better best situation, and except for the most expensive components, like Shimano Dura ace or SRAM RED, Tektro makes all of the components for those companies and simply puts their name on it. This is what’s known as white label or private label manufacturing. Super popular in a wide variety of markets. What does this all mean and why should you care? Maybe it doesn’t matter, a lot of us really like having a specific brand and don’t really care about where or who made it. It’s not always easy to find out what’s really happening behind the scenes, and maybe it doesn’t matter to you, but I figure the more we know, the better we’re able to make buying decisions intelligently.

A little insider info on the bicycle industry for your Wednesday: there are two manufactures of bicycles, road mountain gravel whatever, that make well over 90% of all bicycles we see in the market. These behemoths are called Giant and Merida. Both are based in Taiwan, which is the new central hub for bicycling as of the past probably 20 years, so I guess it’s not that new, and both brands are responsible for making and assembling most everyone else’s bike frames including Cervelo, Santa Cruz, Ridley, trek, specialized, etc are all made at one of these two factories. Now this is not at all a judgment of the bike industry. Many industries are like this such as the auto industry, and particularly the clothing industry. Ford GM Toyota all share manufacturers, and a lot of the same parts can be found on cars that we would never normally associate with one another like say, a fancy Mercedes E63 most likely has side mirrors that can also be found on the lowly Kia. I’m only sharing this information because when I first entered the bicycle industry in 2017 I found it very interesting that there are so many brands but they’re all made by just a very small handful of companies. Dragon Bicycles, my brand as it happens, is one of the unique ones (like say Evil bikes or Allied or All City) those that don’t use Giant or Merida and instead make our own bikes with smaller mom and pop carbon fiber manufactures. Just food for thought as you go about looking at bikes and trying to decide on your next dream bike and consider what’s really in a brand name. Tomorrow: how Shimano owns the entire bicycle component making world of which well over 75% of their components are actually made by a lesser known brand called Tektro.

Unsolicited riding tips for today.
1. On a ride drink at least one water bottle per hour. Even if you don’t feel like drinking take little sips. The water helps to fight cramping, keeps your joints lubricated, and keeps your body hydrated. 2. Eat a little something once an hour on your ride. Power gels, small pack of jelly beans, or small pack of gummy bears. Your body uses the sugar to power your short bursts of power, the small amount of carbohydrates helps to power your endurance, and the gummies taste great. If you’re planning on taking a ride longer than two hours, consider adding Gatorade powder or nuun tablets to one of your water bottles to help replenish your amino acids and electrolytes. 3. After your ride if you’re not lactose avoidant go for a small carton of chocolate milk, there is literally nothing better for post ride snacks then chocolate milk. Theres scientific proof behind the value of chocolate milk, I’m sure you can talk to Dr. Google about that if you want to find out more but I promise you if you are on a multi day ride or you plan on not being sore the day after your ride, don’t skip the chocolate milk. Now don’t go nuts and drink an entire gallon of chocolate milk which will negate the entire physiological benefit of your ride, but also treat yourself, you just worked really hard and suffered a bunch. ps, yoo hoo doesn’t count.

Why was 1x used at the 2023 Tour de France – and what does it mean for the future? Does 1x have a future in road racing after all? Joe Laverick investigates for BikeRadar

The advantage of using the inappropriately named clipless pedals (because we actually clip in to them) is to engage the full pedaling circle, both the pushing and pulling motions. Without a way to affix our feet to the pedals and keep them from lifting off the pedals, we lose the pull part of the pedaling circle. A great way to begin to become comfortable with the idea of being attached to your pedal and bike is by using the toe cages.

Toe cages are made from steel, compatible with flat pedals, and your foot is kept in place with a leather strap. While I have clipless pedals on my Dragon and other "race/serious face" bikes, I use toe cages, also called rat traps, on my most very favorite Surly Steamroller fixed gear. You can find the cages and leather straps on Amazon. MKS is my favorite cage and pedal brand, a Japanese bike accessories maker that's been in the game for years. Cages are made of steel or plastic; steel is better and more durable. Straps are made out of leather or nylon; leather is better and more durable.

Many riders fear not being able to unclip from a clipless pedal when coming to a stop, which is not unfounded and extremely common. I learned to use my clipless pedals riding on grass, so that when I failed to unclip in time, I fell on grass instead of pavement. Adding a foot retention system, toe cages or clipless pedals is a fantastic way to become a faster more efficient rider.

For my money and in my experience, years ago I stopped carrying a bike pump on my rides and switched to a co2 inflator. The problem with on-bike bike pumps is that only the most expensive bike pumps are able to fully inflate your tires so that you can get home. And to that end, pumping the tires up to their full capacity (about 110 psi) is an exhausting endeavour and wastes valuable energy that could otherwise be used for completing our rides.

The idea behind the CO2 inflators is that you would buy an inflator that is reusable, and ride with one or two cartridges. One cartridge will pump up both of your tires if needed, and easily achieve the tire's air capacity to be able to allow you to get home. I use the Genuine Innovations CO2 inflator, which is compatible with any number of CO2 cartridges. The CO2 setup runs about $15, with replacement cartridges about $2.5 each. The downside of the cartridge is that it's a one use only item, but honestly over the years and years of riding on Seattle's horribly pot-holed roads, I've only ever got a few punctures that need on ride repairs. A better method would be to check the air pressure on your bike prior to every ride, and make sure you’ve got the necessary amount of air in your tires before heading out. . My shop dog agrees, ditch the mini pump.

I’m running a special on the size small dragon for the next seven days: save $500 off retail price and get free shipping, use discount code pace on our website. The size small Dragon will fit riders from 5’ to 5’4”. ps the rider in this picture is about 5’2”

A great way to get a custom fit on your bike is to visit a local bike shop, pay $75 to $200 and walk away with a great fitting bike. Another better way is to pocket your money, grab a hex wrench, your bike, and five mins of your time. Sit on your bike with one foot on the pedal, grasp the hoods of the brake levers, and look down past your handlebars. (ps this adjustment is obviously done when you aren’t moving). Look past the handlebars to the hub and quick release skewers. The hub is the part of the wheel where all the spokes meet in the middle of wheel. If you see your front wheel’s hub in front of your handlebars, that means that the saddle (your seat) is positioned too far forward on your seat post, which can lead to neck pain, lower back pain, and hating cycling. Simple adjustment: take a hex wrench, loosen the seat bolt on the underside of the saddle, and move the seat backward on its rails like a 1/4 inch at first. Gently tighten the seat’s rail bolt. (All adjustments on a bike should be done with small movements, a little can make a big diff). Now back on the bike, you’ll either not see the hub when you look down past your handlebars, which is what we want, or maybe the hub will appear behind the handlebars. If that happens, loosen the seat bolt and move the seat forward. The goal is to not see your hub beyond your handlebars, and should be easy to find within just a couple minutes.
This is a great and easy method to customize your bike for your body and riding style, and most importantly helps you avoid extra strain on parts of your body that can get sore while riding. 🫶🐉

Hi 👋, I’m not only the Dragon Bicycles president, I’m also a client. ;) (1984 hair club for men ref. yeahhh…I’m a product of the 80’s).
I’ve been in business for 7 years and I love that riders of all types from newbie to grizzled “cyclist” find Dragon. It’s been great to get ppl onto a premium road bike, once thought out of reach b/c of the high price. I’m responsible for all aspects of my business, from assembling bikes to paying the bills, and it’s exciting. Most of it anyways. I’m not into the selling part of business. I’d rather share my passion for riding, and give a biker plenty of options even when those are options other than Dragon (like Surly, one of my fav brands ever, a Surly Steamroller fixie will change your riding and life). I make and sell about 130 bikes every two years, and of the roughly 400 bikes I’ve sold since Dragon’s been open, I spoke to no less than half of my riders. From a quick question about tire pressure to super involved bike mechanics and riding physiology, I’ve loved talking and keeping in contact with our riders.
So I love riding and sharing my passion for riding with whoever has interest, but I don’t post that much on social, & really can’t get into it. Buttt, ppl need to evolve, so long story boring, Im gonna start posting more about owning a small bike brand and some tips for riding. For instance, always bring a dollar bill with you on a ride. Should you suffer a blowout on your tire’s sidewall, rather than walking home, fold up the dollar bill, put it over the hole on the inside of your tire, and inflate the tube.
Maybe you guys will like learning a little from my experience as a cyclist and now small business owner, or maybe not. Either way, definitely maybe, I could be the only one reading my posts. 🫠
2 pics for this post, one is the first version of the Dragons on a carousel ready to be boxed up after the carbon fiber frame material was formed, cured in an iron mold for up to three days, and painted.
Second pic is my shop dog, Rey, king of poops. He sniffs things, takes naps, and strikes many royal & derpy poses.