Bicycle frame builders rely not just on steel or titanium tubes for their creations, but also on all the bits and pieces like dropouts, bottom bracket shells, and brake mounts that make a bike a bike. Richmond, California-based Paragon Machine Works (PMW) was a crucial supplier of these parts and more for frame builders across the country, so their closure in late March left many small bike brands reeling. Today, a bit of good news: Firsthand Framebuilding has agreed to purchase PMW assets and designs with plans to make many parts available for purchase once again.
Firsthand Framebuilding, a Portland, Oregon-based bicycle framebuilding parts supplier, plans to open a school facility there later this year and sees the PMW acquisition as a way “to uphold and carry forward their substantial legacy,” according to Firsthand owner Chris Blandford.
Firsthand says they will have local producers to manufacture select parts from the PMW catalog initially, with the hope of eventually producing some of the parts in-house themselves. The Portland company also plans to make some of the remaining PMW inventory available to builders.
Founded in the 1980s, PMW was owned and operated by the Norstad family. The press release from Firsthand Framebuilding suggests PMW faced a combination of declining sales and rising costs, which resulted in their abrupt closure announcement on March 27, 2026. More than a month later, on May 7, PMW posted on Instagram, “We have temporarily shut down our webstore for inventory and website management. We will let you know when our store is back online and apologize for any inconvenience.” The online store remains closed as of press time.
Since 2020, bicycle framebuilding suppliers have struggled. In May of 2020, Henry James, located in Portland, Oregon, announced their closure. Then in 2022, California-based Nova Cycles quietly ceased operations.
Paragon supplied many respected bike brands, including Chumba. Over the past few years, some builders have come to rely on CNC-machined parts from overseas suppliers, or, in a few cases, parts crafted in-house.
Surviving US-based framebuilding suppliers include Firsthand Framebuilding, Bicycle Fabrication Supply in Arizona, and Framebuilder Supply in Oregon.
“I’m extremely optimistic that, with the right approach, manufacturing high-quality, affordable framebuilding bits domestically is still very doable–and important–in 2026,” Blandford said in a release. “Paragon’s closure was a gut-check for all of us. With Paragon’s IP in hand, I’m excited to see what the Firsthand team and I can do to bring a fresh perspective to framebuilding component supply in the future.”
0 Comments