RED and CHROME

2008-08-28T23:21:00.001-04:00

The color of the StayBent for the 2009 season is going to be Red and Chrome. We will post a photo as soon as we have one. The color looks Awesome!!!

2009 - Made in the USA

2008-08-28T23:15:00.007-04:00

Made in the USA - fellow Speedskater, Don C ownes a machine shop Alton Manufacturing and is making two of the main parts for us.

StayBent Owners for the 2007 and 2008 Seasons

2008-06-17T23:02:00.003-04:00

We are going to list all our StayBent Sharpening Frame Owners by season starting with the 2007 and 2008 seasons:

2008
Jordan Malone
Apolo Ohno
Allison Baver
Chris McLaughlin
Cherise Wilkins
April Medly
Charles Leveille
JR Celski
Jeff Simon
Anita van Doorn (Holland)
Freek van der Wart (Holland)
Ian Baranski
Ansis Robs
Craig Pielechowski
Jerry Roberts
Aly Dudek
Landon Hatfield
Tina Koenig
Liz Looby
Mitch Conley

2007
Kevin Graf
Claude Gilbert
Marty Medina

Improvement #7, The Bottom Knobs

2007-12-30T19:56:00.000-05:00

We found out from Allison Baver that it was difficult to tighten the jig to the middle bar and sometimes it came loose. So we swapped out the round knobs to ones with grips to get a little more leverage when tightening. This worked out well for her and getting it nice and tight is much easier with the new knobs.

New Knob Style:

Improvement #6, Engraving!

2007-11-28T22:53:00.000-05:00

We have Engraving! By doing the engraving as a plate instead on right on the frame we can do them as needed. It will probably have to be an up-charge next season, but this season we are doing them for free.

Improvement #5, The Swivel

2007-09-10T19:48:00.003-04:00

Old Style New Style
This improvement comes from a suggestion from Apolo Ohno. He was looking to get more blade up when sharpening and suggested a thinner swivel. Note the one on the left has a lip below and the one on the right has no lib below. This gives an additional 1/8" of clearance and does not sacrifce clamping stability. All swivels will be done like this New Style one moving forward.

Allison Baver's StayBent Sharpening Frame

2007-08-08T10:32:00.000-04:00

Our second StayBent Sharpening Frame sale went to Allison Baver. And again, nothing like starting these off at the top!

We could not resist doing a custom color for Allison. She really wanted Carolina Blue so we did this one up for her with her favorite color.

Notice the engraving "Allison Baver - Team USA". Apolo had his name engraved on his too. We found out this was going to be too expensive too which really made Apolo and Allison's truly unique.

Apolo Ohno's StayBent Sharpening Frame

2007-08-07T22:26:00.001-04:00

Apolo Ohno was the first skater to put in an order for a StayBent! Nothing like starting at the top!!!

We did his with a custom color black/chrome.

This will be a one-of-a-kind because after doing his, we found out that the cost of annodizing a single StayBent is too expensive and we would be losing money.

We are going with Blue and Chrome for the 2007-2008 season.

The First Version 4.0 StayBent

2007-06-30T18:17:00.000-04:00

This is the first version 4.0 StayBent! We are sending this one to Jordan Malone in Utah. He will be the first to use the latest StayBent.

Improvements #2, #3, #4

2007-05-03T14:35:00.000-04:00

Improvement #2 is making the body wider. Jordan Malone suggested we make it wider because sometimes skaters, such as himself, have a big offset and the ankles of the boots hit together. The width is a full 1/4 inch wider than any other jig on the market.

Improvement #3 was the tool-less design. Notice that the knob underneath is used to lock the middle bar in place instead of using an allen wrench. This idea was contributed by Mario of http://www.specialequipment.com/.

Improvement #4 was to make the StayBent lighter; notice the larger cut-out in the end pieces. Also the knobs are made of a lighter material. The new design is approximately 25% lighter. Paul Marchase of http://www.marcheseracing.com/ shared with us the importance of keeping it as light as possible especially for international travel.

StayBent Version 4.0

2007-04-03T21:45:00.000-04:00

Jerry has begun totally reworking the design and will be coming out with Version 4.0 of the StayBent this summer.

We will post photos of the various improvements as they are completed.

Jordan Malone was very interested in trying one out so we told him we would give him our Version 4.0 prototype once it is complete. He had some great ideas for improvements too.

Improvement #1, Middle Bar

2007-03-01T14:24:00.000-05:00

The first improvement following Nationals was a change to the middle bar. We changed it to a Hex design instead of a Round with a Flat. This idea was contributed by Rob Ahlke. The other change we made to the middle bar was to add notches to give exact repeatability when reassembling. The idea of notches and markers on the middle bar was contributed by Kevin Graf.

StayBent goes to Nationals

2007-02-18T12:15:00.000-05:00

We had a vendor table at the 2007 US Speedskating Nationals. Almost every speedskater there entered the raffle for the StayBent we were giving away. It was won by Claude Gilbert!

At Nationals we got lots of great feedback for improvements (I knew the design was not finalized). We had feedback from vendors, coaches, and skaters. Thanks to all for your ideas! Version 3.1 will be ready soon and will incorporate many of these great ideas.

Version 3.0 of the StayBent Sharpening Frame

2007-02-02T14:10:00.000-05:00

Here is a photo of the new design. We call it Version 3.
Improvements:
- Taller
- Wider
- Bottom Locates (for raising/lowering blade)
- Anodized and Nickel Plated (surface protection)

The Name StayBent Frame Is Born!

2007-01-30T11:50:00.000-05:00

We have a name! "The StayBent Sharpening Frame"

We will build 3 with the new design and bring them to US Speedskating Nationals in February to show the speedskating community.

Left Turn Dynamics Inc. is Created

2007-01-04T21:30:00.000-05:00

Everyone who has seen the jig in the past month has had the same reaction... "Why didn't someone think of this before?"

Because of our love for the sport of Speedskating we decided to take the steps necessary to bring the jig to the speedskating community.

1) Incorporate - we formed Left Turn Dynamics Incorporated

2) Intellectual Property Protection - we filed for a US Provisional Patent

3) Designs and Prototypes - we finalized the design (or thought we finalized it anyways)

Jerry Makes the First Sharpening Frame with NON-FLAT-CLAMPS

2006-12-19T19:36:00.000-05:00

Jerry came to practice with the first sharpening jig EVER with NON-FLAT-CLAMPS in the history of all speedskating! We were in awe. It was just awesome!

As I promised, I purchased the sharpening jig (not yet known as the StayBent Sharpening Frame) from Jerry and it was worth every penny.

This is a picture of the first StayBent Sharpening Frame ever.

Jerry Makes his Own Jig

2006-11-16T20:37:00.000-05:00

One month after deciding to make his own jig, Jerry walked into practice with the most precise, well built, and good looking sharpening frame ever... BUT it still had flat clamps!

We all looked at the jig and told him how great it was, but I added that it still has the same major flaw that all other jigs have.. flat clamps!

I then went on to say if he could make me one like that but with some kind of clamping mechanism that would fit with the bend of the blade that I would give him $300 for it. I believe $300 would be the most money ever paid for a sharpening jig.

Jerry Whitmer Needs a Jig

2006-10-12T22:37:00.000-04:00

At practice today Jerry was complaining about having to ask others to sharpen his skates. So I asked him "Why don't you just get your own jig? They are only like $100 or so."

Jerry replied, "I'm a machinist. Have you actually seen those pieces of @#$%? They are all extruded, flimsy, and not precise at all. I'm going to make my own!"

Here is a photo of one of the piece of @#$% jigs Jerry was refering to.