Stinner Frameworks recently opened a Manufacturing division in its shop in Goleta, just northwest of Santa Barbara, California. John, having shot every workshop iteration along Aaron Stinner’s fourteen-year career path building frames, got to peer inside the team’s new operation last month. Read on for his words and photos on Aaron’s vision for the brand’s future and what that means for US bicycle production…
Aaron Stinner
Aaron Stinner grew up racing and riding road bikes in Santa Barbara. Eventually, this led to him managing a local shop, Bicycle Bob’s. When it came time to choose the path for his life, Aaron shifted from his medical school aspirations to building bicycle frames, one by one, in his small garage in Goleta. Aaron learned how to fillet braze bikes while attending United Bicycle Institute in Oregon in 2010. Like many new builders, he made bike frames for friends before moving on to paying customers. At the time, he was building about 20 bikes a year.
I visited Stinner’s garage workshop during the Tour of California in 2014, just three years after he launched Stinner Frameworks in 2011. Shortly after my visit, he moved from his two-car garage into a sprawling (by comparison) 1,000 square foot facility he shared with wheel builder John Jones. He brought in a few teammates to keep the wheels greased, and production had grown in 2018 to around 200 bikes a year.
All the while, The Radavist was sharing the Stinner Frameworks’ journey through Beautiful Bicycle galleries. We have dozens of examples of this evolution in our Related Archives in the footer of this article. Each frame has stunning paint jobs by James of Good Color Studio. The tiger camo frame above is an all-time favorite of mine! It was documented during my Shop Visit to Stinner in 2016.
Flash forward to late 2024, ten years after Aaron moved his shop from his garage to a 1,000 square foot facility. Stinner was ready to unveil the latest evolution in the brand: Stinner Manufacturing.
From 20 to 3,000
Aaron and I had been planning a Shop Visit since the 2024 MADE Bike Show, but busy spring scheduling pushed my availability back a few months. It was a gloomy June morning when Cari and I arrived in Goleta, staying with friends who live two blocks from Aaron and his family’s home. Early that Sunday afternoon, I shot him a text, asking what time and where we should link up.
“It’s literally 1 mile from where you are staying. The crew starts at 6:30 am. I usually don’t get in until 8/8:30 ish? Does that work for you?” Aaron inquired. “I can be there at 9,” I replied. Cari asked me as she dropped me and my stout camera bag off at the shop, “How long do you think you’ll be? Three hours?” As I turned to kiss her, I said, “This will take all day…”
Catching up with friends like Aaron is part casual life status update, part “journalism”, and a lot of nostalgia. Stinner Frameworks, like many brands I’ve spent my adult life documenting, feels like it’s an intrinsic part of The Radavist. Our conversation ran the gamut from the high highs and the low lows of the past decade. We’re both small business owners, and perhaps being so close to our companies – they’re literally our personas – we forget the impact they’ve had on the greater cycling space. Mainly because we’re constantly working to keep the brands alive and thriving.
Now Aaron is looking to have an even bigger impact. He began working with a trade school in Ventura, drawing graduates from its welding program. These graduates are certified in aerospace welding for steel and titanium. The school is stoked because they can place the grads into a full-time job. The grads are stoked because they have a job that has a relatively low impact on their bodies. And Aaron is stoked because they’re all really talented.
“Sometimes, one of the guys will just be like ‘Hey, if we do it this way, the welds will be stronger and we’ll save some time on production.’ That sort of feedback is great to hear…”
I asked Aaron what’s next, after discussing the announcement made by Stinner earlier this year. Jumping from 20 frames in 2011, to 200 in 2018, and now 3,000 potential frames in 2025, with the capacity to do three times that, was quite the ambitious acceleration. But due to the trade tensions created by the reality TV circus of fools running our country into the ground, that big step forward was fraught with tariff-related uncertainty. That’s when Aaron dropped this line on me:
“We’re investigating the free-trade zones.”
Free-Trade Zones
Just south of Goleta and Santa Barbara is the city of Oxnard and the Port of Hueneme. Completed in July 1940, the Port of Hueneme is the only deep-water port between the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of San Francisco. This unique area, only 48 miles from Stinner’s facilty, could be an intrinsic link to the future of their business because it lies in a Free Trade Zone. Written into law in 1938 to assist with WWII production, these zones are tariff-free, with a few caveats.
A free trade zone (FTZ) is a uniquely designated area, often near a port or airport, where goods can be imported, stored, handled, manufactured, and re-exported without paying customs duties.
“The Free-Trade Zone law they wrote in 1938 is to do kind of what we’re doing now,” Aaron said. At the same time, acknowledging that the brand is working in a global supply chain, he added, “We’re not making drivetrain components. We will always be reliant on SRAM, but if we’re going to make complete bicycle frames, these zones will help keep the cost for consumers down, but that all depends on the definition of Substantial Transformation…”
As we discuss this, I can see Aaron’s dream unfolding. My jaw is starting to drop at this point, halfway through a delicious sandwich he picked up for our lunch. Being mindful of my full mouth, I covered it and exclaimed, “Oh yeah…”
Substantial Transformation
Substantial transformation refers to a significant change in a product’s appearance due to a manufacturing or processing operation; a transformation that only applies to the last country along the production chain. This trade principle is used to determine the country of origin of goods when they are not entirely from a single country, according to the International Trade Administration.
Essentially, if you bring in steel tubing from Italy or the UK, but assemble it into a bicycle frame, and then build it with parts from Taiwan, the bicycle itself has undergone a substantial transformation because the recognizable form of a bicycle is the frame, not the parts.
Aaron smiled and said, “It would be huge for us.”
Since a lot of the team comes in from Ventura, this potential move would be as huge for them. It also puts Stinner Manufacturing closer to Ventura College, where many of the welders graduated from, and the overhead is considerably cheaper.
“We were already looking for a bigger space. We’re outgrowing this building already. I looked at a spot in Goleta. They want $2.50 a square foot. We can’t compete with Google, which is opening a facility here. Ventura County is $1.25. The plan was to make a move down there. It just happened to align with the tariffs and hiring talent and the trade schools being there…”
There’s a lengthy process in applying to manufacture in a Free Trade Zone, but it’s something Stinner Manufacturing is considering. In the meantime, they have their hands full!
Rogue Fitness Milo Bikes
“The Rogue Bikes are 100% made in the USA. It’s all done with US-made steel. From the tubing to the laser-cut steel plates. It’s all US-made steel,” Aaron noted as he flung open the door to a series of shipping containers parked in the Stinner Manufacturing lot. As my recorder ran through my pant pocket, the best I could make out of my reaction was “fuckin’ hell!”
Looking at Aaron’s face, which reflected his stoke, he blurted, “We get all the tubing laser cut in Vegas,” as he pointed to the racks of tubing, precision mitered and ready to be prepped and welded. “There are the dropouts, yokes,” as I was absorbing all this, he’d moved onto the next container, “Here’s the aluminum tubing for the US-made Old Man Mountain racks… and boxes of complete bikes ready to be drop shipped.”
They were running out of space.
Aaron began working with Rogue Fitness right before the pandemic, helping them iron out their US manufacturing. Rogue makes all its equipment in the US, and Aaron assisted in scaling the CrossFit company’s operations. Eventually, the team at Rogue became interested in building a belt-drive single-speed commuter bike, the Milo, and contacted Stinner, stating they wanted to produce bikes in Ohio.
Knowing what an undertaking it’d be, Aaron helped the team figure out production. However, labor was hard to find in Ohio, and Rogue asked Aaron how much of the production weight he could bear. This was a crucial moment in Stinner Manufacturing, and it prompted Aaron to onboard the production of the bikes, as well as assembly and shipping.
This spurred Aaron to reconsider the direction of Stinner Frameworks. It was time to plan. They packed up shop and moved from their 2014 space, across the industrial park, to this current home. Aaron walked me through the facility, which is split down the middle with paint on one side, production on the other, and assembly with a few offices on a mezzanine level. The ground floor also has a small studio that Lonewolf Suspension rents.
“The mezzanine makes it kind of hard to bring bikes up and down the stairs,” Aaron said. Meanwhile, I’m still zooming through the visual hierarchy of the space and the sheer number of raw frames that are seemingly reproducing before my eyes like Gremlins on Christmas Eve. As the afternoon hours sped by, the production queue on the wall grew and expanded.
Stinner Manufacturing
Meanwhile, Alex checked frame after frame for quality control on an alignment table. “Careful shooting my photo, someone might recognize me,” he joked. Alex left the professional cycling mechanic world for surfboard shaping before coming back to bikes to work with Aaron. “He brings a great energy to the team,” Aaron remarked when I shared an early photo of Alex, exclaiming, “He’s very photogenic.”
We made our way through the space, and I stopped to ogle the rack of Rogue Milo frames hanging in the paint area.
“They’re super cool bikes. Really simple, belt drive, and right now they’re selling them for $500,” Aaron added. “Complete?” “Complete.”
Thinking back to the shipping container of laser-cut plates and tubing, I started to look at the production process. Aaron fired through the stages of frame manufacturing. “The yokes are made of two laser-cut plates that slide over each other to give the junction stiffness. The early prototypes were single-plate, and these big CrossFit guys were just flexing the rear ends out in the parking lot, so we had to stiffen them up.”
We walked out to the four welding stations, where Aaron noted a tub of frame parts on the ground and a rack of pre- and post-welded parts behind the second station. “Sub-assemblies are welded in batches, and then complete frames.” As of now, the team has completed around 1,000 Rogue Milo bikes. They will finish 3,000 by the end of the year.
Stinner Frameworks
When I was in the shop, people were laser-focused on Milo frame production, but a few workers were cranking on Carrizo Select ($1,695 frameset) all-road and Refugio Select ($1,695 frameset) gravel bikes. Both of these models are part of the Select series, or Stinner’s production steel frames. The production titanium bikes are dubbed Podium. You can still order a Stinner Custom, but the future of the company will rely heavily on affordable US-produced complete bikes.
After interior rust caused a bottle boss to crack, Stinner’s team was replacing this frame’s downtube. Sustainability and repairing its frames, no matter how old they are, is something that Stinner Frameworks prides itself on.
I documented Aaron’s personal bike, a Stinner Custom with an Enve IN-Route aero cockpit and chevron matte paint. In doing so, attempting to showcase Stinner Frameworks’ echelon abilities. I also documented the production Carrizo Select steel bike for those looking for a more affordable option.
The brand announced the Tunnel Select ($1,495 frame) model right before Sea Otter. They might even have a special surprise for the 2025 MADE Bike Show that’s sure to make a splash.
After I wrapped up at the impressive operation, I returned to our friend’s house and sat on the couch editing photos while their eleven-year-old played God of War on PlayStation. “John! What are you doing?” he shouted over the clanging of battle axes. “Work, buddy,” I replied as I finished the edit. That’s when I realized I was missing a crucial element to this story: Aaron’s smile.
I asked Aaron to meet me at the park in his neighborhood with a bike for a parting shot. We set up a time and he arrived with his three kids, two of whom were on Stinner Custom bikes of their own; a 20″ hardtail and a titanium balance bike. Aaron pointed to his road bike and said, “It’s just a boring road bike.” I laughed.
While Aaron and Stinner Frameworks have always been on the zippy, fast, speedy side of the coin, my personal riding has evolved to the slow, heavy, shreddy opposing side. Yet, I couldn’t help but feel like we’ve grown along a similar path with our two brands. We both know what we like and are unapologetically in love with our styles. We wear that love on our sleeves and use it as a motivation.
Wheeling this “boring road bike” over to a backlit section of the park, there I was, documenting yet another stage in the evolution of Stinner Frameworks. And you know what, I’m all on board for being along on this wild ride.
Who knows where Stinner Frameworks and Manufacturing will be in a year, much less a few months? With all the uncertainty with the economy and the looming threats of tariffs, the team is uniquely positioned for even more success.
Many thanks to the Stinner team for having me that day. And a special thank you to Aaron Stinner for being such a strong ally throughout the years. Love ya, dude.
Check out the brand’s full lineup at Stinner Frameworks. If you have a company and would like to source US-welded bikes or racks, holler at Stinner Manufacturing.