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  "description": "The celebrated supplier's legacy will carry on under a new owner, but the future of craft bicycle making is still wide open.",
  "path": "/what-happens-to-framebuilding-after-paragon-is-gone/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-21T13:01:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://escapecollective.com",
  "tags": [
    "44 Bikes",
    "Paragon Machine Works has closedThe storied shop that supported framebuilders for four decades has abruptly shut its doors for good.Escape CollectiveJoe Lindsey",
    "Rock Lobster",
    "Baum Cycles",
    "Nate Zukas",
    "How did the bike industry get into such deep trouble?A deep dive into what went wrong in the supply chain during the pandemicEscape CollectiveWade Wallace",
    "Subscribe now"
  ],
  "textContent": "Kris Henry/44 Bikes, Josh Weinberg, Firsthand Framebuilding, Thomson\n\nKris Henry was walking down to his workshop on a late March day to build a frame for a customer when an email came in that threatened to turn his entire livelihood upside down. It was from Calvin Norstad, CEO of machine shop Paragon Machine Works, where Henry bought parts for the custom steel and titanium frames he makes in his Lyndeboro, New Hampshire studio under the name 44 Bikes. The email was brief and to the point: Paragon was ceasing all major operations. Effective immediately.\n\n“This email pops up and instantly I was like, ‘Oh, I have to sit down,’” Henry recalled to _Escape Collective_. Like most custom framebuilders and some smaller production operations, Henry is a longtime customer of Paragon, which he relies on for dropouts, head tubes, cable guides and other essential frame parts. Without them, he can't build bikes for his customers. And he was not alone. It’s not hyperbole to say that Paragon’s shock closure was an unforeseen, unprecedented threat to the framebuilding community: a near-extinction level event that would force them to scramble to find replacements and – if they couldn't – put some builders out of business as soon as their supplies ran out.\n\nParagon Machine Works has closedThe storied shop that supported framebuilders for four decades has abruptly shut its doors for good.Escape CollectiveJoe Lindsey\n\nParagon's demise is also an issue for untold thousands of bike owners. “Nearly all of the aluminum frames I have built have Paragon derailleur hangers,” celebrated framebuilder Paul Sadoff of Rock Lobster told my _Escape_ colleague Iain Treloar in an email shortly after the closure announcement. “What are my customers going to do when those go away? A lack of one $29 part and the bike is unrideable?”\n\nThose were the scenarios going through Henry's head. And through the heads of dozens, maybe hundreds of framebuilders all staring at the same email, which said that 43-year-old Paragon was no longer a viable business due to forces beyond the company’s control. The immediate subtext was also clear. “I’m letting you know this before we make a public announcement … so that you can purchase what parts you need to finish the build,” Norstad wrote. “We can only guarantee fulfillment on purchases made through the webstore.” Paragon’s phones would be turned off; the only form of contact would be email.\n\nSpurred by the overall COVID-19 related supply chain issues, Henry had for several years already been ordering parts in larger batches. But as it happened, he was near the end of his supply on a few crucial Paragon items, like the titanium DS0001 sliding dropouts he favors for his singlespeed builds. So Henry did what pretty much every other builder reading the email did at that moment: he turned around, went back to his office and logged on to Paragon’s website to order what he could. “I was just triple-checking all my inventory and looking down the list of all my clients thinking, ‘What do I need to carry myself through the year?’” he said.\n\nPart of Kris Henry's final order from Paragon Machine Works. Photo © Kris Henry/44 Bikes\n\nIt was nerve-wracking. With substantially every framebuilder in North America clicking ‘buy’ like it was a Ticketmaster presale on a Taylor Swift concert, the Paragon site was loading slowly or timing out altogether. Eventually, Henry got everything ordered, except that dropout, but after speaking with Donna Norstad, wife of Paragon founder Mark Norstad (Calvin’s dad), she assured him that they would do runs of certain components for clients like him.\n\nRelieved, Henry turned next to his fellow community of builders. The conversations started with the shock they all felt, but quickly thoughts turned to something else: Even if they had enough parts for the immediate future and shared them with those who didn’t, this was not a short-term problem. What would happen once Paragon finally closed its doors for good?\n\n* * *\n\n**It’s hard to overstate** Paragon’s reach in the custom and small-production framebuilding world. It’s as close to a public utility for that side of the industry as Shimano is for mainstream bike brands. Norstad doesn't have exact numbers, but an overwhelming majority of small builders in North America buy at least something from Paragon and the company has customers as far away as Australia. “Paragon has been a supplier to me for as long as I can recall … I used to have to fax drawings to them,” said Baum Cycles' founder Darren Baum, the company’s largest client in the country. Baum said having custom frame parts made for his shop by Paragon “was a real badge of honor.”\n\nParagon founder Mark Norstad was also a huge proponent of the framebuilding community, said framebuilder Nate Zukas. “When I was practicing welding titanium, Mark went out of his way to, out of the blue, just send me a bunch of scrap” to practice on, he recalled. “Mark was extremely passionate about the framebuilding scene. I almost got the impression that even if there was a slight loss to the business in the end, he wanted to keep it going.”\n\nMastering the craft of framebuilding takes time, practice and materials, and Paragon Machine Works was a reliable partner for builders at all stages of growth. Photos © Kris Henry/44 Bikes\n\nBut ultimately that wasn’t enough. “This has been building for a while, ever since COVID,” Calvin Norstad told _Escape_ in a conversation several weeks after his announcement, speaking of the business’ mounting troubles. Mark had steered the business through the most extreme ups and downs of COVID’s supply chain havoc, as he had through four decades, but turned it over to Calvin in 2024, roughly the time the depth of the industry’s predicament was becoming most acutely felt.\n\nHow did the bike industry get into such deep trouble?A deep dive into what went wrong in the supply chain during the pandemicEscape CollectiveWade Wallace\n\n### This post is for subscribers only\n\nBecome a member to get access to all content\n\nSubscribe now",
  "title": "What happens to framebuilding after Paragon is gone?",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-21T13:01:05.356Z"
}