PORTLAND, Ore. (BRAIN) – Firsthand Framebuilding, a Portland framebuilding supply and education company, has purchased the assets of Paragon Machine Works, the California framebuilding supply company that announced in March that it was closing after 43 years in business.
Firsthand is buying the Paragon brand name, trademarks, designs, tooling, and remaining inventory, Firsthand founder Chris Blandford told BRAIN this week. Paragon has long supplied framebuilders with a wide variety of parts, from cable guides to dropouts, brake bridges and more.
Firsthand will begin selling Paragon-brand parts alongside other framebuilding materials, including Reynolds tubing, through its website as soon as next week. Firsthand has been a PMW distributor for some time.
Blandford said later this year Firsthand will begin manufacturing some of PMW’s proprietary parts in Portland. Some machinery will be moved from PMW’s facility in Richmond, California, to Portland, but Firsthand also will acquires new CNC machines for some production.
Blandford said Firsthand will “significantly” reduce the number of SKUs offered by Paragon, eliminating a lot of rarely sold products from the product line. In another change, Firsthand will not continue to do custom work for framebuilders as PMW has done.
PMW production will eventually be based in the space that Firsthand currently occupies, which is leased from Chris King Precision Components. In August the rest of Firsthand’s business will move to a new, 8,000-square-foot building the company bought last year and has been renovating for framebuilding classes, offices and warehousing.
The Norstad family has run Paragon for decades and has become a major part of the culture of American framebuilding. Mark Norstad was even inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 2017.
“We're proud of the legacy we've created at Paragon Machine Works,” the family said in a statement. “Transitions are never easy, but working with Firsthand to secure Paragon's future has been a dream come true. To see the product line not only carried on, but by a company that is truly investing in the future of framebuilding is more than we could have hoped for. We’re thankful for our customers’ support during the last 43 years, and we're delighted that the Paragon product line will live on.”
Blandford said, “Like so many, I’ve long admired Paragon. The Norstads and their staff have supported the framebuilding community for decades. I am humbled that they have put their faith in me and Firsthand to uphold and carry forward their substantial legacy. In the coming weeks, we will be contacting Paragon’s customers regarding our plans, product ordering, and timelines.”
“First and foremost, we’ll be working with PMW over the coming weeks as they wind down to supply Firsthand with an initial stock of some critical frame components. Next, in the short term, we’ll be working with local partners to produce a portion of the Paragon catalog for us. Finally, in the long term, we were already planning on producing frame components in-house for use in our school; acquiring the Paragon catalog will allow us to–eventually–manufacture a selection of these parts in-house.”
Blandford told BRAIN that Firsthand is modernizing PMW by reducing SKUs and using newer machinery to produce parts. The changes, along with the synergies with the current Firsthand business will help it overcome some of the challenges the Norstads have faced in recent years.
“If the Norstads can’t make this business work as-is, then I definitely can’t,” he said in a statement. “What we’ve bought here isn’t an operating business we hope to fix or replicate; it's a legacy of framebuilding knowledge and design that needed the right steward. That said, I’m extremely optimistic that, with the right approach, manufacturing high-quality, affordable framebuilding bits domestically is still very doable – and important – in 2026. 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.”
More information: firsthand.bike/blogs/news/paragon-announcement.
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Firsthand will hold framebuilding classes at its new building starting in August.
