Friday, January 31, 2020

Time capsule MTB # 16

 Not sure if I have put photos of this one up lately but here it is in all its primitive glory- team issue fillet brazed MTB # 16 from 1986. It has had a repair and a repaint but that was many years ago. It is still owned by the second owner who has had it since he was a teenager.
 As you can see the bike is fitted with an early Bontrager fork and some Cooks bros. cranks. The Suntour XC shifters still work and the XT short cage rear der. is a rare item.
I built the stem as I was doing back then- it was common to get a frame , fork and matching stem. I think I sold frames like this in 1986 for around $ 495 unpainted. This one has the old vinyl decals that I had to cut out with scissors from a sheet. Things were a bit different then but there are some similarities- I still build the frames one at a time .

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Road frame in steel for Los Gatos

 This customer went all out and got the Cane Creek ti cranks. I have heard about these but have not had them in the shop until now.
 The frame has the sterling Jen Green headbadge and it set up for caliper brakes and cable shifting.
The Enve tapered road fork has been painted to match by Joe's bicycle painting in Watsonville. The headset is a King tapered external.

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Super tall Di II steel gravel frame

 I'm building three of these for some guys who have a small team out of a bike service shop on the Facebook campus. These guys will take time off of wrenching to do some of the bigger gravel events around the country. Word has it that this bike will be at the Dirty Kanza- I'm not sure if any of my bikes have ever been ridden there. If I were about 30 years younger I would try to qualify. Being 64 I think I'm a bit past it to try 200 miles of rolling dirt, mud and pain.
 This one is a mixture of Columbus Zona , Reynolds 725 and Velospec tubes- all of it fairly stout for all the torque that a really tall rider can dish out.

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

More pictures of the 650 MTB with specs

 Still available this 650 aluminum MTB I built a few years ago. It has a 410 seat tube c/t/c , 460 to the top. The top tube is 545 level, the head tube 130 mm. The standover at mid top tube is 820.
 The bike has the following : XTR brake set, crankset, rear hub. All the rest is XT. The bike is set up 1x11. The wheels have Stan's ZTR Crest rims fitted with 2.25 tires.
 The bar and post are Easton Carbon. The stem is an Easton Haven aluminum.

 There's plenty of room for the tire size and I think the bike would fit 2.35's as well. The headset is a King inset. There is really nothing cheesy on this bike- the fork is an F-32 120 mm set up pretty firm.
 The price is $ 1,600 and the bike is at the shop and can be test ridden. If you are 5'7" and want a fast cross-country MTB for a really low price with very clean parts, some of them new you should check this one out. It is set up with 160 mm rotors.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

First Alfie town bike of the year

 This is the latest edition of the style I started offering in 2007. I modeled the frame after a 1947 Schwinn to a certain degree. I didn't want to do a real copy of the Schwinn but I wanted the frame to have the same 'feel' to the look.
 Obviously, a bike from 1947 would not have a fork like this, disc brakes or a few of the other features but the curved top tube and straight middle tube are from that old post-war design.
 The rear disc mount is one I designed a couple of decades ago and seldom use these days-  it does work on this bike, though.
 A town bike is really not a town bike unless it has a kickstand and a kickstand is a real pain unless there's a solid plate to mount it to. I didn't forget to put one on this bike and the owner will maybe thank me.
Here's a detail of the disc mount showing the range of adjustment afforded to the caliper. This is needed as the dropouts have about an inch of range for the position of the axle. Yes, this bike will have Honjo fenders and a Brooks saddle along with a Nitto handlebar.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Steel MTB boost frame and fork for Alberta , Canada.

 Frames like this are always a bit more work but I like to build these-it makes me happy to know that not everyone wants a big-travel carbon bike from China, although I'll bet that they can be a lot of fun to ride.
 This frame will take racks front and rear and has a King thredset-30 BB for a White Industries crankset.

The headset is the classic King NTS in 1-1/8" , black.

All road frame for Sausalito, Calif.

 I used this color on the 4th frame I built back in 1978 and always liked it. I'm glad that someone requested it so that I could see it again.
 This frame is fitted with a painted to match Enve fork and a tapered King headset.
This should look really nice going down the road and the gold decals are nice and understated.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Disc Road frame for Monterey

 This one is going to a long-time customer- I think he ordered his first frame from me back in 1991 when I was still building in my one-car garage.
 The steel frame is mated to an Enve fork that has been painted to match. The frame also has a Jen Green headbadge in copper/sterling mix.
The brake mounts are flat-the current style. The frame is about 3 lb. 9 oz. Not bad for a disc brake steel frame.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Aluminum road frame for Bermuda

This one will get set up for Di II. The fork is a Columbus tapered carbon with a 45 mm rake that matches up perfectly with the front end geometry.
 I like that the steerer is 38 mm at the bottom- should be very good for bad road conditions.
The tubing on the frame is Dedacciai 'Fire' and is my go-to set for most of the CX and road frames I build. It has to be the best 7005 available right now.