Steel track frame and fork going to Japan

Yes- this one is going to the other side of the world. The shop that ordered this oe had a cad drawing and very specific instructions. Apparently  imported frames must have the ability to mount brakes so that's why you see a hole in the fork and a brake bridge on a frame that otherwise would not have one.

 

The fork is a straight blade with NOS Shimano dropouts. The frame has NOS Sub-11 dropouts -my very last set. I have other track dropouts but these are the best to work with for a welded frame. They are also pretty much indestructible. Frame weight is 4 lb. 2 oz.

Vacation coming

 Yes- that rarest of things-time off will be starting on March 11th. I will be out of the country until March 21st. Shop will be closed and there won't be any shipping or the like while I am gone. I will have email access while I am on my trip and will be checking it most days. 

Cheers, Paul.

WCCX frame going to new team member in Sacramento, Calif.

 This rider has been battling in the single speed class and has joined the team as of last fall. Now he will have a team bike to thrash at the CX races up in his area that are much more numerous than in the Santa Cruz county area. This frame is paired to an Enve fork that the rider supplied. he had it painted to match by our local paint shop- Joe's bicycle painting in Watsonville, Calif.

WCCX frame going to Napa, Calif.

This one is going to a shop in Napa- the Hub cyclery. An employee will be flying the seafoam colors at the next CX races this fall. Don't be surprised if you see some gold skinsuits out there ........
 

Steel 'Adventure' frame with Enve adventure fork for portland

 This customer really captured the spirit of the late '80's in the paint request. I can remember when I was just starting my business that fades were what just about everyone wanted - and here, nearly 40 years later the style is coming back. 

The frame is heading to Portland where it does rain quite a bit. There are fender mounts on the frame and fork for full fenders. The Enve adventure fork also has triple cage mounts on it so there won't be a problem carrying water- as a matter of fact there's a total of five bottle mounts on this frame and fork.

All Road frame and fork in steel

This one is made for 700x40 slicks but it can take larger tires. It will be set up with Sram wireless and is meant to really be a road bike for the messed up roads here in Santa Cruz county.

 

Steel road frame for bay area local

Yes- this is a road frame but it also has under top-tube fittings for a frame bag, just like the one pictured in the photo below. The frame is mostly constructed from Columbus 'Life" tubing and weighs in at only 3 lb. 14 oz- a good weight for the 120 lb. rider. The bike will be fitted with Sram wireless drivetrain and has a trimmed-down version of Paragon UDH dropouts. 

There is a front der. braze on , kind of a nod to traditional road bike design but also a good thing to have as most front der's are not made to fit on small diameter steel tubes any more without some sort of clamp adaptor. On this bike, that will not be needed and the clean look will be preserved.

 

Steel gravel frame for a local

Back on steel for the next 6-8 weeks. Good to be welding with DC again. This one is mostly Columus Zona and it will take 700x42 tires. It will be fitted to an Enve G-series fork.
 

If you tell enough people that you are going to build a fake Masi, you pretty much have to do it.

Yes- the bike I could never afford....or at least I did not ever own one. I was friends with Bruce Gordon back when he was still in this life and we always were coming up with stuff to rattle the cages of bicycle collector zealots, even though we were maybe guilty of some of the same sins. I told Bruce that I intended to build a fake Masi frame. It took me a number of years to finally get it done-too late for Bruce and a few others who would have gotten the punchline of this joke but I really had to get it done, even if the people who had egged me on were no longer alive to see the final product. 

The thing that came to my mind that would be the ultimate ironic twist would be if the fully built bike got stolen and the thieves tried to pass off the bike as a real Masi. If I were born 15 years earlier, there's a possibility that I would have been one of the small army of US frame builders working at the Masi Carlsbad shop. Back in the late '70's , there were builders looking for paying work and Masi was one of the few places hiring. A number of notable and obscure US builders did time building Grand Criterium frames that looked very much like this one.

I left a few clues for the most avid collectors to be able to identify this frame as gloriously un-authentic. For one, it has English threads, not Italian like every other Masi from the Carlsbad era. There are other little clues but I'll let you figure out those ones for yourself. There are parts of the frame that are nearly identical to the real deal- being able to capture the look made me really happy. Now I have to see how it rides........honestly , I was not a big fan of the Masi ride. If I don't like this one, I'll know that I really hit the mark. 

 

Blogger won't let me upload photos

 Yes, that is correct. I don't know what is going on but for some reason my photos will not upload to this blog any more.  hope to get this fixed.....until then you can just check out Instagram for the current frame photos. There won't be any of the usual copy along with the photos- that usually only happened on this blog. I hope to get it sorted out soon- until then, my apologies. 

All steel, all the time.

Yes, this CX frame and fork are steel , but there are current specs on this one- flat mount brakes, thru-axles front and rear and a Syntace dropout set. The color is unique-a very dark gray, an unusual request that really looks nice i person. 
 

Big tire gravel frame in 7005

This one is built to take 700x50 tires so I call bikes like this "Drop bar MTB's". It's just my view on it. Once you get to a 2" tire I have a hard time calling this a CX or gravel bike, although just about everyone else is fine calling it a gravel bike. Whatever you might call it, it should be a bike that can be ridden nearly everywhere. 

 

WCCX frame

This one is for a repeat customer who got a steel S&S travel frame from me over a decade ago. Seems that he has gotten the bug to race some CX so this one should scratch that itch. Hopefully he will carve the turns and bomb the muddy courses on this with a smile on his face. 
 

7005 road frame

Pretty happy how this one came out. It will have a mechanical shift Campagnolo group with disc brakes. I have not had one of these groups in the shop and since this customer will be assembling the bike I guess I will not see the parts- maybe some day. I'm curious as to how well the Campagnolo shifting and braking is in the more recent editions.
 

Drop bar MTB frame for Eugene , Or.

 Most of you would call this a gravel bike frame but when the tires get close to 2" wide I call it a drop bar MTB. Back in 1986 there were lots of people running drop bars on their mountain bikes- it was a fad that maybe lasted a year. Now the trend is back but it is not going away any time soon. With much better wheels , brakes and tires a bike like this can really move along compared with something from almost 4o years ago. 

This one also has the UDH , which is gaining in popularity as people adopt the new rear der. standard. I'm still getting used to the difference in fixturing and learning a bit more every time I mess with one of these Paragon setups. There's more than one version but this is the one I choose for now. It is the lightest of the few out there and it welds up in a similar style to what I already use. Oh yeah- this one will take 700x47 tires but I'll bet you will be able to run 50's. The fork will be an Enve adventure version which has lots of tire room.

WCCXSS - # 6 in the batch

 I am in the midst of the first aluminum batch of 2025. I hope to be done with this run of 10-11 frames in 2 weeks. This one is the sixth, a single speed. If one wanted, it could be run with a wireless 1X shifting system as the dropout can take a hanger for a rear der.

For those of you wondering if the UDH is available in aluminum.....it is not and I have no idea if it ever will be. For me to personally bankroll the development of an aluminum 7005 dropout would be unlikely as the cost would be significant and I am already leveraged with a big inventory of aluminum dropouts of the more traditional kind. The other factor in my reluctance to fund an aluminum UDH is the likelyhood that the industry would come up with something different that would replace the UDH and I would be stuck with obsolete inventory- enough money spent on stuff that becomes unusable and boom-you are broke. That would not make anyone happy......I have seen it happen to many talented builders- they get leveraged by buying big on stuff that winds up not being useable and they have not enough money to buy what they really need- like paying rent and buying brazing and/or welding supplies.

So for now and maybe for a long time to come, this is how my aluminum frames will look- no UDH but still the kind of frame that you can depend on to ride at any level of the sport.

Very small 7005 CX frame

This has to be one of the smallest 700c wheel CX frames I have ever built. Seat tube is 36 c/t/c, top tube is 49. The rider is 4'10" with short legs. This will hopefully be a bike that works for her. The frame is 2 lb. 15 oz. for a 110 lb. rider.