And so it starts- the last pre-season aluminum batch

 Here's the first frame in the batch of 8-10 frames for June/July. It is a Gravel/CX for 700x47 tires.

My hope is to have all these frames done by mid July-after that I'll have some catching up to do on the steel list. If you have an aluminum frame on order , definitely get in touch with your build and fit info so that you'll have a bike for the fall CX season. Once this batch is done there will be no aluminum frames built in 2025, or at least until December. 

7005 road frame going to CT.

 Last frame on today's data dump is this 7005 road frame. This one is just a bit over 3 lbs. and should be nice for the group rides where speed and efficiency are a must. It is set up for an integrated headset and Shimano Di II. It also has a satin clear coat-that is getting very popular as of late.

Steel 'All-Road' frame

 This customer got a rim brake road frame from me years ago and now wants what most people are asking for these days- more tire volume and disc brakes. This one will be set up with an Enve G-series fork and a SRAM wireless 2X group. The frame will comfortably take 700x40 tires and should open up some new riding routes for the owner.

Steel track frame for a complete build

It's not often that I bust out a frame for stock but this is that rare case. I have a full set of track bits that have been on my shelves for too long so I built this frame last Friday to mount all the parts on. It will be a mass-start style of track bike in my size ( 55 cm ) and it will be for sale as a complete bike- more on that later. It has True Temper S-3 top and down tubes scored from a couple NOS sources so this frame is made out of rare metal and weighs a mere 3 lb. 9 oz.  Look for it on my blog as a built bike in about a month.
 

SSCX in steel with new style dropouts

Never used these before- seems like the idea is good as the flat mount caliper lines up with the chain stay better than the other Paragon adjustable dropouts. I do think that the aluminum hardware might be a bit delicate but time will tell . This rider intends to really make a go of it at the nationals so I can't think of a better testing ground than that. 
 

Low standover steel 27.5 MTB frame

This owner says that she has the legs of a coffee table. Now I would not go that far, but indeed she does have a low standover and the reverse-curve top tube is the way I deal with it. The plan is to have the bike have a more modern wheel spec than here '80's 26" MTB without sacrificing standover. I hope that she likes what I built. I will do a full XTR build on this one and post photos  when it is rolling.
 

Steel 'lifestyling' frame.......

 Yes- that's what it has gotten to. Sure, I build lots of serious CX racing frames and gravel frames but hey- some times you just want a bike to go out and do just about anything on. Here's the one that got picked up today. It has dropper routing, rack mounts and three places for bottle cages. It will take 700x45 tires and maybe a bit more. It has a Jen Green white bronze headbadge and oddly enough, its not all that heavy. Forget the $ 200+ entry fees or driving all day to get to the spot where all the other sprinter vans are parked with the outdoor showers, little solar panels to run the computer to stream the shows that one doesn't want to miss simply because of a camping gravel race weekend. Just open the garage , jump on your bike and see where it takes you instead of you taking it for an all-day car ride ......that's what this bike is about . But- you can still do a gravel race on it and I wouldn't think less of you...

Huge steel gravel/cx frame going to northern Europe

 This rider has to be about 6'7" tall. While this isn't the largest frame of the year , it is very close. The owner is currently riding a 62 CM Kona which isn't quite large enough. With a 240 MM head tube, this one should be fine. I did not need to rough-cut any of the tubes on this frame- they were all full length with just a miter at the ends- that is really unusual. That said, I didn't have to use any special tubes to build it, just the regular gravel set with a bit more metal where needed. 

Not the usual post

Well, this isn't a frame that I built but it came to me as a result of the Masi replica I built back in December. The person who provided me with a Masi frame that I could use as the template for building my fake wound up giving me this 1974 California built Gran Criterium. I told him that I really didn't need it but he insisted. He has quite a fleet of old bikes and he's also one of the more generous people I have run into in my decades of building frames. He told me to build it up and ride it so that's what I did. The frame had much of the components on it. I get the feeling that this was a restoration project that he started but maybe lost steam on and was happy to pass it along to me. Now I can do and A/B comparison with this one and the one I built to see just how close I got with the geometry.

Here's a photo of the one I built so you can see how close I got , or didn't get depending on your view.
 

Steel gravel frame

This customer specified the big 44 mm ID head tube as he already had the headset he wanted to use in the build. I usually don't recommend building a custom frame around a single component but for this customer he was good with the look of the bigger tube and this is not his first custom bike- he knows what he wants and my job is to deliver just that.
 

I have not weighed the frame but it is pretty light as the rider is about 155 lbs. 

Steel gravel frame with UDH going to NY state

Sent this one out last week- it is probably at its destination by now. This one has minimalist decals, only the head tube logo and the signature. Hope that it is well liked by the owner.
 

Carter 650 Boost frame

Here's the first frame to feature the wishbone seat stays I am sourcing from Tange through the Merry Sales company. It is my first foray into designing my own tubes and these came out exactly as I wanted. The difference between these and ones I have used in the past is that they have a longer tapered section and are unmitered so that I can build everything from a 26" fatbike to  a 29er. No other wishbone seatstay hsa offered me the range of uses as this one and I am happy to say that there's a good supply of them available. 
 

Here's the best view of the wishbone tubes. They are single bend out of the box and I add the second bend at the thin end.

Nontraber # N-70 comes back to the shop

 A friend and former bike shop owner was driving down a street in town and saw two bikes with a free sign parked in front of a house. He knocked on the door of the house and talked to a woman that confirmed that indeed, these bikes were being given away-one was  GT and the other was this oddity.

The finder of the bikes was concerned that perhaps they had been stolen some years ago and called me up to schedule a visit so that I could look up in my records to see who the owner of this one was. I looked up in my old lists and found t6he owner- a name in a distant memory-an industry person. I only built these frames out of Bontrager surplus tubing for industry people , folks who might not have bought a handbuilt frame unless the price was really , really low. I sold these unpainted for $ 400 as I could throw one together in a few hours. I think that this particular one took longer than a few hours.

This design was meant to make a 26" wheel bike that had standover for a sub 5' rider.The main frame is much like a Cannondale and also like some suspension frames I built for Mike Ahrens (ADG) . The customer was one of Mikes friends as a matter of fact. If it is determined that this bike is not stolen, it will be for sale. Stay tuned. 

Steel track frame and fork for Japan

This one is going to the Blue Lug shop. I hope that they are happy with my work. The frame and fork have holes for caliper brakes as it is not legal to import a bicycle frame that cannot run brakes in Japan. 
 

Steel big tire road frame and fork

This one is made for long reach caliper brakes. It is going to a bike industry person , his second frame from me. I'm always honored to build for working stiffs in the trade as there are so many choices out there . This is a flat crown that has a tilt so it will be a proper straight blade road fork. I have not used this particular crown before but I'm happy to know that it exists and is another option.
 

Tall steel gravel frame for local bay area rider

 Glad that this customer finally has his frame. He had medical issues and had to put off getting it for about a year but he came by today and was delighted to finally have it in his hands at last. It has a Jen Green copper badge and Enve fork painted to match along with a Cane Creek gold headset.