Where have I been, you may ask.....

Howdy from Ashland, Oregon. I have been up here teaching at United Bicycle Institute for the last two weeks. I am a visiting instructor for the first time and I have the job of teaching a tig-welding framebuilding class to eight students, almost all of them with no welding exoerience at all. In two weeks they learn to weld and construct a complete bicycle frame...it's a tall order but the school can claim nearly 100% success in achieving this. United is perhaps the best place on earth to learn bicycle mechanics and/or framebuilding and I am privaleged to be allowed to be an instructor here. I'll put up photos of the experience soon. Looks like I'll be back next year if all goes well.....it will delay some of your frames a couple of weeks but it is something that will help the new builders coming up and help me to be better at what I do in my own shop. I have probably learned more in the last two weeks than in the last year about streamlining my building procedure so this has been time well spent and all future Rock Lobster customers will benefit from what I have learned here at UBI.

the fleet is done

Kansas city, here they come, to be ridden fixed in the dirt. These three frames have no brake mounts of any kind as it will be all in the legs for the riders of these steel chariots of pain.
I had to do a lot of 'manipulation' to the stays....i.e. bending and crimping to get the desired crankset and tire room. This project truly shows what a custom bike is-something that you can't find from the big companies. Bikes like this are very minimalist in appearence but there are a lot of little details that might go un noticed by anyone except the owners.

slidin' in steel.

Here's a single/geared disc only mtn. bike frame in progress. It's old style in some aspects , mainly the tubing and the fact it will have a rigid fork. The sliders are definitely new style and the disc only aspect is not something one would see back in the fully rigid mtb days. This is one of four mtb frames iIwill be building before I leave to teach at UBI later this month.

somewhere, under the rainbow

Where is this? This is where I live-it's where I ride when I can make the time. I'm sure that most people who will look at these pictures and read about this place will never visit it in person but at least this way I can show it to you a bit at a time. These photos were shot on a ride that took about an hour and twenty minutes, including the time to stop and take a few photos along the way.

This is the bluff just above route one north of town about two miles. The buildings on the left near the ocean are Long's marine labs. The fields near the ocean grow brussel sprouts.

I didn't even stop rolling taking these photos of the fire roads behind the U.C. Santa Cruz campus. Riding after work makes this framebuilder happy indeed. What makes me unhappy are the bozos that start all the fires with cigarettes and general carelessness.These signs are truthful as this forest could go up at any time if someone just flicked a butt out the car window. The air has been smoky enough for the health department to recommend not exercising outdoors.....I didn't pay attention to the warnings-hopefully my lungs aren't black. Fortunately, today was clearer and the fires are getting smaller .

and ya don't stop.....

Can you feel it? "cross eason is almost here. It might as well be here now as I have been building the run of team frames before I head off for UBI and the tig steel framebuilding class I am to teach. Am I scared? Definitely. Do I know how to weld ? Yes, that is pretty much certain. What about the folks depending on me for proper instruction....we shall see
Here's a frame bound for Oregon, replete with noce panels, swoopy stays and the capacity for serious third world roads.
Another touring/cross frame bound for Washington state with S&S couplers.

You missed it.......

Unless you were here. The team by and large came together for a ride and feast that coincided with a visit from Simon . Since leaving Santa Cruz almost a year ago Simon has found a new life in Bishop that is far removed from the cycling scene - nevertheless ,the withering pace of the ride wasn't too much him even over-geared on his single speed cross bike. Simon's friend Hallie didn't participate in the ride but did get to meet everybody at the feast.
Back to the ride......the long line of HRS jerseys going along the bluffs and up into the hills was something to see. Unfortunately I was not able to capture this as I was fully comitted to grunting up the hill and not getting left too far behind. I was only able to take photos when the group was at a stop. With almost 20 riders we entered Wilder Ranch almost like an invasion. When we were up at the UCSC campus we got some odd looks and questions from students: " Are you on a marathon ?"
Other than some really gross food stories and a couple of flat tires the great weather and newly groomed trails made for a super pre-season ride with more than half the participants on 'cross bikes. After the ride we were treated to a metric ton of finger food and one of Stella Carey's masterpice cakes, this one being a banana split cake.......good source of potassium after the ride and delicious as well.
Today Simon and Hallie are off to Sonoma so it will be awhile before we see Simon again but this was a great event and a good time for the many who made it.

Sorry but I had to do it.....

Yes, it's 9 years old and everybody has seen it too many times but today I really enjoyed the old single speed just like it was a new bike, only more because I didn't have to worry about scratching it or having to make any new-bike adjustments. All I did was lube the chain, fill the bottle and ride. Yes, that is dust on the bike....I really don't ride it enough-some times it's on a hook for a year or more but this year I am going to return to the fundamentals and spend the summer re-discovering what one gear can give in terms of enjoyment,challenge and simplicity. Now that it has been 21 years since I build my first single speed I figure that the bike is viable, even if it hibernates a lot. I have thoughts occasionally about building a new super modern S/S with disc brakes, Scandium tubing and all sorts of fancy bits but every time I ride this old bike I forget about the whole notion.....if it ain't broken.....