Saturday, August 16, 2008
Rapha descends on the shop
These guys aren't just wearing styling threads, they are
the company....well , on the road anyway. They are the folks from Rapha....if you like the jerseys ( and who wouldn't ?) look them up on the web. If you want to hear about thier travels, check out 'Rapha Continental' on the web. It's more than clothing and I wish I could tell you more. All I know is that these guys are putting in the miles and visiting shops like mine and telling the world about it on the web...the great rides and the crusty builders. They even brought their own photographer.-Like I said, it's more than the clothing , although the clothing could stand on its own, especially with 107 plus miles of sweat !


Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The rack is full again
Lightning does strike twice, at least in this case. Two years later I build another Alfie but not for anyone in particular. The proceeds of the sale of this frame will go to breast cancer awareness. Shimano has asked five framebuilders to produce five frames that Shimano will equip with thier 'Alfine" line of components. The bikes will be displayed at Interbike and then be raffled off with all the proceeds going to
Friday, August 8, 2008
More pictures form Ashland
Here is a view through the trees on a smoky afternoon. I was up at about 5,000 ft. on the Lithia Loop fire road, kind of lost looking for singletrack. I did find some but double-flatted on the long fire road decent and wound up riding a rear flat for about seven miles. Good elevation and frustration training for the upcoming single speed worlds.....
Most of the road rides were at twilight as the mid day was consumed with teaching the framebuilding class. Riding late had its advantages as the mid-day heat reached 95 degrees almost every day. Even at 6 pm I didn't see anyone breaking out a vest or even a long sleeve jersey.
The Horn Gap trail.......after about eight grunting miles of climbing. I didn't see anyone on this road and I turned around not long after this as they were reporting black bears and cougars in the woods here. I don't think it would be good for me to get eaten before completing my teaching duties at UBI.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Riding in and around Ashland
Thursday, July 31, 2008
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.
Friday, July 18, 2008
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.


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
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
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.
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