two for the road

Winter time for some could be a fixed-gear season-such is the case for this person and her fixed-road trainer built from NOS Tange Prestige.

No rear brake or any possibilty of adding one in the future..........at least you know where you stand-legs are the rear brake.

Felicia's bike. The stays were all manipulated ( read: bent) in the shop. When the frame is this small the pre-bent offerings from the tubing manufacturers won't fit the bill. It's difficult to have symmetry when hand-bending steel and some times a tube or two will go into the scrap bucket but it's worth it to get something that makes the person riding the bike smile.


The panels and striping were done by Allan Neymark, an under-the-radar bike painting veteran of 30 plus years here in Santa Cruz. This is one of his best.

29er single speed in Easton 7005 with all the fixin's

This frame will eventually be in Colorado and get the beating that a lot of bikes of more basic construction couldn't endure. With all the yokes and stout Easton Elite tubing this frame should be the right tool for the job.....racing over the rocks with a very tall person on board. The ADG sliders really solve the problem of disc brake placement in realtion to the axle and also will enable the use of a Q.R. instead of a bolt-on axle.

First batch of '09 in 7005 aluminum

Back to the bright arc of aluminum welding. There are 'cross bikes, road bikes and even a 29er single speed in this batch. I'll have these all ready to ship in about 3 weeks after the heat treament , powdercoat, clearcoat and prepping are done. When the frame is all welded up you are really only about halfway there !

Number nine comes home

This bike is the ninth Rock Lobster, probably built in 1986. It's fillet brazed out of a mixture of columbus, reynold ans 4130 straight-guage aircraft tubing. The four-bolt stem was specifically built to fit 7/8" Salsa handlebars of the day. This bike predates biopace, Rockshox, clipless pedals and index shifting. I'll be putting up more detailed photos later.....it actually predated the decals which were applied soon after the bike was completed. The three-color paint scheme was the only one offered at the time.

Dr. Swigg's guid to wine

Yeah, I know.......it's been probably two years since I have made a recommendation and it speaks not only to my laziness but also to the scarcity of good bottles in the lower price brackets.....at least ones good enough and plentiful enough to merit a notice by Dr. Swigg. Plungerhead zin can come in a few different forms....Lodi, Sonoma, etc. This one is the 2005 Dry Creek old vine version. I really liked the Lodi edition but this Dry Creek number eclipses it in terms of taste,complexity and it also has the distinction of coming from a boutique appelation for this particular varietal. Dry Creek wine for $ 13.99 ? And good ? Oy, soch a deal. I vant a case......Plungerhead is from the Sebastiani empire, a family winery that has just sold off a portion of its catalogue so Plungerhead might be going through some changes in the coming vintages....better get this one before its history. Cheers, Dr. Swigg.

Steel fixie trainer

Here is a steel frame I built in between the last '08 batch and the first '09 batch of aluminum frames. This one wasn't due for a few weeks but I know this racer is wanting to get those winter fixed gear torture miles in and far be it for me to stand in the way. After this it's back to aluminum for the rest of the month.

last alunimum batch for 2008

The last batch of 2008 has leaked into 2009.....what can I say ? I'm a framebuilder-at least I show you pictures of the frames and don't make up some excuse that they are tied up at the painter......that's for later in the month. Hey, I'm going on vacation and I wanted these frames to be on the way out the door before me. This first one will eventually be in Vermont.......hope he has snow tires. It's a 26" wheel single speed mtn. frame with most of the ADG goodies, the upper yoke and the slider dropouts in 7005 aluminum.

Here it appears that the frame is looking longingly at the outdoors, wanting to get the heck out of my shop. Be patient, little frame-it will happen soon. This frame is for none other than our valiant team mechainc, Ryan. He has been wrenching for us for three seasons and is chomping at the bit to race cyclocross like the rest of the team. Cyclocross....it sells itself, I don't know......

I made Ryan's seatstays a little more curvy than stock so he could spot his very own bike at a glance...it gets confusing when there are upwards of 20 seafoam green team bikes in the tent and you are in a hurry to line up for your race : " Heck, which one of these green $%^*'s is mine ? Iv'e got 30 seconds to get to the start ! Welcome to the club , Ryan !