framebuilders dinner

I know this is off-topic but really, food is never off topic, unless of course you are a breath-arian or dead. What we have here is paparadelle with asparagus , prociutto and shallots. The tin is full of reggiano and the wine is from Howell Mountain, a zin. It all was great, especially after a 5 1/2 hour ride with a zillion feet of climbing. The bottle with the cork in it was Rolf Binder shiraz-grenach, left over from the night before.....ahh, Barossa ! Maybe eating in the livingroom in front of the t.v. is tacky for you , but not for us when its "The Wire".

the rack is full again

Samples of the spring harvest. Right now it's work your fingers to the bone time in the shop with the first batch of team bikes nearing the halfway point. This is one of two batches , both to hopefully be completed before the end of July. These two frame below are for the newest addition to the mens elite team, Chris McGovern. Back a few years ago he was terrorizing the course and giving our team a serious fight. Nice to have him on our side this time. These frames are made for the rigors of 'cross and all that comes with it.

I did a slight s-bend to the seat stays....heck, everyone is doing it. It looks nice and it dosen't take much time to do. These Scandium tubes are in really short supply -only 12 sets total and most are already spoken for. I do hope to get more next year.

Framebuilders garage

In case some of you are wondering what a framebuilders garage looks like, here is my garage. You can see that there is an overabundance of bicycles , most of which are my wife's -you see, it's the most affordable gift I can give her that doubles as advertisement every time she rides one of them. But wait....what is that wooden box in the back ? Hmm, maybe some special bike closet ? Noooo, is it a secret room for ageing tubular tires ? Noooo, is it a big box filled with race trophies ? Not a chance....I'm way too slow for that. Hah ! It's wine, wine and more wine. I do some trading on a rare occasion and it provides me with a good way to pickle my liver and go Napa Style......eating well and walking poorly.

Big Basin road bike ride

This ain't boys in the hood, it's boys in the woods. Folks, don't do this at home, you'll just get a lot of flat tires . Yes, that's us riding our road bikes in Big Basin park, a great place for mountian bikes. Of course, this group started riding in the dirt long before mountain bikes so this was a chance to re-live past stupidities. Fortunately, nobody crashed and we were treated to riding down 25 miles of hwy. 1 with about 2,200 Aids Lifecycle riders. That's a lof of traffic on a narrow road. Don't try that at home, either.

Tig Team Euro 'cross fameset in the raw

Here's a 'cross frame that will be good for the woods. The fork looks like a normal cyclocross fork but the blades are a tiny bit bigger profile and the wall thickness of the steel is about 20 % thicker than a stock blade. Nothing like having the steel where you need it the most , especially if you are riding in the back country on some rough trails. Here it is, 14 years later and I'm still doing the wavy gussetts.......kind of a nautical theme....lobsters ? Ocean ? Waves? -Makes sense to me. An engineer would tell you that the wavy line actually helps distribute the stresses over a longer distance. An engineer might tell you that I'm full of it....he would most likely be correct on both accounts. All I know is that these bikes never come back bent , not without a really good reason like hitting a tree at 25 m.p.h. ! I finally sprung for some 1/2" cro-mo tubing for making curved bridges again...I gpt really tired of looking through my scrap tubing box for the right stuff.

Team ride # 3 and a stepthrough town frame&fork

Wow, it's the old west.....actually, it's just a bunch of tourists at Wilder Ranch state part on a wagon ride at twilight. We passed them on our way out of the park after a crash cut the ride short. One of the guys next to my truck overcooked a turn and did some backsurfing on the trail.....not a smooth ride. No broken bones, though and we managed to ride out without needing any assistance.

It seems like this is the spring of the low-standover frames. I have built two this month and I'm sure there will be more. It's a cool design that allows for the standover while retaining structural robustness........is that a word ? -I didn't think so. Hey, this is the internet so we have poetinc license....mine might be expired, though. This customer requested a flat-top fork crown. Lucky for me, there's a nice one that fits the 1 1/8" steerer and is great to work with. Monday I'll finish the alignment and do some fifnish work on the crown and dropouts. No color choice as yet.....wonder what it will be.

Tig team s.l. 'cross

The big tire 'cross bike has been making a comeback in the last year. This edition is made for 700x38 tires with room for fenders , a feat only acheived with a 405 mm length fork and some MTB chainstays. All of the tubes in the rear triangle have been tweaked a little for the tire room and to give a more interesting lines to the normally bland single-bend tubes. This frame is for a mechanic at the local shop just up the road from me. It will be primarily a commuting machine .