Forks, forks , forks.

Getting caught up on my work these days involves building all the forks and stems that have been on order , some since June ! I'm probably known as a guy who delivers custom frames pretty much on schedule and is horribly slow on building forks-even more so on stems. It just so happens that my shop is efficiently laid out for building frames but not so for smaller stuff. All this said, I rarely refuse an order for a fork-I just have a caveat : You can't be in a hurry if you want me to build you a stem or a fork.
The black fork above has one of the remaining few Ritchey/Bridgestone crowns out of my collection. I think I have four more out of the original 18 or so that I bought back in about 1995.
This unicrown fork will be used with a 29" wheel but on a 26" wheel single speed. The fork with the wheel will add up to about the same height as a 26" wheel in a 100 MM shock fork. I have been thinking about doing this conversion with my single speed.......might be fun to have that big wheel and no boing.
Here's a detail of the disc mount and the little cable guide on the back of the blade. I used some larger diameter rod for the 1/4" thick plate on the mount. I think it's easier to weld with and there won't be a problem with anything not staying together under hard braking.
Here's another crown with a finite supply. Kirk Pacenti is selling his bikelugs.com business so all these nice bits he has been selling might possibly be a thing of the past. This is a great resource that framebuilders are losing.....maybe we just didn't support him enough with our dollars. It's tough for me as there is little that I build with lugs,crowns and the like. Ironically, I have built more lugged forks in the last year than in the previous 7-8.
This Paris-Brest crown is really a terrific design and it will be sad to no longer be able to use it.There's plenty of metal on this crown , so much that I'm sure one could build a fork for off-road with it and feel sure that if anything bent in an accident, it would not be the crown. I have to use a rosebud tip on the torch...the largest flame at my disposal to heat up this massive casting.

Canadian transplant 7005 29er built up

I don't know about you but part of me wishes I had Canadian roots just so I could put little maple leaves all over my bike. It really looks like they are blowing in the wind, just like what would be happening around this time of year. The build is pretty nice on this one and it is really light for such a large bike.

Single speed bound for Pennsylvania

Most of the 26" wheel MTB frames I build are single speeds, though not exclusively. This one will have a rigid fork that I made but also accommodate a 100 MM shock as needed. The Paragon slider dropouts are welded on and really a stout design. This bike is set up for disc-only , a good thing for a place where it isn't 300 plus days of sunshine a year like here in Santa Cruz. I have plans to make a 29er version of this bike in my size early next year but it will have cable guides for the use of an internal geared hub......more on that later.

Built up disc 'cross bike

Yes, disc brakes are UCI legal now so you'll be seeing more cyclocross bikes with disc brakes. While hydraulic brakes are still not available , it is looking like that will change soon. This bike is going to be more of a trail bike than a pure race machine. The buildup parts were for the most part provided by the customer. The cranks are some carbon Stronglites that I have never seen and the drive train is all Sram Red . The bike feels like something one could ride just about anywhere.

My bike,err-yeah, yet another one.

Is it a randonneur ? No. Is it a touring bike ? No. Is it a road racing bike ? No. Is it a 'cross bike ? Definitely not. What I call it is a big tire road bike and it will be pretty much what I'll ride this winter after 'cross season-at least, when I get it back from a possible magazine test session. I built this frame up at UBI when I was teaching in August. I have built a number of these for folks but have not been able to get around to building one for myself until this year. The big bonus is being able to shoot the dirt on the way home from work without breaking out the 'cross bike or the mountain bike. So, you might wonder, what's so great about that ? Well, I don't know how to put it into words but about 1975 my friends and I used to ride road bikes in the dirt quite a bit in Topanga Canyon . The bikes were a lot of fun on the trails but they tended to get pretty mangled , especially after a designated burn spot. this nicely paneled edition should stand up to the beating better than our old '70's European racers and also provide a smoother ride with some Michelin Jet 30's. My hope is that I'll be able to do the Big Basin loop without a pinch flat or a backache.


Ahh, yes-did I mention that I built a fork as well ? If one is to run long reach calipers a custom steel fork is nearly the only choice for proper fit. A carbon option is available from Wound Up-US made and really bombproof. For me , building a fork is the most cost -effective way to produce this bike ......not to mention , the matching paint is a style point on a bike like this. The paint scheme is kind of a ripoff of the 1978 Gios Torino 'super record' look. I remember when I was 25 and working in a bike shop how great those frames looked when we first took them out of the styrofoam-lined boxes from Italy. I never could afford one........good thing I learned how to build.

Almond Roca II

Every once in awhile somebody asks for a pastel pink with silver decals. I don't know about you, but this reminds me of Christmas cans big cans of Almond Roca. I always ate myself sick on that stuff but never got sick of it. I guess i never get sick of this particular look, either. It's an offbeat choice for a full-tilt scandium race bike but if you can beat the pack on a pink bike, all the better.

Really large S-3 road frame

True Temper S-3 is about the thinnest wall steel I can buy and it takes a lot of care to weld it. This frame is for a 6'5" rider and it weighs a scant 3 lbs. 13 oz. , a weight you would expect of an aluminum frame, not a steel frame of this size. I didn't use the S-3 seat tube, head tube or chainstays as I feel they would not be rigid enough. Even tough I didn't use the whole set, the frame still came out lighter than I would have expected. I used a sleeve at the top of the 1 1/4" diameter OX seat tube so that a 27.2 seatpost could fit.
I used and OX head tube with a 1.2 MM wall , thinner than I normally use so I put on these old-style re-enforcements at both ends....kind of like an early '90's Ibis frame.