650 MTN bike built up for Boulder, Co.

 The owner of this bike will be riding some remote parts of the Rockies near Boulder. He's a young 71 years old and can probably drop you on a hilly ride. I hope that this bike fits the bill for him and does not hold him back.

 The frame is mostly Easton elite NOS US made tubes with some Fairing 7005 chainstays. The fork has a tapered steerer and the parts are all XT except for the King hubs. The wheels were built in house with Mavic 319 rims and blakc DT competition butted spokes.

Full race aluminum CX frame for Austin , Texas

 This customer has been waiting a long time for this one-I hope that it comes up to his expectations.

 Getting the fork painted to match is a really nice touch-almost makes it look like I built the fork-of course, I didn't.....it is a carbon Enve cross fork.

This customer is eschewing disc brakes in favor of traditional cantilever brakes. If they were good enough for the last 60-odd years, they are good enough now.

Birth of a new bike

 This frame and fork will be built into a complete bike for a friend of mine. The frame is a result of a collaboration between myself and Bruce Gordon. Our combined years of building is somewhere around 70-plus years so this collaboration is unique in that respect. The frame will take up to a 700x43 tire-Bruce designed and sells this particular tire called "Rock 'n road", an all conditions high quality tread .

These will be sold as complete bikes in four incarnations: # 1, Shimano 105 STIor SLX (with bar-con shifters ) for around $ 3,000 . # 2, Shimano Ultegra STI or XT ( with bar-con shifters) for around $  3,600. The idea is an American made bike for a great price with solid equipment made by two guys who have a lot of experience. Also, there's a chance that it might get to be a kosher bike so you'll be able to ride it on the sabbath.....if that is allowed.

Oh, yeah......did I tell you it will have disc brakes ?

First week of a month of aluminum building

Not the entire month but most of it will be spent building about a dozen aluminum frames, mostly CX but there will be a road frame or two in the mix. This one is going to North Carolina.

 The rider of this frame lives in Calif. He is over 6'5" and has a 37 " inseam, about as long as someone much taller, hence the gigantic headtube. I checked my notes several times to make sure I was not overdoing it.....

 This single speed CX frame is going to a very fast guy in Texas. I hope  that this 3 lb. 10 oz. frame does not hold him back in any way.....it would be cool to have some representation in the lone star state on the CX course.

 This frame has some pretty nice Mike Ahrens dropouts with bronze faces. The cost about 3x as much as others but they are well worth the expense.US made frame building hardware is the best.

The start of bike to work week and a very light road bike

 Things are really nuts here-44 frames on order , some going to very far away places. This bike is staying right here as I'll be riding it until either I or the bike has a failure. The tubeset was sent to me years ago for a project that never got initiated. After waiting probably 4-5 years I decided to build up this ultra light Deda 7.9 aluminum tubeset but subbing out the seat tube for a NOS Easton tube long and stout enough to make a seatmast.

At 14 lb. 12 oz. without pedals , this is probably the lightest road bike I have ever built. The Dura Ace 9000 parts ( with the exception of an Ultegra cassette) and the Mavic R-sys SL tubular wheels definitely keep the weight down. I have yet to ride the bike more than around the building but it feels fine-like a bike.I'll be subbing out an Enve fork next week-I didn't order it early enough to get it here for the annual 'Bike week' show downtown. Still, I made this bike the centerpiece of my display, along with the recent article in Road magazine by Andrew Juiliano.

 I'm hoping that the seat mast along with the light tubes will make for a smooth ride. I'll be doing some long rides over the summer and will need a bike that is kind to my aging skeleton.

Here's the room I shared with three other builders at the show before the crowds showed up. The builders were Craig Calfee, Josh Muir ( Frances cycles) and John Caletti. As you can see, I brought the most obnoxious display , complete with Aaron Bradford's national jersey with a hole melted in it from an errant torch on a particularly busy day.

Steel 29er with 142 MM through axle

Paragon Machine works makes so interesting hardware for frame building, some of it is really cutting edge for the steel frame builder. This is the second set of these dropouts that I have used-lucky for me my Anvil jig was easily adapted with a bit of new hardware to build this new style rear end.

The bike will have a 100 MM Fox fork -a straight steerer to start with but there will be the option in the future of changing out the lower part of the headset to run a tapered steerer. I have heard people use the phrase : " future proofing" regarding having a frame built that will hopefully weather the storm of changing component standards......

The bike will hopefully see some wilderness endurance events in the future. It has a long top tube and should be a smooth and stable ride-good thing to have when you are riding at night and can't always see what you are running over.

CX disc frame and fork for a 4' 10 1/2" rider

 These are always the most challenging bikes to build. Fortunately I have built a number of them and was able to construct this one in a way that should make it a lot of fun for the rider.

The disc brakes simplified the cable run so that I did not have to worry about the tight room at the top of the tire for canitlever brakes. Also, the outward spread of rim brakes was not an issue for heel room on this bike.

The reverse bend top tube is a way to get more standover and the cable guides are underneath the top tube to gain a little more room . Since this bike will probably not be raced the shouldering room required for a race bike will not be needed. At 3 lb. 12 oz , this is a very light steel frame an should be lots of fun in the forest.