New frame, new shop

 The frame you see here is the first frame built at my new shop. Yes, I'm still using an electrical box for the photo shoot- didn't want to give up that tradition just yet. The frame is for a customer who is currently living in Mexico. He will be coming back to the US in the fall and his frame will be ready for him.

 In the coming weeks I'll be putting up photos of the new shop so that people can see how the layout of the workspace is much better than the old shop. Sure, the old place had character but there were some real issues with my welding area. I have a nice open floor plan and I'm already enjoying the space .

I have storage for about 35 built bikes and 40 frames. It really looks like a bike shop. If you would like to visit you can find the shop at 719 Swift st. # 10, Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060. It is only about a block from the old place but it is literally on the other side of the tracks. I think I'm on the right side now !

First full work week in the new shop

 I have to say- moving might have been a total pain but the new shop is looking to be a better environment to build in. My new welding area is free of clutter and the new welding table is at a height that no longer tortures my lower back. Maybe it took a couple of decades but now I have a much more comfortable setup for welding. It's amazing what one can put up with when the work flow is really heavy for a number of years.

Now, all my machines are in a row and my mitering setup is only a few feet away from the frame jig- in the old shop I had to walk across the shop to get the tubing cut. Everything in this new shop was located to save steps over the course of a typical day.

Ironically, my list of builds is shorter than it has been for nearly a decade. I still do have 22 frames on order but in this new shop I don't think it will take long for me to get through that list. Could it be that I might run out of work now that I am in a new more efficient shop ? - Stay tuned......maybe in 2019 you'll be able to order a frame one week and have it delivered the next week. Not a good situation for me but for the customer it would be pretty nice.
Here's some of the work I have been doing since I opened the doors for real last week- a couple of coffee table bases and the start of an aluminum CX frame. I have only about 5 more aluminum frames on the list- the bulk of my pending orders are steel. I will be resuming the steel work in a few weeks.

Finally welding in the new shop.

This does not look like much but it does feel good to fire up the welder after almost two weeks of moving. This project is for the guy I am sharing the space with- he's a fine wood worker and these will be bases for two coffee tables he is building. I might be doing more of this work if my quality is good enough.

The shop has migrated to the other side of the tracks

 This picture was taken yesterday just before I closed the door for the last time at 2533-D Mission st. ext. Since the fall of 1996 this has been the place I spent countless hours welding bicycle frames together. I might have built nearly 2,000 frames in the space , created a cyclocross team with some help from a few folks , had the good fortune of getting some great racers on my bikes in national and world class events , even won a few local races myself. Now it is time to go.

Although I am crammed into the very back of a commercial space that I share with a talented woodworker , the place really has a bike shop feel- more so than the last shop. There are almost 40 bikes up on hooks and room for nearly 30 frames. I'm still getting things put away and organized- things will be a bit different from now on- the place is much cleaner and will have an open floor plan. The frame building area will be much more efficient and I hope to waste fewer moves. The bike assembly area will have an organized tool board and a nice wheel building station. All of these improvements are out of character for me as I used to thrive in chaos. Now I'm going to attempt to thrive in orderly surroundings. Even on the last day of moving there were two complete truckloads to the dump and recycling......I got rid of so much stuff as I was really worried that I would never fit it all into the new space. I'm still not sure that it will but at least now there's a bit of hope that I can be up and running by Monday.
I started moving about two weeks ago while still prepping frames here and there. I fell off a ladder last week, hit my head and got a concussion, twisted my ankle and got scraped up pretty well. I am still having issues with dizziness and walking- that said, the move went surprisingly well, mostly thanks to the community of friends and associates I have built up over the last couple of decades. Without these people I would not have been able to pull off this move. Now all I have to do is pull off working in a new shop with high ceilings, high rent , freshly painted walls and plenty of three-phase power. It could be way worse.
From now on it will be Rock Lobster cycles  719 Swift st. # 10  Santa Cruz, Calif. 95060. This could almost be considered a 'destination' shop'.....not because of me but more because of the work of many people that went into the creation of this place. I walked in there yesterday afternoon right after sweeping out the old shop and looked at the new place- I liked what I saw. Hope that you do too.

The shop is moving

 Yes, that's right. If you have been trying to call and the phone isn't working , that is correct- Comcast turned off my phone about 5 days early and has not been able to turn it back on again. With luck, the working phone and all of my shop will be at 719 Swift st. # 10 , about one block from the old location. I was not sure where I would wind up  but as luck would have it, an opportunity to remain in the same neighborhood came my way . Although the rent will triple I'll be happy to not have to re-locate somewhere far away and will like being in a newer more secure building.

 My shop is roughly the same size as the old shop but I'll have to get rid of a lot of old things what I have held onto for no good reason and my storage at the new shop is more limited now. I'm also trying to have a more open floor plan and a better work flow. For the last 22 years I have been in a very chaotic and cumbersome work environment. It is only my stubborn work ethic and energy level that has enabled me to build about 90-100 frames a year there. Now that I'm about to turn 63 I can't count on being able to summon up the same level of energy and/or stubborness. I am being ground down by this work and have to attempt to make things a bit easier on myself- you laugh......maybe thinking that my supposed idyllic job does not come at a physical cost. Well, believe it or not, it does. Just a few days ago I fell off a ladder during the move and got a concussion and a twisted ankle. In spite of this I'm still at it - against doctor's orders attempting to finish off the move.

Fortunately for me I have a big network of folks helping me with the heavy lifting as you can see in the photos. Much thanks to Kirk McNeil, Roy, Joey, Jamie and Q.Z. at the Mission industrial and special thanks to Jeff Traugott and Brendan for helping me through the worst. Also, big thanks to Greg Foy and Detlef Adam for getting the new site wired up and creating the much needed storage.
I hope to be up and running in about a week. Stay tuned, this move almost killed me but I'm amazingly not dead yet.

XS 29er for Chico, Calif.

 Seriously purple and very heavy duty, this - the smallest 29er I have ever built will see some punishing miles in the near future. Most of the tubing is from my ever diminishing stash of Easton NOS MTB tubes. Only the head tube and chain stays are not Easton.

 This is the one where I had to make the seat stay yoke myself as the supplier was out of stock for a really long time. It was a lot of machine work, not my forte but it turned out pretty nicely.

 This one is made for a Fox 100 mm shock and with the PF-30 BB it will also be able to run an eccentric for single speeding.

Here's the paint in the direct sun. It has some really nice blue metalflake.

Team tig SL CX for Saudi Arabia

 This frame was built for a grad student who should be just about done with his program as I write this. I'll be building it up this week-I started on it last week but the move got in the way a bit. There's now a Jen Green headbadge on it and the parts are slowly being added. I have about 10-11 frames to prep this week while I relocate the shop to the new location at 719 Swift st. , barely a block away.

 The colors and scheme are a product of the customer's looking at the many photos I have put up over the last couple of years. He distilled his design to what you see here. It looks nicer in person and will be the only one of my bikes in Saudi Arabia as far as I know. The King headset is a nice touch, along with the matching red seat clamp.