Steel is real....light in this case

The man in the photo is picking up his new road bike and just finished a short ride around the building. Getting a steel bike used to mean that you were getting something significantly heavier than carbon , ti or aluminum. This is no longer the case with how light components have gotten and how a welded frame is close to a pound lighter than a lugged frame. I didn't go out of my way to make the frame especially light as the bike will be for training and get many miles in all sorts of weather. Being mostly of True Temper steel the frame should be very stout and have good longevity. If this man rides a lot then he will also have good longevity !

Pasadena bound steel MTB frame

My batteries in my camera died before I could really get the detail shots of this frame. It's a shame because I am really happy with the results of my labors on this one. It's just swoopy enough to have a rhythm to the whole look of the frame.

Old number 16

Do you remeber what you were doing in 1987 ? I was in a band playing in casinos and at weddings and building frames part time in my 160 square foot garage. This bike is # 16 , built about 7 months before I made the leap to fulltime framebuilder. The owner was in high school when he bought it....now you can see he's got a family and is in his 30's ! The bike has had some work done on it over the years but most of the equipment is from the days before clipless pedals, shocks and many other things people expect to have on their bikes. The rims were rolled-down Mavic MA-2's from the Bontrager shop on South Rodeo Gulch road, many years before the sale to Trek. The flat-top seat tube with the forward facing binder was something I did on maybe my first 20 MTB frames, just to make them look a little more distinctive.

Touing bike built up

This 26" wheel touring bike is the real deal,stable and designed to carry a load. The Nitto stainless racks weigh quite a bit and the stainless fenders are rock solid. Toe clips ? SPD ? not for this rider-back to the basics with flat pedals and hiking boots .