steel 29er and 650er

5.14 lbs. of 29er steel waiting for a chance at the local singletrack. The guy who is getting this rig is not a little greyhound bike jockey so I had to build it stout. I'm surprised that it came out only a little over 5 lbs. I didn't do anything to lighten it up-pretty much used the heaviest tubes in the shop that were bicycle tubing and not straight-guage aircraft cro-mo.

The sliding dropouts are from Paragon Machine works here in California. If you want the best steel hardware of the sliding kind ,you don't buy it from anyone else .
Here's a geared 650 frame, one of the rare few that I produce. It's made out of NOS Tange ultimate from the mid '90's. I still have a few sets in stock and it is pretty nice for rigid-fork bikes like this as it has a forgiving ride , won't dent easily and will probably outlast the century.

Always a good idea to put a re-enforcement where the stress from the disc brake is highest. Some of us in the early days of discs found out the hard way that frames will not last if you don't include this little feature.

Rock Lobster cyclocross from 1989

I built this frame, fork and stem for a customer of the Bicycle Trip back in the fall of 1989. This is how the bike appears today , mostly original components and paint-the neon fade was popular in the late '08's. The bike was hanging in the shop in early October and when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit , the bike fell and the top tube was dented. Since it was a new bike, the shop covered having the top tube replaced and the frame repainted.....all this before the custome ever rode the bike, I assume. The high rise four bolt stem and WTB drop bars are also something that was popular in the late '80's. The side of the top tube cables were something I had stolen from Yeti back in 1987. This bike represents a pre-tig bike built in my original 160 square ft. garage shop. The wishbone seatstay is a rarity on my 'cross bikes and this one is probably one of about 6 that I had built since starting up.

Single speed built up

If the Swiss Army rode single speeds they might look like this. It does have kind of an alpine rescue look to it with the Brooks saddle and bag on the handlebars, not to mention the olive paint.

Deal of the century...or actually the last century.

I normally just put op photos of my bikes and talk about them on this blog but I have to alert all folks who are checking this out about another builder who is having a special sale. Bruce Gordon is probably the most experienced builder in Northern California, especially when it comes to touring bikes. He's having an anniversary sale of his tig welded complete touring bikes made in his shop.......$ 2,650 or there abouts. This is for a whole bike with racks.....from one of the best ever. Check it out at wcamo.blogspot.com , Bruces new blog. It's a rare opportunity to get the best for a song.

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.