Alfie step-through town bike for a local

 This is the latest edition of this bike. I started building these in 2006- I can't say that I have made very many of them but I am always keen to try to make them have better features. This one has the Shimano Alfine-11 parts group with hydraulic disc brakes. The rims are Stan's but I did not set it up tubeless. This one takes up to 700x40 tires......actually it might even fit 45's. The Brooks saddle is a must along with the headlamp which is run by the front dynamo hub.

Steel CX/gravel frame for Colorado

 I still have to make the fork for this- a crowned disc brake thru axle model. This is for an old customer who has had a couple of my frames over the years but this will be the first disc brake version. It still has a nod to the old days with the smaller head tube and brazed on collars.

 This frame comes in at just a hair over 4 lbs. so it isn't a heavy steel frame.

Two more days until race day !

Winners of the elite races and single speed races will get the horn trophy- normally only something at a Rock Lobster cup race , Surf City will be presenting these to the winners Sunday afternoon. The flyover is built, the course is being built. It should be bumpy and rustic in the Santa Cruz tradition that in the case of Surf City goes back 41 years.

Steel disc brake road frame for Monterey, Calif.

 This type of frame is getting to be more popular in the last couple of years. I make the frame out of a mix of Columbus tubes, mostly the Zona and Life series.

 The hydraulic brake line goes inside the down tube so that it does not get in the way of the shifter cable routing. There's no cables at all on the tup tube of a frame like this so it has a clean look once it is fully built up.

This one will be paired with an Enve disc-road fork which I'll be ordering a couple of this morning.
The frame weighs 3 lb. 15 oz, only about 7 oz. more than the same frame in aluminum.

Steel Ultimundo road frame for a local

 I have enough tubes to make only three more of these so they will never be quite the same when I run out of the True Temper S-3 downtubes. That said, I'll still make the model but it might be a tad different in terms of frame weight and ride characteristics.

 The rest of the tubing in this frame seems to be still in production-being Columbus 'Spirit" and Life.....both are currently produced and in decent supply. It amazes me that there are manufacturers that make such specialized and esoteric materials for building custom steel frames. My thought is that nobody, not the builders, distributors or tubing manufacturers are making much money. I gues that we are all in it because it is what we care about. I am thankful that in my 41 years since I have built my very first frame that there has always been good steel available.

This frame is made from the very best steel I can get: Top tube is my last round S-3. Down tube is one of the last four S-3 bi-oval tubes. Seat tube is Columbus Life. Rear chain stays are Life and the seat stays are Spirit. The head tube is a tapered superlight from Nova. This frame weighs 3 lb. 15 oz.

Step through townie for a local

 This might be the sixth one of these that I have built in the last decade. I really like building a simple bike like this and try slightly different things on each one. This one will get the full Alfine-11 build with Hydraulic disc brakes.

 The frame has the Jen Green copper headbadge and will get a Brooks saddle with some Nitto All-rounder bars, kind of like a cafe racer. The rider wanted a town bike with a slightly more efficient position than the typical upright style with swept-back handlebars.

Even though the bike really screams for them, there will be no fenders on the final build but there will be a rear rack and a kickstand. A townie without a kickstand is a townie in name only.

Gravel frame for Monterey

 For twenty years I have been on start lines of CX and other races to hear right before the whistle the words :" Ride safe- have fun !". The person who has been saying these words at the start of over two decades of bicycle races is getting this frame.

 It has been a good many years since this person has competed in bike races as he's been one of a small crew who run the CCCX series of road, MTB and CX races in the Monterey bay area. Without these races there would be hardly any events like this within an hour's drive from my home city of Santa Cruz. Myself and hundreds of other like-minded cyclists value what the CCCX crew has been doing to keep bicycle racing alive in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.

So, it is a real honor to build this frame- it will be for gravel riding and racing for the most part so it does not have the flattened top tube for shouldering and it has three bottle mounts. The bike will be fitted with Shimano GRX Di II group. The frame weighs 3 lb. 8 oz.