Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Steel gravel frame going to Switzerland

This one is going to a dealer- Cyclecraft in Switzerland that has been buying frames from me for nearly a decade. They just send me a cad drawing and I build what they want. They like long and low style with a slack head angle- different from what I build for the US market but I imagine that the riding there is quite different.
This frame is set up for a 27.2 dropper post with internal seat tube routing. The down tube is a NOS True Temper bi-oval with really high tensile strength. I still have about a box and a half of these left and when they are gone, they are gone.

 

Friday, June 24, 2022

1999-2000 time capsule MTB for sale.

A guy came to my door yesterday with this. It is an all XTR 9-speed equipped MTB that I built for a rider I was sponsoring in the '90's. The person who has it now is the third owner and he's moving so he needs to downsize. He is asking $ 1,000 for this which I think is pretty fair in light of the condition ( everything works ) and the fact that all the components are top of the line. 
The only tired thing on the bike is the shock fork- it probably needs adjustment or maybe an overhaul.  The steerer is 1-1/8" so getting a replacement should be easy but I'm pretty sure that someone who knows these forks could get it adjusted properly. The seat tube is 16-1/2 ", top tube 22-3/4" so it is a good fit for a 5'9" rider. If you want to talk to the owner his name is Rob and his number is (408) 376-1515. I'm not really involved in the sale other than getting the word out. 
It is not often that I see one of my bikes this old that is in this condition. If you are looking for a pre-disc steel MTB that isn't trashed and is not too archaic, here it is. The rear tire is a tiny bit too large so it rubs on the upper seatstay a bit so it would be good to put a 2.1 or a 2.0 in its place. The shifter is the XTR "rapid rise". When I test rode the bike I didn't realize this and assumed that there was a problem with it. After a minute I realized what it was and tried riding it again- it worked perfectly. I don't think I had ridden a bike with the 'rapid rise' setup in over 20 years........
 

7005 all road frame going to Texas

This one is pretty light. It will be paired with an Enve 'all-road' fork.  It has the team color and classic 1984 original style decal.


 

Monday, June 20, 2022

WCCX frame for bay area team mate

This rider has been on a single speed for many seasons. Now for 2022 he's getting gears- should be a whole new world.
This is the mechanical shift version of the WCCX frame ,very much the same as most of the team are riding. 

 This one is not in a batch but I will be starting another batch in a few weeks. If you are racing this fall and you ordered soon enough your frame will be in this batch. This will be the last pre-season aluminum batch.

Thursday, June 16, 2022

Steel gravel frame for Baldwinsville, NY.

The rider of this frame is 6'4" and 250 lbs. so I had to build it stout. It is a mixture of mostly Columbus Zona with a VeloSpec down tube and a Reynolds seat tube. The Reynolds tube is thicker walled than the Columbus version so it should cut down on flex.
The frame is made for a double chainring and 700x42 tires with a bit of mud room. The chain stays are listed as Zona MTB but I wind up using them a lot for bikes like this as the CX chain stays don't have enough bend for the bigger tires. 
One extra step I took was to increase the rear bend on the chain stays to get more heel clearance for his size 14 feet. I hope that it does the job.
 

Friday, June 10, 2022

Steel gravel frame for Charlotte, NC.

This rider likes the bars above the saddle about an inch or so. He also has short legs so the seat tube is a bit shorter in relation to the top tube. This is a real example of a custom frame fulfilling a sizing situation that most off the shelf frames can't do without a few compromises such as no standover and lots of headset spacers.
My hope is that the fit of this frame opens up all sorts of riding pleasure for this guy in NC.

 

Wednesday, June 8, 2022

Small aluminum road frame going to Wisconsin

This frame is tiny and under 3 lbs. The tubing is a mix of NOS Easton 7005 aero tubes and some Dedacciai .
The fork is a tapered Enve road model. The frame and fork should take up to 700x32 Gravel kings if needed. I think this one will build up really light for the 5' rider.

 

Big tire road frame in steel going to Brooklyn, NY.

Fork is not done yet but this frame is- it takes long reach calipers and will accept 700x40 tires.
Yes, those are downtube shifter bosses. Nice to have the full retro option if you have the parts around.

 

Monday, June 6, 2022

SSCX 7005 frame going to the pacific northwest

This one is celebrating the 'green death' , otherwise kown as Ranier ale. The customer made me wait about a year for these decals but take a look- this is really an inspired theme that he - not me- came up with. 
There's a good chance you'll see this one at muddy races up there where the rain is frequent and people come out to the races in spite of it- maybe more because of it. 


 

Sunday, June 5, 2022

Large steel road frame going to Colorado

This frame is so big that I didn't have to cut the fork. As a matter of fact, the fork steerer is barely long enough at 300 mm. This is one of the taller road frames of the year.
The orange color has a really fine gold flek in it that is not really visible until it is in the direct sunlight.
This one will be fitted with mechanical shifting and flat mount disc brakes , a good thing for those long rocky mountain descents on hot days.
 

Flat-bar touring 29er........?

Want to go on that dirt tour but don't want to do it on a big heavy boost MTB ? Maybe the gravel bike doesn't take a big enough tire and has drop bars that you might not really need ? Well, here's the solution.
Pretty much a gravel bike tube set but with more tire room and 29er geometry. This should be nice and stable in the dirt loaded up. The frame will be paired with an Enve adventure fork and will have tires in the 43 mm - 2.1 " range. The frame is steel and weighs in at 4 lb. 2 oz. 
I have not built many of these yet but I think that this style of bike is becoming a 'thing' right now. Just how much of a 'thing' has not been established yet.....
 

Saturday, June 4, 2022

First batch of CX frames for the season


 One batch of 14 frames down. They are nearly all the WCCX model with a couple of road bikes in there. I am back on steel for a few weeks but there's another batch coming up in July that will probably be as big. I found a local place to do heat treatment this time around and it is saving me a lot of work boxing and shipping. It's a good thing....