Steel CX S.L. , but you can call it a gravel frame if you like

This one is going to yet another employee of a local shop- the Spokesman bicycles. I'm super happy to have so many of the crew there riding my frames. Maybe they like them, maybe my prices are too low- hopefully it is the ride that is what they are all happy about . 

This one has an Enve fork painted to match by Joe's bicycle painting in Watsonville, Calif. and the headset is a White Industries. This one will take some pretty big tires, up to 700x47 I think. 

 

WCCX pit frame for the team

This is the last aluminum frame of 2023 unless I decide to get one more done over the weekend. Since I can't ride I have been working nearly every day to try and get all the CX frames done for this season. My bike accident put me about 2 months behind schedule so I'm playing catch up.

This one will most likely be used by one of the newer members of the team. She is current district road champion but is virtually unknown on the CX circuit. I hope that she does what I think she will do...get out there and make it a race !

 

What is this ????

Yes, this is a rim brake CX frame but in the WCCX format with the flattened top tube and seat stay gussett. This is the only one I have built so far and I'm not sure if there will be much of a demand for more of these now that disc brakes have really become the norm in CX. 

That said, it is cool to have built one in 2023 and I'll hopefully get some photos of the whole bike from the customer when it is built. It is light but not too light , having two of my NOS Easton USA main tubes to stiffen up the front triangle. This rider is not heavy but here pretty tall and can put some serious torque into a bike. I hope that this bike delivers the stiffness he is after.

 

SSCX for long time customer

This rider has been racing on my frames for about a decade. I have always liked building his frames as he has given me valuable feedback and has definitely put each and every frame I have built for him to the test. 

He is probably one of the best single speed CX riders in the west and has figured nationally in the top 20 , even when starting on the 12 row or worse. The other notable thing is that every one of his frames are either purple or have purple as part of the color scheme. I hope that he finds this most recent edition to be satisfactory.

 

7005 SSCX frame for a new team member

The owner of this frame is someone with whom I have competed for years , mostly with me on the losing end so when he asked to be on the team I was happy....especially this season as I am not able to race with my broken leg !

This one has one of my few remaining Easton Elite 44 mm down tubes, perfect for a taller powerful rider. The chain stays are Dedacciai 'gravel' bend - these are very much like the Easton 7000 scandium shape from almost 20 years ago. The frame has lots of tire room.

 

Team WCCX frame for new team member

This one is going to the east coast to the newest member of the elite women's team. She has been riding steel a long time so it will be interesting to hear how she likes this 3 lb. rocket sled.

 

Long and slack steel gravel frame

I'm building many of these for one shop in Switzerland. The geometry they specify isn't quite like I normally do but then, this is Switzerland and I bet the riding is quite different than Nor-Cal. 

This one has a painted to match Enve fork and is built to take a beating. All the people who have gotten this style of frame seem to be really happy with how they ride, hence the steady demand- word must be spreading- kind of reminds me of when a group of people in L.A. based at the now defunct Golden Saddle cyclery started getting frames from me. It is these small neighborhood shops that are at the center of these little pockets of cycling culture. I am happy to be accepted by these shops and riders as it gives me renewed hope for independent shops and small builders in a world where such things are having a tough time.

 

First post-crash batch taking shape

 Four frames into the last 7005 batch of the year. Might do another 4-5 frames and then send them off. Nice to be back up and welding again.

7005 team CX frame

Yes, I still make post/IS mount frames . This one is going to a local team member who is stripping an older bike to build this one up-hence the older style brake mount. He also specified the EBB to run the bike as a single speed. This combination of aluminum with the EBB is very popular on the team as it really is like getting two frames in one as it can easily be set up with a PF-30 BB and run with gears. 

 

7005 WCCX frame

This one is # 3 in the batch. I hope to have 7-8 of these off to heat treatment before the end of the month.  This will be my first batch since my accident and my last aluminum batch of 2023. After these frames are done I'll tackle the mountain of steel orders that has only gotten longer since my hospitalization. At least now the shop- and I- are back up and running , nearly at full speed amazingly. I have to thank the doctors and PT people for getting me on the fast track toward being functional again. I'm not fully there and I know that it will take time but at least I have some positive results.

 

Back at it

After nearly two months of being disabled I am back in the shop and have built two frames this week- this one being the second. Both of the frames are WCCX 7005 models destined for the CX courses. 

While I may be back in the shop I am not 100% up to speed and have to use a walker to get around. Maybe some of you might think that it is a difficult way to build frames but when I get in  the shop I just think of my friend Steve Garro in Flagstaff , Az.  Steve was hit by a car years ago and is in a wheelchair - he can no longer pedal a bike but the disability has not stopped him from building great bicycle frames. Steve does ride a custom hand-cycle on many of the trails he rode before his accident....at least when his body will let him. So what I am saying is - my injury was nothing compared to Steve's so if he can build frames in a wheelchair, for me to build them while using a walker is nothing to complain about. 

Frames from this period of my life will be built a little slower, but they will be built and they will be built as good as I can build them on any given day. Maybe with going a little slower these frames will be even better than what I built before my crash.........
 

One of the early ones back for a repaint

Pretty sure I built this one in 1989- that would make it about 33 years old. I was only a year into being a full time frame builder and most of my frames went to people I knew. This frame was built for a friend who I worked with in a bike shop around 1982. Not long after that he got a chance to ride a bike I have built for myself. After riding it he asked me to make one just like it with a few detail changes such as a cutout on the down tube lug and a different fork crown. The geometry of the two bikes being the same but the outward look a bit different.

Now this person has handed the frame and fork down to his son so a repaint and all new parts are in the plans. The frame was originally red with yellow decals - the son opted to reverse the color scheme and I think that it works well. Now my task is to find cable shifters and caliper brakes......not easily done in 2023 !

 

Work has resumed......kinda

I welded the seat stays on this frame that I had started on July 5th. , the day of my crash. I'm going in to the shop today to attempt to finish it. After nearly two months of not being able to work it was a really great feeling to be able to come back to the welding table and pick up where I left off. I'm sure that it will be slow going for the first weeks but as I regain mobility I should come up to speed. I have the last batch of aluminum that I really need to start as soon as possible- this is not a big batch of frames but some of them are for the upcoming CX season .
 

Hooray- I built something !

 Since July 5th I have been recovering from a broken femur and have only recently been coming to the shop. My duties of late have been limited to decaling, prepping , boxing and shipping of completed work. Until yesterday I had not actually done any building. This changed in the afternoon when I realized that I was probably healed up enough to try something small and simple so I remembered that i had a stem to build that went with a completed road frame bound for the east coast. I really could not ship the frame and fork without the stem so I cut the tube, got out the stem jig and not much later built what you see here- a 110x6 degree steel stem.......victory !  

Next project will be finishing the steel gravel frame still in the jig after languishing unfinished for nearly two months. After that I will tackle the last remaining 7005 CX frames- I'll barely have enough time to finish them before the first races but I am determined to try. 

WCCX frame

This one goes to a jew junior prospect on the team. He is very active in the NICA MTB races and has done some CX so hopefully he will really fly on his new ride. This one is paired with an Enve G-series fork that has been painted to match. The bike will be built up with Shimano GRX mechanical shift 11 spd. which is getting harder to find. Now that the 820 12 speed is out I think that the 2024 bikes will all be sporting the new stuff. I still really like my 11 speed and really hope that the 12 speed works as well.