Boaz 29er fork

All you folks who can't seem to get enough tire clearance, bear witness to this monster. I'm pretty sure a 3" wide tire would be right at home between these blades. This one is bound for Kansas City as soon as it comes back from the powdercoater. Just a little rethinking of where I miter the blades makes it possible to create forkzilla.

really big tire 'cross bike

Really big tires require really long seatstays....longer than I can buy. I did some 'boots' on these that gave me the additional 1/2" so the 49.5 mm wide tire would fit. This bike is a 'cross bike but it's a gnat's whisker away from being a 29er.

Here's the fork......not a mountain bike fork, a big-tire 'cross fork. It's stouter and wider than a stock 'cross fork but it's not as rigid as a mountain bike fork.
The wishbone stays are a little less likely to flex under hard braking as they have a thicker wall and larger diameter. The shock absorbtion will come from the tires, not the frame in this case.

More NOS rifled prestige tubing...seems to be my choice as of late. The quality of Tange is really the best.

two for the road

Winter time for some could be a fixed-gear season-such is the case for this person and her fixed-road trainer built from NOS Tange Prestige.

No rear brake or any possibilty of adding one in the future..........at least you know where you stand-legs are the rear brake.

Felicia's bike. The stays were all manipulated ( read: bent) in the shop. When the frame is this small the pre-bent offerings from the tubing manufacturers won't fit the bill. It's difficult to have symmetry when hand-bending steel and some times a tube or two will go into the scrap bucket but it's worth it to get something that makes the person riding the bike smile.


The panels and striping were done by Allan Neymark, an under-the-radar bike painting veteran of 30 plus years here in Santa Cruz. This is one of his best.

29er single speed in Easton 7005 with all the fixin's

This frame will eventually be in Colorado and get the beating that a lot of bikes of more basic construction couldn't endure. With all the yokes and stout Easton Elite tubing this frame should be the right tool for the job.....racing over the rocks with a very tall person on board. The ADG sliders really solve the problem of disc brake placement in realtion to the axle and also will enable the use of a Q.R. instead of a bolt-on axle.

First batch of '09 in 7005 aluminum

Back to the bright arc of aluminum welding. There are 'cross bikes, road bikes and even a 29er single speed in this batch. I'll have these all ready to ship in about 3 weeks after the heat treament , powdercoat, clearcoat and prepping are done. When the frame is all welded up you are really only about halfway there !

Number nine comes home

This bike is the ninth Rock Lobster, probably built in 1986. It's fillet brazed out of a mixture of columbus, reynold ans 4130 straight-guage aircraft tubing. The four-bolt stem was specifically built to fit 7/8" Salsa handlebars of the day. This bike predates biopace, Rockshox, clipless pedals and index shifting. I'll be putting up more detailed photos later.....it actually predated the decals which were applied soon after the bike was completed. The three-color paint scheme was the only one offered at the time.

Dr. Swigg's guid to wine

Yeah, I know.......it's been probably two years since I have made a recommendation and it speaks not only to my laziness but also to the scarcity of good bottles in the lower price brackets.....at least ones good enough and plentiful enough to merit a notice by Dr. Swigg. Plungerhead zin can come in a few different forms....Lodi, Sonoma, etc. This one is the 2005 Dry Creek old vine version. I really liked the Lodi edition but this Dry Creek number eclipses it in terms of taste,complexity and it also has the distinction of coming from a boutique appelation for this particular varietal. Dry Creek wine for $ 13.99 ? And good ? Oy, soch a deal. I vant a case......Plungerhead is from the Sebastiani empire, a family winery that has just sold off a portion of its catalogue so Plungerhead might be going through some changes in the coming vintages....better get this one before its history. Cheers, Dr. Swigg.