A peek inside U.B.I. class of 8-09

Week two at the tig welding framebuilding class is intense, inspite of the casual look in the photos. I tried to shoot them without disturbing the actual happenings in the classroom. These guys have just three days to finish these frames.....if it were me and it was my first frame, I would be pretty terrified but these guys are moving along on schedule , not easy in this accelerated class. With luck, Thursday afternoon they will have finished frames......if not, there's a little time Friday morning for final tweaks.

Home away from home

Here's the digs for my stint as a visiting instructor at U.B.I. for the second time. Here, also is one of the many avocado/cheese/lettuce/tomato sandwiches that I'll eat over the two week stay. Yeah, I'm cheap but I can't help it...I like avocado sandwiches just about any time except for breakfast. I'm teaching the tig-wleding framebuilding class again and it is really going well so far but this coming week will be tough....the rear stays are the most difficult part of the frame to weld so my students will have a real challenge for the next four days. I'm getting in plenty of riding, both dirt and road as the area is a great place to do both. Anyone reading this wanting to learn framebuilding should check out U.B.I. as it is arguably the best place anywhere to build your first frame .

they are here.....

Be the first one on your block, at least if you don't live on my block. I won't be in the shop to take orders for these for a couple of weeks so you'll just have to look at this photo until then. The socks are wool blend and they really do say " almost better than bacon " on the bottom. I know that is quite a lofty claim but I and the team are prepared to back it up. -Remember ........almost better.

Frame for Switzerland

That's right, this one is going on a long trip to find it's owner, a shop called Cycleworks. Seems to me they like the good old days of steel and rim brakes , my roots in a big way. I hope they like the result of my labors. I spent some time on this one as I figure that I had to nail it in a quasi-Swiss way. The Swiss are known for precision so this was a scary build but it went very well inspite of the pressure. Hey, this is what I get paid for....this and running around losing and finding stuff in my shop every minute of the day. It's a sickness.......

Big midsummer build-a-thon.

I don't know about you but my July has sped by like a runaway greased peccary. I am not even sure how many 'cross frames I have built this season but I'm sure that it is more than I was planning on. I'm almost done with the last batch , seven Easton 7005 UL frames , all of them ;cross frames except for a 6-9'er mountain bike. The 'cross frame below is the my first BB-30......I'm all tooled up to incorporate these and some other modern features for the folks who want them.

Building this many frames really helps me get into s good groove with the welder. Getting a nice looking bead on aluminum is a life-long study for me , especially challenging with my 20 year old Miller Dialarc HF-250 dinosaur of a welder. The old machine never lets me down, though. I have a Syncrowave I haven't even fired up yet.....I guess the old one and I are not ready to part ways just yet.

Looks like its going to be a busy summer at the lobster shop. This is most of one of two eight frame batches I have to complete by the end of the month. Fortunately, this one will be done Monday, leaving me a little more than half the month to do the second batch. Wish me luck......

Single speed of the old school

Some day I hope to have a slice at the pizzaria that this customer runs in the East Village about ten blocks from my sister's apartment. This frame has a top and downtube of NOS prestige along with the long extinct matching prestige unicrown blades that were the standard of top forks about 18 years ago. I did go s-bend on the rear stays to give the bike a little more current look, along with the larger diameter wishbone extention, not that it really matters much. It should be a fun bike to ride on the twisty trails in the New Jersey/New York area.