Here's what I built while teaching the class

At UBI the instructor has to build a frame along with the students. The frame I chose to make is A 'big-tire road frame' ,something that is becoming increasingly popular with my customers. Sure, it will see some dirt but it isn't a 'cross bike. It will have long reach road calipers and have a matching steel fork and fully look like your average steel road machine but it should have no problem taking 700x30 Michelin Jet tires. I'm hoping to get it built up while the dirt is still dry in the forest.

Make way for summer tig class, 2010

The last three years now I have been teaching the tig welding framebuilding class at UBI in Ashland. Here's a few photos from the two weeks where the students and I sweated through an intensive program that included welding, designing and metalworking. The result ? A completed frame after two weeks. This is quite a transition for the folks that have no experience-going from zilch to first frame and a grasp of the work that goes into something that most of us take for granted.....our bicycle frame. I can't say enough about the professionalism and great ideas in this program at UBI and am very happy to be part of it.

Wishbone road frame, painted

29er S/S with Paragon sliders

This frame and fork are the last projects to leave the shop in July. The rider is 5'8" and races s/s on a 29er so this will be his next ride. The frame and fork are nearly all True Temper , just the rear stays are Dedaccai. This is pretty typical of the 29er's I build these days....seems that the rigid fork is back and gears are not the norm. My idea of an ideal bike is one of these with an internal-geared hub......all of the range, no der's or chain slap. Look for that bike late this winter-I'll be riding it, at least if I ever get the time to build it !

Coupler frame

There were a lot of specific requests on this frame. The couplers, the cast dropouts and the headtube-mounted cable adjusters are a few. I also built a for that along with the frame will fit fenders and long-reach Shimano brakes. Big-tire road bikes are very popular this year. The steel fork is making a comeback as well.

Scandium road frame

I'm in the final stretch before leaving for Ashland to teach and this is frame # 2 in a small batch of scandium frames that I hope to send to the heat treater before I leave. I'm also doing a couple more steel frames as well.....full schedule. This bike is designed to be really stiff in the BB area. I used an MTB downtube 44 mm in diameter. It may be large but it is still really light. I would be surprised if this frame is over 3 lbs. I used some heavy wall chainstays as well, the same kind I use in cyclocross bikes. The rest of the tubing is pretty much the norm for this style of frame.

Wishbone in steel

It isn't often that I get a request for a wishbone seatstay on a steel road bike but here it is, probably one of four that I have built in the last 30-odd years. The parts for the wishbone were NOS pretty much throughout. The customer has and older Bontrager 'road lite' and really liked the ride quality so this frame reflects some of the features and geometry of that frame except for the larger diameter tubing anf the 1 1/8" steerer format. The weight is 3 lbs. 14 oz. , not bad for steel, especially stout stuff like the True Temper OX used.