Steel boost 29er for a California customer.

I think I have built about 6 MTB frames so far this year out of 26 completed. That means that almost 1/4 of what I am building looks like this frame. In the last few years I have only building maybe 3-4 MTB frames in an entire year so this is a bit of a change. I do like going back to my roots-I used to pretty much build MTB frames all the time back in the '80's and '90's. 

This one will be paired to a 120-130 travel fork and see duty in the Sierra foothills most likely.

 

Gravel bike for local with 'Covid' build

So- what is the Covid build, you might ask ? It is simply this- use what you can get at the time you can get it. This bike is a classic example of that- making a bike out of a mix of stuff that was available at the time. In this case , the customer found a slightly used Dura Ace hydraulic group for sale used. I just happened to have a set of Shimano GRX wheels in stock, along with a set of flared Marin branded handlebars. The rest of the stuff was able to be ordered. 

The result : A 700x40 gravel bike with the fancy drive train and some lower priced but solid tubeless wheels. This bike will be on the dirt roads and trails of the Santa Cruz mountains as soon as this weekend.I hope that the customer likes his 'Covid' build. 

 

2021 might be the year of the 650 gravel bike

Here's an example bound for southern Calif. and the Santa Monica mountains. The tires are Maxxis 47's and fit in the frame well. The parts were not easy to come by as Covid has made bikes hugely popular and suppliers have been drained at all levels. I was able to make this nearly all GRX 810 with the exception of Praxis cranks and BB, a very good substitution in my experience. 

The customer opted for Santa Cruz select-25 carbon wheels laced to Industry-9 Torch hubs . This is literally putting the money where the rubber meets the road-make the bigger expense on the build something that really counts in terms of ride quality. I did not get a chance to ride this bike before boxing it up but I'm sure that it is quick.

The last detail is the Jen Green copper headbadge, always a nice touch. The Easton cockpit is solid and the seatpost has what I consider to be the best design on the market-easy to install and adjust the saddle- an example of something done thoughtfully for the end user and mechanic.

 

Steel 29er frame for Sierra foothills

I built a 29er frame for this customer in 2014. He was diagnosed with cancer while he was waiting for his build to come up. He got treatment and had me proceed with the build. He recovered from the cancer and rode the bike a lot over the last six years.

Right after he recovered from cancer he moved out of the area and up into the foothills as he had just retired from his job as a bus driver. The area where he lives was in the path of one of the big fires last year and he lost his house and the bike I built for him.

Fortunately, he had good insurance so the house will get rebuilt and he ordered a new frame. I'll be doing the full build if I can get the parts he wants- no easy task these days when everything is on backorder. Still, I feel happy that this customer will have one of my bikes again to ride in the sparsely populated woods where he lives. 
 

Goodbye to my CX bike

 This was not an easy bike to let go-my race bike for most of my racing of the past 15 seasons. I had had it hanging on a hook for quite awhile and only pulled it down in the last few weeks. I did a few good rides on it and remembered what a good bike it was , especially as I had done a pretty complete tuneup of it before it was taken out of service for the most part. The only races I have ever won in CX (2) were on this bike. My best races were all on this bike- not to take anything away from my newer bike but I don't seem to go as fast any more. 

Since I have been getting ready to move my shop I have started letting go of things that I thought I would keep forever. This bike was one of those things-GX-2 Scandium made in the USA, the best non-ferrous material I have ever worked with and long out of production. I will not ever be able to replicate this frame again-I'll have to make the best out of what is available now. Someone came by the shop and was the perfect person to pass this bike on to so I do feel good about that. Goodbye, old friend.....it was a hell of a ride as they say. I hope that the new owner has the same feeling when he rides the bike that I had all those years. 

All-road commuter-tourer aluminum frame with steel fork for N.Y. state

This frame and fork have a lot of fittings: Rack mounts, fender eyelets, generator light routing and three bottles. There's even a single mount for a rear light. 

This will be set up with flat mount disc brakes and should do a variety of duties. 

Sorry about the blur in this last photo- old guy with a cell phone syndrome. 
 

SSCX with geared option in steel

How about this ? Want to race.....want to commute.....want to just rally around ? Here's a way to do it all.

And yes- rim brakes are not dead. Looks like this one will get some sort of mini-V setup. There's something nice about simplcity-come to think of it I just rode my 15 year old rim brake CX bike today. I have been riding it a lot in the last couple of months after not touching it in nearly two years. 

As long as you aren't in the deep mud or going down some sketchy non-CX bike downhill rim brakes will work fine. Hey, that's just my take on it. Not saying anything bad about disc brakes or thru-axles or any of that stuff.......it's just that a good rim brake bike is still a good bike, even if it isn't the most modern.