Bob Brown Cycles Blog

get fit!

2011-10-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

For anyone curious, the 953 road frame is still available, and if you're interested, but don't like the subtle etched logos, I can also update it with my Team-issue decals (orange panels).

I've also got a brand new Kinetic Rock and Roll trainer (in the box) with the pivoting front wheel stand as well. I bought it last year, but never used it (i'd rather be out xc-skiing) and it's just collecting dust. These are about as good as a trainer gets, the Rock and roll let's you get out of the saddle and rock the bike on the trainer.
$375 take it home. This one is probably best for local pick-up, but I can ship it if you like.

And if anyone local is interested I've got a Nordic Track ski machine that's free to a good home. Works great.

Just in time for winter!

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used 953 frame for sale!

2011-10-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

Well, the great sell-off has been incredibly successful, so I'm listing a frame here for a customer. This is a rare chance to get a 953 stainless steel frame today with no wait! Attitude blog readers will recognize this frame as it originally belonged to me. It currently belongs to a customer and he's looking to sell the frame, fork, headset and seatpost. (I put pictures of the complete bike for reference only). He's looking for $1600 for the package, which is an incredible deal.

This is a 58 x 58cm frame. 100% 953 tubing with a lot of special details. Custom carved slant six lugs with "B" logo carved into the headlug. Top-tube is round-oval-round. The seatstay attachment is very unique, fastback style with a hidden binder all bare stainless. Tubing is double oversize with 19mm seatstays. This frame is on the stiffer side for 953 as it's early tubing and the wall thickness was slightly over spec. Very good for a rider 170-220 lbs.

The frame is currently in my shop and I can send you detailed pictures of anything you like. There are a couple of scuffs on the drive side seatstay, but nothing serious. I can probably rub them out before shipping.

The fork is a Reynolds Ouzo pro carbon in nearly perfect condition. Seatpost is Reynolds Ouzo comp carbon post in very good condition. Headset is cane creek S-60, works perfectly. If a buyer would like a complete bike, I can certainly provide a build package and assemble the bike.

In other news, I just finished another stainless steel frame and 2 more africa bikes. The big news is that the africa bikes are no longer secret, so looks for pics here soon and blatant pleas for donations to keep the project moving!

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more sellin'

2011-09-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

Well the 29'er went fast once I got it painted. So I figured I'd post a bit more and let you know I'll have a 58cm 953 frame posted here real soon. It's used, belongs to a customer, but he's looking to sell, details soon.

Here's some other stuff, some is already listed on ebay, some will be going on this week.

Campy Record 175 cranks with rings. Cranks are pretty shoe scuffed but perfectly funtional. Rings are good. $60

Sampson Road cranks, 175mm & BB. Cranks are used but spectacular condition. Really, really shiny and beautiful. You wont find a nicer example of cool cnc vintage cranks. Threads and tapers are perfect. BB is brand new sealed cartridge type, 86mm english thread. $150

Cinelli LUX stem, Brand new, ti grey finish. 90mm x 0 degree, 31.8mm clamps on both ends. $20

Reynolds Ouzo Race stem, lightly used 105mm x 5 degree, 31.8 clamps both ends. $25

Race Face Cadence stem, Brand new, 70mm x 5 degree. 31.8 clamps both ends $15

Race Face Dues stem, Brand new, 130mm x 5 degree, polished, really nice! $20

Ritchey Classic Stem, New In Box. 90mm x 6 degree, truly beautiful! 31.8mm clamps both ends. $50

Truvative 104mm Tange Techno Glide carbon fiber headset. Used but very nice, sealed bearings, very smooth, really cool looking. $45

bcd chainrings. 44, 32, 22t brand new, taken off a Noir crank. $40/set

Race Face 36t chainring, New in Box. ramped and pinned, very nice $25

IRD-Shimano 10 speed cassette, brand new 11-23 fits any shimano freehub. Great deal $25

IRD Alpina F front derailleur, brand new. 31.8 clamp. $15

Truvative GPX BB, english thread, fits 68 or 73mm shells. Fits any GPX crank. used $15

Shimano UN54 BB, Brand new in box 68 x 107mm, english thread $20

Brand new singlespeed cassette hub. 32 hole, 135mm silver, not sure of brand, but nice sealed bearings. I will throw in a cog as well from a large selection of sizes. $25

Control Tech canti brakes. used, but good shape. All parts are included, this is a full bikes' worth. Super light, super trick from back in the day. I've been harding these for a while because I love 'em, but I've got enough high end canti's to hold me over. Won't even charge extra for the picture being upside down!
$125.

Modolo speedy-flash brake kit. There's lots in here if you're an modolo guy! it's been sitting a while but still chock full o parts. How about $35?

XTR-952 cranks. 175mm, used, but good shape. there's some flaking of the anno around the pedal holes but it's only cosmetic. threads and splines are great. 46t ring/spider included. I bought these to polish them out, but never got around to it. $60 or if you want them polished $125.

I also have a spare used (but good good shape) 46t ring for these that I'll sell for $20

Brand new Camelbak Mule NV 100oz, green. Still has tags on it, I won it last year but I've already got 3 camelbaks. Don't need 4. $60 takes it, it's $100 new.

Non-bike type stuff: Astute readers will know I recently sold my jetta and I've ordered a new car. But won't need to move any of the car stereo to the new car, so here's some of what I have. I'd be happy to make a package deal on any or all of this.

JL Audio 10W6 drive and custom made enclosure to fit in the under-trunk compartment of a 1999-2005 Jetta. It'll fit in any jetta of that era and be totally hidden under the trunk floor. Or at this price just buy it for the driver and make your own box for your car. sounds incredible. $150.

Alpine CDA-9885 Cd/MP3 receiver with Alpine Full Speed Ahead Ipod contol cable and Alpine Tua- T500HD HD radio receiver. This thing will do it all, CD, mp3, ipod, HD radio, satellite radio, bluetooth. Allow you to control ipod from the receiver, so you can leave your ipod in the glove box safely hidden. 6 pre-amp outputs. HD radio is great in the cities, lots of stations and lots of multicast stations in our area. $250 takes the whole pacakge

MTX Thunder 4325 4 channel amp. Very, very nice high-current amp from back in the day. Performance certificate from the factory shows the actual measured output. I had 2 channels bridged running the sub and 2 channels running my front component speakers. The sound is amazing. $250

Alpine CDA 7832. Older and has been sitting in my basement for a few years. I did power it up and everything seems to work fine. 6 preamp outputs, all 4v! CD, changer control, can run an ipod with available alpine ai-net connection cord. Really nice, just older model. $60

Audiosource AMP1 80w x 2 channel home amplifier. Again, older model, which has the cool meters on it (new version got rid of these). Works great, can be bridged to 200w mono use if you want to run a home theater sub with it. $85

That's what I have for today, heck let me know if you need something I might have it laying around....

29'er going on the 'bay

2011-09-11T12:14:00.000-07:00

It's painted and heading to ebay. Last chance (I hope) to grab this one. It's a great dark grey pearl paint which really pops in the sun. Decals are black with gold outline to match the gold lettering on the Raceface Duece seatpost which is included. I can also change the decals to the orange Kenwood team panel style, which would look great on that grey paint. Last chance price is $1100

This is a brand new frame, 29'er, 20" seat-tube, 24.3" effective top-tube, suspension corrected for 80mm fork, Rohloff sliding dropouts, disc brake. Race Face Duece Seatpost is included.

It will be listed on ebay today so act fast, or feel free to bid on the auction.

In the sunlight the paint really sparkles!

clean out

2011-09-07T19:43:00.000-07:00

Too much stuff around the shop still and not enough cash. Things are going on ebay this week, but here's the listing incase anyone want's anything before the auction block. Email me for pictures of anything, there's too much here for me to post pics of everything.

Sampson Stratic's cranks & BB, used but these are about as close to brand new as you'll find for vintage cranks. Polished finish, 175mm, 130mm bcd. BB is brand new sinz 118mm. I had these slated for a bike project, but they've been sitting around for a few years now. email for pics, they're truly beautiful! $150, or $175 with used (but nice) shimano 53-39 rings.

Campy Record 175mm alloy cranks with rings. These are well used, perfectly functional, but lots of shoe marks. The rings are worth the price alone $60

XTR 952 cranks, used good shape but some cosmetic marks around pedal eye. With 46t big ring/spider installed: $65

Brand new Sanyo dynamo hub with used B & M lumotec halogen headlamp. the wiring needs some radio-shack type plugs to make the lamp fit the hub, but that's easy. $100 get's both

UN54 BB 68 x 107, brand new in the box $18
Ritchey Classic stem, beautiful polished finish, new in box 90mm x 6 degree $50
Race face Duece stem, polished, brand new, 130mm x 5 degree, 31.8 clamps $20
Race face Cadence stem, black, brand new 70mm x 5 degree, 31.8 clamps $15
Reynolds Ouzo Race stem, black, lightly used, really light 105mm x 5 degree $25
Cinelli Lux stem, gray, new, 90mm x 5 degree $20
Tange carbon fiber headset 1 1/8" threadless, lightly used, great shape $50
Truvative GPX BB, english, used but good $15
Truvative chainrings, 104mm bcd, 44, 32, 22t all brand new, taken off Noir cranks $45/set
Raceface chainring 104mm bcd, 36t silver, brand new in the package $25
Rennen singlespeed chainring, 34t, 104mm bcd, new in package, $30
XTR 952 chainring, 46t with spider, used but these are getting rare and has lots of life left $25
IRD 10 speed cassette, shimano compatible, brand new, 11-23 $25
Dia-compe 987 cantilever brakes. A full bike's worth with pads. Black, used $25
Control Tech canti brakes, black. Fully machined, super light, super nice, used but like new. This is a full bike's worth with hangers and all parts. Really rare, really nice $125 takes them all.
Singlespeed hub, not sure of the brand but it's a silver 32 hole cassette hub, shimano spline. Looks brand new, bearings are smooth. $30

Again, email for pics or details. better pricing if you want a few items, save me the hassle of listing all this stuff on ebay!

thanks,

Bob

stainless, lots of it.

2011-08-03T18:51:00.000-07:00

Finally finished another stainless one. Tubing delivery has been terrible, I'm trying KVA next folks. This one has a stainless fork to match and a PF30 BB shell made from scratch.

buy stuff!

2011-07-07T17:18:00.000-07:00

Hey, 29'er frame is still for sale. I'd really prefer to sell it so I can pay my insurance this year so how about $1000 out the door? any takers, that's a steal!

Also, I updated my web store a little bit and there's a sale!

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/store.aspx?s=bobbrowncycles

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every 6 months

2011-06-01T15:25:00.000-07:00

I should make a blog post every 6 months whether I need it or not....

Yeah, I'm still kickin' just not writtin'. Still building bikes too, but lately it's been really focused on the Africa bike project. There's 2 reasons for that, first off, Reynolds is killing me on delivering 953, and all my next frames in the que are stainless, and the africa bike is really cool. I wish I could post pics, but it's still under wraps. I'm on revision 3 of the protoyping now.

Here's some pics I can show though, a repaint I just finished, patina'd copper!

It's mighty unique.

In other news, I'm swamped. Not just with bike stuff, but with life. And to be honest almost everything related to bikes has become very difficult this spring. I tore a few ligaments in Feb in a snowboarding accident and my ankle just hasn't healed. So I've been off the bike for a while and it's getting to me.

The short version is I've decided to stop taking orders for a while. I have a huge backlog and I need to work through it. So if you inquire I'm probably going to point you to someone else. I'm still doing couplers and other jobs, but I just can't take on more frames until I get through some of my backlog.

out for now.

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20" 29'er for grabs!

2011-01-25T07:54:00.000-08:00

This is a rare opportunity. I had a customer back out on this frame after it was half built last year. I finally got around to finishing it up and am now offering it for sale. It's brand spankin' new and currently sitting in my shop with just primer so it can be painted however you want! This is a really rare oppiortunity to get a brand new frame from me without the 18 month wait in line.

This one is a fully lugged, 29'er. 20" seat-tube, 24.3" effective top tube with a 12 degree slop on the top tube. Standover height at center of top tube is 33" It's designed around an 80mm suspension fork, or I can build a matching rigid fork for it. It's got Rohloff sliding dropouts, so perfect for both singlespeed and geared use. Disc brake only on the rear (but I could add canti posts). It's built from a mixture of Columbus Zona and True-temper tubing, including a custom curved downtube.

Email me for more specifics and full geometry if you're serious. I'm thinking $1500 for the frame with your choice of paint. For those not familiar with my pricing, that is a smoking deal if this is your size. If you ordered this frame custom from me it would be $2500.

buy yourself something nice...

2010-12-07T09:40:00.000-08:00

Year end is coming and I need to clear out some stuff.

Ritchey Carbon Superlogic Evolution Bars 42cm. These are very lightly used, they look brand new other than a very small blem in the "w" of WCS as shown in the pics. Otherwise not a single nick, scuff or anything! they were used mostly for show on a race bike, but they just don't look right on my personal luged steel road bike! Steal 'em away at $160. Superlight, super comfy.

I also have a 110mm matching ritchey WCS carbon stem to go with it. $85

Campy Record cranks 175mm, used. Arms are scuffed but very functional. Rings are good. $70 takes 'em, the rings alone are worth more.

IRD Front derailleur. Brand new 31.8 clamp-on or braze on. $25

M952 XTR cranks, 175mm with 46t ring. Used, but good shape other than finish is chipped near the pedal hole. Just a cosmetic issue that's largely hidden once a pedal is installed. splines and threads are good. $65

XTR 952 46t chainring, spideless. These are getting harder to find, good condition $35

Spider for XTR m952 cranks to run non-spiderless rings. Brand new $25

Truvative Noir ring set, brand new. 44, 32, 22 104mm bcd, very nice $30

IRD Shimano 10 speed cassette 11-23, brand new. $25

Rennen singlespeed chainring 104mm bcd, 34t. Brand new, very nice $30

Sram Carbon Brake levers. These are truly like new, but have been mounted and ridden three times. Perfect, indistinguishable from new. $80

Carbon drive 50t ring, used, but tons of life left. $50

Carbon drive 20t cog with custom guide plate. Very good condition $40

Sampsom Stratics crankset and BB 175mm. These are a rare find, especially in this condition. They look like new, but are lightly used. Mirror polish finish. Includes brand new sealed BB. Shown with shimano 39 ring, can also include a matching shimano 52 ring for a nice double crank set-up. $150 You won't find another set this nice!

Stems!
Race Face Deus polished in 130mm x 5 degree Brand new $25
Reynolds Ouzo Race 120mm x 5 degree black gently used $20
Cinelli Lux dark silver 90mm x 0 degree lightly used, excellent $25
Race Face Cadence 70mm x 7 degree, new $20

Andy Stockman

2010-10-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

Sorry to have to post this, but Andy if by any chance you read this, please give me a call. Your email address keeps bouncing and I don't have a current Phone # for you.

Thanks,

Bob

cross

2010-10-01T06:23:00.001-07:00

40 miles.

2010-09-19T18:05:00.001-07:00

Finally, it all came together at the right time. Right stoker+right bike+right course=podium.

Man it was a great race. Keven and I only managed to get in 3 rides together on the tandem prior to Sat, but I think we felt like we'd be alright. We both were pretty casual about the race even through the start, I don't think we figured we'd really do much out there. Particularly after finding out at the start that Schmeichel and Bergman we riding tandem as well as Sandburg and Schow. Those guys can put out some horsepower and we figured between them and the Eppins we'd be fighting for 3rd or 4th.

Right off the start I was surprised how easily the front of the pack showed up. Eppins were out front leading and we easily rode the outside edge of the pack moving up near the front. As we went into Rosie's I heard a huge gnashing of gears and saw a yellow tandem pulling off with a mechanical. Pace was pretty fast through rosies and as we started the climbs I could feel we were in a good spot, just behind the Eppins but in front of the others. Then a really unexpected sight, the Eppins on the side of the trail with a derailed timing chain, we scoot into the tandem lead.

I've never been this far up at Cheq and the pace was pretty much what I expected, fast. But we were rolling well and I felt pretty good keeping the pace. About 20 miles in I was starting to feel my quads, not bad, but enough to know I probably needed to cool things down to save some juice for firetower and beyond. Fortunately Keven still had a lot of gas in his tank, so I backed off a touch and we still maintained. About the same time the Eppins rocketed by like we were standing still. Time to get going...

We kept them in sight for quite a while, they were leading the pack in front of us for the next five miles or so. Keven kept the gas going and we kept moving well, but then we hit the mud. Things got slick and we kept moving fast, too fast. I layed it down somewhere before firetower. Full speed front wheel washout in a mud rut, suddenly there was a tree coming at us fast! We got up pretty quick, Chef was good to go, I knocked my knee pretty good on the top tube, but felt fine. The bigger problem was the awkward landing kicked my quad into cramp mode. worked on spinning it out while chef put down some good power. We played it a bit cooler on the corners from here on out.

Firetower came fast, for some reason I thought it was about 5 miles from the end but it's 10. So there we were, I'm still cramping and we hit the climb. Ran out of traction early so we got off and ran. Chef took the bike while I ran out the cramps. Amazingly it seemed to work, we ran the whole climb and I felt better by the top. The next 8 miles is big rollers and lots of climbs. We worked it well, rocking the downhills and maintaining on the climbs. Finally the last fast road section was incredible. Probably the fastest section I've ridden on tandem. We made up a lot of places and were flying by people at about 35mph. Crested Mt Telemark and flew down the final descent into Telemark. The last turn into the finish is incredibly wide, but I still had to scrub some speed to make it. Kept it going into the chute. 2:26:30. It was another 17 minutes till the next tandem. Nice riding Keven, thanks for carrying me out there!

Now let's get onto 'cross...

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in the air

2010-09-14T10:56:00.000-07:00

Can you smell it? That's 'cross in the air, I can feel it every night coming in the open window in my room. That means cross bikes, finishing up two this week.
2010 is looking like it's going to be a banner year for cx in MN, especially when it comes to local framebuilders. Won't say more than that, but look for awesomeness out there.

But before cross we gotta get through Chequomegon. I'm primed this year, just came back from a great race at the Dakota 5-0 labor day and I've got a hot-rod stoker for the race this year. Going big on tires this year with the 2.4 up front:With the maverick fork, it looks like I'm on a moto bike when I look down! Rawk.

And since it's been a while since I posted, here's a race recap from the Dakota 5-0: Singlespeed, singletrack heaven, bump fast decent rigid bike hell. I'll be going back, but probably with some kind of boing on my bike, my back still hurts from the rigid fork. Killer race though, do it.

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Minnecycle

2010-08-12T12:24:00.000-07:00

Well, Minnecycle 2 happened. For those that don't know, that's the quaint gathering of twin cities framebuilders and bike related artists to show our wares.

It was a great show, lots of bikes, lots of art, could have used a few people on Sat, but Friday night was great. Here's the pictorial:

The man that put it together:

All in all, a good time. Thanks Eric and all those that came out.

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direction

2010-06-24T11:48:00.001-07:00

Things have been going, and going fast around here. Lots going on, it seems I never have time to write here much but rest assured the bikes are still being made. In fact, here's one I've had under wraps:

Just finished up building a handcycle for a great customer. Now don't go thinking I'll make you one, this was a special circumstance and I have no intention of building any more. I'll try to get some pics of it tonight.

My biggest project lately is one I can't really disclose a lot about. But here's the gist. I'm working with a non-profit to design and built the protoypes of a cargo bike that will be manufactured in Tanzania. We're actually going to be building a factory over there to employ locals to produce this product for locals. The overall plan and concept is spectacularly logical, which is why I'm supporting it. Unfortunately it take a lot of my time right now, but so far it hasn't really interrupted my regular production que.

We have the first prototype just about complete now and I wish I could post pictures as it's awesome! But those will have to wait until the official release. Now in the meantime I figured I'd let you know that most of the profits generated by BBC this year will be going towards this project in one way or another. Whether it's purchasing raw materials, components, or hopefully sending me to Tanzania for product testing, your money is by in large going to support a great cause.

For more info on the non-profit, take a look here:

http://www.cheetahdevelopment.org/

anyways, that's all for now

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ex.

2010-04-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

Well, made it thought the bike expo this weekend. It was a far cry from what the organizer's claimed for attendance, but actually better than I was expecting. Met a lot of people, hopefully a few that will someday buy bikes.

Of the things that stick out in my mind, the one that surprised me the most what the sheer number of people that stopped by the booth and were genuinely shocked that I was Bob Brown. As if they assumed I have a whole brood of marketing peons whom I can send around the country to trade shows and such. It's just me, really, a one-man-show. Or maybe they were shocked that Bob Brown was manning the booth of world-famous bicycle company Bob Borown Cycles LLC:
Truth is, I do have a brood of marketing geniuses running the show for me, and here's photographic proof:
From left to right, Paul Wyganowski, Dave Anderson, and Erik Noren (peacock groove) all just hanging out in my booth. Actually, Paul and Erik were working the booth next to me and Dave stopped by to visit and helped me take down the booth (thanks Dave!). talking to Erik and Paul all weekend really got me fired up for Minnecycle 2, it's coming folks, and I'll be there. It'll be great. More info to come!

Thanks to everyone that stopped by,

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Housekeeping

2010-03-29T14:12:00.001-07:00

Got a few items that I'd like to move out, let me know if you want 'em. shipping not included.

White Brothers Rock solid 29'er fork. This is the 465mm a-c version, which fits suspension corrected 29'ers. Disc only, post mount. Steerer is 7.75" long. This is as close to brand new as you get without it being in a box. It was on a show bike, ridden about 3 times then taken off. Looks brand new other than the lawyer lips have been filed off the dropouts for easy wheel removal. It's light, 810 grams actual weight on this one! $225

Used campy record crankset. 175mm arms, 53 39 rings. Condition is clearly used, but perfectly functional. The rings have a lot of life left in them and look better than the arms. Arms are in ok shape, 100% struturally sound, but heavy shoe rub marks and some cosmetic pitting. Probably would look good with some elbow grease and a buffing wheel. How about $80, which is far less than you'd pay for chainrings for these.

Singlespeed hubset. Front is used white industries hub, 32 hole, good shape, smooth bearings. Rear is a brand new Rockworks brand hub, 32 hole shimano singlepseed cassette body. Very smooth cartridge bearing hub. How about $75 for the pair. Might be willing to separate if you only want one.

Raceface Revolution stem. 130mm x 8 degree, flippable logos, 31.8mm bar. Brand new in the box $20

IRD Alpina F triple front derailleur. Brand new, in the bag with tag on. 31.8 clamp or braze-on style, nice triple front derailleur designed for road rings. $30

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workin it

2010-03-17T07:58:00.000-07:00

I've been busy. finished up 2 frames this week, got another half built. Here's a little red rocket:

953 frame, everything stainless, polished everything.

The chainstays and seatstays are polished, but 953 doesn't lend itself well to polishing, hence you can see some small scratch marks. The material is just too hard to be practical when it comes to getting a true mirror finish from polishing, but it's not a bad look.

Then there's this fun singlespeed 'cross frame. It might look familiar since it has the same paint scheme as my personal cross bike.

Neat track dropouts with built in adjusters, much better looking than the Paul's dropouts. I'll be working on making some of these in stainless steel soon. I leave the dropout faces with just primer as the axle nuts tend to really gouge up these candy color paint jobs.

Chrome paint on the lugs and crown

Well, back to it. Still have lots to do.

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call me!

2010-02-25T15:46:00.000-08:00

If your name is Bob and you live in Apple Valley and have been trying to reach me about a new frame. My phone died and with it went your number. If by chance you're reading, please give me another call.

Thanks,

Bob

an extra dallop of elbow grease

2010-02-21T17:43:00.001-08:00

Polish, polish polish. That was the order of the day. This one is going to have a lot of bling. Polished lugs, couplers, shift bosses, chainstays and seatstays. Paint coming soon!

Despite the quiet on the blog, the shop is in full business mode. 2 more frames in the works currently as well as this one. pics soon.

just because I'm not writing much...

2010-02-01T07:53:00.000-08:00

Doesn't mean I'm not working. Just been too busy to take pics and write much. It's been S & S central around the shop lately. I think I've ordered from them every week for the last 2 months. Just finished up 2 more this week including this cute little voo-doo with a full repaint:
They've got some unique sliders they use, very functional and cool,I also had to add some adjustable disc tabs to a singlespeed frame . I machined up some nice tabs with slotted, raised faces for the caliper mount. I think it came out pretty good.

I'm also making good headway on the next 953 frame. Reynolds has eben killing me with delivery of raw material, but hopefully they've got that issue taken care of and the stainless will keep flowing. Look for pics soon.

Bob

hero

2009-12-08T18:17:00.000-08:00

first off, you should buy the Dec bicycling mag. I wouldn't usually recommend something like that, but there's a great story about the Large Fella in it.

In the meantime, here's a link to some more pics that weren't in the mag:

http://www.bicycling.com/bke/slide/home/1,8155,s1-1-81-0,00.html

He's the man.

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tandem

2009-11-13T07:45:00.001-08:00

Well, just about done with this one, another fully lugged S & S tandem! Here's a couple of pics for a preview of the lugs after paint.

It's looking really good, just need to unmask the couplers and it'll be ready for assembly. If it looks kind of familiar, that's because it's almost the same paint job as my personal lugged S & S tandem. But this one has a few notable improvements that I hope mine will have someday. All the cable routing has been designed to come off the frame using only one set of cable splitters, which makes packing much easier. The lugs are a little different style, I prefer this new seat-lug style. And of course the geometry is fit to the new owners.

On a totally unrelated note, all those pics were takes with my new phone. I picked up a new droid eris to replace my dying cell phone and I'm loving it. I need to adjust the white balance a little for the fluorescent lighting in my shop, but I can actually do that on the phone. Pretty nice, it seems to be a pretty fun toy thus far.

State CX chamionships this weekend! I probably won't be racing due to ongoing foot-issues, but I'll be there cheering. Hope to see you out there.

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lead

2009-10-23T09:11:00.001-07:00

Went to the Leadville flick last night. It was good, the footage was pretty spectacular and I'll probably buy the dvd, but there was about 1 sec total coverage of tandems. In the first 15 minutes of the actual race coverage there was a quick shot of us climbing St. Kevens. That was it for the entire movie. I was pretty surprized that a film highlighting how grueling the event really is didn't even mention those of us dumb enough to make it even harder by riding tandem.

Still worth seeing if you can.

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tandem

2009-10-06T05:56:00.000-07:00

Coming soon, another fully lugged, S & S BBC tandem! I've been working on this one for a while, these are pretty much as labor intensive as custom bikes get. I make most of the lugs from scratch, which is as big of a job as building an entire frame. I'm really happy with how quickly this bike has been going together. I've really learned a lot over the years making lugs from scratch. I can honestly say I'm down to about 1/4 the time to fabricate a lug than the first time I tried one of these bikes. Having a new tig really helps on that front. I can jig up the frame with all the lug parts assembled then tig tack the lugs together while they're on the frame. That pretty well assures the lug angles are perfect.

Once they're tacked I take them apart and fillet braze the joint. After that, I carve the points and bore out the ID to fit the tubes perfectly. Having proper machine tools and figuring out a method to bore and mill the lugs after brazing has really helped me too.

I usually install all the S & S couplers in the tubes before I build the frame. Some guys do it after, I prefer before since I have a handy jig that holds the tube in perfect alignment. That makes it really easy. Here's a big boom tube getting a really big coupler 1.75"!

Once I have all the couplers in, tubes mitered, and lugs finished, it's time to assemble and flux. Here's the frame ready for brazing. Just preping the tube ends, fluxing and re-assembling the whole thing in my jig can take a couple hours, but when it's ready to braze, the lugs fit up perfectly and all the tubes are in perfect alignment. You'll note the c-clamp on the head tube to hold the lateral tub lug in place. That lug doesn't wrap around the headtube, so it's needs to be secured for tacking.I started out with a full container of flux. Here it is after fluxing one frame:

I'll also go through several Oz. of silver on just this main triangle. There's a whole lotta lugs on there. If you click on the full frame pic you'll also see how I do my extended heatubes these days. I pre-braze a sleeve on the headtube, then turn the whole thing down on my lathe to make it match up to the upper headlug. It makes brazing the lug easier later on.

In other news, I haven't been on a bike in over 2 weeks. I don't like that. Gonna try to make it out to the Wirth 'cross race this weekend, hopefully I can get on a bike before then. Otherwise look for me, I'll be the guy cramping up at the back of the B race pack...

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953 with paint.

2009-09-21T11:10:00.001-07:00

Just finished the paint on this one, full stainless steel frame with stainless fork crown.

I like the blue, it adds some nice color to what otherwise tend's to be the industrial look of full 953 frames.

I finished up 4 paint jobs this weekend, talk about busy. But it's always good to get work out of the shop. I'm slowly working on catching up on my backlog of stuff from the last year of turmoil. Next up is a fully lugged tandem that the future owners have been more-than patiently waiting for.

On a totally unrelated note, I have the barter of the century for someone if they have what I want. I've got a set of nearly new Record skeleton brakes, which are fantastic brakes. Only problem is they're black and I want polished brakes on my personal bike. So if anyone out there has a set of new or like new Chorus skeleton brakes or like new old polished record brakes (the pre-skeleton style), I'll swap ya. Or I'll sell 'em straight out for $175.

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picture show

2009-09-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

Finally got my shop computer de-virused and fully operational again. So to celebrate, here's a bunch of pictures:

Here's what happens when you have too little brake pad area on your discs at Leadville. Tore 'em up good, even removed some chunks of metal from rotor! I think the race may have been a bit too much for the avids. One thing I know for sure, Avid pads are 100000% better than any aftermarket pads. Clarks's brand seem to be the bottom of the barrel. We completely burned up a set of Clark's pads in one decent. the Kool-stops made it through a few hours more, and the Avid OEM pads held up for multiple rides.

Onto new stuff, here's a 953 frame I'm finishing up right now. It's just about set for paint. This one is getting partially painted. I think it'll be a great looking bike!
All stainless with stainless couplers:

The headtube and headlugs will be painted to add some color. Fork blades will also get painted to match.

Regular 4130 fork blades though, so those need paint. Still no stainless for blade options....
Here's one I finshed up a few months ago but never posted pics of. Paint is "Black Pearl"
Sach's lugs, always nice. Double taper seatstays to keep the seatlug attachment looking good.

Rare fork crown for 24mm round blades. Looks really nice and skinny.
"B" brazed onto the brake bridge
The paint really pops in the sunlight, it's actually a rainbow effect of sparkles!

results

2009-08-21T18:16:00.000-07:00

Alright, I keep getting bugged to post something about the race, so here goes.

We finished. That was the main goal, so mission accomplished. Unfortunately we finished 4 minutes over the 12 hour mark, which is the official cutoff for the belt buckle. So we went home buckle-less, but feeling pretty good about finishing.

The start was fairly miserable with 38 degrees and rain for the first 15-20 miles. It kind of demorialized me a bit, but Robin just kept going, which helped get me back on track. She's waaaay tough. Descending the powerline was pretty incredible. Rain and mud made it almost impossible for me to see, and it was a solid line of people going down, so I couldn't really let the bike run. It handle so much better with some speed, so the low speed maneuvering around the washouts and ruts was tedious. But we made it down safe and sound.
After the first aid station, things picked up, I started feeling better, this section always feels pretty good since there's a lot of slightly downhill road. Cruised to the dam feeling alright, and headed up to Columbine.
This is the biggest climb on the course (but not the hardest). 10 miles, 3700 ft. We ground out the whole dirt road section pretty well. Had to use the granny a bit but overall, we stayed in higher gears and made up some time. As usual most people we walking the 2 miles from where the road ends to the turn around point and we had to walk a lot of it. It felt pretty good though to get off and stretch the legs by walking. Just to put this in perspective, even the first year I did the race and was on 8:30 pace, everyone was walking this section.
We stopped at the top, got some food, put on more clothes and get ready for a long descent. In hindsight, we spent too long on top and should have just grabbed food quick and left. It started sleeting on us at the stop things were cooling off.
10 miles flying down the mountain wizzed by, brake pads were totally glazed over by the bottom, but they were still working (just noisy). Hit the aid station and then hit the road to powerline.
At this point I was fearing we wouldn't make the time cutoff at the last aid stop, but Robin was fearless and pressed us on. We just kept riding.

Made it to the last major aid station with plenty of time to spare and it was clear that we were actually making up time now and had a real chance to make it under 12 hours.
Unfortunately after the last aid station is when the course really hits you with both barrels. We had a short section of pavement, then right into the powerline climb. This one is truly the hardest climb on the course. Coming at mile 75 and too steep to ride in many sections. Heck, last year was even the first time Dave Weins (6 time champ) rode the thing.
So we walked for a while, rode a bit, walked a bit, rode a bit. You get the idea. Till finally we got rewarded with the killer decent down the back side towards Tourquoise lake. One thing was really consistent, we made up tons of places on every decent. go tandem.

After battling powerline for over an hour and decending down to the lake you're rewarded with a ridiculous paved climb that goes about 50' short of the gates of heaven. The only reason people don't go insane at this point is the road is paved, which feels like heaven compared to the last 80 miles...

Made it up that one too, middle ring all the way. 10 miles to go, mostly downhill and we've got almost an hour. Feeling good. We rocked down St. Kevens. Seriously, that bike rips down hills and we were passing people right and left. Made it to the "boulevard" as the call it with about 15 minutes left, but I seemed to have blocked out the fact that there's a 2 mile dirt climb to get to town and then another mile of uphill pavement after that. We were blown, but kept giving it all we had. Finally crested the paved hill and had a decent to the finish. Put it in the big ring and pedaled for all we were worth, but it was too late already. Crossed the line and saw 12:03 on the clock. damn. then somehow the official results have us at 12:04. who knows.

Anyways, we finished. Robin did incredible for her first bike race ever, what a way to start.

We both felt pretty gassed afterwards, but honestly, it was the best I had felt after any of the 4 times I've now done or attempted the race (and 2 of those times I only rode 75 miles!). We really trained well considering the lack of continous climbs in MN. Our biggest mistake was simply spending too long at stops and me taking too long to get my head in the game in the morning.

Overall, a great trip. Did I mention the next day we got in the car and marathoned it straight home, 16 hours. Amazingly our legs didn't even feel too bad after that.

I gotta give some major thanks to our incredible crew: my Dad, Alex, Steve and Amy. We wouldn't have had a chance without you all. Thanks!

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(edit) oh yeah, apparently some pro roadie did the race too and pretty much the entire internet bandwidth for leadville is used up on pictures of him. Should anyone happen to come across any pictures of us on the tandem in the race, please let me know. I know they're out there, there were tons of folks snapping, but I haven't found any as of yet.

knee deep in lead

2009-08-13T19:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm in CO now and have had a great week so far. Took the long way out here, through south dakota and wyoming. Saw more motorcycles than I've ever seen heading out from Sturgis along the way.
Monday we rolled into the mountains and headed to Vail. Stayed there for 2 nights to do some acclimating. We rode up vail on the tandem tuesday, which I think proved to be a harder climb than either of the major climbs at leadville. Incidentally, the marriot resort in lion's head has valet bike parking. Seriously, 24/7.

The next two days we did sections of the course. That helped refresh my memory, gave Robin the chance to see the course and gave our lungs a chance to remember how little oxygen there is around here. The trail seems to be in really good shape, so if the weather will stay dry we should have a great race sat.

Today was a full day, we headed out to leadville about 9am, did a little shopping as I wanted a new camelbak and Robin needed some socks and new gloves. The bike shop in town was closed, but the sporting goods store across the street was open. Much to my surprise, they had exactly what we needed at great prices. Honestly, I think they had a much better selection of usable accerories than the bike shop...
Next we drove down to the start of the columbine mine climb, but not after getting lost trying to find the dirt roads that aren't on maps which take you there. Finally find the start, get the bike set to go, and head up. Up the 3000' elevation, 8 mile long climb. About halfway up I notice that my face is really getting soaked with sweat, moreso than usual. I reach up to adjust my helmet only to discover I forgot my helmet! It's pretty much just a dirt road, so we proceed up. We climbed all the way up the road in the middle chainring, which is what I hope we can do sat. there's a few sections in the last 2 miles that require walking, but during the race that whole part seems to turn into a line of walkers.
Get to the top and turn around to start the descent, sans helmet. Needless to say I had to take it a little easy going down the rocky sections, but we made it safe and sound.
Drive out a couple miles of dirt roads to get back on pavement and head back to town. Just about as soon as we hit pavement the car starts making a crazy loud sound. First thought is flat tire, so I pull over. But I noticed the sound stopped when I shut off the car, not when I stopped moving, maybe a thrown belt? nope. Downpipe on the exhaust broke loose from the flange, so the engine exhaust was going right into the engine compartment instead of through the muffler, truly deafening.
We pull into leadville and find a repair shop that looks pretty much just like a junk yard. I talk to the guy and he's willing to take a look. I figure it's best to do that today since he'll probably have to order VW parts from denver. Leave the car with him, go eat lunch and walk around leadville. Come back an hour and a half later expecting some bad news and the guys says "it's done". He welded up the flange, sounds great. $80 and we're on our way, I couldn't believe it.
From there we high-tailed it to breckenridge for massages. Not just massages, but the best damn massages either of us have ever had, wish we could take these guys back to MN.

finally, back to copper mtn for dinner and sleep.

tomorrow: rest.

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out

2009-08-07T12:49:00.000-07:00

Heading to Leadville, so the shop's closed till the 16th. I probably won't be checking emails much during this time, so don't be put off if you don't get a response back right away.

I think I've got the bike all dialed in for the race. The last 2 weeks has been almost constant tweaks to get things ready. I wish I thought my butt was ready for 12 hours straight on tandem, but it'll have to deal. New chain, cassette, rings, rebuilt the fork with heavier oil, got all the creaks worked out. I switched the rings out to 22-30-44, so with the 11-34 cassette, that'll give us a huge range. The gears sound really low, but I'm running 29 x 2.5" tires which give huge wheel diameters, and I remember how much walking was involved in my last tandem attempt and I hope the really low gears will help.

Maybe I'll start to have more time to post here once we can slow down on the training. I forgot how much time this race consumes.

out.

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Buckin' stupid.

2009-07-24T06:04:00.000-07:00

Everything was falling into place yesterday. Had the electrician out of my shop by 5pm, dog was fed, bike was in the car and I was heading to buck hill for some great racing action. Drove 45 min in rush hour traffic to get there just in time for a quick pre-lap on a perfect night.

But as I pulled the bike out I realized I grabbed the wrong bag of riding gear. Instead of the bag with my shoes in it, I brought a couple jackets and gloves. No shoes = no ride. Damn, all that driving fer nuttin'.

I really hate stupid people, and I hate it even more when I'm on the top of that list...

Speaking of things that drive me nuts, Reynolds is waaaaay up on that list right now. I can't seem to get 953 tubing from them to save my life. I've got 2 frames just waiting to be built if only I could get the tubes. For now I just move ahead to other work and check the door everyday for a package from England.
Finished up an 853 single road bike, just waiting to get some good pictures if we ever get a sunny day. It's got a neat Black-pearl paint job that really pop's in direct sunlight.
In the meantime I'm starting on a fully lugged S & S tandem, should be killer!

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excess

2009-07-01T10:15:00.000-07:00

cleaning out the shop and I've got some more odds -n- ends knocking around...

XT spiderless singlespeed crankset:

I've got a pretty neat and rare singlespeed crank setup here. Shimano XT M750 arms with a Spot Brand spiderless 34t chainring. I think this was the one year they used the XTR spline for the rings on XT cranks. They're very lightly used, meaning I've ridden them twice. The ring has a little more use, but not much. It's in great shape, with years of life left. They take a square taper BB, which I'll include with the cranks, so you'll have everything you need for a sweet spiderless set-up. The finish on the arms is a nice match with the anno on the Spot ring. The pedals shown are not included. $150 takes it all.

RaceFare Revolution stem, brand new, in the box. Ordered the wrong size. 31.8 bar clamp,130mm length, 8 degree drop/rise, graphics are flip-able, 1.125" steerer. nice stem, just don't have a use for it. $35

Time Alium Atac pedals and cleats. They're used, but in real good shape. Tons o miles in these baby's. If I used Time pedals I'd keep 'em, but alas, my loss is your gain. $35.

Moustache bars. Man do I have moustache bars. 4 different sets, 3 bends. 2 sets of nitto, 25.4 clamp diameter, great condition, $40

One set of what look like nitto knock-offs, very nice, same bend but the stem clamp area is buldged for a smoother look than the nitto shim. 26.0 clamp, $35

One set of narrow M-bars that were OEM on the 1992 Bridgestone OX-2. These are 25.4mm clamp, and the tubing is smaller diameter to take MTB style brake and shift levers. They're really hard to come by. $50

ACS singlespeed happy meal. ACS clam 19t freewheel and silver singlespeed chain. A match made in heaven. both brand new in the box. $20

One pair of used Shimano brake levers. pretty nice, a couple scuffs but nothing major. great levers if you don't use integrated shifters. Perfect for that fixie or to go with a set of moustache bars above! $25

Also, I've got 2 brand new Avid brake rotors, a 140 and a 160 roundagon style. Several Avid disc caliper adaptors, 203 F & R, 160 F

Pretty well covers it for now. email me for details, shipping not included. Thanks,

Bob

snap

2009-06-12T06:37:00.000-07:00

Buck hill happened last night, it really happened. I was amped to race after a couple good rides last weekend and a few good workouts this week. I was primed, the bike was primed, the weather was perfect. The Penn boys had set a killer course, running everything backwards with lots of slow grinding climbs through the singletrack. Line up the start right behind Tomac & Stone, had a great line to get a fast start and out front before the bottleneck. Gun goes off (metaphorically), I turn 1.5 revolutions of the pedals and SNAP, I'm on the ground 'n causing everyone to try and get around me. Once the rush has passed I look down to find the belt for my bike laying on the ground. not good, it snapped:

I was completely disheartened, but felt ok despite slamming all my body weight into the top-tube. As I slowly walked back towards the parking lot, Pat Sorenson was talking to me and mentioned that they (Penn) had a 21"Superfly over at the demo tent I could use. At first I just wanted to pack it up and head out, but then I figured: when else do you get to thrash some else's $4000 carbon mtb for a full race? Off to the Penn tent I went, got the bike set-up close to fitting and I set off, about 10 minutes back from the start of the race, but I was riding. Took me almost a full lap to figure out the shifting, it's been a while since I was on a gear bike and this thing had shifter I had never used.
The superfly climbed really well, felt almost as good as my singlespeed (but not quite). Unfortunately it had the worst BB creak I've ever heard, so everytime I'd get out of the saddle, the BB would scream at me. The farther I rode the more I realized the saddle was way too low, so I ended up doing more out of the saddle riding, thus more screaming from the BB.
The geometry on that thing was odd though, considering it was the largest frame they make and I have a very short torso, the top-tube was still too short for me. I've never had that problem on a stock bike, they're always too long. Also had some pretty back swept handlebars which don't help that situation, and which I hate the feel of. All in all, not the bike for me, but I'm thankful I was able to borrow it and at least ride 4 laps.
Finished dead last, but hey I did let everyone else have a 10 minute head start....

I'm sending some pic's off to spot about the belt, and I've got another spare in the shop, so I'll probably give it another go. I suspect there was a defect in this one as one side of the failure looked different than the other in terms of how the carbon fibers broke.

(edit) since my first writing I already heard back from Carbon drive, they're sending my belt in for analysis of why it failed, but it looks like there was some kind of defect in it originally. They were quite concerned about this and making sure I wasn't hurt, and they're sending out a new belt today. I still don't think this is a flaw with the system, just happened to get one that might have been mis-handled somewhere along the way. Their customer service is truly incredible. -BB

And finally, I have done some more shop work, just haven't been updating this blog. Here's a couple lug shots of the frame I just wrapped up (but still needs paint):
They're Sach's singer lugs, but with the shorelines changed a bit. You can't see the front of the headtube but they're nice tall points out front and the side profile is cut back quite a bit. I'll post more pictures once it's painted. Otherwise this one is pretty much a straight-up road frame, nice and light though with all .7/.4/.7 853 tubing and Zero chainstays.

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new month, new post

2009-06-01T06:01:00.000-07:00

Yeah, finally a new post here. I just haven't been spending a lot of time time in the shop lately, so I haven't had much bike-wise to write about. I was on the road a bit in May including a 5 day mini vacation to Clearwater Beach. I guess I just needed to get away for a while.

The beach was great, but the rental bikes we were able to find were crap. They had exactly 1 size available. I'm 6'-1" and my sweetie is 5'-2", she fit on these bikes, you can imagine what kind of circus act I looked on them. I should have brought a bike I guess, oh well.

We've been getting out as much as possible on the tandems to try and get some Leadville training in, but I'm getting a little worried. We really need to start upping the ante on training if we're going to finish (note: my thoughts have now gone from the first tandem team to get the big buckle to just getting a silver buckle...). On the plus side, I think we're a great team for climbing. We've been hitting a lot of hills on the road tandem and I think Robin is the best stocker I've ever had for climbing, which will come in handy out west!

The 953 for my next frame in line should be showing up any day. Reynolds still has a 6 week min wait on that stuff, but that's can easily be planned around.

I completed what constitutes an "overhaul" (in my mind) on my fixie this week too. Replaced the tires, cleaned it up and cleaned the chain. feels like a new bike! I'm going to try and get out on a coupld rides this week and then hit Buck hill Thursday. I made the first Buck hill race of the season despite not realyl being in any kind of racing shape. It went better than expected, finishing pretty much in the middle of the expert field. That race went well until I completely popped in the last lap. I'm aiming to avoid a repeat of that this week.

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Dear friends.

2009-05-05T15:17:00.000-07:00

I have the most amazing family and friends. Beyond that really, but I just don't know how to put it into words. The last 14 months of my life have been the hardest I've ever experienced, and the last 2-3 weeks have been the worst of those.

My Mother was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer last February and passed away last Wednesday. Her funeral was today, probably the hardest day of my life. I was truly overwhelmed at the people who came out to help up celebrate her incredible, but far too short life. So many faces from the past, so many people from the present and many more whom have been thinking and praying for her for months. You all mean the world to me. truly.

I don't think I can write much more that that right now, but I wanted to say thank you to all of you out there. I don't know what I'd do without you.

I love you Mom,

Bob

belt driven

2009-04-16T07:12:00.000-07:00

The trails have finally dried up around here and I got to take the belt drive bike out for a good, hard, long test ride yesterday. I hit it with every climb around on my 2 hour ride. Overall I'm really impressed, you'd never know there was a belt in place of a chain except for the lack of any sound or vibration.

It took me a few stops with the allen wrenches to get everything lined out (this was a new frame too, so I had some seat adjustment fine tuning to do as well). Once things were in place, the belt performed flawlessly.

Early on I discovered the hard way why Spot recommends axle tugs for use the with belt. I am running a king rear hub with fun-bolts, which hold incredible well, however you need to be able to really fine-tune the angle of the rear wheel to hold the belt on the cog. I had the wheel centered and it ran fine in the stand and on the street, but when I hit the first hard climb the belt popped off the inside of the cog and my knee slammed into the top-tube. I thought I just skipped the belt and it needed more tension, so I retensioned it. Next climb, same thing, but this time I slam my leg into the pedal. ouch. I readjusted the wheel again, but this time angled it slightly toward the non-drive side. Problem fixed, but I'll still be ordering up a set of tugs as cheap insurance against this.

I kind of wish Spot had put a guide ring on the inside of the cog as well as the outside to prevent this from happening, but I suppose that would make wheel changes a little more difficult (but not much).

After that initial episode, it was nothing but ear to ear grins. The belt was silent the whole time, and smoother than even a brand-new singlespeed chain set-up. No flex that I could feel and I didn't see any decernable wear-in of the belt or cogs on this 2 hour ride. Tension at the end was just as tight as after my last adjustment on the trail (at the start of the ride).

I think I really need a fixie with this, so much smoother than a chain there and no more grease on pant legs when riding around town. I wonder if the belt will stiffen up in a MN winter? it would be great to not have a rusty chain.

Had a few rides on the 29'er tandem now too. It's mighty sweet, that fork eats up anything I throw at it, and the brakes seem to be braking in. They grab much beter now that I've worn in the pads a bit. It'll take more riding to know for sure if they stay, but things are looking up.

My last build wasn't of the wheeled variety, it was more furniture (yes steel furniture orders get mixed into my que with bike orders). It was another entertainment center, but bigger than my last one. I'll have pics up soon, but it came out great. This time I used wood for all the panels instead of mixing sheet metal and wood. I like the look. I'll try to post pics tomorrow.

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2009-03-17T08:38:00.000-07:00

Well, here's some better pictures of the new tandem. With the 65 degree weather here yesterday I was really itchin to take it for a spin, but the trails still have a ways to go before they're dry.

Big wheels! 29" set-up with the maverick DUC 29'er fork, king hubs, dt rims. nice.

The paint is a very metallic candy orange. Called Mandarin orange, and that's a pretty good description. Pictures don't do it justices though. Just about all the tubing is ovalized, so it looks think in the pictures, but you're looking at the skinny end of the oval.

Used my old Ritchey tandem cranks, just too hard to find anything better. I really like these, especially compared to dropping the money for either a new Middleburn set of the Davinci cranks (which would be my next choices).

I did a little ride down the street solo yesterday and I'm not sure if I'll like the avid cable discs. Even with the 203mm rotor they don't feel as powerful as my hydraulics with 185 rotors. I've still got the Hope hydraulic's as back-up, but I was hoping to avoid the hassle of those. They're a real pain to adjust and don't like to stay silent for long after adjustments.

The bike feels really good when I'm on it, but I haven't taken it for a real off-road ride yet, but I think it's going to be great.

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long time coming

2009-03-12T07:10:00.001-07:00

The tubing has been in my shop for about 4 years, it's finally a bike.
I'll try to get some good pictures soon, but for now these will have to do.

And, since it didn't sell on ebay, the green 29'er will be my new ride this year. But with a belt drive! I created a way to retrofit the surly dropouts to take the belt drive without needing any repaint work. Looks like it will work very well. I'll let you know. If you have a frame with Surly track dropouts and want a belt drive, I may be able to make that happen without a dropout replacement!

I think this will be great for traveling. Since this frame has S & S coupelrs already, I won't have to mess with a dirty chain when I pack it up now!

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more teasing

2009-03-03T15:26:00.001-08:00

Check out the sweet Truvative Team stoker stem I made for the tandem. I wanted something with a bit more style than the usual stuff available, plus with a shorter reach but still adjustable. Lighter never hurt either (213 g). Made it by being creative with a long extension Team stem I had, my lathe and tig welder. I wonder how many people will ask where I bought it...

Installed the 29'er spacers in the fork today as well. Once the final clear is hardened up I'll be assembling it.

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teaser

2009-02-24T12:25:00.000-08:00

Here's a sneak peek at what's just about done...

Big wheels + big fork + big bike = go fast!!! ( I hope...)

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anonymous

2009-02-12T06:32:00.000-08:00

I hate anonymous bloggers.

Maybe I'm extra cranky from being sick all week, but lately these people have been getting to me. I've had several email inquiries this week alone from various people trying to figure out who certain bloggers were 'cause they wrote something that rubbed someone the wrong way...

I see more and more people writing really critical stuff about other people, but hiding behind some made-up name on blogger with no real information about them, or even a profile. You're cowards, all of you.

I have no problem with people having and expressing opinions quite different from mine, but at least own up to your opinions. I do, and yes from time to time it's caused me a lot of grief, but at least those who were pissed off knew exactly who it was that pissed 'em off.

that's all.

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not much new

2009-02-10T12:24:00.001-08:00

It's been slow lately, I'm sick and haven't done a lot of work. Finished up some painting this weekend, including painting some panels around the S & S coupler retrofit I did last week:

I like the white with black pinstripes, it matches the lettering pretty good.

got a new bianchi Celeste paint mix from my paint guy and he did an incredible job matching the blue pearl in it. I'll post some pics soon of that one.

Also got word today that I'm officially in for Leadville this year! Guess that means I need to get that tandem frame built soon so we can start training. All the rain up here this week has pretty well decimated our snow, so I'm hoping for a warm March to start riding. Things could get ugly if it just get's cold and we have to deal with ice for another month...

I think I'll work on building up the tandem wheels while I'm sick, that's a good resting sort-of activity for me. I'm just not good at resting, even though I know it's best for me. There's just so many better things to do!

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workin.

2009-01-28T06:32:00.000-08:00

Well, finally been getting back in the shop a little bit.

Made up this custom disc-brake retrofit to a co-motion tandem using a therapy brake adaptor. Had to machine a custom hub spacer, then machine the seatstay clamp for the torqu arm. The mount had to be modified as well and the chainstay needed to be coersed a little to clear the big 203mm rotor! seems to work well though.

Did a coupler retrofit on a Voodoo as well. All set for paint, just need to make a little time for that. These are really nice frames for the money, I recommend 'em if you're looking for a budget steel 29'er.

And finally, mitered up and tacked the tandem frame. This one was a lot of tricky mitering as all the tubes except the seat tubes are shaped! The rear BB has two ovalized tubes meeting and intersecting a round tube and the BB shell. Lots of work, but I think it'll be a really cool frame in the end. A bit of a departure from my usual direct lateral tandems, but I wanted extra standover on this one. This will be all fillet brazed as well, due to all the non-round tubes.

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only one left

2009-01-20T07:56:00.001-08:00

The inventory reduction has been a huge success! Thanks to all who bought stuff.
I've just got one bike left that I wouldn't mind moving, the green 29'er.
I'd be happy to sell this one as a frame and fork for $1400. It's S & S coupled, 23.75" effective top-tube, 21" seat-tube, but fairly low standover thanks to the low BB drop of 70mm. Marozocchi Marathon SL 29 fork painted to match. Paint is brand new, beautiful sparkly britich racing green, with painted in lettering. It's truly stunning in the sunlight. Has Surly horizontal dropouts with deraileur hanger, so it can be run with gears or as a singlespeed. I'd be happy to sell it as a complete bike as well if you want, email me for options!

Otherwise as soon as I get time to take the parts off, I'll ebay the frame and fork. Make me an offer if you like!

I've been trying to get back to it in the shop, got a few misc machinging projects done this week and I'm getting ready to start on the next frame.

Sent in my entry to Leadville again this year too, I need a good goal to get back in shape and Leadville always seems to do the trick. Who knows if I'll get in though...

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U need this

2009-01-06T05:56:00.000-08:00

Yeah, that's right you do need this. Awesome X-C racing suit from back in the day. If you were anyone in 1992 you had one of these of the equally ugly Fischer neon racing suits. Don't be fooled by the photo, it's not blue, it's electric purple with neon pink and green accents. Hot, hot, hot.

And best of all, it's like new, I bet I wore it in 10 races total. Fits a tall skinny racer. If you wear a pair of cycling shorts under it, you could have the hottest skinsuit around, nobody will mistake you for "their" team mate by accident.

Get it before it's gone!!!!!

If that's not your style, how about a vintage Leadville 100 race jersey. Got this one the first year I did the race, but really never wore it. It's pretty much brand new, but sat in a drawer for 10 or so years. Voler club cut size large jersey. $35 for this one of a kind item!

Here's a brand new World Cycling world championship jersey. Won it at 24 hours of Afton some years back, never wore it (I haven't won the world championships yet). Pace brand jersey, size meduim, racing cut. fits like a typical med. $25

Size 44 Diadora Jalapeno shoes. Used, but not abused, great all around comfy shoe. I've got too many shoes around though. $15 takes 'em home.

Brand new Tecktro RSS6 Brakes, in the package. These are super-long reach brakes, 55-73mm. Really nicely polished, they look great. $40/set

Truvativ 48t track chainring. Brand spankin' new, 144 bcd, 1/8" width. really nice. $20

Salsa Bell Lap handlebars. Used, but good shape. 46cm width. I love the shape of these, but this pair is a touch wide for me. $20

new year

2009-01-05T11:37:00.000-08:00

well, it's finally 2009. I'm looking forward to getting back to the shop more and out on the bike more.

I'm pretty excited to have found a new Maverick DUC 32 for my soon-to-be-built 29'er off-road tandem. I sold off my old off-road tandem last year and I've had the tubing sitting around the shop for 3 years waiting to be built into a new tandem.

I'm going lighter weight this time for sure, the last one was kind of a tank. While it took all the abuse I could throw at it, I don't think I need something that hefty anymore. So this one will be a hard tail 29'er with the above mentioned Maverick fork. I'm going to try the Avid cable discs on it this time, but I've still got the hope enduro's from the old bike for back-up if I don't think the cable brakes are as strong as I like on tandem (I suspect they'll be fine though, espcially with 203mm rotors). 36 hole King hubs with Dt rims will be lighter than my old 40 hole king-DeepV wheelset. I'm pretty convinced I don't need wheels quite that strong anymore.
I've still got my Ritchey tandem cranks that I think I'll use on the new bike, it's just hard to improve on those. I've been debating doing a belt drive for the timing chain, but that would require new cranks, so I suspect that will wait. Or if I got that route, I might go all the way, belt for timing and main drive and do a Rohloff hub. Although the roholff kind of defeats any weight savings from the belt drives...

The frame will be all fillet brazed, which is a departure from my usual lugs. But almost all the tubing is shaped, so lugs would be pretty difficult, and I'm just too lazy to make them all up for this kind of bike right now.

I've still got some stuff for sale, but I did pretty good at cleaning things out. The remaining items have been going on ebay over the last few weeks. I still need to get rid of those Reynolds wheels though if anyone is interested. Make me an offer!

In other musings, I have an extra spot belt drive set-up for a bike for me down in the shop and I'm just torn on what to put it on. I was thinking about my singlespeed 29'er, but what I really want is a 953 singlespeed with couplers and the belt drive. Just don't have the time to build it... That would make a pretty slick travel bike though, no chain to mess with during packing, really light. I might need one.

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get it started

2008-12-03T20:14:00.000-08:00

Time for parts selling: click on all images for big! There will be much more coming as I get pictures taken. Including full record 10 kit and Centaur 10 kit.

Reynolds Attack Carbon wheelset, Campy freehub, with brake pads for carbon rims, with Panaracer Statius extreme tires and reynolds skewers. These wheels are incredible, like new, less than 10 rides on them total. $800 complete, or $900 with a record 10 ultradrive 11-23 cassette! Light and aero, 1500g/set.

Campy Record 10 carbon crankset and BB. This is used, but in near perfect shape, arms are a 9.5 out of 10, rings have about 1000 miles on them and many, many more miles left. BB is silky smooth. you won't be disappointed with these. $250 with BB! 53-39 rings, 175mm arms

Campy Comp Triple crankset, 175mm arms, brank new, taken off a display bike. This includes the centaur BB as well. This is campy's current top of the line triple crank and they are truly beautiful. $150 with BB! rings are 52, 42, 30. I've got the rest of a Centaur 10 speed triple group to go with these if you like, all polished alloy components!

Sugino Qualette triple crankset and BB. This is a stunning and fairly rare (in the US) crankset from Sugino. It's from a demo bike, so it did have a chain on it, but no miles on the road. It's indistinguishable from new. 52, 42, 30 rings, 130/74mm bcd. 170mm arms. Beautiful satin silver anno finish (matches nitto components). Uses a shimano Octalink BB, included is Ultegra BB of the proper length. $140 with BB

Coda superlight mtb crankset. 175mm arms, used, cosmetically about a 5/10, but 100% functional and very light when combined with the Dura Ace Octalink BB. These make great singlespeed cranks, infact I will throw in a spot 32t of a race-face 34 tooth ring with them if you want to use them as a singlespeed crank. Cranks & BB complete weigh 690g! They actually look better than the pic would imply due to the camera lighting. $85 including BB!!! that's about what you'd pay for just the BB.

Mavic 637 crankarms. Super rare, super cool machined crank. 110/74 bcd, 180mm length arms. These are used, in good shape, some light scratches in the arms, some scraped inside the drive side arm from front deraileur cage. I do have the original Mavic chainrings for these available if interested. Exceptionally nice cranks, $150, were over $300 new!

Sidi Genius 4 road shoes, size 44. Used, but excellent condition, less than 1000 miles on them. Leather is good all around, just a bit too narrow in the toe box for me. Really nice shoes in a really common size, I'm sure someone can use 'em! $90 Cleats are not included.

Sella Italia SLR Gel-flow saddle, new in the box! Retail is about $150, I'll sell it for $85.

Shimano Standard reach breakset, brand new, but I can't find the box. These are the A-550 model, same as the current R-600 but with a slightly different throw-off lever and pads. $70/set, brand new. Reach is 47-57mm

Tektro R-556 Long Reach Brakeset. These are truly a long reach brakeset, 55-73mm reach. Brand new in the box, $40. Perfect for that 700c to 650b conversion you've been thinking about!

a month later...

2008-12-03T05:43:00.001-08:00

Yeah, I know it's been over a month since I wrote here. What can I say, I'm swamped with life right now. I have been getting back in the shop here and there to try and get some work done. Here's proof positive:

Just finished assemblying it last week, really neat singlespeed commutter. Nuevo Richie lugs with cream fills, Moltini Orange paint. really sharp. Phil/dt wheels, Sram Omnium cranks (which I'm really diggin'), shimano long reach brakes, nitto post and stem. All around great stuff for a classy bike.

I've been shipping a lot too. Sold two road frames, just shipped out my 953 frame this week too:

I'm sad to see it go, but it's going to a good home. I'll just have to build myself a new road bike sometime next year, for the meantime I'm down to just the fixie for my road steed, which is fine. I really don't ride much other than fixies anyhow, I think this bike only got about 5 rides total in 2008!

And a little something for the most patient man on earth, Nathan I'm almost done with your chainguard. Here's a shot of it in process:

It'a actually all brazed up and I'm just finishing the clean-up now. 100% stainless this time and built from thicker sheet stock. I will have your bike back to you soon!

I'm still in a selling mode and I'm working on taking pics of the huge stash of parts I'll be selling off. The Green 29'er is the only bike I've got left to sell right now and it'll be going on ebay unless someone want's to snatch it up for a great christmas gift! So watch here for lots more stuff. Sorry to be posting so many things for sale and not writing much about building bikes, but clearing stuff out of the shop has been my main priority for a little while. I'm still in a cash-raising frame of mind.

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One last time

2008-10-28T07:49:00.001-07:00

Ok, I'm listing these here one last time, otherwise they're going on the 'bay in a week! I need to raise some cash, everything is negotiable!

BBC custom 29'er with matching S & S couplers and matching Marathon SL fork!

This bike isn't actually new, it just looks that way. I refurbed and repainted it to have as a demo bike.

It's a 21" frame with a 23.75" effective top tube, so it's a big-person bike. I like that it's proportioned basically the same as an 18" 26" wheeled bike, in the pic it's tough to know it's a 29'er.

It's designed to do it all. Currently set up as a singlespeed, but it has a derailleur hanger and full provisions for running gears. Fits nice fat tires, the tires on there are 2.3" Panaracer Rampages!

Pretty sweet build kit on there too, if I do say so myself. Paul's brake and levers, XT spiderless singlespeed cranksetup (with spot ring), super-trick nuke-proof singelspeed wheelset with Velocity Dyad rims, Truvative Team bar and stem, Cane Creek S-6 headset, Raceface post. All the good stuff... If you're one of those folks that like those gear-changing thingy's, I can set it up with gears for you, no problem.

And the paint... It just jumps out at you in the sun light. It's a house of color green pearl over black, looks like a British racing green, but with tons of metalflake to make it pop! Chrome painted in logos and of course a stainless steel headbadge to finish it off. $2600 complete as is! or I'll set it up however you like, or sell as just a frame and fork. That's a complete bike for less than the frame along would cost if you ordered it today! The wheels are for sale too, $350.

This stainless lugged bike is still available too:
It's a 60cm seat-tube x 58 top tube. Sport-touring geometry. 2 degree upslope on top-tube, 43cm chainstays, clearance for huge tires and fenders (currently has 32c tires). Campy Centaur triple build kit with Record wheels and Ultegra long reach brakes. matching lugged stem, all polished stainless lugs, truly stunning. This bike is New, the only riding it's seen are three rides by myself, less than 100 miles total. S & S couplers are polished to match the lugs. If you ordered this bike today, it would cost you about $5000 and have an 18 month wait. I'll do the complete bike for $3300, or the frame, fork, and stem for $2200. Email for more details or pics.

I'm also selling my personal 953 road bike:

This one is a 58cm top-tube, 6 degree sloping top-tube, actual seat-tube length is 55cm due to the sloping top tube. Chainstays are 40.5cm, 73 degree parallel angles. It's pretty much a full-on road racer geometry-wise. It's built up with a full Campy Record 10 carbon kit, Reynolds fork, post, stem and wheels. All top-notch, anyone local is welcome to take it for a spin. Email for more pictures and details. $2500 for the frame, or $4700 complete bike or $4000 without the wheels. It's like new. This is truly a rocket on the road. weighs 16 lbs w/o pedals!

I'm also willing to sell my fully lugged S & S road tandem if anyone is interested:

It's a 58cm x 50cm bike, 30" boom tube, fits a large variety of stoker. Captain's compartment is 58 x 58. Campy Record 9 group with Record wheels, Deep-v rims, TA Zephyr tandem cranks. This bike is as good as a tandem gets. It will be sold with a fresh repaint, in your choice of colors. Great road tandem, good for light touring too. $4000 frame and fork with your choice of paint, or $6000 for the complete bike with your choice of paint! Email for more details and pics if you're serious.

Bob

back to the grind

2008-10-23T19:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back in St. Paul and trying to get into the swing of life again. Getting back up to speed in the shop, got 2 frames prepped for paint this week and hope to shoot 'em this weekend.

Spent a while last night rebuilding the rear wheel on the tandem from the plane ride home. I'm amazed, Northwest managed to break spokes in that wheel on both flights. They've been pretty much indestructable on the bike for years, even with 100lbs of gear on it, but give them to Northwest for a few hours and presto....

Got in a nice ride with Billy tonight down at Leb. did a couple laps of the new trails, it's pretty nice. It felt really good to get back out on a bike, it had been almost 2 months since I was on a mtb. sigh... I'm not sure if I'll really do much 'cross racing this year at all, which is remarkable for me. It's my favorite season, but I just haven't had the time to train. Maybe I'll shoot for trying to do the state champs at least.

I'll leave you with one of my favorite images from ireland. Such a bike dork...

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no pics

2008-10-10T13:45:00.000-07:00

It was wet today. I don't have time to upload pics at the internet cafe before it closes, so you'll just have to take my word. We rode quite a ways today, back to Kilarney in time to catch a bus. I did a little magic in the bus depot parking lot, packing the tandem up for the ride, got lots of looks as I put the whole thing in it's case.

The 2 hour bus ride up to Limerick ended up being 3:15 minutes! The traffic here at night is horrible.

Found some dinner at a little cellar restaurant. Food was just ok but the music was killer, Bon Jovi greatest hits played all through dinner! I don't know what it is, but it's been really consistent that they love 80's and 90's US pop rock music. everywhere.

They're kicking me out of the internet cafe, write at you later

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finally on a bike

2008-10-09T08:21:00.000-07:00

Well, the bike made it and we're out riding the ring of Kerry. This will be a short update as I'm at the local "internet shop" which is the back room of the information center that happened to have a computer... Welcome to Caherciveen Ireland!

The first day of riding was great, sunny and warm. Surprizingly warm! So far the second day has been much more irish. We arrived at our destination soaked to the core. Still not too cold though, so that's nice.

The bike took a beating on the trip over with lots of paint damage and a couple of tubes damaged enough that I'll have to replace them when I get back. But it's still quite functional and seems to be doing alright lugging all our crap around. It feels a bit slower than I thought, but that's mostly due to my lack of riding before we left. I think we have a bit more gear than I figured too, but we're making progress!

That's all for now, but Kate uploaded more pics at her site here

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2008-10-05T11:37:00.001-07:00

Well, day 2 in Ireland. We made it safely here, I just wish I could say the same for my luggage (which includes the bike!) Missed our flight in Newark, so somehow in switching to a later flight, my bags didn't get on the plane. As of today, the S & S case with the tandem showed up, but my other bag which has all my clothes (including raingear) and racks, bags, handlebars, etc... is still MIA.

So we're staying in Dublin until that shows, which is fine. We had planned on hanging out in Dublin for a few days, just at the end of the trip instead of the beginning...

So here are a few pics from walking the streets. Pretty overwhelming how many really neat buildings and churches there are here.

Yesterday was pretty typical weather, overcast and rainy. Not great for walking all day without any rain gear, but we managed. Today was spectacular, clear blue skies all day and nice temps in the upper 50's.
Here's a shot over the river Liffey, just looking at the typical buildings.

There are quite a few really impressive churches. Neat to tour, but kind of odd to walk into a church only to find a cash register set-up in the foyer and a full gift shop out in the sanctuary. Everything costs money in Dublin, lots of it!

Today we toured the Guiness Storehouse. The original brewery of Guiness. It was funny walking there because it's a line of people heading there, constantly. Almost all from Europe on "city break". It's a pretty neat tour and grounds, I highly recommend it. It's €15, but you do get a free pint at the end!

Sorry for the bad formatting, my text may not line up with the pics, blogger is terrible for that!

Kate enjoying her pint at the end of the tour, up in the gravity lounge atop the brewery. It's an all glass bar with a 360 view of dublin that spectacular.

A few random pictures from around town below. Lots of colourful (irish spelling) doors to brighten up the otherwise dreary landscape.

The city street has really nice colored glass hatch covers in all the sidewalks. I had to take a couple pics, they're that nice!

change of venue

2008-10-01T20:20:00.000-07:00

I need a change. Life has really been stressful this year and I'm long overdue for a vacation. So I'm off. destination: Ireland, Vehicle: bicycle.

I won't be answering emails or phone calls during this time. This is the first time since I started this business that I'm doing that, and I need it! So don't expect calls to be returned for a while, or emails to be answered.

That's an entire tandem minus the handlbars in a single S & S case! Bars, racks, clothes and bags are all in the other duffle. Primed for touring, won't have to stow any hardcases or luggage, it all fits on the bike!

Packing was interesting, but I think it's all there. I'm just under the weight limit on both bags, so hopefully there won't be any issues with checking them.

Anyways, it's late, I've been packing for a long time and I'm ready for bed. write at you later.

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big pink too

2008-09-13T12:09:00.001-07:00

Billy, it's time. Big pink 2 is waiting for you, just need to add some tires.

For those that don't know Billy, he only rides pink bikes. He's weird that way. This one has been a long time in the making, mostly waiting for belt drive parts from Spot (which I still don't have). So we just built it up with a chain for now, till I can procure the belt parts.

Pretty darn cool little bike if you ask me, despite the paint! I did a lot of lug shaping to make the sloping top tube work with these long-shen lugs. Had to add about 10 degrees of to each upper lug in order to get the standover he needed.

anyways, I've got a lot more I'd like to get done this weekend, so write at you later.

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post down and out.

2008-09-11T15:03:00.001-07:00

Deanwood, I got your seatpost out of your frame, but it's in a couple more pieces than when you brought it to me.
Good news is the frame is fine and ready for a new one.

Next time don't stick a long mtb post in a road frame and leave it there for years!

Good luck to all the kenwoodies and BKB folks up at Chequomegon this weekend. Wish I was up there with you.

If you're like me and stuck in town this weekend you ought to at least come check out the Derailleur show Friday night at the Bedlam Theater. We'll go on about 8:30, and it's a fundraiser, so you can spend guilt-free!

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another day in the right

2008-09-03T18:54:00.000-07:00

Made it downtown again today after work, this time just to sight see a little and check out what might be going on the RNC land. Overall, it was pretty quiet. There was a small protest by the Code Pink ladies early on, it looked like a couple of them were arrested (or at least carried away by police) peacefully. I mainly was there to take people pictures, here's some of what I saw (note, there's even a tiny bit of bike content here! click on any picture for big):

Code-pink folks exercising their first amendment rights

This is a typical scene of the protests down there, not riots and tear gas

But the police were ready for riots and tear gas, quite a presence for a few odd protesters

Obvious anarchists here, I ran into Tom and Jen Fitch down there, these two look like trouble to me, check out how Tom's hiding something in his pockets. I'm pretty sure that guy on the bmx bike is part of the scheme too.

There seemed to be a much larger fanatical religious presence today too. They were hanging out by the MSNBC broadcast, I'm sure hoping to get this sign on national TV.

I love the all-encompassing theme of this banner, I wonder if the guy carrying it is included in the "all"?

Code Pink, they sure are everywhere, spreading their message. Props for perseverance.

Don't know what to say about this one, but how can you resist taking a picture

Bike content: saw this sweet recumbent pedicab parked out by Rice park. Didn't get to see it in action though.

Not sure who this is, or who the reporter is, but it was an interesting scene

I had to make sure to ride back home via the river path so that I could get some shots of the fleet that the coast guard brought in to patrol the river. I feel so safe now.

This one is my favorite. I saw these boats running the river Monday but didn't have a camera. I had to chase one down while on my bike to get a good shot of the front and rear guns. Watch out terrorists, we got guys with machine guns on the might Mississippi!

Just walking around downtown you feel a bit unsure of what you're "allowed" to do. There's three cops on every corner all the way across downtown. There's even parked state patrol cars at the freeway exit ramp by my place, which is about 2 miles outside of downtown. Not sure what they're all supposed to be doing though.
The gun boats on the river really do you feel a bit uneasy, especially when your on a bike and trying to photograph them. I could see the crew on one of the boats looking at me through the binoculars, trying to decide if they should wave or shoot me (fortunately they waved).

anyways, next post should have far more bike content. write at you later.

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pinstripe suit convention

2008-09-01T19:44:00.001-07:00

So as you may or may not know the Republican National Convention is right here in St. Paul this week. Between Gustav and the RNC you'll be hard pressed to find any other news. Naturally in a very left-leaning twin cities metro area, there are quite a few large protest marches. The first major one being today from the state capitol down the Xcel center. While I'm not a big protester kind of guy, this sort of thing just doesn't happen very often in MN. So when my friend Kate asked if I wanted to go check out the march, I jumped at the chance. It's really sad that pretty much all the news converage focused on the couple of idiots who went out early to break things and make havoc. There were ten's of thousands of people making a great peaceful protest and the few idoits get all the press and make it look like everyone was trying to break windows and damage cars. Sad because that just wasn't the case.

Not a whole lot of bike content here, but I suspect most of my readers tend to lean left and will appreciate some pictures. Thanks to Kate for all the photos! They're roughly in chronological order from the pre-march ralley, then through the march. Click on images to make 'em big.

Nice shirt, there were a lot of good ones.

Homeland security levels finally explained

Iraq. vets for peace

Some dude riding a sweet elephant bike

Gotta love these ladies slogan

Lots of creative costumes

Elephant gittin' it.

Dancing Bush and McCain, hard to beat 'em

protestors of all ages

Bike Builder looking uncomfortable, but rockin' the look.

The march starts, it's truly a sea of people

We though we were in about the middle of the crowd, but later realized we were probably in the front 1/4, there were just a ton of people behind us.

More bike cops than I imagines MN coupld possibly have. All on pretty lame bikes, but all treated us well and with respect. Thanks guys and gals in blue.

The riot cops and "MN peace team" working together. The riot gear really does make these guys look imtimadating.

lots and lots of riot cops. I found it ironic that they were all lined up in front of the Children's Museum main entrance. Watch out kids! I feel sorry for all these people having to be out in all that gear all day in the 90 degree heat.

Click on this one to enlarge and look for all the guys up on the roof of the Xcel

Appearently CNN took over the Eagle St. Grill and literally made it there own. New signage, bus and lots o neon in the windows. odd.

Only tandem I saw, had to lock 'er up to the freedom fence. They put up all this steel fencing to keep people out of the area of the convention.

And finally one really great sign.

I hope to get out more this week just to do some people watching. Hanging out at the Liffey after the march we saw some "unique" people. Can't wait to see more. I'll bring the camera. I'd like to get some shots of the ridiculous coast-guard patrols out on the Mississippi, literally machine guns mounted front and back ready to kill the terrorists! seems like overkill to me, but what do I know.

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back

2008-08-29T06:37:00.000-07:00

This one goes out to the Large Fella, since he won't get off my back about not bloging this summer...

I'm really not trying to abandon the blog, but quite honestly I haven't had the time, or more importantly the motivation due to the utter insanity of my life this summer. I won't bore you with details of that, but I think I'm getting back on track and hope to be back to the old bbbb soon.

Anyways, I am actually still making bikes and making progress. Hoping to wrap up another frame this weekend.

A few weeks ago was 8/8/08, which meant an annual party gathering (we've been doing this since 1/1/01 and only have a few more years left!). This year the plan was to camp out at Afton state park and enjoy the merriement found there. Since Afton really isn't that far from my place, I decided to do a mini-bike tour out there. Loaded up my grocery-getter bike with camping gear and headed out on a beautiful Friday afternoon.

It was a great ride out there and back the next day. The bike worked great despite the heave back-end load. I'm really loving this bike for all around transport of lots-o-stuff. At some point I'd like to build a new cruiser style frame for this application, but for now this bike works great.

In other news, I could really use raising some funds here this fall (due to the craziness of life) and I've still got a couple bikes for sale, so I thought I'd pimp 'em here again: (copied from a previous post)

Here's a fun one that's available!

BBC custom 29'er with matching S & S couplers and matching Marathon SL fork!

This bike isn't actually new, it just looks that way. I refurbed and repainted it to have as a demo bike. I suspect it'll end up at One-on-One very soon with a for-sale sign on it.

It's a 21" frame with a 23.75" effective top tube, so it's a big-person bike. I like that it's proportioned basically the same as an 18" 26" wheeled bike, in the pic it's tough to know it's a 29'er.

It's designed to do it all. Currently set up as a singlespeed, but it has a derailleur hanger and full provisions for running gears. Fits nice fat tires, the tires on there are 2.3" Panaracer Rampages!

Pretty sweet build kit on there too, if I do say so myself. Paul's brake and levers, XT spiderless singlespeed cranksetup (with spot ring), super-trick nuke-proof singelspeed wheelset with Velocity Dyad rims, Truvative Team bar and stem, Cane Creek S-6 headset, Raceface post. All the good stuff... If you're one of those folks that like those gear-changing thingy's, I can set it up with gears for you, no problem.

And the paint... It just jumps out at you in the sun light. It's a house of color green pearl over black, looks like a British racing green, but with tons of metalflake to make it pop! Chrome painted in logos and of course a stainless steel headbadge to finish it off.

This stainless lugged bike is available:
It's a 60cm seat-tube x 58 top tube. Sport-touring geometry, email for details.

Artsy seatlug shot.

I'm also wiling to sell my personal 953 road bike:

This one is a 58cm top-tube, 6 degree sloping top-tube, actual seat-tube length is 55cm due to the sloping top tube. Chainstays are 40.5cm, 73 degree parallel angles. It's pretty much a full-on road racer geometry -wise. It's built up with a full campy record 10 carbon kit, reynolds fork, post, stem and wheels. All top-notch, anyone local is welcome to take it for a spin. Email for more pictures and details. $2500 for the frame, or $5000 complete bike. It's like new.

anyways, that's all for now,

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Bucked.

2008-07-21T19:07:00.000-07:00

Buck hill got me last week. got me good. Last lap, last half mile or so. Rocked it through a fast, rough downhil singletrack, but just before clearing the last corner my front tire just stopped. Not totally sure why, but it sure happened. I remember flying through the air and the only thought in my head was "don't put your arms out, you'll break them again". So I didn't, I tucked and tried to roll, but landed on my head instead, fortunately in a pile of sand.

I got up pretty quick and noticed I was about 12' away from my bike and on the opposite side of the trail. Brushed the sand off me and was surprized how good I felt. No sharp pains, no broken anything, so I got back on and rolled it out to the end of the race.
After the race I was still feeling ok, face felt a little swollen and I figured I'd be sore the next day. Got some pretty mild road rash on my face, and the bridge of my glasses smashed my nose pretty good. All in all I felt like I got off easy, until the next morning....

Woke up at 4am the next day with the second worst headache of my life. Took some Advil, started to feel better, but that only lasted about an hour. Vision was a little blurry in one eye, so I decided it was time to call the doc. My usual doc sent me to the ER. Sat there for 2 hours only to find out what I pretty much knew, I had a concussion. Not much you can do. Slept a while Friday, but headaches kept me up most of the weekend. On the plus side the worst seems to be past and the vision is totally cleared up.

I finally got the paint done on Billy's bike. Took just short of forever, but I think it came out good. Billy's been the most patient man around and I appreciate it. Hope he likes the bike. Now if Spot would just get the damn belt drive cogs in stock I could finish it up.

I've been on a comutting bike kick lately and spent a couple of hours getting a few old bikes put together in new ways. For todays post I'll show one of them, what I like to call the Browntrager.

I was insprired by Marko and dusted off my old Bontrager Race. I've got a pretty prime off-road commuting route to 3M so I've been jones for a bike suited to this purpose. I wanted a singlespeed but I've got some big dirt climbs and some fast pavement on the commute, so a couple of gears seemed appealing.

I stripped off the stock Bontrager-crowned Judy fork and whipped up a rigid BBC fork more prudent for a 29'er front wheel. Then built up a new rear wheel around a Sram three speed hub. Why not. Sure it's heavy, but it seems pretty robust so far and it's still lighter than a hub, cassette and deraileur. Not to mention I really only needed 2 gears, the third is just a bonus.

The gear ratios on this hub are surprizingly far apart, so my pavement gear is nice and tall compared to my off-road gear. The third gear is almost silly low, but I'm sure I'll find a use for it sometime.

Threw in some snazzy control tech brakes, sugino cranks and the original bontrager stem and post. All in all, a pretty neat bike. Fun to ride too. Not too bad for a bike built from nearly all parts-bin findings.

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uberslacker

2008-06-27T11:46:00.001-07:00

Sorry about not posting for so long. I'm still here, still working, just haven't made the effort to do anything on the blog. I've got pictures in the camera that need to come out, maybe next week.

Life's been a whirlwind lately, but I'll try and get this blog thingy back on track soon. In the meantime, get out and ride, it's summer and the weather in MN has been spectacular.

till then, keep livin' the high life:

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SS

2008-05-21T05:44:00.000-07:00

Another one done....

The scalloped seatstays are very difficult to pull off cleanly in stainless, but man does it look good! Mini-six lugs on this one, standard oversize tubing, pretty light. Frame came out a little over 3 lbs. I'll have some pictures here soon of it built up with campy chorus. Should be a fabulous little bike.

In the mountain bike world, one of the greatest races around was this weekend, the cable classic. Been doing this one for a long time and this year was by far the best weather for the start that I can ever remember having. Sunny and probably around 50. I geared lower this year simply because I was too lazy to take my usual 34-19 gear off, but it felt great for this race. The start is always a mad dash on a singlespeed since there's about a 2 mile dirt road roll-out. Amazingly I made up a lot of ground in the start and probably picked up about 50 places from where I was positioned in the gate.
Once you're in the woods at the cable classic, you're in the woods for a while. The race is basically 23 miles of singletrack with a couple short fire-roads in between. There were quite a few downed trees this year due to recent storms, which meant dismounts. There seemed to be a lot of grumbling by the mtb boyz around me about the dismounts, but I was in full CX mode and started using them as opportunities to easily pass folks in the singletrack. Seemed like I could pick up three places at each one.
About 20 miles in I suddenly found myself alone, which was odd. There had been a pretty steady stream of riders all through the race, but they seemed to all be popping near the end, so I dropped the hammer as best I could to get as much lead as possible before the long railroad grade finish (which really sucks on a singlespeed). It must have worked or the other riders took pity on me for being foolish enough to race singlespeed because nobody passed me the whole time. odd. Anyways, came in 57 overall, which I was pretty happy with. Was still minutes behind the fast kenwoodies, but they train and stuff... and were on gears. Great racing to all the Kenwoodies up there!

Highlight was having someone cheer for me saying "yeah, go Ezra!!!" Guess k-racing jersey and rigid single = Ezra. They must have thought Ez shaved his beard, grew hair on his head, got taller and a lot slower.

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paint

2008-05-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

I've been doing what feels like a lot of painting lately. It's not as much as it feels like, but I've been shooting paint over at Curt G's shop, breaking in his new booth and giving him some pointers. He's learning to paint, so spraying over there gives me a nice place to shoot, and him a chance to see someone else's technique at the same time.

Shot this S & S retrofit and a couple others this weekend. Nice little Bianchi frame that's now been touched by three local framebuilders. Chris Kvale added the rear eyelets a couple years ago, I replaced the downtube and added the couplers, and Curt tried his hand out at laying some base color coats on the paint job. The paint is my own home-brew mix to recreate Bianchi's famous Celeste.

S & S seems to be the hot ticket right now, all three frames I painted this weekend had couplers and I currently have 4 frames waiting in my que for retrofits. It's all good by me!

Here's a fun one that's available!

BBC custom 29'er with matching S & S couplers and matching Marathon SL fork!

This bike isn't actually new, it just looks that way. I refurbed and repainted it to have as a demo bike. I suspect it'll end up at One-on-One very soon with a for-sale sign on it.

It's a 21" frame with a 23.75" effective top tube, so it's a big-person bike. I like that it's proportioned basically the same as an 18" 26" wheeled bike, in the pic it's tough to know it's a 29'er.

It's designed to do it all. Currently set up as a singlespeed, but it has a derailleur hanger and full provisions for running gears. Fits nice fat tires, the tires on there are 2.3" Panaracer Rampages!

Pretty sweet build kit on there too, if I do say so myself. Paul's brake and levers, XT spiderless singlespeed cranksetup (with spot ring), super-trick nuke-proof singelspeed wheelset with Velocity Dyad rims, Truvative Team bar and stem, Cane Creek S-6 headset, Raceface post. All the good stuff... If you're one of those folks that like those gear-changing thingy's, I can set it up with gears for you, no problem.

And the paint... It just jumps out at you in the sun light. It's a house of color green pearl over black, looks like a British racing green, but with tons of metalflake to make it pop! Chrome painted in logos and of course a stainless steel headbadge to finish it off.

If you're interested, email me. You're welcome to take it for a spin. Otherwise like I said, hopefully it'll be down at One-on-One soon and you can check it out there.

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2008-05-06T16:04:00.000-07:00

Been a while, lots going on. Went to Fruita, didn't take any pics though so you'll have to peruse Thorny's blog to get your fix. He took lots.

Been trying to play catch up in the shop lately. I've got a couple in paint right now and I'm about halfway through this 953 frame:

Mini six lugs, really light tubes. This is defintely the lightest one I've built to date. Reynolds is realy hitting the mark on the tubing now days. I suspect this one will be right around 3lbs complete.

Speaking of 953, I took my stainless road bike out for the first time this year yesterday. It was my first ride of the year on a geared bike, so it felt a little odd. It felt amazingly fast, especially after riding in Fruita on a big fat-tired mtb. That thing is so light and quick compared to my fully fendered fixie, made me feel like I was TSP.

Out in Fruita I decided to rock some fat tires, fatter than I've ever used on a 29'er. Got a set of Panaracer Rampage tires on my stans rims. They barely fit in the frame at 2.35" wide. They were a touch lighter than advertised, which was refreshing (about 680g). Still not light tires, but man did they feel good out there on the rocks. I felt so much more sure-footed on that jagged terrain that they were more than worth the extra weight on the climbs. In fact I felt like I could climb better since I wasn't trying to keep all my weight back on the rear tire for traction. THey just plain hook up. If you're somewhere a bit more rugged than Minneapolis I highly recommend them. Probably overkill for cranking out laps at buck hill or Wirth though.

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pics

2008-04-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a strange project lately. I was approached by a publisher from Australia about being part of a book she's publishing on "Bespoke Bikes". How could I resist. Part of the deal was needing some large-format pictures of my work. Unfortunately a lot of my pictures from the past are sized for web-applications not large-format printing. So I went through and pulled what I could from my archive and then set out to take some new ones. I didn't have time to get an good action /riding pictures, but I thought I'd share what I had. At least give you something new to look at on this blog! I'll warn you, if you click for full-size, they're big files.

Shop in B & W

Stainless lugged BB sport tourer with Campy Centaur triple group. This one is for sale, email me for details or watch the blog for more into. it's a 60cm seat-tube x 58 top tube.

Artsy seatlug shot.

Stainless slant six lug gettin' the file treatment

Fitting up fastback seatstays prior to brazing

Custom tandem Eccentric shell, I like the contrast of the paint to the grass!

dragonfly in copper.

warmth. finally

2008-04-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

The weather seems to finally be warming up around here, hopefully we're done with the late season snow...
I got out for a few rides since last I wrote. Last weekend I met up for the ride Thorny and Chef set-up, somehow it ended up being just O-tree and myself. We rolled pretty much everywhere it seemed. I think it was somewhere around 5 hours of fixie riding and remarkably, it felt great. until the next day.

Paid for that for a couple days, then spun some errands Tuesday since it was nice out and I had places to go. The leg's weren't feeling great, but I was out and enjoying it. Thursday I decided to hit some hills and see how that felt on the fixie. Headed down to Cottage Grove on one of my usual hilly rides and that went pretty good, but I kept it short. An hour and a half later I was back at home and my legs were shaking. Guess I have some work to do, but at least I didn't feel like I blew up completely while riding, just afterwards.

I spent a couple of nights this week wresting with my car. It's a good car, but just rolled 100,000 miles in Feb and a few things were starting to show a little wear. First off I knew I needed new tie-rod ends, so those went in Monday night. I quickly learned the price of parking the car on a busy street for 7 Minnesota winters. Every driver's side nut or bolt was completely rusted in place, while all the passenger side fasteners we're easy as pie to remove. The car get's a lot of road spray on the driver's side while parked on the street, causing the excess corrosion.
The tie-rod ends got rid of most of the clunking up front, but there was still a little play due to a bad lower ball joint, so Wednesday night that came out.

Unfortunately I had to grind off all the bolts including the main knuckle bolt due to all the rust. Left a few dings in the control arm which I wasn't thrilled about, so I figured I better fix that. Good move, as I was removing the lower control arm I discovered the sway-arm mounting bolt was broken, broken off in the blind hole in the sway arm! yuck, either replace the arm or do some drilling and tapping. This is about the time it comes in real handy to have a full metal shop at your access.

Drilled out the bolt remains, retapped the hole, replaced the bolt, welded up the damaged end of the arm and reground it to shape. Seems like a lot, but it took less time than driving to the dealer to get a new one (the dealer was closed anyways). I love having tools.

Get it re-aligned today and it should be good as new. Even with paying for an alignment, I think I came out about $500 ahead. Not bad for 2 evenings time.

I've got Billy's bike all ready for paint, hopefully get that squirted soon and get him out riding on it as soon as the trails dry up. Now if Spot would just get me the carbon-drive system parts for this bike that they claimed would be in production Jan 1, I'd be set.

I started in on the next 953 frame as well. Why not, I can use a few more things to juggle around!

20 days till fruita, 8 days till FDM08.

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rollin

2008-03-21T11:50:00.001-07:00

Finally got in a couple rides this week. The mercury hit 55 Wednesday so how could I possibly resist. Rolled around St. Paul mostly, across summit, through minnehaha falls, to fort snelling and over to lillydale. The lillydale trail doesn't get plowed so it still had a good layer of glacier on it so I opted for the hilly road route instead. While my legs were not ready for any hills, the view was good. Perfectly clear day, nice view of downtown coming back home. I managed to drag this one out for almost 3 hours of fixie action. felt good. felt bad.

Thursday was warm again, but not quite as warm, about 45. The forecast was for big snow Friday though so I figured I might as well go for another spin before I was snowed off the roads. Road north this time through roseville to run an errand. Felt great for the first half, till I figured out I had unknowingly been reaping the rewards of a tailwind. The ride home felt brutal, and to make things worse I popped a rear spoke abotu 2 miles after I turned around which threw the rear wheel waaaaaay off. Rode home into a stiff headwind with a rear wheel rubbing the brake and frame. Oh well.

Got home, fixed the offending spoke and re-tensioned the wheel. Hard to complain when it was a wheel built from used parts about 20,000 miles ago. I just can't escape my inner cheapskate.

I had to pull off the cog to change the spoke. It's probably been 3-4 years since that cog came off, I was amazed that I got it off without too much ordeal. But I was amuzed enough at the appearence of the gritty cog to snap a pic. I love how much crap is caked inside, yet the teeth are nice and polished (and hooked!) from chain wear.

Ahh, the little things in life..

And pushing on with all my forking lately, finished up three more forks this week. here's two of them.

I've felt like all I've done the last few weeks was build forks. Don't know why, but people keep asking for 'em. It'll be good to get back into some frames next. I've got a whole slew of stainless frames coming up in the que.

enjoy the snow you locals, happy Easter.

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press.

2008-03-19T08:52:00.000-07:00

Last week, customer and now good friend Scott Cutshall was interviewed by the 'strib for an article about his weight loss and life change. I didn't know when it was going to be published, but whaddya know all kinds of 'strib readers let me know this morning:

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/16782826.html

I checked my email to find I was inundated with requests for information about Scott's bike and what it would take to get one. Most of them probably won't make the commitment (money and lifestyle) that Scott did, but man am I overwhelmed at how many people his story is affecting. It's great!

As most folks in that situation will probably not like my current custom bike pricing and lead times, I'm working on a way to put together some lower priced options for people just looking for a bike that will hold up and give them a comfortable way to exercise. So if you happen to be one of the many folks who read the article and got inspired, then looked at my website and became terrified by the prices, email me and let me know what you're looking for. I might still be able to help you find something more in your price range, even if it's not a Bob Brown Cycles frame.

I'm getting worried now, because I know there's another upcoming large publication coming out with a much more detailed account of Scott's story. I suspect I'll get even more inquiries then.

So far my favorite emails have been the ones from well-meaning folks thanking me for touching Scott's life and giving him this incredible means to transform his existence. Hmm. I just built him a bike. Really. He's the one who did all the work, made the commitment and followed through on it. He did pay me for the bike, so really I just did my job. So thanks to the folks sending me emails, but really Scott is the one who made the magic happen, my hat's off to you my friend.

I've been slowly update the website. I'm adding a FAQ to the information page to help answer the emails I get most often. Updating content here and there as well. Nothing big, but trying to keep it current.

Also have a couple of big tools I'm looking to sell if anyone out there in blog-land is looking. First is my Miller tig welder.

Model SR-150-32 industrial DC tig machine. Make no mistake, this thing is truly industrial duty. It's currently wired to run on single-phase 220v power, but can be re-wired to run single or three phase, 220v or 480v. Range is 0-200 amps, but when running off single phase power it peaks out about 150 amps (still plenty for most welding). The machine has switchable high-frequency start built into it (on-off, or continuous hi-freq), adjustable post-purge timer for changing the length of purge after the weld. Remote contactor and amperage adjustment via foot pedal. Both contactor function and amperage adjustment are switchable. The unit is mounted on the original Miller factory running gear to it's very easy to wheel around. The running gear also has hooks for hanging cables/hoses and a stand for the argon bottle on back, so you can wheel the whole welder around as a unit easily.
I am planning on keeping the Smith argon regulator and the weldcraft torch, but I'm willing to negotiate those into the price if you like.
The machine is quite heavy, so shipping my be impratical. I think it weighs about 400lbs. I can deliver locally if desired.
Just to clarify, this welder runs on single-phase electricity, so it can be run off most household 220v power. There are many 3-phase only welders with the same model # in the miller line.
Anyone interested is welcome to try it out in my shop, it's all wired up and ready to burn some metal.
$800/obo

Dumore 1/2 hp tool-post grinder kit.

This is a complete interior/exterior Dumore tool-post grinder with a large selection of spindles, wheels, pulleys and belts. Most people won't even know what this is, but if you're insterested in it, you know what you're looking at. works perfectly, fits my 13" lathe, but would also work on bigger machines. email me for complete specs and a list of what is included.

pretty heavy, so if shipped, it probably needs to be 2 boxes. Includes the original steel case as well (not pictured). $1000/obo. This kit sells for over $2800 at J & L!

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whattaweek

2008-03-14T22:40:00.000-07:00

I had to do some traveling this week and found myself in Las Vegas for a convention. A big convention, the Con-Expo show (2.2 million sq. ft. of show!)
My feet still hurt from walking, I spent 4 days walking the show and still didn't cover all of it. Lots of neat stuff, but none that really pertains to bikes, so I'll spare you the details.
The bummer of it was getting home though, my flight got canceled due to a mechanical problem with the plane. crap, 300,000 people trying to leave vegas and me without a flight home.

I spent about 2 hours on the phone with about 6 different people and went through getting booked on 4 different replacement flights, each one getting changed about 15 minutes after I booked it. Northwest finally saw the light and got a replacement aircraft en-route to get all the people they stranded out. The highlight of all that must have been the gate agent that simply turned around and abandoned her post on us. She literally flipped out and started ranting about working three hours with no break, said she couldn't take it and left the counter unmanned to go take her break while we stood there. And amazingly enough we were in the first-class/elite check-in line which is supposed to get the "good" service from Northwest. nice.

On to bike stuff. I managed to get a big frame refurb job shipped out before I left town. Long time readers might recognize this as there are a few pictures of it on my regular web-site. The owner had a little spill and wanted a couple of changes, so I did that brazing work and repainted the whole thing. Came out pretty nice.

I've been inundated with fork requests as of lately, so I've also been cranking out forks. Three of them in the week before I left! I'm not sure what's happening, but there must be a world shortage of steel forks this spring, I've never built so many.

Product review: I picked up a Chrome backpack in Feb and I've finally had a chance to get in a few rides with it. I got the Ranchero, which is their medium sized bag. Overall the construction is very good and it fits incredibly well (as it should for the price). The bag conforms perfectly to my back and doesn't move around at all when riding (even off-road). It's definitely harder to dig through than a typical messenger bag since it's pretty tall and thin (read: it's a big, deep pocket instead of a wide open pocket). But that's simply part of being a backpack instead of a messenger bag and it's also why it stays in place so good.
Every store I've gone in with it had yielded comments or questions on where someone else could get one, which seems like a good thing. Overall, I'm really pleased. The one big (in my mind, really big) thing missing is a good way to carry a u-lock in a handy spot. Chrome could really take a lesson from Bailey on all their bags when it comes to the design of pockets. The Chrome outer pockets don't hold much of value so you have to resort to storing medium-small things in the main pockets. Not having a quick way to access a u-lock annoys me, especially when it would have been so easy to sew on a low pocket for it. Maybe I'll add my own.

Well, I'm tired, till next time.

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Breaking the silence

2008-02-29T05:56:00.000-08:00

My last posting was on Feb 1, I thought it fitting to write one on the last day of the month as well since I didn't get any in between! I'm going to warn you right now this may be long, not have any pictures, maybe be depressing, and most of all be erratic. I suspect most folks that read this regularly know what's going on but I feel like I need to say something.

I was traveling for work the first week of Feb, down in Little Rock as usual. Got back to town late Wednesday night and Beth left town for a girl's vacation the next day. Thursday night I got an unusual call from her from Colorado (where she was on vacation). She said my cousin had called her cell to ask if she knew that my Mom was in the hospital. Seemed like an odd call, but she had gotten a call from our Grandfather telling her my Mom was in a hospital. So via this message that started in MN, went to WI, MN, CO and finally back to me I found out that sure enough my Mom was up at Mercy Hospital for somewhat unknown reasons.
Turns out my parents thought I was still in Little Rock, hence they hadn't called. Besides at that point she was just having a really bad headache and they were simply trying to find out why.

A day later (Friday) they determined that she had several brain tumors that were putting pressure on her brain causing the headaches. They didn't know much more than that without a biopsy, but no matter what the tumors were composed of, they had to be removed to relieve the pressure on her brain, so they scheduled her for surgery Monday morning. Yikes, thinking about someone opening up your brain and removing part of it isn't the best thing to have on your mind for a whole weekend while you sit in a hospital bed. It was a rough weekend for my Mom and for all of us trying to make her comfortable with this notion that someone was going inside her head.

Monday came and they got her prepped and rolled her in early for surgery. We spent what seemed like an eternity in the waiting room (it's about a 4 hour surgery). They finally released her into recovery late in the afternoon and into the ICU about dinnertime. The surgeon came and spoke to us afterwards and told us they removed three tumor masses, and that the tissue he removed did look cancerous, but pathology would need to confirm that. However you have to know if the surgeon it bothering to tell us now that he "thinks" it is cancerous, it probably is.

Days went by in the ICU and she slowly recovered from the trauma of surgery. The actual incision site healed up really well, but through the process she has lost much of the function of the left side of her body. She was pretty heavily medicated for pain this whole time, so it was difficult to see how her brain was functioning, but when the meds would wear down, she seemed to be pretty alert and sharp so it seemed like things would be ok.

The pathology came back later that week and confirmed what we feared, Glioblastoma-multiforme, which is a level 4 cancer (or at least if commonly referred to as cancer, but by definition isn't cancer because it does not spread outside of the brain).

The hospital had recommended transferring her to Abbott Northwestern for physical therapy after surgery to re-learn how to use some of that left side which wasn't working. Abbott all has one of the only brain tumor centers in the cities, so this seemed like a good match. I spoke with the neuro-oncology department there and really felt it was the right place to get treatment.

Sometime about a week and a half ago, she moved to Abbott and started physical therapy and meetings with the neuro-oncologist. So far she's doing really well when they can get her to stay awake (they had her on a bit too much narcotic and it was sedating her heavily all day). She walked with a cane this week and seems to be on her way to at least being somewhat independently mobile. Her left hand hasn't regained much fine motor control, she can move it but not do anything precise with it. That really drives her nuts since she's left-handed. I don't think she'll ever be able to write with that hand again but she can hold some things with it while she uses her right.

The good news is that she should be able to come home fairly soon (maybe next week) and sleep in her own bed. As anyone who's been in a hospital knows, they're no place to rest! She'll have to make daily trips in for radiation therapy and she'll start chemo at the same time, but she'll be able to sleep in her own bed.

So between many, many trips to various hospitals, trying to get my parent's house ready for her to come home (she needs hand-rails in a lot of places), I've been pretty tied up. So if you've called or emailed there's a reason why I'm pretty slow responding right now. Please be patient.

The outpouring of support from family and friends has been overwhelming. The hardest part is keeping people from visiting as she needs to sleep as much as possible and lots of visitors really tire her out. It's great to know that there are so many people out there thinking and prayin' for her. I don't think I can write much more about this right now as it's still kind of draining and hard to think about. I know many people have been down this road before and I'm sure some of you reading this have been through cancer yourselves. My heart goes out to you, it's so sudden and so life-altering. Makes you really take a look at how you live life.

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racked

2008-02-01T15:00:00.000-08:00

Been a while since I talked at you. In that time I managed to finish up the fancy-pants fully luggest stainless steel bike racks. They're really neat, but I'll be glad to see them go, they've been a much bigger pile of work than I anticipated.

There's 2 of them, the one pictured is 4' long and the other is about 6.5' long. Should hold about 10-12 bikes total.

Doesn't really seem like there's much there, but all the lugs had to be custom carved, shaped and added onto to get the look the architec was after. And since these are all stainless that meant all the lug additions had to be tig welded on instead of my usual method of brazing them on. And well, I'm not a very proficient tig welder, so it took me a while to get things looking good.

The lugs started off as 4 sets of Llewelyn mini-six lugs. The upper head lugs had additional side points added and a front center point added then were filed down to shape.

The lugs for the second cross tube were seatlugs with the binder bolts cut off, the slots filled in and then the whole things filed down.

I had to make up the hooks too. They're bent from 3/8" 316 stainless round bar. Pretty beey, but I thought it looked more appropriate. They simply hang from the bars, so they're fully adjustable or position.

That thing has really consumed a lot more time that I thought it would, so I'm, stuck playing a bit of catch up in the shop, but I'm doing that well. Kept going on the stainless bend and finished up a dropout replacement and some stainless braze-on's on a BBC frame in for a repaint. Still have to give everything the final polish, but it's close to being ready for new paint.

Finally got in my latest order of 953 tubing, so as soon as I wrap up the three forks and one other frame I have in process, I'll be back to working on stainless. Reynolds has been a bit hit and miss on delivery of stainless yet, but I've learned to just keep ordering tubing about 6 months ahead of time. That strategy seems to be working well.

In other news since the last time I wrote, I froze my a$$ off a few weekends ago riding to the Cash tribute show at the Cabooze. The good news is the show was more than worth the 2am ride home at -20 degrees. 5 bands covering nothin' but cash all night. spectacular, especially with Thorny and Stone for entertainment.

That's about all for now.

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rack 'em

2008-01-13T18:29:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I'm still building bikes, but in between I've been working on a side project for a local Mlps Architect. It's a fully lugged stainless steel bike rack. Not a rack to go on a bike, but rather a rack to hang bikes from indoors! Actually I'm making 2 of them and I'm pretty excited to see how they come out.

It kinda looks like some kind of odd long wheel-base recumbent in this shot, but eventually that'll be hanging on a wall.

Click on any of these for big. The lugs started out as mini-six stainless lugs, then I've been adding points on them all over and reshaping them. Adding material to stainless lugs adds a whole new challenge because I have to tig weld the extra material on instead of brazing it. Otherwise you'd see the silver line on the lug where the extra material was added.

It's also pretty thick tubing, .0625" wall, which makes silver brazing the much thinner lugs on a bit of a challenge too, but so far so good. I've got one of them mostly brazed up, but I've still got to clean it up and then make another one!

This rack project is taking it's tool on the shop, it's a mess. I've never spent so much time grinding with so many tools. I can't even see the bench through the grinding dust.

I've also been working on a another frame and a frame repair. Spent a little time this afternoon fancy-ing up these stainless steel dropouts by carving out the windows.
I've still got to polish 'em up and clean them, but I think they'll look pretty nice. These dropouts used to come with windows cast-in years ago, but they stopped doing that, so now I've got to cut them out by hand to make them look nice. Sigh, just more work....

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too long

2008-01-07T11:40:00.000-08:00

Sorry, it's been a while. The holidays catch up to you and I just never got around to posting anything.

We've had great snow till yesterday and I've been trying take advantage of it as much as possible. Been skiing Battle Creek a lot and it's the best skiing I've ever done there. The volunteer groomers really deserve everyone's thanks, they're doing a hell of a job out there.

Skied yesterday with Thorny, must have been about 45 degrees, the skies were pretty well stuck to the snow, glide was non-existent. But it was still fun to be out, I just hope the warm weather leaves soon and we get a couple more inches, otherwise the season may be over soon!

Still going strong in the shop, got Billy's mtb about half done now. Coming out pretty well for a bike with some serious lug tweaking. He needed about a 15 degree slope on the top-tube, so I needed to really "adjust" the lugs to make things work. Came out great.

I'll get some more pictures up here soon.

I'm starting on another neat project as well, a stainless steel bike rack. Not a rack that mounts on a bike, but rather a rack for hanging bikes indoors. It's a project for a Mlps architect, for a new office building downtown. I'm pretty excited to see how it comes out.

Band had a good show Friday night. We played at Memory Lanes in Minnapolis. Great turn-out for us, but unfortunately they cut us pretty short, so we couldn't fully rock the place. But we'll be back there soon with a longer set, so keep your ears open.

Been playing with my new camera a little too, and with trying to get better lighting for shooting bikes. I rigged up a little light booth with an old light diffucing shade and took the pictures for an ebay auction I've got going. I think I'm starting to get better at this and hope to apply it to a bike frame soon!

write at you later

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Lalondage (the Marko kind!)

2007-12-17T08:14:00.000-08:00

Snipped from the KCCX national's website, photo from action photos:

Single Speed Champ Beats Star-Studded Field

The Singlespeed race - the only non-championship event of the day - featured a star-studded field that included Travis Brown, the first-ever winner of the World Single Speed Championship (in 1999), and local favorite Cameron Chambers of Lenexa, Kan., the reigning NORBA 24-Hour Solo national champion.

But at the end of the 45-minute race, it was Marko LaLonde of Madison, Wisc., who rode away from them all - turning some of the fastest lap times the course had seen the entire event up to that point. LaLonde finished 28 seconds ahead of Brown.

Marko LaLonde of Madison, Wisc. beats a star-studded field of cyclocross single-speedsters

"The main thing was staying upright because it was so rutted," LaLonde said. "You had to stay really light on the handlebars and let the ruts take you. If you tried to fight it, you were going down."

LaLonde said he spent much of the last half of the race looking back, knowing that one mistake would open the door for someone else.

"I realized if I made a mistake, Travis (Brown) was going to catch me because he was pushing pretty hard. Toward the end, I was starting to play it safe and at least keep upright."

The website forgot to mention on other thing that you need to look through the results closely to see. Not only did Marko win the Singlespeed race by 28 seconds, he went out again that afternoon and finished 51 in the Elite Men's race. Damn!

Marko, congrats on a hell of a season! Now go get some rest, I can't wait to see all three of you brothers duke it out next year.

Big bike:

infact it's the biggest ever for me. 74cm with a sloping top tube. If you're wondering, yes those are 700c wheels with 28 c tires on them.
The headtube was so long that my headbadge looked silly on it, so I made a vertical logo to fill it up using some chrome paint!

I'm about out of time, so more later

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one more thing

2007-12-06T14:41:00.000-08:00

I just found out there's a Route 29 frame and fork up on ebay:

Auction link!!!!

This one is non-suspension corrected, and the smallest size made, 17" Might be a great chance to get one for cheap since that price includes the fork.

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winter has sprung

2007-12-06T05:34:00.000-08:00

What a great week in MN! we got about 6" of the white stuff this past weekend, then another 4-5 Tuesday. This is the first time in years that I can remember having good skiing in MN in December. I got in a few laps at Battle Creek Sunday after the first snow and I was amazed how good it was with just that little bit. After Tuesday's snow it's now downright great! My hat's off to the volunteer grooming force at Battle Creek these days, they're doing a hell of a good job.

With snow also comes snow riding. I finally threw away my old studded tires last year but not because the studs were worn after 10 years of service, but rather the sidewalls had rotted out so bad I could no longer latex them up to repair 'em (that's a testament to how long home-made studded tires can last!) So I made up some new ones, but this time I went big. I started with a pair of Kenda Karhma 2.2" 29'er tires and put in far less studs this time, only 50 per tire. That's still enough that there's always at least one in contact with the ground. I may add more later if it doens't feel adequate, but after one ride I'd say they seemed to hook up about as good as my old ones which had a couple hundered studs each.

Usually I line the inside of the tire with a few layers of duct tape to protect the tube and that works great and weights a lot. Never worried about the weight before because these home-made studded tires were always heavy anyways. This time I used far less studs, so the tires weren't too bad for weight, so I decided to try a new approach. Tubeless.

Yup, I'm such a fan of the Stan's tubeless system that I thought I'd give it a go here. They claim the sealant won't freeze until -30F, so I figured it should be ok. Mounted them up on some Bontrager 29'er rims, stans'd 'em and went for a ride. So far they seem to be hold great, even at low pressure. I haven't gone super low pressure yet, but I'm going to try soon. Rode them Tuesday night in the fresh snow with the Large Fella, and they seemed to work as good as any other studded tire I'd used, but weighed about 2lb's less (for the pair). I like the big 29'er tire in the snow too, I think it helps. I ran them at about 25 psi, which worked well, but I'm going to keep trying lower and see if the Stan's holds up.

Last weekend I finally got around to cleaning up the Nuke-Proof rear hub I picked up from the Vitch at his last-of-Kenwood-Cyclery-garage-sale. I also happened to have a Nuke-proof front hub which makes this a set. Not quite a perfect match since the front is the Bombshell suspension hub, but close enough to be cool.

Turns out the rear axle was bent (nice sale Vitch!) but that was fine by me because I never inteded to use it. I bought the hub to make it a singlespeed hub. So I turned out a new solid stainless steel axle for the rear and intergraded the drive side spacer as part of the axle to strengthen it up even more. I needed to move the hub body over towards teh driveside to allow the cog to be in the right spot for good chainline, and to get rid of the dish in the rear wheel Came out great, very Phil Wood-esqe rear axle. They're not super light, but I think they're super cool!

Haven't decided what I'm doing with them yet, I have a set of rims in need of single speed hubs, but I might throw them on ebay first since they're so unique. If any reader is interested I'll sell the pair for $200. You'll have the most unique singlespeed wheels around! (both are 32 hole, rear is bolt-on style)

Hopefully I'll be taking a bunch of pictures this weekend with my new D-SLR camera (if it arrives), so look for some pictures of the homebrew 29'er studded tires soon (and the frame I finished up last weekend).

Till then, enjoy the snow!

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CX recap

2007-11-20T05:46:00.000-08:00

This weekend was my last CX race for the year, and I'm just finally getting into my groove...

MN state CX championships happened at Basset Creek Saturday with a slightly modified structure. They split the B race into 2 race, B1 and B2. The B1 race was cat 4 and singlespeed classes 35 minutes long, the B2 was Cat3 and 45 minutes long. This brought up a dilemma for me, race singlespeed class or do the cat 3 race on my singlespeed or do both. In the back of my head I was thinking the both option would be best, after all it is the last race of the year.

Now backup a little: I was traveling for work most of the previous week which prevented me from riding or really getting in any exercise at all the whole week. I had flown back to MN Friday and the band had a late show at the Terminal Friday night. I had gotten up at 5am Friday morning and went straight thru till 2am Sat morning with the show, so by 10:30 am when I rolled into Basset Creek, doing 2 races was losing appeal. Also since I was running late and would have had to just jump right into the singlespeed race, I opted for the cat 3 race.

I think I made the right move. The start was a little odd, there weren't any of the familiar faces I was used to, I think everyone I knew raced the B1. Having a singlespeed race drew a lot of people out, there were only 2 of us (that I saw) in the B2 with singlespeeds, but that's fine gears don't help a ton on a course like this.
Gun went off and we rolled out the dirt road. Seemed like a surprisingly slow roll-out to me, so I weaved as much as I could to get towards the front. Got boxed in most of the first lap so I stayed where I was and rode comfortably, getting a feel for the group. After that I decided I should pick it up and just started slowly picking people off. The stairs run-up was really my friend this year, all that running training really paid off. I finally got to the point where it seemed I was riding with the folks who were at my same speed after about 4 laps, I stuck with the same guy for the next 2 laps. At the end I decided I had a bit left in me, so I did what I could and passed a few more on the run-up and coming in for 20th place. Doesn't sound impressive, but for me these days that's pretty good. Looking through the results it looked like I was about 15 places higher than most of the folks I'd been finishing with all year, so I went home happy.

I'm pretty sure I owe it all to Rowntree. He loaned me his BKB "metal" skinsuit right before the start and as soon as I put it on I could feel the power. In fact at the start line someone asked me why I was riding a singlespeed in the B2 race, if I was "too good" for the singlespeed race and another guy piped in that he knew I must be fast 'cause I had BKB across my chest. I guess that guy didn't really know me, or that my last name isn't Lalonde.
I had no choice but to go all out, didn't want to shame that skinsuit. Thanks for the load Rowntree.

Also apparently I must really dig in on the run ups, this is the second pic this season of me looking really pissed off running up the hills, it's where I make up my time.

The Lalonde brothers made the drive up for the race as well, which really added to the fast contingent in the A race. I got a lot of comments and compliments about their bikes and their super-star skillz. They didn't disappoint, Marko coming in 5th and Jesse in 6th. Nice work fellas!

Another interesting note, a guy nobody seemed to know finished third. I kept looking at him on each lap thinking I knew him, but couldn't figure out specifically who he was. Turns out it was Kurt Refsnider, who was one of my skiers back when I was coaching at Champlin Park! Nice work Kurt, good to see you've really found your stride as an athlete.

The shop is back in full swing, just finished up the biggest frame I've built to date. It's half painted right now and should be done and assembled next week. This one is a 74cm (yes, that's not a typo) frame. It's got slant six lugs, so the sloping top-tube helps make it look slightly smaller than it is. The headtube is 35cm long, which made for the longest fork steerer I've ever seen.

I had to make the steerer from straight guage 4130 tubing as I couldn't find a butted steerer long enough. Amazingly I was able to find butted main tubes long enough thanks mostly to the popularity of 29'ers. So the frame is mostly Reynolds 631 tubing, double oversized.

I'll try to get some pictures of this up here once it's built up, it's hard to visualize how big it really is without wheels on it! The owner is one tall guy, I'm glad he'll finally have a frame that actually fits him! Just can't find frames this big anywhere anymore.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, cheers to another great CX season.

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shop n rant.

2007-11-05T07:36:00.000-08:00

long time between postings lately. Too much going on to have time to write...

Lots of big happenings though. The biggest of which is I'm pretty much done with my big shop move/remodel. It was a ton of work, but the end results were worth it, I love the new space. It's actually not a lot bigger in total area, but much cleaner, brighter and properly laid out.

Most of my tools now reside in cabinets and drawers instead of hanging from every corner and wall possible. That should help keep the expensive tools clean and rust-free.

I installed suspended ceiling in the shop and insulated above that, so it's nearly sound proof to the living area above. It's also physically separated from the house utilities (furnace, water heater etc...) and from the living area, so the dust should be contained a lot better. The lighting is probably the single biggest upgrade, between more lights and the white ceiling, it feels like daylight in here now. gotta love that.

Hopefully sometime in the next month or two I'll have time to update my web-site and include a proper virtual shop tour!

I've also consolidated some equipment to save space. Got a bigger belt/disc sander and no longer need and bench grinders. Got rid of some overlapping metal and woodworking stuff, etc... All in all it's a lot less cluttered.

Speaking of that, I've got 2 bench grinders that I have no need for if anyone needs one. Local would be better, but I suppose I could pack & ship. First one is a nearly brand new Craftsman 6" grinder. 36 and 80 grit wheels and I can throw in the best wheel ever invented, 3M scotchbrite deburring wheel ($25 wheel). Great for deburring and polishing. It's got a handy light too. I think I've used it about 3 times, just never needed this one. $35

The other one is a little bigger, it's a home-made 8" wheel grinder/polisher. It might look a little rough, but it works great, especially for polishing. I've got 2 or 3 grinding wheels and several polishing wheels to fit it. 2 speed belt drive. High speed for polishing is great, the motor has plenty of power for polishing or grinding. it doesn't have a switch, I just had a switched outlet, but you could easily add one or just plug it in as needed. $20, take it home today!

'cross. 2 races since last I wrote: powderhorn and Ham Lake. They were about as different as 2 courses could get. Powderhorn was incredible. The Hub did a stellar job setting the course and running the race. Spectators everywhere, huge hill run-up, what more could you ask for. Thanks to lunaticbiker for the pic.

All the running I've been doing really paid off on the hill, I felt like I really made up time there, but the long rolling part of the course was tough with the gear I had. Oh well. (yes, the hill is as steep as it looks in the pic)

Ham Lake this past weekend was completely different. very flat course with a ridiculous 2 single barriers. This was another SPBRC race, and while I appreciate the fact that they're putting on races, I hate what they consistently do to perfectly good 'cross courses. Seriously, 5 years ago this course would have had 5-6 barriers on it staggered throughout the course. Now there were 2 about 30 seconds apart on the whole damn lap. Lame.

The only thing left to give the roadies any grief at all was the twisty sections of doubletrack where it seemed everyone forgot (or didn't know in the first place) how to handle a bike off-road.

Seriously, this really gets me fired up about MN 'cross in general (not ripping SPBRC here, I'm ripping everyone). 'Cross courses around here used to be really good and offered a real advantage to those that actually had some 'cross skill. Now all the whiny roadies set up the courses to be as easy as ridable as possible because they don't like gettin' off their bikes. If you want to do a road race on grass, go do Chequomegon and stay home for 'cross season. The whole point of a 'cross race course is supposed to be to prevent the riders from getting in a rhythm, that means variations, hills, barriers, logs, whatever. Yeah I know UCI rules and all that crap specify # of barriers allowed, but come'on here none of these local races follow the other UCI guide lines and they don't need to, we're not racing for UCI points here. I don't think I've been on a course yet this year that met the UCI minimum width guide line for the entire course, not to mention all the folks with disc-brake equipped bikes out there, etc...

Every race should have at least 3 sets of barriers or natural obstacles that require you to break your rhythm. Triple barriers are even better. Stop softening up 'cross to try and get more riders, there's already too many out there for the # of race divisions we have. Powderhorn was the closest thing to a real 'cross course I've seen this year. Nice job Hub.

end rant.

end post.

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5 daze

2007-10-16T05:35:00.000-07:00

seems like more time has passed since that last post, but lots has transpired. chronology here.

Thursday night, greatDerailleur show at the 400 bar. We played the middle spot between two other bands, two bands that should thank their lucky stars we were there otherwise they woulda been playing to an empty room. First band literally played most of their set to the 5 of us and a couple of our friends that showed up early. Last band (speaker speaker) was from Seattle and consisted of a couple of just out of college age guys clearly just trying to make it across the US getting shows anywhere they can. No local fans since they weren't local, and loud as hell. I think they were good musicians, but the sound dude had them way too loud for the few people that were left in the room. Drove me to leave 3 songs into their set. Thanks to all the fans who came out for our show, we had a great time. Thought our set went really well.

Friday: head to the Vitch's for his final, clear-out-all-the-Kenwood-cyclery-crap-from-my-basement garage sale. I wanted to get in a ride so I decide to ride my bike over to chez-vitch in south Mpls. I had a couple alterior motives as well. I was going to meet TSP and Tomac in Longfellow and ride in with them, so I hauled the two suspension forks I had for them over in the b.o.b. trailer. The Vitch still had my S&S 29'er from his trip to singlespeed worlds in Scotland, so I planned on picking that up and hauling it home in the trailer as well.

Got to the sale to find a few other kenwoodies there picking through the goods. Most of the stuff I recognised from the shop as stuff I had passed on then, but I did pick up a few goodies. Most notable in my book: the Waterford sign from the shop (will look great in my soon-to-be renovated shop), a full Modolo speedy brake kit, with lots o' small parts for brakes (I can't imagine anyone else at the same could have used that one) and a super-cool aluminum chainguard that will inevitably end up getting polished out and fancied up for a BBC someday.

Add in a pair of shoes for a customer of mine, a few other odds and ends, all the extra clothing I brought and I had a really full trailer and messenger bag.

Loaded everything up into the b.o.b. with a bunch of bungee's and duct tape and set off on my way about 10pm, the temp had dropped to the point I could see my breath now. Ordinarily it's about a 50 minute ride home from the Vitch's, but that trailer kept feelin' heavier and heavier the closer I got to downtown St. Paul (probably had something to do with knowing I had 2 big hills to hit before I got home). I stopped for a short rest near downtown. I had the foresight to know I'd be doggin' it near the end, so I brought some food which I promptly scarfed down. Got back on the rig, checked the clock. It was 11pm.

Finally rolled into my driveway about 11:15. Felt good to get inside and warm up. The Xl bailey bag on my back kept that part of me warm, but my feet were getting a bit frosty.

Sat, put the finishing touches on two 953 'cross frames and got one of them ready to ship out to Oregon. This one is double oversize tubing with a neat seatlug that I'm really digging. I like the clean look of the seatstay sockets in the lug, my only grip is the lug is a looser fit on the top-tube, hence there's more silver visible between the lug and tube and it's harder to make that look clean. This one has indented 953 chainstays which I was able to manipulate to get 50mm of tire clearance between them! This one is a disc only frame, no canti mounts, and just hose guides brazed on the frame.

Pardon the bad picture placement formatting, blogger sucks for placing pictures.

The other one is heading to Marko Lalonde for the rest of his 'cross season. He's been ripping it up out there this year too, including finishing 11th and 14th this weekend at the UCI double header in Cincinnati (nice work darkness)! I'm really excited to have him and Jesse racing for me this year. And for the record, brother Jesse won the Badger 'cross in Madison this weekend

I wanted the logos to pop out a little more on this frame, so I painted in some panels instead of my usual etching on the stainless. I like the look.

This one had a whole lotta custom stuff. I had to make the track dropouts from scratch, this was the first side-tack seatstay I'd done on a 953 frame. I was worried about how much silver would show around the stays, but now that I see it done, I love the look. It shows off the inverted tube brazed in to make the scallops (no investment cast plugs here, those are for the lazy). The chainstays are the first 953 bent chainstays (anywhere as far as I know) and when combined with the indentations give clearance for 2.2" 29'er tires. It's a cross bike by design, but it's got clearance for full 29'er tires and is actually just about the same geometry as my personal 29'er. I really love these 'cross/29'er rigid frames, they're about as versatile as a bike gets, and they handle both applications extremely well.

Sunday I raced. What a day for cross, raining and about 45 degrees all morning, got the course all wet and slick in time for the start. I stuck in the B race and I think my total lack of training will keep me there this season. Started mid-pack right behind Freeride and rode most of the first two laps just a person or two behind him. There was a huge pile up right at the start and we both managed to get around it. About lap three I was feeling good so I ramped it up and passed freeride and a few others. I kept it going till the last lap, and once again I hit the wall on the last lap. I didn't lose a lot of ground, but I could tell my last lap was considerably slower than the rest. That was confirmed by the Cutshall superfans who were gracious enough to give me hand-ups during the race and unbeknownst to me were timing my laps. Thanks Team Ultra!

Good day of racing, however I will whine about the stupid course. The Ridley folks (formerly Alan folks, *wise-ass Alan comment deleted*) put on this one and they usually do a great job, but this year taking out two full sets of barriers only to replace them with a series of 12 180 degree turns (think of a riding your bike through the line que at a Disneyland ride) was 100% lame. It did nothing for the race and kept the people with any kind of real 'cross skilz from using them. Oh well, other than that it was a great race.

Alright, I'm outta time, so write at you later.

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Derailleur tonight

2007-10-11T11:28:00.000-07:00

Don't have a lot of time to write today, but thought I'd post that my band (derailleur) is playing the 400 Bar tonight in Mpls at 9pm. There's a cover, but not much, swing by and check us out.

Pic's very soon of the two 953 frames I'm finishing up this week. It's been crazy, but I've managed to get three frames cranked out in the past 4 weeks!

Lake Rebecca CX mini recap: Hot, too hot for cx. Felt like I rode well for not really training much, finished mid pack at 27th. I was in the top 20 most of the race till I hit about 40 minutes, then I popped. bad. Cramped both legs, struggled to make it up the final run, but I'm sure got stronger in the process. Hopefully I'll last through the last lap next weekend.

Thanks to sideburns for all the great pics on skinnyski.

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catch up

2007-10-03T18:41:00.000-07:00

I've had so many things I wanted to write about lately, but never had the time...

Friday: JL and friend KT make the pilgrimage up to St. Paul to get JL's new frame. I meet them at the shop about 11 and they get into building it up. JL simply brought up a big crate o parts, added in with a new frame and fork and we ended up with a bike.
Pretty great build if you ask me, 29'er wheels with crows on 'em, drop bars, Sram brake levers with pink hoods (where does he get this stuff?) White ind. eno crank, pauls brakes. Swank.

Afterwards I had the pleasure of sneaking in a nice ride at wirth with these guys. Thankfully JL and KT took it easy on me and it was a really fun ride. I hadn't been to wirth in a while and man were there trees down everywhere. Still, it was good to get out on my 'cross bike and ride with these guys.

JL was rockin the 'crows on his bike and seemed to really be flowing well at wirth, but honestly I think he could have been riding on rims and looked smooth. KT was on the soulcraft cx bike rockin' it out and making it look too easy. I was psyched to try out the Stan's/panaracer tubeless set up would work on the hardpack at wirth. Happy to say it was good, I ran 'em low around 28psi and while I did hear the rims hit a few roots, they stayed true and held air perfectly the whole time.

After that, I headed back home to pack up some stuff and head north to my folks cabin to help them out over the weekend.

Sat: Got slots done up north, we pulled up all the boards off the deck in order to refinish them and correct some design flaws the previous owners installed. Then cut up a big oak that had fallen the previous week.
Sun: finished up my trip north helping my dad set up a big shelving unit in the new garage they're building. Quite a lot of change up there, can't wait to spend some time up there next summer.

Side note: driving up and back I got to try out my new stereo in the jetta. In short it was awesome. The ipod integration is so seamless, I can now see why their next model up is an ipod only receiver, no cd player. It sounds at least 95% as good as playing an actual CD, which is a night and day improvement over every other ipod playing scheme I've tried in there before. Just set it on shuffle and you've got an instant roadtrip soundtrack.

Mon: usual day at work, but Beth and I decided to celebrate our anniversary a day early with a nice dinner. We headed to a new place in Minneapolis (although they're in plenty of other cities), Fogo de Chao. For those that haven't heard of it, they bill themselves as a Brazilian Steakhouse. The set-up is a bit unusual, but really pretty sweet. There's not really any menu, everyone gets the same treatment. There's an incredible salad bar to start off with, fresh everything, cheeses, salads, veggies. All top notch fresh.
Once you get through with that, you're given what looks like a coaster, but it's red on one side and green on the other. Set it out green side up and they start bringing around the meat. They've got about 10 different meats, mostly beef, all exceptional. They literally walk around to your table with a spit of meat and carve whatever you want off right at your table. I truly don't know how to describe how good all of it was, I can't even pick out a fav. We just ate, ate and ate some more. They'll bring as much as you want.
The only thing that was better than the food was the service. Truly the best service I've had a restaurant. Period. I think I've got a new favorite restaurant.
Price was even quite reasonable for the quality of food and service you're getting. Dinner is $42 per person, or they have a lunch for $24. Definitely not applebees pricing, but trust me, this place is a great value.

alright, I better stop writing about this, I'm getting hungry. who's up for lunch tomorrow?

Finally today: spent some time giving some 953 chainstays the magic hands treatment. I needed some extra tire clearance for one of the 953 'cross frames I'm building. Reynolds has had a lot of difficulty forming these stays and I think I've worked out a method for reshaping and ovalizing them. Wish I could tell you, but for now, gotta keep that under wraps. I'll be pushing this one step further this weekend working on the worlds first 953 bent chainstay frame. This stuff isn't easy, but the more I work with it, the more I learn. Gotta love learnin'.

Reynolds will be happy to see what happens this weekend too, they've been great to work with on this project supplying me with raw materials for testing out a few methods. I think they're as eager to find a way to provide a bend 953 stay as I am to have one. coming soon (hopefully): 953 29'ers!

That's all I have time for now, gotta go find me a steak.

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stars 'n hearts

2007-09-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

I finished up two more paint jobs this weekend, including Jesse's frame. This ting was the bane of my existence Sunday. I spent almost 3 hours applying all the masking only to have the paint wrinkle up once sprayed due to a chemical issue. I fixed that, but couldn't fully sand out all the wrinkles, so there are a couple of hearts in there with some texture in the paint, but it's not bad.

Then the colors disappointed me. The frame was supposed to be black and white, which it was. Then I added the pearl over it (which I thought would be translucent) and it turned my stark black into sort of a gunmetal gray. It's actually a really cool effect and color, but I was hoping for black. But Jesse needs it for 'cross so it will suffice for now, I can respray it after the season's over if he wants. It's still a super-cool paint job that will be killer with the BKB racing kits. Can't wait to see him out there ripping it up on this baby.

Just for the record, everything you see on here is painted in, there's not a single decal on the bike. Talk about a lot of masking...

I'm still madly working on getting the other two 953 'cross frames in my shop out. One if over half done, the other is getting there. More pic's of those coming soon. I've been held up on progress on them due to a very late shipment of the stainless dropouts and a few other bits. Those just showed up yesterday, so I should be able to get moving again on 'em.

In other news I've had absolutely zero progress on moving the shop, everything is still in disarray and I suspect it will be until I can get these next couple frames done. I should have time this winter to really get that space set-up how I want it, but not much time till then.

I finally got my 'cross bike all set-up this weekend and even snuck out for a quick ride on it yesterday. I've been running 3-4 times a week so I felt alright, but my technique was a bit off since I haven't been riding at all. I think I'll be fine though, I won't make it to a race till Oct 6th at the soonest, so I have a week or two to practice my dismounts.
I'm trying something new this year, in all my consolidations of bike stuff, I sold off the wheels I usually race 'cross on. I was thinking I'd use my Reynolds carbon wheels for racing, but I'm actually going to try something else first. I set up my King/Stan's ZTR 29'er wheelset with 'cross tires and Stan's goo. The ZTR rims are as lgiht as most road rims, and with the Stan's yellow tape and tubeless set-up, they're actually lighter than my old race wheels, plus they're tubeless, so I can run low pressure. The rims are wider than most road rims, but that only gives me more tire contact patch. I think this might be a great set-up for 'cross. They felt good last night, but it was a short ride, I'll write more about it after I spend some time on 'em.

Completely unrelated to bikes, I installed a new stereo in the Jetta last night. I'd been wanting to replace the old one for sometime and I've been kind of itchin to have a receiver with a good i-pod integration and HD radio capability. Not to mention I missed my old Alpines with high-voltage pre-outs, they just sound better than anything else.
So I scored the Alpine I wanted on Ebay and finally got it in last night and I'm thrilled. Not only does it sound as good as my Alpine's of old, but the i-pod integration is killer. You plug the i-pod right in the docking connection and the receiver is now your controller. You have all the same controls of the i-pod but they're right there on the deck and it charges your i-pod while you drive. Slick. Can't wait to hook up the HD radio (hopefully today or tomorrow).

If anyone in blog-land needs a basic car CD player I've got the Sony X-plod CDX-L550x I pulled out. It works fine, but is more susceptible to skipping if your CD's have scratches (as every Sony CD player I've ever had has been). Only one set of pre-outs, but if you don't have any amps, it's a great unit. $50 + shipping, how can you beat it.

Homage

2007-09-17T06:47:00.000-07:00

Pay attention folks, #1 and #4 at Chequomegon, the Lalonde Bro's, both on singlespeeds. They rock, plain and simple.

I wish I could have been there, but I didn't get into the race this year and I had other priorities. I spend the weekend in the shop building 'cross bikes, three of 'em. One heading to Oregon, and two heading to where else? The Lalonde brothers. I'm pumped to have these two sporting a pair of hot BBC's this year, look for them on the BKB custom bikes.

Wish I had more picts to show, but I was in full-on building mode all weekend and didn't get around to using the camera yet. I'll get some this week. There's 2 953 'cross bikes in that mix, and they're looking nice.

Gotta give props to all the Kenwoodies turning in some big results at Cheq too. Ez, wins the singlespeed class (and places 18th overall), Thorny rockets through in 61st, TSP 81st, Tomac just a few seconds behind him in 87th. WW & Becko, third place tandem, and although no K'woodies, the Eppen's deserve props for a 16th place overall finish on tandem. Nice work all of you.

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Coming along....

2007-09-13T05:04:00.000-07:00

The house is coming along nicely. I finished up the wiring, so now my friend Levi is taking over on hanging and mudding the drywall. I can't tell you how excited I am to not be doing the drywall. Not only do I hate it, but I'm swamped with bike work, so this really helps out.

I'm putting the shop move on hold too, while I bust out a couple frames. I've been slowly putzing on a few for a little but, but now I really need to finish them up and get them out. I've had two holdup's on the stainless frames I'm working on: waiting for material from Reynolds, and getting my lathe set-up so I can make the headtubes. Well, the Reynolds order came in last week, and I finally got the three-phase power wired up for the lathe and some of the tooling arrived Tuesday.

So last night I was finally able to crank out a headtube and get the frame jigged up. The new lathe is awesome. The chuck is big enough to hold a whole headtube with no problem and the big tooling makes a world of difference in cutting stainless compared to my old small lathe.
I turn my stainless headtubes from 38mm 316L raw stock. For this frame I needed to add a bit of heatube extension above the lug, which is usually done by brazing a sleeve on the headtube. However since I was machining this and had a big enough OD, I was able to just turn the headtube extension right into the tube. Kind of a neat trick.

A few things worth noting since I've now gotten my third shipment of 953 tubing. Reynolds really seems to be getting the manipulation of this material down a lot better. All the tubes I received were right on spec for wall thickness and butting, which is a huge improvement over previous tubes. In addition the tubes are quite a bit closer to being truly round and straight. Only a couple had significant straightness issues (on all previous orders, none of the tubes was truly straight) and the roundness is within .010" (compared to .035" on early orders).

I also ordered a couple of new tubes Reynolds is offering just to see how close to spec they were. I'm pleased to report their new lightweight chainstays are truly lightweight. Until now, the 953 chainstays were a bit underwhelming compared to the rest of the tubing. But with these new stays and the better wall thickness tolerances of the main tubing, I can now built 953 bikes that are truly lighter than any other steel available. Of course as always, weight will depend on what you're using it for, but it's nice to know these light tubes are finally out there.

And finally, I'm pleased to say I sold the steel/carbon frame that I was pushing on here for a while. Built it up with a new Chorus group this week and shipped it out. Hope the new owner enjoys it as much as I did. I'm finally getting my stable down to a manageable size, which feels good.

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remodelage.

2007-08-31T06:17:00.000-07:00

It's pretty bad when I have to go back and look at my own blog to what I wrote about last time because it's been so long since I've posted. I've been back in full-on Bob Brown mode tearing apart our house, so I haven't had any free time to think, breath, eat, or write (well at least to write).

As I mentioned last time, I'm working on a simple project o re-do my stairs in the house. Well that scope has turned out of control, I have the stairs all turned around and functional, and I frames in a new closet and a new hallway, but I seem to keep finding more things to include in this project.
Here's a shot of how things are looking today, the stairs are sloped the "right" way now. I had to build three angled steps near the bottom to make the turn into the new hallway, but I think they came out pretty good.

I also decided to just frame in an entire room surrounding the furnace and water heater. The problem with having a metal shop in your basement is you make a ton of dust, and if your furnace is basically in the middle of your shop, all that dust makes it way into the furnace and into the rest of the house. Sooooo, I figured if I can section off that part of the basement and keep it clean, hopefully we'll have cleaner air upstairs as well. It also give us a really nice big storage area that should be free of shop-dust.

Of course after moving the stairs, I needed to relocate half the plumbing in the house since it was now located right where we'd be walking through. That ended up taking the better part of a whole weekend on it's own, but now about 75 % of the house has new copper plumbing. I was amazed, I sweated about 50 individual copper fittings during that process (there were a LOT of elbows!) and when I turned it back on, not a single drip. Guess all that brazing pays off when it comes to being a plumber.

Since I was on a role with the remodel, this seems like the right time to do my shop relocation as well. I'm taking over the other half of the basement to make the shop bigger and better. This part will be a long project I'm guessing since I can't really drop all my framebuilding right now to move the shop, so I'm slowing plugging away at it. I started with the heavy stuff though, moved the alignment table and all my tubing storage. Then with the help of local framebuilder and all around good guy Dave Anderson, moved my 2000lb horizontal mill across the basement and moved my new lathe into the shop.

Did I mention I got a new lathe? I picked up a really neat Clausing 5914 lathe from a 3M surplus sale. It's big, 12" x 36" bed, 1200 lbs of good old 'merican steel! Sorry I don't have any great pics of it yet, but once I have some free time to clean it up and get it wired I'll take some.
It's mighty nice, takes 5C collets right in the headstock with no adapters, has a true variable speed drive with hydraulic clutch and brake, turns about a million threads and has a nice big 1.375" spindle bore. In short, it's a true industrial machine, and I'm excited to give it a new home.

So this weekend I'm giving the basement the full court press. Gonna try to finish up the drywall and wiring on the house parts and get a bunch of my shop cleaned up and functional, and see how much stuff I can get moved to the new shop. I'm also planning on insulating and finishing off the ceiling in the new shop space. That should keep things quiet upstairs and give me more fire protection when using the torch. I'm still debating just drywalling the ceiling or installing a drop-ceiling with fire-resistant panels.

On the bike front, I'm still managing to get some work done, moved a couple coupler jobs out of the shop this week and one repaint. And I sold off the steel/carbon frame I posted here a few weeks back. However I do feel like I'm falling behind as I have a few 'cross frames I really need to get done before 'cross season really starts up.
Reynolds has been holding me up on some of that work though as they just shipped their August 953 production run this week (three weeks late), so I've been waiting for tubes. They're defintely getting better at delivering the stuff (a few weeks late is better than 6 months late) but it will be nice if they can actually get caught up and stock some 953.

That's about all I have time for right now, try to write again soon,

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rampin' up

2007-08-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

Things are really starting to heat up around the shop. I feel like I've been spraying paint for a month straight right now, I just kind of let a bunch of repaints build up. Here's a pair of Molteni orange frames, one an S & S retrofit, one a Merckx restoration. The Merckx will be adorned with a record kit soon, should be a find bike for the owner!

I've been hit with the last minute rush before singlespeed world champs in Scotland as well. Got two more coupler retrofits to finish up this weekend and I think I'll have all those taken care of.

I've got three bikes to get assembled this week too, man stuff is just piling up!

The blog-sale last posting was pretty successful, but I've still got a couple things left. The steel/carbon frame and fork are still available as well as the Ritchey carbon bars. In addition I've got an IRD shimano 10 speed cassette for sale, brand new 11-23. $40.

In tangentially related news, I've started on the last really big part of our home-remodeling: turning the basement stairs around 180 degrees. I've done just about all the pre-work including a lot of demo. I think this weekend will be the big push where I'll actually pull out the whole existing staircase and build the new one. I don't think it will take long to make it functional, but the finish work will take some time. I intend to build a new hallway in the basement and frame out a new closet upstairs next to our front door, so there will be a pretty fair amount of drywall work to do (which I hate). Not looking forward to that. But I am really looking forward to having the stairs moved. It will really change the layout of my shop space and give me a lot more space. I've got grand plans for the shop this winter, but I'll write about that some other time.

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more stuff for sale

2007-08-07T11:01:00.000-07:00

Two postings in a row, must mean I need to sell stuff!

I still have this frame available, if there aren't any bites in the next week, it's going on ebay. The group sold, so it's down to just the frame, fork, headset and seatpost. It's a 58cm effective top-tube, 60cm effective seat-tube. lugged steel front, columbus super-muscle carbon rear. Frame weighs 3.6lbs. Matching Alpha Q sub 3 fork, Record threadless headset and Wound up carbon seatpost. Chromillusions color changing paint. you really need to see this in person to appreciate it. Nearly perfect, there's one small paint chip on the left chainstay, otherwise the paint is perfect. Email me for more pictures and details. $1500/ frame, fork, headset, post.

FRM CL2 TI brakes. These baby's are about the lightest thing around, lighter than the Zero Gravity brakes which everyone mistakes them for. I've got a pair of them for sale, they have been used about 10 times, but are truly like brand new condition. These weight 96g per complete brake including the pads! (per my Ohaus balance). They work great and I cannot tell any difference in feel between these and my Record dual pivots. Great way to save some weight. I don't think anyone is importing these into the US anymore, so here's your big chance to have some super-euro brakes nobody else has! $200/ set (front and rear). Priced to move! More info here.

Flite Carbon saddle. This is the lightest flite made, carbon insert, carbon rails. Actual weight 156g. Brand spankin' new. Retail is about $160 online, this one is yours for $120 shipped.

TTT Less XL handlebar. 42cm width, 31.8 clamp, used but excellent condition. Less than a year old, 221g actual weight.
$40

Ritchey Carbon Evolution bar, 42cm. This is a fabulous bar, 200g very stiff, very comfortable shape. It's wider on the tops, and sweeps back slightly, shallow drop, typical flat top Ritchey shape. Specs are here. Retail is about $275 on these, these have less than 5 rides on them and are indistinguishable from new $200.

Reynolds Ouzo Race Aluminum bar. 40cm, new, anatomic bend, 31.8mm clamp, 220g.

$25

Thompson X2 road stem, 31.8 x 1 1/8" clamps, +/- 5 degree, 100mm length. excellent condition, like new. $50, or buy any bar above and get this stem for $40!

Those are the highlights for now, it's all going on ebay if I don't get bites here, so act fast!

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Horrible

2007-08-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

Horrible, that's what my dedication to this blog has been lately. It's been really tough finding the time. It's been two and a half weeks since I've posted here and I think I've done 3 rides in that time. Sad.
I did what will be for me, the last Buck Hill race of the year last week. Technically there is one more this week, but I won't be able to be there. Man it's gotten rough out there. For those of you not in the Twin Cities, we're having nothing short of a drought up here. No rain for pretty much the whole summer, which has literally turned riding at Buck into a race at the beach. The trails are all sand, some places almost unridable because it's 6" deep. It's been a challenge to say the least. Sure hope we get some real rain here soon.

Even though I'm not writing much, I've been really cranking out work. Since my last posting I finished up another frame and painted four others. Paint has really been frustrating for me lately. Dupont went and changed the chemistry of the clearcoat I use again and it's really hosed me up. To make it worse on the last batch of 3 frames it appears that I got a bad can of activator for the clear so all of them had horrible clears and I had to respray them all multiple times and completely start over on one of them.
I think I've finally settled in on a new clearcoat, it's a higher-end product, so it's expensive at about $75/quart, but it really looks nice and lays flat. Combined with the new Iwata gun I've been using I can now use about 1/2 the liquid volume of clear and get a deeper coat and better shine. I'm still working out a few quirks, but I think I'm on the right track to clearcoat nirvana.

The one pictured here has painted in logos on the downtube, which I really like. They're sprayed with Chrome paint and buried under clearcoat. Looks sharp with the polished stainless lugs and couplers on this one. More pictures once it's built up.

I finished assembling this one too. Really nice little bike with the Campy Centaur group and Nitto parts. This one should be on it's way to the new owner very soon, hopefully in time to get in plenty of good riding yet this summer.

I really like the Centaur group, but I wish Campy would have kept the polished finish brake levers. For 2007 they went carbon on the lever blades. They keep trickling the carbon down further into their lines making it harder and harder to make a classic looking group with high end parts.

In other news, I've also started into the final stage of our overall home improvement scope. Faithful readers will no doubt know all about the addition to the house, well I'm on the last step, turning our basement stairs around 180 degrees. Anyone that's been in my basement knows this is no small task. It's taken me 2 weeks already to clear out enough space to stage all the construction. So I spent a lot of time this weekend moving stuff away from the stairs in preparation for demo.
When it's all said and done, the shop will be completely rearranged, we'll have new stairs and a new front entry closet upstairs, and best of all a new hallway from the garage straight up the stairs so that we won't have to walk through the shop to enter the house. That should do wonders for keeping the house clean! I'm actually really excited about getting this done. I just need to dedicate the time and do it!

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2007-07-18T05:39:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while... It's summer and tough for me to find time to write here sometimes.
I've been pretty hard at it in the shop, finished up 2 more frames within the last week. The first is a really cool road frame with Sach's new Nuevo-Richie series lugs.

I was loving this frame before paint, and it only got better after. These are just a couple quick shots of it under the fluorescent lights of the shop, so the color is slightly off. But it's a beautiful burgundy with a very subtle metallic flake to it, with cream accents.

The Polished stainless headbadge is brazed to the headtube then masked for paint. I've got most of the components at the shop now, so I'll have some better pictures soon of it all built up.

This one will have a Campy Centaur group with lots of shiny Nitto parts to really make it look good.

The other frame was another Route 29. This one is the first of the new non-suspension corrected frames! Lots of you have been asking me when this might be a reality. Well the answer is now. This one is at The Route getting built up into a complete bike and it's a size small (17.5").

A couple of small changes as this frame design continues to evolve. Obviously these frames will come with a rigid fork with my fork crown. I've added removable canti bosses on the forks, so if you want to run discs you can take off the canti posts. And I've modified the sliding rear deopout design. We had a compatibility issue with the old disc mount, some calipers could hit the left seatstay when the dropout was slid in all the way. So I've lengthened the sliders and given more room, so they should work with any disc caliper along the full range of travel.

I've tried to maintain a unique clean look to them even though they are a bit larger now. I think they still look really nice.

I think we've settled in on the stock colors as well and we'll have color samples up on the official website soon (when the official website is officially up!). The colors will be: Metallic silver, Root Beer candy, Madarin Orange candy, Deep blue and a Green candy.

I've been really trying to ride my bike more these days, and in that vane I actually raced (well if you call it that) at buck hill last week. It was a perfect night for it and I actually felt pretty good. Well, until the end of the third lap anyways. As I was nearing the end of lap 3 things went awry. I was starting to get fatigued (when you don't train it sure hits you quickly!) and my legs were starting to feel the verge of cramping. I must have hit something with my front tire as the bike endo'd suddenly. I didn't actually crash at this point though. I actually got both tires back on the ground while still moving, but the sudden jerk forward had pulled my right foot out of the pedal, so I was waaaaay off balance, on one foot leaning pretty far off the side of the bike madly trying to regain balance. Unfortunately I ran over a root while this was happening and I knew instantly I wasn't going to pull this off. Down I went. I flailed off the bike landing with my right arm outstretched. It was freakily similar to how I landed when I broke myself back in 2003, so my first instinct was to check the arm I just landed on. Fortunately it was fine. After a couple of seconds making sure I had all my parts, I got up, dusted myself off and got back on the bike. Felt OK for minute or so, but as I was descending down the end of the lap it became pretty clear that my left knee wasn't happy. So I decided to stop one lap early and head home before the real soreness kicked in.
It sure did kick in over the weekend. My knee swelled up a good bit and made walking a challenge, but it seems to have subsided now. I checked out my bike yesterday, found a small dent in the top-tube, bummer. But even worse found the front of my helmet cracked! Bummer since it was a fairly new $100+ helmet, but good in that it did it's job. I've got a new one on order, I'm back to using an older helmet till the new one comes. Keep those lids on folks, they do work. I'm sad to say this is the third helmet that has "done it's job" for me over my cycling career. I'd hate to think what kind of shape I'd be in without them.

I rode some errands yesterday including my first trip over to Hiawatha Cyclery. Jim over there happen to have a good stock of Nitto Crystal Fellow seatposts which no one else in the US seems to have right now. I needed one for the bike shown at the top of the page, so I rode over. Neat little shop (emphasis on little), but lots tucked in. Jim seemed like a nice guy and I'd say if you're in the area and looking for Rivendell type parts stop in. He seemed to pretty much have the whole Riv catalog in stock. To be honest, the pricing was pretty high on stuff (higher than buying from Riv direct) but then again, he's actually got stuff in stock and you can leave with the parts in your hand.

I ushered in a possible new era last night as my band, Derailleur, moved all our stuff out of my basement and into a new rehearsal space. We've always practiced in my shop, since um... since my shop began I guess. But I needed the space to do some remodeling down there later this summer, so we're going to try out a new rehearsal space in the meantime and see how it treats us. It felt really strange moving the stuff out though, kind of not right. Who knows, maybe we'll love the new space. One thing is for sure, I had no idea how much crap we had down there that we don't pack up when we got to shows. Moving the whole rehearsal space too over twice as long as just packing up for a show.

write at you later,

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