back

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,

bbbb

Bucked.

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.

bbbb

uberslacker

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:





bbbb

SS

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.

bbbb

paint

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.

bbbb

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.

bbbb

pics

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

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.

bbbb

rollin

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.

bbbb

press.

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!

bbbb

whattaweek

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.

bbbb