workin.

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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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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!