MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The 5" of snow we had on Friday is still here, giving us one of the rarest NM events ever...a white Christmas! Here's hoping you and yours are having a great holiday- get off the computer already!

For those of you on the email list (you are if you have a frame or we've been talking frames), watch for a cool offer next week.
Stay Warm.

A slip here just might void your warranty

See if you can watch without leaning to the left:

Let's catch up a bit

 Here are some belated pictures of a touring mtb inspired/based on the blue 29er from the San Diego show last April. Built for the long haul with True Temper and aircraft grade 4130 tubes. Full attachment points for rack, fenders, etc. along with three water bottle mounts and internal routing for all cables allowing the use of full length cable housing. Look close and you can see how the rear derailleur cable goes in the left side of the top tube, out the right side, then into the top of the seatstay and out right above the dropout.

The rear wishbone crown matches the fork.

 Powdercoated a nice gloss black, totally decal free, the only Matthews logo a black stainless steel "M" on the headtube. The subtle look is terrible advertising for me...but  it's custom baby, and a custom bike should look just the way you want it to.

A fork for a classic mtb up next.

Good Words

Whew, another month has flown by in a blur of bike building, baseball, and one more health scare in the family. But, the good word is that the problem looks to be solved and a few more custom bikes will hit the streets soon.....pics to follow, hopefully before Thanksgiving! Speaking of good words, here's Pete's review a a few pics of his road-worthy fixed (nice build by the way!):

" I was finally able to take the bike out for a long ride today with the friends, and I must say, it is everything I could ever ask for. It is much more responsive and nimble than my last frame, but it is still super stable. Makes riding with no hands with a slight crosswind a breeze; no pun intended. The slacker seattube really made pedaling so much easier for me; I just got to work on my strokes and get my cadence up. The longer headtube gives me more room to extended/shorten my stem. I no longer have the lower back pains I use to get. I have received nothing but compliments about it; especially about your craftsmanship. I will always be spreading the word about the great work you're doing over there and will hopefully be back when I am in the market for another bike."

                                                         Thanks Pete!

Two....was that a Niner in there?

Trying to stick to my resolution to post every build this year hasn't worked really well this month. A whole lotta work (never a bad thing!) and an emergency surgery (we don't need no stinking gall bladders!) have kept new posts from getting...erm, posted.

Got a Retro/MCClung style 29er done (no pre-paint pics for that) and this Coconino style 29er heading out this week:

 The original plan was for straight seat stays, but when it became evident the caliper bolt/seatstay area was a bit too tight for my tastes, I went ahead and curved the stay for clearance and to continue the curve of the top tube.

 Chainstay mounted disc brakes are great except for the way you have to route the cables....ever notice how most builders don't give you  brake side pics of a finished bike with low mount brakes? Well, I'm not going to be any different! ;)

 Seatstay bridge with a curve.

 Shiny "M".

Till next time...

Personalized

I found a pic of the headbadge. It's a family symbol/character. I have no idea if it's legible but I hope it is as it's not easy to take brush strokes and translate them into stainless steel with a jewler's saw and files. One thing is for sure, there isn't another one like it!

Painted

Three colors+ mucho masking+ four days =done!

I just realized I didn't get a pic with the headbadge on (it had to go on last because it would have interfered with the masking/pinstriping) but I wasn't the only one taking pictures... expect a quick update if/when I find one.

Pre-paint

Some bare metalwork for ya before the paint goes on.

Classic seat cluster with "half wrap" seatstay caps and requested symbol.

                                 
                                                             Drops with stainless faces.

              Back end showing the chevron shaped bridge I love to use. I first saw it 8 or 9 years ago on a fixed frame built by Whitney Moyer. Moyer had a great eye when it came to lugged fixed gears, nobody did them better. Ufortunately, he doesn't build anymore, but the bridge lives on!

                                                    Front showing the nifty Sachs lugs.

The low trail fork gives this bike a classic British path racer look to go along with it's snappy handling and smooth ride...perfect for a road going fixed gear.

Hey baby, nice lugs!

As it has been requested, I'm going to post more build pics of the next frame- Peter's lugged fixed gear.

                       The blueprint and checking positioning of the butts on the down tube.

Sub assemblies are built first. Here the seatstays get a rough cut.

Then a miter with an old piece of tubing brazed in.

After an attack with the angle grinder and some filing we have seatstay caps!

Pacenti track drops set at the proper angle for the slot to be horizontal when the bike is sitting level.

A nice lug in need of a little hacksaw surgery.

Surgery complete!

First frame miter, nice and tight and at the right angle, these have to be perfect for proper alignment and strength.

Downtube/head tube joint all brazed up. It passed the pug inspection!

650b Painted!

Between the clouds and the smoke from the AZ fires, this has been one gloomy day for picture taking. You'll just have to take my word that the orange is brighter than this and it has some gold pearl in it that really pops in the sun. Thanks to Conor at Vendetta Cycles for the paint code, this is what the cool kids call "Vendetta Orange":

Mike's 650b

Whats the "b" for? Bitchin of course. Well, that, and 650b is a wheel size that falls right in between 26" and 700c. It's an old standard that is seeing a resurgence lately. Building this frame has made me want to do a 650b of my own.....maybe the next show bike?

Speaking of show bikes, Mike's frame bears a close resemblance to the road frame I took the San Diego show. Once the frame was 3/4 done it was time to draw in the bilaminate reinforcements:

Then things took a turn. I don't even know if I should be talking about this. But when I went back to the shop to start cutting, I put a cd in the player....a Simon and Garfunkel cd. I know, I know, I can't believe it myself....but that's what I did. "The Boxer" came on, I started feeling all groovy and things were a blur from there. By the time "Bridge over troubled water" ended, I snapped out of all that sensitivity and had this:

Not too bad, eh?

Once that was out of the way, Social Distortion went back into the player and all was right with the world again. All the little pieces were fabbed up and after a flurry of brazing we have this:

                  Painted pics to come along with some of a retro 29er and a couple of fixed gears.

IMG_1278

IMG_1278, a photo by JamesPatrickValiensi on Flickr.

This just in...another cool shot of the blued fixed gear from the show.