Weekend Update

Hello, I’m Chevy Chase. And you’re not.

In all seriousness, it was another productive weekend on the bike front.

Friday, between jobs (I currently have an office gig and a part-time gig at a bike shop), I stopped at the Active Living Bike Expo, as Paul was there, and it’d give me a chance to meet Erik Noren of Peacock Groove. I only had a couple of hours there, but I helped them set up, shot the shit, and had a good time. Erik’s a groovy cat and shared some knowledge that’ll be extremely helpful in the near future. I also discussed getting in at Minnecycle 2 this year, and he was amenable to the idea; I may end up at the “newbies table”, which I envision as being something like the pre-teen table at Thanksgiving. And I’m okay with that. I’m new to this, I’m just starting out and I gotta pay my dues.

Saturday’s shift at the bike shop was uneventful and quiet due to the weather. I left early and went home.

Sunday was good. I got up and did the Minnesota Ironman (not a triathlon, but a century ride). I opted for a shorter route as it was in the mid-40′s, windy, and pissing rain. In addition to being mildly sick (sore throat, congestion), I was experiencing some digestive problems that morning, so the ride was not all it could have been. I was cramping and grumpy within 4 miles, but I ground it out and finished, coating most of Lakeville and other surrounding suburbs with a thin layer of snot.

Once off the bike, I drove straight up to Princeton and Paul and I got to work right away. We discussed pricing models while we prepped — he shared his insights and opinions based on his experiences with framebuilding, and I shot back and asked questions based on my time working in B2C and B2B environments. It was good stuff. And we got down to work.

The 29′er needed it’s seat tube/top tube joint finished before we could install the seatstays. Got most of the way through that. The fillet was shallow in a few places and required some silver to be floated in on top of it. I suspect next weekend, we’ll be finishing that and attaching the seat stays.

Between soaking the joint of flux and working on it with the Dynafile, I did work on the commuter some more. The downtube got mitered and installed into the BB shell, a time-consuming process. Next time, I’ll check and make sure there’s no headtube twist (there shouldn’t be), and start mitering the top tube and prepping the lugs to finish out the front triangle.

Sorry for the lack of photos this time. By the time we wrapped up, both the ST/TT joint of the 29′er and the BB of the commuter were both in the soak tank and I was ready to call it a day.