Experimentation

So I’ve been monkeying around with the idea of building a gas-welded (not TIG’ed) aluminum frame. This would be one of those one-off experiments, just to see if it’s viable. I’m pretty sure I’d want to build a dozen or so, just to see if it’s a worthwhile endeavor. (Plus I get the R&D write-off on my taxes, right?) If any framebuilders out there have any commentary, opinions or insights on the matter, I’d love to hear from you.

Does this mean that I’ll be offering gas-welded aluminum frames in the future? I wouldn’t hold your breath. One of the points behind tinkering is to learn stuff. And one of the things that I don’t think people spend enough time doing, in-general.

When the time comes for titanium experimentation (and it will be coming), it’ll be with the intent of making titanium frames available to buyers. Due to the specialized equipment needs and the need for me to take a TIG welding class, that’s at least a couple of years away, yet.

Lunch Break

Proceeding swimmingly on Erin’s CX frame. Beautiful, if somewhat time-consuming, job of slotting the chainstays. (Mental note: in 2012, invest in a slotting saw.) The work you see here was done entirely by-hand, with a knife-blade file, followed by a flat file.

Chainstay and dropout.

Going to take a quick break and get some lunch in my stomach, and then get back to this.

Capping a Seatstay

I got asked how it is I create the fluted ends on my seatstays. I struggled to explain it in a 5-minute, spoken-only venue and struggled a bit. Seeing as just the night before I had photographed the process, I put myself in a position to write this post.

Starting out, I have a pair of seatstays. I find a piece of scrap tubing (you do save your scrap tubes, right?) that will become the caps themselves. Then, I figure out how I’m going to miter the seatstays to fit the caps and do it.

Struggling for a Head Badge

The hardest part of getting my frames to “completion” has been the battle to get a head badge design done. My experience with design is as a web designer, not as a graphic artist. A gap in my skillset (for more on skills you should have see my other blog entry “Becoming a Framebuilder“), to be sure, and one I eventually plan to rectify.

I’m on my second artist now. I won’t go into details as to why I’ve switched except to say that my vision didn’t match that of the artist, and with both our schedules being crazy busy, I was falling further and further behind the curve. As it is, I won’t have them ready for Minnecycle at the end of the month. He did produce a pretty nifty rough draft of one that’s very art deco, and while I’m not 100% sure I’ll use it as a full-time badge, it might become available as a limited-edition variant:

Possible head badge. Designed by Aaron Smith.

Everyone has something on a bike that jumps out at them at first look. For me, it’s the head badge. (I also struggle with whether to type it as “headbadge” or as two separate words.) So when I commit, it’s got to be just right. I’ve asked Aaron to come up with another design, and given him a little bit of feedback re: styling and so forth. I’m hoping that he can come up with something in the next week or so that I can show at Minnecycle, and have put on bikes by the end of October.

So. I’d love your thoughts on Aaron’s first crack at it, pictured above. What’s the first thing you think when you see it?

Curious

So everyone’s got a dream bike. Mine is one of my own builds — a stainless 953 front triangle with a carbon back end, ENVE carbon everything (rims, fork, stem, seatpost), and Shimano’s Di2 for the drivertrain package. Tons of little bits from Fairwheel to keep weight down. Someday, I might even have the time to build it and the money to buy it. We’ll see.

What’s your dream bike? Share.

On the Subject of Fat Bikes

By now, those of you that are überbikegeeks (a RealGerman™ word) have heard the rumors of Surly’s Moonlander, a new fatty bike that sports 4.5″ tires. As usual, this rekindles my interest in a fat bike, something that’s been on the brain’s back-burner for the last three or four years — ever since Tom Stroth bought one while we were working together at Penn Cycle. The thing is, I have very little use for a fat bike. In Minnesota, the prime purpose is for avoiding the hassles of deep snow — an act I personally accomplish by staying indoors and riding the trainer.

Generally speaking, I am not fond of the cold (the explanation as to why I’m in Minnesota isn’t germane to this post), and thus, the awesomeness that is a PugsleyMoonlander is something I can’t really justify. Normally.

See, at the end of this month, I’ll be packing up my home (and, by odd coincidence, the Pallas Athena workshop) and moving to the south suburbs of Minneapolis. Normally, I would consider this to be a death sentence for my soul. However, given that Kate and I are working on starting a family, that prices for houses in Savage are too good to pass up, and that the place we bought is only about a mile from the Murphy-Hanrehan Park trailhead, I think I’ll be able to cope with it all.

That trail is going to be a great opportunity to go out and thrash around on the 29er, and it’s got me thinking “fatbike” again. Because how awesome would it be to rock those trails in the snow? As of right now, I have no plans to offer fatbikes as a purchase option, so don’t get Itchy PayPal Fingers or anything. I’ll need to build myself one, and probably one for my test pilot, Andrew — though what he’d do with a Pugsley/Moonlander-type bike in Singapore, I don’t know.

Racing Wheelchairs

As you may or may not know, I work at a small local shop in the Twin Cities. Last night, I had my first encounter with a racing wheelchair up-close, as one was brought in for repair. At one point, I had noodled around with the idea of trying to build one, but it was almost immediately back-burnered, simply because I have enough ideas that need to be dealt with.

Now, though, I’m curious. I’ll be doing the repair work on it on Saturday, and during that time, I’ll be mentally taking notes on the subject. I’m still not certain that this is going to be something that I pursue, but it’ll be a neat experience getting to know how these things are built.

Little Things of Note

1. I’m taking my first true crack at carving lugs. So far, so good. Roughing the cutouts with a drill and a Dremel, and then going in with the needle files to do the final clean-up.

2. Also building a set of lugs from scratch. Interesting process. Going to allow me to make some really cool designs. I’ll be posting pics in the near future, in addtion to some from #1, above.

3. New email newsletter coming out late next week.

Blood, Skin, and Sweat

In my short time as a framebuilder, I’ve left a few square inches of skin stuck to red-hot steel. I’ve sliced fingers. I’ve even turned my thumb into hamburger with a wire brush wheel during a moment of inattentiveness. And I’m a pretty safety-conscious guy (and getting moreso all the time). Between that and the sweat and labor I put into crafting a frame, there’s a lot of me in the finished product. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Could I speed things up? Sure. I could go with a full Anvil and a TIG welder and re-learn how to build a frame so that it comes out quickly. Could I just spec a frame and farm them out to Taiwan? Sure. But what would be the point? The point is for this to be a labor of love — and sometimes, as the song goes, love hurts. So I’ll keep pressing on, and burning the shit out of myself and cutting myself and collecting all sorts of nifty scars that need to be explained at the office on Monday mornings.

So I keep pushing forward. I keep hammering away, and the little injuries and indignities that I suffer through? Well, those are worth it. Every moment of it.

Personal Projects

So here’s my personal projects:

Commuter frame. I really just need to bite the bullet and send this sucker off to paint. It’s ready to go, so why am I sitting on my ass? I don’t know.

Track frame. I had originally planned on racing at the velodrome this year, but with the amount of work I’ve had to do and life getting overwhelming, I’ve been putting it off. I do want to get it done this summer and painted so that I can show it at Minnecycle.

29er Singlespeed. Wait. Didn’t I just build one of those? Yeah, and I feel like my first frame should be protected, so I am going to build a new niner frame and get it painted up and ready for show at Minnecycle, as well. I’ll be moving all the parts from the first bike over to this one and putting the old frame up on the wall of the garage.

Ever hear the old adage about how the cobbler’s kid always has the worst shoes? Yeah, I don’t really have the time to commit to these things, normally, but I am going to start putting my foot to my own ass to spend the time to get them done. This is the worst part of framebuilding — I’m constantly bubbling with ideas, and just don’t have the time to execute them. I’ll find the time, but as one of the prophets said, “the waiting is the hardest part.”

Yes, I just quoted Tom Petty.