To-Do Between Now and Sunday Evening

• prep November email newsletter
• fix blueprint for Jamie’s road clydesdale
• do blueprint for Aaron’s niner
• do blueprint for Edwin’s strider bike
• fix Paul’s road frame for delivery to painter
• final push on Justin’s 26er
• decal sheet for Justin’s 26er
• call Joe Bringheli about aligning fixture
• call Dirt Designs Graphics, locally, re: paint
• order sleeve tubing from Aircraft Spruce
• hang out and build with A-train

A Few Random Things

1. A-train and I are going to hang out and build at his new workshop on Sunday. Expect photos.

2. CycleTC has a great infographic about biking and walking in the Twin Cities. When it’s mid-February and I’m bitching about the cold and wondering why I moved back to Minnesota, someone point me at this.

3. I’ve got a t-shirt design underway. They’ll be available for pre-order soon, silk-screened on 100% cotton American Apparel shirts. Cost will be $22.

4. Tonight, more work on bikes. Plus some prepping of the garage for the insulation/drywall project that kicks off early on Saturday morning.

Things for the Future

Website:
I’d like to add a map of where all my customers are in the world. I’ve got some ideas on how to implement that. In addition, I’d like to add some video, as well. And better (studio) photos of my bikes. Soon, dudes! Soon!

Schwag:
T-shirts. And water bottles.

Facilities:
Other than insulating/drywalling the garage this weekend? A heater. This winter, I’ll probably use a 30,000 BTU propane-fueled space heater, which should keep things fairly toasty.

Equipment:
Near-term, an Anvil fork fixture and their BBG/FOG tool. Those are my priorities now. Next after that is a mill and a lathe.

Tradeshows:
Minnecycle 2012. With a kid on the way, I need to keep this list on the light side.

Bikes:
Want to wrap up my existing backlog and then build a couple for myself to replace the two Salsa in my fleet.

What else am I missing?

RIP, Steve Jobs

In 1980 or 1981, my parents divorced. My dad lived in a tiny apartment with a waterbed, and an Apple ][+ on a card table. That computer changed the course of my life in a way I cannot even begin to describe, and without it, who knows where I'd be now?

[The computer] is the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.

— Steve Jobs

There’s not much one can really say about Steve Jobs that hasn’t already been said elsewhere. The man was an inspiration to me — his drive to be perfect, to create, to innovate, all while being willing to take risks — is something unrivaled in modern business. Not only did he provide me with a suite of tools I use daily, but he inspired me.

Thank you, Steve. For everything.

Steve Jobs.

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

- Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

Preparing for Winter

So tonight, after the office, I’ll be making a Home Depot run. It’s amazing how often I’m there, being a new homeowner. I do think there’ll be a day where my number of visits begins to drop, but man. Not soon, I suspect. Tonight’s run is so that I can pick the brains of some specialists on the nature of insulating and drywalling my garage, so that I can work through the winter.

The other prep work I need to undertake is getting my paws on some good winter gloves, and some winter riding shoes. I think that with Murphy-Hanrehan being so close to the house, and the singletrack open all winter, that I’d be a fool to not try riding it. The trainer is going to get cold quick. And I’ll need a break from the Sufferfest videos.

Those of you that live in cold-weather environments: what do you do to enable outdoor riding in the winter? Or do you just suffer through other indignities cross-training indoors?

Weekend To-Do List

• refill acetylene tank
• finish Erin’s CX frame
• build final fillets for Paul’s frame
• finish fillets on Justin’s 26er
• email Jamie re: his road frame
• add Google +1, Facebook Like, and Tweet This buttons to Gallery items
• update existing Gallery Items, add Paul and Justin frames

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.

This Week

Given the “hangover” from Minnecycle, I’m using this week to catch up on a bunch of smaller tasks that I’ve been meaning to address — things like cleaning the workshop, doing the finishing work on my workstand, transcribing a bunch of blueprints into BikeCAD, and planning the growth and development of Pallas Athena over the course of the next 14 months or so. Friday, I’ll have my acetylene tank refilled and order up some raw materials for upcoming projects, and spend Sunday wrapping up Erin’s CX frame and Justin’s 26er. (Saturday? That’s for the housewarming party we’re throwing.)

Incidentally, I’ve started using Delicious again now that it’s under new ownership, and will be filling that up with a bunch of framebuilding links. As always, all my social media links are down there in the footer.

Minnecycle Recap

Well, it’s over, and man, I’m exhausted. Before I do anything else, though, I really need to thank a few people:

• Alex from A-train Cycles, who kept me in good humor in the craziness leading up to the show, and who loaned me his fork fixture.
• Josh from Three Stars Cycles, who helped me figure out how to assemble the Bringheli fixture, and gave me time on his fork blade bender.
• AJ from Victory Circle Graphix, who got decals to me at the last friggin’ minute.
• Rob from Rob’s Custom Powdercoating, who re-did my 29er with much shorter-than-usual notice and didn’t complain about having to chemically strip the old paint.
• Josh Braaten, who gave me a bunch of his and his lathe’s time. I owe you a ton of beer.
• And most importantly, Kate Bailey, my wife. For being supportive and understanding and not yelling at me when I left dirty messes in the sink. For being in good spirits when she had to drive me to the ER for stitches in the middle of the night. For being my best friend, and for being a part of my life. I can’t thank her enough. Though I don’t look forward to saying “Minnecycle 2012″ around her. <g>

Things started coming to a head on Monday the 19th, when my automated email reminder for the show went out. Good open rates. Decent clickthrough. I started thinking about what I had to do that night, in addition to working my shift at the bike shop.

After a minor case of hyperventilation, I realized that three of the six tasks slotted for Monday night were going to take a grand total of about twenty minutes. The other three might take a total of about two and a half hours when combined. Panic averted.

The fixture set up and in the home-built stand.

Tuesday, after a ten-hour day at the office, I stopped by Josh’s place to bend the fork blades. Then I went home and capped seatstays, which was a little time-consuming, but the results were exquisite. (My new business cards arrived on Tuesday, too. Which, strangely, was the same day I finally decided on a head badge design.)

Finished seatstay cap.

Wednesday another grueling day, but it had it’s upsides. The decals arrived via FedEx just as I was getting ready to leave for the office, and they were perfect. After the office, I hit up the bank and then went to Rob’s to pick up one of the 29er’s I planned to show. I stopped by Peacock Groove on the way home from work to talk to Noren a bit about space, timing, needs, and so on. After that, I hauled ass home and buckled down hard on the build for Erin’s CX bike. Fork finished. Top tube in, all the small bits (water bottle and pulley mounts, cable stops) installed on the front triangle before I soaked everything for a bit. While it was soaking, I started slottign and prepping the chainstays and rear dropouts. What an awesome night.

Erin's cyclocross frame in the fixture.

Thursday, I had the foresight to take the day off from the office, and things did not go as well as all that. In the morning, I finished slotting the dropouts and chainstays and started fitting everything together in the fixture. Around one, I went over and spent a bit of time at the Bicycle Chain getting bikes prepped for the show. I re-faced the black 29er’s head tube and put everything back together. Then I spent some time on the sandblaster, cleaning up lugs on Erin’s CX frame. Then A-train and I loaded up a minivan and hauled a bunch of shit over to the Vine Arts center and left it there overnight. I dropped him off at home and then cruised back down to Savage. I got home around 1:30 in the morning and got back to work on Erin’s CX frame, with the intent of having it rideable (if not completely finished). I got the fixture set up, the chainstays brazed in, and had started to bronze the dropouts into place around 4:30 that morning, when the flame guttered out and died. Out of acetylene. A brief moment of profanity ensued before I realized that the real implication here was that I was able to go to bed. I shut everything down, and I think I was actually asleep before I even reached the bedroom.

Cleaned-up HT/DT lug on Erin's CX bike.

I snagged about four hours of sleep, waking up just before 9 a.m. on Friday morning — not the ideal situation, but whatever. I ran around like mad, getting the last of my stuff together, and printing out hang-tags and so on. I cruised over, picked up A-train and we hit up the Fix Studio so we could pick up the last of his bikes. Then we got over to the Vine Arts Center and started setting up. By 4 p.m., I was more-or-less squared away except for a few small things. Knowing the show would start to pick up around 5 p.m., I was dispatched for photocopies and food for the newbie corner. When I returned, things were starting to pick up and within the hour, they were noticeably hopping.

People start showing up.

Met a ton of people on Friday night and saw a bunch of old friends — including Hicks, who I hadn’t seen since college (pre-1998) which was a pleasant surprise. Todd, a teammate from Birchwood and all-around good guy, showed up, too and it was great to see him. We shot the shit quite a bit, and he was as much an advocate of my work as I was. We also talked about getting my logo/headbadge on the team jersey in 2013, as a supporting sponsor, and I was pretty heartened by the way that conversation went.

Saturday was a little slower than Friday — at least during the morning and afternoon. I took advantage of the slower time to spend some time chatting with Dave Anderson, who sparked some seriously good ideas. I also got a chance to meet Mark Stonich of Bikesmith.

Pics from this year’s show.

People really loved the blue color of Fang’s 29er, and the cable routing on the fork of my 29er were both big hits.

I’m looking forward to next year. There’s a few things I want to do better — I’ll have headbadges then, and I’d like to have a banner and t-shirts available. And whole retinue of new bikes to show — at least one of which will be a personal bike.

(Old photo sets: 2009, 2010.)

Minnecycle Hangover

Holy crap, it’s over. I’ve got a lot to do today:

1. Import all of you who signed-up for email and schedule a thank-you email.
2. Upload images.
3. Go for a short ride.
4. Clean up garage/work area.
5. Spray paint the welding stand. Matte black!
6. Watch the Vikings.
7. Write recap.
8. Begin preparing October e-newsletter.