Free Custom Rack

Want a free custom rear rack for your bike? Yeah? Okay, well, one lucky winner will get one — all you have to do to enter is sign up for our email newsletter between May 11th, 2011 (10:00 a.m. Central Standard Time) and 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time on May 13th, 2011. Just click that link and it’ll take you to the sign-up form.

The rack will be designed to fit your bicycle (and hopefully you’ve got rackmounts on your frame), and will be made from 3/8″ 4130 chromoly steel. You’ll have your choice of powdercoated color.

All the entries will be placed in a spreadsheet and one will be chosen at random from the list. Winner will be notified by email.

Social Media Reminder

Just as a reminder, I’m also on Twitter and Facebook.

An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse

A few weeks ago, I got an offer from a guy in West Virginia, offering to trade me a fixture in exchange for a frame. At first, I thought it had to be a joke. And then we talked. And I was flabbergasted.

Finding a fixture has been something I’ve been struggling with — it’s an issue of affordability more than anything else. So when Jamie called me and told me that he’d been to UBI, bought the equipment, and then had not pursued the matter, but was looking for a new road frame, I jumped at the chance.

So I’ll be building a bike for a big guy and he’s given me carte blanche to build him something awesome. And man, he’s going to be absolutely floored when he sees what I have in mind for him. I’m really excited to build this one.

Sponsorships and Charity

So as you may already know, I donate $25 out of every frameset purchase to Home for Life®, a local charity that provides a home for animals that are unlikely to be adopted due to behavioral or health problems, where they can live out the remainder of their days in a loving, caring environment. In my mind, there are few causes more worthy than this.

Additionally, we’re proud to announce two sponsorships.

First, I’m sponsoring the 2011 AGRS series, in partnership with Three Stars Cycles, and really have to thank Josh for bringing me aboard. Our sponsorship is in the form of prizes — we’ll be building frames for the series winners. Josh will build the women’s frame, and I’ll build the men’s.

Additionally, I’m sponsoring local rider Erin Young, a first-year racer. He crushed the NSC Grass Criterium Series over the winter, finishing first in the first three races of the five-race series, and still finishing first in the overall standings, despite missing the last two races in the series. This fall, Erin will be racing cyclocross on a Pallas Athena frameset.

Hello, Sunday

So things are, as usual, plodding along here. I’ll be down in the basement today, plugging away at the things that need accomplished — it’s May 1st, and it’s cold and dropping a mix of snow/rain. WTF, Minnesota?

Looked at a space to share with Three Stars and A-Train — and Alex (A-Train) wasn’t really interested in it. Kind of a bummer because it’s a screaming good deal, and it’d be a good thing to do. Ah, well. I’ll continue in the basement for now and when the wife and I buy a house this fall, I’ll take over a section of the garage (after I put up insulation, install a heater, and so on).

Today, I’ll be doing some final work on some fillets, brazing on a few cable stops, and cleaning up a few lugs. I’ve also got to order some stuff from Aircraft Spruce, WeldingSupply.com, and Nova.

Hope my readers (all 3 of you) are getting some miles in today — turn a few for me, would you?

Good Morning

So it’s Sunday morning, I’m awake and getting my shit together to head up to Princeton to do some work. Seeing as I’ve got a lot of my equipment now and more on the way, and with reduced need to be up there, I’m going to talk to Paul about cutting back to twice a month and half the cost.

Things are swimming along nicely here. I’ve got a bit of a thing firming up for some production space — something I’d be sharing with A-Train and Three Stars. We’re looking at the space on Wednesday and see how if it fits our needs. More on that as I know more.

Hope you’re all having a pretty awesome Easter Sunday. I’m off to build my to-do list for the workshop today, and then I’m going to GTFO.

Things Are Hoppin’

So in the last week, I took two deposits for new frames (a lugged road that is going to be so small, it’ll have to be bilaminate, and a lugged cyclocross), and got a really intriguing offer from a gentlemen who wants to trade me an unused Bringheli fixture for a frameset. I’m taking him up on the offer, and we’ve just got to figure out how we’re going to get that fixture from the East Coast to the Upper Midwest.

I didn’t get any building done this weekend — I’m waiting on a shipment to arrive so that I can finish off one of the builds — so I built out a product schedule, did some blueprinting on Alena’s bike (the tiny bilaminate road frame), and started filling up a shopping cart at Nova. I’ll be filing that order tonight. I’ve also got to order decals soon-ish.

So yeah, things are coming along nicely. I expect that Tuesday night, I’ll have some pictures of the workspace to post.

The Traveling Framebuilder

As you may (or may not) know, my framebuilding is primarily done in two location — Paul Wyganowski‘s workshop (where I pay monthly rent for use of the space/equipment) and at Josh Kruck‘s, where he is kind enough to allow me to hang out and bum torch time off of him. I’ve been scraping together the cash to get out of that situation for two reasons:

1. While I love working with Paul, the rent plus the cost in wear-and-tear on my car is taking a toll on my finances.
2. While I love working with Josh, my ingrained sense of guilt (genetic, due to a Catholic parent) is taking a toll on my conscience.

Two weeks ago, I started ordering equipment. This week, I started going balls-out. I have pretty much everything I need — except oxy-acetylene tanks — to accomplish about 70% of my work at-home. And I’ll be working to fill that gap in the coming months.

This is not to say that I won’t work with them both in the future — because I totally will. They’re both awesome dudes, and I love talking framebuilding with both of them.

Milestones and More

• So as you’ll probably notice, I’ve gone back to the old logotype. I’ve decided that I really like it, and it’ll work. I’ll probably be hungry for change in 3-4 years, at which point I’ll redesign the logotype and the head badge.

• Great leaps forward on Andrew’s 29er this weekend. The seatstays are on, and I got the bottle bosses taken care of, too. There’s a sneak peek of it at the end of this post.

• Still awaiting my wife’s feedback on the purchase of an Anvil Journeyman 3. In the meantime, I am amassing tools, equipment and awesome. Enco and Paragon orders arrived last Friday, and this coming weekend, I’ll be hitting up Home Depot for more gear. By mid-April, I should be able to start doing some of my work at home, which will speed things up considerably.

Things are coming along nicely, I suppose. I’d be much happier if I had all my equipment in-hand and didn’t have to destroy my car by driving up to Princeton constantly, but that’s life, I guess. I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of the business — ultimately, not in the revenue side, but the actual overarching vision of what Pallas Athena will become (or become a part of, if you want to get technical). I don’t really want to get into that too in-depth right now, but I do have a “Five-Year Plan” for this thing.

Short term, though: an Anvil fixture and some of their smaller tools.

Soaking the Flux off Andrew's 29er

Workshop, More

So this past Friday, I started ordering/buying equipment for my workshop, so that I can stop paying rent and start kicking ass in my own facility. I’ve broken the build-out down into phases, where I’ll be adding the equipment gradually over time. I’m very much in Phase 1 right now. I placed orders with Enco (workbench and fittings), Paragon Machineworks (tubing blocks), purchased a used torch kit from Vince Dominguez, and dropped Bob Brown a quick email about getting him to lathe me a BB post. I’ll be buying some more stuff on the 30th of March (bike shop payday), and the 1st of April (other job payday).

In other fun, I’m working at a bike shop again (no big surprise there), what’s been fun about it is that I work with Alex Cook of A-Train Cycles. Alex is a UBI-educated builder and has a lovely lugged KVA stainless bike hanging on the wall at the Bicycle Chain that is amazing to look at. He’s a talented builder and a nice guy and I’m going to get bike-building knowledge from him and he’ll be getting marketing knowledge from me.

So my brother’s lugged road frame should be in a paint booth soon. Thank the gods. There’s only a few small items on it that I want to address (mentioned over in my personal blog) before that happens. Andrew’s 29er frame isn’t far behind — just some fillet clean-up, seatstays, and cable guides/bottle bosses. Justin’s is a little further back, but I’m pretty pleased with how that’s coming along, too.

Getting to be an exciting time here. Much more to follow!