Noodling with Ideas: Minnecycle 2012

So it’s never to early to start thinking about our local framebuilders’ show, Minnecycle. I’ve been kinda building up a mental list of bikes to show at this year’s edition, and am trying to avoid bringing anything that I showed at the 2011 show.

Thus far, my list kinda looks like this:

1. Lugged commuter bike. I already have the frame and fork 95% complete. There’s some minor cosmetic stuff I’d like to do to it, and I already have the parts. This is pretty much an issue of just getting it in front of the powdercoater, and soon.

2. Bare track frame. I’ve got the front triangle for a curved seat tube track frame done and the tubing to finish it. I’d like to do that, paint it, and show it as-is.

3. Personal CX frame. Need to build myself a replacement for the Salsa Las Cruces frameset. Already know my tubing plans, paint scheme, and have the entire build kit. This thing is going to be sick.

4. A customer bike — be it Jim Bell’s MTB frame, Alena’s road bike, or Paul’s road bike.

Don’t really want to bring more than four.

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.

Reminder

Sure, you’ve heard all about this show lately, particularly here and in my personal blog. I’m still going to mention it here, anyway.

Minnecycle is this week! Friday and Saturday! It’s going to be awesome — and this year, four builders are brand-new to the show. You should come see everyone’s work!

The 2011 Minnecycle Flyer.

Hope to see you there!

New Biz Cards

Part of my ongoing preparations for Minnecycle.

I must have double-checked that QR code a good two dozen times.

Beat

It’s 1 a.m. I’ve had a very productive night. Tomorrow will be another amazingly productive evening.

As excited as I am to attend it as a builder, I sure will be happy when Minnecycle is over.

NAHBS and Other Shows

I have opted to not attend NAHBS this year — originally, I wanted to attend as a builder, but didn’t have enough built or the money for a booth. Then I wanted to attend just to see what the fuss was about. Again, money. Also: lack of PTO from regular job and other trips already in planning stages (Las Vegas/Fort Irwin, and a trip to Moab for some MTB riding and a side-trip to see Carhenge).

Minnecycle also drops in March this year. And there’s another local show firming up for sometime in the summer. So those are my priorities.

Will I show at NAHBS someday? Yes, absolutely. Earliest it’ll happen is 2012, and it may be another year after that. We’ll see.

Weekend Update

So this weekend I got a lot more bike stuff done than usual.

• Most notable is the addition of the email list. Subscribe now, and you can get $50 off your first purchase of a frameset (note: does not apply to custom racks, custom forks, or repair work). SPECIAL OFFER NO LONGER VALID.

• The most exciting news is that I got two inquiries about Reynolds 953 custom cyclocross frames. I’ve sent out quotes on both, and am waiting to hear back. Reynolds 953 is a fascinating material and I’m toying with the idea of building myself a lugged CX frame out of it, too. Would be an awesome ride!

• My bride-to-be had her bridal shower on Saturday, so while the house was filling up with women, I made my exit and took about 90 minutes of riding time on my Cervelo. Unlike a lot of steel builders that I’ve met, I don’t have a problem with carbon — or other materials, for that matter. It was a pretty good time, despite the stifling heat. I didn’t leave the Minneapolis city limits, but still had plenty of time with minimal/no cars.

• The niner frame is basically finished. The perfectionist in me is screaming about tweaking the fillets, and I probably will this week. I’m only waiting on waterjet parts before I can ship this sucker off to paint, really. Which brings us to…

• …waterjet parts. Skaaly’s doing his best to rectify the situation, and I respect that.

• Stopping back over at Peacock Groove tonight. I owe Erik a set of front dropouts and I have them in my grubby little paws. He hooked me up a couple months ago when I was building the fork for the 29′er.

• Minnecycle 2 is this coming weekend, and I won’t be showing there, which is fine. I do plan to corner Chris Kvale and talk to him about his paint work. Definitely want to ship the 29er to him, along with future work. (The lugged commuter is probably going to go to Airglow in Georgia for its work.)

Minnecycle and More…

Due to my workload at the office and my wedding preparations, I am likely end up in a position where I am unable to make it to Minnecycle this year. The 29′er is further behind the curve than I’d like, and as a result, I don’t think I’ll be able to get it into a paint booth with enough time to be ready for the show. A little frustrating, but I am unwilling to cut corners on it in order to get it in front of eyeballs.

What I’m opting to do instead is to get the 29′er and the commuter done-up right, along with the other a few other projects I have kickin’ around in boxes, and take them to NAHBS in Austin in 2011. It’s certainly nothing against Minnecycle, mind you — Erik Noren runs a fantastic show, and it’s something I’m very much looking forward to showing at come summer of 2011.

So what I’m hoping to take to NAHBS 2011 is:

• the fully-rigid 29′er
• the lugged commuter bike
• the track bike
• the Bridgestone XO-1 tribute I’m building for Jim Oliver
• my personal singlespeed belt drive road bike

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.