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?

Moving Right Along

So right now, I’ve got four frames in-progress, as you’ve probably gathered. They are:

• The rigid 29′er frame. At my next session, I’ll be finishing up the TT/ST joint and then getting the seat stays bent, mitered and put in-place. All that will remain after this is the braze-ons (water bottle bolts, cable guides, disc brake mounts, internal cable routing on the TT), the finishing of the joints, and the assembly of the forks. Then I’ll ship her off to be painted. Parts-wise, I still need to acquire hubs, headset, stem and seatpost. This is a 4130 chromoly build.
• The commuter frame. Next session, I’ll be mitering the downtube for the fit to the BB shell, putting that into place, and getting any headset twist resolved. This is a lugged frameset and is moving faster than the fillet-brazed 29′er has. I’m re-using the parts from my Surly Cross-Check commuter; I do need to replace the headset, however, and put a sleeve between the stem and steerer tube. I’d also like to update the crankset. This build uses Columbus Spirit for Lugs tubing and some Long Shen lugs with some minor shape changes.
• The track pursuit frame. Right now, this exists as a box of tubes. Next session, I may undertake the blueprinting. I have some parts for this, but not nearly all that I need. I’d like to get ahold of some HED H3 wheels with track axles as part of this. Not building a custom fork, opting to use an Edge Composites model instead. Tubing is a mix of True Temper Verus HT 4130 chromoly and Platinum OX. This may also serve as a test-bed for a product idea that I’ve had.
• The singlespeed cyclocross frame. Only exists as a box of tubes and an idea. Tubing is True Temper Platinum OX.

So that’s where things are with the bikes themselves.

I’ve still got to do something about the head tube badges — the tough part has been getting the artwork done. I had an artist, but she’s checked-out since getting my first round of feedback over six weeks ago. At this point, I’m ready to start looking for another solution.

Infrastructure-wise, I’ve been trying to figure out the bare minimums I’ll need to get this all moving. Everything from space to tooling is under consideration.

Business-wise, I need to file some paperwork and get some cards printed up.

As for the website, well, it’s not my highest priority at the moment. The design I’ve pulled together is predicated on having at least two bikes ready to show the world. So probably another ~2 months or so before I’m ready to show it off.

More pictures after the next session.

No Session This Weekend

No session this weekend, as Paul’s come down with some sort of illness acquired while at NAHBS. Going to take the opportunity to work on the website’s visual layer and see if I can’t get that done.

Also, I’ve provided some feedback to the artist that’s handling the artwork for my head tube badge. Hoping to hear back on that by Monday or Tuesday.

And since temps are going to be pushing 45°F today, I think I’m going to get out for a few hours on the road bike in the morning, before I go to the gym this evening (weights, followed by an S1 workout on the trainer for 60 minutes). It’ll be good to test out the new contacts out on the road.^*

If you’re local (Minneapolis) and aren’t out on your bike sometime today, please smack yourself in the face.

* I’ve never owned contact lenses before. Seriously.