Crazy time!

My wife is out of town- which historically leads me to go a bit crazy on a combo of to much caffine, not enough sleep and an odd habit of going OCD on detail work. Team that with a natural tendency for ADD and you get a super cocktail of plan, revision and obsession.

In this case all of that means a slew of ideas for my new bike. I'm working on a bit of a "tribute" bike that makes a nod at several periods in bike design and several different (and often disparate) build styles. Combining 50's English flavor, 60's Italian design elements, 70's American aesthetic and the best of the 80's and 90's quirks is one hell of a handshake. All the while keeping it distinctly a Winter!

Well, hold your hats kids, pour a cup of Joe, and take a peek!

Punk Rock start!!!!!
(Cut, cut, cut)


Fire!


Flow!


And then I switched gears- Paolo!

Long live continental jazz and lounge- Punk was rad when the fire was on, but it's time for a load of espresso and some foreign language smoothness. Paolo, then a bunch of 60's Italian and French stuff on Pandora.



Freshness


Short and sexy Italian points with a subtle thinning and crisp, hard shore lines.


And proof of the obsession? This is the bottom of the DT lug. I spent a looong time working a subtle taper while maintaining a round profile and a sharp edge. Funny, because when the bike gets built up no one will ever see it. But I'll sleep better for having done it.



I spent the better part of last night working the fillets, but inexplicably don't have any shots (yet!). If you are interested you can see the full set including some large high res versions over on flickr. More to come, including a few details I'm loosing sleep over!

Women's Bikes, and the nature of custom

I love that there are more and more womens products in the cycling world now and that there are lots of options for woman riders. That said, I am sometimes frustrated by the marketing side of things, especially when a lack of options is repackaged as a benefit.

A few examples:
- Women's bikes that are the same spec as the male version, but with "girly" paint.
- Manufacturing taking shortcuts- the loss of 650c bikes from most companies line ups to make room for poorly designed ultra small 700c bikes are one example.
- Women being steered towards "woman's bikes" even if their body's don't fit them. Its also frustrating when men are not shown these bikes even if they would be a better fit then the "male" version.

About 40% of my customers are woman, and I choose to work with them in the same way I work with male customers- by making a bike specific to their bodies, needs and riding characteristics.

Here are two recent frame sets made for women:


Neither of these women fit most industry "women's" bikes well. One needs a reasonably square 54cm frame, the other needs the same reach but with a noticeably different seat tube. Both have the same axel, BB and lower head tube location, and both have the same top tube length. How those points meet and how the bikes fit their specific users are quite different.



Two women and two different bikes to meet their individual fit needs.

Unique bikes for unique riders.

RoadAxe continued

I snuck* in a bit more work on my road frame. I had my eyes dilated today, so it was a great day to work on side projects.

I mostly just squinted and filed until I made more scrap, but I think I managed to make a new seat tube laminate. Tomorrow's fresh eyes will tell me if its symmetrical enough to use for real. I reshaped a BB shell yesterday, and I'm echoing the simple and clean points.







The bike will be getting the full "flug" treatment with a few extra treats thrown in for fun. More soon!


*The jocular past tense of "sneak", used to support my central New Hampshire dialect.

International love

Wow-

I was just checking some of my web site and blog stats.

My web site has been viewed:

- On 6 continents
- In 43 languages
- In 56 countries
- In 753 cities

In the last 100 blog visits I've had visitors from:
Australia
Belgium
Canada
Chile
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Italy
Japan
Netherlands
Poland
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
USA


I guess word is getting out, eh? For all of the international folks checking out the work- yes, I'm more then happy to ship internationally!

Thanks for the visits!

"Les feuilles mortes"

(Optional mood music)

John sent me a note a few months ago looking for a stem for his new frameset, and inquired if I had done one of my 50's style quill stems in chrome. Up until now I have not worked with a chrome plater, but John was gracious enough to give me time to work through the new process, research platers and put this together.



I dropped it off at the plater and was able to pick it up just in time for the OBCA show. My stem bolts arrived today and this will go out soon. This should reflect those fall colors for the late season rides!



Not bad, eh? This is what I mean when I talk about making luxurious necessities. Thanks John, and enjoy!

The Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show

I'm back!

The show went great! From preliminary reports it looks like we had around 2000 visitors walk through the booth over the course of the weekend. It was a great chance to hang out with some other builders, visit with some friends and to meet a bunch of new folks.

Here is the last moment of quiet before they opened the doors:


And another shot of all the visitors:


I was fortunate enough to be busy all weekend- which resulted in not a lot of photos. On the upside one of the show visitors, Amy Sakurai, was kind enough to send a link to her gallery of shots.

Thanks Amy!

Big thanks to the OBCA, the volunteers, vendors and to all the people that came and helped make it a great show.

Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show- This Weekend!

See you in Portland!