Friday, May 23, 2008

Quick check-in


Max's frame back from powdercoating getting chased and faced. The color is um, different. Reminds me of a stock color I used to offer customers in my shed building days,"seafoam green". Not the choice you'd expect for a bike, but it did come out pretty well with all the metalflake.
The lug shorelines get a little muted with powercoating so it's important to have sharp ones to start with. The top pic shows them pretty well.

Pics of a finished GDR racer coming up next......

Monday, May 12, 2008

One down....many to go......

Well, it took a 16 hour day on Saturday, but the snafu was overcome and Max's frame delivered on time. It's a bitchin' (that's right, I said bitchin) little track bike using a mix of Columbus and Deda tubes, Cinelli lugs (thankas Dave!), Pacenti drops w/stainless faces and a nice flattop crown I picked up over at Coconino Cycles last year. Geometry and look is classic track: steep angles, short (283mm) chain stays, higher BB, and check out the fork in the pic- I just love a tight crown, don't you?
Here's the man with his new frame. Can't tell from the pic, but I think he was happy. ;)
He wanted it unfinished because he has a friend who is a powder coater....lucky!
Ok, now it's back to Scott's 29er. Fillets to polish, cable guides to be added, top caps for the fork and seatstays to made.........a framebuilder's work is never done!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

S.N.A.F.U.


Situation Normal: All F'd Up! A little WWII era acronym for ya to sum up how I'm feeling right now. Had to put Scott's bike on a brief hold to do a cool fixed gear for Max. I prepped the lugs and BB, mitered all the tubes, was all set to go and..........doh! The BB shell I got has Italian threading! I sure am glad I saw it before I brazed the tubes in. Got a call into Nova, getting a new shell expedited......nice way to put the pressure on to make the delivery date, huh?

In the meantime, here's a pic of the ht/dt braze after a good wire brushing- it's the only joint I don't need the bb to do.