Let's do this

OK, finally a little time to sit down and mess with this computer stuff.
It's time to change the name, I created a new blog site so that this one can be around to point folks to the new address.
Head on over to http://matthewscustomcycles.blogspot.com/
See ya there!

Fine Fresh Fillets

Still working on changing the name for this site, looks like I'll probably end up making a whole new one.

In the meantime, here's a couple shots of the ss and cs fillets from Jeff's new bike...still warm and on the way to the soaktank, erm, it's really the bathtub- don't tell my wife!

What's in a name?

The idea has been dancing around in the back of my head for awhile, but the last couple of frames (and their owners) have spelled it out for me: it's time to drop the "Live Wire".

Why? It's not that I don't like the name, it's just that I don't think it conveys the right message for a made-to-order fully custom frame. As it's often been said when it comes to custom bikes, "You're not buying the frame, you're buying the builder". That's true when you consider that most every builder has the same access to the same materials, so what you're buying is that builder's knowledge and ability to assemble those materials into a form that is both functional and beautiful.

So, while using a brand might be fine for a big company, it feels a little impersonal to me. I put my heart and soul into every frame (usually a bit of blood too!) and it's only right that the bike should reflect that.

From now on, they will all be "Matthews" frames- thanks to John and Stephen for giving me the push I needed.

Now, while I try to figure out how to keep old Live Wire links active to a new blog address, I give you the latest shots from the shop:

A new 29" single speed commuter/trail/everything else bike for Jeff. Hand-curved top tubes, big 35mm down tube...this front triangle had to be perfect right off the torch. It's way too stiff to try to cold set it.

BB cluster still hot! I braze with the frame in a work stand for access, but I always like to pop the frame in back in the jig for a quick alignment check afterwards. It's not a matter if the frame has moved during brazing, it's a matter of did I control the movements so everything ended up in the right place...jig check says, "Yes!"

What are custom hand-bent, four piece seatstays good for if you can't swordfight with them?

Till next time...

Friday Night Blogdown

The changes are coming, but I want to get a few things straight before I announce it here- in the meantime, here's a few more shots of Stephen's bike as it approaches the finish line.
Hmmm, can you tell who built the frame? ;) Drops looking slick- they still have the masking on the faces as the frame hasn't been clearcoated yet.

Tried to get a good shoreline shot, looks like I mostly managed to make the red look orange!

Curing in the hot box with the final clearcoat on, bet ya can tell what changes I'm talking about when you see this shot, huh?

Till next time...

Warts and all

You've seen it before: Been neglecting the blog lately/Sorry, I haven't posted much/Things are busy here so....yada, yada, ya frickin da. Who cares? I'm busy building bikes and we are having the greatest January for riding ever! You think I'm gonna sit around and blog about it or get out and do it?

I thought so.

So, here's some pics from last week- this frame is now curing in the paint booth.
This is what it looked like in it's ugly duckling phase: not much finish work has been done, so it's looks pretty rough.

Lots of braze ons on this puppy. Check out the handmade brake cable hanger- it uses a threaded boss to make adjusting cable tension easy. This bike will have road brake levers, btw.

The drops have grown some stainless faces and eyelets since their last blog appearance.

Laying it down on the drawing.......spot on!

This frame also represents a bit of a paradigm shift for my framebuilding career- more on that later....it's time to go for a ride!

First frame of the year!

Getting back into the groove after the usual holiday slowdown and trip to the in-laws. Stephen's cross bike is close to done...just a few braze ons, some finish work and a trip to the paint booth left to go.
Dropouts came out nice, here they are after cleanup...still have to get the stainless faces cut and brazed on.
Full frame shot. It looks kinda rough, huh? That's because it just came out of the dunk tank. Closer inspection of the lugs will show they won't need much work to be ready for paint.

The goal is to have this done by next weekend...stay tuned!

Merry Christmas!

Here' s my tribute to our lady of the blessed chromoly, patron saint of the framebuilder.

Hope you all have a great Christmas, I'm outta here for a few days- stay safe and stay warm.

-Chauncey

When life gives you backorders.....

You make dropouts! A delay from a supplier gave me just the push I needed to make some custom dropouts for the Griego cross bike. Made out of .19" 4130 plate, drops like these are much stronger than the average mild steel most manufacturers use. The mild steel is usually strong enough, but if you're making your own, why use the cheap/weak stuff?
Here's the right drop about 70% done. It will get further shaping, a rack mount, the hanger drilled/tapped. possibly a window, and stainless faces.......whew, maybe it's more like 50% done!

The link

Here's the video the local news shot- http://www.koat.com/video/18286182/index.html
And the answer to your next question is yes, I really do look that good in person.

This just in....

My local news segment is (finally) going to air tonight at 6pm on KOAT CH7.
Gotta get ready for my 15 minutes!

For those of you outside the NM viewing area, here's a shot of the super slick cable routing on Jeff's 29er to tide you over until I can figure out a way to link the video to here.

I have angered the gods of the webmosphere

I knew it had been awhile since the last post- the shorter days of winter always seem extra busy for me and the ol blog suffers as a result.
"No big deal", I thought, "I'll just take pictures of everything and do a couple of of massive picture posts".
Now, I know what you're thinking, I was asking for it- and you're right...I got it. Got it in the form of our second computer meltdown this year! All the pictures....gone!
So, while I get back up to blogging speed, here's a few words from John about his new fixed gear commuter (looks cool, dontchya think?):

Hey Chauncey,
I took the afternoon to finish building the bike. It looks fantastic. I debated the configuration of the handlebar -- drops OR more cruiser/city/urban. I decided that, since I already have a fast road bike with drops (a lugged aluminum ALAN) and an old Fuji touring, I decided to build the C. Matthews into a single-speed city bike. What resulted is a pretty aggressive city bike that maneuvers like a cheetah on crack. It's an awesome ride and everything about the bike just felt right. This will be my main get-around bike.
On the test ride, I received two compliments in a span of 10 minutes -- one from a neighbor and one from a roadie at an intersection. The roadie asked me where I bought the bike and I told him it's a custom frame and gave him your Live Wire blog site. He likes the the way the bike looks ("contemporary-retro" was his description), and he particularly appreciates the head badge.
Thanks,
John

All I can say is that John is lucky that frame didn't fit me.....I really like the way it turned out. Lugged fixed gears just speak to me. Many happy rides John!

No words. just a couple of pics

Gravy and Fame

A little interim lag in the build process and as we decided to do a stainless head badge on John's bike and I took my first steps towards fame. Fame? I'll get to that in a minute.

First, the bike:

Naked frame all prepped for paint w/the badge masked off.

Sitting in the "hot box" getting the paint cured after two coats of slate grey Imron.

This last pic does a good job of showing the color and the lug shorelines....nice and sharp! I love shooting metallic colors lke this- the paint looks like it's alive and moving when it first goes down. Well, I guess you had to be there to see what I mean, bur trust me, it's a cool effect.

I stupidly forgot to get any pictures, but I took my first step towards fame this week when I was interviewed by the local Channel 7 news for their "Made in New Mexico" segment. It was pretty weird having a camera man and a news anchor follow me around the shop asking questions about framebuilding, but I guess all of us famous folk have to get used to that, huh? ;)

It's supposed to air in October so I'll have to post up a link then. Of course, I might be so famous by that time that I'll have to have my people do the blog post for me........

Waiting for the gravy

John's bike getting the final touches as I wait to get a full day to devote to painting: This is a brake bridge, regular, boring, and the same as every other bike out there.



How's about this bridge? I took a couple of stock factory bridges, and here's what I came up with after a bit of bending, brazing, and filing. I figured that because this bridge might never actually have a brake on it, it needed to look cool by itself. It will also double as a fender mount after I drill and tap a couple of holes in it.
You can also se the upper rack mounts in this shot.
Head shot. The surface rusting you see will all be gone in a phosphoric acid wash prior to the primer coat. Not only does the wash clean all the rust inside and out, it "etches" the metal and makes the primer adhere better.

A nice and off center full frame shot. Someday I'll learn to take a good picture....someday.

Chef says.............

"Your fork is done!"

Can you tell Halloween comes early at our house?

B.T.O.

Been busy with the day job and building frames at night so I've missed a few blog days! Good progress has been made though, John's frame is starting to resemble a Bicycle Type Object! A little extra miter work here: double compound miters on the seat tube and down tube. Why? No good reason other than it looks neat inside the BB shell. A lot of folks will just put the extra cut in the seat tube, and that's fine, it just won't look as cool later. Although, the only people who will ever see it are me and Jogn, but still.........
Seat tube brazed in here and getting one of the 40-50 alignment checks a frame gets through the build process. Nice and square here!
View from inside the BB after the downtube is brazed in- it's the little things......
Top tube mitered and fitted. I like to be able to rotate the frame for this braze, so the frame is clamped in a workstand that allows me to turn it whichever way I need.
A trip to the Morroni jig to get the chainstays fitted up. I love this huge chuck of machined steel, there's only one other jig like this in use today. But I do know where another one is sitting and can be had for a song!

Starting the front triangle

Here's how I like to start the front triangle, the down tube to head tube connection. All the frame's geometry follows this angle, so it's important to get it right. A perfect fit, with no gaps in the miter is essential for maximum strength and alignment. For this frame, the angle has to be 58.5, a typical angle for a smallish frame and only half a degree off from the angle of the lug- just a tiny bit of tweaking and it will all go together perfectly. A light-tight fit done with only a hacksaw and a file.
All brazed up! It looks like hell with the flux still on it, but trust me, it's a nice braze!

Lining up the angle with the blue print- spot on! If it were off, I'd have to cold set it (read: bend) something I absolutely hate to do and something I haven't had to do since my first frame. If the miter is right and the proper brazing sequence is followed, it will be right every time.

You can also see the water bottle bosses have been brazed in too- this is another one of the little things you do to before the frame is together, it makes it easier to maintain alignment later on. Building frames comes down to the millimeter, so every little bit helps!

Saturday night blog down.....

Time to personalize this a bit before the big brazing is underway: Drawn on.
Drilled out.
Excess cut away- only broke two blades!
Approximately 3,476 file strokes later and the Dark Knight approves!

Subs

Getting the seat stays, chain stays, and fork blades sorted. The seatstays will have the traditional caps- made from scratch to give it the custom flair. Because, as you must know, every custom has to have the required amount of flair.

Here you see the initial cut out. It kinda makes the stay look like a big hypodermic needle, huh? A blurry pic of a scrap piece of seat stay brazed in place. I like to use this diameter because it gives the cap a more scalloped look.Excess tube cut away and a bit of file work later......and we have our cap!

Got to working and left the camera in the house for the chain stays and blades. Blades have been raked to 50mm, with a nice curve to them.

Also, you can see I've used two types of dropouts. The fronts are the plug-in type and the rears are attached by cutting a slot in the stay and then filling the gaps with brass. One thing I don't like is drops that don't match between the front and back, so I spent quite a bit of time blending in the rears to balance with the front. Once painted, thy will look like a matching set.

Next is lug prep, miters, and some real working shots of the greatest frame jig ever.

First Steps

Ah, here we are, on the eve of a new frame build....gotta love it! This will be John's fixed gear commuter/long ride/fun bike. Since John can't be around to see the progress first hand, I though a little on-line build chronicle was in order.
After all the dimensions and geometry is hashed out, I draw up a full size blueprint for the frame- no computer needed.
Then, all the tubes have to be cleaned inside and out and inspected. I look for any imperfections, mark the butt lengths, check the tubes for straightness (by the way, no tubeset is perfectly straight), and orient the bows in the tubing so that when the frame is built the bows won't affect the alignment. I'm using a Dedacciai tubeset here, and as is typical for this brand, everything is very nice and within 1mm of being true.

Laying the tubes against the blue print to balance the butted sections and make the marks for the rough cuts....looks like there's a rogue spider on there too!Checking the downtube lug angle. This lug will have to be adjusted a bit as this frame has a taller fork (fender clearance) coupled with a higher BB (pedal clearance) that puts the lug about a half degree out of spec- well within adjustment (read: bending to fit) limits though.

This is my first time using a Pacenti fork crown too, it is super nice!

Drop out mods underway.

Next: sub-assembly fabrication.