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!