Sunday

OK,  I'm going to fight the urge to type everything I have in one long sentence.

Great weekend for riding,  on saturday I spent the morning in the shop rolling and bending tubing for a bicycle trapeeze that goes to an acrobatic troupe in SE this week. I tacked it all together, swept the shop and went for a ride.  I guessed wrong with the weather direction and ended up in the fog for a couple hours but still had a good ride.

When I got back I cleaned up, ate and hit the shop again to weld it up.  I guess it will be hung from the ceiling by several ropes and there will be a skit performed by numerous skinny-strong people moving in, over, on and around it.  I'll keep you posted if I get pictures back.

Today my pal Hugh came over about 9:30 and we hit the road for bald peak.   The route of choice was albertson road which is a 3 mile gravel grind of a hill that hits bald peak about 3/4's of the way up.  A quick drop into Laurelwood put us on the road for home.  Two sweet rides in a row is pretty rare this time of year,  I'll take it!

  I think I've figured out the reason to my infrequent posts.  It has to do with importing pictures.

My current program is this; snap a shot with my Iphone, email it to myself, save it, rotate it (if needed) and then post it when ready.

  I've tried Dropbox but I couldn't figure out how to re size them.

My question to you my 4.5 faithfull readers is what would be the simplest way to speed this up?

Feel free to flood my inbox untill I cry mercy.... or merci (if it's good info :)

Heres this weeks pics;  Mikes bike is still on the rack awaiting finish work,  it was sunday so I get to work on my own stuff.

I got my gravel crusher going this afternoon,  mitering the main triangle and drilling h20 holes. 

I use a centering bit in the mill, it makes the cleanest hole that i've found for this operation,  someday i'll make a dedicated jigity-jig for this but this is working for now.

H20 bosses;  6.5" from the bb for the ST and 8.5 for the DT to the bottom holes .  They are 2.5" apart or 5 chain links if you are doing it by hand with a pilot drill.

 So heres all that plus a random shot of my tubing block drawer and a couple tubes waiting for my new mtb (!!!!!! i'm excited for that!!!!!).  Also a shot of the trapeeze.

More later i'm sure.  thanks for reading.

Jake

total coincidence, it's thursday....again!

Couple quick shots of Mikes bike before i'm out the door for the USGP in Bend this weekend.

Theres still some finish work to do on the frame but it's 90% now anyway.

I had a good few hours on it tuesday afternoon and got the seatstays and brazeons done.

The other good thing about it being almost done is that I get to start on a new XC race bike for myself next!

thursday again

Hey everyone,  just a quick note before I run off to work.

I got mikes front triangle welded on sunday morning and then decided to take a break and work on the fork for my new gravel crusher.  I had plans to use some monster unicrown blades that I had so I started in.

  By that evening I scrapped the whole idea.  the radius on the unicrown bends wern't even close to being the same, no matter what I did it looked out of whack.  I was unhappy that it took so long for me to notice and that I didn't check before I started.

Not one to take a wasted day lightly I got going again in the morning for a couple of hours.  I had a angled fork crown that would allow me to use the straight blades that I like with enough clearance for a larger tire.

I went ahead and cut it apart and mitered the sides to accept the 1-1/8" steerer.  I then got to thinking about things a little and wanted a second opinion so I shot my pal Eric in Eugene a text and within a few minutes was back on track.

I built the fork as normal from there out, finishing up with a wilits style disc tab.

I have some finish work to do and some fender bosses but I'm feeling much better about the whole thing now.  

I'll post more later on Mikes bike, the chainstays are ready to dimple for the crank and then weld on.

thursday evening

So I got some numbers back from Mike this week and put it all to paper today.

The design is not 100%,  it's done to the point that I can set the jig up and miter main tubes but the seatstay attachment detail  that I have in mind will need to develop during construction.

The down tube is an odd shape and was a little wacky to hold in the mill vise but it held for the bottom bracket miter.  The head tube end I did with tinsnips and my beltmiter machine.

  One of the plans for the winter is to make a dedicated maintube mitering fixture for the nichols hand mill that I picked up last spring.  It will make tubes like this a snap.

Friday night

Is two and a half weeks too long to go in between posts?  I think so.

I have Dave B's bike back from the powdercoater and it is absolutely beautiful.   I got one shot of it before I needed to get back to work.

It's a bright red base coat called 'Red Baron with an emerald green candy/glitter over that and then a layer of clear.   It looks orange in most light but shimmery orangey green to red in other light.

I'm pretty sure dave will have it built up and running by sunday so look for it at PIR  for the last crusade race of the season.

Dave's gotten himself a new camera so I'll be expecting some quality shots  for the gallery in the next couple of weeks.

   With that,  I have almost caught up my waiting list.  There is a road bike to build for my brother and then I can do a bike or two for myself,  a new XC race bike has been in the works for some time and a fendered long haul gravel bike is being planned as well. 

 I'm looking forward to getting some shop time as it gets colder,  Hopefully not being so busy will allow me to post with more frequency.

untill then.