Some days are more productive than others. My parts that I'm waiting for from England still have not arrived. They told me they sent them by air mail. I think they must have been put on a freighter first. One that has to stop in China perhaps. I spent Friday afternoon cleaning up the chain stays and prepping the seat stays. Saturday morning I finished up the forks. Until the parts show up I'm high and dry.

I decided at that point to come home and work on the design for a 29er single speed. This will be my first foray into the world of Mountain bikes. I need to go out and buy the forks or at least get the dimensions so I can bring them into the design. I imagine that there will be quite a few things that I will have to research to get the first bike right. I'm looking forward to the challenge!

You may have noticed there are no pics. That's because I went to the shop without the camera again. I have to get into the habit of bringing the camera. I'll try to stop tomorrow and take a couple of pics and post them. What's a blog without pictures? A blah?

Busy Day

My day started at 5 am. I won't bore you with the details. I went to Granby bike for a ride with Paul Mikkelson. He is a local man raising money for the American Heart Association. I had contacted my Amigos and asked them to come out and support Paul's ride. I also asked them to ride their Bowen Bicycles if they had one. Marketing-Marketing-Marketing!

They offered several different rides for people at different levels.

50 Mile

25 Mile

20 Mile Rail Trail

10 Mile Rail Trail

Since I'm riding tomorrow I chose the 25 mile ride. I rode with a nice guy named Bob and our own Noeleen. Noeleen has made marked improvements on the bike.

The rest of the Amigos rode the 50 mile ride.

After the ride I went back to the shop and worked on Gary's forks. Gary stopped by later in the afternoon and took some pics. One of the picks from the last blog was compliments of Gary and the one above is as well.

While I was out doing this stuff my wife Margie was busy with her first day at the races at the Hop Brook Dam in Middlebury CT. She had a good day coming in 2nd in her class and catagory.

Pass the Fork please

A fork is a fork is a fork. No! The fork is an integral part of any bike design. It is a big part in how a bike handles. The fork for a touring bike is far different than the fork for a race bike. Other factors to consider:

What size wheels will be mounted to the bike?

Will there be fenders?

What style and size brakes will be used?

Threaded or threadless headset?

Will there be a rack mounted to the fork and if so what kind?

In this case Gary wants to run 700x28's with the possibility of mounting fenders.

What a day!

Being Easter weekend and all I wasn't sure if I was going to get my usual Sunday ride in. So a few of my Amigos and I went over to the Granby bike shop and went for a ride that they have every Saturday morning. Nice bunch of people and I took my usual place at the back of the pack for the most part. It was a hilly ride that went up into Granville MA. Many times I wasn't familiar with the roads but it was a very pretty ride. We were near some reservoir at some point.

In terms of the build I've decided to back up a bit. Over the last few years I have been working with a number of people that supply frame parts to builders like myself. I've used just about everyone that I've found online. And I'm sure like others I have come to enjoy working with certain components and the people that supply them.

First of all there are the lugs. The lugs that are chosen define what the final product will look like. To date my favorite lugs are the ones that Richard Sachs sells to pro builders. What is a pro builder? Simple. Someone who has an actual business and carries full liability insurance including product liability insurance. Richards lugs range from simple to ornate. I like the more ornate lugs.

Gary F. chose Nuovo Richie Series lugs. You can see the detail of the lugs in the last blog segment. Some clients like Gary like to make choices. Others just say "Whatever you want to do Dwight" I like both.

As you can see in the picture above, I got Gary's front triangle in the jig. I brazed up the rear dropouts to the chainstays and put those in the jig as well.

More about bits and pieces later.

Great day at the shop

Well it's Friday. I spent the afternoon working on Gary's frame. The down tube is brazed to the head tube and I removed the cast in threaded bosses. The seat tube is brazed into the bottom bracket and the top tube is mitered.

I need to learn how to use this blog thing better. I want to add some more photos and move them around. I can get multiple photos in but I can't seem to move them. It's a good thing I don't need this knowledge to build a nice bike. I however do need this knowledge to market a nice bike. Looking forward to getting back into the shop tomorrow.

Tonight Margie is off to meet her new team mates for Route 66 race series. She's racing with the Bikers Edge team. I believe she's the only woman. Time will tell.

Talk with you tomorrow!

In the Beginning

I came home from the 2010 North American Hand built Bike Show and a Gentleman that I had been talking with locally (Gary F) decided to pull the trigger on a new Sport Tourer.

As many of you know Touring bikes are my passion. Steel is the absolute best material for a touring bike. It gives a comfortable ride and most people that tour aren't concerned about a few extra ounces. (since they are piling on 20 to 40 extra pounds in the way of a tent,sleeping bag and cookware.) What they are looking for is a stable ride. That's where I can deliver.

The beauty of a Sport Tourer is it can be loaded for a credit card tour or the racks can come off for a quick ride on Sunday morning with your friends.

So in the next few weeks I will be making some entries of this bike as it is being built complete with pictures. The picture to the right are the various tubes that I will use to build Gary's bike as well as the lugs, the crown and the bottom bracket. So stay tuned and see Gary's new bike as it is born!

I Love Sundays

It's 6pm and I'm exhausted as usual. We had our group ride today out of my house. Well I should say "Our" house. Who's "Our"? My wife Margie and me. Sunday is ride day for us. I go out for a road ride with my "Amigos" and Margie goes mountain biking. Now it would be nice if Margie went road riding with me or I went MTBing with her. But I don't belong on a Mountain bike, at least not at the speeds she rides. I tried mountain biking for a while, but I just kept going over my handlebars and landing in a heap with the bike on top of me. Now as I mentioned before I'm over 50 years old and it just hurts too much.

Margie on the other hand belongs on a mountain bike. It has become a part of who she is. She races in the Route 66 series and is busy getting ready for this seasons racing. I spent a bit of time this afternoon designing a 29er single speed for her. I'm looking forward to getting it completed and watching her ride it.

Getting back to my ride this morning...Everyone met at my "Our" home at 8am and we headed northwest into the hills. It's very nice riding through there with the exception of riding through a few snow flakes. We had a good turn out for a chilly day. About 15 of us in all. Today I rode the bike above with a few changes. I put on a set of road tires, installed a compact crank with a different saddle and seat post.

I found this group about 4 years ago. There were about a dozen riders and they always did the same ride. Today I'm in charge of the email list and I have 60 riders that I email every week. We ride from a different location every week generally taking turns "hosting" the ride.

I am by far the weak link in terms of strength in this group. They are forever waiting for me. I'm trying to change that this summer starting with dropping 25 lbs. that I really don't need. I'm down 10 with 15 to go! For the past 3 years we have all gone on a biking vacation together. This year we are going to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. As always I'm looking forward to spending time with my friends.