Natas K. 3 speed Deluxe LR

It just keeps getting better I am so happy with this bike that I do not want to box it up! The 3 show bikes came out so nice. My thanks to Scott, David and Natas. They all gave me a lot of artistic license with their bikes and I think it shows. I still need to box this bike up, make some stands and a display and ship that. Then get some work done to the next frames in line before I leave for the show on Monday the 4th. I need to do some major cleaning in the shop too. I have been working so much with out any breaks and such long hours that I have not had any time for maintenance. I will do a big clean up before I start on the next frame.

Late Night Mike

I have been working late into the night…in fact I do that a lot. When I was at I.F. I had the nick name “Late Night Mike”…At night I can play the music loud, because during the day, my upstairs neighbor does not like it. I almost got Natas K’s bike tacked last night. I will have it tacked today and box up David P’s bike. 

David P’s bike finished

Just finshed up David P’s Deluxe Roadster [show bike #2]. I just need to make the chainguard and box it up. This bike has the Shimano Alfine’ 8 speed disc hubset, dual lights, racks, rust powder coat, white Ind crank, ANT stem, Brooks copper honey saddle, tape and bag…very nice

I will be starting Natas K’s 3 speed Deluxe Roadster tonight.

I have two new protoype boxes 65″x10″x36″ that I will be using for the show bikes. I shipped one already and it fits great in the new larger size. The other giant full bike box worked well, but dealing with the freight companies [and cost] was a bit much. This new box can ship regular UPS as an oversize 3. This will cost more to ship, however I can now ship the bike more complete with the front fender on, rear rack on, handlebars and stem on [turn to the side] and with smaller bikes even the seat post and saddle on! I am now making all the front racks in bolt on pieces, so it will all fit into one box. I will load up photos of this new process when I get the production boxes.

Current “best meal in town”

Sometimes I get what is called “Hollistonitis”. I have eaten at every place in town so many times that sometimes I am not sure where to go, but I am hungry and have run out of food in the shop, but need to work late….can be a vicious cycle. I most often bring a lunch and or left overs from home or go to the grocery store and load up my shop fridge with stock. Inevitably I run out and start making the rounds of the town, most often quite happy with the food I can find in this little town, but if I push the limits and go out to often the “Hollistonitis” comes on I have no Hollistonitis right now and the best meal in town is the Spaghetti dinner from Table Top Pizza. It must be about 1lbs of pasta with good sauce and a sub roll turned into garlic bread. It can get you through the night and then some.

I have machined, tacked and welded David P.’s  frame. I will be able to work very late tonight on it and get a lot done. Betsy has some business to do tonight, so I can work late. David’s bike is a 700c Roadster with the Alfine hub set and I have come up with some new ideas for it that I can’t wait to have it finished and photoed.

Mully’s MT

I just finished up Mull’s Major Taylor bike I am very happy with the way it came out in the “Rushin Revolution” theme “Black and Red” http://www.rushinrevolution.com/ Mully originally from MA, but sent to Chicago working for Zipcar http://www.zipcar.com/index and also once a writer for the Ride Magazine. This bike has been several years in the making for Mully and I am very glad to finally have him as an ANT rider…well after NAHBS he will get his bike This is the first of the three show bikes [customer orders] I am building for NAHBS http://www.handmadebicycleshow.com/2008/  Next bike in line for NAHBS is David P from Texas. He is a getting a  very nice looking Roadster with the Alfine 8 speed hub set. Build shots and picturs of the bike to follow soon.

Mully’ MT show bike

I worked until midnight yesterday and got Mully’s MT tacked. This is the first show bike to be built. A MT, fixed, black with red rims and other nice items that you will see soon. When I got in this morning the power went out! We had a big wet snow storm, so it was no suprise. So I opened up the shades and built mully’s wheels in the light. Power back on now

Abe’s SS repair

Finally repairing Abe’s seat stays! Abe was attacked by some kids with bats Smashing his stays, fenders and wheels. He was not hit, but really bothered by this and has been off the bike, but now (after all this time is ready for his bike back

White crank with ANT ring

I just finished Tony L’s bike! I am happy with the way that it came out and the color is very ANT like [it looks just like my work cloths]. I think I am going to call this “Uniform Grey”. I used a take apart rack design, like a Bilenky rack that I saw at the show last year. I am on my last ANT rings and will use them on the show bikes I am soon to build. I talked to my machinist friend about making a new batch and hope to have them made easier to polish. We got a lot of wet snow this morning and I had a lot of shoveling to do today and will be causing delays in most things around here.

I have been working long days and I will be hard to get in touch with for the final push before the frame show [I think I need to lock my door]. However I will be posting pictures to Flicker for all to see of the work being done.

Skirt guard

I am getting very close to finishing this very nice step through bike for Leslie S. I have really gone all out on this bike with a lot of hand work. The skirt gaurd is kicking my ass, but I finally got it where I want and can now begin the front rack that will have a wicker basket on it http://www.cynthiastwigs.com/ with an E6 light mounted below. I got some great help from Sean B. at Wheel Works with using thier Phil Wood spoke machine for cutting the spokes for the guard. I will post new images when it is complete. I made another custom stainless steel chain guard and custom cut pedal cages for this bike. Man what a lot of work! I need to get creative and come up with some lazer cut cages and some kind of custom made chain guard [made by someone else locally].  This bike also sports some nice brass valve caps on the wheels. I found these at the hardware store. Expensive, but very classy looking.

I am pretty sure that I will change over to shipping by freight [instead of regular UPS], for the bulk of my complete bike orders [which is almost everything I make]. I rarely make a frame set. Try to make, test and then box into 2 to 3 boxes for a complete bike is hard and takes a lot of time. For a about $100/150 more I can ship a complete bike [ready to ride] by freight. I have someone from a local box company coming up with a prototype box this week to try out. When I finish this step through bike then I can start the bike for Tony L.

Happy New Burn

Happy New Year!

Best to start out 2008 with a new burn Betsy thought that it looked like some aliens had abducted me. Just an eyelet burn from a rack I was welding the other day. I still have not learned to keep away from fresh welded racks!

We had a little New Years party at our house and it was nice to not have to drive anywhere.

Back to work today trying to finish up the step through bike, for Leslie S. that I am working on [the one on flicker that is in the set "Making a step through frame"]. At the same time I was finishing up Charlie R’s white step through bike also finishing up Nikki Y’s 26″ Club Racer. My next bike in line is for Tony L. who is a 2nd ANT buyer. His will be a very nice single speed roadster and will be the first in my new Flicker set of ”Who is next”. This will be photos of the next bike in the building process. Not a full on every step of the way photo shoot, but enough to see that the bike is being built. 

I have loaded up almost 600 pictures to the Flicker account and I see that I am getting a lot of views on the site. I am very impressed with the flicker site and it can be quite addictive going from contact to contact and finding more and more great photos like this

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lockwasher/ Have fun with this one