Shiv’s Mixte for his wife:)

I made Shiv’s wife’s mixte this week and will powder coat it soon [after the rain stops]. I am still having flooding problems in that area, but the landlord is on it, so will be fixed someday. Shiv had ordered a LR for himself a long time ago. When his number finally came up, he decided to change the order for a single speed mixte for his wife. There are a lot of people that have bought ANT’s for their companions, kids, siblings. I think that is very cool…I think everyone should have an ANT made for their family:) 

David T’s Club Racer

I finally finished Mark H’s road frame got it shipped. I am sorry that I do not have any pictures, but it was just a frame and I like to take shots of complete bikes. I machined and tack welded David T’s Club racer today and will begin welding it tonight.

David T’s frame was a donation to an auction for “Bikes Not Bombs” http://www.bikesnotbombs.org/ in Boston . David has been waiting a very long time for his bike and I have been putting off for too long. He needs it too, because he had a crash on his bike this fall. David needs a custom bike too, becuase he is big and tall. I made a custom over sized seat tube and seat stays along with some beefed up chainstays and fork blades. He will be suprised at how this bike will feel so good, compared to everything he has had before. 

Every year I donate a bike for the Redbone’s Bike to Work week kick off party, which raises funds for MASSBIKE http://www.massbike.org/ and NEMBA http://www.nemba.org/. Every other year I donate something to BNB and other efforts. The auction for this frame was to raise money for BNB to move to a new location.

I am sporting  my new Major Taylor shirt made by Janet Bike Girl in Canada http://flickr.com/photos/janetbikegirl/ She makes some cools stuff and you should check it out. She does not have a website, but you can get in touch with her and see some work through her flicker page. The shirts are made by hand, so the wait can be a bit long, but worth the wait

Next frames in line are Rao S.  John B.  and then Jon B.  and then Chris H.

Machining is chipping

It has been a while since I have made a post to the blog. My recovery time from this years NAHBS has been very long for me. The time leading up to it, the travel and jet lag, the stress and after show politics etc… Getting back into the swing of things has been difficult too. The show was great and as busy as a show can be and we met a lot of good people and had many customers come by to say hello. Portland was a wonderful host city and I was able to visit with some old friends too. Even the warm rain was nice…compared to the cold rain and or snow here in New England. When I got back to snow and then 35 degree rain I was not to motivated to ride to work. My shop is having some flooding problems and the powder coat room had water standing in it. It made a mess of things. I am looking forward to Spring, but not the Spring melt down [and flooding] I had a lot of maintenance to so in the shop after all the many consecutive days at the shop over the last months. 

We had another snow storm on Friday and I spent the night in the shop, stayed up late making tools and blasting Chemical Brothers all night. Someday I will find some shop space where I can listen to my music loud [during the day] rather than having to work late at night. My upstairs neighbors can not deal with it. I have been motivated to fix a few tools and make a few new ones that I have been doing with out or need repairing. My main tool to work on was my fork alignment table. The clamp handle had stripped out a few times and I have been doing patches to keep it going and the blocks were no longer holding the steerers well. I completely rebuilt it with many improvements. Next was a new fork tacking fixture. My old one did work [and I gave it to Marty], but I am too nice of a shop to not have a quality tacking fixture. I used to have an Anvil fixture which was nice, but sold it to make room for powder coating equipment and I felt I should make my own. I also made some wheel check tools. These are used for alignment and mimics a wheel. I am working on a threadless stem fixture now [almost done]. It is an add on to my old quill stem fixture. After that I will get back to work on Mark H’s road frame, which is welded up. I rode into work today, but it took me a long time to get out the door. It was 12 degrees at 7am. I waited a long time and checked email at home before heading out around 10am it was 32 degrees or so. I had a nice sunny ride, but the traffic was not real friendly and way to fast…all well to bad for them.

Our crew, Betsy, Marty, Howard and Mike

Here is our crew for NAHBS 08. Besty [my partner], Marty [my book keeper], Howard [my good friend from my cross country trip in 89] and yours truly.

Everything went well and this was a low stress trip [thanks to everyones help]. We had a wonderful time and met many great people that wanted too see ANT bikes in person. Portland was nice and it was great to see Howard and his family [we have stayed in touch all this time].

On our way back Betsy and I were delayed in Chicago and did not get home until 3:30am on Tuesday. I ended up taking another day off, due to the snow [shoveled for 3 hours of wet snow and then the cold rain all day at 35o]. I will get in tomorrow and get back to it on Mark’s frame.

There is a lot to talk about with NAHBS, but I am too beat to write. I will try and come up with some news later after I get some work done!

Mark H’s road frame

I took the time to clean the shop a little and then machined Mark H’s road frame. He has been waiting a long time and I am glad to get it going. I plan to get some welding done on it tonight and some more before I leave for Portland.

Next up will be David T. ,  Shiv,  John B. , Jon B. and then Chris H.  .. and them some more. updates coming later.

Today I had a reporter and a photographer from the Christian Science Monitor at my shop for many hours. They were interviewing me and taking pictures while I built Marks bike. They plan to do a story on NAHBS and my preparations for it. This may be in print next Friday! The writer Peter Smith is a cyclist and commutes to work. He had never heard of me or NAHBS, but a co worker clued him in and suggested a story. Should be interesting.

I am really looking forward to Portland, seeing some friends and to give my body a rest. I am recovering workaholic and I just went on a binge, working 7 days a week for about 5 weeks and long hours too. It was fun, but I am ready for a little break to get rejuvenated and NAHBS is just the thing to get me going!

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.