John B’s tacking video

Originally uploaded by antbike

Trying out a Flicker video? Not sure if this is going to work, but maybe the link is on the side? I am tack welding John B’s bike today and thought I would try the video option on my camera. I can only get 1 minute on this resolution and no sound with this. It is definitely working on the Flicker page, not sure if it is going to the blog. The weatherman keep saying that it is going to be clowdy, but again a beutiful day here:) Betsy and I had a nice ride home last night. She will sometimes ride over after work and we will ride home together.

Right before we got home we came up on a local red tail hawk! he took a good look at us and then split.

 

Betsy and I took a little trip to So cal. B had a conference and I always tag along to be able to spend some quality time with my sweety. We did bring our folding bikes and rode all over and had some time in the warm sun, however I did forget to bring a camera:( I found this little woody wagon in the flower bed by the convention center and brought it back as my souvenir. I just took a shot of it to represent our trip. On one of the full days for B, so I rode out to the coast on my little wheel bike. Ended up being about 30 miles and then that night we went to the conference party at a local amusement park [another 16 miles]. We took our bikes out [we have lights], while everyone else rode a bus! The ride through the neighborhoods got to be pretty sketchy, so we took a different route on the way back.

 

I have been testing out some new products that I was interesting using on my bikes. First was the Sella Anatomica saddle. This saddle is great, really soft right out of the box. The only reason I bought it is because it is made in the USA. I was pleasantly surprised with the ride. Not as classy looking as a Brooks and not as many options [with width etc...], however I think this is the new way to go and will be promoting it with all my bikes [Other saddles will always be an option].

The next item is my new headlamp. I am completely sold on LED lights. No more Halogen lights for me. I bought a B&M IQ Fly N Plus [switch and standlight]. This is the best light that I have ever used [even better than my Inoled]. Great beam pattern that lights up the whole road, takes very little effort to make work [you can walk very slow with it and it works at full!] and the stand light is a real light…not just some lame glow. I will now be specifying these on all my bikes now [along with the fender mounted wired 4D Lite taillight].

The other item I have been testing are now ready to use on my bikes is the Maglight mini LED [2 cell]. I always use a battery LED as my 2nd light. I position my Dynomo light for the down the road light and my LED battery light for right in front of the front wheel and it also serves as my back up light [for road repairs etc...]. I have been using cat Eye LED lights, the latest being the 5 led HL200…a great light still, but this new Maglight LED completely blows it’s doors off! Again I just bought the Maglight, because it is made in the USA, but have been very surprised with the quality. This light is brighter than the Dyno light, but not as good as a beam pattern for going all the way up the road. However it is so much better than any bike LED headlight [battery] that I am going to buy these in bulk and use them as my new battery light on all my bikes. I will make a special pivoting mount that will fit on my new racks.

On rack and light notes. I have made and get a lot of request for making dual light racks, equipped with the Schmidt hub and dual E6 lights. A very nice set up. However I think that the new combination that I am using on a Shimano dyno hub along with the B&M IQ Fly and the mini mag LED is the better option AND will cost less too….much less.

In the coming weeks and months I will be posting pictures on new models and new equipment that I think will be a very good mix. I am out to specify more and more USA made parts on my bikes and I fell the best way to promote this is to make the bikes and post pictures of them. I have some people in the build Que that are up for this, so stay tuned for the bikes.

I have not started the last list of bikes that I posted last, but will be getting to that this weekend. So again it is John B, Jon B, Chris H….and of course many more after that, but this is that is next.

Sincerely Mike.

PS I am trying to make this blog a lot about the work being completed in the shop and not so much about bikes, parts and life philosophy, but it is hard not to want to go in that direction. I would like to, but that would take too much time away from making your bikes;)

 

 

David’s bike is all ready now. I got to thinking about this well ridden bike [daily]. This bike was my first order of the year for 2004 [early Jan]. At that time I was still fresh out from Boston and did not have a lot of orders or money [from moving]. This bike along with another LR order in the following week really saved me. The next month the orders were coming in and have not stopped yet:) [Thank you]. In case you did not know before David was hit by a car, got his fork flattened, wheel bashed, rear rack mashed, front brake broken. ut best of all he is ok. Got his knee pretty sore, but he is back on the bike.

I was just interviewed by Amy Walker at Momentum Magazine. This is going to be a pod cast. I am not sure how to acces that. I went to the site and did not see any pod cast links, but anyway check out Momentum Mag…my new favorite bike culture magazine 9I still like Urban Velo too:)

 

 

I took Shiv’s wife’s bike out for a test ride today. I have not had a single speed Roadster since last summer and I always forget how much I like a single speed. It is very light and handles well, just feels nice. I need to make the front basket for it and get the right saddle [ a womens brooks ] and then I can ship it out. After that I will finish up a repair for David K’s bike. David was hit by a car this winter and his fork was flattend. I made a new fork, but then discovered his front wheel needed to be rebuilt too. David ride’s most everyday, but hurt his knee in the accident and has been off the bike since. He is back to riding now and is ready for his main commuter bike back.

John B’s frame set is next. He has been waiting a long time and has since changed his mind to a fixed gear bike. He has many bikes and rides a lot of miles each year, commutes daily, ride brevets, BMB and PBP etc…

After that will be my next Jon B! Jon B in Hawaii is going to have a very interesting Roadster built with welded on plates on the rear dropouts for a banna seat struts and a 3 speed stick shift on the downtube.

Cold, rain, snow,rain, cold:( Nice and warm in my shop though:) However I am not looking forward to the floods coming tomorrow. I got David T’s Club Racer together. Everyone that has come into the shop has liked the color. David is going to like his new bike a lot. He was riding an old Motobecane[sp?], that was way to small and with skinny tubes, old parts. This is going to be like a rocket [with fenders].

I sent a drawing off to Paragon Machine today for some new slider dropouts. I am really tired of dropouts that do not fit in the stays, do not have eyelets where I want them and have 5 x .8mm threads for eyelets [I like big 6 x 1mm for racks]. I am always drilling and taping out eyelets to make 6 x 1 threads. These droputs will look similar to the Paragon sliders with windows. I have some that I will modify [as prototypes] to look like the ones I will have made for me. These will be my new universal dropout for all my bikes rear ends and will work for any drivetrain. I recieved a small batch of Shimano Alfine hubs and shifters a few weeks ago and I am excited to finally get them. I wish more of the Alfine group would work for me, but it does not cut it. I would like to use the crank and BB, but it only comes in a 170mm legnth. This is one reason I use the Sugino cranks that I can get in 165mm, 170mm and 175mm to better fit people on my bikes.

Once I get these dropouts modified I am going to come up with a new prototype bike for production. I took my fist order from someone in Ohio! He has been riding the same mtn bike for 12 years for commuting and now want a Boston Roadster with some upgrades on it [Front rack, Inoled light, Honjo fenders], my kind of bike.

I am going to get going on Shivs bike and build it up and will post pictures in a few days.

Next up will be John B {MA}, then Jon B. {HA}, Chris H {MA}, Billy {CAN}, Jeff B.{CA}, Tom H.{CA}, Bob G. {MA}

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:) 

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.

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.

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!

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!