this will have to do ya till the 2nd.....

that's right, we're gone to mexico until april 2nd. see you all then! we will noy be near e-mail or phone reception, so leave a message at www.coconinocycles@yahoo.com to get me a message. here's some cool pics to tide you over for awhile. pvb's sweet 29er in rootbeer, one of my personal favorite colors. the photos do not do it justice, it sparkles in yellow, red, and green. and, frank's bike all de-fluxed. lastly, the current quiver of frames on the wall. ciao for niao, steve & denise.

some build shots of frank's bike.

weeellll.....seems like this build is lingering on - i had to take a couple of days off due to spasms, pain, and just plain old being tired. all part of the fun world of the incomplete spinal cord injury...... some times the going gets tough. but, somehow i get the frames out, and time goes on. frank's frame looks really sweet, and it's probably one of the lightest frames i've ever built. the chainstays were THIN and it took me one entire day to get the dropouts/chainstays/stay brace all just where i wanted it. it's going to have campi cranks AND fenders, so i was trying to squeeze space outta all the urgent spots - chainring, tire, crankarm and fender clearance. also, i didn't want to do "topeyes", where the seatstays terminate in caps on either side of the top of the seattube, so i had to get creative with bending the thin walled seatstays. sooooo.....i used an old trick - shoving the stays full of brass rod to keep the walls from collapsing. it worked well, and took two of us to yank the rods back out - they were really key stoned in there. brazing went pretty well. i had to preheat allot from the insides of the thick tubes like the headtube, seat tube and the bottom bracket to keep from frying the really thin stays. brazing looks good! she's in the dunk tank de-fluxing right now. it's going to have to wait untill we get back from mexico on the 4th. of april for sculpting the brass, brazeons and detailing the fork, as tomorrow i have two frames to prep and i have to pack. thanks for reading! steve.

check out denise's new townie!

denise got a surprise new townie yesterday.......it's a completely raw frame, i didn't do any finish work at all, didn't touch the fillets, dropouts or braze ons with a file. came out pretty sweet! i figure i can sell a bike like this for about $2400.00 as pictured - custom geometry and all shimano lx, but without the seat or pedals and a ritchey post instead of a thomson in any wheel size and with customer's choice of bar type {riser, flat, drop} and brakes {v, canti or cable disc} and any color as long as it's black. whadda ya think? steve.

kaisei cross bike for frank.

sooo, i've been waiting for this build to start for quite a while. it's a new high-end kaisei japanese tubeset i got from UBI. it's really, really nice! the finish on the tubes is some of the finest i've ever seen, inside and out, and the tubes are straighter then almost any tubeset i've checked - to within a few thousandths of an inch. also, the butting lengths are to spec and very crisp. i chose the nicr-mo nickle-molybdenum alloy heat treated front triangle, with a 26.8mm top tube and a 31.8mm down tube, both .8/.5/.8mm butting profile. the seat tube is a single butted .9/.6mm, and a 1" headtube was included. the kit includes fork makings as well, and i chose the thicker blades for canti use, and a 1" steertube was included. for the stays i got some really elegant round/oval/round chainstays, and went with the bigger 16mm seatstays, once again for cantilever brake usage. all in all, an easy menu for ordering tubes, and a well-rounded tubeset that is gonna ride really, really well. also in the super-goody department are the llewellen stainless steel front and rear dropouts with cast-on double eyelets, and dazza's signature downtube cablestops as well. soooo.....some build shots of the front triangle. first, the raw tubeset and sundries with the fork which i made last week. next, a shot of the hand made 4130 seattube sleeve, headtube, and bottom bracket shell, all faced, cleaned and drilled with vent holes. then, a shot of checking the tubes for bowing. the butts have also been marked. next i build the seat tube/bb assembly, brazing on the sleeve, drilling all the holes for seat tube slots and vents and h20 holes, and then checking it for straightness on the alignment table. next, a shot of tube mitering - the tube block follows the tube through the process and keeps the copes in phase to each other. then, assembling the triangle tube by tube. any questions?

cool projects as of late.

been doing some cool stuff! just banged out this frame as an experimental dealie-o. i'll keep you posted, it might be a new model-type mutation, i'm not quite ready to unveil it yet. give me a week or so........ the brazing looks sweet! and, that in its self is somewhat of a clue. stay tuned. also, some sweet wheels for ivan in florida. ivan - i just got a suitable box for these sweeties, i'll get them out in the next couple days, wed. at the latest. they are phil wood one speed disc hubs with quick release axles and the "slr" option, with the holes drilled all the way through both flanges and the disc mount, laced to velocity 29er blunt rims with stainless steel dt-swiss spokes. did you know dt-swiss got their start making chainmail armor? that, my friends, was a looooong time ago! and, lastly but not leastly, cameron's NEW coconino! what a sweet color! the old one had a little uh, accident involving a garage, and this one is here just in time for the birth of matt and cameron's new son. get matt over here to build that thing up! tomorrow i'm going to start posting a special build i've really been psyched to start on, a cross/commuter for frank in washington, dc built almost entirely out of a super top notch kaisei tubeset i received from ubi to do a build report on. so far, i'll say this - it's some of the sweetest tubing i've ever seen. later, steve.

spring beginning in the red rocks.

went for a great ride in the dry creek area yesterday for a good 4 1/2 hours, it put me on the couch for the rest of the night. conditions were about as good as it gets! it's hard to beat the dry creek basin right now, riding through all the cold refreshing water crossings in the desert is a real treat, and the dogs dig it, and we don't have to carry water for them. spring is coming quick - the cottonwoods are budding out and all the fruit trees are blooming around sedona. get out and go before it gets hot! steve.

really nice shot of keri's bike.

whew! 2nd post in ten minutes! however, just checked my e-mails and got this sweet pic of keri's new bike in sedona. nice bike! steve.

forking around.

well, started frank's commuter/cross bike. it's a pretty special project, i got a kaisei tubeset from ron sutphin at UBI to build and provide feedback on. and, man, it is sweet! some of the nicest tubing i have ever seen. i'll get into the details more when i start the frame, but the tubeset is hand-picked, and includes every tube you need to build a frame, including the fork. so, here it is in process. it's a jugged fork with a 1" steertube, pretty traditional stuff. it's a 7* offset everest crown with straight legs and stainless steel dropouts from llewellen with cast-on double rack/fender eyelets. sweet stuff! the dropouts are fairly large inside diameter, meaning that you trim more material off of the small end then the big end of the stay, resulting in a pretty stiff fork, as i was checking alignment even with the fork just tacked, it felt really stiff. i know i've been slacking on build pics on the blog, but i've been really busy, getting one frame out to paint yesterday and already working on two more and a fork. i'm gonna do a full build sequence on the kaisei bike, so stay tuned. and for today's random shop pic, tubing! got a bunch of main triangle tubes in, there's tubes stuffed in the tubes too. that's allot of fresh shiny metal from true temper courtesy of henry james. also, on a "funny" note, check out this wreck i had a few nights ago: i went to wheelie over the doorstep and out the front door to go out to the shop where we were working on denise's cross bike, and tipped over backwards, getting slammed really hard. now, the outside of the door is a ramp leading to our driveway, which is really steep, and when i set up the wheelchair it just took off down the drive way out of sight, leaving me totally stranded. sucky! i had to yell for denise to go retrieve it........kinda funny, i guess..... steve.

trying to get back into the flow.......

lots going on! built wheels for barin, gitty and dave, and ordered wheel makin's for ivan, and got pvb's bike all brazed and went for a ride, while reviewing films for the flagstaff mountain film festival - whew. the brazing on pvb's bike is SWEET. i should be able to polish it up relatively fast. it should go to paint in a few days. the bike had a great look with a pleasing flow to the geometry. i'm gonna be glad to get it out to get some gravy, it's been lingering here with me getting the flu and equipment break-downs. he's coming to visit in april and i really hope it can come back from paint so i can hand it over personally. we'll see..... also, twisting up plenty of custom wheels. i really dig building wheels, and i also build custom wheels for non-frame customers, so if you need a new pair of hoops, let me know. i'll ship them anywhere you are willing to pay for! and, a built-up pic of preskit matt's bike. nice! also, went for a ride on heirkenham/old post/high school trail yesterday, and it was really tough. adventure quality. really hard. needed alot of help, and got really beat up. i'm not sure if i'll do that one again soon.....great views and weather, and yet another chance to hang out outdoors with my lovely wife and critters. also, i've been reviewing films for the flagstaff mountain film festival being currently held - about forty of them - whew. i'm movie-d' out. and look whose running for mayor - i don't know the guy but if you grew up with the name "pud" and still claim it, i bet you're tough. later, steve.

march happenings.

so far, so good on march! got preskit matt's frame out yesterday, i really dig the color! it reminds me of butterscotch. super eclectic custom blend of tubing on this baby to achieve optimum ride quality - true temper headtube and downtube, 4130 toptube and seatstays, pacenti/reynolds seattube, dedacciai chainstays, and paragon bottom bracket and dropouts. nice. gotta love the uncluttered look of a dedicated one speed as well. next, got my new torch, so i'm back in buisness! it's a victor 100fc. it feels good in the hand. and, random shop pic, a shot of fabricating a chainstay brace. i cut all these babies from a 4 foot x 1/8" strip of 4130 steel. every one is different. also, got in a great sedona ride! conditions and weather were perfect. rode up in the dry creek area, except dry creek is not dry, but a raging, cold, crystal clear stream. super pretty. the flowers are gonna go off in a couple weeks. the stream flows kept me on the north side of the creek, i coulda crossed it, but i just overhauled my bike and i didn't want to totally submerge it and then fill it full of sand - i know, i'm a wuss. the doggies sure dug it, though. time to sign off, i'm gonna eat some breakfast and go try to get pvb's bike close to done, it's been lingering and i wanna get it to paint. steve.

everything was going just dandy......

when all of a sudden my torch quit working. ca put. i'm gonna have to get a new one, and send the current one off to get repaired. it would be nice to have an extra, anyways. i took it all apart, and it seemed like a small seal was ruined, but compressed oxygen and flame is not something you want to leave to guess work.......with getting sick and busting my torch i'm now a bike behind......i'm gonna have to bust some ass when i get back uo & running. at least i got pvb's chainstays tacked on and aligned. it looks sweet, and is really straight. but, running one's own buisness, there's always stuff to do, so i cleaned, inventoried true temper tubes i have to order, did some customer service, measured dave for his upcoming build {he's 6'7"} and helped chas build his new 36" unicycle wheel - him and his two boys are doing an 800 kilometer unicycle race in nova scocia this summer - gnarly! steve.