Monday, June 25, 2012

A long over due Blog post, late June 2012 - much to show, Do people still read Blogs?


 Malissa took posession of her bad-ass new one speed. It would be hard to make a finer one speed - mostly made in the USA gruppo, light & sweet and hand laced wheels to ice the cake.
 A close-up for all you bike fans. Super great color, too.
 Absolutely gorgeous White Industries cranks, Light, stiff, simple, tough, and you can see yourself in them. No chainring bolts to loose, and Titanium self-extracting bolts with brass caps.
This bike has a whole WI "gruppo" - cranks, hubs, freewheel.
 I build lots of wheels & have been doing so for around 25yrs - I do build new wheels for non-frame customers, just ask.
Here, White Ind x Stan's and Chris King x DT-swiss.
Below, a Phil Wood BB - if they put this much care into some thng you will never see, you know it's awesome.
 Above, Greg's blue 29er is waiting for a few final parts. It's a fully non-filed bike, in that I did not polish the fillets to s glossy finish, but left them as-is and painted it. At some point soon I will re-do my pricing structure with "Signature" fully polished frames going up in price, and "Team" frames being slightly less.
For now, ask for details. Closeups of the fillets are below for inspection. They are pretty nice!




 One super busy shop above, and a raw unfiled fillet above on Ted's 700c all-rounder.
 Above, Ted's 700c all-rounder, it will fit at least a 40c tire front & rear, has rack mounts for Surly Nice racks, and a bottle opener.
 Above is the completed fork - it came out very, very nice.
Frameset below with our kickin' flower garden.
 Above, Annie shows off Angnes's MTB that I built around seven years ago, it was Derrick Bell's last paint job, and it kicks ass.
 Blue & white flames, hell yeah.
Above, some of my doo-dads on my office shelf from all over the world.
From left to right, a dolphin from Opua, New Zealand, a silver llama from the witches' market in La Paz, Bolivia, a rat fink from Lars in Seattle, WA, a turtle to bring money from a curadera in Bolivia, a Zuni fetish fron Zuni, NM, a Hopi Mama Katsina, a flicker feather, wood bowl from Chile, shells from Baja, a tooth from my last elk I killed, some other castings, rocks from all over.........

Super busy around here as you can tell, orders coming in, very little spare time right now but the SW is very dusty and burning up so I just try to see it as "brown winter" and work hard to get through to until the rains hopefully start, but I get to go kayaking this weekend - thanks everyone for everything - Steve.

Friday, June 08, 2012

June 2012 - back at it.

 Here is Melissa's bike, a dedicated singlespeed to live here in Flagstaff, with Coco-Moto dropouts and an upcoming full build kit of some of the finest components available. Stay tuned.
 A sweet, light, curvaceous 26" x 100mm travel MTB.
And, below, Chris drove down from Elko to pick up his new ride, and ride it.
 Above, the start of Greg's 29er for the Colorado Rockies and beyond.
 Front triangle tacked, and chainstays added.
 Here is a short series of pictures of making seat stays, "who bends your tubes" is up there with "where do you buy plans" and "who does your drawings" - only one cat here, Me.


 Not much in the heat for a 16 year old dog and a 6 year old cat to do but sleep.
And it's too dusty to handcycle, but we got in some paddling - a great day with my beautiful wife - super busy here, thanks to all & more soon - Steve.

Friday, June 01, 2012

Back from the Grand Canyon!

 We are back from 17 days of rowing and back to work!
the trip went mostly well, with some scary moments due to bony rapids in low water conditions, a few minor injuries, a couple wind days including one that was off the charts - all in all, as good as you could ask for!
 I have some great new friends from around the country, and got to row all I wanted as I was the guest rower for whenever someone wanted a break or were broken.

Plese note - to see the pictures better double click on one & then scroll throught them, they view *MUCH* better!
 Average camp scene.
 Rowing with Petito above, and Vasey's Paradise below.
 Bob, KB and Molly - that's a fun boat.
 Redwall Cavern - stunning.
 D. caught many a trout!
 Triple Alcoves.
 What you see above is the only known pre-Colombian bridge in North America, built by the Anasazi people long, long ago - it is perilously high on a cliff and off limits to visits - so cool!
 We had an uber-wind day and George twisted his wrist so I got to row 23mi into a vicious headwind - a great day, really.
 D. did many if not most of the GC in our duckie - she ROCKED!
 TL's boat.

 Zoroaster Temple at sunset.

 Me & my better 3/4 above, and below Ben rowing the hyside and Roper rocking a Sotar cataraft - our camera quit around day 12, but we took the Sotar to attach a motor once we left the park so we could motor all the way out into Lake Mead - both these guys are great boatmen - I got to row the Sotar as well - cool boat - Ben stepped up big time and led most of what we considered "high penalty" rapids - thanks, man!
 George & Charlene above, for some reason I got few pictures of them but they were great traveling companions.
 DO NOT enter the hole in the middle!
 Some quality time with Bob, and below his daughter KB and her friend M. or, "thing one/thing two" / "the Ringtails" The gals provided a much needed infusion of youth into the gang of old crusty dust farters - i wish I had got to learn this stuff from my dad when I was 20.
They were helpful, engaging, fun and solid.
 Swimmin' ground - a nice side creek.
 Bob & KB.
 Graham - he was AWESOME! He is slowly going blind, yet was a valued addition to the trip - super helpful, fun, solid, and as it turns out, one hell of a duckie rower and one hell of a fisherman - it was a pleasure to spend time with you!
 We all got to watch a total solar eclipse!


 D. killing it in the Ducky with Cindy - these gals power housed some of the largest rapids in the entire canyon!
 Roper & KB.
 Shade up!
 Happy Peeps above, and Jill below - Jill was a centered, peaceful soul I feel lucky to have the pleasure to hang out with - thanks for everything, you were great!
 Above, Allan & George.
 little boats, big canyon.
 The blue water of Havasu Creek.

 Our trip leader - great job, Allan!
 The ice blue waters of Havasu.
 You have to tie off to climbing anchors bolted and otherwise permanently affixed to the walls above.

 Havasu creek meets the Colorado.
 23mi into the wind = cooked, done. Bob too.
 Kitchen time.

 Awesome fishing! I stopped counting at 20 one day - tastes like trout - everyone caught fish.
 Evening powwow & debriefing.
 Natasha.
 "Kevin"
So long & thanks for all the fish!