10 hours of armbiking in 3 days. bad idea?

did a bunch of biking in the last few days, and rode secret trail and moto to pipeline yesterday then back up to weatherford trail head yaesterday, and pipe trail/orion/weatherford a few days before. man, secret was sweet, but moto thrashed me pretty good, and the grovel back up was brutal. couldn't even talk afterwards. gotta go review the damage today, steve.

all brazed up.

norman's bike is all brazed up! looking good, i'm really pleased with this one! now, just a buch of polishing, steve.

touring bike almost out of the jig, new car rack.

like it says. just have to put the ss brace in the frame and braze it up. and, got the carrack back from paint and installed. don't get any fancy ideas, either, i don't sell them! sorry, steve.

a fine day out!

had a perfect day on the trails with denise and the dogs on climb 3/upper brookbank/weinie walk/little gnarly. kicked it right out, conditions were perfect! see for youself, you shoulda been there! steve.

progress on touring bike with some detail shots

didn't get the bike done, but got the chainstays on straight, which is super critical. built some wheels to go to queens, n.y. with white ind. hubs and sun rims as well. soooo....here's a close-up of the spearpoints, supertight and done with nothing but a hacksaw and some files. and, a shot of the off-set miters. had to go with true temper 27x18 single bend stays as the 30x16 s-bends just wouldn't work with road cranks. and, here are the drops after brazing, nailed on the 1st shot! no cleanup there. and finally, a shot of what is starting to look like a bike. no framework today, off to the trails! steve.

touring bike coming together

looking good!

norman s.'s bike, solo ride out the back door.

here's a pic of norman's bike, a stout world tourer made to ride sweet fully loaded where-ever he chooses to ride it! and, some pics of my first solo ride since my accident. went out on soldiers trail/bridge trail, which are conveniently located right behind my house. some parts were pretty technical. it takes on a whole new concept when you are strapped to your ride and you can't walk a section. on the rock slot pictured i had to get off and sit on the boulders and pick up my bike and lift it through the slot and then get back on. sporty! couldn't have done that not too long ago. i definately wouldn't have recovered to the level i have achived if i had not insisted on keeping to my work schedule and kept on biking,boating and walking. get out there folks! what's your excuse? steve.

paul d.'s bike done!

paul requested a finished pic of his frame all polished up before it goes to pain, so here it is. just drew up norman s.'s touring bike and will start it today, a true 700c round-the world touring monster! steve.

metal work

just some various metal projects coming to fruition. the raw fillet shot and the polished fillets are from paul's bike. those are some sweeeet unfiled brazes. and, our roof rack has passed the testing stage and is now bright yellow and ready for re-installation. also, here's troy's new custom rack, it came out nice, all black powdercoated up! i usually don't make racks, they are sort of a bitch, but troy is a web wizard and i really needed a new web look! check out his little slice of the web at epicrider.com , he's carvin' turns in the powder while others moan about no snow! way to be, troy! also, got my armbike frame back! i'll soon be returning to the trails. definately does not look like it will bust there again.....steve.

a day of boatin' at blueridge

had a great sunny day of boating at blueridge, it was awesome to get out into nature after not being out in the woods since my armbike broke. blueridge has a 5 horsepower or less limit on boats so it's always quiet and peaceful. saw 2 osprey nests in use. also, managed to get up off the ground solo for the first time since my accident! it's great to see some proof i'm still getting better and stronger. got news my bike is fixed and on it's way back. i'm stoked, as trail conditiond are excellent right now. getting lots of frame building done, however! steve.

did some great work today!

check out the brazes i did on paul d's bike today, they look sweet! it will be done soon, then off to boise, idaho!

paul d's new bike under way.

got going on paul d.'s bike of boise, idaho. got the front triangle done - the easy part - it only has one plane of straightness. next on to the more complex bits, the chainstays and the seatstays, in that order. paul requested the angles, so here they are: head and seat angles, 71* &73* with 20% fork sag. geometry for 100mm fork. 1.25" bottom bracket drop. 22.5" effective toptube at crotch level, so, a tad shorter at the h-bars. 4" headtube. seattube, 13.5"ish center-to-center.{see ruler in pic for scale...} tubing selection: tange prestige 31.8 quad-butted downtube. truetemper verus heat treated toptube and headtube. ritchey logic seattube with handmade st sleeve. paragon machine works bottombracket and dropouts. dedacciai zero-tre s-bend chainstays and handbent 2-piece stepdown 4130 seatstays. now that's custom! i've known paul for almost 22 years! he showed me one of my 1st. mtbs, his "dangerbike", pieced together from odd bits in true old school style. i used to go to paul's house in my teens under seriously altered states wearing wierd clothes to watch him paint, play bass and listen to devo and gang of four.....good to still know ya, paul! obscure punk rock mixed tapes on the way as well! steve.

armbike is roto.

yep, busted it. big crack in the frame and it's going back for repair/re-inforcement. wanted to fix it myself, but it's just to far gone. at least we have the kayak, and we are going to blue ridge boatin' tomorrow and i'll post pics, it's mighty pretty there. at least i got 9 hours of armbiking in last week and it will be all fresh for the summer. i guess some things never change, metal just doesn't hold up to garro!

yael's new ride

just wanted to post some quick pics of yael's new bike, it came out sweet! whadda ya think? steve.

post # 100, a fine day out!

had a great armbike ride yesterday, went up weatherford trail for the 1st. time this year, and all the way down orion springs {which i cleaned NO PROBLEM!} and then over the connector back to weatherford and down. great trail conditions with moist dirt and only a few footprints and 2 sets of tiretracks for the season so far. had to re-move all the babyheads i threw off the trail last year! getting pretty good at kicking out 4+ hour rides. also got the clean bill of health on my femur x-ray yesterday morning at the year and a 1/2 mark, the doc was way stoked on how healthy i was, saying i had pulled off an excellent recovery. the titanium rod in my leg is for keeps, the 20+ pieces of my femur have cemented around it so it will never come out. chances are it will probally be floating in space after the world blows up someday! off to build yael's bike today, i'll post pics tomorrow, steve.