cool stuff on a tired day.

howdy, all. just now getting my shit together enough to even make sense, and it's 4:47 PM. whoa. lied awake with painful, violent, constant spasms until 2 AM. sucky. sometimes i just have those days/nights. part of the deal, i guess. just had chauncey from new mexico out for a couple of days for a little frame building workshop, fun stuff. gave me a chance to look at my processess and clean the shop to make room for the fork blade bending station. it's a blank mandrel cast outta aluminum from designs in the the paterek frame building manual. thanks to andrew maximow for getting that going - he had to get 50 sold to nig-nogs like me to get them cast - and to doug hall for helping me out building the bending and mounting hardware. so, here's the latest pic of lee's bike, i got the front triangle going and it looks sweet, strong, and straight. and, a detail of the seattube sleeve. i make these from scratch from 4 foot sections of 4130. the reinforce the seattube sleeve where the mass of the rider rests, and eliminates the need to ream steel from the seattube due to the distortion from joinery methods like welding, or, in my case, brazing. and, the blade bender, a closeup of just a few of my file collection. these babies make me money and you bikes. no building without them. also, a little slice of history, BT stopped by on a drive through to new mexico and had this vintage team mutant sticker on his two burner coleman stove. sweet! next year will be the 20th anniversary of our old beloved, feared and loathed racing team! and, i'm starting to collect the parts for denise's new commuter that i'm building for the handmade bike show. that is one pile of sweet, shiny, expensive, handmade american metal! steve.