frame prices will be going up, and rumor control............

frame prices are going up.........as is everything, it seems. so, here's the deal. i figure i have five build slots left to fill out the next year, as in the next twelve months. NOT all of 2009, just until the end of next july - capish? soooo......... current base frame price { $1500.00 } will be valid for the next five orders i get in. after that it will be going up. i'm not sure how much, i'm doing a cost analysis on the current build and i have an hourly rate in mind which is still pretty meager so i'm going to see how much i'm making an hour and raise prices to suit. i'd like to make at least twice minimum wage!!! i can tell you it's going to be at least $100.00 and maybe more. the thing is, i'm just now getting payed for orders from last year and prices on materials and shipping have just took off. {i'm sure i'm not telling you anything you are not experiencing yourself!} also, i'm trying to source as much of my materials as possible from the USA. the euro is trouncing the buck, AND i wanna keep some jobs over here if at all possible. still, expect the same good old true temper butted tubing, paragon machine works dropouts and bottom brackets, brazeons from design engineering, brass rod and flux from gasflux, and silver alloys from harris. i still can't find any s-bend chainstays from the USA, so i'm guessing that i'll have to continue to import them from dedacciai in italy................ but, they are nice! so, that said, i've heard some wierd smack talking coming out of sedona. so, if some bike guy down there says either A: he knows all the ins and outs of coconino design and doesn't own a coconino or B: that they were partners with me in agave cycles {i had nothing to do with agave - that was between craig @ bike'n'bean and kavik} then that person is feeding you PURE BULLSHIT, as well as just about everything else they will tell you. heads up, ya'll. there's shysters out there! so, let me know if there are any questions about any of this, i'll be glad to awnser them. rock on, steve.

george's bike coming along, john's bike done.

george's bike getting all jigged up.
john's bike dripdrying after the final soak to remove all the flux from the braze ons and the seatstay brace.
everyone like a rear end with some curves to it!

just a quick progress post. yesterday i did final alignment on john's bike and got george's front triangle all tacked up. looking good! i'll tell you what - this cruiser is DAMN straight! some bikes need constant slight adjustments to gradually build them into proper straightness but this one just came together sweetly. also, i really dig the curves on the seatstays, aesthetically they really work for me, mimicking the curves of the chainstays really well. you have to get the slider dropouts just right as far as matching each other so they slide properly in tandem and cuz' they are super beefy........... more later, today is office day so it's back to work on frames tomorrow. ciao, steve.

tired after a great weekend.

the play window closing............i don't mind rain, but i don't like lightning - two golfers were struck in flag a few days ago.
lush greenness!

on the lake, 6am.
a native sonoran sucker. pretty fish! it went back to continue cleaning the lake.
a beautiful penstemon, etonii, maybe?
a nice bouquet - lupine, paintbrush and native grasses.
nice, huh?

has a really great couple of days off! went fishing with barry on friday and handcycling with denise and the dogs on Saturday. the forest just is soooo beautiful right now with the epic monsoon season we are having. we got an early start fishing - i got up and made coffee at 3:45am - and had ten trout in the boat by 2:00pm when the dark clouds rolled in and the thunder started to roll, starting a true soaker of a rainstorm that lasted well into the night. i got up as early as i could on Saturday {only about 8am} and we hit the trail. with all the tropical storms in both the atlantic and the pacific we knew there was about a 100% chance of it raining and it did, but we were back at the car only slightly wet. i really cranked it up climb three and today my shoulders are sore and pop-y. boy, climb three has some killer flowers right now! there are whole fields of locoweed down low and entire meadows of lupine bushes higher up. with the clouds congealing and thunder rumbling in the distance i pointed it down sunset and RIPPED IT. man, it was one of the wildest downhills i've sent, ever. i was three wheel drifting it so close to the ground that my right front wheel buzzed my forearm at one point, almost sucking it into the space in between my barend and the tire. the bottom part of sunset trail is so green it's almost overwhelming! get out there and see it! later, off to finish john's bike and dive into george's, steve.

john's bike winding down.........

old school style & class meets modern geometry and materials.

smooooooth........
there's a good amount of time in that area.......
tools of the trade.
thanks, chris!

just about got this baby done after a marathon seven and 1/2 hour polishing session yesterday! it's looking really smooth, and i dig the flow of the lines...........i got this superb snap-on needle file set from good buddy chris and man, it ROCKS. the handles grip the file really securely and the contours of the individual files match the fillets really well and they are sharp. so, i need to get a RAL# for color choice on it. still waiting for the forks to show from blacksheep. gonna go out and knock out the bottom bracket/seattube/chainstay fillets and put some brazeons and the seatstay brace in and call it a wrap. later, steve.

a nice evening ride to see the flowers.

diggin' on the flora.
i belive this would be called a galaxy of columbines!
penstemon barbatus
mystery flower - any clues?
monarda - wild oregano

a loco weed close-up. what a cool color!
ripping scultz!
pinedropseed - a saprophyte. no photosynthesis, it breaks down rotting material for energy.
scarlet gilia.
any clues on this one?

went for a nice quick evening ride up dogfood and down schultz creek a couple of nights ago just to see the flowers, and they were sweet! i was really tired but pried my ass out of the chair and went anyway and i was super glad i did. hope you enjoy the pics! steve.

there's more of us out there.........

just got this cool pic from my friend mike outside the town where the tour de france stopped in basque country yesterday - the town of garro! there's also valley of garro and a chauteau garro in the pyrenees on the french/spanish border. i've done a little research and the garro name goes back around 1,000 years. cool stuff! steve.

john's bike, george's bike.

looking good!
a pile of metal destined to be a 29er 1-speed.
uuuummmmm............

just a quick post. i FINALLY got john's cruiser frame brazed up. whew. now i just have a couple days of worn out fingers polishing fillets and it will be done. i'll update with some better pics when i get some of the brass nice and shiny. next, while john's bike is still de-fluxing in the dunk tank i got george's tubes all shiny and cut to raw lengths, and drilled all the vent holes and got the seat tube sleeve brazed onto the seat tube. i'm keeping track of the hours involved in this build to see how much i roughly make per hour. i hope it's not too depressing! lastly, a shot from last night - trout tacos! steve.

some beautiful days off during monsoon season!

crawling up orion springs - cleaned the whole thing!

golden columbine.
blue flax.
mystery plant - ted? mar?
ferny!
flagstaff penstemon.

fremont peak - 11,969 ft.
the view upwards from weatherford meadow.
can you have too many pics of sego lilies? enjoy them while you can. we have years go by when you won't see even one.
climbing through the aspens.
nature's bouquet - paintbrush, locoweed and fire cracker penstemon.

it's been raining on and off almost every day here in flagstaff lately, our yearly monsoon season. wet air circulates up from the baja california region and when the wet warm air hits the southwest it rains with thunder and lightning and the temps are in the mid sixties and the low eighties - just perfect. i just took a few days off and went fishing with barry on friday but forgot i even brought my camera as the only pic i got was of chuck, and none of the nice trout we caught {14}, the arizona kingsnake barry found, or the osprey grabbing a trout off the surface..........oh well, words will have to suffice, OR, get out and check it out yourself! Saturday i got out on the trails with denise and the dogs. it's really great to be out in the woods with denise again, she's doing much better. the flowers just keep getting better with the rains, one of the best years i've seen in my thirty two years around here. i rode from the bottom of rusty pipe trail up orion to old weatherford road and up to weatherford meadow, down weatherford trail and back to the car - i was wiped out! more bike building stuff tomorrow.................. steve.

ted's frame - SWEET.

just a quick post of ted's frame. dang! steve.

mid-july update........

sam's bike all good to go. RIP - rust in peace! better get some gravy on that baby.
checing alignment on the front triangle{s} of john's cruiser.
sweet spearpoint ends on the chainstays. hacksaw, files, a sharp eye and practice, yo! stainless steel slider dropouts from paragon machine works.
starting to look like a bike!
george's tubing selection, soon to be a bike.

here's where the current builds are...........sam's frame and fork are waiting on some custom handlebars from groovy cycles to arrive and the whole shebang is getting packed up and sent off to spectrum powderworks for some custom paint lovin'. john's cruiser is moving right along, i was going to get the seatstays on it and braze it up today but i'm just not feeling it, i'm having some crazy foot spasms and having a hard time getting very far away from the bathroom.........too much delicious homemade roasted garlic/red pepper hummus...........ugh. it sure is good. george's bike is mostly designed, i have to tweak the blueprint a little bit and it's good to go. i try to design the bike ahead of time so i can get all the tubing and tidbits together. i'm really stoked on this build, it's going to be a fully rigid light 29er with sliders and v-brakes, and i'll be outfitting it with an all-out sweet build kit. more later when i feel better.......... steve.

as per request: more flowers!

the lupins are GOING OFF on the mountain! whole meadows are green and purple.
hummingbird's eye view of a flagstaff penstemon
he ain't no flower, but we saw matt out on his new coconino 29'er.
penstemmon barbatus - firecracker penstemon.
groveling in beauty!

i thought this looked really cool. a couple big mature ponderosa pines in an aspen stand. up really close they smell like vanilla.
a sego lily. gorgeous! years will go by when we don't see them as it's too dry.
art by nature. no two the same...........
petty nice conditions!
the "kid trail." ask a local............it's sweet.

bracken.
the prettiest flower of all!
indian paintbrush.
an albino lupine next to a normal one.

been getting hit up by several friends locally: where's the botany posts? well, suckily, i just haven't been biking as much as i like to as my main spotter - denise - has been out for five weeks with her cracked tibia. she did today's ride with crutches just to help take pressure off her leg, and said it felt pretty OK. all i managed to pull off was weatherford trail/kid trail before the heavy rain and lightning hit, and we hit the trail by 8AM. but, it was really nice to get out on the tacky dirt. i got down the kid trail remarkably smoothly! enjoy, steve.