roabie's frame fresh from soaking off all of the crispy baked on flux in the dunktank. it's a 26" wheel mountain bike.
getting it's second to last alignment check now that it's dry and won't drip on my sweeeet alignment table. it will get it's last check when i install the seat stay brace. man, it's STRAIGHT.
many builders fillet braze bikes, and frankly, few are REALLY good at it. this is why you will see few raw fillet shots. IF you do, they should look like THIS. the even beads and orderly, clean look tell you that the frame was not too hot, not too cold, just right. a frame brazed together in this manner will last almost forever, unless it is plowed into an immobile object, or just plain ridden into the ground, which i predict would take at least 10 - 20 years of hard use. i seriously think many of the frames i am currently building will outlast their owners. they are my legacy.
smoooooth! that's a sweet bottom bracket junction!
what it looks like when i'm done - about one hour of dedicated filing & polishing. this is actually becoming my favourite part. getting a fillet to look like this without having to mine metal or "force" the fillet into a smooth junction is really satisfying.
ivan's bike back from paint! i have to face & chase the bottom bracket and the head tube, hone and polish the interior of the seat tube, apply the stickers , install the headbadge, get the phil wood BB properly adjusted and loctite-ed in, press the headset cups and then it will be ready to go out. i also unexpectedly ran out of dropout plated {damn!} and they should be here on tues. and the frame, fork & parts will go out. more pics when it's all set to go. also - don't know about you, but this blue really works for me!
howdy, all. steve here. quite busy! all frame building going smoothly. been going at it since 5am and i'm cooked for the day. i was going to go riding yesterday, but it rained in town & snowed on the peaks {!!!! damn!} went fishing with barry on friday, but forgot my camera. caught eight nice 13"-ish trout that were REALLY fat. good stuff! we were almost the only ones on the lake, and the aspens, oregon grape, gambell's oak & dogwoods were changing colors. on the way out we saw some elk standing in the middle of mormon lake and a coyote. also, on a somber/weird note, today, october 5th is the 3rd. anniversary of me being crushed by a truck and having my body wrung out like a rag, becoming a paraplegic, being in a coma for ten days, enduring months of surgeries and endless rehab and never walking unassisted without crutches, riding a 2-wheel bike or doing any number of cool things ever again.............went through a big box of my old shoes today to give them to goodwill. i can't use them anymore, due to my femur being crushed in 20+ pieces i need custom shoes with a 1.5" lift on the left foot, and i pedal with my hands........... i had to keep my custom white's firefighting boots from when i was a hotshot {a initial attack wilderness firefighter in the backcountry of the west - i did 100 straight days of initial attack at yellowstone national park in 1988, and worked the mountains of every state in the west. in the two years i did it i had soooo many crazy memories, sights & near death experiences} and my old sidi cleats - pre-clipless MTB shoes with many thousands of miles on them - some serious memories encapsulated in those babies. touring the world, witnessing the golden era of mountainbike racing......... what shoes would you keep if you could never walk or pedal again? food for thought......... steve.
7 comments:
WE here in this house are glad that you are still around,,, It would be an awful world with out you here. Keep up the good work and enjoy the fall, winter will be there soon..
Sweet bikes. I love that color blue. I knew the 3 year was coming up. I can't even begin to imagine how hard it is to go through a box of shoes like the one you described. You are a total warrior and still kicking more ass than 95% of the population, right? So that does NOT suck!
Nice post Steve. Your brazing work in amazing!
Shoes? I'd like to have my old Beta Bikers from my big tour (Mex. to Canada) in 81. Probably threw those out long ago because one sole was cracked from cranking hard on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
I don't know what happened to my Whites. I had a pair from my USFS gig in 1980 (didn't have the intense experience you did), but they've disappeared too.
My current Chacos are building up some pretty good adventures under them. They've already been stolen once, but were recovered. I'll probably be keeping them for a while.
And the Golden Age of Mtn biking. It was good to be part of that!!!
your a cool dude, steve. I envy you in many ways...
Take care,
Chris
i still have and wear the Sportivas used when climbing Astroman, when i flashed The Rostrum, followed Dave Nettle on a new route in the Sierra (Blank Stairs 5.10+ Grade III, Mt. Francis Farhqar), rallied all over the High Sierra and the Needles, charged the North Face of North Trapper Peak in the Bitter Roots in MT, as well as sending my hardest routes at Indian Creek (Coyne's Crack and Wiggin's on sight!), Bridger Jack Formation, and Castleton Tower. they've been resoled 3 times now, stink to high hell, and climb like slippers. not much use on bikes or trails though. never owned a pair of Whites. i hear they're about as tough as footwear gets. made for kicking wild fires where it hurts.
My friend Okate developed the first SPD shoes and pedals and give them to me. I still use same padals (M737) but these shoes had already gone. Only shoes I am still keeping in my hand is EB shoes with red leathers on these heels. It was mid 80's and I was shocked by John Bachar's climbing in Yosemite and his RED EB. I took real red leather from mom's handbag and cut it to patch. Really good shoes to have, I even "found" first 5.11 line with my RED one. I had accident and now I almost quit climbing, so no Fire anymore but my Red is still shining in my inside.
It has been 3 years since my first visit to Flag, and spend 3 summers. Steve, you are my hero!
-Aki onekanobi AKA #2
You're character and strength are rock solid, that's why we love you.
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