Mike's bike gone, Lainie's coming right along.

Mike's bike came out killer! it's a very dark, rich green. I couldn't post it until today as he got it yesterday for his B-day. nice!

A detail shot to show both the smoothness of the fillets & a hint at the actual color, "laser moss."

and lastly, a progress shot of Lainie's frame. I've spent the entire day today doing parts quotes, cleaning & organising. Finishing L's bike tomorrow, and starting Shawn McF's frame/bike {WA}, Barry's cruiser frame {CA}, the raffle bike for PB's benefit {won by FMC employee Meghan}, Kenny C's frame {TX}, Pete M's frame {AZ}, Ed H's bike {??} Hanna's bike {VT} - and more..... Steve.

Lainie's frame ready for polishing, Gitty's complete, busybusy shop stuff, finally getting in some riding!

Gitty's bike all done Schweeeeet!

Checking out Lainie's for proper clearance - all good! this bike is in the dunk tank all brazed up.

Frame alignment check, table level view.

BW helping me make rolled top tubes, 32' worth! two diameters, two wall thicknesses.

then, on to cutting fish mouthed seat tube sleeves, 4" long items cut from 8' long raw lengths of aircraft seamless 4130 steel.All fabrication in house, baby!

Lots of cool parts coming & going through the shop - five wheelsets alone, for example.......

Brazing on fumes alone - Just one more frame, please!! {it worked}

Getting out riding again, got to get back in shape now that I'm not sick anymore. it was 37*F at the trailhead - brisk.

Glorious! A great fall so far.

Still some green left, remarkably. About a week left on these before they all fall off, maybe.....

Happy D.!

Still cool even leafless. that's a grovel on the handcycle. rocky, steep.

One of my little secret trails. not one track other then elk.

Up, Up.

that's it for now, Out to the shop for more toil. Thanks for reading, all! - Steve.

I'm here! Just really busy.

Lainie's blue print all drawn up - GO!

Raw material off the rack. Made from scratch & custom the whole way.

cut to miter length, scrubbed inside & out, butting measured, headtube cut & faced, BB shell polished, seattube sleeve fabricated & polished. ready for cutting.

Bam! fast forward to just needing seatstays. Today I'll get along on these, but I need a day to organise all the builds currently going on & to radius a batch of toptubes & fab some seattube sleeves.

Gitty's frame all done, a nice matte grey with reflective safety decals.

Straight on. Four 26" MTB's in a row.

A close up of smooth tube junctions in poor light.

good ole' headtube badge shot. those are some tiny allen bolts, yo.

......And a frame pickup from Jeff, another awesome custom job from Spectrum Powder works! wish there had been better light, but Jeff said he will get some action pics when the sun is out.

Detail shot - the whole frame is this sweet.

Sally stays very, very close when there is lightning, which there has been every day - weird weather this year. Personally, that looks like a sucky place to hang, but she likes it.

Sumac bushes going off in the yard - I hope to get a day off this weekend to go see some colors before they all fall off.

You know it is fall when the tarantulas walk around. I get along quite well with them. you can't feel a thing when they walk on you.

Anniversary trip! our 9th year of marriage, 10yrs together. It was nice to spend a couple nights under the stars at one of our favourite spots. See those tiny blue specks in the lower left? those are really, really big rafts.

Chief has-no-tent went along, always amusing & he is a great help.

That's a nice one - back in the drink. they are staging for the spawn & we keep a few smaller guys for daily consumption - eat locally! Wild, too - organic! Tasty, too........

Different trout, back it goes as well.

Sublime.......

D. rocks the trout fishing.

That's a keeper - fat, too.

Barry at a long-line portage - that's shallow! low water this trip - only 8,000CFS.

There's a smiling woman with a big knife behind you........

That's it for now, Y'all. wrapping up Lainie's frame, Mike's & Shawn's gear piling up, Gitty waiting on a King headset, Shawn's frame up next & then Barry W's cruiser frame {cool} Then, Kenny C's frame to TX, Pete M's Touring bike for here in flag, then Ed H. I've actually kinda caught up, taking orders for August/Sept. 2011. Hey - thanks for reading! - Steve.

Very busy / Mike's bike done / stuff & things / gone from the 13th to the 16th.

Mike G's frame all polished & ready for braze-ons. it will be done by the time you read this.

Smooooooth. I try to do this seatstay/toptube fillet on all my frames as a kind of "signature" - I don't point out all the small touches on my frames and I really should, there are many little touches & they all have a purpose. I like to think that this helps dissipate some of the forces along the frame as well as reinforcing the entire joint as well as looking flowy & cool.

A photo of midway through the polishing process. I figure each frame gets around 10 hours of polishing on top of already being pretty damn smooth to start with.

here is a shot of the "spearpoints" on the end of the stays where they meet the dropouts. As the dropouts are Stainless Steel the joinery is done with silver alloy, hence the well, silver color. Also, you can see that I do very little finish work here as well, the concave ends are just the actual puddles formed when the metal cools at just the right temperature, and all I have to do is face the bevels on the terminations of the spearpoints.

A raw shot of the BB junction still hot from the torch.

Ditto here.

Manzo, Dr. John & Gullo building Manzo's bike. damn, it's sweet. we finished it after all the good sun was gone, but I will see him this weekend & get some nice shots for y'all.

The first real snowfall on the peaks from our living room couch.

I went for a short ride with D. Boy, I still feel really under the weather with the Oregon crud. Bleccchh. The woods were very nice, however. the aspens are just starting to turn.

Gorgeous!

Humphrey's peak - 12,633ft.

That's it for now - Lainie's bike up next, then Shawn McF & Barry W, then Pete M & Kenny C, then Ed H. Katie B - where are you? out of the office for our anniversary from the 13th to the 16th. Hey - thanks for reading! - Steve.