Barry W's cruiser coming right along, First Sedona ride of the season.

A pile-o-stuff destined to be a 26" double top tube cruiser. Note the x-tra long seat tube sleeve and the twin breather holes......

A long way from a pile of greasy, dirty 4130!

Machinist's eye view or mitering fish mouths.

Seat tube sleeve assembly tacked to the BB shell & ready for the first alignment check.

Gus-Gus in snow mode. Russian Blues are cool cats.........He is quite the "little buddy."

A view from the top of my 1st ride on the one-off of "anaconda" trail - it was nice!

A quaint little hedgehog cactus garden.

xxxcellent conditions - traction was premium.

Pretty high on the eye pokers - I did my best to remove as many as I could fling & Denise helped by shoring up some trail edges. Nice trail!

Just checking in on a snowy day before going back to work on the cruiser - Steve.

Shawn's bike ready for paint, Barry's under way / went fishing for the weekend.

Shawn's bike done. One sweet frame!! this one really "works" for me, although I did not properly estimate how much time it would take.

I'd like to do more of this set-up in both Paragon and Paul {pictured here} dropouts. Clean, works perfectly, stiff & actually lighter then sliders. *But,* more labour & parts. So: these are a $150.00 upcharge. Also available as a geared setup with the Paragon units, which also come with a bottle opener option. I'll get some pics of these options up on my web page, I am going to overhaul the options - I would not be surprised to see prices go up........

This pile of tubing will be Barry's 26" wheeled double toptube cruiser......

Look! they do come in Metric & Standard!

While it was raining & snowing in Flag our favourite fishing spot was like this! Score! only one fishing boat in the entire parking lot. Yes - it was killer.

Sunrise on the Arizona Strip. I love the Strip.

The Vermilion Cliffs.

Snow beginning to fall over the Kaibab Plateau. They closed the road for the rest of the year over the plateau two days after this.

Sun cracking over the Echo Cliffs - briefly.

Up early to hit the water before the wind starts, usually around 1-2 PM.

D. is just killing it trout fishing. This hook-jawed male is staging for the spawn - hence the aggressive hooked jaw for fighting other males and the brighter then usual pink as well as the white fin tips. He went back in the drink to help make more little rainbows! A quick measurement before She released it put it ~ 19"

A quick look & back in the drink.

Yet another getting ready to peel out into the deep.

That's it for now, y'all. Going to have some breakfast & go to work. One thing: Blogger tracks stats & this blog is getting over 6,000 hits a month but I have few comments - am I just boring or is my comment filter all wack? drop me a quick comment, huh? - Garro.

update on current projects / out of here for the weekend. / upcoming builds!!

LJ came & got her new ride - light, pretty, and best of all - a great fit for a tall gal.

Barry W's up and coming cruiser build. it's been awhile on one of these beauties. looking forward to it.

The cruiser will be largely built of seamless aircraft 4130. For me, this is real bike building - cutting pieces from 8' raw lengths & just getting down to fabrication. dirty, greasy & nasty, but real fabrication. This will also be one of the lightest cruisers to date, using tubing down to .028" {.71mm} in the front triangle & diameters down to 1".

Who knows what happened to this seat tube at the factory but it's obviously not gonna fly......

Shawn's frame is having a brief time out. My disc tabs in stock just will not work with the Paul dropouts but another builder who commonly uses them has some custom disc mounts made for them that he generously offered to send out. Thanks, Man!

A detail of some finish work on the fillet - smooth.

A nice blending of the metals. This is just a beautiful frame, flowing & an effortlessly straight build.

New weapon of choice - A nice Grobet riffler file. The finish you see on the fillet is from this file.

Thanks hugely to everybody who chipped in for the benefit - we raised $5000.00 for the family!

Office day. It's not all "glamorous" metal fab.

out of here for the weekend, going to get out of the shop for a few days & hopefully catch some rays on the Rio if the weather permits. Back at it on Monday. CLIENTS: here is the build queue when I return, get ahold of me & I will get ahold of you as well: 1st, finish Shawn's {WA}. Next: Barry's cruiser {CA}, raffle winner Meghan's x-bike {AZ}, Pete M's 29er {AZ}, Kenny C's 29er {TX}, ED H. {overseas}, T. {AZ}, Hanna {VT}, Amy P. {AZ}, Christie D. {AZ}, Alisha {AZ}, Jeffery K {FL}, Mike B. {NC?} Tom C. {MI}, + seven more PS - Katie B of Tucson, are you out there? - Steve.

ccol stuff / lainie's bike trail ready / Shawn's coming right along / catchup day.

Lainie's bike all good to go, just caught the last rays to snap a few pics of this sweet rig.

light! thinner, smaller diameter tubes, light tires, very light handlaced wheels, a Rock Shox SID, Deore XT 10 speed with Avid BB-7 brakes.

detail shot.

checking clearances on Shawn's rig. all very good! this bike is very labour intensive {yet to start the custom disc brake mounting} but man - it's come out just straight. really liking the Paul dropouts, too. Slick units - light, too.

eyeballing exactly where the cross brace will go.

hand carved from 1" x 1/8" 4130 chrom-moly strip. Hacksaw, grinder & files.

fully tacked together & ready for brazing into a complete structure.

That is a damn nice braze - still very, very hot. cooling down from ~ 1,750*F

De-fluxed. smooth. Damn smooth......

Smoother still.

this day is a wrap.

D's sis M. came out for a visit with her family & it was a great time - Thanks for getting out on a ride with me!

perfect! a little snow, low 40's, NOBODY out on the trails. best trail conditions all year.

that's it for now, folks - big cleaning/paperwork day, but back at grinding & polishing on Shawn's frame tomorrow, then Barry's cruiser & Meghan's cross bike. Hey - thanks for reading! - Steve.

some build pics of Shawn's bike.

Getting there on this one. Here, it's all bolted down for the first alignment check since the seat tube sub-assembly was checked for spot-on straightness.

Only seat stays, braces, disc brake mount, brazing, around ten hours of polishing & braze-ons left........

Rear drop outs parallel to each other.

the center of the rear hub is perfectly on center with the rest of the frame.

a 2.35" Panaracer Rampage fits all the way forward in the drops with good clearance.

All dummied up with a BB to make sure I order the correct spindle length Phil Wood . It came out to be a swank 116mm - nice. Here it actually fits with a 111.5mm, but tightened down it will rub the chainstay.

And finally, the seatstays all fab'ed up - i'll get those on tomorrow & hopefully get the whole shebang all brazed. - Garro.