An afternoon with WMD

I finally made some progress on the TimeTrialTall today. While WMD tore apart his place looking for stickers, I got to work in his shop.


Thats the steerer, lathed down 25.4mm BMX post, and 1-1/8" sleeve welded up. I made two little M shaped Jigs out of angle iron, and then used them along with the 1-1/8" tubing to rotate it around to make sure it was straight. (delicately adjusting it to perfect colinearity with a mallet)

So now the compression fit 25.4mm post is permanently in the steerer, and the 1-1/8" sleeve on the right is permanently attached to the 25.4 post. I ensured good weld penetration by notching the end of the 1-1/8" sleeve and filling them with weldment.

Now that just needs to all be compression fit into the oversize steerer and welded up. I'm not using any bolts, but I've figured out a way to get the welding strong enough throughout the steerer.

I also built a new rear wheel for it a while ago. Its an Easton Tempest 2, relaced to a NOS 28H Velocity 'Aerohead Deep V' (before they just started calling it a deepV). The crazy thing about the Tempest 2 is that its half radial, and has wildly butted spokes that are threaded on both ends. Thankfully it originally had a rim with a very similar ERD to the Deep V.

Here's what the yet to be mitered Fuji frame looks like against the Peugeot.


I should probably put the 26x1" tire I've got on that Spinergy Spox front wheel for better perspective next time I do a mock up shot.

Today I also figured out a much better way to sleeve the carbon fork's aluminum steerer into my oversize extended steerer too, and its going to be amazing. (hint: no bolts, no welding)

I'm still debating on how to set up the drivetrain. WMD and I were discussing the different methods of having it set up with dual chains, utilizing the fuji's bottom bracket. For now though, I think I'll just add a derailleur tab to the left stay of the Fuji, and run it 1x9. THat should give me the range I need, and suite the Time Trial aesthetic that I'm going for.

I absolutely cannot wait to take this bike on its first weekend trip up the 9W to Nyack!

An afternoon with Fast Boy

Yesterday I had the opportunity to hang out at Fast Boy Cycles shop in Harlem, and pick his brain on bike building, while he brazed together a fork.

A little back story: Fast Boy Cycles is one guy. Ezra Caldwell. I met him in the summer here, and his life took a turn for the strange shortly after, when he was diagnosed with cancer. He's got a blog about it HERE. Long story short, he's doing great, and working against his doctors orders amidst chemo treatment cycles.

It was really interesting to see him work, and discuss frame building techniques.

"The one thing I like about brazing, is... its just... so quiet." He said while flowing brass into the crown of the fork. His voice is scratchy from a cold, and its still easy to hear him over the torch. "Its just glorified soldering, really."

A bit about the fork. It was a 1" threaded steerer with Pacenti crown, straight blades, stainless dropouts AND a disc tab! I thought this was a strange combination at first and wondered if it was at the customer's request. Ezra assured me that the customer had given him free reign to do whatever he wanted with the frame. Must be nice to get to do whatever you want knowing that someone is looking forward to the end result.

I was most impressed with the choice of tooling Ezra had set up in his little space. Most of his fixtures were from Anvil, apart from a home made fender forming jig, and small milling machine. The Anvil stuff looks really user friendly, and probably makes his work a whole lot easier.


Here's the Anvil 'Phrunt Shui' disc tab fixture. Seeing that, along with the fork fixture gave me some good insight into how one would go about creating strange custom 5 piece forks.

At the end of my visit, the straight blade fork was complete, save for a touch of filing. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished bike on his Flickr.

I'm really glad I went to see Ezra work, as he is a pretty inspiring guy. He got me really stoked to work on my tallbike today over at les shop du WMD.

Sögreni

So yesterday Wifey and I were walking down Madison Ave giggling at the fur coats, when across the street we saw an interesting bicycle in the window of a store.

Georg Jensen, a flatware/jewlery/design store had what at first appeared to be an elegant, silver single speed bicycle in the window. Upon closer inspection, the bike was not only unimpressive, it was offensive.

Its standard steel road frame appears to have first been embossed with the Georg Jensen logo, then powdercoated high gloss silver.


Stainless fenders aside, all of the other components looked to be spray painted matte silver. including the coaster hub + cog, the stem, the 0° sweep bars, the seat post. The cranks appeared to be Shimano road copies, the chain was cheap and non plated again sprayed silver.


What bothered me the most was the rear rack, and chainguard.
Surely these are the meticulously crafted items that make this 'art nouveau' bike worth the $5500 price tag. Right?


Ugh. The rack is attached only to the fender, with some bizarre set of stacked washers. Its curved platform and translucent rubber tiedowns make it barely suitable for strapping your Louis Vuitton purse to. And it didn't sit level due to assembly. Similarly, the minimalist steel rod chain guard did NOT follow the line of the chain!!!


This bike was making me angry. Georg Jensen would weep if he saw the craftsmanship his name was being appended to. I don't even really need to mention that the rear tire was mounted backwards.

So how could this happen?
What makes this bike worth more than a Vanilla, Naked, Bilenky or Sachs?

I had to research it further when I got home. It turns out that the bike was built by Sögreni, a Danish design house that specializes in bicycles. I had a look at their site, and they all seem to follow the same aesthetic.

The 'Dirty Harry' mountain bike probably pissed me off the most though.


1992 Marzocchi air/oil shocks with seals that are not only impossible to find, but have probably turned to dust? With an unused cantilever brake hanger? A steering damper? drillium cranks? A road cassette and derailleur? 110/130 Rocket Ring? Bonded Aluminum frame? This is the ultimative mountain cycle? What the crap?
Where is the mud guard, luggage carrier and chain guard?

Clearly the only answer is to move to Copenhagen and market items towards the non cycling public. I wonder just how much the Georg Jensen corporation paid Sögreni for each bike.

Back on the topic of luggage racks and mud guards.. I've been racking my brain trying to figure out a way to make the Spicer/Flite100 the 'ultimative' city bike. I had my bike out in the snow the other night, and the lower gearing and slightly more upright posture afforded by the riser bars really helped in navigating the snow. However, my 35mm fenders were packing with slush the entire time, and it added quite a bit of resistance.

I would like to be able to mount CX tires for more traction/float, but I can't fit them along with the current fenders. I would have to get some 45mm wide hybrid fenders and modify them in order to fit the bike. I'll report back if I do go this route.

DFL_Nick is finally seeing the light, and is looking into getting a Flite100 as well. He wants a porteur rack though. A cargo rack built onto the low rake track fork. Hrm. That might not work. Besides, the bike already has provisions for a super sturdy rear rack (unlike the Sögrenis) built right in.

I think in 2009 we'll start to see more and more performance oriented city/utility bicycles. Perhaps even some courier designed ones. I can only hope these designs take shape and the design house fashion bikes get left behind.