Summer Work

....if you want to call it work.  I finished up all my summer projects and it wound up being three complete bike builds in three consecutive days.  Pretty cool.  Odin was the first to leave, then Geoffrey's Road Warrior Retro Hammer and then the Colestice bike finally got some parts.

Burning Dan's Chopper Rack:

Dan my neighbor wanted to bring some of my work to the Burning Man festival.  He's got a sweet beach cruiser for romping around out there on 24 x 3.0s and he wanted a rack to carry around his beer and fly the colors of their camp.  I came up with this in a couple days.  

Odin:

This is built one of the more purpose built bikes I've ever done.  The Viking came to me with a request for a 29er single speed with versatility options, but riding with him left me knowing this would be no ordinary bike.  The Viking is trials savvy in his riding style.  He hits all the play lines and does the hippity hoppity, wheelie, nose wheelie, back wheel spin kind of moves.  I made some careful measurements on his current bikes and came up with this slack angle short wheel base mega stand over custom experiment.  We built it up the other night and I at least was in awe....I think the Viking was too.  It looks like a stencil drawing and John did an excellent number on the "Blue Job" powder scheme.  Specific for 203 mm rotors, tapered head tube, pierced top tube, direct mount front derailleur, and the chain stays clear a 2.5" tire and and a shimano triple.  Very unique.  Here are some detail shots.

 Geoffrey's Road Warrior Retro Hammer:

Geoffrey came to me with a cool idea and I knew all along that someday someone would convince me to build a "true" road bike.  Geoffrey's dad had passed along his old Cannondale he had purchased new in 1985.  It was top of the line at the time.  Straight gauge aluminum and a pretty weird configuration.   Geoffrey rode it, liked it, but it didn't fit.  So he came to me with this idea and this SUPER SWEET Dura-Ace 7 speed kit.  He wanted triple triangle but wanted to keep some of the snap of the old Cannondale.  Geoffrey may never race in the official sense, but that said everything he does is a race.  He's a fast twitch.  He'll throw down in a sprint.  He weighs in at 130 and is pure muscle.  I once saw him race a loaded canoe in a whitewater kayak on a lake.  Baller.  Here's what came of the project:  Frame, fork and stem by me.  Straight gauge chain stays, hooded drop outs, lugged fork and seat tube joint, and check out the custom made braze on front derailleur boss.  New Nitto Noodle bar, King 1" headset, and Brooks Saddle.  The rest ala the Cannondale.

Colstice all built up:

A proper built single speed...'bout as proper as they get in my opinion.  Paul Levers and avid mechanicals, Tubeless tires, Fox, King hubs.  Ti seat post.  Built to fit perfectly.  Nuff Said.

So the summer experiments have officially wrapped up.  I'm gonna do one frame for myself with some of the new stuff (it'll be like Odin's cousin) and then I'm off to spend two weeks on the river.  In Arizona there are a few floats and then there' THE River.  You know the one.  It'll be nice to come back from that with nothing major on the slate (at least for now).  I guess my summer of fun is coming to an end.  Bye.