Spy Shots

Well life certainly hasn't ceased over here at Moustache Cycles, though the production time of the most recent project did take some months.  There have been a number of other projects and journeys going on in my world from carpentry to solar arrangements along with two trips back east with another one on the horizon....I just downloaded the camera and the pictures of this project that's wrapping up date back to July when parts were being amassed.  Kramp-Stache.  This one takes advantage of all my offerings, though the complete package is not pictured here.  It was so demanding of my brain power and energy that I skipped out on taking pictures of all but the new processes and products....so here's a sneak peak of what's coming.  I'm pretty excited about it....no, I'm really excited about it as it exhibits a number of ideas I've wanted to bring about for....well...since I started doing this.

rigging, jigging, digging

bonus points if you can tell me what you're seeing above

(yes its a crown race seat, but why isn't it normal)

Brazage

Thrift

Steel rests on Steel rests on Steel

Kool-Aid

With all the influx of over-hyped, over-marketed bikes coming to the magazines and shop floors these days, I started to think about what ol' Jim Jones would do.  He'd brew up some of his own Kool-Aid for y'all to drink.  So here you go, a swift whipping backlash to everything cool in the market right now, brewed up by all your favorite Flagstaff retro-fanatics to look like a cooler full of your favorite corn-syrup infused flavors.  Its the Cosmic Coc-Stache 24er.  And its Kooler than you could imagine.

What's hiding under that thick layer of Iron Horse candy are NOS Tange Prestige Ultimate ribbed top and down tubes circa ~1993, a pair of genuine Coconino seat stays fabbed by Mr. Garro himself, hand ground (by me) drop-outs and seat tube sleeve, and chainstays formed in house.  The powder coat is quite heavy and mostly hides the ribbing of the tubes until you get real close; even then it leaves you wondering what's going on.

The brakes are fully machined Hope Hydraulic breast cancer edition brakes that were once anodized pink and still feature flower etchings throughout...the rotors are just the beginning of their finish work.

Hand ground dropouts and disc tabs front and rear hold the polished Paul 36 hole hubs, laced to Velocity Aeroheats by Mr. Heinchez of Cosmic Cycles.  Schwalbe Table Tops provide the traction, and a Profile three piece crank (nobody does retro-backlash like Profile) links power to the wheels.

Those are no-file fillets on all the main tube and stay junctions while the fork, bars and dropouts got the full polish. 

 

Moustache Angry Mantis bars with 4.5" of rise mated to an extra tall head tube locate the hands somewhere between sprint and comfortable cruise position.  They are gripped with a Thomson BMX (alien) stem.  The seatpost is a Thomson as well and WTB (of course) provides the contact points.

 

Shred Bear approves of his drink flavors as he launches down the underpass artwork and across the drainage ditch en-route to the thirty-onesy birthday luau.  You can see and maybe even ride the Kool-Aid 24er at Cosmic Cycles as it will mostly live there for the enjoyment of the masses. 

Sorry for the blog-tastic absence of late, more to come soon, I promise!

Secret Projects

These gems showed up in the mail yesterday thanks to Martin over at Second Spin Cycles.  They will be used in an upcoming build that will shirley make your mouths water as heavily as the rain we have been getting here this July.

We'll speak more of this in the future!

Shop Happenings and Some Press

Here's a little glimpse of things going on around here these past couple weeks.  The lineage of bends leading up to the one on the left were all produced on a bender made in house.  Its a massive piece of metal that I just keep drilling and polishing and adding more on and moron to make its products all the nicer.  I've been working on this project for waay longer than I'd like to admit but sometimes projects get shelved in the name of acutally making something....like bikes.  It took eight attempts and a full 8 feet of thin wall practice metal to get to the point of even wanting to try bending an oversized unicrown blade.  The first bends were a success in that they are usable blades.  After some further modifiications the following attempts produced the desired results.

I've been on a handlebar kick of late too.  In addition to the straight bars that have made their way onto some of the recent bikes, I've been messing around with some brazed designs.  The bar below started as a mis-bent straight bar and ended up an eleven degree touring bar for use with the Thomson BMX stem.  This bar features multiple hand positions and some area to tie on gear and accessories.  Bars like this and other designs as well are available for purchase with a frame, painted to match or following whatever color scheme you may like.

Lastly, my buddy Will over at WTB was kind enough to turn the spotlight my way and feature me on his summer blog series "Rad People Who Ride."  Pretty cool stuff going on over there, both at the blogspot and the company in general.  You can find the article HERE.  Thanks Will!  Enjoy y'all!

Mateo's AZ Gunslinger

As with many of the bikes I build this one started as a concept to address the riders needs and then evolved quickly into a personality all its own.  This bike will no doubt spend much of its life along the Arizona Trail as its rider is the director of the AZT Association.  He's a charger and has broken plenty of bikes as a result.  Our conversation led me once again to how bikes (production ones anyway) aren't really built for Arizona and everyone underestimates how demanding the terrain is on bikes.  To this Mateo says "Yeah!, You don't bring a knife to a gun fight."

The color is equally worth mentioning.  Mateo described to me a color somewhere between coffee, porter, and chocolate.  A trip to the powder coaters turned up a color just acquired but never shot.....Dark Roast.  It was a go.  Its a textured matte brown with lighter brown flakes buried within, just like ground coffee.  Brown really is a great color for bikes folks.  It looks right at home under a layer of Flagstaff moon dust and I'm sure will be equally comfortable under mud or what ever other configuration of dirt you want to add.  Its also a pretty close match to patinated iron in the desert or even carsonite trail markers.

As always,  thank you Mateo for the cool project and enjoy your new bike!

Friday Night Recap...

A huge thank you out to Mother Road Brewery and Flag Bike Revolution for the tremendously fun time y'all hosted last night at the NAFBE event.  Its always great to get rad bikes and delicious beer together in a surrounding allowing for engagements of those that we don't always get to see.  Much fun was had by all in attendance and Diamond Down String Band was kicking the tunes and sounding awesome.  I'm already looking forward to next year's event. 

Thanks also to Jacc B the shop intern for the awesome piece of artwork above that provided the backdrop for my exhibit and congratulations on your First Friday debut.

First Friday Bike Show

Hey there readers!  I'll have some of the recent shop makings downtown this Friday at the 2nd Annual Frame Builder's Expo.  It'll be at Mother Road Brewing and Flag Bike Revolution from 4-9.  Come by and say hi or ride your Moustache down and hang out with the local builders.  It would be cool to get a gaggle of the past work down there too.  Hope to see you there....