Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Warranty

The Waltworks warranty is straightforward: if you are the original owner of your frame/fork, and it breaks in normal use, I will repair or replace it for free. In most cases, you'll need to return the item to me for evaluation, and getting it here is your responsibility.

Here are the caveats:

-Customer is responsible for delivering the frame/fork to me (by whatever means you'd like). Yes, even if you live overseas - it's on you to get it to me for in-person evaluation. If I determine that I will warranty the frame/fork, return shipping of the repaired or replaced item is on me.

-The choice of repairing/replacing/refunding is solely at my discretion. I will do what I feel is best for everyone involved.

-The finish (ie powdercoat) is only covered for 2 years, and only for frames that are powdercoated by my guys (ie, if you get a bare frame and have it painted elsewhere, the finish is not covered). If you need warranty work on a frame that is more than 2 years old, you will have to cover the cost of a new finish/powdercoat (if desired), which is typically about $150 (includes stripping the old finish).

-I will not warranty frames that have been modified or repainted unless the modification/refinishing was done through me.

-I won't warranty anything caused by abuse or neglect. I will be happy to make repairs in cases where the bike has been damaged in a crash or by any other kind of accident, but you'll have to pay the going rate for my time.



Monday, January 29, 2007

A few thoughts about sliding dropouts

I'm in the middle of building Warren's 29" singlespeed, using my usual Paragon sliding dropouts, and I thought I'd post a couple of pictures, partly because I told Warren I would, and partly because I have had some inquiries from framebuilders about how I go about welding them in (they're usually brazed with 56% or nickel silver).

If you're interested in why I use these and not EBBs, you can refer back to the faq on waltworks.com. Suffice to say that I generally dislike EBBs, and I like the Paragons a lot.

In any case, the main issue with the Paragons is heel strikes on the chainstay - because the actual dropout sits inboard of the horizontal slotted portion (where the chainstays and seatstays attach), the rear end of the bike is effectively about 10mm wider than normal. Throw in the fact that the dropouts are LONG (so the stays reach their maximum width closer to the bottom bracket than they would with a normal dropout) and it's like having chainstays that are 15-20mm wider than normal. So to minimize this, I slot the chainstays way outboard, so that the chainstay sits a little inside the dropout. Second, I like to use the Nova cycles s-bend chainstays - normally, s-bends tend to be for show more than anything, but in this case, they really help keep your heels from hitting the stays.

Here's a picture of the whole rear end.



And here's a closeup of the dropouts and stays - it's a little hard to tell what I'm talking about with the offset, but if you look carefully you can see it.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Clothing

If you're ordering a bike, and want your clothes to ship at the same time as your frame/fork/parts, please email me, and I'll invoice you.

Otherwise, please wander on over to the Alchemist site and purchase any Waltworks items (or other stuff - More Cowbell!) you'd like.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Tucson!

Boulder, as some of you may know, has been having a hell of a winter. The normal high temperature on any average day in January is *normally* right around 45 degrees. Not this year. Starting on December 20th, we got winter with a vengeance - we've had 50+ inches of snow and average high temperatures around 20 degrees. Needless to say, we needed to get out of town.

We went from this...



to this, in just one short flight:


We rode, we drank beer, we rode some more, we slept. Here are some of the better pictures.



Here are Sarah and Natalie bouldering in the Tucson mountain park.



Mmmm. Tequila.



Riding up the climb to Charleau Gap. Sarah and I took our S&S coupler 29ers - it's really nice to be able to fly the bikes for free, though it is a pain to take them apart and put them back together.



Natalie on the Charleau Gap climb.



Sarah on Charleau Gap - that's Mt. Lemmon in the background.



Sarah, Eric, and Natalie on the "Secret" trail off Charleau Gap. Eric is on his 5" travel WW 29er.



Sarah near 50 year trail. What a backdrop!



Near Seguaro National Monument. T-shirt by Twin6.



Sarah riding near the Desert Museum.



If you value the skin on your arms and legs, do not try to ride up Elephant head!



Sarah is pleased that the Elephant Head ride is almost over!

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Framebuilding Philosophy

Click on over to Waltworks.com, this site no is longer maintained.