Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Race Report: Whiskey 50!


From Natalie Luhtala (team WW/Fuentesdesign from the beginning!):

The Whiskey 50 represents a milestone for me as the first time I ever raced on my single speed. Even though I had the single-speed with me at the 24 hours in the old pueblo, I chose to run gears for that entire race. So lining up at the start, I looked around to see how many single speed women their were and only spotted one other! It was Rebecca, whom I know from riding here in Tucson, and I know how fast she is, so I figured, at least I don't have to worry about trying to win.

The race starts with an extended climb on the pavement. In the beginning, I held back, watching the eager geared riders hammer up the road. Once the grade steepened, the other riders began to downshift, but being on a single speed, I just stood and kept climbing at my pace, passing big groups of riders who cheered on my single speed efforts. After about 20 minutes of climbing, the course changes to beautiful single track as it winds through pines and crosses creeks. Unfortunately, with so many riders on the course, there were mandatory dismounts as steep log steps and loose granite brought many people to a standstill.

After many miles, the climbing relents, and the trail starts to drop. I had fun passing guys on full suspension bikes, bouncing by with my rigid steel single speed. The 29 wheels roll over everything, and the rigid fork, while rough at times, really sticks to its line. After miles of downhilling capped with some fire road climbing, I arrived at the first aid station. One of the volunteers at the aid station told me I was 2nd ss female through which really boosted my spirts. From there, the course drops 12 miles of dirt road to the bottom of skull valley. I watched as a number of the geared riders I just passed went by me, but I still didn't see any other single speed women. The bottom had a nice aid station where my friend Christine and her baby Aesa were cheering me on. Aesa's enthusiastic giggles and some food and hydration fueled my spirits for the long climb back up Skull Valley. Once on the road I passed a number of geared riders as my slow single speed climbing tempo was still enough to keep me moving quickly.

Finally, after miles of climbing, the course turned back to single track for the long descent back into town. I had a lot of fun zipping along the single track, despite my fatigue. Only one climb, called 'cramp hill' by other riders, got me off my bike. One more road spin then the finish. My goal had been under 6 hours for the 50 miles and I was ecstatic to see 5:08 on the race clock. I had held second place to the finish, with two other female singlespeeders finishing behind me. While this was not a deep field, I was proud to have placed so well for my first race on a singlespeed.

Thanks, Walt, for building such a great bike, and letting me paint it pink!

- Natalie

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A dark day indeed...

Well, today I was beaten in a bike race by someone half my age. Damn you Skyler!

The Fort Fun STXC is getting popular - they had to make a separate category for the elite/pro folks (or like me, folks who once were) this week, and a solid 20-25 showed up to race. Got my usual crap start, watched Alders and Schriver get away on the first lap, and then watched them keep that gap despite my efforts the rest of the time. Oh, and there were a couple people in between who managed to out-sprint me on the final lap, including my 16-year-old nemesis. They paid out 5 deep and I was 6th. Drat. Coulda paid for a burrito...

Oddly enough, the course was 95% identical to the one they used 2 weeks ago. I'm hoping they don't do that again - gets hard to motivate if the course is the same every week. I can ride in circles for 30 minutes and call it "fun", but it gets harder and harder to convince myself if I'm riding in the same circles every week.

Redcoat did his obligatory early season fast lap, blowup, slow laps, recover, fast final lap thing. Ben had a solid race and finished somewhere in the teens, and I think that was all the Waltworks guys.

There's word that there will be a semi-underground race in Laramie this Saturday, so we may make the drive up to Happy Jack for it. We'll see.

Oh, and finally, Josh is rebuilding our bathroom for a bike frame. Here he is in all his glory tearing out the rancid crap that passed for a shower. Yes, that means I'm currently stewing in my own dried sweat. Please, Martin, let me use your shower tomorrow!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Canti boss mods

Since people seem to enjoy random shots of metalworking, here you go - re-machining a canti boss for a cyclocross frame. You don't want to put the bosses too close together, so for 'cross setups, I like to generally have them sit right on top of the seatstays with pretty much no offset.
The bosses are soft enough that you can just clamp them straight into the mill vise (no other clamping needed) and go to town with a 5/8" (close enough to 16mm) end mill.

In other news, frame is still for sale. Here are a couple of pictures. To sweeten the pot a little, I'm throwing in a brand new Easton Monkeylite 31.8mm riser (low) bar. See the specs in the previous post, and please do email me if you have any questions. Jon's new headtube stock is wending it's way to me via UPS as we speak, and I'm looking forward to some serious lathe time on the Harbor Freight junky special. Sweet!

Oh, and yes, you do get to pick your decals, as they're not installed yet. Or you could rock it anonymous-like with none.

Fort Collins STXC tomorrow night (edit, tonight - as it is morning now) is on, I think. Redcoat and I are planning to drive up and represent. More news as it develops...

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Walt's screwup of the month

Sheesh. What a weekend (for those who hate whining, navigate away now!) All 4 people I was supposed to ride Buffalo Creek with yesterday bailed, so I ended up sitting around the house. I lost Jon's headset that he sent me to install in his new frame, Sarah is so stressed out she can hardly function trying to revise a paper and get ready for a conference, and then, to cap it all off, I realized I machined the head tube on Jon's lefty frame the wrong size.

Long story short, another customer had a machinist friend make a couple of C'dale head tubes for a frame (that I built) a while back. I never bothered to look up the specs, so I assumed that C'dale and the 1.5" standard (50mm ID on the head tube) were the same. Turns out that Wayne and his machinist friend led me astray (ok, to be fair, it's not their fault). So I based the head tube I made for Jon off of their specs.

Not so much a good move, that. Cannondale uses 49.5mm ID head tube. Just enough that the headset for the Lefty won't work. So Jon (luckily I figured this out before shipping the frame) is getting a new frame, and I've got a nice 29er singlespeed frame here with no home.

But hey, here's the silver lining - the frame is available for the low, low price of $800. And it includes a Cane Creek headset to allow use of a 1 1/8" fork. Here are the specs:

Singlespeed 29er frame with Paragon sliders, s-bend chain and seatstays, suspension corrected for an 80mm travel fork. Built for a 150-180# rider. Brand new, never built up or ridden. Full warranty.

Head tube: 1.5" standard (headset to use 1 1/8" fork included), 70 degrees
Toptube: 63cm (24.8") effective, 12 degree slope
Seat tube: 19" center-center, 72 degrees
BB: 12.4" height, 68mm
Chainstays: 43cm (16.9"), s-bend
Seatstays: s-bend
Dropouts: Paragon sliders
Brazeons: Guides for rear brake and full stops for gears. Under toptube routing.
Color: Waltworks "Team" BL05 baby blue

Fox F80 29er fork (new) can be added for $400. Full parts kit available. Pictures to follow later today.

Email me if you're interested or have any questions. Feel free to make a (reasonable) offer.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Old-school bike designs suck!


So a friend is thinking about having me build his wife a bike, and he has this design from some shop in Cali, using what's obviously a generic bike drawing from quite a while ago.

I have a few complaints about this kind of "design", which I see all the time, even from fittings done in the present day, by people who should know what they're doing. Here are a few of the problems with this specific design:

-The saddle nose to bars measurement is useless. I hate to state the obvious, but saddles *aren't all the same shape*. Some have long noses, some have short ones. And I have no info on this design indicating what saddle will be used, so I can't even get the saddle and measure it.

Just give me a measurement to the seatpost clamp, which is an actual known quantity! Sheesh!

-While head angle is specified, no mention is made of fork rake. The designer in this case takes the easy way out and assumes 650c wheels, when in fact she'd fit just fine on 700c, even with a non-custom fork. Give people options!

-Rear end geometry and bottom bracket drop are ignored. This is fine in this case, since they don't directly affect the fit of the bike, and I can decide (if I end up building the bike) how to proceed with chainstay length, bottom bracket drop, etc. But many people get these fits done as a guide to purchasing a mass-produced bike - and they should have some information about what to look for in terms of BB drop/height and chainstays. Both are VERY important to the handling of the bike. I'm guessing this fitting cost $150+. How hard is it to write a few notes about - "look for a bike with a bb around X height" or "look for longer chainstays if you can find them", or whatever?

-This design looks suspiciously like it was partially stolen from existing ones. Does she really need a 75 degree seat tube angle? In my experience, that's usually a way for a bike company to make a bike *appear* smaller and reduce toe overlap (check out the "small" and "medium" sizes of production 29ers sometime and see what their wheelbases are - you'll get quite a surprise!) Of course, with this steep seat angle, to get the proper saddle position, many people will have to run a setback post and a shorter stem, effectively making the bike the same size as the next frame size up.

Of course, it's possible that 75 degrees is just right - but consider that a 75 degree seat angle, 49.3cm TT frame (this one) is equivalent to a 73 degree STA, 51cm frame - that's a significant difference. I'm suspicious that someone just looked at the "industry standard" geometry for small folks and pulled this seat tube angle from there. Not cool.


As a final note, I'll say that the best fittings/designs I get from outside folks are from Sean Madsen at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. Sean knows his stuff, and he's worked with everyone from pro studs to commuters (he also races with the pros in our local Wednesday night STXC series). And he gives me numbers I can actually use without making guesses about saddle noses, or wondering if the fitter had any idea what they were doing. So I guess this is a plug - if you want the *best* fit available, give Sean a call. I've built a lot of bikes for Sean's clients, and I've never heard a complaint.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Sean wins the prize...


...for gnarliest frankenbike of 2009 (so far). Apparently he races cyclocross (!) on it, well enough to earn a Cat. 3 upgrade. How this is possible, I'm not really sure, but my hat is off to you, Sean.

And yes, I think it might be a little small for him.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

A sad day for the NBA


Dikembe Mutombo was one of my favorite players for a long, long time (he's 42). Apparently his career is over after a knee injury last night.

By all accounts a great guy, an entertaining player, and a big loss.

Now if only I could get Italian league broadcasts to watch Earl Boykins...

Monday, April 20, 2009

70 degrees!


I spent most of the day packing and shipping stuff (Dave - you sent me $20 too much - I'm going to make you shotgun a pitcher of Arrogant Bastard when we're out in January...) But I also got out for an hour and did my first hard climbing effort of the year - up Flagstaff road, here in Boulder.

Of course, this came about a month after it was supposed to, thanks to my lung infection problems, but c'est la vie. As you may recall (or probably don't) last year in May I managed a 15:10 or so on my singlespeed (with slicks) on Flagstaff for my first hard effort of the year. Not exactly world record pace, but not bad for me. I did it in 15:03 a week or two later, then started the race season and stopped doing personal time trials for the rest of the year.

Well, this year it's mid-April and I just did a 14:50 or so (timing with a cellphone is a little tricky, and I had to stop for an idiot in a car who was in town for Boulder's 4/20 pot smokeout...) on my old man/hybrid/cross/skorcher/flat bar road bike. To keep things reasonably comparable, I left it in the 50x19 the whole time (my singlespeed had a 38x16 last year). I was on 35c knobbies, which are probably a little slower than the slicks I was on my single, and the 'cross bike is a tiny bit heavier, too. So the equipment *probably* didn't have a big effect - I'm hoping that I'm actually a little faster at this point than I was last year, despite the illness problems.

Blah, blah, blah. I still think my original hillclimb goal is pretty much undoable at this point, but at least I can try to be faster than last year, right?

BTW, James sent in this photo of himself in a *real* race. Thanks dude!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

How to seduce a framebuilder

Well, I'm taken. I hear Steve G likes to loll about on satin cushions with his extensive harem, though, so maybe there's an opening there.

In all seriousness, today I got an email from a prospective customer. And I fairly bluntly turned down his business. I'm going to explain why in just a moment, and hopefully give you some useful tips for working with a custom bike builder, should you choose to do so.

First off, I turn down a decent number of people. It's not because I think I'm better than them, or that I think what they want is stupid, or that I'm just too snobby and elitist to build bikes for any but members of the upper crust. Far from it. In fact, many of the folks I build bikes for could be best described as eccentric freaks with personal hygiene challenges (I'm looking at you, Fuentes).

No, I turn people down because in some cases, for various reasons, I can tell that neither I nor the customer will end up happy. Today's missive contained several of the classic signs of future problems. To summarize:

1. Introductory email or phone call shows lack of knowledge about me, my building philosophy, or bikes in general.

It's easy to read through some of the basic information on the extensive Waltworks website. Asking how much a bike costs, or what the wait time is, or if I build only steel bikes is a sure sign that you haven't put even a cursory effort into researching your potential purchase. Will I answer these basic questions? Sure. It's certainly not enough to make me turn someone down. But it's often strike 1.

So tip one for dealing with framebuilders - do some basic research first. 5 minutes is probably enough time to find out what things cost and what I do. I don't get paid for my time on the phone or email - it's why I have a website with an FAQ.

2. Customer is obviously impatient.

Complaining about wait times, asking repeatedly if a bike can be built by a certain date, or trying to insinuate (or make plain in variety of unsubtle ways) that the sale depends on getting your bike done ahead of others who are already in line is another warning sign. This is supposed to be a project you're willing to spend time and money on, something unique for you to keep riding for many years. If you want instant gratification, go to your local bike shop and bring your wallet.

I have no problem with deadlines, but asking about this in the right way is important. Trying to put pressure on the builder is a dumb idea - instead simply ask for an estimate of when the frame will be done. If the wait time is too long, take your business elsewhere. My waitlist gives a pretty good idea of when you'll have your bike - not only can you see who's ahead of you in line, you can see when each person put down their deposit and was shipped their frame/fork/bike to judge my track record.

3. After reading numerous threads on MTBR, customer decides that they want to incorporate lots of odd features, many of which defeat the purposes of other features.

Imagine that I came into your place of work and bombarded you with ideas for a new product configuration after reading about the product in chatrooms online. Seriously. Imagine it.

I'd probably be totally wrong about how a lot of things would work out - after all, I know very little about tax law, or car repair, or payroll software, at least compared to a professional, right? Wouldn't my best bet be to describe what I want to *accomplish*, and then let you make suggestions? Or at most, ask for your opinion about the new features I want to incorporate?

New ideas are cool, and you can find a lot of crazy stuff online. But if I'm not convinced that A) I can do it safely and professionally, and B) It'll accomplish the purpose you want it to, I won't do it.

4. Customer is an obvious cheapskate.

Custom bikes are not cheap. They just are not. If you're not sure if you can afford something, just say "look, I have $X to spend, and I want to do Z - do you think we can do that?"

It's a (semi) luxury item. If you want something cheap and functional, there are lots of mass-produced bikes out there. Pick one out and buy it. I've argued before that I think my bikes have long-term value that a lot of production ones don't, but there's plenty of room to disagree there. Bottom line is that while you don't have to be Daddy Warbucks, if you're really scraping to afford just a basic custom frame, you might want to save your money for another year and ride what you've already got in the stable, rather than trying to nickel-and-dime the builder.

5. Customer seems obsessive and has a detailed design and/or CAD drawings.

I'm not interested in building your honors thesis engineering project/bike. Nor am I interested in building from a CAD document or spec sheet unless I have some information that leads me to believe the designer knew what they were doing. Because the bottom line is that I don't want my name on something that you don't enjoy riding.

In some cases, my design will largely agree with what you think you need. In others, it won't. But approaching me as if I'm a tube-welding robot isn't a good way to start the conversation.

6. Customer has mass-emailed multiple builders.

I spent almost a decade as a copy editor and technical writer, so I can tell when I get something impersonal. I generally don't even answer these emails - especially since they are often combined with error #1. Once again, if you don't want to put any effort in, run down to your LBS and buy whatever the shop guy tells you to. If, on the other hand, you want to be involved with the design and building process, and want something that is uniquely yours, be ready to spend time as well as cash.


Those are the most common signs, for me, that I don't want to work with someone. Avoiding them doesn't guarantee that I'll want to build what you want to ride, of course, but it's a good start.

Also, bringing/sending me beer is a good way to bribe me.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Friday Evening Pop Quiz!


Quickly, can you tell which one of these photos was shot today in:
A) Michigan
or
B) Colorado?

Yes, I am bitter. The streets are covered in 5" of slush and meltwater, and the mercury is dropping like a rock - maybe I should go buy a tallboy of King Cobra and watch the cars wreck into each other...

That, or do some work. Sigh. I wish I was cool, instead of mostly looking forward to the climbing gym and maybe later a nice bottle of zin on a Friday night.

Cheap 29er wheels


Eddie over at J&B alerted me that they're blowing out some 29er wheelsets:
-XT M765 (centerlock) hubs
-Mavic A319 rims
-Straighgauge silver spokes

$175 a set, plus appropriate shipping to wherever you are. No idea how many they have, so if you want some, contact me ASAP.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

So, I'm old.


In my last post, I alluded to feeling a little old. In that I deliberately pointed out the age of someone younger than myself. You just don't do that unless you're a *little* bit jealous, after all - of their youth and their accomplishment of almost beating you in a fairly meaningless short track race.

Ahem. Where was I?

Oh, yes. So tonight I figured out that I'm old.

Because:
(A) I attended a book-club meeeting.
(B) The book club meeting was combined with a dinner party.
(C) I criticized the host's preparation of pizza dough and attempted to deliver a lecture on baker's yeast and gluten to my friends.
(D) I drank nothing but (red) wine, and none of the available beer.
and
(E) This constituted a pretty wild night for me, these days.

AARP, here I come.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

First race of the year!


Tonight was the first of the New Belgium/Fort Collins short track races (held in the big vacant lot behind the brewery). Fuentes and I made the drive up to Fort Fun to represent. I rocked the old school black and white kit, Fuentes rocked a rear blinker, and we laid some smack down. Fuentes won it easily, and I managed to hold off a hard-charging 16 year old (never get beat by someone half your age!) for 3rd.

Thanks to Junko for the pictures!

They made us ride over some old paving stones through a couple of trees. I almost crashed on this section a couple of times - my bike handling is tres rusty after the long winter.

Yuki was 6th or 7th, I think. He was riding his 26" Waltworks from 2006, because his new team (Topeak/Ergon) hasn't managed to get their act together enough to get bikes yet. He rocked/ran an 8 year old Manitou and v-brakes!


Fuentes, about to lap yet another rider. The field size was good - I'd estimate 30-35 riders. And the top 10 or so were all pro/semipro caliber, so it was pretty competitive. Fuentes and I, along with the other washed-up and current pros, had to start at the back, and the tight course meant that the first lap was a fairly humorous trackstanding contest part of the time. Fuentes managed to throw a few more elbows than me at the start and I didn't see him again until the finish.

Putting on the gun show, just to make sure the local lads keep their grubby paws off my sweet prize - Ergon grips.

Monday, April 13, 2009

A few pictures for David and musings on Hueco Tanks

First off, I promised pics for Dave. Here they are. As usual, I'm no Ansel Adams. Thanks to Rusty for the chairs. Unfortunately they didn't pass the Sarah test and are destined for the thrift store (unless someone claims them first).

I also thought this NY Times article was intersting. Rock climbing is notorious for being incompetently covered in the mainstream media (think Stallone in Cliffhanger) and this does an impressive job of not making climbing sound "extreme", or idiotic and dangerous.

Also notable is that the Spot's very own Carlo Traversi is featured in the photo on the first page. Very cool, Carlo!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Weekend double post: recipe + Estonian awesomeness

First off, check out this article about the Estonian Bank of Happiness. Freakin' awesome! For what it's worth, I'm *all* about the bartering - if you're an electrician, or a carpenter, or have a sweet place in an awesome location that's sitting empty in the summer, I'm psyched to build you a frame in exchange...

My favorite part is that it's not a straight exchange - if you do a lot of good deeds, the idea is that someone will do one for you without asking anything in return. Call me a hippy if you want, but this kind of thing makes me smile. Post-capitalism, baby!

And no, I'm not being patronizing. I didn't know where the heck Estonia was either. So now you've learned something, you ignoramus.

Now, another thing that makes me smile: tasty, spicy food. I made this recipe with seitan, but I think (based on my hazy recollections of eating meat at age 14) that chicken would work well too if you swing that way.

Jerk Seitan tacos! (well, it's not really "jerk", for those Jamaican food fanatics)

1 tbsp oil
1 small onion, chopped
8 oz seitan or chicken, chopped into 1/2" cubes
1/2c pineapple juice
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
3 tsp curry powder (the hot kind - thai curry paste will work in a pinch)
1 tsp grated fresh ginger or powdered if you don't have fresh
1 tbsp lime juice
salt and pepper to taste
plain yogurt

Fry up the onion for 3-5 minutes, then add everything except the lime juice and yogurt and cook until the pineapple juice is all absorbed/boiled off. Add lime juice, serve in tortillas, taco shells, or over rice with a dollop of yogurt.

Easy, delicious, moderately healthy. What else can you ask for?

F*&^ing Campy!

This is the most useful illustration from an installation manual ever.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Post 400: Pictures for Hassan




My good college buddy Jason (aka Hassan Ibrahim of the desert folk) had me build him this cool little 29er with super short chainstays and big tire clearance. Color is "cosmic stardust". Pretty cool!

Thursday, April 09, 2009

36! 36! 36!

While I have been a 36" wheel mountain bike *builder* for a few months now, my only *riding* experience on the big huge hoops has been on unicycles (and that was pretty much confined to a driveway in East Montpelier, VT).

So when the sun poked out, in defiance of the crappy forecast this morning, and Marcus called me to play hookie, I couldn't refuse.

Here are some pictures, as well as some thoughts.

-I thought this bike would suck. I really did. I tried to talk Marcus out of it, even. I am rarely wrong about bikes. I was dead wrong about this one. It's one of the most fun times I've ever had on two wheels, and I only rode it for half an hour.

-There is really no question that on basically all types of terrain, up or down, this bike is slower than a 29er. It's slower than a 26er, too. It's probably slower than a BMX. But speed isn't everything - the 10% of your speed you give up repays you with at least 20% extra fun, IMO.
-Why so fun? Cornering is bobsled-like, in that the wheels provide so much gyroscopic stability that you are *literally forced* to lean steer the bike. At any kind of speed at all, turning the handlebars to make course corrections is simply a waste of time - the bike will simply scoff at your best efforts.
-Along with the lean-steering goodness comes a TON of traction. I didn't manage to make the wheels skid out while cornering *at all*, and they're basically the world's crappiest semislicks. If a real mountain bike tire existed, you'd never lose traction even on sand over rock type stuff, I imagine. So every corner feels like it has a berm. No joke!

-6 feet tall is probably the bare minimum to fit on one of these beasts. I barely fit, and I can't really imagine someone smaller having much fun. You never know, though. Marcus said I looked like a kid who had borrowed his dad's bike. I'll let you guys be the judges of that.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Obligatory gear whore/technobabble post

I try to steer clear of hyping product (if anything, the opposite) on the blog, but a bunch of folks have asked me about these products (as in, when/how much) so straight from the horse's (erm, Mike Bush at Notubes) mouth:

"ZTR Race 29er

The big wheel counterpart to our highly successful and superlight Race 7000 26" wheels has arrived. If you have customers seeking the ultimate in lightweight 29er wheels for race day, we have them covered. Available as complete wheels only built with American Classic or Cannondale Lefty SL front hubs and American Classic geared or single speed hubs laced up with DT Revolution spokes and DT alloy nipples, they tip the scales at 1370 grams including tape and valves for tubeless use. There is a 170 pound weight limit.

Dejay Birtch (Niner) and Mike Simonson (Fisher/29er Crew) have both won on them already this year."

Cost on those bad boys (for Waltworks frame owners ONLY) will be $700.


Also, they've started sourcing their own hubs (I *think* the manufacturer is Sun Ringle):

"ZTR Hubs

We aren't exactly looking to get into the hub business but we do have a desire to have more people experience our rim and tubeless technology. To that end we have sourced hubs from a very established manufacturer in Taiwan that will allow us to reach a new price point and improve dealer margins on our custom wheels.

Front ZTR Disc hub
-152 grams (average)
- 2 sealed cartridge bearings
- Black anodized with laser etched ZTR logo
- QR skewer included

Rear ZTR Disc hub
- 282 grams (average)
- 2 sealed cartridge bearings in the hub shell and 2 more in the freehub body
- Red anodized freehub body features 3 spring loaded pawls with 24 points of engagement
- Black anodized with laser etched ZTR logo
- QR skewer included

Hubs are available for custom wheel builds immediately."

Complete wheelsets will run $320 (for a basic silver spoke/nip set with any ZTR rim). Not bad!

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Swamped!


Between the powdercoating delays, illness, and needing to get my taxes done, things are kinda crazy around here. In fact, I'm probably a bit overcommitted right now, which is something I *swore* I would never do again.

In any case, things are going to be slow (on the building front as well as the blogging front) until I have my taxes squared away. Apologies to everyone who is patiently waiting.

Saturday, April 04, 2009

Weekend Recipe: Lasagna ala Walt

This is pretty darn easy, though a little more complex than the butternut squash lasagna, because in this case, you've gotta make the sauce yourself. But it's still pretty darn easy. And (as the folks who had dinner here last night can attest) super tasty, to boot.

Sauce:
3 cans of diced tomatoes or tomato sauce (or equivalent fresh tomatoes)
1/3c oregano
15 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp rubbed sage
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil

-Put everything in a pot, and simmer for an hour or so. Stir occasionally to keep anything from sticking. When the sauce has cooked down a bit, put it in the blender and blend until smooth (be careful about sauce explosions - do a little bit at a time!)

Lasagna:

12 lasagna noodles (don't use the no-boil kind, they suck)
2.5 c shredded mozzarella cheese
1 c shredded romano cheese
6 oz of cheap bleu cheese crumbles
Fresh or frozen spinach

Cook the noodles. Put some sauce in the bottom of a 13x9 baking pan, then layer the noodles, sauce, spinach, and cheese. Save a little sauce and cheese for the top.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 400 deg for 35 minutes. Then take the foil off and keep baking (raise the temp to 450) for another 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese browns a bit on the top. Allow to cook for 15 minutes, serve and consume.

Friday, April 03, 2009

Random pictures of Jon K's frame.



Mostly pretty straightforward stuff, with the exception of the special custom-made (it took a WHILE on my little pansy lathe) Cannondale style head tube, for a Lefty. Annoyingly, the C'dale standard is 50mm ID (approximately) - I can easily get tubing with a 50.8mm OD - but that would leave the walls at only .4mm! So in this case I had to get some super thick 2.125" tubing and turn it down/out.

As I said, pictures are random. Enjoy, Jon!

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Powdercoat woes


The photo is not related to the post - this is Mike's (a friend from San Diego) sweet 4" travel 29er, with custom tweaking to keep the chainstays nice and short (well, shorter than they would be - the Ventana stock setup is about 465mm, these are 450mmm). He said he might bring it to the SD custom builder's show, so if you're there, keep an eye out.

In other news, folks who are waiting on a frame at the powdercoater (or whose frames are going there soon) - be prepared to wait a bit. The compressor that drives the blast cabinets is broken, and the work is apparently piling up pretty badly there. I would expect to be waiting at least another week for stuff that's already there, and probably 2 weeks for the frames/forks that are being delivered to them tomorrow (in fact, I may wait until Monday simply because there's no rush at my end at this point).

Just FYI. My apologies to everyone who is waiting. I know it sucks.

As an aside, while you wait, you can create an entry for the logo contest (see previous post). I've decided that the deadline for entries will be midnight of May 1st. I'll publish all of the entries on the blog here (with comments) when the contest is over.

Design contest!


So I've been pondering doing a decal or graphic that would advertise the fact that I build my bikes with solar power (as in, panels on the roof kind of solar, and yes, I run all my tools and welding equipment off of them). There's just one problem - I'm the world's worst graphic designer (not to mention that my 10 year old computer isn't so hot in the graphics-software department).

So that's where you come in. I'm making this a contest - design me a graphic that tells the bike owner (and all her friends) that this sucker was built (very indirectly) with the fusion energy of the sun. Email me your idea (it's gotta be an image, not just a description) and I'll post them on the blog. Enter as many times as you want!

Entries should be relevant to Waltworks bikes, solar power, and anything about me (bagels? science fiction?) you can come up with. Funny and friendly are good, skulls and lightning bolts and general Wagnerian imagery not so much.

If your idea wins you'll get a sweet 20% off ANY Waltworks frame/fork. If there are good runner-up designs, I'll give out some consolation prizes of 10% off. Prizes are transferable, too, so if you win and you don't need/want a frame, you can sell your discount on the open market (I'll even help you do it) or give it to a friend.

Only other rule is that all entries become property of Waltworks once submitted. I won't use anything but the winning entry, but I don't want anyone getting all angry at me years from now for swiping their cool graphics idea.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Ways to make my day...


A) send me a hilarious picture (for those who can't read, it says "Maybe I won't suck as bad on a Waltworks")

or

B) send me a bunch of fine handcrafted beers from the Bay Area!

Thanks Lance and Willem!