Friday, September 30, 2011

Fall Garage Sale (AKA, Walt's on antibiotics and can't really work)

Puttering around the house and the shop, I've got the following items for sale (some hard goods, mostly clothes, no pictures, contact me if you have questions). I'll update the list as things sell (or don't).

Don't see what you want? Click on over to the Alchemist/Waltworks team store and buy buy buy!

Hard goods:

Avid Elixir 9 (X.9) brakes. Brand new, 160mm front/rear. $300 for the set (front and rear).

E.13/Hive SSV Singlespeed cranks/bb. Brand new in the box. 175mm, no chainrings. $175, shipping included.

XTR 11-34 9 speed cassette. Brand new. $180 shipped.

XTR 180 and 160mm centerlock rotors. Brand new. $35 each, or $60 for the set, shipping included.

XT M781 front derailleur. 34.9/31.8 clamp-on, dual pull. Brand new. $30.


Clothes:

Womens:
Waltworks shorts: 4 medium. $25 each

Mens:
Waltworks jerseys: 2 small, 1 medium. $35 each
Sleeveless Waltworks/Fuentesdesign jerseys: 1 medium blue/white. $20
Waltworks t-shirt (Alchemist edition) size small. $20

Unisex:
"Nobody cares that your ride a 29er" T-shirts: 1 S.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Sicker

My fairly benign cold is rapidly turning into what feels like pneumonia, so if you thought not much work was getting done earlier in the week...

I am going to try to get a few hours in today, but if I feel as crappy as I do right now, even that is unlikely to happen. Apologies to everyone who is patiently waiting.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Simply Sublime Singlespeed Studio Shots for Stu

Ok, not a studio. Actually a fence. And sublime is a great overstatement of my photography skills.

I'm about as under the weather as I can be (a trip to Costco *in the car* turned out to be all I could handle and then some...) so I did very minimal work today, but I did manage to finish up Stu's frame and fork. A bit of a break from the norm (ie, 29ers) for me - this is a *singlespeed road* frame. In fact, come to think of it, I'm not sure I've ever done one before. Track bikes? Sure. Fixies? Yes. But SS road? Nope.



I've only even ridden on the road on a singlespeed once - a Carter Lake ride with Adam and the Avery boys. Man, it was a butt kicking. I had my mountain bike with something like a 48x16, and a little 1.5" slick on the back, but a 2.5 Weirwolf on the front. I sat up like a big skinny sail and threw out just about the biggest draft in history. Then we rolled back to the brewery for stage 2 (the Carter Lake ride is ~70 miles), and they drank me under the table (actually, it only took about a pint at that point).


So, long story short, I have fond memories of my one and only singlespeed road ride. I hope this bike helps Stu create some great memories of his own.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Sick... also, anyone for 24 hours of Moab?

I'm coming down with a cold, so work may be slow this week. You've been warned.

Also, anyone need a rider for 24 hours of Moab? My usual buddies all have one excuse or another this year (pansies!) and I'd be psyched to ride with a team of any composition or speed - drop me a line.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The Waltworks Headshok!



Don't try to order this, yet. It is still very much a prototype - but it does open up the possibility of lightweight 29er (or 36er!) suspension forks, without all the problems of the Actiontec (short travel, poor bearing/piston life, etc). Of course, the difficulty is getting your hands on the actual hydraulic unit/steerer to begin with - in this case Dave found a used one somewhere and had it stripped down in order to cryofit (ie, dunk in liquid N2, then press into the lowers).

Note that I did not make the frame (it's a Cannondale, natch) and I had nothing to do with those flames!

Thanks to Dave for the photos. I'm going to try to find myself an old headshok to play with for a 36er project sometime soon, so if you've got something, drop me a line - maybe we can make a deal.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Bicycles and decision fatigue

First, homework: NYT article on decision fatigue (warning, it's long). Done? Good.

I read this article and immediately thought about how it applies to something I deal with every day - that is, the myriad decisions needed to get a custom bicycle. Setting aside the decision to buy a bike in the first place, there is an awful lot that goes into the frame design (how should the bike fit? How should it handle?) but the parts and compatibility of said parts as well. There are numerous wheel, fork, headset, bottom bracket, and even seatpost standards to choose from - I could go on and on. Not to mention the fact that as the builder, I also have to make decisions about what to recommend, what size/shape of tubes to use, etc.

That's a lot of decisions, and the research seems to suggest a couple of things:

-If you make all of the decisions about the bike at the same time, you'll make good/thoughtful decisions on the early choices, but run out of mental energy to do the same for decisions that are made later in the process.

-Making decisions late in the day or on an empty stomach is probably a dumb idea.

-It's easy to get talked into things the longer you spend on the process, and the more tired/hungry you are, especially if your job requires a lot of the same kind of decisionmaking (and most of y'all reading this are smart cookies, so I'm guessing your jobs require a lot).

Sounds silly, doesn't it? But science isn't always intuitive. Taking that information into account, there are some easy steps that should help you (and me) make good decisions when designing a bike. I'm actually going to try to do this, too, so don't be surprised if I tell you to call back in the morning!

-Do design work/decisionmaking early in the day and/or after rest or a meal. That will mean call me to discuss after a nice breakfast, or at the end of your lunch break - not in the evening or the middle of the afternoon.

-Don't get caught up in minor details at the beginning of the process. If we spend a bunch of time discussing colors, or which height-adjust seatpost is best, that's probably going to detract from the more important decisions, like what combination of seat tube angle/toptube length/stem length will put you in a good position to feel comfortable on the bike, or what trail number/chainstay length/BB height is going to ride the way you want. Here's a quick list I came up with of priorities (comment if you disagree with the order, or have something I forgot to include):
1: Fit - BB/saddle/bar positioning.
2: Handling - positioning of wheels (front center, trail, bb height, chainstay length)
3: Frame rigidity/flexibility/strength - selecting appropriate tubes
4: Dropouts/brazeon configurations and parts compatibility (ie, direct mount derailleur? tapered steerer? through axle?)
5: For complete bikes, parts choices and backup options
6: Colors, decals, misc other details

-Make a list of priorities to discuss a day or two before making any decisions and prioritize them by importance. Then check them off in order and try not to deviate too much from your list. Of course new questions will come up and some will end up out of order, but a list is probably a good idea.

-If a discussion/decisionmaking session is going on longer than about half an hour to 45 minutes, stop and start again the next morning, or after lunch, so that you're refreshed and ready to devote mental energy to the task again. If the process takes several sessions, that's ok.


So, am I crazy to think a custom bike customer can actually end up with a better bike this way? You tell me, I personally think it's worth a shot.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Direct mount 411

This is for the folks out there who are patiently waiting (or not so patiently waiting) for Mark at Paragon to get some more direct mount front derailleur mounts made. In other words, the framebuilders will be more interested than the rest of y'all, probably.

You don't have to wait, folks. In fact, you can very easily make your own mount from some bits of scrap. No special tools (other than normal framebuilder stuff) needed.

First, why use a direct mount front derailleur? I've written about it a bit in the past - suffice to say, if you're building full suspension bikes, short-chainstay bikes, or just want a bit crisper front shifting, direct mounts rock. You can do all kinds of weird and unconventional things with your seat tube, and still run a front derailleur. Good stuff.

Now that I've talked you into it, here's how I make a mount. There are many other ways to do it, you can get as creative as you want (I might note that the front side of the mount is a perfect spot for an always-popular *bottle opener* if you roll that way).

First, get some 1/4" plate. I used some cheap bar stock from the hardware store (some kind of mild steel); you could also use 4130 or whatever else you think is worthwhile. Remember that you've got to thread the derailleur onto this plate with an M6 bolt - so doing a lot thinner than 1/4" is probably a bad idea if you want to keep from stripping things or having the derailleur fall off.





The specs for where to drill/tap your mounting hole are here. You'll want a minimum of 25mm or so worth of edge for the derailleur to mount up to, anything shorter will allow the derailleur to rotate around the bolt and cause problems.









Once you've drilled and tapped your piece of plate, weld or braze an old piece of seatstay/chainstay/whatever to the back side. Make sure the mounting bolt can thread through the hole freely! Now miter to fit your seat tube and put the derailleur in the correct location. This is easy with a mill and a small fixture (if you want a picture of the fixture, post a comment and I'll get one up - I forgot to take any) or alternately it can pretty easily be done by hand. You'll need to do a little bit of trig to figure out what angle to cut the miter at (and how much, if at all, to offset it if you're doing something odd with the seat tube) but if you've gotten this far, you can probably handle that.

To mount the mount to the frame, I use an old piece of aluminum plate, bolted to the bb, with a second bolt to hold the mount in place on the seat tube (no picture, sorry). The only tricky bit here is to make sure you attach the mount parallel to the BB shell face, so that the derailleur will sit straight when you bolt it on.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Apropos of nothing, a rant

No, it's not a rant related to bikes. Sorry.

Background: Read this article in the NYtimes about a "Mother's War on Germs".

Several things about this article, and this woman's bizarre crusade, strike me as odd and/or wrong.

To whit:

1. Mrs. Carr-Jordan, supposedly a child-development expert (she's a developmental psychology "professor", though it's not clear from the article if she has a PhD) apparently regularly takes her children to fast food restaurants. I'm pretty sure that eating anything that any of the restaurants mentioned serves is quite a bit worse for your child than the bacteria in the play area, but maybe that's just me. What kind of mother regularly buys her kids that kind of crap? Heck, the Times itself just recently published their big takedown on sugar - do you know how much sugar is in just a BUN from one of those places?

2. As someone who isn't familiar with microbiology, it sounds like Carr-Jordan is unaware that there is a LOT of bacteria *everywhere* (in fact, they are by orders of magnitude the dominant form of life on earth by both number and mass). There's quite a bit of evidence that a *lack of exposure* to pathogens as a child can lead to asthma, allergies, and other autoimmune disorders. Yes, some of the stuff kids like to play in/crawl on/eat is pretty gross - but that doesn't mean it's harmful. Both Carr-Jordan and the writer of the article fail miserably to put any kind of context on the findings - someone with little knowledge of science might conclude that play areas that aren't constantly sterilized are unsafe - when in fact that's not true at all.

3. Gross things are not usually dangerous, they're just gross. If Carr-Jordan was presenting this as a simple issue of not wanting the play areas to be disgusting, that would be one thing, but calling it a safety issue (when in fact there is not a shred of evidence presented that it is) is irresponsible.

4. A responsible journalist would have spoken to the folks mentioned at the end of the article (a representative of the CDC and the Maricopa Environmental Services Department) and then dropped the story idea. When you have one nutbar who isn't trained in any relevant science, and a whole slew of scientists and experts who say there's not a problem, publishing an article like this is irresponsible - the Times should hold itself to a higher standard. Kids play areas, whether located inside Chik-Fil-A or anywhere else, have been gross for decades, and we have not seen any epidemics due to them that I'm aware of.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Quick pictures for David


Just a couple of random ones of the BB area, really. What I had time to snap last night. Note the offset seat tube - good stuff for tire clearance, though in David's case, the stays aren't really goofy short (44cm) anyway.

As an aside, I occasionally get asked NOT to post pictures of someone's frame/fork/bike on the blog. I have no problem with that, but just make sure you inform me beforehand - if I don't hear from you, I'll assume your bike is fair game for pictures, analysis, bad jokes, and possibly mockery of some kind from your friends/the peanut gallery.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Picture for Phil, fork updates


First, a quick picture for Phil. Yep, I was too lazy to pose the frame anywhere more exciting than the top of the recycle bin. C'est la vie.

As usual, I'll do a quick run-through of the geometry for those who are curious:
71/73 angles, built around a Fox 100mm travel fork
59.5cm toptube, 37cm seat tube, 42.5cm (effective) chainstays
30.5cm BB height with 2.1" tires and fork sag
Direct mount front derailleur, built for discs and full gears, etc, etc.

This is basically my standard XC geometry (angle-wise, that is) and yes, it's boring. But boring can be good - this is the geometry that works pretty well for most people on most terrain. Is it what I ride? Not really, but that's not the point. I think Phil will be psyched!

Now, on a less fun note - those folks who have forks on order, or are thinking of ordering a fork (or have a frame/fork combo in the queue)- be aware that I'm all out of my nice OXPLATMSRD-LT steerer tubes, and I've been waiting several months now for True Temper to fill my order for a couple more boxes. That means nothing in some cases - I use a different steerer for bigger and/or abusive riders. But it probably affects at least 80% of the people in line. I can't build any forks for you guys until I get those steerers (well, I can, but they'll have 100g of extra metal sitting there doing nothing useful). Should I have planned ahead better? Probably. But I did make the order *months* in advance, for a pretty popular and widely-used part, so to some extent this is also bad luck.

In any case, I apologize to everyone who is waiting on a fork. I'll do my best to harass TT into getting them to me as quickly as possible.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

I have a problem...


...with tubing deals that are too good to pass up. So I spent about half of the day unpacking $2k worth of tubes. Driver of the delivery truck was amused that I didn't have a loading dock.

Thursday, September 08, 2011

Done with Willie!


Long and low - Willie's got a 24.8" toptube but only 18.5" seat tube and a pretty short (~4") head tube. Why? Ape arms!

It's also got short-ish (425mm) chainstays and a moderately high BB for Willie's long cranks, but plenty of standover.

Non-suspension corrected rigid fork, sliders, singlespeed only - this is a hardcore bike. In fact, probably too hardcore for me, these days. I'm a suspension sissy more and more - though if I lived somewhere a bit less rocky, I might reconsider.

Willie also kept it old school by requesting/demanding *single bend* chain and seatstays. Whew! Takes me back to, say, 2008 or so!

Just kidding. Almost everyone wants s-bends these days, though. I almost didn't remember how to do the single bends!

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

I'm baaaack...


Rested and refreshed, ready to do some work.

Random thoughts about the trip:
-Bend is like Boulder without as many people. Which is nice, because it means you can share the trails and not get in constant yelling matches about who has the right of way.
-The only trail worth riding down at Phil's is Ben's. All of the others get boring.
-Mrazek is better to climb than descend.
-It is not safe to ride full speed up Kent's on a weekday after 5pm. And I managed to cover almost 23 miles in 1.5 hours out there... crazy.
-Flagline and South Fork are freaking awesome.
-Having access to an air compressor is really nice when you want to set up your tubeless tires on your travel bike.
-Parilla Grill is in an ideal spot to serve hungry bike riders.
-Master's road nationals is a ridiculous parade of blinged-out road bikes.
-Jumping in the Deschutes after a long ride is freaking heaven.
-Smith Rock inspires me to get my harness back out and sport climb.

Picture courtesy of Brian at Chris King. Thanks man!