Monday, April 30, 2012

New Head Badge - now available

Just kidding. I think. Thanks to Darren for the design!

By popular demand...

...though admittedly not from the cycling portion of my massive blog audience...

Thanks to CB Steve for the cute clothes. "Newborn" stuff still fits him sort of like a sack, but he's growing fast!

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Kyle's Orange Frame + Walt Needs Sleep!

The pollen is thick in the air, and the Bean's tiny nostrils are filled with snot. Not fun for anyone, since he wakes up about every 15 minutes from being so stuffed up. Ugh.
Quick picture I snapped of Kyle's new ride. Yes, those are *v-brake* studs. He even had me machine off the disc tab on the sliders (he'll eventually upgrade to discs and get a new insert, I imagine)!


As usual, for the geometrically curious:
-51cm seat tube at 73 degrees
-14.2cm head tube, 72 degree head tube angle
-65.8cm front center, 107.6cm wheelbase
-62cm effective toptube
-42.5cm actual/42cm effective chainstays with the sliders at the front, clearance for any tire Kyle wants
-315mm BB height (12.4")

Short and snappy for Midwest ST, folks.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Running slow!

I got a little overconfident the last week or so - we had the Bean sleeping 4 or 5 hours at a time at night, things were good, I built a frame... And then the dreaded "growth spurt" started. And the Bean decided to eat (and poop) every 90 minutes for the last few nights. And we continued our SLC real estate odyssey, which meant I had to spend yesterday flying out, doing an inspection, then flying back the same day. Needless to say, bike work has been slow. I am hoping to finish up a frame (Jonathan's) over the next 3 or 4 days, and I did drop some stuff off at the PC today. In any case, thanks to everyone for your patience. Anticipate limited blog posts so that I can try to get more work done...

Monday, April 23, 2012

The Justinmobile. No rude comments about my "real" name, please. Thanks to J for the photo. Off to Salt Lake for more real estate shenanigans tomorrow, then back to regular work on Wednesday.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Quick ride up Poorman +
Wife in need of a breastfeeding pillow +
Pillow on craigslist, on the way home +
No easy way to carry said pillow, until I had the bright idea to put it on +
Full team kit =
Best double takes ever on the street/bike path. I bet I'll get a lot of calls for bikes anytime now.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Oh no he didn't....

Yes, I have moved into the realm of old fat people with blinged out bikes. I have a theory that speed is inversely proportional to wheel bling... so I'm on track to get *really* slow now.
And yes, a bike that has not even been powdercoated looks silly with $3k wheels.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Gulliver


Matt's frame features a head tube that is over 9" long. 'Nuff said (for now). Full details to come, I just think the head tube is pretty amazing. And yes, he is a very tall guy.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Random thoughts: The Bean

-The Bean is remarkably stubborn about basically everything (he won't even let Sarah help him get attached to the boob!) but also amazingly cabable for someone who can barely even hold up his own head. I foresee a lot of headaches in about 15 years.
-Sleeping is not so bad, but we have to schedule 12 hours of in-bed time in order to get enough!
-I am actually doing ok on the bike building front, thanks to a combination of focusing on efficiency (ie, not screwing around) and my thoughtful customers not bugging me too much.
-Following up on that, it's clear to me that if you're a "pro" framebuilder, and you have a family, being efficient is a big deal. There is a reason a ton of builders quit when they hit about 35 (don't worry, I'm not quitting). Artsy frames built with 100 hours of love are great, but when you've only got a couple of hours to get things done because your family needs you, I have to imagine working for the man starts looking awfully attractive. 400 frames of experience and a TIG welder will see me through!
-I am probably overconfident about this, but I might even get to ride my bike tomorrow, for the first time since the Bean showed up.
-People think it is really weird that we call him "The Bean", rather than just "Bean", or, maybe, his actual name.

Tomorrow: some pictures of Matt's S&S coupled gigantic (yes, gigantic) 'cross/tour frame in progress.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Garage sale updates and SS frame for sale

Did some inventory and lots of tubes and framebuilding junk added to the garage sale, folks.

Check it out.

Also, I'm selling my 2010 vintage SS frame. You can read all about it here.

Why sell it? Well, we're moving in a few months, and I'm not a fan of the Black Cat dropouts. I plan to build myself a new singlespeed when we're in UT and settled in, but until then, I really don't have the time to put this one back together (it's stripped down to frame only), much less time to ride it much.

How much? $800 takes it. Shipping included to anywhere in the continental US, or if you live somewhere else, I can give you a shipping quote.

Geometry in a nutshell:
-69 HTA, 73 STA.
-20.5" seat tube, 23.5" effective toptube
-150mm head tube (1 1/8"), 12.2" BB height
-420mm chainstays (415mm effective) with swingers all the way forward.
-S-bends, clearance for 2.3" tires.
-Full cable stops for derailleurs if you want them.
-Black Cat swinger dropouts.
-Dark blue.
-Takes a 27.2 post.

A couple things to keep in mind:
-Yes, I will give you a warranty.
-Tubeset is TT OX platinum pretty much all around except for the seatstays and seat tube.
-Weight is about 4.2# as I recall. I can go weigh it if you want an exact number.
-If you don't like slack front ends and short stays, this is not the frame for you.
-You will need long legs and prefer toptubes on the shorter side to make it fit well.
-If you're over 175#, I will not sell it to you, because it was built for me, and I'm 150.
-I think it rides better at 100mm travel than at 80mm, but it will work fine with either.
-I'm happy to sell you a complete build kit or just a few parts, whatever you need to build it up.
-The derailleur hanger on the swingers is pretty flimsy and has been bent and straightened a few times.
-There is a very small dent in the downtube right on top of one of the decals caused by a flying rock. It is not a structural problem but it's visible.
-Paint on the nondriveside chainstay (and to a lesser extent the driveside) is rubbed off by my duck-footed heels. I can do a complete repaint for $175 in any color you'd like (and I can fix the dent at the same time for no extra charge, if you want to go that route).

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Order a Waltworks...

...and you too can be as happy as the Bean!


Well, once his sleep-deprived father finds time to build it, that is...sigh.

My goal for the week has been to do a few hours of work each day. Did that yesterday, but failed today due to an ill-advised first outing - an adventure consisting of a trip to Costco (in the car, no bike trailer until the little guy can hold up his head, doh) which resulted in a full-scale meltdown on the part of the Bean, and shortly thereafter, his parents. C'est la vie.

Sunday, April 08, 2012

Steve's new bike


Just a quick post, thanks to Steve for the photo. S&S coupled 29er FTW, finally assembled after his deployment to Guam.

More photos here, including some construction shots if you're bored.

In other news, we're getting on pretty well with the Bean (and even sleeping a little!) enough that I'm thinking I'll be able to do maybe 10-15 hours of work this coming week as we continue to adapt. Might be able to get a frame done, or maybe a fork or two. We'll see. Ramping back up will be a fitful process, most likely. I'll make sure and post plenty of annoying baby pictures.

BTW, happy Easter to Feldy and Boardman, and everyone else.

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Meet Michael Alexander Waltschuler



Yeah, I know, naming the little guy took forever. He's named for Sarah's younger brother who died in 2010, and, um, Alexander the great? Note the Johnny Cash hand gesture - I'm thinking the first kickbike will have to be black...

Name delay was mostly due to his unwillingness to help by responding in any coherent way to the various name combinations (Paz, sorry, we actually thought about it but he just didn't seem like a "Paz") that we asked him about. "Squirty" would probably be more apropos after all the diaper changes I had to do last night.

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

The Bean!



Everyone is doing great!

Monday, April 02, 2012

T minus 12 hours

...until I am a dad. Paternity leave commences now, so if you try to reach me, you probably won't get me. Emails will be answered when I have time, likewise voicemail (please, email or text me rather than leaving voicemails, guys).

I will try to get some pictures of the new family up tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for the support!