Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Random Wed Morning Picture



Spring Creek trail in Steamboat, pic by Ian. Note the rare-ass single-bend seatstays, as requested by Ian. Almost everyone else wants s-bends, but Ian is too cool to be trendy. The funny thing is that I actually had a lot of trouble doing them because I hadn't done a set in like a year!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Design help!



The Bean fell asleep almost immediately, and I had to finish this frame design myself. Sheesh, you'd think after 8 whole weeks he'd be ready to pull his weight around here...

Sunday, May 27, 2012

GDR is for crazy people



Eszter has turned the nice bike I built her into some kind of alien monster. That is a scary lack of snow at 12k feet, too.

In all seriousness, I'm impressed as heck by the GDR folks, but I think just a few days of that kind of riding/suffering would make me hate my bike forever. At least the CTR is mostly singletrack...

In any case, good luck E (and all you other poor fools)!

For those who are curious about the geometry, I'll do a post tomorrow with the details. We have a computer power cable shortage here at Casa Waltworks, which means Sarah's computer is the only one working right now.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Back in the saddle...

Actually, she did a couple of rides last week. Now we just have to build up the Bean's grip strength so he can hold onto the bars on a trail-a-bike...
Thanks to Nick for the ride suggestion and the photo!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Hero dirt


Apropos of nothing, a nice picture from Marcus. Yes, that's the Flatirons, and this is actually a legal trail (Springbrook). One of the fun trails I'll definitely miss in SLC.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The dreaded price increase

Yep, as of June 1st, the base frame price is going up to $1400. This is for *new* orders, not folks already in line. If you want to get in at the $1300 price, you've got about a week to get me your deposit.

Pricing for the Waltworks "framebuilding/vacation experience" package has yet to be firmed up, but if you're interested in that for 2013 (I will not be offering it in 2012) the price will be about $2000 for the frame, and you'll probably be required to get most or all of your build kit through me (so complete bikes will range from about $3500 up). That price will not include airfare or lodging but it will include 20 hours of shop time with me, spread over the course of one 5-day week, complete assembly and tuning of your new bike (and subsequent disassembly/powdercoating when you're ready to leave) and plenty of free time to ride the excellent trails on your bike or any of mine that will fit you. If you are interested, whether because you just want to see how I build a frame, or because you are thinking of building frames yourself, or you just want a cool vacation, please contact me well in advance, as I am only planning to accept 2-4 customers the first year.

More details on that will be forthcoming after we've made the transition to Salt Lake City in August.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Daddy needs to get a baby monitor...

...so he can go out to the shop and get work done while the Bean sleeps. The transition to taking care of the Bean by myself (Sarah is working half time now, until we move to UT) has been rough, but we're figuring out a system to keep the Bean happy, finally.

In order to not make this post completely pointless, here are some pictures of Reven's bike. Geometry details in a previous post if you're interested.

FYI, Reven, I have found that leaning your bike on a cactus by the grips is a bad idea, but not as bad as a tire or your saddle.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

B.O.R.I.N.G.

You asked for it, Jonathan, you got it. This is officially the most boring frame I've ever built (I kid, I kid...)

Consider:
73/73 angles. Just like the homeless guy on the 1974 Schwinn at the park.
41cm chainstays. Just like the packfill lycra bandit who just ran a red light in front of you on his $15k Cervelo.
Built for standard road caliper brakes. Ok, I pushed the rear mount up a tad to make room for slightly bigger tires if Jonathan ever wants... but still, just like, um every road bike on the planet.
Takes a 27.2 seatpost. If you want to be cool these days, you need a 30.9 Reverb dropper, baby! WAY better for confidence descending those twisty roads!
1 1/8 head tube. Everyone knows tapered is where it's at, duh. Jonathan probably won't even be able to steer with a flexy 1 1/8" steerer. Sheesh. I bet if you sent me back in time with a tapered steerer I could beat Cipo AND Pantani on their noodle-bikes.
68mm English BB shell. See comments above about tapered steerers, just substitute your choice of BB30/90/92/etc.

The cool thing, as usual, is hopefully the fit and handling for Jonathan, who is all legs. 62cm seat tube and... 57cm toptube? Whoa! That's what I'm talking about. Plus, thanks to a shortage at Paragon, he's got cool stainless dropouts.

Hopefully I have not offended him too much...

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Bean photo dump!

What have I been doing for the last few weeks? Well, not that much building (or riding) of bikes, but I took about 10 zillion pictures of the Bean. Here are some of the highlights...

And yes, Jonathan, tomorrow I will post a picture of your *boring* road frame.

Mark's 29er

Mark was worried that nothing about his frame was cool enough for the blog, but never fear, there are all kinds of cool features here!



Geometry:
-HT at 71 degrees, ready for a tapered steerer fork
-ST at 73 degrees (offset on the BB shell for tire clearance)
-BB at 12.8" for lots of ground clearance in Pisgah
-Effective 62.5cm/24.6" toptube
-42.5cm/16.75" chainstays (42cm/16.5" effective)
-Paragon sliders, s-bends, all the usual fun stuff, plenty of room for a 2.3 or so with the wheel slammed


In other words, a bike for handling the twisties, roots, and rocks, which will hopefully fit and ride just the way Mark wants - IMO those are the things that make a bike "cool", not gimmicky junk or weirdness just for the sake of being weird.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Ty ups the ante



Ok, I'm an admittedly terrible photographer, but I think that Ty may have outdone me. I'm not sure if it's the oddly nauseating angle (did Ty stand on his head on a chair?) or the front wheel flopping like a gazelle in the jaws of a lion, but this raises the bar for odd pictures of cool bikes, IMO.

Don't worry, Ty, this is an honor. Sort of. :P

Ty chimes in: "Your frame looks beautiful from any angle. That is why I chose to use it in this piece. The bike represents me as a child laying confused and naked on a grass ceiling. I thought you of all people would understand my artwork."

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Sleep, Bean, Sleep!

The Bean wakes up when any of the following conditions is present:
-Wet diaper
-Hungry
-Having trouble breathing due to allergies

Unfortunately at least one of these things tends to happen every 90 minutes (if not more often) or so. So bike work has slowed to a crawl this week. We spent almost 14 hours trying to sleep last "night" and actually slept for maybe 4. My apologies to everyone waiting!

Sunday, May 06, 2012

Chris

Once again, a bike I wish was mine, but it won't even vaguely fit (seat tube too short, toptube too long, the usual story). A singlespeed (or 1x9) for shredding up the east coast or the west, wherever Chris decides to move (he might be headed to my home state of NM!)



In any case, here's the basics:
-70.5 HTA, 134mm head tube, set up for a tapered steerer 100mm travel fork. Toss a 120 (or a TALAS) on there and you're at about 69.5.
-72 (effective) seat tube angle, curved for tire clearance, 50cm center-top. I tend to do a fairly subtle curve on these (so far) - just enough for the necessary tire clearance. Does it look cool enough? Hell, I don't know. I wouldn't know "cool" if someone hit me over the head with it...
-12.4" bb height
-42cm (actual, 41.5 effective) chainstays with generous clearance for a 2.4"+ tire (yes, that means you could go shorter if you didn't need to fit such huge rubber)
-Paragon sliders and S-bends
-Built from mostly True Temper Supertherm with some Deda chainstays and a 4130 seat tube thrown in. Beefcake!

And please note, the frame isn't quite done, no need to comment on the lack of brake bridge, brazeons, bottle bosses, etc.

Friday, May 04, 2012

What a strange phone call...

Actually, I got 2 weird ones in the last 2 days. This is one of the exasperating-yet-somehow-fun aspects of being a guy who builds bike frames for a living:

-2 days ago: Guy with a heavy accent who wants a 10" travel downhill bike. I explain that yes, I can do it, and he starts telling me about all sorts of design features he wants - many of which are mutually incompatible. It quickly becomes clear that the fellow has never thought much about designing a bike and really has no idea what he's asking for, so I quote him $6000, with half payable up front as a non-refundable deposit. This strategy usually works to get people to angrily hang up on me, but he persists and tries valiantly to argue that in fact I should build the frame for much, much cheaper (he implies, free) because I'll get so much publicity from building it. All this transpires as I'm riding Marcus' 36er to the Marshall trailhead and getting weird looks from various other cyclists.

Picture interlude! Jeff Wu of Alchemist rides the aforementioned beast! Pele is nonplussed.


-Yesterday: Fellow calls saying he was referred by a shop here in Boulder because his (Redline) frame is "tweaked a few millimeters" and "out of alignment". I ask how he noticed this, and he says he didn't, the guys at the shop told him when he went in for a tuneup. Does the bike ride straight? Yes. Do any parts rub/interfere with the frame? No. Any cracks? No. He is amazed when I tell him "if the bike rides fine, you don't need to do anything". I finally have to present him with the option of A) having me do $200 of disassembly, assessment, and work on a $200 frame, or B) just riding the darn thing. Then he gets it.

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Fox fork for sale

Yes, I made one of the great classic blunders and started a land war in Asia cut Andy's steerer too short.

So!

2012 Fox RLC 29 100mm travel, 1 1/8 steerer, QR dropouts, Kashima coating stanchions. Steerer cut to exactly 8", so plenty long for most folks (Andy is really tall).

Never installed, never ridden, perfect shape, comes with a warranty. $500 if you're some random geek off the street, $450 if you're a WW owner, and $400 if you're on the waitlist or ordering a frame.

Edit: SOLD to Jonathan.

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

How Apropos...

Classic. Thanks to Jeff and Claire at Alchemist for the photo!