Friday, November 30, 2012

More boring news: I can now take your credit cards

Thanks to the newfangled gadgetry (read: Ipad) that my wife owns, I can now accept credit cards, folks.

Using your credit card (or paypal) costs me in the neighborhood of 2-3% depending on the transaction, though, so checks are great too.

I swear I'll post something interesting this weekend. Seriously.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Yay! Junk mail!

Man, the Bean loves paper. Unfortunately I have to keep a close eye on him or he eats it.


Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Frame maintenance basics

I get asked this a lot, and I've never sat down and typed up a real good FAQ answer, so here goes.

How should I maintain my (steel) bike frame?

So: lots of things conspire to destroy bike frames of all kinds (ie crashes, running into your garage, big jumps that you didn't mean to go off of, etc) but the one that most folks worry about with steel bikes is rust, so that's going to be the main thrust of this post.

First, remember that most modern frames (including everything I make) are some variant of "Cromoly" steel. That means that the steel (iron and carbon) has been alloyed with Chromium and Molybdenum. Older bike frames (say, from the 1970s or earlier) tend to be "Hi-Tensile" or "Mild" steel, both of which are just basically iron and carbon. Chromium helps steel resist rust (if you alloy with enough Chromium, you have stainless steel) so modern frames are a lot less sensitive to moisture than older ones.

That said, if cromoly gets wet and stays wet (especially if the water is salty) it can and will rust.


To prevent rust in a steel bicycle frame:

-Apply framesaver. This is available at any good bicycle shop. If you can't find it, you can also use Boeshield T-9 (essentially the same stuff, available at most hardware stores), which is intended to prevent rust in airframes for steel framed aircraft. If you want to be a retro grouch or impress a hipster, you can use boiled linseed oil (bonus: good for grooming your mustache, too!)

-To apply (assuming you are starting with a bare frame), just spray lots of the liquid into the vent holes and water bottle bosses, and down the seat tube, then find a spot in your garage where you don't mind some spills and swish the liquid around inside to evenly coat things. Keep in mind that it'll keep draining out of various places for a day or two, so don't put your bike in your Audi or on your mom's carpet.

-Waltworks frame owners: note that I do this before I ship your frame out, so you don't need to do it yourself. 

-Framesaver isn't a magic bullet, though. It slowly loses effectiveness over time, and if water is allowed to just pool inside the frame, the framesaver can't prevent damage.

-There are really only 3 places in a typical frame where water can collect: at the bottom of the seat tube, the bottom of the downtube, and (on frames with vent holes at the dropouts or bottom bracket) the chainstays where they join the bottom bracket. The BB shell itself can also accumulate water but that's typically not much of problem since you should have greased the threads when you installed the BB, and the shell material is pretty thick. Note that drilling a vent hole in the bottom of the BB shell will let water drain from the BB - but it can still accumulate in the bottom of the seat tube, down tube, and chainstays.

-Waltworks owners note that in all frames built since 2009, I've been completely sealing the rear triangle, so you don't need to worry about the chainstays. 

-Since those 3 spots are the areas of vulnerability, your goal should be to prevent water from accumulating there and staying there. That usually is pretty simple - after a very wet ride or every few months, take the seatpost out of the frame and flip it upside-down. Leave it in a warm spot or in the sun for a few hours, and you've dealt with the water. Regreasing the seatpost can be a good idea at the same time.

-Once a year, strip down your frame, make sure the inside is dry, and regrease/reinstall components.

-Once every 3-4 years, reapply framesaver (more often if you ride in the wet a lot, less often if you live in the desert).

 -Of course, you should keep your bike inside out of the elements, too.  If you take even basic care of your frame, it should last a long, long time without any rust problems.

 And a final note: make sure you keep your chain from dropping off your cassette onto your frame! Limit screws are important folks - don't let this happen:




Monday, November 26, 2012

Dr. Dad



We are back from the holiday rested, relaxed and...wait. No, actually, everyone got sick (on the plus side, there was only one family argument that ended in tears, and it involved me not letting the Bean have two pieces of celery at once...)

Long story short, I am taking care of a sick baby and sick wife today, so not much is going to get done. Hopefully I can do some designing for Adam while they nap here.

Thanks to Daniel for the cool picture (WW fork, Ventana frame, crazy bridge?)


Monday, November 19, 2012

Sneak peak: Mark's 650b

Another 650b - it's like a trend now!

Words later, here are a couple of pictures before we head out for Thanksgiving.



Saturday, November 17, 2012

Turkey Day!

...for all you murdering meat-eaters, that is!

I kid, I kid. Enjoy your turkey.

We will be in Boulder to visit family from Tuesday the 20th until Sunday the 25th, so I won't be getting anything done or staying particularly on top of emails or answering the phone. You've been warned.

Everyone whose stuff is at the powdercoater: it won't be done until after the holiday.
Everyone whose stuff is waiting to go to the powdercoater: not until after the holiday.
Everything that is going to ship has shipped until after the hoiday.

If you need welding rod or other small stuff, please order it ASAP so I can get it in the mail on Monday. 

Apologies for the lack of posts this week, I've been super busy trying to winterize the house and clean up all the darn leaves in the yard (who knew having a yard was so much work?) and have let the blog fall by the wayside. I'll get some kind of post up in the next couple of days, I swear.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Know a vet in SLC who needs a sweet bike?





Due to the incompetence of a vet in Boulder (who set his broken leg off-kilter years ago) and his own mediocre genetics, Pele has always had hip problems, but they've gotten really, really bad - he wakes up crying at night now and can't go for anything but a very slow walk without paying the price later.


Seeing him like this makes me want to cry.

Anyway, I know quite well that it's probably the case that there's not much that can be done (he is already on tons of glucosamine and NSAIDs) it would be nice to get a professional opinion and perhaps x-rays and such to see just how badly destroyed his hips are at this point. So if you're a vet here in town, or you know one who might be interested, I'd be interested in trading bike parts or custom frame/fork, or whatever, for some veterinary services.

Alternately, if you have a favorite vet in town to recommend, even if they aren't a bike person, please chime in, I'll need to take him in no matter what.

Friday, November 09, 2012

Clif!

Clif is big. Well, tall. He is actually freaky skinny, but in the "closer to 7 feet than 6" category you can be skinny and still quite a bit bigger than us lilliputians.




Anyway, here are some photos and a geometry breakdown:
-72/73 head and seat angles.
-68.5cm/27" effective toptube and 724mm front center
-56cm/22" seat tube, curved just a little bit to make room for the tire
-Weirdly short (for someone his size) 42.5cm chainstays (42cm effective) with clearance for a 2.4" tire.
-320mm/12.6" BB height (Clif will run 190mm cranks)
-S-bends, sliders, and all the other usual stuff. This sucker will run SS or 1x with full-length housing, but will never see a front derailleur (though in theory you could put one on, I guess)
-Tapered-capable head tube and built for a 100mm travel fork (or the rigid fork pictured).





Clif had a bike that he really liked the fit on, but he had trouble getting the front end up and hated how sluggish it felt, so we whacked some length off the rear end and kept the HTA well on the steep side to keep the FC down (he'll be using a pretty long stem as it is, otherwise we would have also chopped off some TT length). Hopefully this one will be a little snappier!

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Random election day photo

...of the last bike ever built in that wonderful swing state, before I took my talents to South Beach Utah.


Interestingly enough, if you're a republican OR democrat (or anything else) sort of person here, you almost might as well not vote, since I swear 75% of the state offices are republican people running unopposed, and 75% of the local (our district is the most liberal in the state) offices are democrats running, you guessed it, unopposed. I don't think I have ever cast a more meaningless ballot - but hey, it's better than the alternative, right?

70 degrees in SLC tomorrow, go ride your bike/have a beer with someone you disagree with politically and mend fences whatever the outcome tonight. Or drop them for revenge.

For what it's worth, I voted for Kodos.