You can hate a lot of things about Utah...

...like this, and this, and this.

But not this. 

Sadly, Park City is no place for a desert tortoise, or I'd be on it in a hot minute.

More photos for Martha

Finished up the fork today. I tried to think of some kind of clever joke involving "stick a fork in it" but my brain isn't working after 2 consecutive nights up with a 2 year old who is very excited about being in a "big guy" bed now that he won't stay in his crib.

Without further ado...

Insert fork joke here

Where is the Julie Furtado saddle?!? 

Uh, oh - Walt's trying to make something out of wood.

The Bean will be riding in style. Of course, his father only bought enough wood to make one side of the kid box, so it's back to Lowe's in the morning...man, I suck at making stuff with wood! Muchas gracias to Chris at Interesting Furniture for the advice and table saw help.

Might need to be less deep, I'm not sure yet. 

I also got chainstays on Martha's frame. Maybe I'll work on seatstays later tonight as well, or maybe I'll hit it in the morning.

Mitering chainstays

And test fitting

Random Pictures: Martha's Gravel Grinder in Progress

Presented in no particular order with almost no commentary! Pimpin' might not be easy but blogging surely is.

Mitered BB cluster

Thanks to Meriwether for the jeweler's saw recommendation!

Silver brazing in the seat sleeve

BB/ST joint, cleaned and prepped to weld in the downtube

Front end welded up

BB cluster welded up

Moving sale part 1

We've still got 6 weeks or so before the move to Park City but I am working to clear out junk.

Without further ado:

-Notubes ZTR Arch EX 32 hole black 29er rim. Brand new. $50

-Notubes ZTR Crest 32 hole black 29er rim. New. $50. Buy both rims (crest goes on the front, it's a great system) and I'll ship 'em free.

-King purple SRAM mountain BB, brand new. $95.

-Easton EC90 zero offset 27.2 x 300mm seatpost. Never used, still in the package. $90.

-HSBENDCS1 chainstays from True Temper. Super light, super nice bend - just too light for me to be comfortable using for my hard-on-equipment customers. $25/pair.

-HOXPLATHT3 head tubes. 36mm OD, 1mm wall, for 1 1/8 steerers. FOR PROS ONLY. These bad boys will distort like crazy if you do not bring your A game and they are very, very hard to ream even minimally. $5/head tube (200mm length). I have a zillion.

-Avid Elixir 5 brakes. Front needs a bleed, otherwise functional. No rotors. Someone please take these away. $30 for the set.

-HOXPLAT09 downtubes. 690x35mm. Super swanky. $20 each or $15 each if you buy them all (I think I have about 15), I never use them anymore and I should never have bought a full box back in the day.

Time flies...

...when you don't have a 2 year old making you put on and take off your hat every 10 seconds. Almost done with Carey's frame this evening (I'm paranoid and am waiting on his cranks and chainring before welding in the chainstays, even though I'm 99% sure everything is where it needs to be - when you do this job long enough, you get pretty dubious about manufacturer specs online!) But she's an hour or two away from done once those are here.

Edit: As an aside, check out the photo gallery (shot within a mile of our current house) of the pollution in SLC.

Don gets mad every time he sees how beat my Anvil fixtures are.

Room for 120mm tires but with 170mm spacing, Carey will be stuck with a bit smaller due to chain clearance.

Arm-Selfie

Fattie for Carey - First Pics

In hindsight "fattie for Carey" is not one of my better choices of post title. Doh.

Geometry geekery and more pictures to follow, here's the start of the action.

Mitered (mostly)

Welded

Head tube for tapered in the future (1 1/8 fork for now)

Seat sleeve. Slotting happens last!

News from the smog...

-Sarah and Bean are sick for the 3rd time this year.
-Air quality is in the "unhealthy" state pictured and isn't going to improve anytime soon, so they're getting on a plane back to CO tonight for the duration.
-I am battling various illnesses and my powdercoater's father/business partner is having back surgery, so things are slow on both the metalwork AND powdercoating fronts.
-We are closing on a house in Park City in less than a month so I have various real estate BS to deal with as well.

I'm sticking around to get work done through the smog but long story short - things are hectic here and I apologize to those folks who are waiting patiently. I am doing my best to get a little ahead so that the impending move and future illnesses don't set things back too much.

Word to the wise: if you are thinking about moving to UT, make sure the country's most polluted air is going to be ok for your lungs and the lungs of your family. Or make sure you have the means to live outside the valley. What a disaster.

One for the builders...

Ritchey parts are sold.

Hero shot

Mary's cool new RAL5014 (not quite as purple IRL as this photo makes it appear) tour/29er. She's one of the first to get the curvy fork blades, too. Hopefully she'll get some complete bike pics for me in a few months when she finally gets to build it up!

That's 10 water bottle boss bolts, not counting the lower eyelets on the fork or frame!

File under: Ugh.

"Widespread haze" is UT slang for "good luck seeing downtown from a mile away, enjoy the overpowering smell of exhaust if you walk outside." Park City is calling my name...

Andre - first look

Ritchey breakaway coupled CX/gravel/road bike. Fun stuff. Ritchey is now randomly including the world's crappiest BB shell (it appears to be made from lead) with the kit, bonus...

More evidence...

...that I am actually not the worst photographer on earth.

"Thanks" to Dave for the pics. Check out his cool frame bags at Nuclear Sunrise if you're in the mood to go explore/suffer on your own overnight on a bike this year.

This probably looks cool if your iPhone isn't drunk.

Thudbuster+Brooks FTW (f*ck that's weird?)

One more sick day...

Bean is going crazy but still had a rough night of congestion so no day care today - and no bike work. Just FYI. I am going stir crazy in the house, so if you want to bug me about your most insignificant and annoying bike questions, now is the time!

Wheels are sold!

Random stuff for sale, plus: sick family alert

First off, Sarah has a bad cold that has lingered for almost a week, and Bean now has croup (super fun night last night) so work will be slow today.

Second, I have some stuff for sale!

-Waltworks singlespeed/geared 29er frame. This was my personal bike in 2011. I am not much of a singlespeeder anymore, sadly, and I have a bunch of other bikes to ride, so it needs a good home.

Vital details:
-69/73 head and seat angles.
-23.5" effective toptube, 20.5" (center to top, it's about 19" center-center) seat tube, 6" head tube, 41.5-43.5cm (adjustable via swinger dropouts) chainstay length, 12" BB height.
-Built for a 100mm (1 1/8) fork. Will also work fine with an 80mm if you want a little snappier handling.
-2.3" tire clearance with the wheel slammed, quite a bit more if you pull it back a bit.
-Black Cat swinger dropouts with derailleur hanger (and the frame has full cable stops if you want to run gears).
-No dents or damage, though she's obviously a bit dusty and obviously been ridden for a season or two.

$700 gets you the frame, or I'm happy to quote you on a full build with all-new parts.

-Fork is sold.

-Velocity Blunt SL wheelset. XT 6-bolt hubs (quick release), 32 spokes laced up 3x, Blunt SL rims. Brand new and never ridden. $175, or $150 with the frame.

-Avid Elixir 5 brakes. Not the top of the line, and the front needs a bleed at some point soon, but if you want to get some cheap, functional hydros, here you go. $40 for the set (front and rear, no rotors).

Package deal: Buy everything for a cool $800!

Whew! Packing and shipping post-holidays

A little sample of what I picked up from the powdercoater yesterday... got 2 packed and shipped so far. Man, reaming and facing bike frames gets old in a hurry. Especially when it's cold and you keep cutting your fingers on sharp, oily, freezing metal (whining ends, for now).

I'm back, y'all. Bombard me with emails and phone calls as you see fit.

Mary's 29er/tour frame (fork not shown). OMG a front derailleur!

Miguelitos 170mm fattie

Rob's super-low BB AZ race bike

David's XXL Fargo clone with some special mods for his custom bags (among other things) 

New Years photo compilation

Apparently I was the only one who did not manage a bike ride on New Year's Day. So you all decided to rub it in by sending me pictures... thanks, jerks.

2014!

Happy new year, everyone!

2014 announcements!

-Frame prices went up to $1600 as of this morning. If you got caught by surprise by this somehow and can tell me a funny story about your drunken new year's eve debauchery, I'll sneak you in at $1500 for the rest of the day.

-Full suspension prices are staying at $2400 for now and I've got some fun surprises in store in terms of custom chainstay assemblies (through axle, finally!) and even more customizable rear end geometry (sub-42cm chainstays? full suspension fatbike? all sorts of fun stuff is on the table...if you're very bored, you can see a blurry pic of the initial prototype here.)

-I'll be back in the shop this coming weekend and am going to try to get a lot of work done over the next 3 or 4 months because....

(drumroll)

We're adding a little girl to the Waltschuler family in June!

(if you're curious about how we know it's a girl, you can read about this cool new non-invasive test here - among other things, this tells you, assuming you want to know, the gender of your baby)