At long last, I’ve begun work on Benno’s randonneur sportif. Often a bike starts with a drawing, but it doesn’t always look like this:

Benno had designed us a new fork blade bender. He’s been reading Bicycle Quarterly and wanted a super tight radius bend at the end of the blade. And who could blame him? In theory, it’s strong, as you’re concentrating the bend on the thickest part of the blade, but also provides a plusher ride, because a tighter bend means a longer lever for a given rake. And it looks totally hot.

So we want to make a new jig, and Benno has provided us with a plan. Where are we going to get a custom-cut hardwood block to his exact specs? Fortunately, we know a guy, or in this case, we know Mark and Liane at Kingsland. They are some of our best and favorite customers, in addition to which they do custom millwork with all sorts of badass cnc wood working equipment – they cut with water, fire, ice, they cut with their MINDS. It’s awesome.

So I gave them a call and said, we’re looking for something like this, say in maple, and they said send the design over & we’ll take a look. So I sent them Benno’s design, above – didn’t hear back for a couple days – was about to call to see what they thought, if this was something they could do, and before I can pick up the phone there’s a package containing a perfect maple block, needless to say precisely to spec. These are the kinds of friends you want to have.

Brian actually put the bender together, so I’ll let him describe that saga, but here’s a picture of him, the proud father:

Benno also wanted to use very thin-wall blades (.9/.6mm), and he wants the curve to go all the way to the dropouts – no straight bit at the end. AND he’s going for 60mm of rake for super short trail. All of this means I need to rake these very thin blades to the equivalent of about 80mm so that I can cut off the tip before brazing in the dropouts. This is dangerous stuff. So I packed the blades with sand and gave it a go:

 

Success! Now, complicating things is that I’m using these very expensive and very light GP Wilson dropouts. These things are like bird bones. And what’s more, they’re stainless steel, which means I can’t, or shouldn’t, use brass, the normal technique for installing a plate-style dropout. So I needed to machine some plugs so that I create a fine enough gap between dropout and plug, and plug and fork blade or stay, so that I can use silver. That looks a little something like this:

More on that continuing saga later; I also replaced a down tube on Patrick’s Soma. It had cracked at the head tube weld after taking a serious drop, so I cut out the old DT, and threw it on the alignment table to get it back in shape:

  

Then I mitered a new True Temper tube, and welded it in:

   

Next, he gets sliding Paragon dropouts! Also, I’ve been painting a lot for folks preparing for NAHBS; here’s a carbon wheel I painted with Red Pearl for Ian at Icarus:

Next: building Benno’s! and then: Matt’s fixed/multi speed lugged road machine!

There’s been a lot of painting going on as I prepare for Benno’s Randonneur; first off was this Falcon restoration for our friend John. Looks better than new:

   

I also repainted Scott’s IF, adding a brace for the disc brake mount, and an ISCG mount:

 

And tons of paint for Hollands and Gaulzetti – more soon, including new fork blade bender! Also, at long last I added photos of the finished trailer class trailers – check those out here.

It’s been – how to put it? – an interesting couple of months for me. Most of the stress, drama, intrigue, hassle and tears have had to do with my restoring an old house, not an old bike; but that’s a story for another day, and in among the horsehair plaster and knob and tube wiring I saw some lovely beaten down bikes as well.

But first – Ron B and his singing 8 speed! This has been a long time coming, and it’s great to see it on the road. Just one shifter and one derailleur, 8 speeds, no waiting! Richard Sachs lugs, canti brakes – but the paint. Let’s talk about the paint. Ron went crazy old school with his designs, hand cutting the stencils, which he then applied after I did the black, and then I shot the bronze. Totally unique, very labor intensive, very cool I think you’ll agree:

  

   

   

I also did several frame repairs that are good examples of how we can do a touch-up on the paint job, instead of doing a full repaint. Keep your bike on the road without breaking the bank.

Below are shots of re-brazing a broken seat tube/BB joint, a dropout replacement, and re-brazing a cracked seat stay joint. The BB is interesting as you can see how silver flowed along the shore line of the lug but didn’t penetrate the joint. It looked good but was very weak – but despite that still gave years of service before cracking.

In the dropout and BB case, I painted black over the affected area, with vinyl bands to protect the edge of the new paint and create a panel. On the Gemini with the seat stay issue, I did a hard line above the seat tube decal, and faded the black on the top tube and seat stays to match the other fades on the bike.

   

   

I also painted a ton of bikes, both brand new and well worn: two from John Hollands of Baltimore, a Mustowy, an old St. Etienne, and 3, count ‘em, Icarus… Icaruses… Icari… from our friend Ian:

   

Pay particular attention to these two Icarususes… these two from Icarus. The first is a purple with standard pearl over it; the second a pale celeste green with red pearl. The flake on the pearl really highlights lug shores and fillet joints. And the last shot is one Brian took of me applying the lug lining with a Paasche Flow Pencil. One of the more stressful things we get to do…
   

Next: Benno’s Randy! What? Chris K gets a-polishing! And probably some other stuff!

It’s been a while, so much has been happening that I haven’t had a hot second to stop and write about it, but here goes! First off is KC’s coupled single-speed that shipped to Singapore last week! Take that, trade deficit!

You’ll also note the Paul’s dropouts with built-in chain tensioners, and the stainless steel down tube protector.

  

  

I also added couplers to Terry’s Centurion, and painted a raft of forks for Team Geekhouse:

  

We were also pleased to have a birthday ride with ANT’s Mike Flanigan, and saddened to say goodbye to Nathan, who’s off to work in an ICU in upstate NY; and psyched for a visit from Katharine, who had her Circle A retrofitted with a rear brake and basket:

  

And that’s not the half of it, but it’ll have to do for now…

So two bikes went out last week after waiting on some parts: Mo’s road bike, built with Columbus Spirit For Lugs tubing, with Richard Sachs lugs, fork crown and BB shell; and Jascha’s single speed disc-brake commuter, complete with stainless steel fenders and sliding dropouts. Let’s look at Mo’s first.

  

  

  

   

Here are some shots of Mo’s in progress, including the internal cable routing. We use a brass tube to run the housing through, which insures that no water will make it into the top tube.

   

And here’s Jascha’s burgundy and gunmetal commuter; he’ll be completing the assembly himself, and promises to send photos of the complete bike; I wanted to make sure the fenders fit properly around the tires. He’s using 28c tires right now, but the frame was built to handle up to a 35c.

   

   

I also did a dropout replacement for a Rivendell that Harris Cyclery sent down to us. The customer didn’t want a full repaint, so I just painted cream up the stays to cover the affected area:

   

Coming up: S&S couplers on a Centurion! More paint! Another 29er!

So Jen’s 26″ world-tourer just went out; she’s building it up in Milwaukee and striking out to the west. It was an interesting and novel paint job, so that means – you guessed it – it’s time for another ANATOMY OF A PAINT JOB!

This is the original mockup she sent me:

And here’s how I got started; first I sprayed the entire bike white, and then I started masking off where I would be shooting red, using a combination of Fine-Line tape for the points and circles cut by the vinyl cutter for curves:

  

Once the shapes were outlined, I have to cover everything that was going to stay white:

  

Then I shot red, did some more masking for the black headtube and stay ends, shot black, and pull off the bandages:

   

But I wasn’t done yet. Oh no. Jen had designed an elaborate dot pattern that she wanted on the seat tube, to be in gray, along with the logos. So we put Snips McGinty to work:

And here’s the final product, clearcoated, frame-saved, and ready for components:

   

   

I also just finished painting a disc-brake single speed frame for Jascha. He’ll be using a Civia disc brake fork; this has a 1 1/8″ steerer so we had to use lugs that would allow for the super-oversized headtube.

We also used the Paragon sliding disc dropouts; these allow you to tension the chain without changing the orientation of the caliper to the wheel, and presented some engineering challenges:

   

He chose a lovely deep burgundy red, with gunmetal gray and silver accents:

   

   

   

Next: Parts for Jascha, and Mo’s road bike!

First off, if you’re in the New York area this weekend, June 26-28, come visit us in Long Island City at Socrates Sculpture Park. It’s their Makers Market, and lots of folks will be there with stuff that they’ve, you know, made. Friday night is the big kick-off and should be lots of fun; in addition to showing some hot new bikes we’ve been working on, we’ll be selling schwag like t-shirts, pint glasses, and posters! Click on the flyer to make it bigger:

You can find more details here.

Meanwhile, Jen’s 26″ world-tourer is ready for paint. Here are some pix of the construction:

  

   

One of the goals with Jen’s bike is to make it as retro-compatible as possible. If she’s in the middle of nowhere, she needs to be able to use whatever parts are on hand. So there are down-tube shifter bosses and semi-horizontal Henry James dropouts that will allow her to turn it into a single speed if her derailleur blows up. That’s also why we chose 26″ wheels – it’s the most common size on the planet. Although she’ll generally be running slicks, I wanted to make sure she could fit full-on mountain bike tires in case that’s all that’s available:

  

Here are some more frame details; I’m putting through-holes in the fork for a Tubus low-rider rack:

  

I also did a rear-end treatment on Jonathan’s Marinoni. New dropouts and a wishbone monostay. I’m trying a new technique to avoid the “cookie cutter” problem of the monostay punching a hole in the back of the seat tube: I weld a cap on the end of the monostay, grind it smooth, and then silver braze the capped end to the seat tube:

   

   

Next: Jascha’s tubes and lugs have arrived for the first disc-brake single speed Circle A! Construction starts this week!

So certainly the most dramatic event of our open house was Reba taking delivery of what she calls “the coolest f**king bike I’ve ever seen.” And are you going to argue? No, I didn’t think so.

Stealthy and sleek, it’s got metallic black lettering on black, save for the silver wheat on the seat tube, a loving nod to Reba’s home state of Oklahoma. If you can’t make out the script on the top tube: “To the place I belong…” Note the leather Brooks bar tape – the Brooks saddle is on it’s way.

  

  

I also sent out AJ’s tourer, here are some shots of that, and of the built up bike in it’s natural habitat:

  

  

  

 

Also, Eric finally rode away on his belt drive commuter:

   

I painted an Icarus for Ian:

And finally, I started a 26″ touring bike for Jen. It’ll primarily be welded, but with old-school capped seat stays:

  

  

Next: Finishing Jen’s, and Jascha’s disc-brake single speed!

We’re still waiting on the belt drive parts for Eric’s Taxi bike, stay tuned!

I finished AJ’s touring frame and just got the Nitto racks he’ll be using; I’m working out a fork low-rider attachment, and he’s working on paint selection! Here are some pix of the frame in progress; note the crown carving & custom hanger for the rear canti brake adjuster.

  

  

I also did some more paint work for Marty at Geekhouse; first another belt drive bike, this time using an S&S coupler to get the belt thru the frame, and then a road bike with a carbon fork:

   

Our friend Bob brought in a single speed Sillgey frame on which he wanted a derailleur hanger installed, here are some shots of that:

   

And last but not least, the good folks at Harris Cyclery brought us a well-worn Rivendell Quickbeam. It had been in an accident and needed a replacement fork, and they asked us to switch over the low-rider rack mounts from the (bent) orange fork to the new green one, and repaint the new fork and original frame. I had to fashion a makeshift jig to get the mounts parallel to each other, and in the right spot, here are some pictures of that:

   

And here’s the finished product, with new decals courtesy of Harris:

  

  

Next: hopefully, finally, belt drive in action; finishing AJ’s; and Viva la Reba!

So Eric’s belt-drive commuter is done (still waiting on the drivetrain, watch this space!) and it’s a knockout:

  

   

   

And here are some closeups of the detachable seat stay:

  

And now it’s time for another ANATOMY OF A PAINT JOB! Are you excited?
It all started with this mockup that Eric sent me. We later decided to do the writing in white, and I adjusted the size of the seat tube panel to reflect his frame dimensions:

So the first thing you need to know about all our paint jobs is, it’s all paint. We have decals for our logos, and we cut a ton of vinyl, but it’s only as a stencil – we don’t use any vinyl on the finished bike. When you see plaids or lace or any other graphics, it’s all paint. So a checker pattern? That means designing the band in illustrator and sizing it precisely so it will wrap all the way around. The frame has been primed (using white primer which will help the yellow pop) and I’ve sprayed white generally where the bands will be:

   

You can see I’m using a piece of tape as a guide to lay the checks down. Next I spray yellow on any areas that will be yellow, and then I apply Spray Mask around the lugs and dropouts. That dries overnight and then I use an x-acto to cut a nice line and mask off everything that’s going to stay yellow:

   

And then I shoot black:

 

Now comes the “fun” part, fun in the sense of terrifying and painstaking – pulling off the bandages! I’m using a wood paint stirrer that I filed into a ramp to get all the checks off, and of course they get everywhere. But when I’m done, it’s ready for decals and clearcoat!

  

Then I polish up the head badge and dropout faces, apply Frame Saver, and it’s ready for components!

Next: finishing AJ’s tourer, more Geekhouse, and hopefully, belt drive in action!