me being selfish - laura benefiting

steve hajula, who some of you know, wrote a ethnographic paper for his own amusement on guys who build bikes for their partners. the theory is that they do it more for their own needs and desires than those of the partner who is getting the bike - as far as I can tell I am a case study of this.

laura is receiving the benefits of my need and addiction of building bikes. is it more bike than she needs - she seems to think so, but i would argue that sh will be getting a kick-a** bike that should last a long long time. doesn't matter who you are, you got to appreciate a well built bike that is going to be easy and comfortatble to ride.

in case you are wondering here is the tubing that is being used for the bike (from Mike's email)

"I have some sweet tubing here that I have been hanging onto, and this could be the perfect bike for it.DT, TT and seatstays are all Tange Prestige- the origional stuff, made in Japan, super strong and medium light weight.Seat tube - Reynolds 631 ,externally butted.Chainstays - true temper HOX2 - these are bent specifically for 29" wheels, which is perfect in this case"

more to follow...

to cave or not

hmmmm, anyone in for iditabike?

so, any day now i will be packing my 29er frame and sending it off to mike truelove to do some modifications on the brake mount. he is going to cut and weld on a new rear brake mount for me that will be more adjustable than the current mount. here is a picture of the type of mount that i am having added, the curve of the bottom slot makes it easier to adjust the brake as the wheel moves back and forth, as well as removing the wheel.


as there is no prefab mount that mike can add he needs to cut a mount himself based on drawings that i provide (yikes!).

the question is, do i have him add a hanger at the same time. one part of me likes the idea of having the option of gears (the part of me that wants to see if gears would be faster and more beneficial for some races), while the other part of me is totally repulsed by the idea of having anything to do with gears when it comes to mountain biking.

a decision will need to be made soon.

hooray for mrs. dr.

it's mrs dr.'s birthday today.

no gifts being exchanged today, but a much larger project is in the works - a new ride for the good mrs. dr. what's in the works is another custom frame project form mr. truelove that will lead to a lifer (in my vocabulary a lifer are those special bikes that should last a lifetime - currently i own two lifers) for mrs. dr. planning is currently in the beginnig stages, we're looking at something that will be versitaile, very comfortable, and something that she can use for light to medium touring. current bikes that are being used as models are the A.N.T. light roadster and the Heron Randonneur.

the ANT light roadster

the Heron Randonneur

now some of you will undoubtedly accuse me of being selfish with regards to this project. 'all he's doing,' you'd say, 'is satisfying his need to build yet another bike;' and you would be right. hey, i have an addiction and i am the first to admit it and like any junkie i need my fix.

bike is done

after what seemed forever the cross bike is finally complete. yeah. somehow wires got crossed and the rear spacing came in at 135 mm instead of 130 mm, but the beauty of steel is that additional 2.5 mm on each side can just be squeezed in to accommodate the difference.

the colour of the frame worked out great

yes, that is the longest head tube in manitoba. so long that none of the shops headset presses would work, the top cup had to be persuaded into place with the only tool left in the shop that would work

the final weight 18lbs 11oz fully dressed

after

so you want to build a bike?

observations on building a bike from scratch...

building a custom made bike is an exercise in joy and frustration; joy in the construction of a well-made and beautiful bike and frustration in the amount of time it takes for the project to unfold - and there will be frustration. it should not be surprising how long it takes to build a bike, but it always seems to take longer than you expect and want; how long it takes depends on what you want.

the first step is deciding that you want to have a custom made bike and are you willing to commit to the time and money it takes to build such a bike. once you make this decision you need to think about what you want: how do you want it handle, what do you want to use it for, and how do you want it to look and many other options. of course the question you then need to ask is 'do i know enough about bikes to ask for something that will give me what i think i want?'. if you do know enough you are good to proceed, if not, you need to talk to those that do. once you have decided on the bike you want you need to find someone who can do this work for you; of course who you pick will determine both price and time it takes to get a frame, any where from $1100- $5000+, and anywhere from several months to well over a year or more. funny thing is this is the easy part. the planning takes time, but you don't notice this as this is fun because you know you are building something special; it's when you've placed your order and you find out how long it takes to fill that order that the frustration can kick in.

of course there is more to a bike than just a frame, you need all the other parts that make a bike a bike. collecting these parts is both expensive and time consuming. if you are building up a bike, and depending on what you want and where you live, it can be relatively quick or can take some time. sometimes your local bike shop has the stock and other times it needs to order in the parts and hopefully, hopefully, what you want is available and does not need to be back ordered.

here are some facts and observations about my latest project:

1) time:

• decided shortly after i got my custom 29er that i would get a custom made cross bike - the 29er is the best bike i've ridden and wanted the same thing for a cross bike.
• talked to mike truelove about this project in june and placed a down payment then. mike was able to start building this in september and finished it shipped it by the end of the month.
• currently the bike is sitting in winkler waiting to be powdercoated - initially i wanted mike to have the frame painted in squamish but when this was not possible i had the frame shipped to winkler where i had my last frame coated. i picked a colour that was not in stock (a 100% upcharge from their in-stock colours) and they are waiting for the powder to arrive - the bike has been there for 8 days, arrrgggghhh.
  
• parts have taken some time to collect because most of them had to be special ordered, this took about 3 weeks because the supplier had to order some parts themselves.
• forgot to order spokes (assumed the bike shop would have spokes in stock) and this has delayed the building of the wheels even more
• when i started this project i hoped to have the bike for the beginning of the cross season - now i hope to have it for the last half of the season.

2) cost:

here is what i orderd:

• Frame - Truelove
• Paint
• Headset - Chris King
• Stem - Thomson Elite
• Seat Post - Thomson Elite
• Seat - ?
  
• Fork - Redline Carbon Cross Fork
• Brakes - Paul Touring and Retro Canti
• Brake Levers - Cane Creek
• Handle Bar - Bontrager Cross
• Cranks - SRAM
• Pedals - Crank Brothers Candy SL
• Chain ?
  
• Hub - Chris King Cross (rear)
• Hub - Chris King Cross (front)
• Rims - Mavic Reflex
• Spokes - Revolution
• Tyres - Tufo Tubular

• list price cost of the above, $3720 (before taxes and with still more bits to come). now, i did not pay this price. what i paid is between me and my bike shop. will you get the same price as i do? maybe, maybe not. it depends on what you do: do you race under their name, do you help put on their races, do you refer customers, do you buy with them even though it may be slightly higher than buying online (the will try and get as close to that price as they can). maybe i could have received even a better price if i would have gone strictly online but by buying from a LBS i get great service, easier warranty work, stuff to try before i buy, great advice, etc. in essence, it helps tremdendously to develop a relationship with your bike shop.

just thought i would share some insight on the bike building process for me.

yipee

well, things are starting to move again on the new 'cross ride. emails with mike truelove were exchanged this week and with some good luck i should be getting the new frame by mid-september.

started collecting parts and here's what i am going with:

• thomson stem and seat post
• chris king headset
• bontrager handle bars - morgan gave me his old ones, thanks morgan
  
• tektro brake levers - cane creek's without the cane creek price
• paul's brakes - neo-retro front and touring canti rear
• chris king hubs - these if i can get them, road if i can't
• mavic open pro rims - already have a set, with revolution spokes
• truvativ cyclocross cranks - 175mm
  
• crank brothers egg beater pedals

i'll be setting this up as a singie speed, but have left myself the option to run gears in the future (mike is going to weld a hanger onto the paul dropouts). will probably run paul thumb shifters when i do.

the picture is becoming complete

while in squamish i was lucky to stay with mike truelove, the builder of my 29er frame. while i was there i put down a deposit for a cross frame, the final (well - nothing is really ever final, but definitely final for the next few years) bike in my collection. after some research and discussion with tom, i sent mike an email with details of how i would like the frame built, here are some of the particulars:

A. Specs
1) Seat tube - 600 mm
2) Top tube - 595 mm
3) Chain stay - 425 mm
4) Head tube - 220 mm* (11/8"dia)
5) Rear spacing - 130 mm
6) Bottom bracket drop - 70 mm** (68mm shell)
7) Head tube angle - 72.5
8) Seat tube angle - 72.5
9) Stand over height - 850 mm

* I would like the head tube to be a little higher coming up from the top tube - sort of sticking up a bit if that make sense.
** I will be using 180mm cranks (most likely SRAM Rival). My Surly travel bike has a drop of 66mm - plenty of pedal clearance with the 180's I have on there, would this be too much?

B. Features
1) Paul dropouts with a hanger added
2) Canti brake bosses - circular guide stop coming from the seat stays if possible
3) Brake guides on top of top tube
4) Rear derailleur stops on top of top tube. Just two stops on the top tube and two guides on the seat stay - I plan on using a full housing from the top tube to the drop out.
5) Front derailleur, regular number - but fairly high on the seat tube.
6) Water bottle bosses on the seat and down tube

I was thinking of all True Temper tubing if possible, but if there is some good Reynolds kicking around I would not be opposed.

i decided to give myself the option of gears, but will initially set it up as a singie speed.

on another note: tinker tim, kev b, jane and i spent an evening out in the sadilands with some of the body driven riders trying some of the other trails in the area. the trails were good and there were some excellent flow to some sections. they are hoping to be able to create a new race course since they lost 70% of the old course to fire earlier this spring (damn atv riders).