Going to try to be more on-the-spot with these posts in 2018. In 2017, I was busy pretty much constantly and unfortunately, some of the tinkering fell by the wayside. So let’s chitchat about what went down in January of 2018, and what my nerdy goals for 2018 are.
Framebuilding
Hacks: May 2017
Work — both normal day-to-day stuff and freelance — took up a large share of my time. Combine that with my back issues flaring up again, and nothing much on the physical side of the tinkering list got addressed at all.
Hacks: April 2017
“Well, shit, that month didn’t go so well, did it?” That was the first thing that went through my head when I started this draft and started thinking about what tinkering I’d done in April. Of course, I wasn’t really thinking about the fact that it was April 18th when I started the draft and that I had almost two full weeks left in the month. Here’s what I got after in April:
Checking In: CX Frame Build, Part, Uh, 10?
Been awhile since I worked on this little project of mine. I guess I don’t really have anything to report on it. Lame. I really need to get moving on this again, though. I’m supposed to go to Chicago this weekend, and really would be disappointed if it were to fall through. However, if it … Read more
Missing the Craft
I miss framebuilding. I make no bones about it. I love damn near every part of the process — and when everything’s happening the way it should, the process of building a frame might be the most rewarding thing I do. (Yes, there are clusterfuck days, and stupid mistakes, and annoying shit that doesn’t seem to go quite right, but I love all of that, too.)
Cycling Goals for 2015/2016
As part of my “what should I write in 2015” post, I also got asked about my cycling goals for 2015 and 2016. So, here’s what’s up. 2015 Goals finish building my CX frameset rejoin Birchwood and race 3-4 CX events this year get back to working at a bike shop part time acquire new … Read more
Tiptoeing Forward: CX Frame Build, Part 9
This weekend of framebuilding didn’t quite go down as planned. When I got to work, I just wasn’t quite in the zone mentally, and based on past experiences, I know that’s when stupid mistakes get made. So I decided to spend my time conservatively — not rushing, and to focus on what I could do with my mindset being what it was. So, you know, not much. While I am supposed to take the occasional day off from my Adderall, today probably wasn’t the best day for that.
First things first, I started off by doing some alignment work. The front triangle was only off by a hair over a millimeter, so I decided to go ahead and run with it. The next step was to get the chainstays into place where they needed to be. That’s done — they pulled inward a couple of millimeters, and it was primarily the drive-side where that was an issue. A couple careful pulls, and it was right where it needed to be. Lastly, wheel twist — when the wheel was in-place, it was pretty obvious that the chainstays were slight out of alignment. A few twists and shoves on the rear wheel while it was in there, and all was right with the world. I spot-checked myself with the H-tool (see the main image above), and everything looked legit. Pretty dang pleased with myself.
Headway: CX Frame, Part 8
The project continues. I’m over a week late on this update due to a number of things, including a hellacious week at the office, the ongoing house hunt and related drama, and a number of other things that I am trying to cope with on the Personal Project front (including migrating all my sites off … Read more
Musings: CX Frame, Part 7
I don’t really have too much of an update for you on the framebuilding front right now. Over the last two weeks, the project has plodded forward slowly. The weekend of April 25th-26th, I managed to cram Ignite Minneapolis, Minneapolis WordCamp, and the Minnesota Ironman Ride all into one frenzy of activity that precluded any … Read more
Artsy Photos: CX Frame Build, Part 6B
So last time I was at the workshop, I was pretty busy, so I wasn’t really focused on what was going on. I knew there were photos happening, but I was more interested in what I was doing than I was in making sure I looked nice for the camera. Thanks to Alex at A-Train … Read more