Another month of tinkering is behind me. I’ve been plugging away at stuff and here’s what I’ve got — more code, more bike stuff, developments on the 3D printing front, and so forth.
framebuilding
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.)
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
Weekend Miscellany
It’s Sunday night, and rather than break this all down day by day like I do with my normal weekend recap post, I’m going to drop this one by subject. The Fam The kids were a mix of fun and trying this weekend. On Saturday, while Kate was at work, we hung out and played … Read more
Mistakes Were Made: CX Frame Build, Part 5
The project continues…slowly. So Saturday, I only had a three-hour window in which to accomplish that which needed to be done with the CX frame. The goal was to get the whole front triangle brazed and filleted together. In the end, after fine-tubing my miters some more, I got the two main substructures (Seat Tube/BB … Read more
List of Bicycle Framebuilding Schools and Teachers
Here’s my list, which will evolve over time, of individual builders and schools that teach the craft of bicycle framebuilding. I’ll provide contact information and some general notes about each, but seeing as prices fluctuate, I will not include those here. Individual Framebuilders [table id=1 /] Schools [table id=2 /] Something Missing? Am I missing … Read more
Speculation: CX Frame Build, Part 1
While I have formally shut down Pallas Athena, I’m not getting out of framebuilding, as I’ve mentioned before. The next few years, while the kids are small, I am going to spend my time honing my craft and getting treated for my ADD so that I can take a legitimate shot at doing the framebuilding … Read more
Projects for 2015
So I’ve been putting together a laundry list of things that I want to accomplish in 2015. I’m trying not to get too out-of-control with it, however. I don’t want to completely overwhelm myself from day one or anything like that. Smaller Projects get all my WordPress sites glommed together into a multisite setupCanceled because … Read more
Five Bikes I’d Like to Build for Myself
1. Cyclocross frameset. Likely Columbus Max with an Enve fork. I have all the parts I need to build this up, except the bottom bracket. This would replace my old Salsa Las Cruces (the source of the parts), and do extra duty as my gravel crusher. 2. Commuter frameset. Utilitarian steel — Columbus Zona, with … Read more