A Special Serial Number

Ok, so I have a little catching up to do.  I promised my next post wouldn’t be another six months wait, as it was last time around - and it’s not!  It is a mere five months since the last post.

The story goes like this:

I had given myself a deadline of when I would have Jessica’s bike ready for her, and it was sneaking up fast.  I somehow let most of the summer go by without getting much work done on the frame and fork, so as the end of August (2012) rolled around, I found myself spending just about every night in the shop, working till midnight or so.  Jessica didn’t know of this self imposed deadline, and wasn’t paying much attention to what I had been doing in the shop figuring it wasn’t of much interest to her.  Little did she know...
On D day, I drove to work (instead of biking) because I had to bring the frame and fork in for final prep, chasing and facing, and assembly of the bike.  I worked till 4pm, and spent another two hours getting the bike ready.  It wasn’t going to be painted, but it would be otherwise complete and ridable.  I drove home with her bike on the back of the Subaru, and to my surprise, her car was in the driveway, cluing me in that she was already home from work.  I quickly snuck the bike into the garage without her noticing and went inside.  It was kind of a crummy day out; overcast and threatening to rain.  However this was more than just an average day, it was also three years to the day since we had started dating.  Once inside, I suggested to Jessica that we bike from our place in Northeast Minneapolis to Sea Salt Eatery to have a nice meal and a couple pints in celebration of three years together.  Sea Salt has become one of our favorite destinations for a good meal, and is a nice nine-mile ride from home, typically on our tandem.  She wasn’t feeling it though, mostly because of the weather.  “What if you got to ride your bike?” I asked.  She knew instantly I was talking about the bike I had been building her, but couldn’t believe it was (finally) ready.
We went outside, and I showed her the bike.  She had never ridden a modern road bike before, so I put it in a bike stand and was going over how the shifting worked as well as all of the other features of her new ride.  When I had covered it all, I pulled the bike out of the stand and said “Oh yeah, there is one thing I almost forgot to show you.  You have your own custom serial number stamped into the bottom bracket shell.”  I flipped the bike over in the grass so as not to scuff up the saddle or bar tape and knelt beside it, pointing at the brass plate with the serial number in it.  She had to look close to read the serial number, which read “MARRY ME”.
And she thought the surprise of the day was that she was getting a new bike.  Ha!  So after initially laughing in disbelief, she did say yes.  We never did make it to Sea Salt that night as we had parents to call and faceplace relationship statuses to change and whatnot, but we did go for a short ride to get a late dinner, and she got to ride her bike.

Half a Year Later...

It's been six months to the day since the last post.  Life has been busy, but the frame and fork came together one piece at a time, and here it is:

Yay!  650c sport road bike.
The details:
44cm seat tube, 50cm top tube, normal st and ht angles, more rake/less ground trail than your typical road bike.  I don't have the exact measurements on any of this handy anymore because I lost my drawing/frame design when my hard drive crashed.
No toe overlap without fenders, and a smidge with them installed.
Velo Orange 30-46 double crank
Shimano SPD pedals (currently half platform/half spd, but will be replaced with spd on both sides)
Velo Orange square taper bottom bracket
9 speed cassette and chain
105 rear derailleur
Tiagra? front derailleur
Velocity Aerohead rims (off-center rim in the back)
105 hubs
DT Swiss 2.0/1.8 spokes (3x rear, radial front), with purple nipples
650x23c Continental Gatorskin tires
700c Planet Bike fenders (made to fit 650c with an extra set of stays on the front of the front fender)
Tektro brakes
Shimano non-series 9 speed brifters
Salsa interrupter levers
Bontrager handlebar
Civia Stem (shimmed to fit a 1" steerer)
Cane Creek 40 1" external cup headset
Ritchey WCS seatpost (which will get cut down a bit as it is excessively long for this bicycle)
Brooks B17 Womens (I am letting Jess borrow my Brooks D-shaped bag for a bit just so at least she has a flat kit with her when she is out on a ride)

Is that it?  Did I forget anything?

Some of the parts I have had laying around for years, some of it is brand new.

The bike will get taken apart for a rattle-can paint job (and then reassembled) to hold it over until it can get a proper powder coat.  It will also get a small, stainless steel front rack with low riders for mounting panniers at some point.

That's all for now.  I'll tell the story of giving the bicycle to Jessica in the next post.  And I promise it will be sooner than six months from now!

The Jiggernaut-Bringing bicycle frame building to the masses

For anyone interested in a jig for getting started with frame building, check out the Jiggernaut.  A couple of guys I know have always been tempted to build their own frames, but were always hung up on the cost of buying or making a jig.  This is the inexpensive design they came up with, and you can get one for yourself on Kickstarter.

Disclaimer: I have never used this jig, I have no interest in promoting this jig other than seeing a couple of local MPLS guys succeed and seeing more people making their own shit, eh.

BB/CS/DO

Yesterday I decided it was about time to start putting together Jessica's 650c lugged road frame.

I got as far as the bb to the cs to the do.

Waiting for Snow

The snow bike is more or less done.  I still need to finish filing all of the fillets, add some braze-ons, and whatnot, but it is ridable.  I gave it a quick and dirty (and drippy) black rattle-can paint job to keep things from turning to rust over the winter.  Once winter is over, I will take the time to properly finish the frame and give it a proper powder coat.  Now I just need some snow to ride it in!

I have had the bike out a few times at Theodore Wirth and Elm Creek. It is tons o' fun. I highly recommend a snow bike for anyone who lives in MN and considers themselves a mtn biker. The bike handles very predictably, is comfy, yet is stiff enough that my 2-3mm of clearance between the chain and the tire are not an issue.

I definitely have to put the bike underneath me when cornering otherwise the Endomorph's tend to slide. This is only an issue when I am too tired to ride properly. Perhaps I will get some knobbier tires for next year. The Hammerschmidt is awesome. I am not man enough to rock a single speed snow bike, but the two speeds of the Hammerschmidt is perfect for the local trails. My current trail riding ratio is 35.2:23 (1.53) normally and 22:23 (.96) when I can't hack it in the "big ring" anymore. The front and rear wheels are interchangeable, and I currently have a 20 tooth cog on the front in case I wanted to ride some bike path. We'll see if I have to change these ratios up with different snow conditions as opportunity presents itself. As for now all of our precip. has been replaced by rain :(
Next up for this frame is a rack or two for adventure camping trips and the occasional snow day commute.

Nearly Ridable

Another night till 1am in the garage.  I ran out of acetylene, but only need to put on the seat post collar yet.  I am going to bring the frame and fork  in to work to mill/face/chase everything.  Then slap some parts on 'er, and it should be ridable.  ...with a lot of clean up to do on the fillets, and in need of a paint job, but ridable.


Now I just have to get the bath tub cleaned up before Jessica finds this mess!

Making Progress

It has been a while since I have posted, so here is a terrible photo to show that I am actually making progress.

My friend is building up a Pugsley, so that served as a good kick in the pants to get this bike done.  There is not much left now.  One more fillet on the frame, some facing and chasing, a disc mount on the fork, the seat post binder, perhaps some cable guides, etc, ...and a heck of a lot of clean up work on the fillets.
By the way, if you have, or know of anyone that has, a 27.2 seat tube reamer, let me know - I need to use one if I ever hope to get a seat post in this frame!