dirt road commuter back from paint

picked the frame up from my painter Tommy. the frame is a charcoal grey with a little bit of sparkle. the blue panels match the tires and handlebar tape. the stem is painted to match the frame. Marina Mertz of Anhaica Bagworks fabricated the matching grey waxed canvas front bag and saddle bag. the first few photos in the set are of the custom decaleur which is designed to mount the stem, this frees up the handlebars from any mounts and gives real sturdy support to the front bag while allowing it to be taken off the bike easily. if you didnt see my earlier post about this bike, its designed to use Sturmey Archer drum hubs, the front being a dynamo hub and the rear a cassette. the other neat thing about this build is that its set up with an 8 speed Shimano drive train matched with Campagnolo 10speed shifters(this is sometimes called ShimErgo, it was found that 10speed ergo shifters have the same amount of throw as shimano 8 speed derailleurs)

other things of note, internal brake routing on the fork and internal wiring for the front light(the cheap halogen lamp in the pictures will soon be replaced with a Lumotec IQ Cyo LED headlight).

 

custom polo frame

just getting started on Ali's custom polo frame. she will be running a surly 1x1 fork with the frame. it will be set up to use either disc or cantilever brakes.
got a pretty sweet tubeset for it. super oversized downtube(35mm) and s bend seat and chainstays. i plan to turn down some thick straight gauge tubing on the lathe to make the headtube. im doing this because i want the headtube to be super strong, the center section of the tube will be machined and the ends where the cups are inserted will be much thicker. i might also gusset the toptube and downtube, although i have been on the fence about this for the longest time since it is a hotly debated issue in the frame building world. One side of the debate says that gussets increase the strength of the frame while others argue that welding gussets just increases the HAZ(heat affected zone) and puts the stress further down the tube.
so i guess it all depends on how long the butted section of the tubing is because i dont want to weld the gussets to the thin section of the tubes.

fast dirt road commuter

here are some photos of my latest project. i call it the dirt road commuter. i wanted to build a bike that was super durable to be used as a daily commuter, but also meant to go fast. the frame has oversized tubing and lugs, sturmey archer drum brake hubs(front is a dynamo and rear is a cassette hub) laced to alex 29er disc specific rims. Shimano 8 speed drivetrain hooked  up to Campagnolo 10 speed ergo shifters(people call this shimergo, look it up). FSA cyclocross crankset and compact drop bars held in place with a custom stem. i also fabricated a small light stainless steel rack for mounting the front headlight and handlebar bag.
a couple other things of note: front brake cable is routed through the fork along with the wiring for the front light. also, made a custom decaleur for supporting the custom bag which will be made by Marina Mertz of Anhaica Bag Works.