Hey folks,

Been busy wrapping up the final details for the bikes going to the show; lots of time on the phone talking with customers, working up spec sheets, ordering parts, etc... so I've not got much posting done.

I also got a letter similar to many of my professional compatriots, a denial of renewal from my insurance carrier. The letter definitely had that middle school break up feel to it..."it's not you, it's me". Seems that Diamond Corporation, the carrier for NIPC (the most known company for bicycle manufacturers), has chosen not to underwrite the industry any longer.

Fortunately, I've got a super local agent who was able to work me up a better policy for...get ready for this, LESS money! For once, things are going in favor of the little guy :) If anyone else needs some policy luv for their building endeavours, let me know and I'll pass along Linda's info.

Back to shop work, here's a pic of Roy and Mel's bar combos and the winning bottle opener all out of the bake box.

I've also been staying late and getting in early to work on this months LUV's...

Tune in Thursday night for this month's contest...who knows what we'll come up with for this one, but it should be fun!

cheers,

rody

Sunday... a lil' bit of everything

Quick post tonight as I'm cooked...

I got off duty from the FD at 0700, ran home, showered up, and took the family out for a bit of breakfast. Nice to spend some quiet time with the family before engaging myself for the balance of the day.

The temps warmed up for a bit and the ice began to melt...
I worked on some paint items today, finishing up Roy and Mels final clear and tidying up the final coats on the Trivia Bottle opener that is going to Allen Louie for his correct answers in last weeks contest. I'll throw up a pic of the final product Tuesday. I'll be making up some key ring dropout bottle openers for our runner ups :)

Next up was a 29er Ho fork build...here's a little vid for ya;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9fzMNzRzaw

I also repaired a Salsa Mariachi that had a puncture through the top tube adjacent to the head tube. I filled the puncture and fabricated a gusset plate to reinforce the area. Should be much stronger than the original piece...that's what you should expect from a repair. I was really surprised with the lack of quality in these frames. They are very popular, look nice at a glance, but hide a lot of issues. Just removing the paint from the headtube for this repair revealed undercut welds, burn through, and unbelievably, they did not even remove the mill scale from the tubing!

I guess that's why you can get a shipping container full of frames from Maxway for 8 bucks a piece :(
You get what you pay for.

Finally, while I waited on clear to bake out, I worked on some Luv handles...welding on end caps. That's a lot of time bent over the weld table ;)

Look for another contest this week...I'll be giving away a Groovy Shop print from Sherrick photography.

cheers,

rody

Friday was repair day...

Yep, everyone had a crisis today.

EMERGENCY #1 -

As promised, I started off the day grafting in a new section of steerer tube for Marc B. This type of fabrication work is controversial at best, as everyone has an opinion as to the strength and durability of such repairs. Personally, the majority of the time, I feel that it is better to just build a new fork than to mess with such repairs, but each case is different.

So, below is a little vid tutorial showing the most bombproof repair procedure that I've used...for you builder types faced with such requests, check it out and decide for yourself your own level of expertise and comfort with such repairs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNbJ9dadNYo

EMERGENCY #2 -

Mikey had called a few months back and advised that he was having an issue with his seat post...it would not move. When I asked him when the last time he had it out to lube it was, the answer was not promising...never.

So, he pre-treated the post with some penetrating oil for the last month or so, before coming in today to see how successful we would be in getting it out.

First up, we clamped the frame upside down by the post using a set of Vee blocks and a long breaker bar bolted through the Thomson seat rail supports...the result, we split the post vertically with our torsional efforts. Hmmm, this is gonna be tougher than I thought.

Next, I cut off the remaining shards of post, and got to work...

I began by carefully sawing the post into four segments, hoping to create some relief to remove the pieces.

Cutting all done, let's try to peel away some pieces parts ;)

After much work, I was able to free the remaining post. The aluminum had chemically bonded to the interior of the steel seat tube, leaving only a galvanic dust behind. Here's Mike, relieved to be finished with the process...

The seat tube escaped unscathed, minus a little paint from the operation. A quick pass with the reamer and admonishment to grease his post when he lubes his chain ended the day.

The aftermath...

Lesson learned...it's fun to ride your bike, but it needs some attention too every now and then.

EMERGENCY #3-

Mike S. stopped by with a broken control lever in his hand...a necessary component for his snow plow to battle the 4' drifts covering his driveway. A quick trip through the blaster, 5 min on the weld table, and some fast drying paint and he was on his way back into the cold.

So, busy day, but good...it was nice to resolve some simple problems before I jump into the show fray.

cheers,

rody

Quite a diverse week...

I've not had much to share this week, so sorry for the lack of sexy, exciting posts.

Spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday teaching ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) and came home yesterday afternoon to 14" of snow and ice. That translated into a 4' pile f icy slurry at the end of the drive thanks to the snowplows stacking it up. It took Kalten and I 4 hours of shoveling to clear the drive and sidewalks so that I could get the car in. My back is a wee bit tired today ;). Whining done, thanks for letting me vent.

So today was my first full day to get some work done in the shop. I began by looking at the upcoming schedule; the North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show is rapidly approaching and a quick glance at the calendar was not reassuring...I've only got 17 full days available to prepare for this years big ta-doo. Yikes!

So, today and tomorrow are dedicated to trying to finish up the lingering customer projects that HAVE to be out of here before I turn off my life for the month of February.

First up is this Yo Eddy replica fork slated for the vintage race at the Keysville Classic in March...

classic 1.125 blades, scallopped dropouts, one inch threaded steerer, and silver brazed tear drop tabs
Those tear drop stress tabs are so pretty they make me cry (sniff sniff)

This will be coated gloss black to match Jim's 91 Yo.

I also pushed through a unicrown 29er fork and a Luv that all will be sprayed this weekend.

Tomorrow, I'll repair a nasty steerer on a BOI fork that a ill equipped shop destroyed, pack and ship Roy's combo, Mel's care package, Eric's bike, and a host of smaller items.

Check back tomorrow night, I'll post up the steerer repair process as this is a question that is often asked in the how to's of the bicycle restoration scene.

cheers,

rody

God's day play...

Yep, I decided to commune in the church of nature today and took advantage of the really cold temps to go scrape around on some ice. Mike and I drug Kalten out with us...he's come along for years, stomping around in the snow, but this is the first he's climbed.

Here we are at the beginning of the day, still warm. Kalten is sporting his Dirt Rag Buff...lovely argyle.
The high was 12 degrees today, but it was much cooler down in the gullies. K is downclimbing the escape chute to get to the start of the climb.

Despite the frigid temps of late, water was pouring off the top of the climb, coating us with a sheet of ice in moments. Here's K on his first run up "Late guy in a red suit" WI3+, a nice candled 40' column that offers some mixed climbing in the rear of the ampitheater...sweet!

We were only out for about 5 hours, but that was plenty. We hit the local gas station/diner, Spearman's, for some super post climb food; a double cheeseburger, fried potatoes with gravy, and peanut butter pie...Yum!

Back to reality, I spent some more time in paint this evening. Pardon the helmet hair...here's a shot removing some polka dot masking.

Trivia results!

Well, I promised I'd post first thing Sunday morning, so at 0030 hours I put up the post...by 0300, the next time I checked back, AOSTY had already jumped in and secured the winning answers. So, AOSTY, drop me an email and I'll get you hooked up.

I'm going to scrape up some little gifts for all the other folks who chose to post...I'll have to see what I can come up with.

Thanks all for playing along. Next month we'll do it again, when I'll be giving away a custom print taken by Sherrick Photography, looky here for some pics;

http://www.sherrickphotography.com/portfolio/detail.php?choice=1298

Catch y'all soon,

rody

It's contest time!!!

It's early Sunday morning and it's time for The Groovy Super Spectacular Trivia Contest…

Ok folks, this is for all the marbles…well, not really, a fork leg bottle opener and some other swag.

So here’s the deal. The contest is open only to our registered Groovy readers. The first reader to post in the comment section with the correct answers and Blogger Id will get the grand prize. I’ve thrown in a few other items, so if you think you’ve got the correct answers but someone else has beaten you to the punch, go ahead and throw in…who knows, you may win a little something else :)

The questions are mostly based on Groovy Cycleworks, answers often found either on the web page or within the short life of the blog. The last question is a kicker thrown in to give a nod to my latest time waster ;)

Off we go…

1.) What bicycle fabrication shop did I begin my apprenticeship with in 1994?
2.) What are the four beliefs that make up my “building mantra”?
3.) What two materials are my Luv Handles available in?
4.) Picture question…What favorite vehicle is this bike a tribute to? (hint…Feb 08 blog entry)


5.) Ok, this ones gonna take a bit of web research. In the first webisode of The Guild, who dumps the unbelievably cute Cyd? (hint... http://www.watchtheguild.com/ Season 1)


Best of luck to y’all...winners will be decided Sunday night,

rody