Saturday night fever...here's what's happening

Well, it was quite a week...let me tell ya about it.

Christi, my lovely wife who I really don't deserve, took a lone week away this year and attended a quilting retreat in woodsy West Virginia. She's quite the craftsperson, as the work that she does takes a precision that I believe is more difficult than what I do.

Anyhoo, with her gone, I got to play do it all dad; managing the kids schedules (no easy task), being the primary chef, and attempting to squeeze in a few hours each day in the shop.

Unfortunately for all of us, I had a bout of the "don't stray too far from the porcelain" sickness for a couple of days that really put a damper on things. Now that I've crossed the line of too much info...here is what I did get accomplished.

Eric's 650b status:

fabrication on the frame, fork, stem, bar, and rack is completed...just awaiting the parts for the cranks so I can get those done and paint it all up at once. The paint is going to be a mix of off white and green, spun up in a classic styling.

Lots of parts have been rolling in, I'll save the pics for the next post as it is going to be a killer build.

Stu's Pegorretti:

Stu dropped by with his Pergorretti that has been experiencing some major front shimmy worries...an hour of exam and checking on the alignment table and the problem was discovered. A misaligned and cracked carbon fork that we believe is post accident from a year ago was the culprit...gonna be building a new fork to get him back on the road. After seeing many carbon failures that have been traumatic, Stu was quite lucky with this one. Scary stuff folks...carbon has it's place but the marketing today is prodding Asian manufacturers to utilize it in areas that are just not appropriate for the forces applied to it.

Chris's coupled road frame:

Remember this one? Chris wanted a coupled road bike to take along on his travels for his business so we built it up and sent it on it's way. Chris has rediscovered road cycling and is burning up the miles. Recently, he called me quite distraught that his vanilla shake with pink polka dots paint job was chipped by some gorilla-esque baggage handlers during a trip to Europe and has decided he just cannot stand to see his primary road frame in a blemished state. So, the coupled bike is going to be re-equipped as a single speed traveler and I finished up the twin to his frame to be his new stay at home blinged out pavement pounder. Chris will be flying up from Texas next week to assemble and take home his new ride...just have to decide on a paint scheme. It would be great to paint up Eric and Chris's bike at the same time, as it's nice to get into the groove to maximize efficiency.

Here's the completed road frame...Groovy #3 for Chris


Visitors from the street;

Being right down town, I have lots of folks drifting by, many of quite diverse personalities and economic levels. Meet Luis...a retired guy who likes to talk, a lot! I can't really call Luis homeless, as he has a place to sleep, but he's always drifting about. Today, Luis stopped by in a shirt that was so well worn his moobs (short for man boobs) were totally sticking out through deteriorated fabric of his plaid shirt. I made Luis surrender the tatty piece and gave him a Groovy shirt...more for my personal comfort than his...I just couldn't stand to see that shit hanging out there :)
Finally, I needed to get moving on the belt drive single speed build so I can clear the fixture to start Goyo's 650b on Monday.

I'm gonna post about the rear end layout and the requirements of the Carbon Drive system tomorrow, but for today I put together a quick vid on SS coupler installation for you.

Demonstrated today on the drive side chainstay...

Catch ya soon,

rody