Groovy is growing...

The week did not progress as I anticipated, not a bad thing though.

With the changes in occupancy in the front of the building, so too are some changes to my space.

The bad news...my rent went up a bit...typical of today's tougher economy.

The good news...I gained another 600 square foot of space for Groovy to expand into.

So, I spent three days cleaning out and prepping the new space; I filled two dumpsters full of trash and worthless items left behind, tracked down and removed over 600 feet of outdated wiring, plumbing, and air lines that were unusable or outdated, rewired the electrical panel for the changes, and prepared for installing a new exterior door, wiring, and drywall.

The highlight of the work was taking a 300 pound 1960's era heater off of the 12' high ceiling by myself. It was the pinnacle of hillbilly engineering...I had ropes strung everywhere as safetys, standing on an upside down 55 gallon drum to reach the lag bolts in the ceiling and delicately turning out the last bolt as I tried to support the hulking beast. End result, the heater is gone, I successfully stayed out of the Emergency Room, and nothing crashed to the floor :)

I would have taken a pic, but honestly, it was too gheto to leave behind any evidence if something went wrong ;)

Here's a quick shot looking into the space from my current shop...

The new space will house a designated mechanic's / assembly area, a carpeted/finished section for fit and measuring, a shipping and packing area, a nice two level bike rack for demo's to reside and some generous storage area for everything from the show booth to long term resto projects
.

Outside of that work, I also got 40 bars (some steel, some Ti) ready to pack and ship out on Monday, and worked up the rear end on the belt drive project using the new stays.

The custom bent stays that Deddachai made for me have just the right amount of spacing for my building and design style...tight fast back connection on the seat tube, short rear triangles, and a nice tapering tube from 19mm down to 12.5mm giving lots of eye catching shapes to gaze over.

That's it for now...going to go change smoke detector batteries for the elderly, attend my son's swim meet, and get to some email tonight.

cheers,

rody