Christmas came late this year!

PRESENTS!

I had a nice surprise yesterday morning..Bill and Mary Grove drove over from Pa for breakfast and brought some Christmas presents...

My buddy Hubby, right hand guy at Grove Innovations and one of the most instrumental people in growing my knowledge and love of framebuilding, made me up a new bottom bracket heat sink with integrated purge orifice. This is inserted into the bb when welding to help absorb some of the heat and prevent distortion as well as offers a way for argon to be introduced into the interior of the frame, providing an oxygen free atmosphere to protect the weld integrity. Similar to the Paragon unit but with a few individual tweaks, this should be a nice piece for welding up my frames, Ti especially :) Thanks Hub!

Bill was too gracious and gave me a set of NOS Titron pedals. These were the original "Bear Trap" pedals and feature Titanium acid etched cages, X machined pedal bodies, and sealed bearings. This was one of Bill's first component ventures in the late 70's at the tender age of 19.

I'm almost embarrassed to tell you how much these bring on Ebay...needless to say, these will not be sold. Look for them on a vintage mtb frame in the future ;)

SUPER BLOG SPECTACULAR CONTEST!

Ok, a big thanks goes out to all who are "Blog Followers" and the kind words you send out to me each week. As a token of my thanks and to encourage others to sign up, I'll be offering up this deal...

I'd love to see the blog register 50 "followers" by Saturday (that's just 8 more regular readers!). If we can hit that number, I'll post up a trivia contest Sunday morning open only to registered folks, and the first member with the correct answers will receive one of the cool Yo Eddy styled Groovy Bottle openers below (the other will be a give away at NAHBS).

Tricked out and painted in a lively color (depends on what I'm spraying this week), the opener will feature some special goodies inside all contained with a nice cork to top it off. Throw it on your bar or keep it in your camel back for on the trail refreshments. Just my way of having some fun and saying thanks for tuning in.

THE DAILY GRIND...

Now, back to business...I spent the last two long lonely days in front of the mill and lathe, churning out pieces for the February Luv Handles. Below is 25 hours worth of work. Not sexy, but hopefully they will bring lots of smiles come February :)

In case you are keeping track, that's 50 chromoly bars and 22 Ti sitting there, waiting for their respective birth days.

Hope y'all are snuggled up tight keeping warm,

rody