Final torch work for the week

Off to a party here at the mill.

Chainring fetish

And these are feeding my addiction. Time to test.

38/44 Campy CT

36/42 SRAM

Methodology

I dig working in batches. That's not to be confused with doing production runs where everything is the same size. These are still all unique to their future owners. But it drives me crazy doing every single step once. It completely offends my sensibilities. It also runs counter to all of the training I have received through school and my time in industry. Granted, this is not a production environment per se the way an injection molding shop is. But still, something just feels wrong going to my tool box, getting a drill bit, getting my drill, chucking it up, drilling two holes, taking out the bit, putting it away, and then putting away the drill. Why not drill 6 more holes and then not have to drill holes for a while? You save yourself a lot of time. Yeah, it takes some planning in terms of materials and having designs lined up and ready. But it's nice knowing I've reduced the footsteps around the shop overall. And I do love getting into a groove brazing a bunch at one time. It feels fantastic when things are flowing and each successive brazing operation feels better than the one previous to it. I love having a day when I have 3 or 4 frames that are tacked, aligned, and ready for final brazing and then I just braze and braze. Glorious. Anyway, what's with the rant, right? I guess I'm grumpy because Rebecca's been away for two weeks. And I wish I was in Bend at Natz. Sounds like it is going to be a great race week. But we have Ice Weasels to look forward to here in New England, so that will be sweet. And the wifey gets back from India tomorrow. I guess I'll just watch Manning throw three more interceptions again tonight. Zing! I just lost some sales in Indy.

Here's the start of four bikes.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!

Ready for some Florida cyclocross action

Yes, they have cyclocross in Florida, and it's growing. I love seeing regions develop across the country. Maybe now that Nationals is in January, somebody in South Beach will submit a proposal to host! No offense, Madison.

Anyway, this machine is Florida bound to tackle some racing.

Thanks, Rafael!

Cyclocross chainring project moving along

Just got a couple of photos of a sample SRAM/Shimano 110 bcd 42 tooth outer after the hard anodizing and I am very excited with how they look. This is before the shifting pins and chain drop pin are added. With the hard ano on the 7075, these are going to be to tough as nails. I won't get many repeat customers because they won't wear out! We're on schedule to have real production ready for NAHBS at the end of February.

Di2 meet Max...bridging the generation gap

Picture it. A very attractive young woman dressed to the nines walking with a somewhat grizzled and tough looking older fella. A few heads might turn. Some just won't get it. But hey, ain't love strange?

All right...enough of that. This is the first Di2 bike I've had the opportunity to build. Let me say that Shimano has knocked it out of the park with the full internal wiring kit. I've still got a lot of work left to do on the frame, but I wanted to mock everything up and make sure that all is copacetic with the wiring before I finished up the BB area and seat stays.

The goal for this bike was simple. Make a clean layout for the wiring and make it easy on the eyes. That meant tuck the battery away out of plain view. I also wanted to drill the holes for the wiring in as many thicker cast pieces as possible rather than just the tubing. For the spots on the seat tube and down tube where this wasn't possible, I made some reinforcements for the holes. I also had to make a front derailleur braze-on. Here's the problem. A Max seat tube is very wide (approximately 36.5 mm) where the braze-on is placed. Putting a standard FD braze-on, which are meant to go on a 28.6 mm seat tube, on the tube positions the derailleur further away from the centerline of the bike compared to usual. This hasn't been a problem for standard front derailleurs. There's plenty of throw. Looking at the Di2 derailleur though, you can see right away that the cage does not go as far inboard as a standard derailleur. So what I did was make a tab and reinforcement and position it exactly to Shimano spec. This meant that the derailleur itself is very close to the seat tube but it is where it needs to be in relation to the crankset.

Have a great weekend!

Knee deep in Max

Columbus Max. For me, it conjures up images of the nastiest, meanest, and toughest riders in the peleton from 20 years ago and the bikes they used duking it out on the bergs and cobbles of northern Europe during my second most favorite time of the year...the spring classics. These guys put down the power and corner really hard, and Columbus came up with a set of pipes that was unlike anything else at the time to maximize what the riders were laying down. The bikes weren't glamorous. They looked raw. They looked massive. They looked like the perfect tool for the job.

The tubeset came and went, but there's a group of riders who love these special bikes. It's about so much more than just how the frame rides, it's everything else associated with frame and the tubes. The history, the riders, the wins, the pain, the glory. It's just so unique.

Columbus listened to requests and has brought the tubes back as a catalog item. The lugs, however, are becoming increasingly rare. I built my first Max bike a couple of years ago and I documented the build on this thread on vsalon. It's still one of the most viewed threads on the forum, and that speaks to how many people are interested in these bikes.

I've been knee deep in building more of these bikes over the past couple of weeks and I've been having a ball. Here are some photos. Enjoy!

Did I ever tell you I love pearl paint?

I love pearls. Growing up, I went to a ton of car and motorcycle shows. My dad is in that biz and we spent quite a few Sundays walking around looking at some incredible machines. I love seeing perfect paint jobs on big car panels. Orange peal (a type of surface roughness) and ripples pop out like a giant pimples. But perfectly flat finishes with super high gloss are just amazing. I think pearls compliment the efforts of the finisher in the same way that they can put a giant beacon on sins; they simply expose everything. If the underlying metal or paint work is less than perfect, the tiny pearl platelets pool up and/or don't reflect the light back in a uniform fashion. It kind of looks like swirls. Your eye immediately picks up on this. If the clear coat has orange peal or fish eyes or just ripples, the reflected light is distorted and it makes the color look almost yellow. But when the metal work is smooth, the primer is sanded out like glass, the base coats are smooth, the pearl coat is uniform, and the clear coat is flat, smooth, and buffed, look out.

That was a long-winded intro to this machine. Platinum White pearl with Bittersweet pearl panels. I love it. It really shows off how Keith strives for a perfectly smooth surface even over the decals. Again, any ripple in the surface screams out "look at me" when dealing with pearls. To do this when dealing with decals, Keith has to build up the clear and then wet sand it so that the decals are buried in clear. Then he does a few finish coats of clear for incredible gloss. Stunning.

Craig wanted a road bike with the option to run 25s or maybe even 27s for the occasional dirt road ride. I maxed out the fork length and brake bridge so that the pads are at the bottom of the slots on the brakes. Plenty of room in there now. Also added fender mounts for the nasty months in Buffalo. I love these multi-use bikes. It's the way of the future. many thanks, Craig!

On a different topic, Embrocation Cycling Journal republished my cross tubular gluing article from a year ago. Time flies. Hope it might help a few of you. I'm in the midst of another big round of gluing myself. The smell of Mastik is lingering in the shop. I love cross season.

Vegas baby, Vegas!

Kerry hit it out of the park and shipped the prototype chainrings to my hotel here in Vegas. I tore into that box in a heartbeat. My first impression was that they looked very prototype-ish, which was cool. The rings were raw and were not coated (the production rings will be hard anodized and gray, similar to Campy 11 speed rings) due to time constraints, so they had the natural patina of raw 7075 sheet. I was also really impressed by the machining around the mounting locations. They looked just like OE Campy rings (I'll come back to this when talking about installation). The ramps and steel shifting pins on the back side of the big ring looked like they will provide great shifting. And, of course, I was psyched with the tasteful Z treatment.

Installation went really easy. Everything lined up perfectly and the added machining meant the rings ran perfectly straight and true. I only shifted the bike on my makeshift stand in the hotel room, but the chain transitioned very smoothly. I can't wait to get them out in the dirt and test them under load.

These are the Campy CT 38/44 combo. Kerry finished the Mastercam files for the Campy CT 36 and 42 and now he is working on the 46 and the 110 bcd files. We're hoping to get a batch to the anodizer over the next couple of weeks and then real testing begins.

Walking around the show has been fun. The bike is front and center in the TRP booth and is getting some looks. It's a great feeling seeing it there. I really appreciate Lance saving a spot for me.

More Interbike impressions later...

Thanks for reading!

Chainring prototypes are done, just in time for Interbike!

One step closer to lots of chainring options for Campy CT. I'm so excited!

A zank for Interbike!

It's that feeling ya get as a kid when you can't sit still because you're so excited. Lance at TRP was incredibly gracious and offered me an opportunity to put a bike in their booth in Vegas. A mad scramble and here it is, ready for the big show. I'm so excited to be heading out there on Monday. But first we have the Verge opener this weekend up in Vermont! And on top of that, a shipment of FMBs arrived from France arrived yesterday. I'm bouncing all over the walls of the shop. Mostly because I'm working like a madman, but also because I can barely contain myself. The best time of year is upon us. Hope to see some of you in VT and then out at Interbike.

It's pretty black and white...

You either love cyclocross or you've never heard of it.