Jun 30
I finished my frame just before the weekend. I went to Ketchum for the 4th and rode some trails while I was there. My first frame came out great and I built it with the parts off of my Lemond. It had a cool raw “prototype” look for a couple of days…………………then it rained. Oh well, it’s not like you can keep steel from rusting.
It’s not a Strong, just a tip of the hat to why this bike exists.
Jun 30
Loaded up and ready to move down the street
Practiced brazing water bottle bosses.
Jun 29
On Sunday, my friend Duke and I decided we would go for a ride. We were a little slow moving from yesterday, but agreed it would be silly to waste a nice day. There is some really awesome riding outside the surrounding area of Bozeman. It’s close enough to do on a weekday; at about 50 miles one way. However, it’s more suited to weekend trips. We drove out towards Big Sky ski resort to the Lee Metcalf wilderness. This is a remote area that has a lot of grizzlies in it, so it nice to have someone to ride with.
The climb starts on a trail made by four wheelers. Texas Wheelchairs, as I prefer to call them. Its 2000 feet of climbing in 2.5 miles. As you could guess, not a whole lot of thought was given to grade reversals or sustainability. The problem now is that the water runs down it so fast that it’s nothing but hub deep ruts.
Fortunately, your in good company for scenery.
Duke heard there was a singletrack that was starting to develop in order to avoid the ATV trail. We found it, but it still needs a little ruffing in.
We had agreed to an “out walking the dog” pace, so the climb wasn’t any trouble at all. The meadow at the top made for a nice place to stop and eat some cookies.
A little more pedaling brought us out to a nice basin with these mountians on the apossing side of the valley. 
At this point it was all singletrack down. 
Nice, tight, and just right.
The downhill is a combanation of a swoopy fralic in the meadows and steep rocky sections in the trees.
Getting into the chunk.
All in all, not bad for a sunday stroll in the woods
Jun 29
Well I finally did it! I started my first bike on Friday night. I came in after work and mitered the front triangle and prepped all of the tubes.
The next day I welded it all together. It came out really nice and I’m happy with the results of my first bike. This will replace my Lemond that I use for commuting duties.
The front triangle is all True Temper OX platinum with an externally butted seat tube (34.9mm DT/31.7mm TT/28.6mm ST for the tech geeks). The rear triangle will be comprised of True Temper seatstays and Deda chainstays.
Checking the ST/BB on the alignment table.
Seatube and downtube/BB junction done with the headtube tacked.
Checking headtube twist halfway through.
All done with the front triangle.
Jun 19
It must have been broken black bike week or BBB for short. First it was the chainstay and now a downtube failure. This bike has seen some serious miles and abuse. It’s so old that it doesn’t have a serial number stamped on it. Carl assumed it to be around 13 years old. For starters, its a fillet brazed bike, but it also has a cool Columbus Life tubeset that Carl specified the downtube shape. It’s a pear shaped tube that Columbus still makes. This one is a little different, in that it transitions to a oval at the BB. This adds a touch of stiffness, but mainly gives it some distinction.
Like I stated earlier, this bike was hammered. The owner is a local guy, who rides about 10,000 miles a year. That’s a lot of miles on this poor old bike. On top of that, it appears the bike hasn’t had much maintenance either.
So I started by removing all of the parts from the bike. The headset was rusted solid from years and years of sweat. The headset spacers were stuck together with a salty version of JB weld. Carl cut a piece of the downtube out because we suspected it would be heavily rusted. It wasn’t bad for its age, so I proceeded on.
The crack went all the way around the tube.
I grabbed the hacksaw and removed most of the tube. In the past, I have used a disk grinder to ruff cut tubes. I can get in a little tighter with the hacksaw without the fear of cutting another tube.
Next I file the remaining tube down. In this case there wasn’t much to file because the hacksaw worked so well. I switched to the dynafile and sand it smooth and remove the paint surrounding the area.
Luckly, Carl had one of his downtubes left from years ago. This one was sitting in a box for eight years just waiting for that special frame. I mitered it on both ends and set the fixture to the original blueprint. Carl never throws any of the old information away, which made this step rather easy.
Apply a healthy amount of flux to all the tubes and load the downtube into the fixture.
Carl tacking the new downtube in the fixture.
Part 2 will continue next week.
Jun 18
A couple of weeks ago we received a customers bike that had been crashed in a race. Unfortunately, the bike didn’t fare so well and suffered a collapsed chainstay on the non-drive side. Fortunately, He ordered a titanium bike to “hold him over” for the time being.
This bike was far from seeing its last ride. Like any good frame made of steel or ti, they can be easily repaired. I cut the chainstay out of the frame last week, while Carl ordered a short-taper Columbus Life replacement to match the drive side. Then, I removed all of the powdercoat and prepped the area.
A week or so later the chainstay arrived. The first thing I did, was miter the chianstay where it joins the dropout. Then I placed the stay in a fixture and mitered the junction at the bottom bracket. A little adjustment for length on the dropout side, and it was ready to tack. Carl stepped in and welded the replacement.
Next, I mitered a new chainstay bridge, tacked it, and traded seats with Carl as he laid down the beads.
I placed the frame on the alignment table to adjust the rear tips to center. 
H-tooling the dropouts so they are flush.
Check the derailleur hanger to see that it’s strait.
Chase the BB threads.
Packaged and ready for paint.
Jun 18
Went into the shop last night and practiced welding for a few hours. I welded some seatstay cutoffs to a piece of 4130. This simulates the thick butt at the top of the seatubes that we use. Just a few pics below.
Jun 16
A couple of weeks ago I went to Helena to do some riding. It’s about a 90 minute drive for my house. My girlfriend’s family lives there, so we always have a place to stay. Helena is great because the trails dry out faster than in Bozeman. I would say that the trails are much smoother, but still have a good amount of climbing and the downhills are really fast.
I first went to Helena two years ago,because I had heard the riding was great. I try to get over there at least twice a year.
I was there for two days and rode 60 miles of smooth swoopy single track. I also went to a wedding on Saturday. So I had a little party time thrown in for good measure. I only took pictures on Friday afternoon.
For anyone that knows the area these shots include Wakina sky meadow, stairway to heaven, black forest, Mt Helena Ridge, Show me the horse, and Rodney Ridge.
As a side note, the Lenz performs admirably. It still feels like a race bike, but much more fun on the descents.
Jun 15
This spring I did a little revising to my mountain bike. It’s a Lenz Leviathan that has 4 inches of travel front and rear. This was alright for riding in Bend, where it is really smooth and fast. However, 100mm up front wasn’t cutting it for the majority of the rides I enjoy. I rode this bike with a longer travel fork last year, but I didn’t like it. The front end felt too “choppered” out and the quirky handling wasn’t worth the extra suspension. I installed a shorter fork(the same fork the bike was design around) and the bike felt great, go figure. This year I decided to get creative and run a longer travel fork again.
I decided I would machine the bottom of the headtube down. This would allow a longer fork to slip under and not affect the ride characteristics. I used the lathe at the shop and it took about 2 minutes to complete the job.
Next it was onto the cranks. I’ve been riding 29er mountain bikes since 2003. One thing I noticed, was the gearing changes with the increased wheel size. I use Race Face turbine cranks, which have the old mountain compact bolt diameter (94mm/58mm). This allows me to run smaller chainrings, which in turn, creates the same gear ratios as a 26 inch wheeled bike. I had been using the same pair from 2003, that I originally purchase used from eBay. To tell you the truth, I have no idea how old they were, but it was time to retire them. I had a brand new pair that I purchase a couple of years ago, because they stopped making them. The only problem was they where powdercoated red. Some marine grade stripper made quick work of that. I then finished them off by blasting them in the media booth. This is what we use to finish titanium frames, and the Lenz is actually finished in the same size media before it was anodized. I was left with a nice satin finish that can be freshened up as needed.
The next day I came in and laced my new wheels. I opted for a pair of Stan’s Flow rims, DT 240 hubs (20mm thru-axle front, 10mm thru-bolt rear), and 32 DT SuperComp spokes laced 3 cross. I also got a new toy while I was at it. I order a DT Swiss spoke tensionmeter. I’ve laced quite a few wheels and always had one at the shop, but now I have my own.
Jun 15
Ah Tig welding, no shortcuts on learning this one. When I first started working with Carl, we figured that he welds about four hours a week. Two hours per bike, two bikes per week. I come in on my own time and strive to weld for the same amount of time. Sometimes, I come in on the weekends and sometimes after work.
I have every tube I’ve every welded. Some are pretty embarrassing to look at. Just a few fine examples for comical relief.
I start by grabbing some tubing. Sometimes it’s 4130 from aircraft spruce, sometimes its seatube/seatstay cutoffs. I like to use actual bike tubing because it’s thinner than 4130. I get a better feel for heat management and it’s easier to blow a hole in it. Fixing a hole is a fast way to learn about power control.
When I practice welding I treat it the same as building a bike. I miter all of the tubes on the mill. I deburr, sand and 3M the inside and outside to ensure a quality joint. I finish off by cleaning with acetone to remove oils and dirt that may contaminate the weld.
Then I assume the position and weld, weld, weld. I usually try and complete at least 5 joints. I miter them at 90 degrees, mainly to save space. However, on occasion I will throw in a different angle.
Here are some pictures from June 2nd. These cutoffs are OX Platinum seatubes.
