Archive for September, 2009

Part 2

Sep 19

Posted by Erik Rolf in Frame Building | 1 Comment

I went into the shop and finished up the back half of Jinny’s bike. Braze-ons and machining are all that’s left. I think it turned out very nice, and I hope she enjoys it on her way to work.

I crimped the chainstays for added fender clearence

This seatstay bending tool has a lot of history.

It was used on the Ibis mojos and the Hakalugi cross bike

Mitering Seatstays

Ready to tack and weld

I added a little bend to the seatstay bride. It will also have a boss brazed into the back for a fender mount.

The Night Shift

Sep 17

Posted by Erik Rolf in Frame Building | No Comments

Making Old New Again

Sep 16

Posted by Erik Rolf in Apprenticeship | No Comments

Today I refinished a titanium frame that will be for sale in the proshop. This frame was built in 2006 for a local customer. He recently decided he wanted a half degree steeper head tube angle. Carl made him a new bike, and this one is up for grabs. All it really needed was a quick wipe down, but I decided to do the full buff. Now the proud new owner won’t even notice the bike is used. Gotta love ti!

A little dirty, but nothing major

All decals removed and prepped for the media blasting booth.

This is where the magic happens!

Fresh out of the oven

New wardrobe

Everything on and ready for a new home.

As a side note, this came back from paint today, I prepped it out for Bill to hang some parts on tomorrow.

Weekend Rides

Sep 14

Posted by Erik Rolf in Mountain biking | No Comments

Friday Night

Blackmore to South Cottonwood

Little Wapiti

New Site

Sep 11

Posted by Erik Rolf in Uncategorized | No Comments

This is the new version of my old site (alliancebicycles.blogspot.com). All of the previous postings have been transferred and I will continue to update this page. I will no longer be updating the blogspot site. Thanks to everyone for visiting the old blog. I hope you continue to stop in for updates about my adventures in framebuilding land

King Inset and John Caletti

Sep 10

Posted by admin in Apprenticeship, Frame Building | No Comments

Today I completed the finish work on a bike with a Chris King Inset. Carl fabricated the headtube and added some nice transition headtube rings.

John Caletti is also in town picking up a few pointers for the week. It’s really nice having another builder in the shop to get feedback from. John has provided a lot of interesting ideas and advice to my endless pestering.

I think he got a lot out of his visit to the shop and it was really fun having three minds working at once.

[View with PicLens]

Handbuilt Wheels

Sep 3

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I love, I mean love handbuilt wheels. I will go as far as to say that every high-end bike should have them. Handbuilt wheels are the perfect complement to a handbuilt frame. In fact, the two have a lot in common.

Handbuilt wheels are customizable in every way. There is way more to it than “you want Kings or DT Swiss”. Spoke count, crossings, spoke tension, and spoke gauge all contribute to overall ride feel, durability, and stiffness.

You can tune the ride by spoke gauge in the same way that tubing diameter is used on frames. The thicker the spoke, the stiffer the ride. By increasing the spoke crossings or count, the wheel gains lateral stiffness and vertical compliance.

Some of my favorite cyclocross wheels have a high spoke count with a three cross pattern, but a light gauge spoke on the front wheel and non-drive side of the rear wheel. The thin spokes have a perceived amount of give, yet the high spoke count and three cross pattern maintain the trueness of the wheel. I run a thick double butted spoke on the drive-side due to this being the most stressed side of either wheel.

This wheel setup, combined with a steel frame and carbon fork, handlebar, and seatpost, is nothing but pure butta’ on the dirt roads that I frequent.

I recently built Jinny some new wheels for her bike. The parts are simple and effective; Tiagra hubs, Salsa rims, and DT Swiss Competition spokes. Most people feel that handbuilt wheels should only be high-end. To be honest, at this price range it would be much easier to buy a prebuilt wheel from Mavic, Velocity, or FSA. I just love building my own wheels so much, that I don’t care to cut corners for the sake of “well it’s just a town bike, just get something that works.”

For me it’s one more piece of the puzzle to customize. A collection of goals and compromises to acheive the desired end product.

None of my bikes have Factory wheels with expensive and hard to find parts, and they never will.

Long live the J-bend spoke!