Archive for March, 2010

New Town Bike for Jinny

Mar 22

Posted by Erik Rolf in Frame Building | 4 Comments

 I built a new town bike for my girlfriend on Saturday.  She moved to Ketchum ID last summer to pursue a job as a CPA, since that sort of thing is pretty limited around Bozeman.  Needless to say, I spend a lot of time back in the old stomping grounds of Idaho.  She has a bike in Ketchum that I built for her last summer, but she doesn’t have one here.   Now she will have something to ride when she visits.

I decided to get a little crazy with the tube bending on this one.  I bent the chainstays and one of the seat stays last fall.  I lost interest in the project because I thought it would look silly.  I had the tubes sitting around and Jinny always thought it was cool, so I built it for her.  She thought that a bent seat tube would tie it together, so I added that as well.  I think the back half looks like a sail for a boat.  I will be building a fork with curved blades for it too.    I’m just about done except for braze-ons and brake mounts, which I planned to do on Sunday.  Instead I got out for a much needed road ride.

Making the seat collar for a 27.2mm seat post

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The seat tube with insert welded in

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Front triangle tacked

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Last week I practiced welding on some more titanium.  Hopefully this will start to look like a bike soon.

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New Page

Mar 5

Posted by Erik Rolf in Bikes | 2 Comments

  I’ve added a new page to the website called project bike.  I will be offering complete bikes at a discounted rate, the catch is they are already built.  So if the size works for you, feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

I’m offering spec bikes for a few reasons, the main one being brand development.  At this point, nothing is set in stone for branding of the bikes.  I’m still working with Spectrum Powderworks to nail the logos and really have that polished.  I would also like to establish relationships with venders of tubing, parts, paint, and other necessary items.  I want to have all of these things nailed down and streamlined so that I can offer a realistic build time to future customers.  When I send a bike to paint or order a build kit, I want them to already know who I am, I want to know how they do business, so that I can plan mine. This will allow the best possible transition from my apprenticeship in the fall.

The current bike was displayed at NAHBS.  I’ve also posted a few times about the style of bike, as well as, some build photos which can be seen below.  I’ve included a bikeCAD file that displays all of the dimensions for fit and geometry.  The saddle height and bar drop can change, but they are listed for reference.  The stem is currently flipped -10 degrees with 20mm of spacers underneath.  The bike was design with a 23mm headtube extension so that no spacers could be used for most people, however I left the steer tube a little long just in case you need the additional handlebar height.  The stem could also be flipped in the positive rise direction.  Again, please feel free to email me with any questions.