The new website and blog have been live now for a week. I am so pleased with how it turned out. Working with Todd was a real pleasure and he did an amazing job. Thank you so very much.

The North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show is coming (NAHBS) up at the end of February. I’m working feverishly to get ready. This will be my first time showing at the big show. I’m excited. There will be a bit of a moratorium on pictures of projects that I will be showing. Sort of an attempt to have it be a surprise. Rest assured I’m bringing real bikes for real riders. I just can’t get into making crazy concept bikes or furniture. Others might enjoy that but it’s not my thing.

This bike is built around 26″ wheels and clearances for 55mm tires. The fork crown is a Pacenti and is reminiscent of the old Bridgestone mountain bike crown. I like it. The crown takes a 1.125″ steerer so that’s why the head tube is so large. You’ll notice the frame is fillet brazed but there’s a seat lug. I thought the lug “went” with the crown nicely and since this bike isn’t a mountain bike I didn’t feel it was necessary to comply with that aesthetic. The paint is the same one that I used on the early bike entitled candy apple red. The color isn’t a true candy because the clear coat isn’t tinted to create the effect. The effect is in the base coat. It’s really a nice color and reminds me of the Colnago Sarroni rode back in the day. The water bottle braze ons near the fork crown are for a rack that will be made in the future. The rack will be a large platform style rack to carry groceries. The customer wanted to wait on that project but it made sense to put the mounts on now.

This frame was just sprayed with an epoxy primer. The epoxy primers are really good at sealing up the tubes from moisture and stay put extremely well. Even if the paint/clear chips off the primer stays on. This is important in preventing rust. The frame bakes at 140 degrees F for 40 minutes. Then the primer is ready to be sanded with 400 grit. This ensures the base coat will go on smoothly and adhere well. After the paint job is complete the primer will be covered and go unnoticed. But the primer is the foundation of the paint job and like all foundations are very important to the finished product.