Here’s some photos of the team racing on Sunday, October 11.  The course included a difficult run-up.  The hill wasn’t really long but very steep with railroad ties placed in irregular intervals as steps.  There was a great turn out in both racers and spectators.  The bikes and kits were well received again.

On my last entry I forgot to post a team picture.  This photo was taken at Madison-

From left to right- Scott Robertson, Beckie Alexander, Paul McKinney, Curt Goodrich (me), Tom MacDonald, Wallace Alexander, Mike Phillips.

On Sept. 26-27 the new Curt Goodrich Racing Team made it’s debut at the US Gran Prix of Cyclocross in Madison, WI.  We had a great time and everyone raced well.  The bikes and kits were well received.  I’m looking forward to more weekends of racing and camaraderie.   I’d like to thank our financial sponsors-

Fairview http://www.fairview.org/

Brasa http://www.brasa.us/

Tour de Farm http://tourdefarmmn.com/

Rush River Brewing Co. http://www.rushriverbeer.com/

Thank you so very much for your financial contributions.  Without your help the team would not be possible.  We will represent you well.

Here are some pictures from the weekend of racing-

The photo on the home page has changed. That’s obvious at quick glance and if you go to the cross bike section you’ll see more new photos. These pictures were taken by Brad@Urban Velo during NAHBS. I think he did a nice job. It’s amazing how much better pictures can be with proper lighting and somebody who knows what they’re doing with a camera.

Summer is here!  Get out there and enjoy it.

Finally I have a wireless connection.  My landlord provides a wireless signal but I was unable to reliably receive it in my shop.  Thanks to my friend Luke and a 100′ ethernet cord I’m now wireless.  Prior to that I had a dial up connection which was slow but workable until the new site went up.  The blog is now run with Word Press which is really cool but too big to work on the dial up.  The wireless connection allows me to load photos.

Here’s a recent frame.  It’s painted the same blue as the team bikes.  I really love the color.  The bike will be built up with 11 speed Super Record parts.

The show was a great success. The attendance rate was great and the people were so kind and gracious. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I can say that in retrospect though. Thursday night I didn’t sleep well. Nerves and excitement kept me awake. Hopefully it didn’t show on Friday but I was nervous. After all these years I’ve built a lot of bikes and feel confident in those abilities but I’d never done a show before. I calmed down shortly after the doors opened and realized my fears were unfounded.

I brought three bikes- road, sportif and cross. Simple but elegant paint jobs and nice builds. I wanted to accurately represent what I do rather than take two months to build some wild concept bike. The cross bike was a first for me of sorts. It was the first bike with my name on the down tube that used a carbon fork. I’m sponsoring a local cross team and this is one of the bikes. I wanted to do a carbon fork but wanted to use lugs that accomodated a 1.125″ steerer and a level top tube. There aren’t too many choices but I found a lug set that would work. I carved them up a bit and am very happy with the look. To my eye, the bike looks thoroughly modern yet preserves a timeless classic appearance. At least that’s my goal. The color is a blue that I’ve been wanting to use for some time. All of the bikes will be painted the same. The top tube has “TEAM ISSUE” stenciled on along with the riders name. It seems like a nice touch and sets the team bikes apart from customers’ bikes. The cross bike won an award at the show for Best offroad bike. I’m honored. Cyclingnews was at the show and had nice coverage of the show. Here’s what James wrote about the cross bike.

The show was fun on many levels. Meeting customers and other builders. As a craftsperson, one tends work in isolation. Meeting ones peers and talking shop is invaluable and satisfying on many levels. Like I said in my first sentence the show was a success.

It came to my attention that my blog was not accepting comments. I was receiving notifications of a pending comment but was unable to see what the comments were. At first, I chalked it up to spam but my friend Luke told me that something was wrong. Anyway, all’s well now and the blog will accept comments. Of course, after I approve them. For anyone that has tried to comment in the past and found it odd or frustrating their comments weren’t posted, I’m sorry and hope in the future you’ll continue to post here.

If you’re on the fence about attending NAHBS this year, I hope to see you there. This is going to be another great show.

The show is drawing near. I’m getting very excited and a little bit nervous. This will be my first time showing my bikes at anything like this. The frames are built and painted. I’m assembling the bikes now. I still need to get some odds and ends together for my booth.

The picture is a seat lug show of one of the show bikes. The lug is a Richard Sachs casting. You can see that I removed the cast in binder ears and brazed on a M6 pinch barrel.

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.