Doug's Bike is Done!

Jason dropped off Doug's bike on Sat, so I got the headset pressed in today and gave it to Drew for some of his photo magic. Here's a couple shots.
















I decided to mount the front brake for the photos, looks pretty sharp with the silver headset. If you peek through the brake you can just see the fender mount on the underside of the fork crown. I think this really cleans up the look of the fender when you don't have to use the clip included with the Honjo fenders.

The seat stays got a little tight with the cable routing and the rack mounts, but everything has it's space.

I didn't want to risk scratching the fenders, but they are painted to match with the triangular tips in white with a black pinstripe. Very classy, I look forward to seeing the bike complete when Doug gets it finished.

Gibbs Lake Cross Race

Headed out to Gibbs lake near Janesville this past Sunday to watch the cross races and see James in his spiffy new Ellis jersey and shorts.

On Saturday James raced in Verona, near Madison and took 3rd place, congrats! But I think the fatigue was getting to him on Sunday, he looked to be suffering but still managed a respectable 5th.

I'm still getting used to the new camera, so I haven't got the focus quite dialed in. The trees and background are sharp, but James in kinda blurry.

Rolling up to the barriers and running like hell.

Don't look so unhappy James, there's always next week!

On the 26th, the race is in our back yard at Washington Park in Milwaukee. Ellis Cycles will be there to support James and we'll have a tent with some really pretty bikes to check out, including James'. Stop by and say hi, you might even see me racing in the Cat 4 race, hopefully I can stay upright!

Harlan's Singlespeed

Harlan's single speed is off to paint, here's some shots of the latest Ellis. I'm not normally a weight weenie, but this one came at 3.5 lbs for the frame.

I really like this fork crown for road bikes that don't need clearance for large tires. It's super clean and tight.

I positioned the internals almost at 6:00 under the top tube, this way if he wants to run it brake less you won't be able to see the cable routing at all.

Harlan wanted the classic side tack seat stays. I made the cap as long and tapered as possible.

These were some old Rivendell lugs that were saved from the trash at Waterford. I carved them back a bit and added the circles on the lug points.

Pacenti track dropouts, nice, clean and elegant. I really work to get those crisp reveals along the dropout edges.

Paul's Singlespeed

Paul's bike ready to for paint, I set it up with his wood fenders just to make sure all the clearances were good. He wanted a single speed that he could run fenders with and up to 32c tires. In order to make wheel removal easier with fenders I decided to use some of my Campy 1010a dropouts so the wheel would come out forward rather than back. It works just the way I planned too, I can just clear the bolt in the chain stay bridge when removing the wheel.

The inspector was looking over my shoulder the whole time.

THIS IS ALL WRONG!!!!

Those sweet Campy dropouts, I cut off the derailleur hanger and filed the groove on the bottom of the dropout to match the non-drive side.

Some shots of the head lugs, they were a set of pressed lugs with basic windows that got pretty modified.

The seat lug got a new pinch barrel to replace the flimsy pressed one and some extra brass for shaping. The boss in the background!

Below you can see both heart cutouts on the seat lug, and the nifty canti brake stop.

More Progress on Paul's Singlespeed

All the tubes and lugs cleaned and ready to braze.

I used a set of old pressed lugs which came with triangular windows in the corners. I filled a bit of the window with brass and then cut the filigree.

The lugs also had cutouts on that looked vaguely like hearts, so I just finished the jobs and made hearts.

Here's the internal brake cable fitting after brazing. I get quite a few questions on how I do internals, so here's a couple shots.

On the left I have one end ferrule which is already brazed onto the smaller internal tube that the cable will pass through. I've drilled and shaped the hole in the top tube for the ferrule and now I need to fit it to the length I need and braze the second ferrule on which I'm preparing to do in the photo on the right. Once I have both ends brazed on, I fit it into the tube and do the final braze shown above. Once the flux is soaked off, I'll finish the protruding ferrule. On this particular frame I choose to finish it flush with the tube, on other bikes I may use a different look.

Ellis Cross at Lapham Peak

Here's James hauling through the finish line on the first lap. After last week's success, James upgraded to Cat. 2, so now the competition gets quite a bit stiffer!

Here's James' brother Jesse, he went out early and pretty much led the race from start to finish.

The race for second and third was tight the whole way with James and #38 trading back and forth throughout the race.

Not too dirty yet!!

James' keeping it close.

He's leading out of the barriers this lap!

A slide out on the this lap and James is chasing again. They're passing a lapped rider on the left.

I didn't get to the finish line for a photo, but here's the post race shot. James scored 2nd place after chasing down #38 on the last lap.

Now this is how you're supposed to look after a cross race!

James, I think you've got something on your face!@#?... Congratulations!

Paul's Singlespeed

I got a good start on Paul's single speed today. The main tubes are mitered and the lugs are well on the way to being ready. I still need to prep the bottom bracket and and get the chain stays mitered, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Here's the main diamond set up in the fixture.

The lugs are a set of old pressed lugs I had been playing around with. I hadn't finished the whole set, but I showed them to Paul and he liked what he saw. I'm excited to get them brazed up and finished.

Here's the chain stays and fork tips. I did the tight retro bend on the fork blades, I really like the way these ride and absorb shock on the road.

The fork tip and rear dropout freshly brazed.

You may have noticed the old Campy dropouts with the derailleur hanger cut off, I'm using these so Paul can run fenders and not have to mess with them every time he needs to take off the rear wheel. The frame is designed to work with 32C tires and cantilever brakes for what Paul calls "urban guerrilla" riding.