Dragging out.

Really busy times with a lot of things not bike-making related. BUT, I have gotten Jerry's bike physically complete, all it needs now is some prep-work and paint, and we're done! Oh yeah, and a fork, but that's coming from ENVE next week. Stoked, super stoked.

Ridable Bike!!

 

At long last I finally have Jerry's bike in an operational state, and it looks GOOD! It took me a while to get things sorted out with some of the fittings and cable stops, but I'm pretty pleased with the end result. I've ordered up an Enve fork and will clearcoat the frame when everything gets here. I'm really looking forward to getting this one put together, as I've got a feeling that it will be pretty sweet. I was able to really refine my joint layups and with a new masking/bleeder technique, I think that this is my finest frame yet. I think that we're going to go with pearl black paint similar to the new lettering I did on Mark 1.2.

Fill 'er up.

 
A little filler epoxy to make the seat cluster a bit tidier and then lay it up this weekend. If I'm really good, I should be able to get this mostly done this weekend, and then on to the finish work.

Jerry's Bottom Bracket

 

After 6 bikes, I'm finally dialing in my technique on complex joints such as the BB. I would say that this is my best take yet on what is probably the hardest joint to get laid up nicely.

Holiday at Daruma Cycles

 
Spent a great week back home in Iowa over the Christmas holiday. I always like stopping at my Dad's shop and poking around. He really does a good job with the shop, and they were quite busy despite the snow, which was good to see. I also discovered that the bike we made for his 60th birthday has earned a place of honor in the winter. They even decided to spruce it up a bit with some lights. Quite festive!

Whaaa Happened?

 

I guess that the crappy acrylic spraypaint that I used to cover the original repair to this bike was somewhat, wait, TOTALLY incompatible with my primer/topcoat system. Things were looking a bit blotch when wet, but then after the paint dried, things really looked bad. I had to sand it down 3 separate times to get this effect to go away, and then ended up just using water-based airbrush paint which was not going to react with the basecoat at all. Ugh, this is why paintjobs cost a lot. They are HARD to do well!

Painting is not my thing

 

At long last I have finally gotten Jason's bike repainted. Though i got myself a nice new HVLP gun, which makes painting a lot easier due to the appropriate size and better action, this was nothing but a pain in my dirty basement. Next time I take on a painting project, I'm pretty much going to limit myself to painting things that are dirt colored, that way when the dust and lint and hair eventually percolate onto the wet paint, they'll just blend in. Ugh.