Something for the winter! A friend of mine sent me a link to one of these so it seemed to good an opportunity to miss. Bit research and Bob’s your snowman’s uncle – snow bike / ski bike. A few bits to make to complete it and fingers crossed for snow.
Beautiful Autumn ride with my wife on her Tomobike Mixte.
Copper coated fixie Columbus steel frame, carbon seat post, Velowland copper coated carbon seat, lightweight shallow rake steel forks, aero topped carbon bars, 50mm aero rims. 
I wanted to try copper coating a frame so combined it with some tube bending on my latest singlespeed frame. I couldn’t decide whether to leave it shiny or let it age and oxidise. Even I thought it looked pretty cool shiny so have tried 2k lacquering it to see how that sticks and lasts.
I had the fortune to have a go at the Viking Challenge this year Good excuse for my brother and I to take my cross bikes and 29er for a spin. Very nice day and interesting back to back of the bikes not to mention some stonking cake.
My son has a scooter which is great but could really do with some proper sized wheel and tyres that can deal with average pavement surfaces. So we knocked this up using some old BMX parts. I have to say it’s an absolute hoot to ride. Full bespoke version 2 is already in the planning.
The slightly long awaited birth of my eldest’s bike for Uni. Finished a while ago but never posted. We went away from the fixie idea having seen how lumpy Newcastle and the surrounding countryside is. Hopefully this will make the commute a little easier and enjoyable. Just about enough clearance for 2 inch tyres if desired.
And taking pride of place in the student digs kitchen.
Inaugural bamboo bike ride was great fun and turned a few heads at the local cafe. Unfortunately we were one down due to late delivery of some wheels but the other two faired well. Interesting the amount of attention the unfinished ‘lugs’ got. It really did look like it was just tied up with string – cool!
New T-shirt design turned up. This is the simplified version of the truth! The real version would only fit on an XL:-)
I’ve got something slightly different underway and wanted to make something pretty short at the rear with close clearance. Looks like I won’t be using a bigger tyre than that then!
Having made one for a steam punk bike I wanted to experiment with a few more styles and so I made some more for some other bikes. They look so cool in the flesh.
When I was at Spin London last year I showed Sjoerd from Vellowland a doodle of an idea for a fork I had. Always been fascinated by the Cannodale Lefty fork for it quirkiness. He liked it so having found a front wheel I eventually got round to knocking this up.
Now I need to finish it up and do the frame to match.
Some time ago I bought a Sturmey Archer S2C hub. I’d read a bit of bad press but wanted to try the idea out as umpteen years of pulling away from traffic lights and gurning up hill on my single speed left me thinking it might be a good idea. Fortunately I picked it up nearly new built into a wheel for the price of the rim alone. Maybe that should have told me something.
It started off ok but did start making some strange noises and the gear change was just unreliable. It was good to be able to chose when to change gear , if indeed it would change, except it needs a little backpedal. When the big gear gets to much when going up a hill, you slow the pressure and try to hook the lower gear. If you backpedal too much you hit the rear brake or if it doesn’t change pretty quickly you come to a grinding halt, stuck in the big gear. So I thought i’d try an SRAM Automatix instead.
I built a new one into a wheel and immediately found the (well documented) automatic gear change was at the wrong point. It started well, again, in the lower gear but you get to about 60 rpm and it changes up. Annoying on the flats but impossible to use on a hill with sticking below the gurning rate of 40 rpm. Who designs this stuff? Thankfully (thanks to Dave McCraw’ s website) there’s info on that there interweb of how to fix it. A few minutes to whip the hub apart and effect a change and things are much better. Test rode it to Brooklands Motorcycle Show today and enabled lower gear hill climbing but with big gear for the flats and down.
The lower gear for starting off is nice but need to remember it’s got a coaster break when hopping up curbs!
It seems that most of the nuts on single speed wheels look ok when new but cut up, rust and look pretty dreadful after w while. As part of a steam punk bike build we were looking to add various amounts of brass components and knocked up these brass wheel nuts and bottle cage bolts. They look soooo much better than the standard steel ones!
I finally got round to finishing the build of my Bamboo framed bike. The weather was looking up so thought it was about time. Of course the forecast is now wazzing down all week. I decided to go 8 speed for ease and, as someone kindly put it, traffic light colour scheme. We’ve got a Bamboo ride out planned in July so must give it a try as soon as the weather clears.
I had the great opportunity to build a balance bike for the grand daughter of a friend of mine. She chose the colour to match the new Tomo Bikes kit (or because it was a pretty colour!). Got some adjustable dropouts which with a bit of filing could make the angle needed for the chain and seat stays. What is a chain stay on a balance bike called? I wanted to go for a sort mixte look as it was for a young lady! Happy riding Amelia.
Parts for Jenny’s balance bike build have started arriving. Frame parts coming soon. Will be fun to make and start early introduction to bespoke bikes:-)
New project underway to build a steam punk themed bike. Lots of brass and detailed parts still to make. Nice skinny wishbone seats stays.
Brass stem cap with fixing for copper tubing. Not for the weight conscious but looks cool.
29er all finished and ready for it’s first proper ride. Columbus zona tubing. Carbon stem, post and bars. Rigid and 1*10 for now. Got that lovely new bike feel.
Remembering the last dry day out on the cross bike – roll on summer.
Having had a night with a few like minded friends I got round to building my bamboo frame up today. The Bamboobee frame comes as a kit with the box making the jig. All worked out ok with the need for a few adjustments of some dodgy joints. I decided to use some black pigment to colour the hemp used in the kit. It did make it look extra messy! Just needs 48 hours to set but looking forward to getting it out of the jig. Can’t wait to see how it rides.
A lush choice of clay puddle grey/green from Armoutex came out really nice.
I wanted a small rack for carrying tent or sleeping bag on the front forks of my 29er. Knocked this up out of stainless to go on my new 29er bikepacker.
I wanted to create a 29er that could run biggish tyres, single speed or geared. This can easily take up to 2.5 tyres with as short a rear end as I could squeeze in to reduce overall length. The forks are modified Surlys to take a Salsa Anything cage and a front luggage rack. Just about ready to go to paint – just need to decide on the colour!
I love my Brompton but wanted something I could ride a little further and faster in comfort. I wanted slightly larger wheels and full size frame so came up with this. Nearly ready for a first test.
Had the pleasure of taking the Triumph bike down to Jack Lilley Triumph in Ashford for some photos. Big thanks to Hugh and boys for the warm welcome. Bagged some pictures with their 
lovely Triumph Thruxton, 675 and Scrambler.
I stumbled over this on t’internet. Not one of my bikes (it’s built by Motorless City Bike Co in Detroit) but I love it and good coffee. Might have to book a trip to Detroit!
All set-up completed last night, ready for the Spin London Urban Cycle Show this weekend.
This is my first show so should be interesting to get some feedback and hopefully drink some really good coffee. We ended squeezing 4 bikes onto the stand. My cyclocross bike, Lisy’s Mixte, my single(double) speed and the new 20 inch wheel bike.
I also finished a couple of bike frame stools as standing up for 3 days is probably going to be tiring. I added a rack to one of them so I has somewhere to put some business cards.
For the Spin London Cycle Show I needed to have some stands to show off the bikes. We did a bit of research at the Bespoked show in April to see what looked good. Having worked out how many bikes I can fit into (quite a small) stand we decided to have something to raise the bikes slightly off the ground and holds them in a stable way.
I also got the plasma cutter out to make a few Tomo signs.
Something very orange is stirring in preparation for the Spin London Cycle Show. Only a few days to complete the build so fingers crossed.
I’ve just been lucky enough to spend the last two evenings with Alex at London Bike Kitchen learning how to build wheels properly. Can’t wait to get some bits together and get building. The winter evenings will never be the same.
Checkout – http://lbk.org.uk/
Nice classic Kona jumper too!
Lisy needed a rack for her Mixte so it was a chance to make a stainless one. Got a new Ridgid tube bender, some 10mm tubing and 4mm plate and bobs your uncle. I’ve tried using cheaper tube benders before but this made the job much easier. Solid handles, with flat sides to easily lock in the vice. Angle marker made it much easier to get the angles close to that desired.
New T-shirt turned up this week. Came out nice.
Spin London 2014 was awesome. Great bikes, bits, beer, bike polo and people.