Ellis Cycles

Rose Valley Ride

2011-11-16T17:05:00.007-06:00

Well, on Tuesday Steve was nice enough to round up some of the local guys for a ride that he calls Rose Valley. I pictured riding through pristine valley covered in wild flowers, but as it turns out, we never even go to Rose Valley on this ride, we just turn around at the road that goes to there. That being said, it was an amazing ride!

We started from Patagonia in Ventura, so roughly sea level, and started to head inland and upward. The early miles were rolling, but all pretty much tilting up to some extent, and once we had ridden about 15 miles or so, the real climbing kicked in. Mark rode alongside and stressed that I should take it easy and pace myself as the climb proper would take about an hour, but even that was hard to process, not sure I've even been on a climb for that long? Well, he wasn't kidding, after a short steep section at the start, the grade settled down and we quickly split up to climb at our own pace. While it was easy at first to spin a 19t cog, as the miles wore on, I found myself working my way up to the larger cogs as the miles and elevation piled up. By the top, I was using that 28t quite a bit more than any of the others!

I regret now that I didn't stop a couple times to take pictures, the scenery from the numerous switchbacks was incredible, but I was worried that if I stopped, I'd have a heck of a time getting going again!

Here's a shot of the road to Rose Valley, aka our turnaround spot at roughly 3500" of elevation, and Ben, Steve and Mark waiting for the rest of us slowpokes! Chris apparently didn't get enough climbing, as he's in the distance heading up a bit more of the remaining climb.

Steve rolled in a just a bit after I got there, not looking too much the worse for wear. After we all regrouped, it was time for the downhill back home, and that was a BLAST! I should have kept track of how long the climb took vs. the descent, but my GPS was acting a bit sketchy in the canyons yesterday. It sure didn't take long to get back down, and even after we got off the mountain proper, most of the way home was downhill as well, so we were making pretty good time.

Unfortunately, with just a couple miles to go, Steve flatted his front tire just before a quick turn in the bike path, and he took a tumble right in the middle of the group. Thankfully, there didn't seem to be any serious injuries, and no one else went down either, so that's good. Above is a shot of Steve checking to make sure everything is still where it's supposed to be!

Nice fist sized hole in that jersey though! There's my brother laughing at the poor guy! ;-)

As we were loading the bikes back up in the car, we noticed that Steve had skidded right though his rear tire trying to avoid the "other" Steve's crash. That tire is toast!

Cheers,
Dave

Riding in Southern California

2011-11-14T16:59:00.010-06:00

I've managed to escape the fast approaching Wisconsin winter by heading out to visit my brother Steve in sunny Ventura, CA for a week. I've been to Ventura quite a few times in the past, but I've never had my bike with me to try any riding out here, so this trip is a first in that respect.

When I got here on Sat afternoon, I had just enough time to get my bike unpacked and back together in time for a quick shakeout ride with Steve. It was kinda gray and windy, and we got sprinkled on a just a bit as well, but it still felt great to be riding in the warmth.

As for Sunday, the weather cleared up and as you'll see in the photos, it was beautiful and sunny for our whole ride. We got together with Steve's friend Mark around noon, and headed out toward Santa Paula and later Fillmore on 126. The wind was blowing in off the ocean and so we had a decent tailwind pushing us inland, and it also doesn't hurt to have Mark pulling, as he's a Cat 1 racer on Team Clif Bar! Once we hit Fillmore, we turned right and started heading for Grimes Canyon, and what had been a pretty flat fast ride was about to get quite a bit more vertical...
As soon as the road started tilting skyward, Mark dropped Steve and I like a bad habit, and about halfway up Grimes Canyon we stopped for photos and I took this quick shot of Steve in his snazzy Ellis kit.
Near the top, I stopped again to take a couple more quick shots of the winding road up the Canyon. Now I probably didn't have to stop, but taking a photo was a nice excuse for a break from suffering on the climb for a few moments! After plummeting off Grimes, (one of my strong points, seeing as how I weigh about 30-40lbs more than Mark and Steve), we continued our loop toward Balcom Canyon road, and while it was certainly shorter than Grimes, the last bit was much steeper! I needed to go to my "Suitcase of Courage" for this one, and luckily I had just enough to get to the top. Once again, Mark dropped the Wages boys, but he was nice enough to wait for us at the top.

Here's a shot of Mark and Steve waiting to head down from the Summit of Balcom Canyon Road. I will admit that I'm glad we came up the south side of Balcom, because the north side looked pretty darn intimidating, and Mark warned me as we rolled away to be careful...

If you look to the right of the photo, you can see the downhill that we're about to do. There are some really steep pitches near the top, and I was riding my brakes for the first half of the way down just to be on the safe side.

One more quick shot of Team Ellis before the descent!

Once we got back down to the valley, we took a quick detour through a Limoneira , (a lemon orchard). A beautiful old building, and it is amazing to see all the rows of fruit trees heavy with green lemons.

By this time, both Steve, myself and Mark were all starting to feel the affects of the long ride, so we slowed it down a bit, and Mark pretty much pulled our sorry butts the rest of the way back to Ventura! When we left, I thought the ride was going to be around 40-50 miles, and I figured that would be plenty, as I haven't been doing many long rides as of late anyway. It turned out that when we rolled into Steve's condo, my computer read 62 miles, just a tad more than I had anticipated, and we were both pretty wreaked!

My last shot of a huge Eucalyptus tree just as we were leaving the Limoneira.

Cheers,
Dave

The Winter Bike

2011-11-03T19:49:00.004-05:00

The old cross bike is setup for the crappy weather to come. I fitted up a set of Honjo fenders along with some 32c Vittoria Randonneur Hyper's to deal with the sketchy road conditions, and I added a front and rear light for those nights where the sun sets at 4:00pm! I managed to get out for a couple rides, and while it's not the fastest bike in the world, it still has plenty of get up and go. I sometimes forget how much I like this bike.

Once I get some winter shoes, I'll switch the pedals for some SPD's, but other than that, I hope I'm pretty much set to go.

Cheers,
Dave

John's Modern Classic

2011-10-18T21:31:00.003-05:00

I know, I haven't been updating like I should, but that doesn't mean I haven't been building and sending out cool bikes! Just finished up John's Modern Classic this afternoon and did the hand off at Ben's Cycle this evening. He choose to go with Dura Ace Di2 and my DRB (dirt road bike) geometry with long reach brakes for a super cool and also versatile bike.

My brother and I posted up lots of new bikes in the gallery on my site; http://www.elliscycles.com/gallery.html, and you can also check out some of the bikes I have in process on my Picasa page. I'm working on another Modern Classic for Mark, and a cool road bike for Mike with stainless lugs and a stainless rear triangle. Lots more fun projects coming up too, so check back once in a while!

Cheers,
Dave

D2R2 / Good Night Irene

2011-08-30T15:23:00.010-05:00

Well, it's been quite a week. I headed out for D2R2 early (4:00am) Wed. of last week to beat the traffic in Chicago, and ended up doing the whole drive to my folks in Schenectady, NY in one big day. Thurs. was a bit disappointing, as it rained the better part of the day, but I spent some time helping Mom out with some odd jobs she'd been saving up for my visit.

Friday I spent some time getting the DRB ready along with my cross bike for Henrik to ride. Cleaned them off, (the cross bike was pretty gross), and then headed out for a short spin before dinner to loosen up my legs. Got to spin around Schenectady a bit and saw some areas that I haven't been to in years. Some things change, but so much of it was just as I remember it, funny to do a loop around Central Park, the same one that I first raced on maybe 20 years ago?

A shot of me, post ride with the DRB.

Henrik arrived later Friday evening, and I got the cross bike set up with his pedals and the right seat height so we were ready for the early wake up on Sat. morning. We headed out for Deerfield around 5:30am, and when we rolled into the big field at D2R2, it seemed everyone was already there! We both grabbed out registration stuff, queue sheets, some food and hustled to get ready to go. As I was tightening my shoes up, poof!, the wire popped out of my Specialized Boa dial... I had messed around with this the night before, and thought I had it fixed, but apparently not. Now I'm dripping with sweat and stressing out about my shoe before I even leave the parking lot! I finally tied the wire off and managed to get the shoe reasonably tight, so I rolled out with my fingers crossed that it would stay on my foot for the next few hours!

Last year, I remember leaving the start with a fairly large group, and we stayed together up until we hit Old Albany hill, but this year it was just Henrik and I for this beginning part of the ride, not a problem, and once we got to the hill, it was nice to have the road to ourselves and pick the best line up the dirt and gravel. As we worked our way up the hill, we overtook a few folks and this seemed to be the way it would work the rest of the day, not huge groups, just ones and twos that we would see as we passed or got passed ourselves.

Here's a shot of Carl's DRB from early this spring in Mass.

Just before the first rest stop, we caught up with Carl, the proud owner of the yellow DRB that I built for myself last fall, and at the rest stop I ran into Bill T. (longtime D2R2 aficionado) and Dan from Maryland, both friends from Cirque. I guess Bill had talked Dan into coming up for D2R2, and Dan was coming to grips with the hills (or should I say mountains) that D2R2 serves up. For my own part, I was feeling a bit rough, I don't know if it was the humidity or just the hills, but I was having a heck of a time getting up the hills without feeling like I was going to toss my cookies. In a way, I think that having done the ride last year worked against me, first, I knew that I was suffering on those first couple climbs, and then I could imagine all the climbs yet to come, and I was having trouble mentally preparing myself for that. Last year, it was blissful ignorance all the way...

Henrik seemed to be riding quite strong this year, and I'm going to blame him a bit for my lack of pictures. Last year, I would get up the climbs a bit ahead, and then I'd have a chance to break the camera out and take some pictures, this year I was struggling to stay on Henrik's wheel!

Well, we did make it, and while it was a struggle, all that has started to fade from my memory already, and I'm already thinking about next year!

Henrik, post ride, "Where's the beer"?

So, we finished up around 3:00, and after we had gotten ourselves together and had some food, we headed back for my folks around 4:00. Just as we were rolling out, the first wave of rain started falling, and I couldn't help but think of the folks who were still out on the course, that couldn't have been too much fun. We had been concerned about when the first rains from Irene would hit, and I think everyone involved was pretty happy that it held off as long as it did. I can't imagine heading down the descent on Hawk's Rd in the rain. I knew that Henrik was interested in getting back ASAP, as he still had to drive south to New Paltz and he'd potentially be heading right into the storm.

When we got back to my folks, the rain was just spitting, and as I unloaded the bikes to get Henrik's pedals off, it occured to me that I should probably just reload them back up right then and there, as it wasn't likely to be raining any less any time soon. After I headed in and got cleaned up, I made the decision to start out for home that night to try and outrun the storm. I had already cancelled my visit to NYC Velo on Fri, (sorry guys!), and it just didn't make sense to hang out for the storm, who knew when I'd be able to get out of town after the storm rolled through. So, at 8;30 I headed out for Rochester, where I had a reservation that Mom had made at a Microtel. I had a couple cans of Coke to keep me awake, and I cranked the radio too, but that was not a fun drive. When I finally got to the motel, I barely made it to the bed before I collapsed.

The next morning, I headed out under gray skies and northerly winds that lasted all the way to Cleveland, OH, quite a span that Irene had. Well, it seems that Irene lived up to the hype as well, sounds like the section of road along the Green River at D2R2 is no longer in existence, and I can only imagine what the roads around the area look like with downed trees. Around my folks in Schenectady, most all of the main roads were shut down in some area or another, and thousands of people were in the dark. I'm glad I headed out when I did, it was quite a trip.

My thoughts are with all the folks who are cleaning up the devastation that Irene left behind. Glad to be home...

Dave

D2R2 Weekend!

2011-08-25T16:16:00.005-05:00

The DRB!

It's almost here, the infamous Deerfield Dirt Road Randonee! I packed up the car on Tues. night and headed out early early on Wed. morning, (4am?). After a fun filled 16 hour car ride, I pulled into my folks house in Schenectady, NY. I've got a couple days to hang out here before Henrik and I head over on Sat for the ride.

My pal Dave Schlabowske also wrote up a nice article about the DRB on the Wisconsin Bike Fed website recently, and I should also credit him with the nice photo of the DRB shown above! You can check this article out here; Over the bars in Wisconsin

I've brought my camera along, so providing we're not riding in the eye of Hurricane Irene, I'll try to snap a few photos for an update after the ride!

In addition to D2R2, I'm also planning a stop at NYC Velo on Sun evening, there will be a chance to chat with folks and a chance to pick my brain about framebuilding, the sport of cricket, and walrus'. (Actually, we should probably stick to framebuilding, as I hardly know anything about cricket or walrus'!)

Check out the link here; NYC Velo

Cheers,
Dave

RV's Gran Fondo

2011-08-01T18:35:00.000-05:00

Lisa hiked over to the top of the final climb, (what I've nicknamed the "Will Crusher"), and took this photo of me! It was one heckuva hot day, and after three laps of the 22 mile Gran Fondo course, I was ready to call it quits. Unfortunately, even when you decide you've had enough, there's still the 1/2 mile? climb back to the park/finish line that was at least as steep as any climb on the course.

The course for the Gran Fondo was the proposed road race course for the 2016 Olympics, had Chicago won the bid. It would have made for some interesting racing, and I can only conclude that the big sprinters would have had a hard time, this seemed like a climber's course.

Maybe next year it won't be quite so hot, and I'll be in better shape... It would have been cool to finish a full five laps, but I did have a good time and met some nice folks to boot!

Cheers,
Dave

My New DRB!

2011-07-26T10:29:00.003-05:00

It took a while, but it's finally done! This frame is actually the one that I'm brazing in Chris' video in Vimeo, and I displayed it at NAHBS as a "raw" frame, but since then it's kept sliding onto the back burner as Jason worked on frames for customers. If you haven't seen the video, definitely take a couple minutes to check it out, it was filmed over the course of one day in my shop this past Jan, and it features both of Ellis' furry mascots, Woody and Chuckles!

Ellis Cycles from Chris Harris on Vimeo.

Getting back to the bike though, it's my personal DRB, and I designed it to accept mini v-brakes for maximum tire clearance and it features fully internal wired Di2 components. It's perfect for exploring dirt roads, and with a skinny set of tires, it certainly doesn't hold me back on the smoother pavement!

In the next week or so I'm hoping to get some better pictures of the complete bike, but if you're heading to Blue Mounds this Sunday for Robbie Ventura's Gran Fondo, you can check it out in person. I'm also looking forward to D2R2 in about a month's time as well, can't wait to try out the DRB there!

Cheers,
Dave

Three Dirt Road Bikes

2011-07-06T11:37:00.008-05:00

As usual, I've been neglecting the blog, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been turning out bikes. If you check out my Ellis Picasa page here; https://picasaweb.google.com/elliscycles, there you'll see some of the newest bikes to head out into the world.

Right now, I'm working on parts of the next 3 bikes in the queue, which all happen to be DRB's (Dirt Road Bikes). They're all a bit different, but I managed to get the forks built together and yesterday I worked on all three sets of chainstays.

Here I've got 2 sets of blades for the two forks that will be getting chromed. The third fork will be painted, so it gets different dropouts.

All 3 forks brazed and ready for finishing.

Here's my chainstays and dropouts. All three bikes are going to have stainless steel chainstays and seat stays, so they require a bit more work to prepare. The longer stays are KVA's round oval round stays and the shorter oval stays are Reynolds 953.

On stainless chainstays, I grind the dropout tabs to a point and then slot the stays into a point as well. I'll finish the stays with this point slightly proud of the stay so that the silver braze material doesn't get polished out during finishing, leaving a low spot. Below are all the stays, slotted and prepped for brazing along with a bunch of stainless washers that will make up the dropout faces.

On the Reynolds 953 chainstays, I'll be leaving the reveals open on the end of the stays to allow for Di2 wiring.

All three sets, brazed up and ready for finishing. Two of these sets will be heading out for pre-polishing, and then I'll concentrate on finishing the one bike that will be getting a "brushed" finish.

More soon!
Dave

Three New Ellis

2011-05-31T20:50:00.006-05:00

Things are moving right along here at Ellis, and I've got a few new bikes to share.

First, Jim's green on green light tourer is headed to the Great White North! He's promised some complete bike photos once it's finished.

Han's touring bike will be hitting the road in Switzerland soon! His request for the paint scheme was simple, "autumn". We also designed it for the Map/Ahearne style bars, so Hans could be a bit more upright than a true tourer.

Finally, Tom's DRB/Seattle Commuter, on it's way to the rainy Northwest! I set up the fenders so they can be installed and removed in a matter of minutes with a 4mm allen wrench so Tom can do double duty, commuting and longer weekend rides.

There are lots more photos of these 3 bikes on my Picasa page here; https://picasaweb.google.com/elliscycles. Plus you can see the build progressions of each one as well.

That's all for now, but Jason just sent me a note to say that the next Ellis will be ready on Thurs. morning, so I'll get pics of that one up soon!

Cheers,
Dave

Classic Rendezvous!

2011-05-26T21:18:00.008-05:00

It was only a short 14 hour drive to Greensboro, NC this weekend for the Classic Rendezvous this past weekend, but completely worth it! Got to see some old friends and do some nice rides in the warm weather that so far has been lacking in WI.
Wayne and I posing with our Ellis frames and outfits!

Sydney and I with my large white Ellis and her "petite" Ellis.

At Sunday's swap and show I shared the love with some Ellis t-shirts. Scott's got his, when are you gonna get one!

Thanks to Dan for sharing his photos with me, there's lots more at the Classic Rendezvous website here; http://www.classicrendezvous.com/weekend/pictures.htm

I'll have some pics of the latest Ellis' soon!

Cheers,
Dave

Ellis 29'er, First Dirt!

2011-05-06T00:55:00.002-05:00

I'm a bit sheepish to admit it, but yesterday was my first day out on the new 29'er. It's not that there haven't been opportunities to get out before this, but it has been a cold, rainy spring here in Wisconsin. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

As for the ride, I wasn't sure how many miles my legs had in them, but once I got going, I did the whole blue loop, the connector trail and Emma Carlin at the Kettles. All told, 28 miles and change, and I was kinda dragging on that last bit of the blue loop, sore legs today!

What can I say about the bike? I may be a bit biased, but it really rocks! The combination of really light wheels, (Stan's Crest rims with tubeless Schwalbe Racing Ralph's) and the XTR parts is amazing. I couldn't believe just how powerful the XTR brakes are, just one finger and I can totally lock the wheels up with almost no effort. The 2 x 10 is cool too, but I have to admit, I don't think I used the big ring at all yesterday, the 30T with an 11 x 36 cassette was plenty for the ups and downs at the Kettles.

I think if I had been on my old Rockhopper, I'd have maybe ridden the blue loop and the connector, but this bike just begs to be ridden longer and faster! (pretty cliche, right?)

Well, that's all I've got for now, here's to more warm weather here soon!

Cheers,
Dave

Dirt Road Bike in it's Natural Habitat!

2011-04-22T07:50:00.002-05:00

After I had built my first DRB (Dirt Road Bike) last fall, I decided to tweak the design just a bit and make one that would be my full time road bike for the upcoming season. This worked out great for Carl, he had just moved to Western Mass, home to lots and lots of dirt roads. I shipped the yellow beauty off to him last winter, and now it's happily traversing the gravel and dirt roads just like it was designed to do!

Cheers,
Dave

Ellis #3 For Sale (New Price)

2011-04-15T16:28:00.010-05:00

I've got a new road bike at paint, and with my limited bike storage space Ellis #3 has to find a new home. Here's a great chance to own a piece of Ellis Cycles history, and a pretty sweet bike!

53cm ST c-c

60.5cm TT (effective)
72.5* ST angle
73.5* HT angle
19.4cm HT
7* TT slope
42cm Chainstays
(If anyone wants more info, I can send a copy of the drawing)
Frame weighs just under 4lbs, but is super solid with the XL tubing

The tubing is XL diameters (31.8mm TT &ST, 34.9 DT) of True Temper S3 and OX Platinum.
This bike has the very first set of Ellis Cycles stainless dropouts. It's also the first bike painted with the "Team Ellis" paint scheme, and the first bike with internal derailleur cable routing through the chain stay. Lugs are heavily modified Llewellyn Slant Six's in my "Classic" style.
Like all my frames, I maximized the brake reach so this frame and fork will accept 28c tires. In fact, that's what I used for this past year's D2R2 with no problems.

Bike also includes;
1 1/8" Silver Chris King headset
Silver 30.6 Thomson Post (brand new)
110mm Ritchey stem (painted to match)

More pics available at my Picasa page here; https://picasaweb.google.com/elliscycles/DaveSEllis3?authkey=Gv1sRgCOqIoPbt8ZrtBw# The frame does have some small nicks and scrapes, but overall it's very clean with no rust at all. I treated it originally with Framesaver, and I'll give it another coat before I send it out.

A nice shot of the "Classic" style lugs.

A frame and fork like with the same options, paint and parts would cost $4000+ new, I'm asking $2700 for everything. If you'd like to have it built as a complete bike, I'm happy to quote it that way too.

Feel free to call or email with any questions!
262 442 6639
dave@elliscycles.com

COG Magazine profile

2011-04-14T12:38:00.007-05:00

Last Oct, Pete from COG magazine spent a couple days hanging out and taking photos while I built a frame. Later I got together with Pete and John (the writer), for an interview about Ellis, and after a long winter, here's the finished product. It's got some great photos of the cats, a centerfold of my vintage Campy bike for all the geeks out there and some nice pics of me building. You can check out COG's website here; http://www.cogmag.com/. If you need to get a copy, Ben's has them here; http://benscycle.blogspot.com/2011/04/cog-magazine-10-now-in.html, and if you place an order, it's only $2!

Back to work now!

Dave

New Frame and Bike pics

2011-03-23T20:15:00.005-05:00

Drew sent along some new pics of Justin's and Pete's frames, you can see more of them at my Picasa page here; https://picasaweb.google.com/elliscycles.

Justin's.

Pete's.

Edward also sent along some finished pics of his Waterford refurbish, lots more on Picasa too!

Cheers,

Dave

Thank You UPS!

2011-03-17T11:33:00.004-05:00

What's the last thing you want to see when your new Ellis arrives? This...

I shipped the show bikes off to their various destinations over the last week, and Wayne dropped me a note on Tues with this picture. All I can ask is, did the UPS guys aim specifically at the "High Claim Item" sticker, or was that just pure irony? As it turns out, the only damage was a bent spoke and Wayne seemed to think that it'd be an easy fix, could have been much worse.

In other news, the "Best Road Bike" rando is on it's way to Bicycle Quarterly for a test and review. http://www.bikequarterly.com/vbqindex.html Since it's a quarterly, the review probably won't show up till fall at the earliest, but I'm really curious to see what Jan thinks of the latest from Ellis. As anyone who reads BQ probably knows, Jan has some very clear preferences when it comes to bike design, so while my bike incorporates some of these, it's very different in other ways, and I hope he keeps and open mind.

Finally, I'm back to work building, and I'm currently working on Jim's light touring bike. He's requested lots of pictures of the progress, so I'm trying to record it as closely as possible on my Picasa page with captions. You can check it out here; https://picasaweb.google.com/elliscycles/JimSLightTourer51##

Chuckles has also been stepping up to his new duties as "Inspector"! He really checks out every last bit of the process, here he's looking over my jig setup, "ALL WRONG"!

Cheers,

Dave

NAHBS 2011 - Ellis Cycles

2011-03-03T08:29:00.000-06:00

NAHBS 2011 - Ellis Cycles

2011-03-03T08:28:00.000-06:00

Best Road Bike!

2011-02-27T21:12:00.003-06:00

I'm honored once again to have one of my bikes picked for an award at the Handbuilt Bike Show. Travis' randonneur took the honors as "Best Road Bike", and I couldn't be happier!

The show was also a huge success from a business standpoint with quite a few orders taken and lots of interest from others. I look forward to working with everyone who's either on the list now, or thinking about sending in a deposit.

2011 "Best Road Bike"

Now to get a good night's sleep and prepare for the 20+ hour drive home, I hope the weather cooperates, I can't wait to get home and see Lisa and the cats!

Cheers,

Dave

Travis' Rando

2011-02-21T14:41:00.004-06:00

Well, Travis made the drive over from MN on Saturday, and we managed to get all the lights and wiring dialed in. Then I finished running all the cables and got the bars taped today. It's ready for the show!

I'll just give you a tour of a couple of the highlights! To see it up close, stop by my booth at NAHBS this weekend!

I used the Schmidt SONdelux front hub, it has the contact built into the front drive side dropout, so no plugs to worry about, just install the wheel correctly and your generator is ready to go. The dropouts are stainless plate, so I finished them with slightly raised points and Jason masked the whole dropout.

The custom front rack with internal wire routing and Edelux front light, super bright!

We made all the wiring connections and then slid them up inside the steerer tube. All that's visible is a small wire heading into the frame for the taillight.

That's all for now, I'll see you in Austin!

Cheers,

Dave

NAHBS Rando Sneak Peak

2011-02-17T16:22:00.002-06:00

Just picked this one up from Jason's, it's NAHBS's bound and looking pretty fine even without the parts! The future owner, Travis, is driving over from MN this Sat. with the new taillight and to give me a hand getting all the generator and light wiring squared away. I'm excited to get it built!

See ya'll in Austin!

Cheers,

Dave

You Gotta See This!

2011-02-16T13:10:00.002-06:00

Last weekend, my friend and customer Chris flew into WI for a couple days to build up his Ellis NAHBS bike and while here, he shot a bunch of photos and video of me working on my "raw" frame for NAHBS. Well, here's the finished product; http://vimeo.com/19928448. I hope I'm not getting too full of myself, but I can't stop watching this, really really cool!

Cheers,
Dave

Dropouts, Function and Style

2011-02-15T10:51:00.010-06:00

OK, so I've tried to explain my dropout design from a strength and durability standpoint, but now I'd like to focus on the aesthetics and functionality of them as well.

My first go at the design was a completely hand cut set of dropouts for my 2006 NAHBS Waterford. I picked up some stainless plate and had at it with a combination of drill bits, a die grinder and dynafile. Very cool looking in the end, but WAY too much work. I knew when I started Ellis that I'd need to get these into a CAD program and find someone to cut them for me.

My original design, featured on my 2006 Waterford for NAHBS.

Well, about the time I was getting Ellis Cycles off the ground, my friend Scott offered to do the CAD work to get the process started. Honestly, I hadn't really expected to take on my own dropout design for at least a year or so, but Scott was super helpful and connected me with a shop that would cut very limited quantities, so I wouldn't have to order 100 pairs at a time!

When it came to the design, I had some criteria in mind.

1. It had to work with large diameter 953 chain stays.

2. I choose stainless steel since I planned to offer fully polished stainless rear triangles.

3. It needed to work with a wide range of chain stay/ seat stay angles, from the smallest to largest frames.

One of the cool features my dropouts allow me to feature is internal cable routing, whether it be Di2 wiring, (above) or a derailleur cable.

Ellis dropout brazed to a 953 chain stay.

Some folks might know this, but for those who don't, the minor end of a chain stay can vary in diameter from around 12mm to as much as 17mm. Above is a good example of the larger stay, which mates well with the wide tab on my Ellis dropouts. On smaller stays, I'll often cut the minor end of the stay back to give me some extra width for attaching the dropout.

Another of my pet peeves is dropouts on really small or large bikes that end up looking dog-legged. In other words, the tab of the dropout extends in some angle, say 70 degrees, and then the stays get attached at an angle like 60 degrees for a small frame. I'm sure that it's plenty strong, but it's just plain ugly. What the seat stay tabs on my dropouts allow me to do is to shape the dropout to match this angle. Below you can see examples of both a really small frame (Sydney's), which has a angle of 65 degrees, and Steve's frame, which is pretty large with an angle of 77 degrees.

On both of these, I carefully scallop the stay and locate it on the dropout to make it as seamless a connection as possible.

This last feature is one that just happened kinda organically on one of the first bikes I built with the Ellis dropouts. I had a fairly large chunk of tab that I needed to finish down on the bottom of the chain stay when I realized, if I leave this a bit proud of the stay and then have Jason mask off the paint, it makes a nice landing spot for the rear axle with no chance of chipping the paint off the dropout or chain stay. Once again, the fact that these dropouts are stainless came in handy as well!

All the Ellis dropouts get this "sliver" polished and masked off to protect the rest of the paint.

That's all for now, my next post will discuss the lugs I prefer and why.

Cheers,

Dave

Ellis Dropouts / Strength

2011-02-12T21:52:00.008-06:00

I got an email about a month ago from a gentleman who complimented me very nicely on my frames and then informed me that according to his friend, all my dropouts were going to break... He explained that his friend had seen dropouts from another well-known builder break, and since my dropouts bear some vague aesthetic similarity to them, mine must be doomed to the same fate.

Well, this got me thinking, I don't have any doubts in the strength of my Ellis dropouts, I work with them every day, but how could I explain how mine are different than the (dozens?) or other poorly designed or assembled dropouts that exist in the frame building world and that might break at some point down the road?

The first set of Ellis dropouts.

First, let me say that in my 14 years or so of building frames at Serotta, Waterford, and now Ellis, I've seen my share of broken dropouts. I'd say that 75% of those were the result of just one thing; folks flexing their frame open to fit a wider spaced wheel. I know what you think; it's just a few mm's, what's the difference? When the stays get flexed open, two things happen, firstly, there's a built in "tension" that the rear end parts are constantly under, and the dropout faces are no longer parallel with each other. Then you clamp your wheel in and the dropouts flex just slightly back to parallel now that they are under the tension of the quick release, all is well, right? Well, not really, now as you're out riding, the frame has this built in tension that it's trying to relieve. You hit a pothole, ride over some nasty chip seal, and all the while it's slowly working on a way to relieve this stress. What eventually happens is this, either the chain stay breaks just in front of the drive side dropout, or the dropout tab breaks, and the tension is relieved!

So, that takes care of roughly 75% of the dropout breakage, how about the other 25%? I would guess that a good chunk of these happen because the dropout faces of the frame are never properly aligned when the frame is built, essentially following the same scenario I describe above. The rest of the breakage is probably due to poor brazing, crashes, dropout design, and finally a tiny percentage to corrosion.

A drive side Ellis dropout brazed into a 953 chain stay

OK, so if we agree that dropout alignment is key to their longevity, how do I make sure that my Ellis dropouts are aligned? Well, it's a struggle, because my dropouts are cut from 17/4 stainless steel, they are incredibly tough, and hard to bend. I need to check and re-check their alignment throughout the build process to make sure they are straight and stay that way. To start, I pre-bend the dropout tabs in a vise and dry fit all the dropouts and chain stays in the fixture before any heat even touches them. Once I've brazed the dropouts into the chain stays, I recheck again on the fixture to make sure everything is still lined up. The dropouts get checked once again after the frame is brazed and aligned, and then a final time right before the frame heads off to paint.

I can't speak for other builders and their procedures, but I'm confident that when you receive your Ellis, the dropouts will be straight and stay that way for a long, long time!

The finished product, elegant and strong!

I'll post more soon about why Ellis dropouts are shaped this way, and some other cool features I've designed into them.

Cheers,

Dave

New Bikes, New Blog Format

2011-02-07T21:12:00.003-06:00

I finished up two frames today, Pete's and Hans'. They'll be off to paint soon, but you can see pics of both builds on my Picasa page here; https://picasaweb.google.com/home.

I also thought it was about time that I change things up on the blog a bit, hence the new layout. In the upcoming days, I hope to try some different content than my regular build posts, I want to try and explain what makes an Ellis... I've been thinking about how to describe this for a while, so bear with me and see what turns up.

I'll still post cool builds too, but I think that alone can become kinda stale.

Cheers,
Dave

NAHBS Bikes!

2011-01-27T17:13:00.004-06:00

It's that time of year, the NAHBS's bikes are coming together, and here's a sneak peak at two of them.

Firstly, I've got my 29'er, matte black and silver to match the XTR kit I'll be building it up with.

And Wayne's road frame. A classic road frame that we'll be building up with a Miche Supertype grouppo, wheels and all. To see these parts, check them out here; http://www.miche.it/en/catalogo/catalogo-supertype. They aren't too commonly seen in the States, but they're trying to break into the market here.

I'll post pics of the buildups too, but if you want to see more of these two, you can check them out at my Picasa page; http://picasaweb.google.com/elliscycles

More soon!

Dave

Travis' NAHBS Rando

2011-01-14T15:03:00.005-06:00

I've been busily working on bikes for the upcoming NAHBS in Austin, and while I haven't been posting much to the blog, I've got a solution for those of you who want more eye candy!

My Picasa page has a bunch of photos of Travis' rando frame along with a Di2 Dirt Road Bike that I've been working on. Check them out with the attached link, and then you don't have to read my jibber jabber just to look at the cool pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/elliscycles

More soon,

Dave

15 Seconds of Fame

2011-01-10T20:46:00.004-06:00

The NAHBS website has a newsletter with a quick questionnaire about me/Ellis;

http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=16881882afa22bc9d1c997b92&id=6842206687&e=#5

I'll try not to let the fame go to my head!

Cheers,
Dave

55.5 Road Frame Needs a Home!

2011-01-05T17:11:00.008-06:00

Thanks to everyone who inquired about this one, it's sold!

I started this frame about a year ago, got the main triangle brazed and then decided to go with a lugged frame for my Di2 bike for NAHBS instead of the combination of fillet and lugs that this bike has.

Well..., the main triangle hung in the shop for the last year, and I recently decided to finish the frame up and see if I could find it a home.

The specs are as follows.

73 head and seat angles
55.5cm top tube
48cm (c-c) seat tube
133mm head tube
41.5cm chainstays.

It's a pretty straight ahead road frame, and I've maximized the bridge and fork length, so 28c tires should be no problem. You'll see that the 25c Vittoria's have tons of space.

More pictures here; http://picasaweb.google.com/elliscycles/Ellis555FilletFrame?authkey=Gv1sRgCIfl5MW0j9PE5wE# Check out the caption for some extra details.

I'm asking $2500 with a single color paint scheme of your choice, (other schemes are fine, with cost TBD). Feel free to email or call me with questions.

Cheers,
Dave
262 442 6639
dave@elliscycles.com

Embrocation Article

2010-12-20T13:00:00.001-06:00

Chris is a hard core Ellis Cycles fan, and he's been a friend since we first met at Cirque in 2009. Not too long after the Cirque, he contacted me to see if I would consider selling the yellow 29'er I had as part of my display there. Well, for those of you that have heard this story, that was my personal bike, but I managed to get past that, and I did indeed sell him that frame and fork.

Well, since then, he's also become the proud owner of this Ellis frame as well, and he's written an interesting article about the whole custom bike experience for Embrocation Magazine's website. While it might not be the route everyone would choose, it is an interesting take on the process.

A link; http://www.embrocationmagazine.com/online/customs , and a pic of Chris' Ellis below.

Cheers, and a Merry Christmas,
Dave

Glenn's Di2 Ellis

2010-12-06T09:33:00.001-06:00

Glenn's frame, awaiting a full Di2 kit! He chose a really classic paint scheme, and it should be a nice counterpoint to the modern electronic parts. I love the look of the frame with no derailleur cable braze ons, it's super clean.

I went with internal brake cable routing as well, to compliment the integrated Di2 wiring. The dark red panel on the seat tube is set off by a thin silver pinstripe.

In this shot, you can see the exit hole for the front derailleur wiring, and the vent window in the bottom bracket where the battery wire will enter the frame.

Stainless steel bosses for battery mounting, and the bottom bracket window.

Finally, the Ellis dropouts with an added loop to keep the wiring out of the way for wheel changes.

Cheers,

Dave

Ellis at Chicago Patagonia

2010-12-02T08:24:00.000-06:00

Well, for the second year running, the nice folks at Patagonia in Chicago have invited me to display one of my bikes during the Holiday season. I decided to show off the "vintage" Campy Record bike that I displayed at this past year's NAHBS in Richmond.

While I was in Chicago dropping the bike off, I had a chance to catch up with James Lalonde, my former cross racer extraordinaire! He works just a couple blocks away from the Patagonia store at SRAM's headquarters. He offered to swing by the Patagonia store after the bike was up to take some pictures. Thanks, James!

The bike will be in the window until just after the holidays, so if you'd like to stop by and check it out, or just buy some awesome Patagonia gear, you can find directions to the store through the link on this post. http://www.patagonia.com/us/patagonia.go?assetid=1936

Cheers,

Dave

NAHBS 29'er

2010-11-29T16:51:00.001-06:00

Ever since I sold my original 29'er (the yellow one), I've been thinking about how I'd build my next one.

Then, this past year I built this one for Rob, and he wanted it to be able to run either a suspension fork or the carbon Niner fork that it's shown with. He also wanted to mimic the "look" of his classic Paramount lugged mountain bike. Once I finished building his frame, I knew that this was what I wanted my next frame to look like. The bi-laminate lugs do double duty as an aesthetic element and as a gusset on the down tube.

Well, here's the newest Ellis 29'er, almost ready for paint. I'm just waiting on a couple cable guides and braze ons to get this one finished and ready for paint.

The bi-laminate head tube with an extra long "gusset" for the down tube.

Seat cluster with the Salsa collar.

I've been using this bottom bracket shell quite a bit lately. It's the same one that Wayne's bike got, with a 34.9 XL down tube, and a standard 28.6 seat tube. I have to do a bit of metal work to get the chain stay sockets lined up for the s-bend chain stays, but I really like using the lugged shell. It carries the lugged look through the whole bike and it is the final mask line on the down tube so I can do a similar paint job to Rob's bike.

Finally, the Paragon chain stay mount disk brake dropouts.

I've got a Rock Shox fork on the way for this one, some parts from Shimano, and I'm getting excited for this one. The only problem will be keeping it looking pristine for the show in Feb.!

Cheers,

Dave

Thanksgiving and Apple Pie!

2010-11-25T12:04:00.000-06:00

Just took this out of the oven a couple hours ago, and we're headed off to Lisa's Mom and Dad's for dinner as soon as I finish this post. It's rustic, but I think it'll taste all right.

Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Cheers,
Dave

Wayne's Road Bike

2010-11-24T17:41:00.000-06:00

The new Inspector, Chuckles, keeping an eye on every Ellis!

Wayne wanted a light, unique steel frame, so I unleashed a little bit of lug carving to make this one special. I also went with an XL down tube (34.9mm), along with a standard OS (28.6mm) top and seat tube. This does two things, it allows me to use really thin gauge tubes, but the larger diameter down tube should keep the front end from being too flexy.

Some of the lug carving along the way. I especially like this bottom bracket, it an unusual combination of tube diameters, plus the sockets are deep enough to do a bit more embellishment than most of the other shells out there.

Here's the stainless internal parts that I showed in my last post. The end ferrules and the thin tube that houses the cable are all stainless from now on. The parts are quite a bit more expensive than the what I used to use, so there may be a price increase on the internal cable option soon. But the upside is much greater durability and no corrosion issues.

Fluxed up and ready to braze.

The view down the length of the tube. I always install the internal before building the frame so I can make sure the center section of the internal doesn't contact the tube at all. If it did, the rider would hear a very disconcerting vibration every time they hit a bump! Not good.

Post braze, pre soak.

The fork, complete with Keith Anderson's new TITO front dropouts.

I've been using this crown a bit more recently. On 1 1/8" forks, this makes a nice alternative to the flat lugged crown I've used up till now. I add the stainless washer for the brake mount so paint chipping shouldn't be an issue.

Head tube.

Top tube lug with internal cable routing. Wayne's not a fan a big head tube extensions, so I kept this one to about 5mm. That, plus about 3 degrees of top tube slope add up to a slightly higher head tube without the huge stack of spacers that are so common these days.

Down tube lug with head tube mounted cable guides.

I used my standard Long Shen seat lug, but changed the binder to try a slightly different look.

Of course, the Ellis rear dropouts. I really like the way the stays blend around the windows on this frame.

Dropout, inside face, plenty of little details here too.

Finally, the bottom bracket.

And, the finished product!

Cheers,

Dave

Stainless bits!

2010-11-16T19:43:00.001-06:00

New things in the works at Ellis, small but cool. For the last couple years I've been offering internal cable routing with a pretty conventional setup, steel ferrules at the ends, and a brass tube that the bare cable runs through. While this works fine, there are a couple potential downsides to this setup in the long run. The steel ends are hard to get good paint coverage inside, so they're prone to rust, and the brass tube and actually get worn through by the cable over a long period of time.

I asked my supplier if he'd ever consider getting the parts in stainless and while he agreed that it sounded like a good idea, he wasn't too interested in the extra cost it would involve and he already had quite a few of the existing parts. Next step, call Mark at Paragon and see what it would cost to get stainless ferrules made. Well, a sample and about $300 later, I got a small bag in the mail...

Stainless ferrules, and I managed to find 5/32" stainless tube for the cable run pretty easily from McMaster Carr, so now the entire internal routing is stainless steel. You can see both bits in the photo below.

Also in the photo, some cool new front dropouts from Keith Anderson, the TITO. These are steel plate with a special stainless insert, the perfect compliment to the Ellis 17/4 stainless rear dropouts! More pics below.

The other stainless touches will include washers on both the brake bridge and fork crown, and all the waterbottle bosses will now be stainless as well.

Here's some progression shots of the TITO's! It's probably cooler when you watch Keith video on Flickr.

All brazed up and finished, pretty sweet!

I'll post more of this build soon!

DRB (Dirt Road Bike)

2010-11-08T16:02:00.000-06:00

Everyone owes it to themselves to have a road bike that can run fat tires! I've done a few of these over the last couple years, Carl's bike comes to mind, but his was more of a cross bike with lots of braze ons. This one really just mimics my road bike's position, but it is built for long reach brakes, (47mm-57mm) and it can fit 28c tires with fenders, and even 34c cross tubulars without fenders.

I've slowly become a convert to fatter tires over this past season, as the 25's and 28's take the sting out of the not so fine old roads around Waterford. The real surprise is that I'm not going any slower for it. I know I'm not the only one who's experiencing this, and there's more and more nice wide tires that are coming on the market for this.

Ok, ok, enough of my blabbering! Let's see some pics.

I used an externally butted seat tube and the Salsa collar may not be the most classic looking part, but it clamps like a mother!

One of my other justifications for building myself a new bike was to replace my single speed. While I love that bike, I really built it with the idea that I might actually use it on a track someday, so it's much more steep and short than I'd typically build for a road single speed. And after a couple years and no track riding, I figured it's time to face reality and build a bike that's more useful. That's why I spec'ed the Campy 1010a dropouts, it allows me to run the bike single speed when I want, but since the cable routing is internal, there's no unused braze ons hanging out when it is set up single.

My other tricky part for the single speed conversion is the bolted on head tube cable stops. It's a nifty little stainless steel part I found on a supplier's website and it's just the ticket here.

If you look close you can also see the little bit of lug work I did on the fork crown. Not many opportunities to do lug carving on this one, but I like the little touches that you really have to look for.

Another shot of the head tube cable stops on the built bike. I've got some Continental Travel Contact tires on there right now, and while they advertise them as 37's, they're more like 32's with a taller tread.

A shot of the internal chainstay cable routing, and the SRAM Apex rear derailleur that helped me get my butt up the hills at D2R2 this past summer and that'll be doing it again next summer! Maybe I'll even do the 180k!

My other sneaky bit on this frame was to add some mounts for fenders so I can use it when the weather's not so pretty, and you'll notice my Nitto M18 rack on the front. The pic above is the bike set up with 28c tires, stainless Velo Orange fenders and the rack. Not a full on rando bike, but it might do in a pinch.

I was out riding last week and snapped a few shots of the bike propped up on some stubble in a corn field that had just been harvested.

That yellow just jumps out of the pictures. I think the camera has trouble knowing what to do with that color!

Rode it up to Estabrook park this past Sat. on a chilly (40's), but sunny day. Got there in time to catch some of the last cross races of the day and witness James' brother Marco crush in the Elite Men's race. Everyone else was racing for second! (No pics though, I forgot the camera!)

Finally, today we had some unseasonably warm weather blow in that's supposed to hang on until Wed or Thurs. 60's and sunny, albeit with a bit of wind from the southeast, but after I angled my way down into Kenosha county, it made for a nice tailwind all the way home. Almost 50 miles today!

Cheers,

Dave

Edward's Waterford MTB

2010-10-27T10:45:00.000-05:00

Edward contacted me this past summer wondering if there was a way to add a disk tab to his 1995 lugged, silver brazed Waterford frame. I know we used to get this question from time to time while I was at Waterford, and I think even Edward contacted them before he got in touch with me. I know Richard has no interest in doing these types of modifications, and if you're talking about just brazing or welding on a tab, for good reason. These bikes and the tubing weren't designed for the stresses that a disk brake is going to exert on the frame, and secondly, the tab would have to be silver brazed onto the stainless Henry James dropouts, not the strongest setup.

I proposed that I replace the dropouts and seat stays to better handle the new parts, and it should give this old bike quite a few more years of service.

After I got the paint off the old frame, I could see that there was some cracking starting in the seat stay braze joint. The old seat lug was also having trouble keeping the seat post tight, as you can see the tabs were pretty severely bent inwards and essentially bending the seat post bolt before it could tighten properly. This was another area that needed fixing.

Nice old school Henry James dropouts. Nothing wrong with them, just not gonna work with a disk tab.

Here you can see the new Paragon chain stay mount disk dropouts after all the modifications. I reused the chain stays, they're pretty unique, with asymmetrical bends and a round oval profile.

This picture should probably be after the next one, but here goes. The new seat stays with tons of clearance for big tires.

The old seat stays had no bend and clearance for maybe a skinny 2.1 tire? I noticed when I got the painted bike back from Edward that the paint was rubbed off on the insides of the seat stays.

Here's the new seat lug and top tube derailleur routing.

The old Waterford bottom bracket and the new braze ons for the rear disk brake. If you look closely, you can see the "bumps" I added on the inside of the chain stays for tire clearance.

Another shot of the tire clearance "bumps".

When I reused the chain stays, I needed to take some material off the minor end of the stays to account for the extra length of the new dropouts.

The completed project, along with the old bits and an extra set of Paragon dropouts that I'll be using on my 29'er at some point!

Cheers,

Dave

Chris' 953 Special

2010-10-13T11:11:00.000-05:00

OK, for those of you who haven't been watching the blog, Chris couldn't make up his mind on exactly what type of Ellis frame he wanted, so I surprised him. He received the frame yesterday, so now I can finally post some photos and not worry about ruining the surprise.

Parts all laid out, ready to fixture the main diamond.

A couple close up shots of the head lugs, before and after brazing.

The stainless brake bridge, post braze with the flux still hot.

After some careful finishing with very fine emery.

A little out of order here, but here's a shot of the seat stays, mitered and dry fit. I had to heat the ends of the stays just a bit and then squeeze them just a touch to get them narrow enough to fit up with the seat lug.

The stays, freshly brazed to the seat lug.

More careful finishing with 280 grit emery.

Finally, the finished product. Chris is going with a Campy Super Record group, so what better color than red for an Italian equipped bike.

Jason's amazing masking skills on display in the super clean shorelines around the head lug.

I'm really happy with the "fastback" style seat stay attachment. It allows me to use the cool curved brake bridge even on large frames where a side tack arrangement would be too wide for that particular bridge. Plus it looks pretty cool too!

A nice shot of the inside of the dropout, lots of work goes into those clean points and scallops.

More pics of this one on the website soon.

Cheers,

Dave

Phone # FYI and a Pic

2010-10-12T12:39:00.001-05:00

I'm sure like a lot of folks I've been contemplating the need for a land line and a cell phone. I've switched all my business cards and the website over the last year to my cell number, but some of you out there may still have a card with my land line number on it.

I discontinued the land line (262) 806 7377 this morning, any calls should be directed to my cell number (262) 442 6639, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Finally, a blog post with no pictures isn't any fun, so here's one of Jason and Willy, (thanks for the photo), at the Furnace Creek 508 with his Bilam Ellis. From what I hear, Jason and the bike performed great!

Chris should be getting his surprise Ellis today as well, so once he's seen it, I'll post pics for everyone who's been waiting!

Cheers,

Dave

Tom's New Randoneur

2010-10-10T20:07:00.000-05:00

Tom drove up from VA this past Friday to pick up his new Ellis. We got the bike built up and had a chance to enjoy some great riding weather. I used some Sachs Rene Singer lugs and a Pacenti Paris Brest crown for the full classic rando look. Tom choose to go with a Nitto M12 rack up front, and I made sure it fit up nicely with the canti mounts. Jason pinstriped the head lugs and fork crown to "frame" the head tube and logo.

On the seat stays, you can see the canti brake cable stop, curved bridge with tangs and fender mount, and the subtly pointed seat stay tips.

The curved chain stay bridge also get a fender mount and tangs.

Tom had sent along most of the parts to assemble the bike, so it was almost finished when he arrived, we just had to hook up the stem and handlebar and route all the cables before he was ready for a test ride and requisite photo. (don't worry, we re wrapped the bars to hide those shift cables after I shot this photo!)

Tom took a short solo ride on Fri afternoon, and then we got back together on Sat. morning for a longer ride. Headed out west of Waterford into the hills and gave the new bike a proper shakedown.

Below you can see Tom grinding up a hill while I snap a photo or two!

We stopped for a shot or two of the Ellis'. I rode my cross bike with the fat 32c tires..., cush!

We enjoyed some of the nicest Oct. weather you can possibly get in Wi, and the fall colors were in full effect. Below, a shot of Tom heading up one of the last climbs of the day with a brilliant backdrop of fall color.

Cheers,

Dave

Ellis Di2 at NYC Velo

2010-09-30T08:41:00.001-05:00

http://nycvelo.com/blog/2010/09/botw-ellis-di2/

The Di2 bike is BOTW, (bike of the week), at NYC Velo! Andrew, the owner of NYC Velo offered to help me find the bike a good home, so I brought the bike along to D2R2 and handed it off to them. It's been on display in the shop for the last month or so, and they've decided to highlight it in the BOTW segment on their blog.

Cheers,

Dave

Chris' Bike

2010-09-03T08:44:00.000-05:00

I've known Chris for about a year and half now, after meeting him at the Cirque in 2009. He approached me just as Lisa and I were packing up bikes and displays as the "show" at the Loudon County fairgrounds was winding down. We chatted a bit, and then about a week or two later he contacted me to see if I would consider selling my 29'er. I thought to myself, "that's my bike", but then it occured to me, "you can build yourself another one, dummy!", and I finally capitulated and sent it on it's way to Chris. Well, I see the yellow Ellis pop up in Chris' Flickr pictures pretty often, so he must be enjoying it, and we've run into each other a few more times now, NAHBS in Richmond, Cirque again in VA, and most recently at the D2R2.

So, this summer Chris called me about ordering a road bike, but as we talked, I could tell he was having a tough time making his mind up on what to build. A Modern Classic, a 953, or something like my personal show bike from this year's NAHBS, below.

I knew what Chris liked about all these bikes, so I finally came up with a suggestion that we both agreed to. I'd build Chris an awesome bike, but it'd be a complete secret until he opened the box. We discussed his geometry, I sent him a copy, but as for styling, all I had to go on was our conversations and his comment, "I already have a yellow and a green bike, so something else".

Well, I've just about finished the frame, it needs some polishing before it heads to Jason for paint, but I can't post any pics! Arghhh... Suffice it to say, it turned out pretty badass, and I'm excited to see it with paint. Stay tuned, probably less than a month till the unveiling.

Cheers,

Dave

p.s. Chris recently moved to NYC and he works part time at NYC Velo. Check out his account of D2R2 on their blog here; http://nycvelo.com/blog/2010/09/d2r2-ride-report/#more-2054.

Sydney's New Ellis

2010-08-30T07:33:00.000-05:00

I'll have more pics of this one on my website soon, but here's a few of the highlights.

Sydney is a fairly petite rider, so we decided to go as light as possible with standard gauge tubing and some ultra light S3 chain stays. The frame alone came in just over 3 lbs.

In order to accommodate the gently sloping top tube, I used the bi-laminate lug technique. The head tube has "half-lugs" and then the top and down tube are fillet brazed into them.

The seat cluster is also bi-laminate, and you can see the exit hole for the internal and the stainless washer on the brake bridge to eliminate paint chipping.

Can't forget the signature Ellis dropouts as well. Pretty thinned out on a frame this small, but still plenty strong.

Cheers,

Dave

Busy week, D2R2, and more to report!

2010-08-27T15:43:00.001-05:00

Shoulda' taken a photo when I was leaving Wi, but I was a bit harried and just looking to get in the car and go. Left about 11:30 in the morning on Wed., (the 18th), so I was a bit worried about the traffic going through Chicago, but it turned out to be pretty easy going and I made good time all the way through Indiana and Ohio. I thought about trying to do the whole trip in one day, but I always underestimate how huge NY is. I got to Erie, Pa about 9:00pm and I saw that I was just past halfway on the mileage, time to get a motel room!

Well, that brings me to the first photo, the Honda, all packed up on Thurs. morning, ready to keep heading east.

I got in on Thurs. at about 3:00pm and hooked up with an old friend from my racing days, Karl. Turns out he lives less than a mile from my folks new condo in Schenectady! We headed out for a nice 30 something mile jaunt and got caught up on what we've been up to the last 10 years or so. Hard to believe I've been in Wisconsin that long!

Friday was a big day of helping my folks with some woodworking and jobs around the house. Henrik got in just in time for dinner and we carbo loaded in anticipation of D2R2 the next day.

Here we are at the start line in Deerfield. On the left is Chris, looking awfully chipper and ready to go, and on the right is Henrik, (in his Ellis kit), and Bill. Bill turned me on to the D2R2 at Cirque this past summer. I had just returned from the Saturday's "Rustic Ride" around some of the beautiful Virginia dirt roads and he mentioned that if I liked that, I should check out the Deerfield ride.

Chris, still looking good on his Ahearn 29'er on the early hills! Lots of comments on the cool titanium spork that's bolted onto the head tube.

OK, my attempt at a self portrait. I always think I look goofy in these and especially since I'm wearing my $10 REI "backup" sunglasses. They never sit straight on my face, but good to have when you forget the nice ones at home.

I pulled a bit ahead of Henrik on the last climb before lunch just enough to get this nice shot of him muscling up the last few yards of the climb.

The lunch stop was at a beautiful covered bridge and wooden dam. It was pretty well swarmed with cyclists!

The dam.

After lunch Chris was having some trouble with leg cramps, so here he is desperately trying to open some electrolyte tablets to ease his pain.

Henrik checked the cue sheet one last time to make sure we knew where we're going. Turns out a large group caught us just after the stop, so we could just sit in and follow everyone else.

We got a bit split up in the final miles, but everyone made it home OK, just not looking quite as chipper! In fact, Chris looks like he's seeing through time and space in this shot. Some food and drink helped get everyone feeling better.

Finally, just so you don't think I've stopped building entirely, some shots of Tom's rando frame. Started before I left for D2R2, and finished just yesterday and off to paint.

Some of Ritchie's Rene Singer lugs, for some reason they just look "right" on a rando frame.

The seat lug with some gently wrapped points on the stays.

Now, I just have to get ready for this weekend's Cream City Century! It's on Sunday the 29th, and we'll be having an open house with tours of the shop after the ride. I'm planning on trying the 100, but if it seems to be going long, I'll probably take a shortcut home so I can be ready for folks to show up around 12:00 noon. Hope to see you there!

Ellis Cycles

500 Racine St.

Waterford, WI 53185

Rob's 29'er

2010-08-10T08:04:00.001-05:00

Just a quick post with some pics from Rob's new 29'er!

The new Ellis and the Paramount that was the inspiration for the 29'er project.

Nice shot of the Niner fork and you can just see that down tube lug/gusset.

Rob's "Inspector". "My what big eyes you have!"

Cheers,

Dave

New Inspectors!

2010-07-29T11:03:00.000-05:00

After Alley passed away, it didn't take long for Lisa and I to decide we needed some new cats in our household, but I wasn't sure if they were going to be "shop cats" or not.

Lisa found a little gray tiger kitten named Chuckles at the Milwaukee Humane Society, and when we went to meet him, he was having such a great time playing with his roommate that we adopted them both! Below is Marshall, who seems to be the new Inspector looking over Scott's Waterford refurbish.

Here's Chuckles keeping an eye on me while I work in the office!

With Scott's bike, he was trying to get a bit of extra clearance on his RS-22 so he could run fenders and a bit wider tire. We initially talked about just building a slightly longer fork, but in the end I talked him into doing a fork and making the seat stays a bit longer as well. This way, the bike gets raised up a bit, but the angles and the handling should stay pretty similar.

The new and the old forks, along with the bits of seat stay that I removed. The new fork only has about 3mm more rake, but I must say I really prefer the small radius bend that I do over the rake in the old Waterford fork. The new fork also has an attachment point under the crown for fenders and a single eyelet on the dropouts.

I removed the "fastback" style seat stays and replaced them with these nice flat capped "sidetack" stays. These allow for more tire clearance and better placement for canti studs.

Marshall checking out the curved seat stay bridge with a fender mount.

A shot of the bridge reinforcing tang.

Finally, I had to add a chain stay bridge so Scott would have an attachment point for his fender. Unfortunately, it lands right in the end of the tire clearance "bump". Not an easy part to miter, but I managed to get it in there!

For the fender attachment on the dropout, I just drilled the flat part of the Waterford dropouts and threaded the holes.

Not quite a new bike, but the next best thing!

More 29'er Pics

2010-07-09T19:46:00.001-05:00

A few more pics of Rob's new 29'er. Here's a nice shot of the custom bent brake bridge and seat stays. Those top miters on the stays are always fun to hand miter, but they're plenty tight.

A shot of the bi-lam seat lug. I used an externally butted seat tube and just brazed the socket on for the top tube.

The bottom bracket is originally a road shell, but with a little gentle persuasion, the sockets got a bit angled.

Finally, the sweet chainstay disk mount Paragon dropouts. Really liking these!

Cheers,

Dave

Rob's 29'er

2010-07-09T14:33:00.001-05:00

Rob first contacted me about updating his '95? Paramount so he could use disk brakes and more modern componentry. I'm pretty hesitant to do a lot of work upgrading an older bike like this since it really wasn't designed for the loads that disks will put on both the frame and fork. Plus the fact that suspension forks really aren't available for an older bike like this got Rob thinking about a new frame, and if it was going to be built from the ground up, why not a 29'er?

I did a few drawings and while I may have been able to squeak the angles out of existing lugs, I felt like the bi-laminate construction wouldn't constrain the design and it would allow for some extra strength in certain areas as well. Plus it made for nice paint mask lines so Rob's new Ellis would still retain the classic lugged look of his old, well loved Paramount.

Here's the original.

Here's the modern, Ellis take on a suspension corrected 29'er. I gotta say, as I was building this frame I was getting a bit jealous of Rob, I'm gonna have to build one for myself soon!

The Niner carbon fork is a bit massive up front, but I think once the bike is built up it'll look just fine.
A shot of those beautiful bi-lam head lugs!

I extended the bottom lug down the tube a bit to act as a gusset for the front end. The tangs should take any stress and distribute it outward instead of down the tube.

This one's off to MI soon, but I should have some more pics before it's gone!

Cheers,

Dave

Paul's Modern Classic

2010-07-05T15:44:00.000-05:00

Paul sent me some pics this past week of his new "Modern Classic" in the wild!

Should've gotten my "studio" photos of this one up sooner, but here they are. More are posted on the website under the title "Blue Goodness"!

Paul wanted the same look as the "Modern Classic" that won best lugged frame at NAHBS in 2009, but since he was going to be fitting a rack and fenders I choose to use standard tubing instead of 953 for the rear end and have it chromed. The 953 chainstays and seat stays are just too thin for my taste on a touring bike.

A good shot of the new double eyeleted Ellis dropouts.

The seat cluster and seat stays get a lot of detail work with the lug carving and the sleeved seat stays.

Some more finished bike shots. Nice to see he's not afraid of getting it wet!

Ride on Paul!

Cheers,

Dave

Sydney's Finished Frame

2010-07-05T15:27:00.000-05:00

The little bi-lam frame is all finished up. I love doing these smaller frames since folks who ride them usually have to put up with a bunch of geometry compromises on "stock" frames. I can make each fork and frame fit perfectly together, and the end product is going to perform so much better.

I've been doing this lug detail on quite a few frames recently, and I really like the way the fork crown mimics the frame detail.

Bi-lam seat lug with sidetack seat stays and you can just see the internal cable routing. On little bikes, the internal really sends the housing out in a nice arc to the brake. Just hugs the seat post.

I've been brazing on a stainless washer for the brake mount, so the paint doesn't get chipped up.
Finally, the Ellis dropouts, really thinned back for such a small frame.

Sydney's Bi-Lam Frame

2010-06-28T08:05:00.000-05:00

Here's the tubes all laid out for Sydney's new frame. She's a fairly small, light rider, so I'm going with some really light, standard gauge tubing and it'll be bi-laminate to accommodate a sloping top tube.

Starting to work on the top tube lug.

I have to do any lug carving before I cut the top tube socket off, or I'd have no way to hold onto the lug.

A quick shot of the head tube with the bi-lam lug setup.

A close up of the lugs and bits.

Everything is mitered and prepped, ready for the fixture and tacking.

The head tube, post braze. (still hot!)

After a nice soak in the tub!

And finally, after some quality time with the files and emery!

Be back on Wed. with more pics as the rest of the frame gets finished up.

Cheers,

Dave

Alley

2010-06-08T21:05:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was a tough one here. While I was on the way to VA for the Cirque, Alley suddenly became quite ill and Lisa was forced to have her put to sleep. She was a great shop companion and friend for many years and she'll be missed greatly.

Stephen's Rando frame

2010-05-21T09:56:00.000-05:00

As you can see, I went ahead and built the fork first. Steve's opted to use a Nitto M12, so I wanted to make sure my fork length work with the rack and if needed I could adjust the frame drawing accordingly.

Next order of business is getting the chainstays built. I've slotted and ground the chainstay ends the way I like them and hacked off the lower of the 2 eyelets on my dropouts. Steve only needs one for a fender strut attachment. All the washers are for the dropout faces, the derailleur hanger face and the eyelet faces.

Here you can see the finished product with all the washers brazed on and cleaned up.

I like the look of Ricard Sachs' Rene Singer lugset for rando bikes. Here I'm cleaning up the edges and points of the down tube lug.

All the lugs are prepped and the frame is ready for the fixture.

It's a big one ladies and gentlemen! 62cm c-c.

Down tube lug, tacked.

Post braze.

Bottom bracket, tacked...

and brazed!

I soaked the frame last night, more pics soon as it progresses.

Cheers,

Dave

Smoked Out!

2010-05-17T09:19:00.000-05:00

For those of you who haven't visited, Velocipede Salon is a forum to discuss all things cycling related and a few things not so related! Over the past few months I've been contributing photos on the Friday Night Lights section of the forum where framebuilders are encouraged to show photos of finished bikes or work in progress.

A few weeks ago though, Richard Sachs came up with an idea for sharing a bit more info about the hundred or so members of the Salon who list themselves as either full, part time or just hobbyist framebuilders. So far they've featured 7 other builders and now it's my turn. Check it out at; http://www.velocipedesalon.com/forum/content.php?27

I've got a brief history of my development as a builder, and then anyone can post questions or comments related to my post or others in the thread. It's a great way to learn more about us builders and if you've got questions, jump in!

Cheers,
Dave

p.s. Smoked Out has even been noticed by Bill Strickland of Bicycling Magazine. Check out his blog post here; http://bicycling.com/blogs/sittingin/2010/05/07/meet-your-makers/

Mike's Road Frame

2010-05-10T08:44:00.001-05:00

The last week as been pretty busy. My folks came in for a visit on Mon. and I tried to juggle work and doing some fun stuff with them as well.

We returned last night from Horicon Marsh Bird Festival. While Lisa and I are rather casual bird watchers, my parents are becoming quite the experts with many trips to bird watching spots all over the world. A couple of the highlights of this weekend were seeing a Whooping Crane and a Glossy Ibis.

OK, now back to business. I got as much work done on Mike's frame as I could this past week, so here's the progress. I'm finally back to a "normal" lugged frame, and while I enjoy the bi-laminate bikes, it's nice to get back to lugs. Mike has already decided that he wants his frame to be painted exactly like Kevin's black road frame with just a white panel on the down tube. It'll be a very clean, classic bike with a level top tube. He did opt for the internal top tube cable routing which you can see if you look closely below.

Not too many process photos, here's the head lugs after brazing and finishing. I added a 10mm head tube extension on top.

The Ellis dropouts with the seat stays dry fitted.

Finally, the whole frame with the stays mitered and dry fit. Not too much left to do, just braze the seat stays, add all the small bits and finish!

Cheers,
Dave

Rob's BiLam 29'er

2010-04-29T10:27:00.000-05:00

The inspector has returned, and all she has to say is, "what the heck is this crap"?

Well, I'll explain. Rob sent along this picture of his lugged '92 Paramount and asked if I could build a modern lugged 29'er. Not an easy task considering the extreme angles that suspension corrected 29'ers present. On the upside, Rob's a pretty big guy and that helps make some of the angles less problematic.

I decided to go with a standard size seat tube, 28.6mm, externally butted at the top, and then a 31.8mm top tube and 35mm down tube. A set of double bend chain stays and Paragon chain stay mount disk dropouts finishes things off.

I spent a fair amount of time figuring out where to locate the bends and bumps when I built my 29'er last year, so I knew pretty well where to make my cutoffs and bumps for tire and chain ring clearance. I did have to do some work on the chain stay sockets of the bottom bracket shell. It's a road shell, so the sockets are not angled as much as you need. After some subtle persuasion, they came around.

I used some 4130 tubing to make the Bi-Lam lugs. First I mitered the end to match up with my geometry, then I drew my design on the tube and cut it out roughly with a hacksaw. Once I had a manageable sized stub, I tacked it onto the head tube where I could do the final shaping. Below is the head tube with the top and down tube "lugs" attached. I made the down tube lug a little extra long on the bottom to act as a gusset and the forked tangs should distribute the stress outward.

The tube set, lugs and chain stays all ready to be brazed.

A better shot of the bi-lam head and seat lugs.

Once it's finished the Inspector has to have a look! The cable guides are brazed onto the head lugs, reminiscent of Rob's Paramount.

The fillet brazed seat cluster with my custom bent seat stays and bridge.

Paragon dropouts. I'm really liking these!

A shot of all the curvy stays and bridges.

"I guess this one's OK"...

Cheers,

Dave

Jason's BiLam S3 Frame

2010-04-16T17:20:00.000-05:00

I haven't fallen into a well, but I have been neglecting the blog a bit lately! Jason, here's your ride, all ready for paint.

Jason's frame uses True Temper's S3 tubeset. The seat tube is round, while the top tube and down tube are pretty heavily shaped. They're also quite thin, and this helps bring Jason's frame in at under 3 1/4 lbs.

Here's a shot of the tubeset and bits all prepared for brazing.

And a shot of the head lugs as I carved them out of a piece of 4130 chromoly.

Frame is all fluxed up and ready to be tacked.

Head tube, brazed and soaked to remove the flux.

The inspector stopped down for a quick look, but she's more interested in sneaking outside now that the weather's nice.

Finished bottom bracket fillets.

Head tube.

Seat cluster prior to attaching the seat stays.

Here you can see the finished seat cluster and the sleeved seat stays with teardrop windows.

Of course, Ellis dropouts.

I normally use a flat crown fork for oversized head tubes, but Jason and I both agreed this one would fit better with the smooth fillets and oversize tubes.

Cheers,

Dave

Carl's Do-it-all Cross Frame

2010-03-12T21:49:00.000-06:00

Finally back to work buildin' frames after a long break for NAHBS. Feels good!

First up is Carl's multi purpose cross frame. I went with an old school Columbus SLX tube set and a set of Long Shen's Cinelli copy lugs. We're going for as much functionality as possible, so I used some of my old Campy 1010a dropouts so he can run it single speed or geared and I added a bunch of braze ons to hopefully cover any eventuality!

Here's a shot of those nice Long Shen head lugs, very clean and nice.

The seat cluster area, lots of stuff going on here. You can see the top tube cable routing, (which I don't normally do), a beefy canti brake bridge, and the hidden rack mounts on the inside of the seat stays. What you can't see here is the internal routing for the front derailleur cable. Since Carl was only going to run a front changer infrequently, I routed it under the top tube internally. This way, when it's not being used, you don't have open cable guides except the one on the back of the seat tube.

The seat stays are the only non SLX tubes, I upsized a bit and ran some double tapered 16mm's instead of the 14's that come with an SLX set to better handle the canti brakes and a potential rear rack. I really tapered the caps as well so the stays don't look quite so beefy where they meet the seat lug.

I bumped the chainstays pretty deep for lots of extra tire and fender clearance. You can just spot the boss in the bridge for mounting a fender and the 3rd set of water bottle bosses under the down tube.

Oh yeah, the vintage Campy dropouts. If you look close you can see the pitting from some years of rusting away at the Paramount and later Waterford shop. Saved a pile of these from the dumpster during my Waterford days. A little vinegar and salt soak and they're ready for action!

Cheers!

Caitlin's Finished Bike

2010-03-08T13:25:00.000-06:00

I've mentioned before that Caitlin was nice enough to let me hold onto her frame for a couple extra weeks so I could show it at the NAHBS in Richmond. Well, we're back, and she made the trip from Madison on Sat. to pick up her new Ellis. Didn't waste any time getting it built up either! I'm looking forward to a ride report soon.

As you can see, Caitlin has her own version of the Ellis Cycles "Inspector".

Cheers,

Dave

2010 NAHBS Notes

2010-03-03T10:49:00.000-06:00

I've had a couple days to recover and I thought I'd try to share some of my impressions of the NAHBS in Richmond. Firstly, a huge thanks to Don Walker for all the time and effort that goes into planning and putting on what has become the premier show for small builders.

I talked to so many people over the 3 days of NAHBS, and got such great feedback on my frames. Folks commented on how clean, simple and classic they looked, and that's exactly what I'm going for every time I start a frame. I'm honored that the judges felt my frame was "Best in Show", but I'm sure there were at least a dozen other frames that could easily have won in it's place.

Another cool part of winning the award was the fact that Patrick, the owner of the winning bike, had flown in from San Francisco the day before to see his new bike and look around the show. I'd never met him in person before, and when he saw his bike for the first time and introduced himself, he was beaming with excitement. This is really what makes building frames on my own worthwhile. Meeting the customers face to face and getting all the feedback on my frames has been amazing. I also got to meet Chad, the owner of the Richard Petty tri bike. He was nice enough to drive it up from NC on Friday morning and then make another trip to pick it up on Sun. He's a heckuva nice guy too and was excited to get some miles in before his first triathlon in a couple weeks. I can't wait to hear how the new Ellis works for him.

I can't end the post without thanking my painter, Jason Sanchez as well. Without his huge effort over the last couple weeks before the show, I might have only had one or two bikes to show instead of the four that finally made it.

And finally, a huge thank you to my wife for putting up me during the weeks leading up to the show and all the stress that comes with it! I really truly couldn't do what I do without her.

NAHBS Retro Bike part 2

2010-02-27T18:25:00.000-06:00

It doesn't get any prettier than this!

Some of the small details around the front derailleur

I must say, setting up the notoriously difficult brakes wasn't as hard as I had expected.

Threading the cable into the brake lever was probably the trickiest bit.

The glamour shot in the hallway of the hotel!

NAHBS Retro Bike

2010-02-27T18:24:00.000-06:00

Jason worked his butt off to get this one done in time for the show, but it didn't quite make it by our early Wednesday morning departure.

He finished it up on Thurs. and got it over to Ben's where they packed the heck out of it and sent it overnight to the hotel in Richmond.

We got back to the hotel room after the first day on Fri. and the frame was waiting for us.

Getting the bottom bracket installed, and below, the gorgeous Delta brakes!

Caitlin's Ellis

2010-02-22T11:18:00.000-06:00

Just got this photo back from Drew, it's Caitlin's road frame. She's graciously allowed me to hang onto it for a couple weeks extra, and I'll have it on display at the Handbuilt show later this week.

Paul's Modern Classic, Finished.

2010-02-17T22:00:00.000-06:00

Paul wanted his Ellis to be a light touring frame with the same look as last year's NAHBS winning frame. I was hesitant to use 953 for the rear end if he was going to be carrying a load, so instead I'm going to have the chain stays and seat stays chromed along with the fork. The lugs are all carved, and the head lugs will be polished stainless.

I used the Pacenti Artisan lugs for the head tube and had a bit more length on the points to work with. I still need to braze on the head tube cable guides after the lugs are polished.

Nice clean fastback seat lug.

Seat stays are sleeved and carved. This way I can use a heavier lower stay and still have the clean fastback at the top.

The new Ellis double eyelet dropouts. These are 4130 steel,,rather than 17/4 stainless so they can accept chrome.

The Inspector / Show Displays!

2010-02-14T15:58:00.000-06:00

We've had a couple sunny but cold days here after 10-12" of snow on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Inspector managed to sneak out and check out the damage while I dragged one of my show displays out for pictures.

After much woodworking and finishing, the displays are done. Each one will accommodate two bikes, one on either side with the drive sides facing out. The lug design on the front was tedious, but I think it turned out pretty cool.

Just talked to Jason and 2 of the frames for the show are almost done. Hopefully he can squeak out my frame for the vintage Campy parts, but if not, it'll have to wait for the Cirque in June.

More soon,

Dave

Paul's "Modern Classic"

2010-02-10T20:01:00.000-06:00

Paul's take on the "Modern Classic" will be a light touring bike with mounts for fenders and racks. As you can see, I've got the tubes all mitered and ready to go, I've just been waiting for the head lugs to arrive. They showed up last week, but I've been distracted with my display stands for the NAHBS show which is coming up soon! More on the displays later...

Here's the Pacenti Artisan top tube lug after some solid carving time. I haven't used one of these lugs for quite a while, and I noticed that he's changed the casting a bit to give more of a radius to the transition between sockets, nice! Should make polishing easier too.

Another view.

OK, here's the other project that's been taking me away from my building duties. I originally planned to make some basic stands to display my complete bikes on for the show. Just plywood with some trim, no big deal. As I'm working on the basic parts, I mentioned to Lisa how I wanted to cut an arch out of the sides to make it a bit less "boxy". She immediately threw out the idea, "why don't you make it look like a lug"? Pretty good idea, but much more involved from the construction side. I even ended up making a steam box to bend strips of wood for the trim. See what I mean about more involved?

At least they're close to being done. Hopefully one more coat of finish tomorrow and they'll be done. I'll take some more photos with the bike mounts as well, and if you're at the show, stop by and see 'em. The bikes on top should be nice too!

Dave

Kevin's frame part 2

2010-02-05T08:33:00.000-06:00

I'll keep the words to a minimum and let the pictures do the talking!

Kevin's Ellis

2010-02-03T15:18:00.000-06:00

Drew just sent along this photo of Kevin's new road frame and I had to get it posted!

More soon!
Dave

Dave's (that's me) Show bike!

2010-01-22T10:25:00.000-06:00

OK, let me begin by saying, I sometimes get involved in building and forget to stop and take pictures. So as you can see below, I've got the lugs for my personal bike all carved and ready...

And then the bike is brazed and finished! Sure I missed a couple steps, but who wants to see a frame all covered in flux. Once you've seen one, you've seen them all!

The chain stays and seat stays are polished 953, so I've left the dropout points proud of the stays.

Polished seat stays meet painted seat lug. Going to be some careful masking for Jason.

Now, a short story about this bike. When I was just getting into cycling in the late 80's, I lusted after Campy C-Record parts. I used to draw intricate bikes for my high school art classes with detailed parts down to the chain links and spoke nipples. I watched as Greg LeMond, Stephen Roche and Pedro Delgado won Tour's de France on bikes that I dreamed of...

Fast forward to 2009. I'm working at Ben's Cycle in Milwaukee while Ellis Cycles gets going and Ben's does a ton of business with Euro Asia imports. We just so happen to have a full Campy Record kit with Delta brakes. Don't even get me started on these brakes, I know they don't have the best reputation for function, they're heavy, but DAMN do they look cool! Form over function in this case. OK, so after getting the Record kit back fr0m some nutty customer, the folks in Ben's web sales were ready to send the whole shebang back to Euro Asia. I decided it time to build my 1991 dream bike, so I plunked down a bunch of my hard earned cash!

Campy parts, I've got the hubs built into wheels with an Ambrosio Synthesis Durex in the back and Crono Durex in the front. More NOS parts from Ben's! Also a classic non anatomic set of Nitto handlebars.

I got it back from the polisher, cleaned it off and then I just had to hang some parts on it! Sat in the basement for about 10 minutes just looking at it before Lisa got home and I made her look at it too! I love her for humoring me!

Thanks also go to Jason P. for the almost mint Turbo Special saddle. Once the bike's done I'll get that stem, (also custom made), down a little lower. Talked to Jason about paint and we're thinking of white with just the head tube logo and down tube logo in a gunmetal gray/blue to match the "Century" finish on the parts. The seat stays and chain stays will be fully polished and the fork is chromed.

I can't wait to get it built up! Maybe you can go home again?

Cheers,

Dave

Patrick's 953 Frame

2010-01-20T10:57:00.000-06:00

Patrick's frame is another one I'm planning to display at the upcoming NAHBS in Richmond. It's a mostly 953 frame with the exception of the seat tube, head tube and a plain steel bottom bracket instead of stainless. All the stainless will be polished with a painted seat, head tube and fork blades. Very similar to the 953 Ellis I built for Mike S. last year. I was hoping to have that one done for the show, but we were held up by a stainless fork crown, this year there shouldn't be any problems.

Above, all the parts prepped and ready to for the fixture.

Here I've got the complete bike set up so I can cut the seat stays to length and get the stainless caps welded and finished. I have to thank the guys at Waterford for helping with that quick bit of stainless welding!

A couple detail shots of the 953 chain stays and my new dropouts. I extended the tabs just a bit so I have more contact area for silver brazing. When I prepare the dropouts for a 953 bike, I finish the tabs to a point and then slot my stays to fit that point. What I'm looking to do is leave the points slightly raised from the stays so when the frame is polished, the silver braze doesn't get undercut around the dropouts. Plus it looks kinda cool too!

The head lugs after brazing.

Head lugs after a soak and some finishing. I really like the detail of the points almost touching on the back of the head tube. Just a geeky frame builder thing.

The frame, fork and stem all ready for final polish and then paint. I've started working with Jason to have him prime the fork and stem before polish so the sealer gets right into the lug edges. He'll have to touch things up after polish, but it's been working well, and it makes the polisher a bit more careful of the edges as well.

A closer shot of the head lugs, fork crown and stainless lugged stem.

A couple detail shots of the brake bridge, (it really mitered up tight and brazed nicely), and the rear dropouts.

Finally, the seat lug with the side tack 953 seat stays.

Tomorrow, I'll post some shots of my personal road frame that's also destined for the NAHBS show!

Cheers,

Chad's Tri Frame

2010-01-18T17:38:00.000-06:00

Once again, I'm really falling behind on my blog entries, I'm gonna try to get one up every day for a few days to get everyone up to date.

Chad contacted me last summer and wondered if I could make him a steel triathlon frame that would be unique and not just a cookie cutter version of all the typical carbon tri frames. Well, even with a simple paint job, this frame would stand out, but Chad took it one step further and had Jason paint it the classic Richard Petty NASCAR scheme. Honestly, the photos don't even do the orange justice, it's full on day glo!

In addition, we went with polished 953 chain stays and a chromed fork. If you look back through the blog, you'll see some shots of the raw frame and the bi-laminate lugs for the head tube and seat lug.
Jason added Chad's name on the top tube so just in case there's another Richard Petty tri frame out there!

A shot of the bi laminate seat lug and huge aero seat stays attached as a fastback.

Chad already got the frame built up last Sat., it's an interesting mix of modern and classic looks.

If you stop my the Ellis booth at NAHBS in Richmond, Chad's bike will be on display, you can't miss it!

Cheers,

Dave

Rob's Complete Bike

2010-01-06T17:20:00.000-06:00

Rob certainly didn't waste any time getting his new Christmas present put together. He sent along this photo of the bike and his "inspector". "Looks like everything is where it needs to be!"

I'm busy working on show frames and bikes for NAHBS, should have some more photos soon!

Rob's Christmas Frame!

2009-12-27T17:12:00.000-06:00

I had to keep this one under wraps for a couple weeks so I wouldn't ruin the surprise!

This was the first Ellis I've ever built without ever talking to the intended rider. Rob's wife called me this past summer to see if I could build a frame as a surprise Christmas gift. It was a bit tough not being able to discuss the bike with him, but Sydney did a remarkable job of tracking down drawings from Rob's other frames and sometimes sending along his wish lists of ideas for future bikes. One of the notes Rob had made to another builder was his hope that the new frame would reflect what that builder's specialty was. Going on that, I built what I would consider an archetypal Ellis.

I submit it for your approval!

We decided early on to have the fork chromed like last year's NAHBS frame, I suggested that we do the chain stay in 953 to evoke the 80's chrome look without the cost of a full 953 rear end.

Of course the Ellis "team" paint scheme was a no brainer.

If you've been watching the blog, you may remember these lugs from Chad's tri frame post. I didn't want to let the cat out of the bag too early, so I just put up a couple close ups of the raw head lugs and seat lug as a teaser.

Jason's masking on the head tubes just keeps getting better, and he was no slouch to begin with!

I'm really starting to like this seat lug.

Polished 953 chain stay with a slight "bump" for chain ring clearance.

Check out the masking on the chain stay bridge reinforcement!

Eduardo's Ellis Built Up!

2009-12-22T08:19:00.000-06:00

Dec. Happenings

2009-12-16T12:40:00.000-06:00

Once again, I'm struggling to keep the blog up to date! I'll try to fill everyone in on the latest goings on at Ellis.

This past weekend I had a rare Sat. off from Ben's, so I decided to ride the Milwaukee Santa Rampage. I hooked up with Jason at his shop, and riding along were his friend Jay, and Jon (of Jonny Cycles) from Madison. I had the camera battery all charged up and ready, and I then proceeded to leave it in my backpack after getting all my warm clothes on. So, unfortunately, no pics Santa Rampage. Suffice it to say, it was a blast riding around Milwaukee with about 200 other folks all dressed as either Santa, elves, or other festive critters! I was the buzz kill guy in a red cycling jersey, as I hadn't planned ahead much for the ride and it ended up as a spur of the moment decision to ride. Next year!

As for Ellis Cycles, I finished up Caitlin's frame last week and dropped it off with Jason last Sat.

All the tubes mitered up and ready for the fixture. I hadn't done any work yet on the fork crown, and was noodling over how to make it hang with the frame stylistically. I worked out a cool pattern that's pictured below, and it ended up being one of my favorite details on this frame.

The head and seat lugs are a set of Silva? lugs I got from Ceeway a while back and I've been waiting for a project to use them on. They're for standard gauge tubes, and very minimalist, except for the bands on the head lugs. I carved them back a bit and added the circular cutouts that are becoming one of my favorite motifs.

Of course, the Inspector had to make an appearance to check things out.

A shot of the head lugs and fork crown. The crown is a Long Shen LC 17, and it starts out with two symmetrical points on the side. I decided to add the circular cutout and make the points a bit more asymmetrical to mimic the lower head lug. Unfortunately, I don't see this lug set listed at Ceeway any more, but I may have to ask if he can get them for me. For smaller frames, I really like this pattern and look.

Finally, the seat lug, with some tidy sidetack seat stays. If you look closely, you can see the stainless waterbottle boss I added on the inside of the stays for mounting a rack. Caitlin wanted the flexibility to run a rear rack, but this way when it's not mounted, the mounts are not nearly as noticeable. Plus the stainless bosses won't get chipped and rusty from taking the rack on and off. I added stainless washers on the dropout eyelets as well.

Cheers,

Dave

Eduardo's Finished Frame

2009-11-28T17:10:00.000-06:00

Eduardo's frame is on it's way to Colorado on Mon., here's some finished photos.

I wanted Drew to take a shot of this detail on the underside of the dropouts. I've been finishing them this way for a while, but haven't had a photo of it yet. I make a point on the bottom face of the dropout and then this gets masked along with the dropout faces. This takes care of the two most commonly chipped areas on the dropout.

The polished stainless head lugs with the head tube logo painted on. Jason has mastered the plotter, so now my logos are paint rather than the black and white decal. This way, they can be customized to match any paint scheme!

Finally, the polished fork crown. I like this shot, if you look closely in the reflection, you can see the frame sitting on the table opposite. Pretty shiny!

More soon!

Dave

Kevin's Finished Frame #24

2009-11-24T10:32:00.000-06:00

Just finished up Kevin's frame yesterday afternoon and dropped it off with Jason. A very classic, simple road frame.

I tried a new bottom bracket on this one. It starts out life with fleur de lis' on all the points and a couple points on the sides of the down tube and seat tube. I carved it back a ton, and I'm pretty happy with the finished shell. I always add a second drain hole with the cable guide mounting hole.

The full frame and fork. Kevin's going to have it painted black with a white panel on the down tube, black lettering and a white head tube logo. Very stripped down and minimal.

I resisted using this seat lug for a while, as it reminds me of the Serotta Atlanta, which was the lower end model I built quite a few of during my time at Serotta. The Serotta lugs had an "S" cast into the flat side panel and I just got tired of the look. Last year I decided to use this lug on my "Modern Classic" for the NAHBS, since it matched the head lugs and it is ideal for mounting the fastback style seat stays. Since then, I'm warming to it's shape, and I'm using it more and more with the 1 1/8" head lugs from Long Shen.

Some added touches in the lug corners, and I've carved the band a bit also.

The Ellis dropouts with skinny seat stays attached! When I use these dropouts with 953, the stays really engulf the dropout ends, but with a standard 14mm double taper stay, the ends are so dainty! I must say, I prefer the thinner look, and they ride really nice too.

A final shot of the fork dropouts, nice and tidy!

Should have pics soon of Eduardo's frame. If you've been watching the blog, you'll remember he had the compact frame with stainless head lugs, seat lug and fork crown. He chose a beautiful shade of orange for the frame and it's completed with white panels and red pinstripes and Ellis logos. Quite stunning!

Cheers,

Dave

Ellis in Patagonia

2009-11-24T10:18:00.000-06:00

Gotta hand it to my brother Steve, he's a tireless supporter of Ellis Cycles and the proud owner of last year's NAHBS bike! Some of you may know that he works for Patagonia in Ventura, CA. Well, with his help and some contacts in the Chicago Patagonia store, I've got my personal road bike on display through the holidays at their store.

http://www.patagonia.com/web/us/patagonia.go?slc=en_US&sct=US&assetid=1936

I've got a kinda blurry shot of the bike that was forwarded along below;

If you're in Chicago, go check it out!

Kevin's Road Frame

2009-11-17T15:33:00.000-06:00

Kevin has been waiting patiently for news of his frame for a few months, and I tried to take more pictures of the process for him.

Below I've got all the tubes, lugs, dropouts and bridge laid out and ready to start.

I've raked the blades, slotted, brazed the dropouts and cut the blades to length. Ready for...

The torch!

I've cut some circles in the lug corners and just modified the lugs a bit. Plus all the points have been sharpened up.

A bit out of order here, but below are all the tubes, mitered and the fork after brazing and a good soak.

Mitered tubes, set up in the fixture.

Bottom bracket dry fit.

Down tube miter, nice and tight!

The inspector makes an appearance!

The frame tacked up. I've checked the alignment and now it's ready for brazing.

Head lugs and seat lug after brazing.

It's soaking as I write this, I'll post more tomorrow!

Chad's Triathlon frame

2009-11-06T07:56:00.000-06:00

Chad called me early this summer to ask if I could build him a unique triathlon frame. He was tired of having the same bike as everyone else week in and week out at all the races. While a steel tri frame would be unusual enough, I decided to use a technique called bi-laminate for the joints due to the unusual angles that a tri frame presents. I learned how to do the bi-laminate style while I was starting out at Serotta, but we just called them "half lugs"! Bi-laminate sounds so much more refined, right? ;-)

I've got the fork built, it's getting chromed, and then the rest of the tubes and lugs prepped and ready to go. Chad also wanted to go with polished stainless chain stays, I've got the parts above, but I brazed the main diamond up first.

Here's the finished frame, bi-lam lugs, aero seat stays, and stainless chain stays and dropouts.
I think Chad will be the only guy at the races with a frame like this!

I did a slightly different treatment for the seat stay ends, hopefully this will make it a nice clean mask line for the paint to polish transition. The stays and dropouts will be polished, but the tricky thing is, how to do the transition to paint.

Down tube lug with barrel adjuster and shifter stops on the down tube.

Seat lug with the massive aero seat stays attached.

Top tube lug.

OK, these last couple are some shots of the next frame in the quene, I got a start on it yesterday. Pretty standard road frame, some small lug carving and it'll have a stainless drive side chain stay and a chrome fork. Should be pretty classic.

Jon's 650B Randoneer

2009-11-02T09:33:00.000-06:00

Well, if you've been watching my blog you would probably conclude that I haven't been building anything lately. Actually, I've been quite busy in the shop and just haven't made the time to update all the recent projects I've got going. Here's a start!

Just got Jon's 650B rando frame back from paint last Mon. Drew took the glamour shots and here they are!

The custom built front rack. It has a threaded boss for the fender mount in front and then two bosses on the side for a nifty LED flashlight mount. This frame and Selena's frame are also unique in that the head tube logo is painted on, as opposed to the decal that I've been using up till now. It allows for more customization of the paint schemes than ever before.

The bottom bracket. That chain stay bridge looks really far back, but with the 450mm chain stays and the 650b tires it's just right. In the bb, I've drilled two holes, one for the cable guide to bolt onto, and a larger one for water drainage.

Kinda basic rear dropouts, but I added stainless faces to the dropout and the fender mounts.

The seat cluster. I usually do a little one sided canti brake stop, but Jon really liked this look. Fab'ed it out of some 4130 rod and a split guide brazed on. Easy to slip the housing out of the stop to release the Mafac Raid brakes that Jon's going to be running.

Like I said, I've been busy. Look for updates on Chad's cool bi-laminate lugged triathlon frame soon and Eduardo's stainless lugged frame which is heading to paint today!

Cheers,

Dave

Selena' frame finished! Eduardo's in process

2009-10-05T17:16:00.001-05:00

Selena's frame just shipped out today! Drew's pictures are great, but this scheme is very subtle, it's hard for the pictures to do it justice.

I did a slight point on the seat stay caps and just wrapped them a bit on the lug.

A couple cool shots of the dropouts.

Eduardo's bike is next up, I didn't take any early photos, so here's the front end almost completed. The seat lug, both head lugs and the fork crown are stainless on this, one, so I'll have the seat lug pre polished before I braze the stays on.

Just fitting up the chain stays and figuring out how long the seat stays are gonna be. Also slotted the stays and got them fitted up, so when it's done at polish, I can get the rear end on pretty quickly.

Dropouts and bottom bracket.

Seat and head lugs. Ready to get shiny!

And last, but certainly not least, the results of Stem Fest 2009!

More soon!

Travis' Rando Pics

2009-09-19T17:35:00.000-05:00

Here's one of the earliest Ellis', Travis got this one about a year ago and posted pics on his Flickr site here; http://www.flickr.com/syndicalist

If you scroll back, you can check out all the polishing he did to make the finished bike gleam!

Stem Fest 2009!

2009-09-16T17:05:00.000-05:00

The Inspector has been taking advantage of these warm autumn days to get in some beauty sleep on the front porch!

Meanwhile, in the shop, a strange double ended stem is taking shape?

I know, I should take more photos of the process, but I get on a roll and I forget. They're starting to look more like real stems below. One is for my old friend Tom, he's been incredibly patient while I built him one stem that ended up having some pitting issues, and now while the replacement comes together. I figured since I'm already building one stem, why not do one for the show bike I'm planning for NAHBS 2010. (The rest of the bike is top secret!) ;-)

Above, finished with 80 grit. Below, all the small pinholes have been filled and they're finished to 380 grit. Ready for chrome! I also found a use for my SRAM Red crank bag, once the crank is on the bike, what the heck else do you use it for?!

Selena's Frame Part 2

2009-08-27T07:19:00.000-05:00

I finished up Selena's frame last Friday and it's already off to Jason's for paint. I tried to take some photos of the progression as the different parts of the frame come together.

Firstly, let me begin by saying, this was a fairly small frame, a 48cm c-c. Many times when I was building frames at Serotta and Waterford I felt like we overbuilt small frames. One of the nice things about doing Ellis frames is that I'm really not constrained by a lug or tube set that is "stock", so on this frame I decided to use fairly thin standard gauge tubing for a more proportional ride. (If that makes sense?) Weight wise, the frame ended up at about 3 1/4 lbs.

Above is the frame all fluxed up and ready for tacking.

Here's the progression from freshly brazed, to soaked, to finished seat lug.

I did some small points on the seat stay caps and just wrapped them a bit.

Same progression with the head lugs. I used Henry James lugs on this one for a couple reasons, he makes a pretty nice selection of angles, so I don't end up having to "tweak" the angles much, and the shapes of his lugs are just nice, with very pleasing curves and transitions.

The head lugs really finished up nice, I butted them together since the frame is so small, and added the 10mm head tube extension on top.

Again, a few shots of the bottom bracket. Brazed, soaked and finished.

Finally, the fork and front dropouts.

More Complete Bikes!

2009-08-24T21:33:00.001-05:00

More pictures coming in! Chris sent me a link to this picture on his flickr page;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/atemryeats/. Yes, that's my personal 29'er, he contacted me after seeing it at the Cirque and just had to have it. I think it's found a good home!

Below is Henrik's frame, Ellis #1! Finally got me some photos after seeing all the other cool Ellis' on the blog. ;-)

Harlan's Ellis

2009-08-19T19:22:00.001-05:00

Harlan sent along these two of his Ellis single speed. That's Ben holding on to Dad's bike.

Team Ellis paint scheme and the contrasting fork crown.

If you're not on the Ellis e-mail list, check out the latest news here;
http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=f3ffb12d5d3cf98e0119bb341&id=317989be77&e=f0aae8a7f2

There's news on an upcoming ride and tours of Ellis world headquarters and a special deal on jerseys and shorts.

Cheers,

Complete Bikes!

2009-08-17T20:28:00.000-05:00

Juan sent me this cool shot of his Ellis all built up and it got me thinking, how about a bunch of complete bike shots?

Here's a close up of the head lugs and fork crown. Gotta love those hammered Honjos!

Here's the cross frame all prettied up with a fresh coat of paint. I've been commuting on this one, but I'll have to take some more photos once it's cross ready. I've got the old Helium's set up and cross tires already glued on!

Last summer I took some shots of my single speed in the late afternoon sunlight.

Here's a couple of Paul's single speed from this year's Cirque. It took runner up in the Single peed/Track category. Many thanks to Paul for not only bringing it to the Cirque, but also making the trip to Indianapolis with it so I could show it at the Handbuilt Bike Show!

Josh came up from LaCrosse for the Velo Duluth Century in July and Doug R. snapped this shot of his Ellis. Josh is still using toe clips and straps, but it doesn't stop him from really motoring, he finally bid us farewell at the 40 mile point and pushed on ahead to try and finish early.

He's a tough cookie!

Finally, Doug's beautiful light tourer. I pulled this one off his blog, http://mnbicyclecommuter.blogspot.com/. I enjoy checking in periodically and seeing where Doug's been riding and checking out his beautiful photos. Thanks again to Doug for his hospitality on my recent visit to Duluth.

Alright!, that's it for now. If you've got an Ellis and it's not pictured, send me some photos pronto! If you have and I didn't post them, send angry letters now! ;-)

Cheers,

Selena's Frame

2009-08-14T08:08:00.000-05:00

I should have gotten the camera out earlier in the process, but here's everything lined up and ready for the fixture. It's a small frame, 48cm c-c, and we decided to go with standard gauge tubing and nice simple Henry James lugs and fork crown. I prepped the head lugs so they fit tightly together on the short head tube. The rear dropouts are already ground down for the tight angle of the small rear end.

Here's some closer up shots of the lugs!

Should have some more soon, I managed to get the frame and fork tacked and brazed last night, so stay tuned!

Brad's Frame / Long Overdue Update!

2009-07-10T07:29:00.000-05:00

Jason dropped off the latest Ellis, this one is destined for Brad in MN. If you're doing RAGBRAI this year, you might just get to see this beauty!

It's got the new eyeleted Ellis dropouts which are pretty sharp if I do say so myself, and Brad choose some really nice colors for his paint scheme. Subtle, but classy.

I thought I should throw in a shot of my recently repainted cross frame, it's been seeing alot more duty lately as a commuter and I also used it on the recent century ride I did in Freeport, IL.

Here's the guys from Freeport and myself prior to the 100 miles. From the left, it's Mike?, Andrew, me, and Dave.

Dave shot ahead on this hill and I couldn't figure out what he was thinking?, a breakaway? He jumped off at the top and took photos of the group cresting "Binkley's Bonk". It doesn't look like much, but it was a steep one!

Finally, going all the way back to June, here's a couple shots from the final day at Cirque. I was positioned right by the door at the fairground again this year, but thankfully the temps were much more enjoyable. I didn't bring any real "show" bikes this year, all three of the bikes pictured are my personal rides, and the frame on the table is Murdo's "Modern Classic", pretty similar to the NAHBS winning frame, just a little smaller.

I had a great time at the Cirque, definitely felt more comfortable this year and got lots of positive feedback about my talk on Sat. I'm looking forward to next year.

Paul made the trek up from NC, with his Ellis which was on display in the craftsman category, it was named runner up in the "singlespeed / track" category that the Ellis "ghost" frame won last year. I think Paul's is just and pretty in it's own right!

The Inspector

2009-05-25T20:37:00.000-05:00

If you follow my blog, you've probably seen the Inspector before. She pretty much oversees everything that happens around here, and this weekend was no different.

Lisa and I have struggled to keep up with the garden over the last year and a half, but the weeds are clearly winning. So after celebrating our anniversary on Sat. night, (6 years!), we got down to the real fun job of weeding the iris bed.

Of course the inspector has to be on hand making sure the job is up to spec....

Occasionally, she takes a break with me...

But this is just pure bribery!, and one happy cat!

"I'll overlook those last few weeds!"

Mike's 953 Frame

2009-05-14T09:47:00.000-05:00

OK, Mike's frame was originally going to be a show bike for NAHBS, but I had to have a special run of stainless fork crowns cast at Long Shen and they didn't arrive until after the show was over. I did bring the frame, unpainted, so some of you may remember it in the raw. It's looking a bit sharper with some paint and it's final polish.

I made it with a full 953 tube set, but the seat tube and head tube are painted to match the darker Fizik red that Mike's using for the saddle and handlebar tape.

Close up shot of the head tube and the smooth, clean fork crown. You can just start to see the Ellis logo bead blasted into the down tube.

The 953 seat stays are single tapered, so I tried to blend them down gradually into the seat cluster with some slightly pointed caps. Really like the way this area turned out!

Here's a close up of the bead blasted logo, very subtle.

Another of my signature parts, the Ellis dropouts. I finish the tabs down to points before I braze them into the seat stays and chain stays. I also have to make my slots tapered to match the points, but it's a classic look and it keeps the braze from getting polished out of the joints like it would if I simply blended the dropouts into the stays. No hiding my work under paint here!

And the bottom bracket. Check out how Jason masked the window behind the seat tube!

Again, thanks to Drew at Ben's who took these awesome shots for me, I keep making his job harder with all the stainless bikes, too much shiny!!!

Juan's Cross Frame

2009-05-03T22:05:00.001-05:00

Jason finished up Juan's frame this past week, here's some glamour shots.

Stainless Sachs' lugs all around!

That brake routing is tight on a frame this small, but everything runs smoothly.

This fork crown polished up beautifully. I added a star nut inside the steerer on the bottom for mounting fenders, that way the crown doesn't need a brake hole and is super clean.

Juan also wanted to have some flexibility to run fenders and racks when it's not stripped down in full "cross" mode. Hence the double eyelets and rack mounts on the seat stays.

Brad's Frame / New Ellis Dropouts

2009-05-01T07:40:00.000-05:00

I finished up Brad's frame yesterday, but it can't go to paint without the inspector's OK.

Brad wanted a bike he could do long rides on, with or without a rack and fenders. As you can see, he's not a little guy, so we went with canti's to slow the whole thing down.

I cut the lugs similar to the NAHBS bike for my brother. No stainless lugs on this one though.

I did get a new batch of Ellis dropouts made with eyelets. I've got to thank Scott in Wausau again for his help getting these from the drawing to reality so fast!

You can see they have a bit of a texture to them, it's the normal finish that 17/4 stainless comes from the mill with, I kinda like it. Also, check out the finishing on the bottom of the dropout, this bottom face will be masked at paint and remain raw stainless so when an axle hits it, no more chipped paint.

Finally, some shots of the front dropouts and fork crown.