Unseasonal Wisconsin Warmth

After a snowy December and frigid January, we had a brief reprieve from winter this past week. I managed to squeeze in a few rides and I couldn't resist taking out the road bike in spite of the layers of grit and salt on our roads.

Here's a shot Drew took on Tues. after my ride in to Ben's. Not quite as dirty as it was after the ride in last Sat. but you get the idea. The best part of my ride in to Ben's was that both days I had a howling tailwind, so I was flying without the trouble of being in shape. To top it off, Lisa came and picked me up for the ride home, so no downside to the one way trip.

















I've resolved to only ride with tailwinds for the rest of the season, she'll just have to come and pick me up whatever direction the wind may take me. ;-)

Another shot of the drive train, gonna take some TLC to get that cleaned up.

NAHBS Preparations / Cirque Invitation

I was trolling around on the Cirque website last night and found this shot that Dale Brown took of me with Todd's bike at the 2008 Cirque.

Wayne Bingham, the current organizer of the Cirque, contacted me recently to ask if I would consider giving a brief talk about my experiences as frame builder. I was flattered and more than happy to accept, so look for me to be attending the Cirque again this year.

In other news, I haven't been updating the blog as much recently, but I've been pretty busy getting frames and bikes ready for the show. Stopped by Jason's today and saw both the 29'er and Steve's frame getting prepared for their paint. I'm really excited to see the color I choose for the 29'er on the bike, it's always tough to imagine the whole bike finished from the 1" x 2" color chip, but Jason assures me it'll be hot.

Here's a little teaser of Steve's frame, it's what I'm calling a "modern classic". I'll post more pics after the show, but if you can make it to Indy, stop in a check it out for yourself!

Rafael's Frame Part #2

Some more detail photos of Rafael's frame, the head lugs are Llewellyn slant six lugs that I added the circular cutouts to. You can also see the internal brake routing and my handmade down tube cable stops.

The seat lug is also carved a bit to match and Rafael requested the fastback style seat stays.

A little shot of the brake bridge, it's milled out on the under side for less weight, maybe a couple grams, but it looks cool.

The Ellis dropouts, I left the surface under the chain stay a little raised rather than blending it into the chain stay. I finished this into a point and had Jason leave it unpainted so that it won't be chipped when the wheel hits this surface during wheel changes.

Rafael has promised photos of the completed bike, I'm looking forward to seeing it finished!

Rafael's Frame

Here's the first couple of shots of Rafael's new frame.

He wanted a sloping top tube, so I used the Llewellyn slant six lugs for over sized tubing and did a little customization. He also chose to do the Ellis dropouts, and I finished them a bit differently this time around. I should have some close ups soon.




































I didn't notice until my wife mentioned it to me, but I passed a bit of an anniversary this past week. It's been a year since I left Waterford. I've been thinking more of the upcoming anniversary of Ellis' incorporation, but it did get me thinking about all the things that have happened over the past year.

Hopefully 2009 will be a bit less stressful, but no less eventful. We've got the NAHBS (http://www.handmadebicycleshow.com/) coming up and after that I'm looking forward to the Cirque in June. http://www.cirqueducyclisme.com/

It should be fun to see some old friends and make some new ones. Hopefully I'll remember your names too, although I'll warn you, I'm terrible with names. ;-)

Here's to a great 2009 and many more miles for Ellis Cycles!

Thanks.

Ellis Mountain Bike?

A friend of my recently talked to me about building a 29er frame that would double as a touring bike. I did some drawings with his specs and it piqued my interest in a similar project. I haven't had a mountain bike since I sold mine 4 years ago, and I've never really had a touring bike. this seemed like a bike that could fill both needs without filling the garage with 2 bikes that might get a minimum of use.

I spent some time researching 29er and touring geometries and I think I've come up with a nice blend for this frame. The next step was deciding on parts, disc vs. cantis, and other bits. I finally settled on canti's and also found a slick way to use Campy long slot dropouts so this bike could be run as a single speed. In fact, I plan to display it at the NAHBS that way.

OK, here's the frame and fork.

I love the shape of the Pacenti fork crown, plus it allows for the classic raked fork. If you look under the crown you'll see my tricky fender mount. I may not use it often, but it'll come in handy if I ever need it. I also added rack mounts for versatility if I ever tour on this bike.

I wanted to have as much clearance for fat mountain tires as I could get. I mocked up the chain stays and spent some time deciding exactly how wide I could go. The seat stays are 16mm double tapers that I custom bent. I also made a small bending fixture for my seat stay and chain stay bridges, both of which also have fender mounts.

Fillet bottom bracket, always a joy to finish... I also added the little cable guide under the chain stay to get the cable past the bend without snagging on the knobbies.

Here's the retro dropouts. I sized the chain stays so a 2.3 tire just drops out before hitting the seat tube. I also made sure the slot was as close to perpendicular to the seat stays as possible. Now when the wheel is moved back and forth in the slot it doesn't affect the brake pad position. Finally, I modified a Surly Tuggnut to tension the wheel with these dropouts. The screw countersinks into the existing hole on the Campy dropouts.

Finally the fillet brazed head tube. I played around with removable cable guides for when I run the bike as a single speed, but I finally decided to just add a couple split guides on the down tube. Not super clean, but functional.

Now I just have to decide on the color... Any ideas?

Paul's Singlespeed

Jason finished up the paint on this one before Christmas, it's just taken a while for me to get the pictures up. It's a singlespeed for Paul, and he wanted to be able to run fenders and wider tires, hence the long slot Campy dropouts and the cantilever studs.

Paul had really wanted a cream colored frame, it was just a matter picking a contrasting color for the head tube and seat tube panels. He's going to run gold TRP cantilevers, so we tried to match them as closely as possible. I'm really pleased with the combination.

The fork is pretty simple with just a single threaded hole on the back of the crown for mounting the fender.

The headlugs were a set of pressed lugs that I modified heavily.

Hearts all around!

I hope to have a few more photos soon, stay tuned!

James Lalonde, National Champion!

Congratulations James!

An awesome year of cyclocross racing and your well deserved Singlespeed National Championship!


After a tough end to the season in WI which saw James miss the State Championships with the flu, and a brutally cold race in Chicago at the IL State Championships where James was forced to withdraw on the last lap, it seems to have all come together today.


Lisa and I traveled down to Kansas City on Friday to see the race and here's some photos of the action.


We were a bit worried when they lined everyone up by their race number, this put James in about the 8th row back and we knew he'd have to work his way through the field.

Luckily, we had nothing to worry about as he had gotten himself into the top 10 by the middle of the first lap.

James kept working his way up on the next couple laps...

And by the halfway point he was in a three man lead group with a pretty sizeable lead on the chasers.

On the last lap, James forced open a gap, and by the time he came into sight from where we stood at the finish line, he had at least a 5-10 second gap on the second placed rider.

I have a video of the finish line, but I'm having technical difficulties uploading it, so the next shot is the post race interview.

We also had the pleasure of visiting my Grandma Wages in Independence, MO while we were in town, she's turning 95 on Tues. and she's still as sharp as ever and a joy to be around. Happy Birthday Grandma!