A Little Bit of Everything.

 Polished stainless sleeved seat stays and brake bridge.

 I just finished Al's new Ellis yesterday, so I thought I'd include a pic here, it's a really cool mix of classic and modern aesthetics (I know, I'm beating that Modern Classic thing to death!), with a fillet brazed main triangle and a polished stainless fork and rear triangle   The shot above is a more simplified take on my sleeved seat stays than I usually do on the Modern Classic, but I think it should blend well with the smooth front end.  More pics here;  Ellis Picasa. 

Next, on to the riding! 

 Look at me, all kitted up in my Ellis duds!

This past weekend Lisa and I headed out to Western WI for the Dairy Roubaix!  The start point was basically in the middle of nowhere between Muscoda, Boscobel and Dodgeville, but that was kinda the whole point.  The ride took advantage of as many unpaved gravel roads as possible, many of which seemed to point either straight up or straight down!  Not to say that this area is mountainous, but the hills that is does have can be quite steep. 

A shot of the gravel as I prepare to head back down into on of the many valleys.  

This upcoming weekend should be another fun one, we're heading up towards Eau Claire for the Strada Fango.  There's a map of the course here, and it looks like it might be borderline mountain bike terrain in some areas, but I think I'll just put some cross tires on the DRB and run with it! 

I wonder if this guy will be there? 

Cheers,

Dave

Mike's Ellis

Mike's frame just shipped out yesterday, here's a cool shot of the lower head lug and fork crown.

This is one of my favorite details, note how the crown is cut to mirror the lower head lug detail.

There are a couple more pics of Mike's frame and fork on my Picasa page here; Ellis Cycles Picasa.

You can also check out the other projects I've got in progress there and watch for updates! Just started working on two upcoming Ellis' that will feature quite a bit of polished stainless.

Cheers,
Dave

Reassembling My S&S NAHBS Rando

When I started planning this bike to display at NAHBS, I rather early settled on building it with S&S couplers so that I could easily pack the bike and travel with it without incurring huge airline fees. I had shipped my Di2 equipped DRB to California in late 2011, and it became instantly apparent how simple Di2 made packing a bike. Now I no longer had to deal with shift cables, all I had to do was break the chain with a quick link and then unplug and unbolt the derailleurs. Once I arrived, reverse the process and the bike is ready to ride with no adjustments at all.

In addition, since the bike features a dyno front hub, rack and light, I needed to have a way to quickly assemble and disassemble these parts to fit in the S&S case. Along the way, I made sure the brakes would also be easy to disconnect and reset up out of the case. When I arrived home from Sacramento, I figured I'd document the rebuild, so that folks could see the amount of time and thought that went into making this process as simple as possible. So, if you follow this link to my Picasa page, you can see not only some really nice finished photos of the bike, but about halfway through the album I start a sequential group of photos documenting the build and some cool features of the bike.

This bike was featured in a quick article on Bike Portland, and I managed to raise the ire of some traditionalists by suggesting that if Rene Herse or Alex Singer were around today, they'd be building bikes with Di2. Sure it's pretty speculative to guess what anyone who built 40-50 years ago would be doing today, but they were known as early adopters of technology like derailleurs and ultra lightweight tubing, so is it that hard to imagine them using the most advanced parts of the time? Another comment questioned whether my bike was truly "innovative", but I challenge that this (or Ultegra Di2) may be the most appropriate group for a travel bike, and I think my Di2 wiring must be somewhat innovative, it's certainly been copied enough since I first introduced it at NAHBS in 2009!

Judge for yourself.

Cheers,
Dave

p.s. Before I get inundated by folks reminding me that the Rene Herse and Alex Singer marques are still in business, I'm referring to the man, not what the current output of these brands are.

NAHBS 2012!

One more day to go, but the awards worked a bit differently this year. At about 3pm on Sat, the majority of the awards were announced, and I'm honored to have my stainless rando bike chosen as "Best Steel Bike"!
Thanks also to Pete from COG magazine for these great photos, I've uploaded them all on my Picasa page here.

Why No Head Badge?

I've been asked this question often enough that I feel like I should explain my position on the matter. In fact, I've probably lost a sale or two specifically because I don't offer a fancy metal head badge!

My simple Ellis head tube logo, custom painted by Jason Sanchez, and since it's painted on, infinitely customizable.

Well, here's the thing, a head badge doesn't do anything, nada, nothing, ziltch! Sure they can look cool, and I'll admit that there are some that I like quite a bit from an aesthetic standpoint, but the fact remains that it's a purely ornamental part of the bike.

Now I'm fully aware that I build some pretty fancy bikes, and all those shiny stainless lugs and tubes are not necessary, but their beauty and aesthetics are integral to the frame, and in most cases they have at least some functional aspect to them. Stainless chain stays are a great example, why bother with a cheap stick on plastic protector or a contrived rubber strap to avoid chipped paint when a polished stainless stay is one of the best answers. Why did those vintage steel bikes sport a chromed rear triangle and fork? Well, for one thing, those areas were the most prone to chipped paint from wrenches and moving parts, so chrome was the best solution at that time. Nowadays, with thin walled, high strength stainless tubes available, I can build a frame with those same functional aesthetics and not have the rust worries that are inherent with chrome.

When it comes to lugs, there's much less of a functional argument to be made for stainless, but here's the way I look at it, if your frame is going to be constructed with lugs anyway, using stainless doesn't change or add anything to the bike, the aesthetic is still integral to the bike's design and construction.

OK, so back to the head badge question. Let me inject a bit of my history into my explanation. During my time at Waterford, we had more than a few die hard riders who insisted that we offer a head badge, and frankly, I was in agreement. It just seemed a no-brainer for Waterford, with their Schwinn heritage and all.

During that same time, and as more and more small builders started up, I noticed something, they almost invariably all had cool laser cut or cast head badges, and yet many of them had only built a handful of bikes and it showed in their workmanship. In many cases, the head badges seemed to me like a way of "dressing up" or trying to differentiate their mediocre work from one another. Here's the thing, I don't feel like an Ellis frame needs any "dressing up", whether its' my Modern Classic model with lots of shiny stainless or a "stock" lugged frame with none of the bling, Ellis frames are special because of every detail I build into them. Whether it's the subtle curve of a lug that I reshape , or the stainless washers brazed onto the brake bridge and fork crown to avoid paint chips, the beauty is built into every detail, and the end product is the culmination of my 15+ years of building high end steel frames.

A stainless washer for the brake mount, (and another cool custom head tube logo, this time in dark silver).

I'm really heartened when folks come by my booth at NAHBS two and three times to look at the same bike and then comment that the longer they look, the more details they see. You can be confident that no matter what part of an Ellis you're looking at, I've spent time thinking about that part and chosen to build the frame that way for a reason. Nothing is there by accident, or just because I saw it on some other cool builder's frame.

Here's a couple more details that some folks miss that I think make Ellis frames special.

A stainless fork crown with an integrated custom fender mount.


Since all Ellis dropouts are 17/4 stainless, I finish the "sliver" underneath each dropout to a point and then Jason masks that off so the area where your rear wheel's axle comes in contact with the frame won't have chipped paint.


Simple, elegant looks, with beauty that is integral, that's what makes every Ellis a "Modern Classic".

My two bits!
Dave

Rose Valley Ride

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

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