Travis' Rando Pics

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!

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

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!

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

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!

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

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!