Monday, May 30, 2011

Mike's 650b

Whats the "b" for? Bitchin of course. Well, that, and 650b is a wheel size that falls right in between 26" and 700c. It's an old standard that is seeing a resurgence lately. Building this frame has made me want to do a 650b of my own.....maybe the next show bike?
Speaking of show bikes, Mike's frame bears a close resemblance to the road frame I took the San Diego show. Once the frame was 3/4 done it was time to draw in the bilaminate reinforcements:

Then things took a turn. I don't even know if I should be talking about this. But when I went back to the shop to start cutting, I put a cd in the player....a Simon and Garfunkel cd. I know, I know, I can't believe it myself....but that's what I did. "The Boxer" came on, I started feeling all groovy and things were a blur from there. By the time "Bridge over troubled water" ended, I snapped out of all that sensitivity and had this:

Not too bad, eh?


Once that was out of the way, Social Distortion went back into the player and all was right with the world again. All the little pieces were fabbed up and after a flurry of brazing we have this:




                  Painted pics to come along with some of a retro 29er and a couple of fixed gears.