Vulture's Knob Cross series...a vintage ride too!

Just in time to help burn off those holiday cookies, the schedule for the winter cross series at Vulture's Knob has been posted. If you are interested in playing in the cold and sliding in the snow and mud with a multitude of brightly colored friends, here's your opportunity.

All races tend to be pretty low key and focus on FUN. Here's the skinny;

Gather at the garage around the warm fire for the start of the "Wish you'd stay'd in bed" cross series each Sunday at 1300 hours for the start;

January 3
January 17
January 31
February 14
February 28

The course has changed for 2010, but will still be 1 mile around with well signed corners. No special equipment is necessary, as folks show up on all manifestations of bikes. We won't discriminate if you want to huck around on your 3o's Excelsior or your $5000.00 carpet fiber super cross machine, it's all good. Come on out and play a bit :)

Kalten and I got out for a couple hours to check out the course on the vintage rides; we had fast conditions albeit cold and windy. As evidenced by the photos below, we just beat the onslaught of the latest snow storm...whew!

Before the ride...
Just after ;)
I always make an effort to jump back on the old 80's bike a couple of times a year to remind myself just how far bicycle fit, comfort, and performance have come. I still love my old ride, just really appreciate my new one as well ;)

Back with shop news tonight.

cheers,

rody

Groovy customers play Santa...

I know that I have been blessed by the people that I work with through frame building when opportunities like this come to fruition.

There is a great kid here in town who's family is not as fortunate as others in their ability to prioritize the family budget to allow for such expensive items as a mountain bike for a burgeoning young racer. Battling it out on a donated Trek 3000 bike last season (a low end recreational model that was well used when he received it), this young man really embraced the spirit of what cycling in the woods is all about; adventure, new discovery, and expressing the richness gained from the experience with a smile. Although he never complained once when inevitably another inexpensive part would break, we wanted to do something for him to allow a more reliable race season for 2010.

Although behind the scenes and not publicized, many of you folks stepped up and donated parts, money, and time to make this a reality.

So I want to thank you all for your generosity and for the gift you've given me...affirmation that even in tough times, the folks that I have the opportunity to work with here at Groovy are the ones that I'm proud to call friends.
You're good folks!

sorry for the crappy cell pic, I'll get a new camera soon, I promise :)

cheers,

rody

Merry Christmas All

May your day be filled with family, sharing, and joy...

rody and family

Saturday and Sunday I worked on Ti bars, trying to get them out to folks before the guy in the big red suit shows up.

Titanium takes longer to work with, as the material demands a meticulous process, insuring cleanliness and precision. As I do bars in batches, one step that I take to insure that the tubing is ready when I am is to bag all my parts after they've been cleaned and prepped with Scotchbright, limiting atmospheric contamination and dust niblets that float around.

Once out of the bag, they get another quick rub with the Scotchbright to knock off any oxidation, an acetone bath, then purged and tacked up. Here's a bar getting it's final purge before welding. How long do I purge for? I try to allow for the calculated interior space to be replaced with argon by a factor of three...about 5 minutes per bar at 6cfm does it for me. Once filled, I knock the flow back to a maintenance rate to keep up with leakage out the miters.

Each bar takes me about 35 minutes for welding, alignment and inspection once all the dead time is factored in. Mid afternoon Sunday and here's what I've gotten done today... 10 more bars to go before tomorrow morning :)

Gonna have to run to Canton in the morning to pick up some new ceramic nozzles for the blast cabinet then I'll get these glass beaded, rubbed out, and off to their new homes.

cheers,

rody

Tales from behind the helmet...

...the welding helmet, that is.

Worked on welding up the rest of the steel bars for this month, so it was a repetitious day crouched over the weld table. Honestly, with the hectic emotional stuff going on the last week, it was nice to be in that quiet, focused place.

One thing that amazes me when doing a lot of welding is how the filler wire just seems to disappear; when I pull out a new piece of filler, it gleams of promise and excitement with it's 36" length. Soon, before you know it, there's just a stub in between your fingers...
I really enjoy the different processes for joining metal and the variety they offer. As an example, when fillet brazing, the whole joint needs to be brought up to temperature to allow for good penetration and even tapering of the edges of the puddle into the base material. A lot of heat radiates from the work, creating a "hot potato", hoping you don't accidentally sacrifice some skin to the piece if touched. In this example, the heat of the Tig puddle is so focused and small, I can have my dainty fingers a mere centimeter away with no acute result...a good layer of thick callous helps :)

So, here's what I got done in the morning hours...the last bar is built inside the stem for Martin, who was excited to win it and disappointed that his Luv would not pass through the traditional split front. Kinda like a one piece bar stem combo, but at least this one can rotate ;)

The pups have not been getting out of the house much since the weather has turned cold, so I brought them to the shop with me today. Frankie was a good buddy, sleeping soundly beneath the weld table most the day.

Off to go do some powder, pics of Steve's rear end (the bike, not his) later this weekend.

cheers,

rody

Been electronically absent...

Not been around the computer the last week...had two deaths in our FD family in the 9 days, so much time spent assisting with arrangements, participation and the uncommon work of life.

Hold your loved ones close and cherish them as we move toward the holidays.

Be back with some shop news tonight.

rody

Can you feel the Luv?

Ok, it's official...winter is here. How can I be so sure?

I offer to you visual proof...the wooly green socks have been shod. Alas, it has become sock and sandal weather :(
Today was one of those days that test one's determination to do this for a living...6 degrees outside means chilly willy in the shop, sunless and dark when I arrived and moonlit when I left, and long repetitive work all by yourself. Way better than working for "the man" any day though ;) ... darn tooting!

I spent the whole day prepping for the December bar run; cutting steel tubing, parting off Ti material, turning down and squaring off in the lathe, deburring all the edges, sanding each piece, and then washing it all in a mild degreaser for weld prep. I should have 45 bars done by Sunday night, when I'll be able to turn my attention back to frame progress again.

The only visitor I had today was this little guy...
A hairy titanium little pile of fluff that kinda reminded me of the cuddly yet problematic Tribbles from Star Trek...
Y'all see the resemblance?

After all the prep work for the bars was done, I turned my attention to some resto work, and stripped an old Yo for some Grello paint. So there ya go, a full days toil reduced down to a few boxes of parts and some tubes on a granite table...
don't look like much now, but hopefully it'll translate into lots of smiles in a week or so.

cheers,

rody