Day two....the show

practical art forms......practiced by craftsmen.....by torch, labor, and love. The 2007 NAHBS.

the lugged variety:

Ventana's secret SS stash

so just out the back door of the shop is a sweet labrynth of singletrack, so after talking about bikes all day we decided to head on out to the stash and end the day in dirt.....it was a good choice of trail and thanks to aaron and sherwood for the ride. It's just what the doctor ordered after a 20 hour drive, no sleep, and a giant burrito. day # 1 is done.

day one.

The Ventana Factory tour.....i suppose i'll kick you guys into submission eventually with the repetition of the V word, but i really can't express enough just how friggin cool it is seeing a manufacturer in the full suspension business able to bring a bicycle to life under one roof, by themselves. Bravo Sherwood & Co. !

So this is the start...the machine shop where the madness happens. The first step to every frame ( other than the order be taken by Teresa ) is given credit to CNC machine (computer numeric controlled), this piece of expensive machinery takes a CAD drawing and produces the BB shell and chainstay yokes on each and every full suspension frame. The liquid that you see here is used for cooling/lubrication of the tooling as it shapes the aluminum. After the etching the parts head into a tumbler machine that deburs the edges and smooths out the surfaces. After 15 minutes in the tumbler the bb shell is ready to be placed onto a frame jig and awaiting mitered tubesets.

mitered and weld

i like the tomac shrine personally.

mitered tubes, tacked together on frame JIG #1 and then they head to Ono the man with the steady hand....argueably the best aluminum welds in the business. Nice work Ono !

heat & paint

so here's a few pics of the heat treating process and then afterwards the frames heads on into the powder coat booth where you get to choose from a variety of gloss or matte colors....after powder paint the frame heads to the final prep work which includes the facing and chasing of headtube and bb shell. But during the installation stage they also install bearing, rockers, swingarm, and those sweet little headbadges.

final prep

final prep of facing and chasing the BB and headtube, and then the frame goes to the wall waiting it's new owner.

a whirlwind

whew, finally back from the land of never ending sunshine and holy crap i honestly don't think it's possible to squeeze in as much fun as we did in the past five days. The 20 hr drive was a kick ass journey within itself as i was traveling over roads that i've never traveled....the desolate northern roads of Neveda luminated by a full moon and mountains of snow that seemed to glow. Lights ... what lights, it's complete darkness out there, and jesus...i thought the desert was supposed to be warm, it was friggin COLD !!!! And then as you make your way to the bustling town of Reno, which appears to be a Las Vegas in the making you slowly make your way up the pass and into the Lake Tahoe / Truckee area which was as beautiful of a stretch of road as i've ever seen. I'll be marking it down to visit here during the dry period of the year.

The sun started to slowly rise and our tireless driver, and fearless comrade Rob M. kept to the driving wheel only to give Brian his 15 minutes of fame until he was beckoning for the wheel again. You see, Mr Rob our resident and californian expert seemed to miss the pace at which the cars traveled in this foriegn land. Brian...slow, me....hell even slower so Rob drived and drove, and pushed on. What a warrior. He drove until morning and until the flap jacks were being flipped by the local Denny's just outside of Rancho Cordova, which was mostly beautiful farm country and what wasn't farm ground was manicured and taken care of with care. Trash on the sides of the road..nope, it was a nice pleasant city which also happens to be the home of Ventana , it was good to see Teresa and Sherwood again and since this was my first trip to the V factory they took me on a nice little tour of the operation, showed me the step by step of each and every frame. I was stoked and in total geek-dom of their smooth running operation. To see a manufacturer complete step A all the way to Step Z underneath ONE roof is so friggin cool. And it confirmed what i already knew....Ventana kicks soooo much booty.

After the tour Sherwood and Aaron took us to a really cool trail over at Folsom Lake. Spectacular trails that were fairly rocky mixed in with a little bit of clay.... it was a treat to follow the man down some of his back yard trails. And man, the ol' man can ride. Thanks for the good ride and pizza fellas !!


And then we were off to San Jose were Rob had some nice digs lined up, a kick ass house which was only 20 minutes from the show.


The NAHBS show was incredible.... an artisan version of interbike and also thankfully much smaller in size. There were sooooo many beautiful pieces of work and honestly i thought everyone had a bike that i would enjoy riding. Personally my favorites were..... Bilenky , anything Bruce Gordon had on display, Vanilla had a cool vibe and their booth was done up in style. Pereira Cycles had a couple one off custom cruisers that were super stylish. But my down right favorite bike was the Ahearne cyclocross bike. After 6 hours at the show we met up with the really good folks from Pacific Coast Cycles, the same shop Rob used to work for. Chuck and his wife Gretchen were a treat, this is a guy you could learn a ton from and someone that's been in the bike industry for over 30years...started his profession by hand filing lugs for the Masi folks. Andthen he opened a shop and WAS THERE before mtb's became the popular form that they are today. He dealt/s daily with the likes of Ross Schaffer from Salsa, Wess from Willits, Ritchey, Potts from WTB...you name it they sold it. I'd like to take a step 15 years back and venture into the heart of PCC and see what it was like in it's hayday. Wouldn't we all ?

But anyway.....after walking down the halls of the show and looking at a few of the bikes from the eyes of chuck we were off to a shop that we were told about.....a shop of legendary status. Supposedly the holy grail of things from a past time. As we walked down the street with little to no directions we finally stumbled across the 3 story junk yard. The 100 yr old building didn't look like it had much life left. It had a violent lean to the south that made you feel vulnerable as soon as you stepped inside....and things could get worse once you entered the doors because stuffed from wall to wall was a collection that would be tought to duplicate. Junk to most, treasures to the rest because around each and eery corner was the possibility of a gem or a new creation. Within my 1 hour tour i saw over 10 Monarch Silver Kings, an old cruiser from the 30's that easily could bring 1000 bucks on flea bay. And on and on it went. I could spend big bucks in a shop like this, but this day i left empty handed BUT ONLY because the owner discarded the only item that i held in my hand. As i made my rounds i finally located this kick ass old tool bench, so i nosily opened up each and every drawer and on the bottom drawer was this beautiful and very old wooden handled adjustable wrench that resembled a pipe wrench. Well someone masterfully brazed on the wings from an old cars front hood emblem. it was a masterpiece and I WANTED it. So i brought the tool to the front and tried my luck....i was thinking he'd probably sell it for $40, but as soon as he saw it laying in my open palms the old fucker snagged it from my grip and said "NOT FOR SALE !!" uuuugghghghhhg. I lowered my head and headed towards the door in a wimper. oh well.


Back to the show for one last drool and then we had dinner and basically i was spent for the night.


The next day, our last day in Califonia left us with options...ride Mt Tam or do an Urban ride around San Fran....we ended up doing the urban ride and oh sweet goodness was it the right call, our 5-6 hour tour took us from Downtown to the goldengate, down Lombardi street to witness all of the crazy's doing their freakish activities, and the down to Ashton Heights where it seemed to me like the greatful dead were still embraced magically. After wolfing down a couple of tofu sandwiches and a quick stop at American Cycles (a sweet vintage shop down on the Heights) we were heading back towards downton only this time we stumbled across a maze of junkyard singletrack that just happened to weave towards the correct direction. And it was good to be in the dirt.... junkyard or not. It was sweet.



After the quick tour we slowly repacked our gear, said fairwells to our californian friends and slowly made our return voyage. 20 hours and one speeding ticket later i was recieving the daddy dog pile !


good times keep rollin' and in the essense of SF ... peace out : )



i'll have a tone of pics for your viewing pleasure tomarrow.

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Jan Ullrich to Missoula

pretty cool news. Looks like Jan is heading to Zoo-Town for a little training.



HAMBURG, Germany (AP)-- Former Tour de France champion Jan Ullrich retired from cycling Monday amid continuing investigations of his alleged role in a Spanish doping scandal.
The 33-year-old German, who won the Tour in 1997 and was runner-up five times to Lance Armstrong, said he will stay in the sport as a consultant for the Austrian-based Volksbank team.
"I am ending my active career," Ullrich said. “But I look forward to continuing my association with cycling. For starters, I’ve accepted my friend Alex Gallego’s invitation to lead the trainer workout at his shop in Missoula, Mont., Tuesday night.”
Ullrich, who will be in Missoula for a three-week period as part of Dr. Brent Ruby’s latest study at the University of Montana Human Performance Lab, criticized the way he had been treated by cycling officials in Germany and Switzerland and by the German media.
"I feel like a serious criminal although I have nothing to reproach myself," he said.
Ullrich said he was still fit and had received offers from seven teams to race this season, but had decided to move on.
Ullrich has been under investigation for several months in Spain's "Operation Puerto" scandal, but has not been charged. He has been without a team since being fired by the T-Mobile team last summer.
"I could have had a team immediately," Ullrich told a news conference, accompanied by his wife and mother. "I had offers, also from Pro Tour teams."
The Spanish probe followed a raid by Spanish authorities last April on a Madrid clinic which allegedly provided performance enhancing drugs to 57 top riders.
The investigation led to Ullrich, a pre-race favorite, being expelled from last year's Tour de France -- a day he called the "hardest" in his career.
On July 20, he was dismissed by T-Mobile and hasn't raced since.
Ullrich said he would work as a media consultant with Volksbank and will also be active in the team's young riders' program. He said Volksbank offered a large budget for other riders that he would bring with him.
"That really impressed me," he said.
Ullrich trained in the former East Germany and emerged as a top rider in 1996 by finishing second at the Tour de France. The following year he became the first German winner of the Tour, setting off a cycling boom in his homeland.
Ullrich also won a gold and silver at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
Some predicted Ullrich would dominate cycling for years, but Armstrong eclipsed him by winning seven times in a row. Ullrich battled weight problems in the offseason, while his teams publicly accused him of lacking discipline in training compared to Armstrong.
Team Telekom dropped Ullrich in 2002, and he served a six-month ban after a positive test for amphetamines. Ullrich said the drug was laced into an ecstasy pill he took during a visit to a nightclub.
Ullrich is also under investigation in Germany and Switzerland. He planned to appear on a German talk show later Monday to talk about the allegations.

Turner Sultan

We got a couple of Turner's new twenty nine inch wheeled Sultan , they look great and i'm looking forward to throwing a set of wheels on this one an actually checking it out on the local dirt. Stay tuned for ride reports.

Roger's Titus Modena

Here's a couple pics of Roger's Titus Modena.....

stay in focus

New Hoops !

Here's some more industry nine goodness, it sure seems that these wheels are a popular commodity these days. Well thats good i suppose..... it's a great product and backed by outstanding design perspectives PLUS, i feel good about supporting the folks behind the company. They're a stand up bunch of guys that know their stuff, plus they've been in the bike industry for years. They've certainly taken a chunk out of my wheel building duties but it's all good as it allows me more time to take pictures.



Here is a set of their All Mountain wheels, laced up to DT-Swiss 4.2d rims. Weight forthe pair: 1575g, and just wait till you see what these beauties are going on.

25.7 pounds of pink sweetness

just finished up the custom pink Turner Flux.... someone is going to be a very happy new bike owner.

wow, nine days since my last post. Sorry about that.....with the warmer temperatures it's becoming obvious that folks are getting itchy to get out and start riding. The beginning of the spring rush and the locals begin to uncover their trusty steeds from the thaw. And some folks literally leave their bikes out in the elements ALL winter long. So for the past nine days i've been busily tuning and laboring over bikes that aren't the most deservant of a picture or a blog update. It's getting these bikes back up and running is the true joy of being a mechanic....so for the past nine days i've been watching the old Motobecane's , the new Calfee's, the in between Schwinn's and of course the delipadated old huffy's that typically take the worse of the punishment by actually sitting outside all winter. Ahhhhh, the joys of the Huffy. It would be pretty easy to sneer at a huffy that rolls into the shop, but to me i see a poorly made bike typically owned by someone that really doesn't know there is a difference and if they do know that there is a difference in quality they also know of the monetary difference and quite honestly $89 means different thinkgs to different folks. Being raised from the other side of the tracks, i understand that. It'd be easy to talk a person into trashing the bike and starting over with something new or something used. You know.... the American way. But if the customer only wants to ride to the mailbox and back does said owner really need a new bike ?? So we try to reshape the rusted, the dusty and refine the new. Welcome back spring, i missed ya.

NAHMBS

so guess who just found out that they're goingto the North American Hand Made Bicycle Show ?? Yippie - hot damn, holy shit ! So the agenda is as follows. Brian and Sam Hall from Ramblumtick cycles out of missoula will drive down and hook up with myself...we'll load up the VW van and head down to Idaho Falls to meet up with Rob M. from Felt Racing. Rob's got a kickin' conversion van that we'll pile into and then we're taking off for Californ-i-a. San Jose...never been there, but am excited as heck (ll). I really feel that the small builders within the states are putting out the most progressive products in the world and we feel damn fortunate to witness it all. To think that the best frame builders in the world past and present will be there and so will we, rubbing elbows...documenting it all on behalf of the red barn blog.

Steve potts !! Waterford !! Titus !! Erikson !! Bruce Gordon !! Vanilla !! Sycip !! Damn, the list goes on and on. make sure you go to the link and check it out for yourself.....i haven't been this excited since i recieved a Titus Exogrid just a week ago. But that's a different story and a soon to be blog update : )


But guess what ...it gets even better.


Sanjose is only 1 and a half hour away from Ventana's HQ's in Rancho Cordova and Sherwood Gibson, designer, builder, welder, painter extraordinare has already confirmed that he'll be giving us the full-on monte tour. Damn, i just wet myself.



Last but not least...the crew. If you have time please spend a minute or two at Sam Hall's site. He's crafting beautiful frames for folks who like to ride. Maybe he can put his torch to use for you ? ? Check'um Ramblumtick



over and out ! Chad

the stove

at the heart of the barn is our ol' wood stove. She keeps us warm and able to work when it's chilly outside. Originally this stove was put to use in my wife's grandfathers house until he got tired of all the work required to heat it. So it sat unused for years in our garage until i decided to put it back into service. I'm a bit romantic with it and while i know there are newer stoves that are more conductive at producing heat or are more efficient but i just can't justify replacing the character.

winter bliss

so I'm asked by quite a few of you guys about how i can stand the long winters and cold weather. It's actually pretty darn easy to cope, you just need to improvise with your recreation a little bit. So i try, this past weekend i decided to try the Pugsley out at on a frozen Como Lake. I've been meaning to try it but i really wanted to let the lake REALLY freeze over before i attempted it.....so i patiently waited, the ice fisherman reports had ice depths at an average of 18" thick. Hmmmmm, sounds thick. However, the first thing i noticed was how most of the fishing spots were consistently located near the shoreline. And personally i had an urge to cross the lake at the middle, an approx 3/4 mile crossing. It's not really that far until you look down and you see a bunch of surface cracks !! Yikes.... knowing that the ice was holding firm and it could easily hold your weight plus some just isn't comforting enough. Those damn cracks made a 3/4 mile journey seem more like 10 and i pedaled like mad on my maiden voyage across it. Exciting, but butt puckering scary. It seems the pugs just keeps finding more and more ways to entertain. As for the traction....it's actually pretty damn impressive at just how much traction those massive tires have. No need for studs, just deflate the psi down to about 15psi and let'r rip.

May 5-6 2007

looks like fun to me !

Hope Hubs

i just recieved word that Hope will be joining the straight pull crowd as well. Hello 1990.

Does the industry know something that we don't ?? I mean really.....Industry Nine should be flattered. Jeff, Industry Nine's sales manager commented:

Crazy huh?
Who knows where the inspiration for that came from? Essentially, that is a true Pulstar design, although Mavic did the same thing for years with the Classics Pro and Elite road wheels.
Maybe we helped open the worlds eyes back to straight-pull spokes.

People are going to love it when Hope coats those threads with spoke prep and then the spokes just twist in the hub flange during truing like all the Mavic wheels did.
In this case, square spoke heads would make a lot of sense.

personally, i do see an advantage to using the stiffer aluminum spokes like those of the mavic wheels and Industry Nine wheels, but stainless straightpull.......hhhmmmm. I don't really see any advantage what so ever. Could this be a bad move by the folks at Hope ??

on the stereo

thanks bdiddy for bringing us some new music. The Soulive album is the perfect was to start a saturday morning. Well, at least right after the cup of joe.


happy saturday folks !