Christian's Cross Racer

Today was all grey, Battleship Grey to be exact.  I finally got Christian's frame all finished up.  This one took a while, but hey, nothing good comes easy does it.  This was the first frame that I've built since Jack was born, and so naturally everything is gonna take a little bit longer when there is a baby in the caravan.  When Jack was born I had no idea how smooth frame building would go, however I've got one post-Jack frame completed and Christian even wants me to build him a 29er.  Gonna be starting that here shortly.  

"Enough of this chit-chat D, lets go check this frame out."

Alright.  Vamos.

Did somebody say something about a caravan?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ-nirYb00s

Its a little hard to tell but this is a tapered steel head tube.  Its 1 1/8"- 1 1/2", compliments of Nova Cycles.  Love those guys!

You can see it a little better in this shot.  Whoa.  Check out that custom painted Enve disc fork.

Always gotta plug the home town, state, and country.  This little decal does it all.

There is so much going on here I don't know where to start.  Custom chain stays that allow a 40c tire ( I actually almost fit a 1.9 29er tire in there.  The chain stays weren't long enough to get the wheel in the dropouts), Paragon disc-brake dropouts with a removable derailleur hanger (not shown), Oxy/Ace fire-molded injection formed chain stay bridge ( I may have made that term up), and a handmade carbon chain stay protector that will only fit on one bike in the world, this one. Did I mention that the rear derailleur cable stop came from the U.K.?

You have no idea how much this painted seat lug changes the look of a frame.  When I had finished shooting the black (last color), I cleaned the spray gun and went back to take a look at my work to see how I had done. I immediately noticed that I had forgotten to paint the seat cap, it was still grey. Atrocious I tell you. The frames don't even look the same.  Then a little voice in my head said to me, "You can't ship it out looking like its 99%." And I could do nothing except agree.  Did I mention the conditions that I painted this frame in?

Anne had just gone back to work and luckily my mother was staying with us for a few days.  She is a great help, however I couldn't just leave Jack with her and not help her out because sometimes he'd go a little Jack-O on her and she didn't know what to do.  So I'd shoot a coat of paint and run in the house and see how he was.  Sometimes he was sleeping and sometimes he was screaming Helter Skelter.  So every step I took toward painting I had to go back and sooth the little man back to sleep.  Sometimes kids just don't do what you want 'em to do.  I know, its hard to imagine. Take myself for instance.  All I can say is that I hope he's not exactly like me.  Ever break the stick off of a bottle rocket and try to guess where its gonna go?  Yeah, I know, I've used that analogy before, but its too good not to share.  So anyway, I just about had a melt down around 5:30, but luckily Anne got home and that afforded me the time I needed to finish the job.  I didn't get completely done until around 8:00 that night.  What a day. Daylight Saving sucks! Ever onward.

The frames don't look complete without these either. Its not much, but its the little things that count.

Everyone loves a curvy hiney.  Check out the back of that seat tube.  

"Wonder who built that frame?"

Stainless head badge compliements of Jen's Revolution Cycle jewelry.

Thanks Jen!

Thanks for stopping by.

MEECH Custom Bicycles

handmade in

Mountain Home, Arkansas.