Carlos Garcia's Bike

Carlos got his frame all built up and I really like the way it looks.  Nice build Carlos!  Thanks for the photo.

Gravel Road Racer

Here are a few pics of a frame I just finished painting.  Its a 60 cm road frame but has a little extra tire clearance between the fork and stays to accomodate a larger tire, up to 32c.  The brake bridges are positioned a little higher and a caliper with a little longer pull will give you plenty of clearance.  I have some 30c cross tires that would be perfect and you could take this thing almost anywhere you please.  The chainstays are 420 mm and i actually fit a 35c cross tire in between them but it only left a couple of millimeters clearance for the tire so I would definitely run a bit smaller tire.  Another good tire choice would be an all-weather 28c.

Bringheli semi-horizontal dropouts with adjuster screws.

I'm waiting on some head badges to arrive to fill in this blank spot.  I think the brass badge is gonna look nice right inside this star here.

This frame is for sale if anyone is interested.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cross Bikes

http://www.peopleforbikes.org/blog/entry/why-we-chose-to-ride-our-cyclocross-bikes-all-summer

Super Super-Motos

I know this doesn't have anything to do with bicycles but more with the need for occasional speed that I have in me.  I always loved riding motocross but I just can't do it anymore.  My body can't handle it.  My right knee is just hanging on and my hips aren't in good shape either.  The last few times I rode a MX bike it was more painful than fun. I've been really hung up on Super-Motos for a while.  I love them.  You have the MX bike but its street legal. Best of both worlds right?  I'll start checking them out and then I'll push it to the back of my mind but then it always comes back shortly.  The other night on Ebay there was a KX 450F that had been made street legal and it was stacked from front to rear, even had a pair of passenger footpegs that bolted on should you want to take your lady for a ride.  Last night I was looking through some of them and thought I'd post a few of my favorites so here they are.

I can live with this one.

 

I've never been much of a Honda guy but I posted this for someone who might be.

This is cool but I've never really been into the blacked-out look.  When I think of Super-Motos I'm thinking of racey hot colors that stand out, afterall, if you're going down a city street at 95+ mph you want to be seen.  

"Ummm, is there a problem officer?"

"Sir , you were going almost 100 mph."

"I can explain officer.  In my quest to get a little more low end power out of my bike I took one tooth off the front sprocket and it robbed me of nearly 10 mph off the top end. Officer, if you would consider just giving me one more chance I'm sure I can break 100."

I'm thinking black and yellow on the color scheme.

KTM has been at the forefront of SuperMoto since the beginning.  I actually had a KTM SuperMoto 640 years ago but I wasn't happy with it because it didn't have the seat height that I thought it would have.  MX bikes have a normal saddle height of over 35 inches, some even upwards of 37-38, which is what I like being tall and long-legged.  The bike showed up and it sat around 32 inches and I knew I wouldn't have it for long.  Thats the reason I prefer modifying a motocross bike.  Upon closer inspection I realize that this photo is of a KTM model toy. It looks good though.

This is the one I had.  Its not bad but it needs more of a modified look.  It appears that it has a nice tall saddle height but when it arrived it didn't and I was immediately bummed out.

How cool is this?  This looks like something you could leave the planet on.

This ones perfect for me.

I dig this one because its still full on MX but street legal.  This is actually more me than any of them however I would want some street tires for performance reasons.

I saved my favorite for last.  This RM 125 is a little under powered for street riding, you'd be putting rings in it every weekend, but it would be a blast to fire up and run down to the corner store on. Notice its a 2-stroke, my neighbors would probably have a change of mind about me.  Check out the disk rotors on this thing.

Chris Horner Did It!

Chris Horner is leaving la Vuelta with the red jersey.  He put on an incredible climbing  display over the last three weeks across half of Spain and beat out some very tough competitors, namely Vincenzo Nibali, Alejandro Valverde, and Joaquim Rodriguez.  There seemed to be something interestingly special about Horner from the very beginning of the tour.  They said he was extremely calm and confident and just genuinely enjoying every moment all the way through the race.  He never got nervous even before his final test up el Angliru to secure his victory. He had been injured or recovering from injury almost all season long and was probably just super-stoked to be racing his bike again.  He's almost 42 years old and has become the oldest rider in history to ever win a grand tour.  I think this is sufficient evidence that riding a bicycle keeps us younger.  The spanish press used the word abuelo to describe Horner, which normally translates into grandfather or perhaps can loosely be thought of as 'old man' but I don't think either of these is appropriate for describing Chris Horner.  Chris Horner is just a pure lover of bike racing from head to toe and has dedicated his life to it, so winning this Vuelta was very well deserved. Not only that, while being a great bike racer all these years, Horner kind of always seemed to go under the radar and never really got much attention, mainly because of Lance, however I think this proves he is definitely one of America's greatest bike racers, and definitely one of the most genuine. I think even his competition was happy for him.  Felicidades!

Hopefully Horner will be racing for the U.S. at the World Championships.  Its supposed to be a climber's course and I can't imagine anyone would have any better form than he does if he can ride Nibali and Valverde off his wheel.  That would be an exclamation point to a wonderful bike racing career.  

Carlos Garcia's Tangerine Road Racer

Alright, I finally got Carlos Garcia's frame all finished up.  It seems like I've been working on it forever but these days it seems like that with every frame but you can't put a time frame on custom quality.  Since I started painting frames a little over a year ago the number of frames that I build has dropped however the few that I build are getting better and I really enjoy the satisfaction I'm getting with painting my own work.  Its something that I always wanted to try from the very beginning and now that its a reality I would just like to improve on it.  While I'm all sure that I have my limits as a painter at this moment, the endless paint color and scheme possibilities leave the future wide open.  Its such a bonus for a customer to be able to select any color that they like and to have their frame painted to their individual taste.  Im sure thats probably one of the reasons there are so many custom frame builders today.  I have to be honest with you all, since I've been building frames I've painted 3-4 frames in orange just because its what the customer asked for.  I was always kinda like, "Oh well, if thats what you want then I'll do it."  Orange never really appealed to me until I got done with this frame.  I don't know what it is, maybe its the Tangerine Pearl paint or maybe its the fact that i painted it, or maybe its the strong contrast of colors on this frame that really gave me a kick in the arse and said, "Orange is where its at!"  I'll always be a black and yellow man at the core because of my Suzuki RM roots, however there was a time when I decided to try something totally different and go a different direction, so I went out and bought a KTM 250 SX.  It was orange, charcoal, and black.  It looked sweet and it ripped up dirt like a bulldozer. It almost killed me once.  I said, "Watch this yall!" and the next thing I said was to the ambulance driver, "Stop driving so fast over these damn whoopdee doos, you're killing me back here."  If only momma could see me now.  This reminds me of a story that my old buddy Patrick Daniel told me once.  When he was a kid, not sure how old, but anyway he was involved in some type of accident involving a tractor, perhaps a farming accident of sort.  He was pretty badly broken at the hips, which is exactly what happened to me on that KTM.  So his dad and his brother make some sort of makeshift stretcher out of a folding lawnchair and they tied him into it and then tied it down in the back of their pickup truck to get him to the hospital.  He told me his dad was doing about 75 mph down a dirt road and flying over railroad tracks all the way to the emergency room.  Patrick said he was bouncing all over the place in the bed of the truck and the whole ride he never stopped screaming, " Daddy slow down, you're killing me!"   Anyway, Patrick lived through it and we became good friends during our 20's and we're still friends today.  He's one of the most interesting people I've ever known, always a blast to hang out with but he can't run worth a damn.  Love ya Patrick.

I don't normally put tubing decals on my frames however Carlos was into it.

This is what you're gonna see when Carlos opens up his sprint.

I love this picture.

Just wanted to say thanks for the opportunity Carlos.  I really enjoyed working with you on this and I love the color selection.  Ride on!

MEECH Custom Bicycles

handmade in 

Mountain Home, Arkansas

Today before Tomorrow

The Angliru is all that stands between Chris Horner and an almost for sure red jersey in Madrid.  It would be an excellent trophy for a life dedicated to bicycle racing and at nothing less than 42 years of age.  Chris Horner has been the man at this year's Vuelta and I think everyone is routing for him to win, probably even some of the Spanish.  Horner has been a class-act in bicycle racing for all these years and I think a red jersey in Madrid would no doubt be a testament to this.  Wish him well.  Go Chris!

Check out this little video to get a feel of what they'll be seeing.  Thanks for stopping by.  Hasta luego. Venga, venga, venga!

                                                                                     http://vimeo.com/1399531

Don't Touch It, It's Toxic

Here is a frame that I finished painting last week and am just now getting around to posting some pics.  The colors are Toxic Orange (aka Mango Tango) and clearly white.  This is a frame that I built some time ago and have just been too busy to get it finished.  I still need to get a seatpost made for it as this is made to incorporate one of my integrated seat post.  I built this frame after building Branton Moore's cross frame which this design was actually his idea.  I liked it and decided to do another that way.  This frame is more of a gravel road racer type frame as the fork and rear triangle have extra tire clearance built in to accommodate some wider tire selections and you will need some longer pull brake calipers.  I actually have some Pauls Medium Racers that i planned on using on this frame.  Oh yeah, now I remember.  I built this frame to take to a show and it never got finished, well its done now.  I thought so much about how I was gonna paint this thing and I never could completely decide so because of time issues and the fact that I was having dizziness for about a week I just decided to keep it a simple two colors and i like it.  I had the white base coat laid down and was fixing to start taping it off for the second color and I was just so dizzy I couldn't focus so I bailed and started over the next day when I was feeling a little better.  Its a wonder it turned out this good.  Its rideable.

Why must all my photos lean to the left?  Must have something to do with that dizziness.

The seatpost will be 27.2 mm inside diameter and the outside will be 28.6, which is the same o.d. as the seat tube.  The post will have a lip that butts up to the top of the seatpost, its basically secure from slippage at that point but then the clamp keeps it from spinning.  The seatpost will be cut to the exact saddle height for whoever this frame may end up in the hands of.  Could be you.

I like this photo.  Makes me think of ice cream and barber shops.  Personally I don't really care for going to the barber.  I'm running a little shaggy these days.  But ask me if I like ice cream, I dare you.

Road caliper brake bridge but like i said you'll need some longer pull brakes.  You can actually fit a cross tire in here.  This is the "go anywhere" frame.  Shimano makes some nice long-pull calipers as does Cane Creek.  Paul's Components probably has a couple of choices.  I need to shoot a photo of the Race Mediums that I have.  Be right back.

Oooh la la!  Can you imagine making something like this yourself.  Paul does it everyday.  These are fine works of functioning art.  

Brake housing exit.  The seat post will actually have a slot cut into the lower portion to allow the housing to pass through and that way it gives a little extra support in the seatstay juncture.

I have no idea why I put these panels on the back of the seat tube but I did.  As if there wasn't enough masking and taping off to do.  Sometimes I don't know when to stop.

This is it in all it's glory.  Its got a 1 1/8" steel fork so its gonna roll like a locomotive and track like its on rails.  This is a big boys bike.  

Loaded like a freight train, 

flying like an aeroplane, 

feeling like a spacebrain one more time tonight.

Wake up baby,

honey put on your clothes 

and take yo credit card 

to the liquor stoe.

Remember that one?  

I know you don't remember this one,

I know a girl named Elsa,

she's into Alka Seltzer,

she sniffs it through a cane

 on a supersonic train,

 she did it with her doctor

 on his helicopter, 

and she makes me laugh,

I have her autograph.

The more I look at this frame I'm thinking that i may keep it and ride it myself, after all it is in my size. Build it up with some Campy Soopa Soopa and roll it like dice.

Does it look toxic?

Thanks for checking things out.

MEECH Custom Bicycles

handmade in 

Mountain Home, Arkansas