Giro de Italia Stage 8 Time Trial

Today marks the end of the first week of the Giro de Italia and its already been pretty exciting.  Most all of the GC contenders are together and this individual tt could separate things a bit and make for a little more aggressive race in the coming days.  Hesjedal, Nibali, and Cadel Evans are all sitting pretty well right now I believe and Brad Wiggins slid out yesterday and lost about a minute in a pretty hot finish.  Today's time trial is a 54.8 kilometer from Gabicce-Mare Saltara.  I'm sure everyone is like me and knows right where that is.  Its approximately somewhere in Italy.

I imagine all the smart money would be on Bradley Wiggins to win today's race since he is such a good time trialist and also that he has to make up some time, however don't forget about Cadel.  He can lay down some fast times and I've never seen him show up to a race for anything other than winning.  He's smart, seasoned, and probably one of the best bicycle racers of our time even though there isn't much talk about him.  Simply put, he's badass and you can never count him out.  I'm still thinking Nibali for the overall but for today I think he's just gonna have to limit the losses until the mountains come.  I'm sure it will be a good race.  You can check it out now over on steephill.com.  I have the link posted on the last post and I'll try to get it up here shortly.  Have a good weekend.

Try this:

http://www.steephill.tv/giro-d-italia/#live

Giro de Italia Time

Its May already and that means its Giro time.  I can't believe its already here.  A cold front just moved into northwest Arkansas last night and its been cold, raining, and even a little freezing rain. Will somebody turn the Global Warming switch back on again, I'm freezing my arse.  The only time I've ever seen snow in May was actually coming back from the Yamaguchi frame building class.  I caught a ride with Judd, one of the other students, and his dog Rosco, who were both from Winter Park.  So anyway, that night we're driving into Winter Park and the snow is just coming down.  Judd, being much more accustomed to driving in those conditions, was cruising down those winding mountain passes much faster than this Arkansan was comfortable with. It wasn't just the fact that he was doing 55-60 mph down a snow-covered mountain, it was also his passing other cars on the way down, in the dark mind you.  He never missed a beat though so my hat is off to him. When we finally pulled into Winter Park the whole place was lit up with Christmas lights and covered in snow.  I felt like I had drifted back in time or something.  When the van finally stopped and I put my foot on solid ground (it was snowy and icey but felt solid enough) I breathed a sigh of relief.  I would much rather bust my arse on a slick parking lot versus driving off the edge of a mountain pass.  Ever seen the Tour stage where one of the racers goes over the side of the road and lands in a tree?  Actually it happened a couple of times within a year or two.  Nothing quite like riding your bike over the edge of a mountain, landing in the tree tops 30 down, climbing 30 feet back up onto the road, only to find your team car waiting there with another bicycle.  Judging by the look on the rider's face I imagine the conversation went something like:

Team Manager:  "You ok?"

Racer:  "Uhhh."

Team Manager:  "What were you thinking?"

Racer:  "Uhhh."

Team Manager:  "Here drink some water."

Racer:   "Uhhh. " (While choking and coughing)

Manager:  "Now hurry up, they're getting away."

Still want to be a pro bicycle racer? I think one year it may have been Johan Bruyneel.  Wonder what he's up to these days?  Pfff, who cares.  Anyway back to the bike race thing in Italy.  Apparently its some sort of big deal or something.  They usually have some real good coverage here.  I enjoy listening to them babble on in Italian even though I can't understand it. http://www.steephill.tv/giro-d-italia/

This is last year's champion,  uhhhh whoops, let's see here, wait just a second while I double check my notes....

...ok now, this is last year's champion, Ryder Hesjedal.  He was pretty solid last year but I'm gonna have to go with Vincenzo Nibali from the Cannondale squad.  I read that he's been working pretty hard for this year.  Whoa, I just had a mind lapse.  Nibali races for Astana now. Bet he's missing that Cannondale EVO. He'd never admit it but I know he does. Is Nibali even racing this year's Giro? Yeah, he is but i had to go check to make sure.  Thought for a moment he may just be waiting on the Tour.  I don't know if Roman Kreuziger is racing in it this year or not?  If so, I'd like to see him do well.  He always rides good when nobody has any expectations for him.  Some guys are like that.  Jan Ullrich was kind of like that.  That is one kooooooooool trophy that Hesjedal is holding.  Wish I had one of those sitting next to my Punt, Pass, and Kick trophy.  Yep, first place in the 12-13 yr. old class.  I was in the 6th grade and even beat out all the 7th graders as well.  I remember one of them called me a "weenie arm" during the sign up.  After it was over and they handed him his 2nd place trophy, I told him he could suck my "weenie arm."  I'm just kidding, I didn't say that. I was too shy to say anything like that, so I just took my gold and held it up with one hand and flipped everyone off with the other.  Talk about sweet revenge. ;)

Uuummm, what? Huh? There is a bike race or something going on? Huh?  What are you babbling about? A giro?  I don't care.  Man, why didn't we have trophy girls like this in the Punt, Pass, and Kick.  I just got some spode from the Ford dealership that gave me my trophy along with some McDonald's coupons. He wasn't even wearing pink. I think I got ripped off.

Here are a couple of pics of some of Friday's work.  I put a little custom chainring clearance in this chain stay.  I decided to go with the rectangle cutout instead of the oval on this one.  It takes a little less meat out.

I got a nice little internal fillet on the inside of this piece.  Extra strength!

Perfect fit.  Campy Ultra-Torque cranks provide the least amount of clearance with these chain stays so if I can make them fit then I know most other brands will also.  This is actually a 53/39 tooth chainring setup, so thats why it is as tight as it is.  This is actually built for a cyclocross crankset and that will provide even more room.  

Thanks for checking things out.  I just finished painting a frame the other day and am gonna throw some pictures up just as soon as I can.  There were a couple of spots on the clear that needed to be cleaned up and I haven't gotten it done yet.  It shouldn't be long.  Check back.

Ciao.  

Note:  LC Creative Productions got a second gallery page up on my website.  Its got some frames that I didn't get on the first page and its got some of my latest frames as well, along with a couple of MEECH riders/racers.  If you get a chance go check it out.  

Thanks to Linda and Hal of LC Creative Productions for taking care of me.  There is a link to my website on the blog's main page and here is another:

http://meechcustombicycles.com

Here is a quick clip of a young, skinny, Johan Bruyneel in the Tour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YCuQsGVV20

UK Subs - Down on the farm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw-MH5C7PqQ&feature=share

R1 Go Kart Passes a Cop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apd1KBjLV8k
Check this Sunday afternoon ride out!

In-N-Out X-Ray

Whats up?  I just got back from a quick trip up to the hospital.  No problems for me, I only had to take Anne's badge up to her as she forgets it on occasion.  "You mean a pharmacist gets to wear a badge?"  Yep, you know it.  Actually I think everyone that works in the hospital has to have one, its a proof of identity sort of thing.   Anyway, while I was in the parking lot I was thinking (wishing) that I could just walk in there and get a quick x-ray of my left hip.  Its been bothering me quite a bit here lately and it stems from an old motocross accident about 12 years ago.  Both of my hips got broken, one of them was pretty bad and they operated on it and basically put a little titanium hand in there to put it back together, thats what it looked like on x-ray anyway. Its been excellent and gives me no problems at all.  The left hip wasn't broken as badly, there was only a crack in the ball of the femur and I think another crack in the hip socket itself.  The surgeon thought that two surgeries would be a lot to handle and so since it wasn't that bad he decided to let it heal on its on.  For the most part it healed pretty good, however the ball of the femur doesn't sit perfectly aligned in the socket and it causes some pain from time to time.  Usually it only hurts after i do something like run on it.  "So don't run on it."  I don't, but occasionally I forget about it and I'll run a bit with the dog or something like that and then the next day the pain kicks in.  It can hurt pretty bad and causes some problems walking for a day or two but then it usually just disappears.  Something happened this past week in Jonesboro that has it hurting again, and I'm not sure what I did but the pain is not going away like it usually does and I think its time to get it checked out.  It makes me not feel like getting on the bike, but oddly enough when I'm on the bike it doesn't bother me.

The pain isn't the worst part for me, its the not knowing what is wrong and the wondering of what its gonna entail to fix it.  Is it bad?  Is it gonna need operating on?  How long is that gonna take?  How much is it gonna cost?  I start planning the whole thing out before I've even gone to see the doctor.  "Slow down Dimitri, the first step is to get an x-ray so you know whats wrong."  Oh great!  Now I have to make an appointment and probably wait two weeks, it'll probably be healed by then.  And then the thought hit me.  Why not have a quick stop for x-rays, you know, like the In-N-Out Burger.  Instead of specializing in burgers and shakes it would be x-rays.  You could drive in, get a quick x-ray, pay 'em and be on your way.  And it would be way cheaper also.  No waiting, less money, save the doctors some time, and get on with the important stuff.  I'm always imagining starting a business for every little dilemma I found myself it.  Why not?  Take a little misfortune and turn it into something profitable that could benefit everyone.  I can't remember the last one that I thought about, theres been too many, but its basically what I did with bicycle frame building.  Take something thats important to you or that you love and find a way to make it your work.  If I actually tried to open a business for every idea that I had...well, I'd probably be broke, but some people actually do it.  I think its just a natural thought process for me.  Its the business man in me, I get it from my father.  Only thing that separates my father and me is that he knew how to make money, it seems I only know how to spend it.  When I was a kid my dad use to say to me, "Pee-wee, you can't rub two quarters together."  I didn't even know what it meant then.  So anyway, I don't imagine hip surgery is gonna be cheap if thats what it comes to but luckily Anne's hospital provides us with insurance so thats a good thing.  Medical costs are crazy expensive but then so is everything else.  Something that always amazes me is the number of people that go to the ER for no reason at all.  I always thought the ER was for car wrecks and people with broken bones.  Its like, "I had a fever of 101 and couldn't sleep last night so I went to the ER to see the doctor."  What? Really?  I remember being a kid, laying in bed with a 103 degree temp. and my mother would just put a cold wash cloth on it, give me a cup of sprite, and tell me to sleep the fever off.  Sometimes I would have 5 blankets on top of me and other times I would be sweating my arse off but I never went to the ER.  Whats the bill on that little visit, five hundred bucks?  Did it get paid?  Maybe thats why medical cost are so high.  Who knows?  I was watching a few minutes of a Chris Rock comedy act last night and he was talking about insurance.  He was calling insurance, "In case shit happens."  "I'm giving them money every month just in case some shit happens.  But if shit doesn't ever happen, shouldn't I get some of that money back?"  Theres an idea right there for an insurance company.  One of the other ideas I had before the In-N-Out X-Ray came to me was just being able to take my own x-ray with my cell phone.  Just take your I-phone, place it over your hip area or wherever your pain is and give it a quick scan.  It might not be sufficient for the doctor but at least you could have an idea if something was wrong or not.  How much is that phone gonna cost?

The In-N-Out X-Ray could have a menu board similar to this only instead of burger, shake, fries, it would say Foot X-ray-$25, Spinal Column-$49.99, so-on, so-on, then you could also have a Value X-Ray, or Combo Platter where you get your whole lower/upper body done for "X" amount of dollars and you would get a lollipop with that one.

Ok, one last million dollar idea that I had about a year ago that I haven't had time to pursue and I'm gonna just throw it out there for anyone to run with and I hope you remember me when you get rich and famous.  Ready?

A dog that is trained to walk on, and or, scratch people's back.  Think about it.  One night about a year or so ago I was on the floor playing with Pinky, our little chunky 15 lb. Shih-tzu, and for some crazy reason he got up on my back and started walking all around.  Dude, it felt so good.  Did any of your dad's ever have you walk on his back when you were little?  Mine did.  Granted, I know a dog scratching someone's back is not as noble as leading the blind or sniffing out drugs or bombs but it would definitely command a price.  Imagine if you went to the local Humane Society Adoption Day and they showed you a dog that would walk all over your back and scratch it on command.  How long do you think that dog is gonna be there?  Hey National Humane Society, you want to find homes for all those dogs, teach 'em to scratch people's backs.  I'm out.  Chao.

Steve's Road Frame

Alright, I finally got Steve's road frame all finished.  It turned out beautiful in the end but I was having some serious painting issues in the beginning and I was beginning to wonder if I was gonna be able to pull this paint job off.  I'm still not exactly sure what was going on but I think it had something to do with the primer.  The first time I tried to paint this thing I was buying a little booth time from a guy who has a auto/hotrod restorage facility.  Everything from milling machines, tube benders, welders, and a full blown paint booth.  he's let me use it a couple of times and its an excellent setup except i never know how long I have to work.  Anyway, i shot the red and started taping it off to shoot the black and red paint started coming off with the tape.  Not good!  So we checked the temperature of his booth and it was a little chilly in there so I wrote that off as the culprit.  I never even noticed it was chilly in there as I was working.  So I bring everything home and sand it down and shot some more red on the fork the following day, which was much warmer by the way, and the same scenario, paint is coming up with the tape.  How many times did I do this you might ask?  Don't ask.  I eventually took it to the paint store and talked with all the local experts and i began to get a little worried when they told me they didn't know what it was.  However after a little closer inspection they noticed that not only paint was coming up on the tape but also a little primer as well.  I have been using the same primer from the very beginning.  Its SprayMax epoxy primer in an aerosol can but its a two-part aerosol as you have to break the catalyst inside and the two parts mix together when you shake it up.  I had never had a problem before but after about 4 attempts at painting the fork you have to try something different.  So I bought some new epxoy primer for a spray gun and stopped by Lowe's and picked up a decent sized compressor, which I've been needing for a long time, and just went to work.  At this point I was a little gun shy.  Paint had been peeling off in every imaginable way and I was trying every type of tape there was.  Finally, luck at last.  With the new primer on the frame cured and sanded I shot the red and about cried when no paint came off.  When you take a close look at this frame you can see all that was taped off, not to mention a MEECH stencil that has about 100 parts to it, and I was sweating bullets every time I started to peel a new piece of tape or stencil off.  Big sigh of relief when I pulled the final stencil off, and then I did start crying.  Just kidding.  Anyway, I'm very pleased with how it finally turned out.  All that hard work was worth it and I'm constantly reminded that nothing good comes easy.  The amount of painting experience I got with this one frame is unimaginable and now I'm gonna start using it on about 5 more frames that are waiting on paint.  Any framebuilders out there that have a good painter you better give him a big hug and a kiss because you have no idea how much he's worth to you.  Painting is a tough bit but i truly enjoy it and want to get better at it.  Paul was on standby just in case I needed bailing out but i really wanted to solve this myself.  Mission accomplished.  I'm running a bit late for work so I'm gonna bail on this post for now and do a little finish work on it later.  I have to go to my hometown of Jonesboro for a couple of days to get some work done there and then I'll be back.  Thanks for all the patience as I know I haven't been here but finishing this frame took precedence over talking about it.  I wanted to post pictures of all the problems I was having but didn't feel like taking the time because I was so eager to solve the problem.  Anyway, all is well that ends well.  I'll see you guys in a couple of days.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I'm gonna shut up now and let the pictures do the talking. 

Oh yeah, love the color choices by Steve.  Black and red seems so simple and I've often wondered about what it would look like but the way it looks live is better than I imagined.  The red is Torch Red and i love it. This paint job has me reassured about another similar paint scheme that I've been wanting to try.  There are just so many possibilities with paint, its endless.  I'll do as many as I can.  How bout those lake shots?  Caught you off guard with that didn't I?  Don't worry, I threw in a couple of backyard photos for those hardcore MEECH followers. Hasta luego.

Love the shape of these tubes.

I tried every possible angle to get that shadow off the seat tube but had no luck.  There didn't seem to be any sun at all but I guess there was just enough to make the seat stay cast a shadow.

"Did you try the backyard?"

In the end it all turned out nice and I was very pleased with it.  

Here is a pic of a lone fisherman out on the lake.  As I was shooting the photos there was fish about 40 ft. away that kept swirling on the topwater.  He's lucky I didn't have my custom fly-rod and a MEECH Custom topwater popper or he would've been sleeping long-side down in the skillet.  I seldom go fishing and seldom keep 'em when I catch 'em but its hard to beat fresh fish out of these lakes here.  They're crystal clear.

Thanks for checking things out and thanks Steve for the opportunity.  Build it up and send us some photos.  Enjoy the ride!

Passantino's Custom 650B

Here is a pic of a custom bike that belongs to one of my earlier customers, Phil Passantino from New Jersey.  When I first began building frames a handful of my first orders were from the New York and New Jersey area.  This is the second MEECH that Phil has bought from me.  This was a beautiful frame all on its own but its even better all built up and being ridden as that is the intended purpose of every frame that I build.  This frame was painted in Honey Gold and Black Cherry and the racks and water bottle cages are painted to match.  Check out that Brooks saddle, and who wouldn't love the Sugino red chain ring? This frame also contains a Stronglight A9 headset, Campy Euclid cantilever brakes, and Sugino 9-speed index shifting. Gold chain and gold pedals, you know it.  Phil is always riding something truly custom and I'm glad to have a couple of MEECHs on the streets of New Jersey.  Thanks Phil.  Love it!

Here is Phil's first MEECH.  His bikes scream custom.

MEECH Custom Bicycles

handmade in

Mountain Home, Arkansas.

Handmade Machine

Couple quick shots of Steve's road racer drying as I just finished shooting the clear.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some better photos.  "Does that mean you're gonna be in your backyard?"  You know it Virginia.

Interesting Frames

http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/04/news/pro-bike-john-degenkolbs-custom-felt_281118

Velonews has had a couple new bikes that are kind of interesting to me, this Felt used for Paris-Roubaix and the Bianchi below that is taking carbon fiber frames to the next level.  I know I've literally been absent here lately but I've encountered a few painting woes on this last frame that I'm trying to finish up for a customer.  Its been a bit frustrating however now I'm on a mission to figure out the problem.  Painting can be a nightmare but its got my attention so bad right now that I'll leave no stone unturned to solve this.  The good news is that its all educational.  I have about 4-5 frames that I'm gonna be painting and so by the time I'm finished with them I should be fairly knowledgeable.  Thanks for stopping by and as soon as I have something worth showing you can bet it'll be up.  Hope things are going smooth for ya.  Chao.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/04/news/bianchis-partnership-with-carbon-developer-may-take-some-bumps-out-of-your-road_280954