Spring Projects, 2013

We’re pushing the tail end of spring, and it’s starting to feel a lot like summer. I've been busy with a lot of unique projects. A lot of bikes with a lot of racks. Meaning big, elaborate racks. Quite a few of them are integrated into the frame, meaning they're brazed on, and are a part of the bike. I love that sort of devotion.  

Double Seat StaysLillian's Mid-tailI’ve just finished another mid-tail that is on its way to the powder coater. The last mid-tail I built was for a very tall man, and this one is for a shorter woman, so the design is similar, but the proportions have changed. This bike is scheduled to go on a year-long world tour. 

I am most of the way through a crazy commuter with a 24” front wheel and a 28” rear, very similar in design to the bike I built for the Oregon Manifest a couple of years back. It has a basket that bolts to the head tube, and a couple of different places for frame bags to be mounted. It’s one of the coolest and most generally useful bikes that I think I’ve ever built. Maybe I say that only because it’s the one I’m working on right now, which always seems to be my favorite bike. All-round Bad Ass Commuter

Also this spring I made my first attempt at double seat stays, which came out looking bad ass, if I do say so myself. These are on a single speed cross bike with disc brakes that should be coming back from the powder coater in a week or so. 

Another bike I want to mention is a step-through commuter bike with the rear basket integrated into the frame. So many tubes, and it came out to be such a gorgeous bike. I’ll post a full photo run of the finished bike soon. 

 Here are photo highlights from some of the projects I’ve mentioned here. 

Enjoy!

Time Lapse Video: Front Triangle Braze

Mr. Goodman's Bicycle Tubes

I spent Sunday in the shop and decided to make another time lapse video. I'm working on Dave's bike, which is going to be a lugged commuter-style machine, with some cool features. This time lapse is of the front triangle being mitered and brazed, and then drilled for water bottle mounts, which I braze in right at the end. I hope you enjoy.

Dave's Bicycle Front Triangle Braze from Joseph Ahearne on Vimeo.

Here's a video of mitering and brazing the front triangle of Dave G.'s bicycle frame. Also shows three sets of water bottle bosses drilled and brazed in.

Frame Building Class Video

Here it is -- the long awaited (or not really all that long awaited) video of the frame building class at UBI. The class was from 31 January to 11 February, and each student (8 of them) built their very own bicycle frame. This is a time lapse video that covers day 5 through day 10 of the class in about 8 minutes.

The camera shows seven of the eight work benches, and there are no breaks delineating the passage of days. It starts on day five and moves through the final day, and then myself and several students leave the school and ride our bikes down the road to my workshop for a brief tour (which is at the very end when the camera view goes dark). 

I think it's interesting seeing the progression of the bike frames as they come together. Everybody looks so busy! They did, in fact, work very hard, and each one of them has a bike frame to show for it. Enjoy the video!

Frame Building Class Feb. '11 from Joseph Ahearne on Vimeo.

This video shows day five through day ten of the UBI frame building class I taught from 31 Jan. to 11 Feb. There were eight students in the class, but the camera could only take in seven of the benches (sorry Daniel!).
There are no breaks in the video as one day moves into the next, so you just have to pay attention to what people are wearing -- if you see someone jump into a different outfit, then a new day has started.
I could have edited out more of the times where no one is working, but I feel like those give you a chance to take in the benches and the progress as the bicycle frames come together.
I've found it helpful to focus on one person's workbench for a few seconds at a time to watch their progress, because the whole view of everyone working can be very "busy."
I hope you enjoy it!
Music by Audion

Video: Hyper-Speed Brazing

This is the high-speed version of building the front triangle of a bicycle.

Here is what it looks like to assemble and braze the front triangle of a bicycle on high-octane caffeine. The music is by Annihilation Time. 

Enjoy!

Bicycle Front Triangle Braze from Joseph Ahearne on Vimeo.

This is the fast version of building the front half of the bicycle.

Bicycle Front Triangle Braze from Joseph Ahearne on Vimeo.