Cause and [a/e]ffect

How to build a bike, unfinished.

2009-12-07T10:48:00.000-08:00

---note--- unfinished! I'm still whipping up photos and more info. enjoy til then.

So you want to build a bike frame, eh?

Alright. Let's discuss.

It's not easy. It's expensive. It's time consuming. You may not get it right the first time. But it IS one of the most rewarding things you can do.
If you're thinking about building a frame because it'll cost less than buying a brand new high-end frame, you're wrong. it doesn't work that way.
This is going to be a long read- if you're really interested in building a frame, this will be worth your time.

That's about it for the disclaimer, so lets get started:

Step one- frame design

Frame design is what makes a bike unique. You can't quite just slap it together. The first aspect of the frame is its intended use.
Building a frame to do several things (street, freeride, cross-country) won't work. So you really need to decide what you want to do with it.
We're going to start with a dirt jumping style frame. You'll need to decide roughly what parts you want to run. The critical components include wheel size, tire size, fork and travel, and gearing.
In this case, for dirt jumping, we'll stick simple and clean. We're going to use 26" wheels, 2.3" tires, an 80mm fork, and one gear.
The easiest way to figure out geometry for your first frame is to base it off of existing frame geometry, like a bike you already have ridden and enjoyed.
Lets use a 2010 Specialized P.3 for the base.
Find your way to specialized.com and select your region, then bikes, then progressive HT, then P3. On the page, you'll be able to view the bikes geometry.
You'll find all of the measurements are in millimeters. This is common for most bicycle manufacturers, yet you'll often hear and see things referred to in inches.
Top tube, frame size, and chainstay length are the most common things translated to inches. I don't know why, but hey.
Frame size is an interesting and often misunderstood reference. I am 6'2", and your average shop employee would say I need a large or extra large frame.
In the case of dirt jumping and aggressive riding, its easier to use the top tube length to determine size. This is because the frame height should be low for stand over clearance and maneuverability.
A word on geometry: Geometry is the combination of angles and length of a frame. It is the defining factor of how the bike handles.
I highly recommend sticking to existing geometry when building your first frame. Drastic changes can have very negative handling effects.

Simplified definitions:

Head tube angle (HT)- this is the angle that the fork sits at uncompressed. Steeper angles (70*+) will offer nimble handling at slow speeds, and instability at high speeds. Slack angles (67* or less) will make bikes feel stable at speed, but feel 'floppy' at slow speeds.
Naturally, the angles in between are fairly ideal for what you're looking to do. This is measured in relation to the flat ground.

Seat tube angle (ST)- this, on a DJ bike, rarely matters, to be honest. Since the seat is often low and out of the way, its not exactly important. It is more a reference for the length of the bike. Some bikes will move the base of the ST forwards and then have the angle slack- this is often done to allow the rear wheel to move forwards, shortening the chainstays. This is also measured in relation to the ground.

Top Tube Length (TT)- This is effectively the size of the frame. Shorter top tubes are good for tight technical riding or shorter riders. Longer top tubes are great for taller riders, or when you desire stability and room to move. A lot of that is personal preference.
Personally I like a longer top tube- Like I said before, I'm tall, and like a bike that is stable in the air. I also find that longer top tubes offer more 'style' function when riding, because I have room to move around on the bike. The top top is mentioned in two ways, horizontal and actual. Actual references to the 'actual' length of the tube, from the center of the seat tube to the center of the head tube.
Horizontal refers to the 'effective' length of the top tube, from the top-center of the head tube to the theoretical intersection of the seat tube, in a line drawn parallel to the ground.
The horizontal/effective top tube is what to pay attention to in the design aspect.

Chainstay length (CS)- This is the distance from the bottom bracket to the rear axle. It is always measured from the center of the bottom bracket to the center of the rear wheel. On bikes with horizontal chainstays, the length is shown as a range. Short chainstays are nimble and quick feeling, letting the bike manual and jump easily. Long chainstays are stable, but make the front end harder to lift up. This, combined with top tube length, will have the greatest affect on handling. For example, a long top tube paired with a short chainstay will make a bike feel very stable in the air, and very quick at slow speeds. A long chainstay and a short top tube will not be any fun, however. If the chainstay is too short, the bike will feel unstable all the time. This is one of the many reasons to stick with existing geometry- trial and error is the method that most manufacturers use with professional riders in order to develop the perfect frame.

Bottom Bracket height (BB)- This is measured in two ways, like top tubes. One is called "bottom bracket drop/elevation", which is the distance below/above the rear axle. The other way is "height" which is in relation to the ground. The reason there are two ways, and sometimes both are listed, is because of tire/fork/wheel changes. Smaller tires will reduce the overall height of a bike. A longer travel fork will lift the front of the bike, and thus lift the BB too. We will use both terms throughout the discussion, but they will be indicated.
Handling changes from various BB heights typically include stability, and front end lift. Low bottom brackets tend to be stable- you're reducing your center of gravity. Higher BB's tend to be nimble and aggressive, but not stable when jumping. On a bike intended for woods use (DH bikes, etc), a lower BB is faster at speed, but harder to pedal because your feet are prone to rock contact!

Wheelbase (WB)- This is the distance between the wheel axles. It can vary all over, but later you will see how it is more of a 'result' of geometry, rather than an ingredient of design.

Seat tube length (ST)- This is length of the seat tube from the center of the bottom bracket to either the top of the seat tube, or the intersection of the top tube. I like to use the top of the seat tube personally, because it tells you the total frame height. This is also important if you use a brace from the top tube to the seat tube.

Standover- This is simple. It's the height of the top tube in the middle of the bike, in relation to the ground. Traditionally used on regular bikes for sizing purposes. It's a good number to know, but shouldn't be important for a street bike, assuming the frame will be low anyways.

Onwards with design

So having looked at the P3 geometry, and having read the definitions above, we can begin to derive a drawing. But wait! There's more. You're going to need to draw this beast. Whereas I HIGHLY recommend a drawing program like AutoCAD, its not the easiest to get or use. Student licences are the best legit way to get a copy of the software, and often include some instructions. They can run anywhere from $75-$300, so beware of that as your first possible cost. I have not used Google SketchUp, but I do believe it would work as well.
Believe it or not, paper and pencil do the trick too. Get some graph paper, a ruler, a protractor, and a pencil.

Start by writing out the intended use for the bike. Always helps. Write down the parts you'd like to use as well.

If you can, have each square of graph paper be equivalent to one inch. This is great for simple references and getting a good feel for the layout.
Lets start with wheelbase. The P3's is 1063mm. Thats 41.8", so lets draw a horizontal line 42" long (42 squares on the graph paper, 41.8" a drawing program). The start point on the left is the rear axle, and the front is on the right side. I don't know why, but I think almost ever manufacturer does this left-right layout. We're gonna stick with it.

Time to figure the wheels! This is more complicated than it seems it should be. 26" wheels are not 26" in diameter. The ultra-easy way to figure this is by measuring your current bikes wheel while its standing up straight. It will vary, but don't worry, because we can check and change it later. Lets use a radius of 13.5" right now.

Draw two vertical lines, upwards, from each end of the wheelbase line, 13.5" in length. These are now the centers of the wheels. Got that protractor? Using that as the center point, make a circle that touches back down to the wheel base line. Bam, two wheels.
Now, look at the chainstay length of the P3, which is 394mm, or 15.5". This is to the center of the slotted dropout. Don't draw a straight line! Draw a circle with a radius of 15.5". You should have (essentially) a larger circle than the wheel. Now look at BB height- its listed as 301mm, or 11.85". If you're using paper, we're going to say 12". Draw a line horizontal to the ground/parallel to your wheel base, at 12" up. Make sure it crosses the bigger circle you just drew. Where that line intersects with the 15.5" circle is now your bottom bracket!
Feel free to erase the lines not needed. This is where a computer makes life easy.

Welcome aboard dear readers, you're on your way to a detailed frame drawing. These steps will be repeated a bunch through out this guide, so if you're having troubles now, re-read it and try again.

It should look like this:
---insert photo---

Next up in the drawing process is the fork and head tube. This is challenging but straight forward. You'll need to find out the length of the fork- this is called the "axle to crown/A2C" length. It is the length of the fork, uncompressed, from the center of the axle straight up to the top of the fork crown. The first thing you will notice is that it is NOT a straight line between those points. There is fork offset, which is the distance between straight line of the steerer tube and the fork axle itself. Many manufacturers websites include this measurement in the technical specifications. Marzocchi is no exception, and informs you of both the offset and the length. How convenient! We see a length of 477.5mm/18.8" and and offset of 48mm/1.88" for the 100mm model DJ1. We of course are using an 80mm version, so we will need to reduce the length by 20mm, giving us a length of 457.5mm/18". Offset will remain the same.
Here is how we'll draw the fork: On a different piece of paper, use a scale of 1 square = 1/2" this time. This will be a drawing of the fork upright at 90*. Make a dot, thats the axle. Draw a line LEFT thats 3.5 squares long. Now draw a line from there straight up 36 squares tall. That is the offset and length. Now, at the top of the fork, there is a headset. It will affect head tube angle, so we need to draw that too. Specialized actually provides the information to figure this out- lets do the math:

"Stack" is listed in the geometry section as 574mm. In this case, they mean the total length of fork/headset/headtube up to the top of the heatube itself. So, we take the 574mm stack, subtract the now-known fork length of 457.5mm, and then subtract the also-listed headtube height of 108mm, leaving us with 8.5mm. Thats the height of the lower headset cup. Measure the headset you'll be using for extra accuracy if you'd like. Many manufacturers provide this as "cup height/stack" as well. Now go ahead and draw a line on top of your fork line of about 3/4 of a square. We now have the fork drawn. For the accurate types, who have been either doing it on the computer or measuring each bit out, measure the overall straight line that you've created. With that number in hand, head back to the frame drawing. It should roughly look like this:
---insert photo---

Ok. So for this situation, we have a fork/cup total length of 466mm/18.34" with a 48mm/1.88" offset. Go to the front axle, and draw a circle centered on it that is 1.88" in diameter. Now, with that protractor/angle finder, line it up at the head tube angle provided by Specialized, which is listed as 68.5*. Begin your fork line tangent to the smaller circle you just drew. Draw the line 18.34" long at 68.5*. You've now drawn the fork and headset! At the top of that line, you're ready to draw the head tube line. Specialized shows it as being 108mm tall. From the top of your fork line, in the same angle, draw that 108mm/4.25" line. At this point, you can erase the fork line if you wish.
---insert photo---

What you should be looking at is this:
---insert photo---

This is the full base for your frame design. Now the fun begins! At this stage, we've drawn the hard stuff, and from here it is mostly connect the dots. Lets go ahead and get started there.

First up, we need to draw the seat tube. Specialized shows both the effective and actual seat tube angles. Remember before how I said some companies are moving the seat tubes forwards to clear the back tire? This is why they show both. We are going to draw this without the bend, for simplicity. The effective seat tube angle is 72*, and is 370mm/14.5" center to top. Go ahead and draw a 14.5" line at 72* from the BB center. If you have not already, draw a line connecting the BB to the rear axle.

Now we get into specifics of materials and design and how it will affect the drawing. We're assuming here that you will be using steel as a frame material. It is an excellent choice for ride quality, strength, and manufacturing. 4130 is alloy of choice for most frame builders, as it is available in a plethora of sizes. Seat tubes are almost always best to be purchased versus being made- many places online offer them. I use True Temper Verus ST seat tubes. They are butted (meaning thicker at one end) and I typically use the 27.2mm seatpost sized tube. This tube is 1.125" in diameter, which is nice because you can easily source hole saws for mitering. So in your drawing, the seat tube line is your "center line", and by drawing a line 1.125" wide with the midpoint of the line at the end of your seat tube, you can easily sketch parallel lines down to the bottom bracket. Which leads us to the bottom bracket choices- This is a flexible option for most frames. Commonly used is the European bottom bracket- this is available from the same places that sell the seat tubes. They will be offered in 68mm and 73mm widths. I am traditional, and like to use 68mm shells with all hardtails. Commonly available and inexpensive. They will have an outside diameter of 1.5", again, easy for hole saw sourcing. Other options include the American BB, which was traditionally referred to as the "bmx bb". This is a 2.25" outside diameter shell for use with press in cups. Again, 68mm width and easy to source tooling for. There are several other options available including the Mid BB, most of which can be found online with specifications and sizes. In this case, we're going to use the Euro BB. So around your BB location, draw a circle 1.5" in diameter. If you would like, draw another circle inside of it that is 1.375" in diameter, this is just for looks.

With the seat tube and BB drawn, we can connect the rear axle. Since drop out design is personal choice, the following can vary, but here is a simple method: At the rear axle, draw a circle 1.5" in diameter. Chances are, when all else is done, you can find a dropout that will fit inside that range, or make your own, which I will help cover. But with that circle drawn, you can make chainstay lines! For the purpose of the drawing, we will keep it simple. Draw your connecting line, and then expand it, just like the seat tube, as a 1" wide line.
Chainstays will have to clear the tire, chainring, and crank. We will cover that later on. As of now, your drawing should look like this:
---insert photo---

Lets move on to the front end for now, leaving the seat stays alone.
For the downtube, there are several things to consider. The primary concern is fork crown clearance, when the fork turns. The easy way to figure this out is to measure the width of the fork crown at its widest point, and noting its distance from the top. Lets say the fork crown is 6.5" wide and 1" below the headset. Draw that as a single line in your drawing like so:
---insert photo---

Basically, your downtube needs to be clear of that. This will result in the downtube meeting to the headtube somewhere above its bottom edge. Lets draw the head tube to get an idea:
If you're running a traditional 1-1/8" headtube, this is simple. The inside diameter of that headtube, in order to have the cups press in, is 1.334". Conveniently, 4130 is offered in a size that works perfectly for that. Coincidence? Not sure, but I bet the tubing size has been around longer than the headset standard, so I believe the sizing was derived from the tubes! A tube 1.5" in diameter (same as the BB shell) with a .083" thick wall, will give you an inside diameter of 1.334", thus not requiring any machining for it to work. So go ahead and make that 108mm/4.25" long head tube line into a 1.5" wide tube. Feel free to draw the inside too. Now, using a ruler, line up one end at the center of the BB, and the other passing through the head tube. If you'd like to see how this is going to go, move the ruler until its tangent to the BB shell, and align the ruler to clear the fork crown. This is where your downtube has to meet the head tube. With that in mind, here is some info on downtubes: Diameter of the downtube will affect how the bike rides. Larger diameter tubes are stiffer, but traditionally heavier. However, there are multiple thicknesses available. Common 4130 thicknesses include .028", .035", .049", .065", and .083" walls. Common downtube diameters may include 1.25", 1.375", 1.5", and 1.625". In this case, I recommend running a 1.5" diameter tube for a great balance of stiffness and ease of building. If you are a lighter, graceful rider, running a .035" wall may be your choice. An .049" wall is a good general purpose thickness, and if you're a hack, better run .065". Right now, lets use .049" just in case. Using the 1.5" diameter downtube also makes headtube and BB miters quite simple. So go ahead and draw downtube lines like this: Tangent to the bottom side of the BB shell to the headtube, clearing the fork crown, and tangent to the TOP side of the BB shell, parallel to the line you just drew, up the head tube. It should look like this:
---insert photo---

If there is a bit of a gap between the bottom edge of the head tube and the downtube, you may need to consider a gusset. On my first freeride hardtail frames, we were able to drop the downtube to within about a quarter inch of the bottom of the head tube. Fork crowns used to be much narrower back then, so we did not need to use gussets. However, new forks get wider and wider each year, so a gusset may be needed. I'll cover that later.

Lets go ahead with the top tube now. Again, diameter and thickness play a big role here, but for the this exercise, we're going to use another 1.5" diameter tube. This time it will only be .035" thick. Traditionally the top tube can be smaller and thinner than the downtube, because it actually takes less force and impact. Now we get to decide the first "design" factor! If you like a traditional looking frame, the top tube will intersect with the seat tube close to the top. If you like the P3 style brace, you can drop the top tube down a bit. For now, we're going to go traditional. It will be easy to change later on if you wish. Now unlike the downtube, where we were constrained by the fork crown and the BB, we have room to play. For an easy reference point, start at the top of the seat tube, and make a mark that is 1.5" down. Now go up to the head tube. From the top of that, we're going to locate the top tube junction. If the tube is 1.5" in diameter, and we want say, 1/4" clearance from top of the head tube, then our mark should be down the headtube 1". We get that 1" measurement from adding half of the tube diameter to the gap desired. If you've drawn that mark, go ahead and connect the two dots you've drawn. Welcome to the top tube. Go ahead and offset that to make it 1.5" thick.
---insert photo---

You should be thinking that if the top tube is 1.5" in diameter... and the seat tube is only 1.125" in diameter.. how will they meet up? No? Didn't think of that? Ah yes, the first intricacy of frame design. Two options: One, draw the top tube extended past the seat tube, and plan on piercing the top tube for the seat tube to fit into. The other method, would be to squeeze the end of the top tube down until its only 1.125" wide, and then cut it to fit. This is definitely a "sleek" method, but takes some work. I like this method. If you're bored, go ahead and figure out how tall the tube would get for your drawing (its about 1.75" in reality). That would be called "flaring the top tube" to fit the seat tube. It will roughly look like this:
---insert photo---

Ok. We've got a front triangle drawn, and its starting to look like a bike now. This leaves the seat stays. Simply connect a line from the TT/ST intersection down to the dropout. Offset that line to create the tube you'd like. Seatstays affect the stiffness of the rear end, have to clear the tire, and are under a decent load. I like to use larger diameter seat stays with thinner walls, in order to keep the bike light. Most of the time I use a 1" diameter tube with an .028" wall. Another option is to use a 3/4" diameter tube with a .035" wall. Obviously the choice is up to you. If you get really into it, compare the weights for the same length of tube in the different sizes. This is one of the reasons I like the larger/thinner combo versus a smaller/thinner combo... The larger tube is lighter.
Right now, your drawing should look like this:
---insert photo---

And that, dear readers, is basically it for 2D frame design. Looks like a bike alright. Here is how to modify it when you are ready:

All tube diameters and thicknesses can change. Tube junctions can change. If you say, drop the top tube 3" at the seat tube, and bring the seat stays down too, then you could use a brace to support the seat tube, just like the P3. Most of the time you won't want the rear triangle to be too large or too small. Look at it for a little bit and you can see the range where it looks normal.

In the Stumpjumper Anniverary book, one of the Specialized engineers is (roughly) quoted as saying, "If it looks right, it probably is". This is a profound statement to a designer- Often times, in simple designs, when something looks right, it is. Does the bike look goofy? Might ride that way. But since those are preferences, you have to be less opinionated about it. A bike that looks wildly different from any other (in the hardtail section at least) may not be the best option. There is a reason that successful products have similar designs- they've been tested and approved by other riders! This absolutely does NOT suggest that unique is bad- it means that if you draw a bike with 20" chainstays, it'll look funny. Coincidentally it will ride terribly. I suppose what I am suggesting, is, on your first frame, color within the lines. You'll be happier with a functional result than you will be with an 'idea' you had. My first frame was a combination of all the things I wanted in a bike. When I got it built, I hated it. It did nothing right at all. My next frame was based off of a 2001 Specialized P3, hence my use of the 2010 P3 as a reference. Lets call it a tribute. Building one frame can be a gamble. If you're like me, getting it 'wrong' was just not going to cut it, so I had to make another to get it right, and that refining process just keeps going.
The history of our first hardtail name, "V3", was in reference to it being the third version of the same frame. In my case, the third time was most definitely the charm.

The interesting backstory is important to remember at all times: that first frame, that did nothing right at all? It actually did a ton of stuff right, but I didn't realize it. It had an american bb, bmx dropouts and hub spacing, a rigid fork, v-brake mounts, low standover, was beefy, and really nimble. Since I was trying to design a freeride hardtail in 2001, it sucked. Ironically, a company called GeekHouse made a nearly identical frame about 4 years later, and was considered revolutionary. My first frame was like a caveman version of a street mountain bike. I just didn't know it. So was it really a failure? At the time, I thought so. But in retrospect, it reminds me that sometimes the thought process is more important than the final product. Call it a concept bike. The things I learned there heavily influenced our extremely popular and well loved Park Ave street frame.

Moral: You're probably going to do it wrong. Don't let that dissuade or discourage you. Learning from mistakes can quantify them. And yes I ran pegs on that old frame too. Haha.

Back to frame design: the hard parts

With our basic frame layout handled, its time to start considering the 3D aspects. We will cover things such as hub spacing, dropouts, crank clearance, foot clearance, and tire clearance.

Terms you'll need to know:

Hub Spacing: This is the width of the rear hub you'll be running. Mountain bike hubs are traditionally 135mm wide from clamping surface to clamping surface. It is the width between dropouts on a frame. Many suspension bikes use wider standards like 150mm. That is because they often use wider bottom bracket shells to help clear wider tires and suspension components. BMX frames use a 110mm rear spacing. In our case, we will stick with the 135mm standard.

IS51 Disc Mount: This is in reference to the dimensions used in disc brake mounts on frames. I will not be covering post mount version, because that is a serious pain for your your first frame. The "51" is the distance in millimeters between the disc mount holes.
There are other dimensions as well, and it will be covered.

Chainline: This is uh, the line of the chain. It goes from the chainring to the cog on the back. Shimano and SRAM provide specific numbers for geared bikes. In our situation with the single speed, it will be mainly be import to ensure that it is straight, and thats about it.
We will need to consider important things like where the crank arm sits, where the chainring sits, and where the cog on the rear hub sits. In order to simplify this, we'll try to keep things adjustable.

Rotor clearance: Consider this one to be like "Rotorline". Brake rotors sit 15mm inboard of the non-drive dropout. If you are running a big rotor, you may run into clearance issues with the chainstays, similar to the fork-crown-downtube clearances we talked about earlier.

Tire clearance: This is simple to understand, but often hard to create.

Chainring/tire gap: This is the very, very tight area that the chainstays have to pass through between the chainring and the tire. Chainring size and tire size will play big roles here.

Toe overlap: While you are standing on the pedals, measure how much you foot hangs over the front of the pedal. Now measure your crank arm length. Add the two together. Draw a circle with that radius from the BB. Does it overlap the drawing of the front wheel?
Move the wheel backwards 96mm.. Does it over lap now? What this checks is whether your toes will hit the tire while steering, and whether your toes will hit the tires when you barspin. Commonly overlooked, and directly proportionate to top tube length. Rocking a size 14 shoe? That 22" top tube bike ain't gonna be good for you. We'll show you how to deal with it.

Lets get started. With the front of the frame drawn, its time to think about things in 3D. We'll check over the front triangle: its fine. Not much to worry about there. From above, as long as the top tube, head tube, seat tube and down tube are all in the same line, everything is ok. The bottom bracket should be aligned in the middle as well. To draw the chainstay basis, you'll need a fresh piece of paper. Use the same scale as we used for the fork if you can. Start by drawing a box at the top of the page to represent the bottom bracket. This should be rectangle 68mm/2.6877" wide, 1.5" long. Draw an "x" through it corner to corner. Where those two lines intersect is the center of the BB. Draw a line from there downwards, the length of your chainstays. In this case it is 15.5". At the end of this line, is the rear hub. Centered on the chainstay length line, draw a line 135mm/5.314" wide. It should look like this now:
---insert photo---

In our front triangle drawing, we used a 1.5" diameter circle to represent the dropouts. For this drawing, centered on the ends of the rear hub line, draw two lines 1.5" long. Parallel to the left dropout line, but 15mm inboard and centered on the hub axle line, draw a line to represent your brake rotor. We'll be using a 6"/160mm rotor in this case. Your chainstays will have to clear this. To be on the safe side, draw the a similar line on the drive side, but put it 20mm inboard, and make it only 3" long. This will represent the rear cog.

From the center of the rear hub line, it's time to draw the rim and tire. Earlier, we drew the outside radius of the tire as 13.5". Draw this line towards the BB shell now. There should be 1.75" between the end of that line and the edge of the BB shell. Drawing the tire is really hard because it varies based on tires and rims. We'll play it easy here. It's not perfectly round. From the end of that line, go back towards the hub about 3/4" or so. Now make a line 2.3" wide centered on that mark. This is probably the widest point of the tire. Measure an existing tire if you'd like to get specific. Make an arc connecting the ends of the line to the tip of the tire line. This is roughly the profile of the tire while on the rim. It should look like this:
---insert photo---

Now its time to draw cranks. Again, wild variable because of all the different styles and brands. One point of advice is that Truvativ/SRAM offer many crank drawings in the tech section of their website. Find a pair or cranks and sketch away. They also have a couple chainring sizes shown there as well. You can relatively derive the diameter of a chainring by creating a ratio from two known sizes. Or, measure the one you'd like to use. Once that is drawn and added to your bottom bracket sketch, you'll begin to see the chainring/tire gap area. This is probably the hardest part of any frame to design. The first thing to do is lightly sketch a line connecting the chainring to the rear cog. This is that chainline we talked about. Is the line straight? You may have to adjust things to fit. Don't mess with the cranks unless the ring can be moved to the other side of the spider. If you plan on using bmx style cranks, this is easy because you can use spacers to move the arm. Make sure your drive side crank arm is back towards the rear hub.
---insert photo---

Back at the dropouts, offset each representing line about 1" outwards. Turn those into boxes so you can roughly have a target for your chainstays to hit. There are a lot of options for chainstay material. I like to use rectangular box sections because it is easy to cut and keep aligned, and by using the rectangle vertically, you can clear the rings and cranks easier. They also tend not to bend in a pedal grind-gone-bad situation. A common size there is 1" x 1/2" with a .049" thick wall. Realistically it will not be able to go all the way to the BB shell in a straight line. So, connect one edge to the dropout box, and get it as close as you can to being in the middle of the gap of the chainring and the tire. Do this on both sides. Does the disc side clear the brake rotor? I'll leave that one up to you to figure out.

So now the question is how to attach the chainstays to the BB shell. Its a tough one. When I faced this challenge, I came up with a simple and clever idea. I used a piece of thick, larger diameter tube, that I cut a gap in. The gap is wide enough to fit the tire through. I let the ends hang out enough so that the chainstays could mate to it from the dropouts. Then I connected the thicker tube to the BB shell with a large rectangular box section tube. I called this the "yoke", and have used it on all of my frames. I'm not going to claim it entirely on my own here, but I will say that I had not ever seen it done before. Backing up my statement, if you poke around on the internet you'll typically find that neither had anyone else. I used this in early 2002, and it wasn't until Union Street made a frame that I saw it anywhere else. So if ya use it, just mention it. Draco Yoke. Onwards with how it looks:
---insert photo---

You can change lots of dimensions about it to fit your scheme. On my DH bikes, I actually offset the box on the yoke in order to place pivots onto it. I like using simple geometric shapes!
This simple and elegant solution should basically solve your clearance issues.

Lets quickly review-
How close is the rear tire to the seat tube in your first drawing?
How close is the tire to the BB in the second drawing?

If its too close, you've just realized another challenge in frame design. Sometimes you can't have the shortest chainstays. If you need to, bump them out 1/2" or so. If you're adventurous feeling, perhaps you can slide the seat tube forwards, somewhat onto the downtube. This may make the bottom bracket less stiff.. it's a design compromise. Gotta think about these things 24/7. But hey, maybe consider this: if you're having issues with clearances, you may be able to offset certain pieces to help clear it. There's no simple answer here- its part of the challenge.

Moving on to the seatstays- this is tough. Measure the line from the rear axle to the ST/TT junction. Now, just like the chainstays, draw it flat out. This time you don't have to worry about the chainring, but you do have to worry about the crank arms. Shouldn't be too difficult to clear those. Mating the seatstays to the front end is where lots of frame builders choose to bust out some style. On a custom XC frame I made for a friend, I got relatively artistic and it worked nicely:
---insert photo---

I don't recommend that style for a street bike, as your legs could be brushing over it. Our street bikes used a bent tube, which may be hard to make for your first frame. Our freeride bikes used a cut and welded angle in there. It does the job, and gives a muscular look to the frame. I recommend having the seatstays actually meet some of the top tube as well, for strength and added weld area:
--insert photo--

That pretty much covers the rear end tube design aspect.

Dropouts!

This section could be a mile long. Probably will be.
Dropouts can be purchased through the same places you found seat tubes and bottom bracket shells. A big shout out to Paragon Machine Works- the guy who runs it is awesome. I met him at interbike, and he is as much an artist as he is an engineer. They have many solutions for holding your wheels in place. That is definitely the easy route, with the hardest part being just cutting your chainstay and seatstay ends to fit their pieces.
But lets say you have access to a mill? Making some slotted dropouts isn't too hard.
First, figure out how to draw an IS51 disc dropout..
--insert photo---

boy that was easy. I will say that I found that info on Maguras website a long time ago, but I cannot find it any longer. Now, adding slots to this situation is tough, so think simple. If the axle is slotted 3/4" overall, then the disc tabs need to be slotted too. same amount. It can be a messy situation. It's often the case that you need to unbolt the caliper to remove the rear wheel. Its also a pain to set up! At this point, contemplate other solutions if you'd like. Creating your own adjustable vertical dropouts is fun, but a pain, and given that you can buy them from Paragon, I'd say just do that. The other option is an eccentric bottom bracket. It's much more svelte. You can use a modified bmx BB shell up front. Beware that it will possibly affect chainstay length and clearance! However, if you also consider that it offsets the shell front to back, I'm sure you can find a way to make it work. I mean, I won't do -all- the work for ya.. In regards to stereotypes of eccentric set ups: We have been running them on our personal street bikes for probably 5 years. Not a single broken one. Broken cranks arms and bottom bracket spindles, but not the eccentric itself. It doesn't loosen, and it doesn' creak. Bushnells makes one that is really light. Its a bit expensive, but since your dropout cost is gonna be next to nothing, it balances out. I really like the set up a lot. It also allows you to have two positions of the bottom bracket, high and low. Being able to change that is awesome on your first frame- it allows you to feel the differences on the same bike. Highly recommended. Assuming you do that, you only need vertical dropouts, which are really simple to make. Just add a fixed position IS51 mount and call it a day. The other HUGE perk of the eccentric is that you can run a quick-release hub on a single speed street bike without it ever moving. Also you can change a flt tire without needing chain tools or tensioners. See why I run it?

Time to check toe overlap. Go back to the first drawing, the 'side view' of the frame. Resketch the crankset and chainring. Also sketch the basic shape of a pedal. Easy enough to do as a rectangle at the end of the cranks. Now put your foot on the pedal and measure how far your shoe hangs over the edge. Add that to your pedal drawing. Does it overlap the front tire? Move the front tire rearwards about 96mm. This will simulate a barspin, with the front tire as far back as it will ever be. Does it overlap now? If it does, you're back into front end design. If it doesn't, you're set. Now for those that overlap- easiest way to deal with it is by moving the whole fork/wheel/headtube assembly forwards and stretching the top and down tube to fit. That will lengthen the top tube, so make sure to check and measure. You're on your own to solve this one- its mostly personal preference. This is also one of the reason that we copied a frame- its probably going to be fine.

So lets say you're reading this still (wow!) and are pretty set with the design. Nice. It's time to figure out how on earth you're actually going to make this thing. With that in mind, here are some thoughts on the big step:

How to actually build this thing:

First off, sometimes you can find someone with a jig and equipment already, who might be willing to fabricate it for a price. This is actually how I had our first couple frames made. Little did I know at the time, but the Service Manager at the bike shop I was working at (Craig Smith, now the Mendon Cyclesmith) had a jig, a welder, tube cutting stuff, and was nice enough to build my frame based off some parts I had made. Ask around and you may be surprised. When you do ask around, make sure you have these plans in hand. No one will really take you seriously unless you have some idea of what you want. Now lets say this ISN'T the case, but maybe you know a welder, have access to a shop, etc etc. Nice. Your biggest challenge will be jigging, which we will get to.
If you have none of these things, well, you're pretty much screwed. Unless of course, you have a bunch of space and cash. No matter what anyone claims, you're going to want your frame TIG welded. No exceptions. Yes I know race car roll cages are often mig welded. Listen- its not the same. A roll cage only has to work once. I think you'd like your bike to work every time you ride it. Trust me on this one. And yes, you're going to need a jig, because everything moves when you weld it, and I bet you'd like the frame to ride in a straight line.

Still feeling ballsy? Buying a welder will set you back $5,000 equipped, tube cutting tooling (even the drill press/hole saw kit, saws) will set you back a grand easy, plus the jig materials (even in the most basic sense) can add another couple hundred dollars onto the total.
Remember in the beginning I said it wasn't the cheap way out? Right. Oh you're still going to need tools to make the jig like drill bits, mill bits, lions, tigers, bears, oh my!

Lets assume you have some access to some tooling. So it's time to get some materials Get at least two of everything you need, because you're going to screw something up unintentionally. Tubing can be found easily online, places like Wicks Aircraft Supply are good to start with. Look around and you'll be able to find it all.

Got questions on how to actually cut the tubes n stuff? Well, to be brutally honest, take a machining class. This stuff ain't the easiest, but its definitely not hard. All of the angle stuff you need to know has been created in your drawing. If you're not familiar with any of these tools needed to cut material, find someone who is. There is a little bit of a prerequisite for this part.

Jigging. Its tough. It's simple in concept- keep everything in line and symmetrical. A lot of people try to build jigs with straps on flat tables. You -could- go this route, but I'm gonna give you the real deal details.
If you build the frame standing up, you'll be able to weld it from both sides easily, which will help keep it straight.

You'll need a piece of something to use as a base. I have used Faztek extruded aluminum channel many times, and its great because of the inherent adjustability.
---insert photo---

This as a base, will allow you to make pieces to create upright supports that are also adjustable. Since the stuff is available in common sizes, its just a matter of building holders with spacers to keep it all aligned. Your critical points are the head tube, the seat tube, the bottom bracket, and the rear axle.

Start with the bottom bracket. A holder to get it locked in place is good. Easy numbers are important. For example, if you make a plate that bolts into the side of the channel, it can slide forwards and backwards. If the channel is 3" wide, then an insert for the BB shell with a .1561" spacer/shelf will keep the shell mounted in the center of the piece.

You're going to need a way to hold that head tube in place. I've done this by turning pieces on a lathe that slip into the head tube. A good fit will help prevent the tube from deforming when its welded. Two cups, one for the top and one for the bottom. Mounted via 90* aluminum angle, which is mounted to an angle-adjustable piece of Faztek vertically, allows you to adjust the height of the headtube as well as its angle. If your base if kept centered, then its aligned with the BB shell.

Make a 135mm spacer that fits into your dropouts. Find a way to mount the axle to a base plate that can slide. I would make a piece that bolts into the slots of the channel, and has two holes drilled in it to match two holes drilled through your axle support. This keeps the axle from twisting, and keeps it centered. Then, you can space either the plate or the axle itself up or down in order to be at the right height compared to the BB shell. Using your drawings, you can also measure the distance from the BB plane to the bottom of the head tube. This is the head tube height. Then you can set its angle, and slide the head tube base forwards or backwards for top tube length.

If you've cut your tubing properly, it will relatively self-jig. Keep the angles set tight and slide things around until they fit- you'll be able to see how well you made your cuts.

You'll need an adjustable arm and insert, like the head tube, for the seat tube. This spacing is a little harder- but not really. If you're using 3" channel, you need a piece turned down to 27.2mm to fit inside the seat tube. Beware!! You want it deep enough to pass through the top tube/seat stay junction to help with weld heat dissapation, but it may be VERY HARD to remove. I highly recommend using large hex stock, turned to fit inside the tube, but with probably 2" sticking out as hex. This allows you to put a wrench on it if it gets stuck.
And it will. You'll need to buy a reamer for cleaning it afterwards. Most shops have this tool, but will NOT want to use it to cut through weld, because it wrecks the tool.

As for holding tubes in place via their miters- I use zip ties run around the other tubes to act as little shelves to hold things in place, so you can tack weld it and then remove the ties.

If you manage to get this far, I'm going to assume you have an idea of what needs to happen. If not, you're already in over your head. With the info you have from here, you could probably find a mechanically minded person to help you set it up. The more accurate and adjustable the jig is, the better your frame will come out. Realistically, when it comes to building this stuff, you only need a helping hand to get started, and then you'll begin to figure it all out. Theoretically, if you've drawn the frame right, and made everything as accurate as possible, the rest of this will pretty much fall together.

That is pretty much it, believe it or not. There are a billion outside factors like tubing choice, how good of a welder your guy/girl is, your cut tolerances, so many others.. that can drastically affect a frame. But as this isn't so much a guide to manufacturing processes, moreso, how to come up with the plans, then you've got your bases covered.

I am happy to take questions and the likes- but make sure you read the whole thing first! I will be doing another guide on full suspension how-to also. If you have specific questions, I may start a thread with more detailed responses not covered here.

So- with that being said- good luck, and good night. Oh yeah, and welcome to the up-all-night-figuring-out-bike-frames club!

Skydiving.

2008-10-28T12:31:00.000-07:00

I went skydiving for the second time. Someone asked me to describe it to them, I did, and they loved it. Here it is:

most of the day you sit around waiting for your turn. the weather is gorgeous, made even better because its been crappy all week. not a cloud in the sky, sunny, hot in the sun, cool in the shade. You're with a close friend. don't have to talk, just chillin. you see the first jumpers land- people are literally flying to the ground at like a 45* angle, and then in the last ten feet, go from 35mph to dead stop, and float, about a foot off the ground. then they literally step down from the sky, and the chute billows around them. you're pumped.

you suit up. its just a jumpsuit over your regular clothes. no chute even attached. you meet your instructor, nice guys. one is a slightly more brash guy, beard, nickname, gruff, thats a good word. The other guy is younger, clean shaven, tells you about how his wife jumps too. You're told the jump is at 10,000ft.. Thats two miles, you say to yourself.. and it fades quickly, as the lil' plane is here. The four of you pile in: Yourself, your friend, the two instructors. the pilot is already in, and the plane is cramped. You can't actually see much but the sky above from your spot in the plane. Small talk, the whole way up. At 10,000 feet, you start hooking into your instructor, checking straps, closures, everything. You tell him you're ready. You laugh in your head, as on the ground, you clearly remember the skydiving quote: "At 10k feet, 'No' sounds like 'Go', and we go anyways.."

You look at your friend, and its the first time you share a look of panic, excitement, fear, happiness, and a real concern that here you are legitamitally taking a risk that says "I may never see you again" and its very real. but you shake it- nuts to the reality, you guys are like brothers, you smile, and you say "seeyalaterbyeeeeeee"

the door opens. it is suddenly very loud, very windy, and very cold. and oh yeah.. you can see 2 miles down.

You're instructed to put your feet out on the platform. Then you look at the "platform" and suddenly question EVERYTHING as its a whopping 12" square. You put a foot out. Then the other. But this is new, you've stuck your arm out of a car on the expressway - its hard to control. Not too often you have the same experience with your legs!

With both feet out, you're under the wing. you can see down, its like google maps, but real. You're also freezing cold, and are having trouble trying to breathe normally in 90mph winds. Ze goggles, ze do noshing!

Your instructor pulls your head back and and tells you he's ready. "Like this, ok, ready (leans forwards), set (leans back) and then we jump on "go", ok? ARE YOU READY!?"

for a moment, you laugh at the machismo, the pump-up, the cheese of it all.

and then he leans you forward on "READY" and you realize you're halfway out of the plane. "Set", and you're back in, temporary safety, warm fuzzy relaxation..

GO!!!!!!!!!!

its like you can't breathe. everything that you've ever been told about things you shouldnt do, its all right now. for a split second, incredible panic sets in- the heart rate skyrockets, the breathing stops, and jesus christ... your feet are still on the platform.

and then they're not. and there is silence. and you're not cold. and its not real. it's like dying and being born at the same time. the acceleration is faster than any vehicle you've ever been in, yet nothing is pressing against you. your stomach doesnt ball up, drop, or come up... its pure blissful falling.

SNAP- back to reality, you're falling at over 100mph with nothing to catch you, nothing between you, the noise is more intense than any concert you've been to, your face is smushed like old astronaut testing videos. you're terrified, and somehow in your head laughing maniacally. for a split second you catch a glimpse of the plane - its almost impercievable, you're already that far away. it's like every 'first time' of everything you've ever done, good or bad, all over again, all at once.

and for a moment, you actually look around- straight ahead, you can clearly make out the CN tower, and the entire toronto skyline, 60miles away. lake ontario shimmers, as does lake erie. You can clearly see niagara falls, and the mist- it must be hundreds of feet tall! looking downwards, you can see all of buffalo, you can see rochester another 60 miles away, you can see way south, way north, you can see the curvature of the earth ever so slightly. Then you notice the orange glow to your left - the sun is setting, and its beautiful.. to your right, the full moon is clear and crisp in the sky - something you didnt notice from the ground.

and you feel so. so. so incredibly small, unimportant, miniscule.

and then you breathe. and the air at 120mph and 7000ft has never been so perfect.

you see a hand. its your instructor. he gives you the 'five-five' signal, meaning you're already at 5500ft. 5500 feet? you've already fallen a goddamn mile?! then he taps your hip three times, meaning, 'pull the chute'.

and you reach down, grab the handle, and pull, just as instructed. and nothing happens.

..and then it does. BAM! like a car crash, like running into a brick wall... you nearly come to a stop. your neck snaps down, your legs flail wildly in front of you. and everything is quiet. you let out a 'whooooooooooooo' and so does your instructor. He asks how you are- "Great, absolutely great" you reply.

You figure, the chute pulled, so life is good. All you hear, is the slight buzzy-almost-deaf tone in your ears... and the little flap of the chute above you. It is so serene, so quiet. no cars. no animals. no bugs. Your instructor asks you to 'flair' or practice for landing. You grab the chute handles, and pull down - you're in control.

everything stops. really, honestly, dead stop. no noise now at all, not even the chute. you've stalled, 4000ft off the ground, and everything is perfect.

The rest of the trip down is just steering, looking around. you smirk at the fact that your google maps skills are actually paying off, identifying the airport you took off from, from your driving directions!

The scary part is about 70ft off the ground - skimming treetops, you can see peoples faces, identify things on the ground, and it dawns on you that falling from this height is scarier than stepping out of the plane!

as you come blasting towards the ground, your instructor tells you to flair on his command.. you panic a little, isn't the ground coming up fast?!

FLAIR!

and once again- a dead stop. One foot off the ground. You feel less impact than stepping off a curb, and the next step is to sit down. the chute billows to the ground behind you. its over.

instantly, nothing matters. nothing matters at all, whatsoever. you just don't care. you think of the chemicals blasting through your brain, but, ugh, whatever, you don't care.

Your friend lands safely in the same fashion, about 15ft from you. there's a ridiculous high five, a hug, laughter, and you help the instructors gather the chutes. Everyone is laughing, talking about the view. Your instructor thanks you, you thank him, and he says stop back sometime and jump again. in your head, you're already planning the next jump.

as you and your friend walk slowly and confidently to the parking lot, you both pause as you hear over the loudspeaker "We need two more for tandem jumps, two more, open slots. come to the registration station if you're in"

you both look at each other... and laugh. next time. next time.

besides, you're so relaxed right now.. its cool. let someone else try it. you'll be back.

for the next couple days.. its like nothing can bother you. people ask how your weekend was, and you say you went skydiving. they absolutely freak out! and yet your response, now having done it is, "its no big deal. lots of fun. safe. a blast. like a week long vacation wrapped into 7 minutes. you even fit sightseeing in there."

you'll never forget the view.

-jtf

officially a nerd.

2008-10-27T16:38:00.001-07:00

Alright, so I caved. I broke down and got an iPhone. I've resisted purchasing apple products for so long. Alas, my desire to refrain from mainstream product placement has slightly failed me. I've had phones that have had great data ability, had phones with more camera ability for sure, lived without wifi, And even had slimmer phones too.

But.. This thing rocks. Also with the ease of everything on here, I'll be updating more often.

In other news, greg and I are firing up the old autocad and solidworks in order to refine existing designs, and experiment with interesting new concepts. Shooting for ultralight revisions for the current set ups, and who knows what for the concepts.. Expect to see carbon top tubes, sleek pivots, and attention to detail. Concepts.. Hmm. Maybe dual air shocks, or inertia valved linkages. Maybe linear bearings?

Ps watching tv, just heard michael Jackson went to liz taylors sleepover party... Creepy.

Pizza and a movie today, jukebox jury tomorrow night!

alright alright

2008-06-11T13:03:00.000-07:00

new format, new updates, going to keep up on it, yes, blah blah, heard it before...but yeah, tonight it begins.

what me update?

2008-04-11T06:42:00.000-07:00

rather busy lately, but i have a boatload of photos and stories and the whole nine yards. Hell, maybe I'll even get relatively conversational! We'll see. I need to get back on track with my schedule thought- staying up til 2 and then being busy as fuck is really hard on a day to day basis.

I'll start loading and updating tonight/this weekend..

No pics? How boring.

2008-02-14T21:15:00.001-08:00

I am feeling that this weekend may lead to a lengthy conversational writing for self reflection. Sound stupid? Probably is.. But I have a general feeling thats a cross between contempt and anxiety and boredom... and I kinda like it.

we'll see. I really do need to get some sleep. Tomorrow I am putting the Hella's on the Audi. I mean why not.

Cleveland Rocks? No, we do.

2008-02-05T20:38:00.000-08:00

We decided it was time for a Ray's trip. Just Andrew, Greg, and myself. It had been three years since we last went by ourselves. Skatepark! Rock and Roll Hall of fame!

Without further ado, I give you, Cleveland Ohio, NY/Draco style.

Greg and I left Rochester at about 9.30 with coffee in hand.
We got to Buffalo at about 10:45. I think we loaded Andrew's truck by 11.15pm.

^^Company rides.

On the road in Pennsylvania, we decide to calibrate Colo's new tire size.

Somehow we found a great hotel deal on priceline... We miss our exit to downtown, and proceed to self-navigate our way there, based of memories from 3 years ago. It worked out pretty well, so we stopped to ask some people what time the bars close. Unfortunately, everyone we stopped to ask was an asshole and basically told us we were shit out of luck and why did we have bikes?
We got to the hotel garage. Clearance sign says "6'6"" and I ask Colo how tall his truck is. He says 6'11" as we roll in, completely ignoring the sign. I hang out the window and run my hand along the ceiling to make sure we wont hit. There were no issues, but the skickness of the floor made for some spinning tires trying to get around carefully.

We dump the bikes and gear and decide to find a bar. We head down 6th street, full of people, and everyone says the bars are open til 2:30a... but they stop serving at 2am. We are denied everywhere, like 6 bars in a row. Told that 'traffic' might still serve, we walk in. Place is nearly dead. Luckily, our cleaveage augmented bartender says she will still serve us, especially after hearing that we just got in from NY.

We order two shots of Jack each, and a heineken each. Bouncer tells us thats gonna be our only chance, so we order another shot of Jack. This was very similar to our plan in Toronto when I got back from Vegas. Its basically an awesome recipe for debauchery. It is at this point that we notice our bartender is pouring all of these as doubles.. And we are all kinda like, oh fuck... but we man up and decide to go for it. She says we have like two minutes to do it. Without much hesitation, we each tip up one shot, and drink it. Whooo. REpeat for round two. Whooooooooo... sip of beer. Man, this is heavy! So we go for the third shot. Seriously, back to back, all in less than two minutes. Beers are finished, the bouncer is watching us laughing, and the bartender says "You boys are not fucking around..."

Damn straight. Do we ever?

We chat with Don, the bouncer. Greg tries to get us all in a pic with the girl too, but alas. We tell Don about our trip up and our experience with Cleveland locals. His response is that, fridays are quiet, and we should really come back tomorrow for a good time. Duly noted. We thank them, say good bye, and take off.

Back at the hotel, drunk has hit. And it hit good.
Greg gets changed... This is when the camera really busts out.

Obviously the only thing to do at 3am in another city after a bunch of drinks in shitty weather, is to go street ride.

Andrew opens the door, and there are two security guards standing right there, looking at him with a leg over his bike.. "No dice guys."

Buzzkill.

OR NOT?!

Elevator shot. Classic.

We get back to the garage to get some gloves.

There is 585 representin'.

It's slick in there already. Greg ripped a glove.

But we are off. it's like, snowed an inch of snow across everything.

I'm not really sure why he's wearing them either.

We find the cannon, that three years ago, we put a sticker on. Add a sticker, and take pic.

Greg pulls a barspin.

Andrew manuals and the lack of tire track is cool.

I do it too.

Now, a bum hassles us, and I want a picture. He wants a smoke and two bucks. Meet Wilcox West. I resisted the urge to say "Wake up Mr. West...Mr.West...mr.west.."

We move along. I am told to try a sprocket on this ledge. It didn't work.

At this point, a black qx56 with some rims (pronouce: Reeeyyms) pulls up. Driver rolls down the passenger window and calls me over:

"I'll give you $100 if you can hop onto that ledge and ride it."

-Done deal, just back up ten feet.

WRong kid to bet against, Mike.

Ok, well, after the drinking, I mean, I did what I could with an icy ledge at 3am.

Pay up!
"Yo that was sick..."

"... but I saw you dab... I'll give you $50 though."

(Yes I do look deranged)

So with that being said, I mean, what the fuck? Did someone just give me $50? I would have jumped on it regardless.. My first sponsorship, a Cleveland dealer. Awesome. The night just cannot get better.

Or can it? Ps, it's really snowing.

We spend time skidding around.

"Hey let me get a pic!"

"Let me just turn arou-"

We decide to go back to the hotel to warm up for a second.

..and to ride down the stairs. Inside.

He fell down. Loud enough that the security guard came out. His name is Harry! ANd Harry is one of like, 6 awesome people in all of Cleveland. After giving us some shit, he told us to check out the lounge-

"You can make all the noise you want at any hour..."
Dude have you met us? wow. We decide to go for another lap around the block.

We made it to the corner before decided to do a statue pic.

Then we realize its a mall inside! And... the.. dooors.. are open.

Andrew rides down an escalator.

Not shown: I also go to ride down the escalator, unbeknownst to Andrew, who is heading up it... We crash (pronounce, Crayeesh) midway on it and tumble all the way down wet metal and granite to the bottom. Laughing hysterically the whole way.

At this point Andrew decides he MUST manual through this thing downstairs. I think it's a fountain.

Now we head back to the hotel.
How did we score this place?

We found some coffee!

It's decaf, we're going back.

Good times. 3 hours in Cleveland is off to a good start, despite the lame locals.

We woke up. Went to find breakfast. Oh, god... its in that mall..
It WAS a fountain.

We went to Ray's. This is the only still pic of the entire day.

But to summarize, the place is huge, awesome, and will drain you of all energy.

We left there at like 6pm, thinking, foooooooooood.. Get back to the hotel and there is some baller event there... and no parking. We meet the garage guys, who recognize us from the bikes the night before. They let us park right out front in the vip/valet spots for an hour. A quick shower, and we are off to find food.

Finding nothing the digital way, we ask the concierge, who tells us the best burger place is only two blocks away. And he was SO right. We also saw a wedding proposal there!

After that we head out. The camera stays low for a little bit, but here is the lowdown-

Cleveland locals are all assholes. Everything was cold shoulder, no help, mean, rude, etc. We went to a couple bars. One, called Paninnis, had awesome, awesome music. That was cool.

We hit Velvet Dog... Who knew it was bsaically a plus-size bar. Everyone gives me shit, but seriously, it was.

We left in a hurry.

Deciding to try Traffic again, per Don's request, we hit the door. We ask if Don is in, that he told us to find him if we came back down. We are immediately just ushered in, no cover, right past everyone...

We find Don, do a shot with him, and he sends us upstairs to the VIP dancefloor joint.

Now at this point it gets interesting. Greg begins to dance on people, as per usual.
We observe this: (Note gregs face, and the girls hand)

AS if that wasn't hilarious enough on its own, at least from Andrews and my perspective... Greg kissed this girl with a boyfriend... No joke G, it looked enough like it that we panicked... so its fact now! Anyways, after seeing this, and expecting a fight at any moment, we grab Greg and get the hell out of there.

We walk outside and Colo starts to talk to some kid in an Alpinestars jacket. Apparently he races MX and his buddy is a pro fighter.. at least.. as pro as Tap-Out is. His fighter buddy disappears, and he is like, well, I'm gonna check some places out, want to come? And points to a limo bus. I step it up, and I'm like, "Sure, we'd love to...", and we get on.

Turns out this dude is full of shit. Wrong bike names, wrong track names, refuses a last name or a picture. So this was as close we got to capturing "Barto"...

Totally drunk at this point, Greg with the spins, me wondering where the FUCK we are, and Colo wanting to leave this toolbag, we are just like "OK man, cool, catch you later..." and get off.

We wander up to this bar because we hear Fallout Boy playing (you know, at least uncommon for a big bar)... And no one will tell us where we are. However, a guy working there walks out, and we ask, explaining we are from out of town, and he is like, you're here.. get in there, tell them I sent you.
Again, ushered past a huge line and in we are.
Round two of conversational assholism:
Andrew sees a guy wearing a Snap-On jacket, walks up to him, and says "Hey I like your jacket, good tools, nice stuff. You a rep or something?"
...and this guys friend says to colo, cold shouldered, "Wrong guy dude... wrong guy to talk to..." and turns his back. COlo is like, "WTF is wrong with these people?" and we start to leave.

Now, I offer this picture, and don't remember what was going on. Was Greg dancing? Was he striking someone in the face? DId he elbow the guy behind him AND punch someone out? Andrew looks interested.

Anywho, we walk outside. Somehow, after driving in the limo bus the whole time.. we are only a block from where we started. Nice.

We say, fuck this city, we can make it to Buffalo by last call. Alright, true, bad idea. We're hammered. WE head back to the hotel, but not before seeing:
"The Good Twin"

Back at the hotel, its dawning on all of us that tomorrow morning is going to be rough. Luckily, andrew has purchased "Vitamin enhanced water for babies" and I am drinking it.

I pushed andrew off the bed because he was taking up space. I didn't know the 'crevasse' was so tight he could not move.. He could not escape... we had to pull him out.

And thus we called it. Tired, drunk, ridiculous.

We left that morning without breakfast or anything. Soured on all the shitty characters of Cleveland, and knowing that the only part that made it awesome was that it was just the three of us... We got on the road.

I mean, with no drug dealer sponsors or VIP treatment.. Why stay? We upped the ante so hard.

Time for a new city next time.

geez RPD.. what the heck.

2008-02-04T06:10:00.000-08:00

Normally I love the Rochester Police Department. But in the past year I have had three sour incidents.

1. that whole - "no bikes on the sidewalk... and I'll hunt you down if you ride away, by driving over the sidewalk and pulling your friend off his bike and threatening to arrest him.
------don't we have the highest murder per capita?

2. Pulled over for non-stock exhaust and tinted windows. Guy also claimed he could smell alchohol on my breathe. tough to do when i'm not drinking. hmm. and the second officer he called over said the windows were just dirty.

3. Now lets see how #2 ties into #3.
After leaving Lux for the BP birthday celebration, Greg and I got Taco Bell.
I get snagged as I park in front of my apartment... two cops waiting next to Prepps. I get hit for the following:
*No sideview mirror
*No turn signal
*no license

NO License?! Turns out ticket #2 above hadn't cleared the system. I explain that, officer says it may take 90 days... I can fight it in court, but I'll have to fight the original charge too.

I was like, listen man, thats 4 court dates that will happen all in a week. Thats not cool. Tough he says. Rochester has a zero tolerance policy - you have to take it all to court. I got a sobriety test too, pen and light.. I called the officer out.
Like this:

rpd: ok, just follow the pen tip.
jtf: top or bottom?
rpd: ughh, bottom.
jtf: checking for pupil dilation?
rpd: yeah.
jtf: Really? because thats not going to change with alchohol. you're jsut checking to see if I can follow it.
rpd: yeah, uh, well, yeah.
jtf: I see you've made a triangle, its very bright.
rpd: get back in the car.
rpd: (yells to other cop) "he's fine."

oiy. I'll have to take care of that one today. Fun fun.

i hates t3h interwebs

2008-02-01T14:12:00.000-08:00

...But really folks. I do not consider myself special or anything here, so when I spend all day evaluating products online with intent to buy, I like to find quality information.

I can't believe how few 'big' companies offer real info on their sites. It suddenly makes sense why Daniel is doing the consulting. I would say that 60% of the industrial and tehcnology-related sited I visited today could not offer the info I wanted without a phone call or an email. And with time zones, and respond times, like, what gives?

Tips to an awesome useful site:

Cleanliness.
Small about/history section
Big Contact us button w/ location
Clearly define products under a products button and include photos.
Clearly define services under a services button, also with pics.
List some prices. sheesh.
Have a date with the last time the site was updated too.

/rant, heading home in the ridiculous ice storm thats pseudo-raging outside.

Jalopnik's take on the RS4 (excerpt)

2008-01-31T06:53:00.000-08:00

From Jalopnik

It is my opinion that at root, all German cars secretly want to be either trains or tanks. The RS4 is a bullet train that wants to be a rocket sled.

Precision steering, anonymous looks, endless torque, an engine tuned by Slayer and as you mentioned, mythological Scandinavian brakes add up to the car of my dreams. Audi has built my drug! Sure, the seats are no good, the mirrors are useless, the ride is drunken-Irish-husband-abusive, I've had the car for six hundred miles and have filled it up four times (remember -- they give us the car with a full tank) but WHO CARES?

Haha, thats about right. We're getting to the point of making sweet things at work.

to do, of course...

2008-01-10T07:19:00.000-08:00

..is the title of my to do list at work. that one is actually getting done. Now if I can only maintain this as well. A suggestion from a specific someone brought me here today. Also, opened up a flickr account, johntframe to view. but man, the mapping feature is amazing, I had heard about it but had no idea it was that well done.

So without further ado, here are some photos, in typical jtf-ashion...

We went for a bike ride.

stopped by manhattan square.

they're re-doing the ice rink, its more fun looking now.

A little bench area outside, should be nice in the summer too.

Main and East. They just turned the liberty pole off.

Somewhere on Clinton

It was funny then, its funny now.

the only action shot all night. abandoned garage on mortimer.

Some of the buildings have cool structures. Lots of stuff in the city is like this, its all above street level.

Andrews street bridge..

And then I did a longer exposure and set the camera down:

I went to Lux to see the Murray crew:

and then everyone started showing up, and Greg brought the Paolas.

And it was good. More later I think.. I've got some fun work to do first!

halloween recap

2007-11-15T18:50:00.000-08:00

so off with the dates here. ah well. halloween was simple. our social director for lux, annie (alexandra), texted me saying she was going as marilyn monroe, and was I going too. I said sure, but wasn't planning on a costume. She said I should find something, but that she would swing by and we'd go over together. ok.

So what to dress as when you are accompanying someone who doesn't have to work at being marilyn monroe?

a text later, i said i hadnt found a costume, and got jtf! wtf! in return.

jtf... marilyn monroe... jfk. ooooh yeah.

Easy.

I had a name tag because i thought no one would get it.

But uh, then it dawned on me that I didn't need a name tag, so long as I stuck around annie.

No joke, we walked in and stood at the only open spot at the bar... and the vent turned on.

Dettman and Kyle

Andrew, Susan and Aaron

john is.. optimus prime

..and the girls love it

pretty convincing and well done.

Oddly enough, Andrew and I were sitting around casually drinking, I think I was actually drinking water, and at the same time, we both began to feel sick. but it wasnt like, drinking sick. no idea. we booked out of there and woke up feeling fine. who knows.

everyone is right. costumes are only fun if paired of with a group; saw about 4 people dressed as the ghostbusters, blasting the theme song out of a car that had been done up with logos and everything. Didn't have time to get the phone or the camera out. Alas...

Week one, England. (Sweet)

2007-11-05T21:34:00.001-08:00

A summary since I have not updated this since I got back.

Worked on the R8. What an awesome car.

Spent a day at the Castle-Combe racetrack.
This is like a mini-commercial!

Gumpert Apollo. Kev and I's lap in the R8 was faster than this car... Maybe its the driver...

Our cars all piled out front.

Don't like the blue so much.

But this little blue car, an old NSU, ripped!

Hard not to love a track day.

My phone is as tall as an iPod.

New Audi S5

Audo TT tdi!

True.

Big showing of TT owners.

A silver R8.

Milltek S3.. Fast little car.

Loudest RS4 Cabriolet I have ever heard. Adrians car!

Tim and Charlie managed to squeeze 27psi of boost out of this stripped down and worked up TT.. They also managed to squeeze oil into the intake. Cut the day short.

And, because I am a nerd and secretly want to be a photographer, here is my only themed bit:

No S6 there at all. So I didn't include it. But the new ones are hot.

Don't complain about fuel prices stateside. Do the math:

($8.26 a gallon)

This is where it gets interesting and fuzzy. We had to go to Audi Driver International's Gala Awards dinner in Swindon. Apparently its like the oldest and highest ranked Audi dealership in the UK. I rode with Lucy, the bosses daughter, in the S3 from Castle-Combe. We had rooms at Hilton Swindon, and after everyone got cleaned up and dressed up (black tie affair, you know), we met downstairs for drinks.
Everyone looked great! We had a drink, and then we walked over to the dealership, opting to cross a 4-lane major highway rther than wait for a shuttle bus. We were recieved with served hors d'oeuvre's and popping bottles of champagne. I had to play international business rep for a bit with a crowd of folks... and lets face it... its not my shining area, so I 'wung' it. As Greg and I have actually had some practice with that in front of a crowd, it was fun.
This dealership had everything. R8 on the floor. RS4's in stock. Recaro Baby Racing Seats.
Sorry for the glare, its tough to be inconspicious.

Same here. Class event!

Our reserved table was no less than the RS4 table. It was Phil, Debbie, Louise, John, Adrian, Lucy, and myself. Lucy and Louise are Phils daughters. Luoise is married to John, who works for Phil. Debbie is his assistant, and Adrian is a friend of all of them. Awesome people.
It was fantastic food, wine, drinks, and a general good time. It did get a little long.

The awards started, and we won Best Aftermarket Product. How awesome. Phil gave a little speech. A bunch more people got industry related awards and mention. A scottish guy named Jim gave a speech, and apparently all of my south england friends had a hard time understanding him. I however, did not, and they all thought it was fantastic that I was able to translate. Maybe it was the multiple glasses of champagne. Maybe it was the gin and tonic. Maybe it was the wine. Maybe it was the girl to my right. But anyway it was cut, it was fun.
The night wore on.

Contemplating sleep, Adrian, Lucy, and myself opted to get something going and have a little evening. We started with some Audi-sponsored gambling.

We won several times in a row, without trying. Pissed off the rest of the table so, off the the bar we went.

Peroni. Quality Iti beer. I may, or may not, have texted andrew to mention this to him.

We drank. It was good. We got rounds for company heads that were there. They returned the favor. I talked to them. I introduced myself to the scotsman that was Jim Curry. He was like, "Do AH know YEH?" and I said, no sir, but I know about you from my friends here. And chat we did.

We reached this point.. You know, that point where you decide photos are good, and maybe you and Adrian just argued over shots of Jack Daniels until you each ended up with a glass full of it. ANd you drank it.

And then maybe, maybe lucy was quiet and watching me. So I talked to her. And without getting into it, I found she knew exactly why I was there, and what I was up to. And she wanted to talk about it right there... For fun of course, but dear lord this is an incredible british girl the same age as me with a firm confidence about her.. so we went outside to talk. Must have looked ridiculous, both of us dressed to kill and rolling around this parking lot loaded with nice cars... drinks in hand, laughing and talking and running around. 5 hours later, I woke up in her hotel room. Now, I am stating right here that I am not insinuating anything. After laughing about the evening having gotten out of bed, I decide to opt for a shower and a change of clothes... In my room. I open her door, step into the hall, close the door, turn around, and run smack into her father.

oh god.

he asked me if i had fun.
I told him yes, yes I did. Never had thta much fun in 24hrs ever.
He said that was great! And that he needed to run, and if Lucy and I wanted, we could do breakfast and head back of our own accord...
ok? sure!

Back into her room to laugh about it. A shower, a change, I walk downstairs a couple minutes before meeting her again. But I bump into just about everyone I talked to last night. Jim sure remembers my name, laughs it up with me, etc. So apparently, even though I am unsure as to what I did to get this, if I am ever in Scotland I had better call him to come visit.

Lucy and I drove back the 2+ hrs to Derby, piecing the evening back together and apologizing for whatever had happened. Then we just chatted about everything else, as is the trend with kids these days. She, is awesome. An independent, confident girl, schooled in psychology and using it, who likes cars as well. Upon dropping me off, we decided to make plans with everyone for friday before I left.

Whew. totally beat, I hit the sack at 3pm, and it was good.

England, and an Audi R8.

2007-10-10T16:03:00.000-07:00

Where to begin?

Sunday night at 4.50pm I left Rochester.
Arrived at EWR at 5.30pm.

Left EWR to Heathrow at 9.25pm. Arrived at 9.05am Monday, London time. Got picked up by Charlie who is a great guy, also new at the company. We drove for something silly like 6hrs due to some road closing.
Got to Milltek at about 5pm.

Hung around, checked out the car. Pretty awesome.

Day two: all sorts of messed up from jet lag. Saw the stock exhaust.

Helped put on new exhaust.

Walked around the area for a minute.

Did some testing.

(Exterior Noise testing)

What an awesome looking car.

Got back, watched some tv and developed a headache.
This tv show, I guess, the premise is that you text your number to them, then they text you back and let you call in to offer words that may include the word they provide. You win cash.

It seemed so ridiculous. Like wheel of fortune without a wheel, or being there, or any hints. Basically, said actress stood there for half an hour at a whack and just took calls every 5 minutes or so.

Day three: Tore new exhaust off and made some new silencers for it. It needs to drop 1 decibel in order to be track friendly. All these racetracks over here have a restriction on car noise. Seems silly, like, arent these the places you go to play with cars you dont drive on the street? Ah well. I'll find out this weekend, as I'll be at said track, Castle-Combe.
Here is a 2nd gear acceleration/interior noise test. 0-5000rpm.

Further testing shows that, uh, the car is fast.

Oh, and sounds awesome.

Back at the shop, the exhaust was checked out. nice heat coloring. only 10 miles to get that effect!

So Kev and I made a jig for it. Which, to summarize, involved an epic battle between myself, a 1/2" piece of steel, and a playskool drill press. Look at my glove. thing is tiny. but i emerged victorious.

We drove to a tuner shop nearby to pick up some goods. I could not resist snapping a photo of this audi B5 rs4 2.7l bi-turbo V6.

Once again back at the shop. This is some intricate stuff. But tomorrow we'll reinstall the whole thing with the bumper and all... And then on to revision 2.

On my way home, I noticed this huge nuclear power plant in the distance.

So, this one is fairly short, but I'm beat. Lets check the schedule:
Thursday - reinstall system onto R8, check noise levels on an audi s3 as well.
Friday - prep for weekend at the track, trailer R8, kev may leave friday night with that.
Saturday - Test track cars, do recordings, get a feel for these sweet cars.
Sunday - return from track or something. might be a day off, in which case I'm headed to London proper.
Monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday -make second system for R8 - this one is going to be shipped stateside, first one, and end up on a brand new R8 at the SEMA show. Wild. I'll be the only person in the USA with first-hand knowledge of it. Sweet.
Friday - Audi Driver awards dinner in the city. Car will be there, so will myself and the owner of milltek. Who knows what that entails.
Saturday - charlie takes me back to the airport.. or maybe phil? in the R8? Come on...

I'll do some more updates obviously after that track event.

story with pics!

2007-10-03T16:40:00.000-07:00

we'll go backwards this time. I started my new job - it rocks.

Day 1: Design a shifter knob.

Day 2: Design wheels for the not-yet-available-in-the-states-yet Audi S5. (on the right)

Day 3: Showcased product to the left of my desk. Installed new shocks via a lowering kit, and fresh exhaust on a car. not something we normally do, but we opted to do it so everyone could learn some kinks about installation.

On to other things-

Read this at starbucks the day I recieved a call saying I got the job.

Then read this back at the shop. its the first page of the new pearl izumi catalog. The rep is john florey - one of the best reps I know, and a great all around guy. We had a nice chat about me leaving the shop one afternoon, he may have been like the second person to know.

Whats with all the new minivans and center consoles? this thing is like piloting a spaceship. Way to live on the edge, soccer mom.

Stopped out to the vineyard to see the bridging we made. I walk up, and its been like 2 weeks, but hey, our signature is there: plasma-cut stainless steel and a beer cap. that about sums things up.

Saw this wild Porsche, gt3rs! Hate the orange, but baller car.

too bad the rotors are cracked:

but I suppose that means he actually drives it?

Does anyone know what they are building at manhattan square? they tore out an ice rink.. but it looks like they are just putting a new, fancier one in.

I picked up my passport forms at city hall. its a nice building.

Here is a funky mercedes that I didnt know was available state-side yet! Half minivan, half vw golf. wierd.

My parking adventures allowed me to see this burb with big wheels.

Then I noticed the badge for it!

On that note, I had been considering going back to 26" wheels from the 24's... And I think that settles it.

Su Yi from work came down to meet a friend at javas. I could not resist parking him right out front:

A bunch of us went out friday night. Andrew, Daniel, Mike, Mark, Sarah, and myself all showed. Salingers was the start. Dear god. shots and a beer. that was the deal. When we had hit 5 beers, that meant we did five shots too, so of course, the logical choice is a long island ice tea. Which of course led to "Cheers like a man" and broken glass.

So we left there and walked to montys. Colo had to do a standing backflip on the way.

he made it. pretty awesome.

Now of course we are all pretty rolled, and so its time to cheers like a man again. I held steady for the first one, but sarah destroyed my glass on the second. I nonchalantly continued to drink it which at the time, was quite funny.

Til I got glass in my mouth. So, thinking back to a max customer (and sarah and andrew know who I am talking about) I ate the piece of glass in my mouth. Crunchy. Well, why not? if its small enough its not gonna do much. Right?

Right? I'll be ok, right?!??

oye.
There is only one thing to do when this group gets drunk, and andrew and sarah are involved: Head to daisy dukes like we are on a mission. We all hate the place any other time, but now, the bull must be ridden.

Andrew and sarah go for it.

It was short lived.

We contemplated going to buffalo at 2am. instead, we ended up on daniels fire escape throwing nearly 2 dozen eggs into the empty street. Oh! and carrots too. I ate one.
I walked home, and was later informed that I called amy to keep me company on my walk because I did not have any headphones with me. She tells me it basically went like this:

her: you're drunk!
me: yep!
her: how far are you from home?
me: one block.
her: ok, i'll talk til you get home.
(15 minutes later)
her: how far are you now?
me: twoooooo blocks.
her: you're going the wrong waaaaaaay!

Right. Been like... 6+ months since ive been that silly.
If it starts again, andrew says he's taking my phone away.

Saw a cop car that had been t-boned at like 40mph, in the hood, by a pickup truck. Terrible shot but what can you do when they wont let you stop to gawk?

Words to live by. Theodore Roosevelt.

Words to learn to spell if you work for specialized in taiwan:

Swarovski... man I like that store. Mainly, the physical store. I could care less what is in those cases, If its in those cases, I want it. Best displays/lighting solutions ever.

Did I mention I leave sunday for London for business and its covered by them, for two weeks? Well I do. See you when I get back, but i will be updating this thing for sure while I am there.

update tonight.

2007-09-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

all is well. a quick summary-

expedited passport - check.

two weeks in london - check.

3 days on the castle-combe race track in london - check.

Getting to drive an Audi R8 - check.

getting to drive said audi on said race track - check.

company email - check.

company expense account - check.

countdown to sweet job - 10 days.

yes.

If you don't like ________, then get the fuck out.

2007-09-10T01:17:00.000-07:00

I know the kid who came up with the "If you don't like Rochester, then get the fuck out" bumper stickers. I always liked them. I am sure I am the exception to the rule about youth hating their hometown. Well, I think colo gets it, and greg too. Regardless, having seen it from many other viewpoints and through others eyes, all I have to say is this:

A place is only as good as you make it.

Perspective is everything.

^^ 25 Gibbs Street. ROChester, NY. Hipster kids at a coffee spot. A music school with a live band outside. The city's finest dining. The biggest collection of bars in the area. All inside the core of downtown rochester.

I like this place.

1 big story vs. lots of little ones.

2007-09-10T00:32:00.000-07:00

So I didn't keep up on this for a few days. Working on a new job, moved apartments, friend moved out west, had to ride some bikes and such. Here we go, in no order:

Colo, DMan, and myself went to wegmans for lunch. And we saw optimus prime.

Later on, a giant... something.. drove through monroe and clover. It hit the traffic lights very gently.

I saw an interesting unmarked cop car outside Max the other night. After walking up, and before the screensaver went on the laptop, I figured out what the hell it was. This car had two cameras on top, that took pictures of cars from behind and slight to the sides. The software on the screen before it went dark, explained: it uses the same techniques as new digital cameras: facial recognition - - licence plate recognition. SO they can read your tag at 80mph in the rain. And oh yeah, registrants name, address, phone, licence number, proper car model, other cars, other drivers, everything.
That scares the steez out of me, yet is so awesome, at the same time. damn.

One night, I came home to the Argyle, and sat on the porch. Then a goddamn skunk came strolling out of nowhere and walked up the steps. I freaked out and took a picture.

He walked under the porch, I waited, and then I ran like hell. I took the pic because no one would believe me.

We went to a little party of some friends we knew. Within ten minutes, a hardcore show broke out. God, nothing like realizing you're getting too old for something. I was just not that interested in fighting and throwing down against 12 dirty sweaty guys in a low-ceiling basement. There were two girls there, you can see her shoes if you look. But not justifiable.

Almost concurring moments later, it ended.

I like the gauge cluster on the newer Acuras.

I don't understand what BMW is thinking with these new shifters. It was bad enough on the column, now I have a joystick? Fairly futuristic... but like robots that brush your teeth for you.

My sister got a new apartment, its nice. The roof has a great view.

A while back one night out, we made a pyramid of PBR cans.

Tonight we did it again.

Hooray beer. Dettman, Kyle, and Russ rode the trike to lux. took them 35 minutes. Russ got his friend Jen out, she's new from Philly and rides. She left Lux to meet someone at Soho. Before she went to leave we offered to show her the trike wheelie. She didnt believe it could happen, so off we went, in front of many cameras and people. And then we snapped the axle. clean. Pop! She laughed and took off. Around 2am we had to figure out how to get the trike home. Best idea, since everyone else had a ride back, was for me to take my 6ft cable lock and hook it from my seat rail to the front of the trike. I threw gregs fixie onto the back of the trike and locked it down. Greg steered the crippled trike, and I provided the go power.

How ridiculous. Yes, more ridiculous than Greg and Sam dancing.

I'll be joining them on monday night.

Anyway, off we went on the trike. It was bad news for the first 100 yards. Then we got it figured out. We made it over to the busy part of monroe and decided we needed to get the hell off the main streets. Unfortunately we ended up on Pearl st, like near some street I dont even know... hoooooood... We decided to hustle outta there and made this left turn... well it aint easy with 7 wheels and only two people steering, and only one person pedalling or with a brake.

Please notice the location and angle of the seat on the white bike:

we swung wide, and smashed a cars sideview mirror clean off.

Speechless for the first twn seconds, greg and I suddenly were like, "HOLY SHIT!" and discussed, like brilliant drunk engineers, that there were absolutely no plastic or glass components on the trike, and therefore, there must have been an outside collision. I asked if we should stop, but we looked around, and decided to book it. Sorry to whomever's car that was, but insurance covers you against inadvertent acts of draco. I think.

In our sprint to escape the neighborhood, I screamed out "Right turn!" And there was some miscommunication. I meant, right, right now. and greg thought, right, in a little bit.

7 wheels, two brains, and miscommunication makes for certain doom.
I swung right, only to have the trike go straight. The cable between us went taught, whipping just the back of my bike completely sideways. not expecting this, I am nearly thrown. the trike, and greg, trying not to tip over, swing hard right now, and run over me and the bike. That finally took everything down. Must have been something to see.

Russ called Jen an hour later to see if she wanted to come to get some food with us. He swayed her by suggesting that said trip would "have adventure, because all of us would be there"...
5 minutes after picking her up, with everyone in the vehicle having had some sort of beverage early, we are getting pulled over. I'm driving. I'm fine, but I was having a good time with everyone... We were beeping at people and doing the "10 points!" bit. So the nervous confrontation went like this:
*beep beep swerve swerve... pass car, green light go!*
"Boy this cop sure wants to pass me.." *pulls over*
Cop stops too. Shitty...
Basically, the cop comes up after I've shut gregs car off. Officer asks, "Do you know why I stopped you?". I suggest that I was probably speeding. He asks "Do you know the speed limit around here?". I tell him no (I have lived in this specific area we are stopped in for about 9 years. Its a 30. I was probably doing 55.). "Well, its a 30mph zone". Damn. thats not good.
"How fast was I going officer?"
"30mph."
What the hell? I get my licence out. Officer friendly asks why the inspection was up two months ago. Death stare to Greg. I see the cracked windshield and I figure it out. I explain that its not my car. Officer wants to know why I'm driving. I told him I was 'just switching it up'... He comments about 'it must have been a while since you drove some nice wheels like this.'... I hand him my licence. He asks who we were beeping at back there.
Dirty boy memory pays off: "Oh, two friends. You saw them, right before the park at Harvard, short denim skirt with a white shirt on one, jeans and a red shirt on the other, brunettes... you know.."
...He asks how my licence is. I saw, "its totally clean, go check it out!"
...he does.
-- Back to the momentary panic inside the CRV. We just spent two hours drinking, and then an hour of riding, and we picked up a girl we barely knew to show her a fun time, its after 2am on a saturday night, right near the bars.
Officer walks back over. Hands me my licence.

"Ok guys, you're all set. Have a good night!"

Silence. Start car. Turn signal. Slow acceleration.
How the hell did that happen?!

;)

Ryan returns to the west coast.

2007-09-10T00:29:00.000-07:00

Last night in town shots.
Drinking, friends, even my sister.
...and the formation of the thumbs down crew.>

Have a good trip man!

The melting point of stainless steel and flesh.

2007-09-10T00:09:00.000-07:00

The other day I went over to the vineyard to see this project colo's been working on.
It's sweet, basically some huge walkways around these giant presses. Heavy, hot, awesome.

Until I welded like 16" linear inches, and accidentally set the torch onto my gloved hand. Never even felt it burn through the glove, burn through the skin, cauterize the nerves, and cook my finger, until I smelled it. And since it cauterized it from being like 4500*F, all I got was a sudden surge of adrenaline. Which is cool... but destroying flesh is not. Luckily it was small. Deep, but small. Thats my burnt flesh on the tip.
So we tested it to make sure it was strong:

And then mounted it. Awesome.

Story Time.

2007-09-10T00:06:00.001-07:00

Where to start? I've already neglected this thing. I had a phone interview in regards to this job opportunity, with a guy from London. Long story short, for a job involving a desk and a shop, he asks:
"How is your hearing?"
"Whats that?"
"I hope thats not an indication..."

Shit. I mean, what was I thinking.

"Oh no, I just was surprised.. My hearing is fine, I spent 4 years in a music school."
"Oh, excellent, that will do perfectly."

Glove save.
One more interview to go.

beginning to feel like home.

2007-08-21T22:30:00.000-07:00

...also known as, I moved my bed in tonight. Not too bad. Colo, Dettman, and myself went to lunch today and within about 2 minutes became 6yr old boys... because a big tractor trailer looked cool. We called it optimus prime and took pics.
Julie got a clutch for her car today. But apparently andrew and I are highly qualified technicians of all sorts. She asked if we knew what we were doing, I said, sure, It'll go something like this:

*pull car into warehouse. raise front end. look underneath for a little while*
Stand around. look at the car. drink some beer. discuss car things totally unrelated. drink some more. munch on cinnamon flavored pita chips. drink some more beer. take a leak. Tear car apart. find problems. stand back, look at car. drink some beer. get some food. stand around. reassemble car with problems fixed. stand around. test drive. call it a day.

Now this didnt seem to really convince her, so we instead rattled off some technical sounding terms.

Phone call from julie saying the clutch was in stock in irondequoit but the place closed at 9pm and would I be able to get it. I'm in pittsford and its 8:42pm. Sure.
Make it to Hudson and Ridge at 8:56pm and pick it up. Stop by julies after getting gas. Limped her poor car to Rutgers. our short jaunt on the expressway took nearly 40 seconds to hit 60mph. Poor clutch.
Parked that, took her back to Leland and then headed back to the city. Stopped by Max and had a drink with Kotok and Mary and Alex. Alex got a new FJ and its pretty sweet, he loves it. We talked cars and food and then I took off, as dave felt the need to instigate trouble in the kitchen. I went home and managed to stuff the whole damn futon into ryans car and get it out of my old place and into the new, with no damage to anything along the way.
But I forgot to deliver Andrew's mom's bike to her before it got late. Tomorrow it is.
Then I'll get to see this catwalk He's building all out of stainless steel. Damn him! I want to make neat stuff like that. time for some 'fixtures' in the apartment. Now, for no real reason, I'm going to sleep at Rutgers.
Getting kind of pumped for the week. end of summer style.

Honestly, after driving it longer, I wonder if its just low on hydraulic fluid. How boring would that be, just "topping it off" instead of 12hrs of never-done-this-before-should-that-be-there?-I-don't-know-don't-touch-it and hoping for the best...

I need to start adding pics to this.

Moving (literally, and figuratively)

2007-08-19T22:26:00.000-07:00

I have a job interview on friday. I was approached by someone who I know through the shop. Turns out one of my most interesting customers happens to be looking for an associate. And, could I possibly throw together a casual resume for him? Sure, why not. Oh, its exactly what you're looking for? Interesting. oh, you forwarded it to The Big Man and he likes it too? Nice. Whats that? he forwarded it to a business partner in london? WTF am I getting myself into? Can I come in on friday for an interview? It'll take all day? um, sure.
Long story short, in a simple term, its a foreign car tuning/performance part importer/product developing company that is getting big. And since I have seen the cars (audi's, porsche's, bmws...) it sure seems interesting. The commentary I got was that it was career oriented - either there or as an industry stepping stone. Hmm.
Which leads to his next question:
"Are you full time at the shop? How would things go if something were to develop?"
-To which, I replied as diplomatically possible, that I had put in 6 years at the shop and I was indeed full time, but that if a situation presented itself that was mutually beneficial, I would be willing to make that change, and have it be handled on my end with no problems.
.... ah the bike shop. things I might be/have been looking at for the fall - full hours with overtime, a trip to vegas for interbike, maybe a trip to morgan hill for SBCU, maybe a trip to utah to ride.. Maybe. or maybe, maybe I'm a little tired of the ways things are run there. maybe I didnt like having someone get promoted over my head after doing that job for a month plus. Maybe I am tired of things being out of stock 24/7, and having my reputable customers thinking I'm a joke, because they think I run the place and can't keep the basics... if only they knew how much we bitch about the same things and those things never change. and, that, when I attempt to change them on my own, I get flak for it.

have fun running the shop kids. If this opportunity presents itself, I will take it. If only you let me make the store make more money by letting me do things my way... ah well, someone else will recognize that potential.

But hey. a real job would allow me time to work more on the size cycle - a project wisely kept seperate from the shop. I think that has HUGE potential. But its so hard to be motivated to work on it after a stressful day at the shop.

We'll see. if it doesnt pan out, I am taking the shop to the next level, regardless of whether or not the powers that be are interested. Because, yeah, its about that time.

Changes. Cause and (a/e)ffect.

An interesting saturday.

2007-08-19T22:02:00.000-07:00

tried to sleep in... made it as far as 11am. Borrowed the 'burban from the parents and moved a bunch of stuff to the Argyle. Had a late lunch with Julie because she was there. Then went and parked cars. henry bailed so I called in kotok. now the fun begins - cars. gotta love em. Julie stopped by to say hi to us and to read at Java's. She thought we were ridiculous because every time we got a sweet car we basically rushed to get it. "If it ain't girls, its gotta have wheels"... words from boys who... don't get out much/or really like cars. I'll suggest the latter, based on the following events: First up, a blue WRX... But of course, its Omar and Sean. I worked with Sean at Park Ave a couple years back. I was probably 19, and he was 21 or 22 and lived in the park ave area. At the time, I was hanging out with a 1. Christy Fisher (who thought sean was hot - interesting note, I'll be attending her wedding in hawaii... a state allowing same sex marriages. times change eh?) anywho, we went to some parties he had. Ironically 3 years later I looked at an apartment.. it was the one he was living in at the time! Anywho, at a neighborhood party my parents held, I ran into him. he just moved into the area, and was friends with Omar - the guy who just purchased the house next door - who is the boyfriend of janets sister. janet is perlo's like best female friend. interesting.
-back on track. the wrx just gets parked out front, I mean, because we know em. But the other guests in the party are in a sick Jaguar S-Type-R. Aka, 0-60 in 5 flat. So we zip around in it for a hot minute. car just sounds great.
later on in the evening, the jag's driver's friend needs a cab to prepps, where, coincidentall, janet and sean and omar also work (sometimes). but he doesnt want to wait. so he gets the jag's driver to allow us to blast him to prepps and back in said jag. david and I rock-paper-scissors for it and for the first time in the history of anything ever, I lost (ask colo). So dave goes. and I am bummed. until he calls me and says he is there, like 130 down east, except that the guys wife is not there yet. beer and a shot with the chauffered. too bad when his wife shows up there is like a marital fight. kotok informs me that he may be a minute. At this point, the jag's driver comes out and is like, "we're all set, where is the car?" ... To which, I reply, um, well, you see..... and then the drivers wife/gf comes out and is like "that poor valet! jimmy and so and so are in a fight and they wont let him leave yet! might be a minute"
everyone laughs, but really. what the fuck is with people and relationships and arguing? Sheesh.
Tung calls. party at the argyle, I should be there. Alana's b-day party is going on and I must attend on account that I am her other brother. har. anywho, work gets done, andrew says alana's has wrapped up, so I go back to my current apartment and change. Ryan and I drive to Argyle. anyways. they are ready for the next bar and I have to drive ryan to the airport at 5am. so I head out. nap time for a bit, breakfast at 4:30am, airport by 5... its PACKED on a sunday morning. crazy. back home, nap, work, home, etc.
Went and saw Superbad with andrew, amy, alana, and the russian. funny movie. Stopped by pauls after - he got a puppy! its name is bruiser and of course its a daschund. tiny liquid puppy. he fell asleep while I was holding him. I am going to have to visit him (paul) while he is down there in philly.
sheesh.

wednesday night.

2007-08-15T22:14:00.000-07:00

nothing special. work was dull. we were out of the things we should always have in stock. again. as per usual. Dman was pissed at that, and I was as well. We got pizza for lunch, and I finally got my key to the argyle. excellent, since I would love to move some stuff around. I really think I will be more productive there. my goal is to have my room more like a lounge than a bedroom - as I am not too concerned with any "callers" persay, I think I would rather focus on some work related goods. the DFC needs some work, I have many ideas and little desire to apply them. I blame working 10+ days straight. I blame my callousness of it on the money i make by hitting overtime.
post-work tonight i drove through mendon ponds park to blow off some steam. counted 23 people riding bikes. chances are my workplace was responsible for 15 or so of them. not bad. I went for a ride with my sibling and some of her friends as well. it was fun, but got kinda lame once we started doing round the block laps of brighton neighborhoods. no one likes that. so we went to lux. sam, pete, kyle, annie, jon, john, myself, and luke showed. I said one drink, it turned to four, but the conversation was fun. sam is exercising her newly-found single-freedom, which is fun to watch, kyle is plethora of great stories, and annie is my favorite femme lately. she is just a great mood-uplifter. I chatted with alexandra's dad today at the shop. he is one chill guy. too bad I have not seen his daughter in months and I do so miss her company. but after that stupid party... sheesh. maybe I put myself in these situations.

maybe I can get myself out?

pics, stories, etc....later.

the idea behind this.

2007-08-12T19:32:00.000-07:00

I'm tired of social networking sites but I am also aware of how effective they can be. Here you may find the full stories, pics, thoughts, perspectives, and a lack of capital letters.

I will back-update it as well with prior stories. haha, someday this will be a reference page.