February 24th, 2009 scottk
It’s getting very close to both the North American Hand built Bicycle Show and the Toronto Bike show and as such it’s quite busy here at the shop (this seems to be a re-occurring theme in these posts). Although we as a shop will not be going down to the Hand built show in Indianapolis, i do plan on making a quick trip down and will likely have a few pictures up on the site next week (i will try to focus the majority of the photos on the show as opposed to my planned visit to the Waffle House, which i am equally excited about). As for the Toronto Show, we have a couple of really cool bikes planned, but we have to make a trip to the patent office first (how’s that for a teaser) Below is a picture of an frame with S and S couplings and Paragon’s new disc dropouts. I estimate i will be 47% happier installing racks and fenders on bikes with these dropouts, but i’ll let you know for sure when the time comes.
We’re finally getting the last of our repair bikes out of the way. We have to slide these frames into the queue when it both A)makes sense and B) time permits and thus it can often take quite a while to turn around a repair. This is why we have to limit our repairs to True North frames and why is it best that the bulk of repairs occur in slower seasons like late summer/fall. Here is a pic of Hugh doing a little sanding on Canadian Junior National Team Member Ryan Aitcheson’s track frame
Catrina is getting a sweet little city bike and after a bit more paint it will be ready to assemble.
Once it gets True North painted on it and hit with a little clear coat,this cross frame will be ready to go aswell.
Posted in Custom Frames, Frame Repair, New Bikes | 3 Comments »
February 19th, 2009 scottk
After a brief February thaw, winter has returned to Guelph. Monday was the family day holiday in Ontario so it was a shorter week here at True North. Hugh took the opportunity to engage in a three-hour road hockey marathon while i took a trip into Toronto to check out the Royal Ontario Museum. I hadn’t been there since they added the new wing to the building, it’s pretty nice, but i think the Bat Cave is still the highlight.
I assembled Ron’s bike yesterday and it’s looking great.
We’re still waiting on the XT cranks, but here is a pic of the bike in it’s near completed state. It is a full XT build including the awesome XT 29er wheels, Eriksen Ti seatpost and DT XMC80 fork.
Slowly but surely we’re making headway into our orders.
If you need me, i’ll be at the sandblast booth for the next little while. I have a few frames to prep and then it’s paint time. The new powdercoating is working out amazing and we just got in some great new colours and a really cool matte clearcoat.
Posted in Custom Frames, New Bikes | 2 Comments »
February 12th, 2009 scottk
We are starting to run out of space in our front room as bikes reach completion and await the arrival of their new owners.
One such bike that we’ve just finished is a pretty sweet Ti Triathlon bike. This bike took a bit longer to finish as we had to wait for a bunch of the new Dura-Ace 7900 to show up, but it’s definitely been worth the wait.
Since there was already a bit of red on the fork, and a bit on the stem, and a bit on the saddle, we decided that we might as well just carry on the theme. The red King headset, Crank Brothers pedals, Salsa skewers and seat clamp round out the package nicely.
The best part about this bike might just be the fact that it comes with S and S couplers. These allow the owner to break the frame into two to allow for easy transport. Once it is packed into its case it is well within the limits for airline baggage, so it only takes a few flights to recoup the investment.
When I was building this bike, I took the chain out of it’s package and was pleasantly surprised at what I found; a quick link! I think Shimano may have been the last hold out, but fortunately they have seen the light and made the switch. Thus far it is only offered on the 7900 chain but if we all cross our fingers and repeat “Trickle down” three times fast, maybe we’ll see it on all their chains in the near future.
Along with the last of the new Dura Ace, we’ve also received a few forks we were waiting on. We have two Reba SL’s, a Fox F80 RlC and a DT Swiss XMC 80. These are your awesome, really awesome, and way past awesome options when it comes to 29er suspension.
So with that, it’s back to work, the next project is a Columbus Spirit Road frame
Posted in Custom Frames, New Bikes | 3 Comments »
February 9th, 2009 scottk
We’ve been working some long days as of late in order to complete a bunch of our orders. January is typically a month where riders will pile on the hours hoping to build their base with an eye towards the upcoming season. We too are logging the long hours knowing that come spring many of our frames will head out on Trans-Canada and European tours or be called upon to contest the early season road and mountain bike races.
So with that in mind, that last little while has been a flurry of mitering and welding frames.
Here we have Ti 29er with Paragon sliding dropouts that will see use in Ontario Cups and maybe the occasional US100 race this summer.
For the most part we are fans of the Eccentric bottom bracket but occasionally we will use sliding dropouts to give a frame the versatility to switch between fully geared and single-speed applications.
The pile of completed frames has been growing. I doubt Moots has anything to be worried about, but it’s a fair amount of Ti for a small shop like True North. I think the excitement surrounding Carbon Fiber frames is starting to wain and people are again looking for the durability, light weight and ride quality of a well built Ti frame.
This picture doesn’t really do it justice, but after so much cutting, cleaning and deburring, Hugh’s hands were looking a little worse for wear.
Posted in Custom Frames | 1 Comment »
