May 18th, 2010 Hugh
Here is a shot of Matt’s new SS 29er. Black lava powder with a semi gloss clear fade.
Jeff Moote had his road frame revamped with a new top tube and some black lava powder.
Trevor had his True North Foco road bike repainted and reparted. Colours are to match the Sudbury Cycling Club’s jerserys.
I have been busy working on a pair of coupler bikes. Last step before cleanup is to soak off the residual flux from the dropouts. This method of soaking also allows me to get the extra flux out of the inside of the stays.
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April 29th, 2010 Hugh
There has been lots of activity here in the past couple of weeks. The safety crackdown has lead to a series of changes which in the end will be good. The other main beef with the shop layout here was a nonconforming mezzanine over most of the shop. The mezzanine had to be removed which caused a lot of grief. End result is that we are moving True North across the industrial plaza to a new space. Over half of the equipment is now installed in the new shop ( Unit 3A).
The big excitement today was the installation of a new rear door in the new shop. The old door wasn’t tall enough for some of the larger milling machines we have. The following pictures are from the new shop. Notice the new control box for the powder coating oven. It is build with parts that conform to Canada’s ESA standards.
Nic and Cathy picked up their S+S coupled tandem. The test ride around the complex didn’t require helmets.
Jan’s Ti road bike is looking very nice. The ti finish looks really nice up against the new Ultegra 6700 components.
I delivered this fixy just in time for Chris’ 40th birthday. It was a huge surprise. Tracey ( his wife ) had secretly ordered this bike for him. She took all the measurements off of his existing rides. It turned out to be a very unique bike. It is built with an EBB for chain adjustment and long reach road calipers. It will take up to a 35 c tire which will make it quite versatile.
I am still quite busy building frames. Instead of riding most of my spare time has been moving and keeping up with the orders. I have been working on Brett’s ti road and Jon’s ti 29 EBB SS frames. They are both ready for final brushing and logos. I have a third ti frame on the go also for John but no pictures yet. Donna’s Spirit tubed all rounder road bike is also shown in this set.
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March 22nd, 2010 scottk
There is a tandem being built at the shop this week. We haven’t seen one in here since the baby blue mixte tandem that was built last year. You can always tell when there is a tandem being built as working your way from the front of the shop to the back of the shop requires either moving the jig or doing the limbo to get by.
This tandem is unique in that it will come with S and S couplers. The coupler on the boom tube is quite impressive in its size.
Tandems require a strong set of wheels and this bike is no different. DT 540 hubs laced 4-cross with 40 spokes to Velocity rims should do the trick.
Susan must have enjoyed the Ti Singlespeed road bike she got last year as her new Ti geared road bike is quickly approaching completion.
This frame features some nicely shaped stays.
It’s busy, busy in the shop right now in order to get all the bikes done in time for riding season. We’ll have tons of nice bikes and frames to feature on the site in the upcoming months.
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March 10th, 2010 scottk
The 2010 Toronto Bike Show has come and gone and as always there was a fantastic turnout. It’s really great to get out of the shop for a weekend and meet new people and reconnect with some old friends. We get asked a fair amount why we don’t go to the North American Handbuilt show every year. The truth is we would like to, but the cost to travel that far is quite high and when we have such a big show 45 minutes down the road it just doesn’t make sense.
The line up to get into the show every morning was literally wrapped around the building.
We built up this red city bike especially for the show; the matching front rack was a real hit.
In close proximity to this bike, numerous full grown adults were heard recounting stories of their paper route days.
We also brought Brad’s recently completed lugged road bike to the show. Brad’s bike features a Campagnolo Comp Triple build featuring hand built wheels,Chris King headset and Eriksen Ti post.
My co-worker Sean just finished building himself up a new touring bike, so we brought it to the show as well. Highlights include colour matched racks and fenders.
Marilyn’s touring bike was a big hit all weekend and is sure to see plenty of use this summer.
Michel’s long reach brake equipped road bike turned a lot of heads at the show. If you had to have just one bike, this might just be it. Campagnolo Comp Triple gruppo, hand built wheels, King headset, Eriksen post; all the finer things in life.
Hugh finished work on his personal road bike several days before the show. The frame is built out of True Temper S3 tubing and as such is quite light. We built it up with 2010 Sram Force (also quite light) and Octto carbon wheels (very light as well).
Jon’s 29er was one of two mountain bikes we brought to the show. The bike is presently built up as a singlespeed, but it has all the braze-ons necessary to run multiple gears. This bike is ready to ride fast and the pastel blue paint looks amazing.
Finally, Pierre stopped by on Tuesday to pick up his road bike. We already had multiple road bikes in our booth so unfortuntely this bike got left at home. Pierre’s bike features an 11speed Campagnolo Athena drivetrain, handbuilt wheels featuring Campy Record Hubs to Ambrosio Excellight Rims, Thomson seatpost and a Chris King headset.
If you’re interested in seeing more photos from the weekend be sure to visit our flickr site.
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