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.

I’ve included a couple of close up shots of the coupling and the head tube. Leo’s bike is equipped with a full compliment of Campy components, hand built wheels and topped off with a Chris King headset and Eriksen Ti post.

We have received our first Campagnolo Athena gruppo into the shop and it sure is nice. Athena is Campy’s attempt to bring 11 speeds to a more manageable price point. 11 speed drive trains allow for an almost seamless feeling between gears which is sure to please the more performance minded cyclists amongst us.

Hugh decided to sneak in one final bike before the show and is putting the finishing touches on a Porteur style frame which will come complete with a really nice front rack. Shimano stepped up to the plate and has supplied us with a set of Alfine wheels to complete this awesome bike.

 Richard has been hard at work painting Jennie’s new do-it all, S and S coupling, disc equipped cross frame. I’m hesitant to call it a cyclo-cross bike, but I’m also hesitant to call it a touring bike. Really it does just about everything well and if you had to have just one bike, this may be it. Jennie’s frame is getting a pretty amazing paint job complete with faux-chromed lugs. In the photos the lugs look like they’ve been chromed but that’s actually powder coat (pretty cool eh?). This series of photos should also give you a good idea of the amount of prep time that goes into painting a frame, especially a powder coated frame. Powder coat by it’s very nature sticks to everything, and if you don’t take your time, it can lead to mistakes down the road.

 Jeff also took some time to send in some photos of his completed 29er. It’s done up in what he calls “Winter Mode” at the moment with studded tires and a rigid fork. He had Hugh braze in a boss for a pulley wheel so that he could run a Dura-Ace Front Derailleur with his 2×9 drive train. The early word is that is shifts much better than his previous XT Front derailleur.

I’ll leave you with a parting shot of a new long reach brake equipped road bike we’re building up for the Toronto Bike Show. Again, that’s a powder on powder logo on the down tube. It’s going to look pretty awesome when it’s all finished.

For us non-bike touring souls, the shop has been busy. Richard’s frame is coming along quite nicely. I can’t wait to see this bike when it’s finished. It’s really going to be something.

Suzanne picked up her new road bike last week. This bike features S and S couplers and Long reach brakes and as such is ready to travel to wherever Suzanne may want to go. We really like the paint on this bike as depending on where you stand and how the sun hits it, it can look several different colours.

Speaking of paint. Jeff just got his 29er repainted. I’ll include a sneak peek for now. Knowing Jeff, this bike will be re-assembled in no time and i should receive a collection of really nice photos in my in box quite shortly thereafter. I’ll post those as soon as i get them.

Hugh found some time to repair a vintage Rocky Mountain Thunderbolt. I use the term repair loosely as it wasn’t really broken, the current owner just wanted the dropouts switched from single speed back to geared. Switching a bike over to a Single speed is something we do a fair amount, but switching it back isn’t a request we see to often. Hugh had to craft some plugs for the stays in order to accomplish this and the end product turned out great.

First one must conceptualize what they want the lugs to look like and sketch it on the lugs so that they have an outline to work from. One must then cut away at the lugs to give them a rough shape and only then can one proceed with using a file to give them shape.

Crafting an intricate lugged frame really is a labor of love, but i think the end product more than justifies the means.

These lugs still have some work left to be done to them, but one can begin to see the form they are taking. I’ll be sure to post more photos as this frame approaches completion.

It’s been about a year since we began powder coating all our frames in house. When we first got the powder coating setup operational we dived in headfirst attempting panels, fades and flames. You name it, we probably tried it. And we more than likely ended up stripping it and redoing it. One year and lots of practice later we think we’re getting pretty adept at the process. Dave had his 29er in to have a disc brake mount welded on and went for a wild WW2 Flying Ace inspired theme.

Mari also converted her bike to disc brakes and went with the Queen of Hearts theme. What we like about powder coat is how durable it is; it makes so much sense for mountain and touring bikes.

Check out some of the more detailed shots. No decals or wet paint, all powder on powder.

Being that winter has hit Guelph in a big way, we are getting a fair amount of repaints and repairs coming through the doors. Here is a Marinoni cyclo-cross bike that has been converted to winter bike duty. It had its brake bosses cut off and disc brake tabs welded on. We painted the Ambrosio Keba rims and Velo-Orange front rack to match.

We also did a repaint on a 25 year old Raleigh city bike. If your bike has lasted 25 years, chances are it might be in need a new paint job and I can say with confidence that the paint on this bike is far superior to the original paint.

Here are a couple of detailed shots of the down tubes. You can click on them to expand them to full size.

All the repaint, repair and restoration work going on doesn’t preclude the fact that there are new frames to be built and we are hard at work as always. Sean has been mitering tubes as quick as Hugh can weld them.

Pictured above is a freshly brazed brake bridge. This road frame contains a mix of Columbus and True Temper tubing.

Anne’s bike turned out awesome, equipped with Ultegra and XT components, hand built wheels featuring DT components and Old Man Mountain racks front and rear.

The subtle blue accents really look great on this bike. Check out more photos on our flickr page.

David’s bike turned out just as amazing as Anne’s and more photos can be viewed on our flickr page.

You really have to see one of these bikes in person to appreciate all the nice little touches that goes into building them. The Eriksen seat post, Chris King Headset, S and S couplings and Hugh’s amazing welds all equal up to a bike that is really special and will last a lifetime.

Another bike that went out the door last week was this Brodie Brute. This bike was dropped off a week before Christmas with instructions to freshen it up in time to get it under the Christmas tree.

Brandon’s bike turned out amazing with a new paint job, tires and tune-up.

Now that the holidays are almost over we can get back to work; which means more welding, more designing and more wheelbuilding. A lot of wheels get built here at True North and if 2009 was any indication, a lot more will be built in 2010.

Ellen and Ron wanted fast and comfy road bikes that had clearance for a little bit larger tire but also a rack to carry an extra jacket and maybe a bit of food.

We’re really happy with how these bikes turned out. Ellen and Ron are fairly similar in their bike fit, even so far as having the same saddle height. The major differences in these bikes (aside from the colour) are male and female specific saddles, stem length and bar width.

Both bikes are coming with S and S hard cases to protect them from all the possible ills of Trans-Atlantic flights. A nice little touch are the folding Nitto racks that can be fit in the case with the bikes. For more photos be sure to check out our Flickr page.

Andrew Watson is one of Canada’s top talents and can normally been seen competing at Canada Cups and World cups across the country and around the world.It turns out his trusty winter training bike is in fact a 10 year old True North Cross bike he bought from a former racer who acquired it from former provincial coach Rob Holmgren. Andrew uses the bike for Power crank workouts (smooth pedal strokes are key!) and after 10 years of riding it still has plenty of life left in it.

 Another proud True North owner is Ryan Roth. Ryan is an exceptional road racer; this past year placing 4th at the Canadian National Time Trial Championships and 3rd at the Canadian National Road Championships. Ryan puts in his winter mileage on his True North Cross bike. He too acquired his True North from a former provincial coach in Neil Ross, who is now the Australian National Mountain Bike coach. Ryan recently decided the time was right to have his bike freshened up and brought it by the shop. It got treated to a new chainstay, a paint job and a few other new parts.

 My favorite story has to be the journey of Josh Hall’s Cyclo-cross frame. Josh worked for Hugh back in the day while still racing full time. Josh rode to many top placings aboard the bike before passing it on to another great rider Dan Skinner. After this, the bike made it’s way to another local racer Marty Lazarski. Marty, a two-time winner of the Trans-Rockies piloted this bike to the Espoir National Cyclo-cross title in 2002. In 2005 Marty re-branded the True North frame as a Rocky Mountain because of sponsor commitments.The bike still managed to make the rounds and found itself occasionally raced by riders like Tour de Beauce best young rider Brandon Crichton. Marty recently told me that the frame had been retired from active racing duty and was now enjoying a new life as a coffee bike owned by another Trans-Rockies winner Stef Widmer.

We’ve been busy at the shop this week working on two beautiful Ti Touring frames with couplings. Hugh crafted some amazing Ti seatstays and chainstays for the bike and when they are all finished, they are going to both ride and look awesome.

Crafting a lugged frame is not a quick process. There are still many hours of finish work left to be done.

A nice touch on the seat stays.

Mari’s frame was in to get a disc tab and a frame repaint. Mari was a great sport and decided to try out Sean’s concoction of leftover powder. This frame is still awaiting clearcoat but at the midway point it looks quite cool. Because there are so many different colour pigments in the finish, depending on the light and the angle you view it at, it can be completely different colours.

A shot of the disc brake tab. This design allows tensioning of the singlespeed rear wheel.

The Antique CCM that has been hanging around the shop has been painted and is ready to go.

The owner wanted to leave the chrome as is. It pains me to think about how many coats of paint were on this bike before we stripped it; Lots of work.

Another S and S coupling bike went out the door on Friday. The first time you break down the bike to put it in the case is always an adventure. Once you figure out where all the pieces fit best, it becomes easier and easier every time.