Winter Bicycles

A few months ago a local student approached me asking that I build my take on a classic 3Rensho track bike. He wanted to keep the frame as traditional as possible, but with provisions for brakes and a position that allowed him to comfortably use it for street use.

Here on the blog I detailed the construction and raw frame. After the frame was built I sent the bike down to Keith Anderson to work his magic. I asked for “something similar to the TA photo, but with more pop”, and shared some of the clients choices and a little tribute art idea I had.

What came back is simply stunning.

A classic track bike designed to be at home on the velodrome or to wear it’s casual set up for regular street riding. I am excited to hand it over and see it on the road. Please see the full gallery here.

Last week I wrapped up a very detailed bike, and decided to slow it down for a couple of days and tick off some straight forward projects.

First up was a frame repair for a local rider. After an unfortunate run in with a motorcycle in Thailand, this poor bike needed some love.

Both the top and down tube were crumpled-something we see a lot of from forceful front end impacts. This bike was coupled, so the first step was to reclaim the old coupler ends:

The original factory install was a little heavy handed. I cleaned out the silver, squared up the edges and reprofiled the points. Then it was back on to the new tubes.

Next it was time to stitch the new front end together with a nice figure-8 fillet:

And after a little clean up…

I added the new bottle bosses, cable stops and down tube posts. After a little more clean up it was ready for powder and more adventure!

I’m chipping away at the “Wanderer” before taking it off to paint. This is a 650b all roads bike designed for 32-38mm tires and a small rear carrier.

We opted for all internal routing and cabling, which is always a fun challenge. The shift and brake cables are fairly straight forward.

Running light wiring is fun, especially when dealing with different bottom bracket standards and a desire to mount the light sans fenders (and in a position the rear rack doesn’t obscure it). Building bikes is essentially doing puzzles with floating variables- which is part of the appeal. I came up with some fairly straight forward solutions that should be as easy as possible for the owner to maintain.

Between the rear rack, custom light mounts, center pull hangers and custom stem this week has been full of lots of tiny parts!

Rack tabs

Light mount

Stem bits

Drop hanger

In the end- it’s all about bringing the details together for something functional, unique, and beautiful:

I’m off to grab some lunch with my wife- then back to the detail juggling before getting this one to Keith! The plan is to show you the whole package at NAHBS, and then possibly take it over to Bespoked in Bristol!

Oh- and a huge thanks to my customers who allow me to really have fun with these bicycles. It’s a great feeling to be able to go to a national or international show with one of my everyday builds and feel like I have a “show bike”. I’m a lucky man.

Hold onto your hats, Bristol- Winter is coming.

I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since the last blog update.

Things here at Winter have been moving along at a steady clip. With NAHBS looming in the near future it’s the seasonal rush to get customer bikes wrapped up and ready to show, as well as to keep the normal flow of small parts and repairs moving through.

In addition to the work, January has also been a busy time with shop visitors. I’ve had several local clients come through picking up and dropping off work, done a few consultations and fittings and met with several of my local industry friends. Just yesterday Ian and Andy (from Rouleur and Privateer respectively) popped in as part of their US visit.

Ian wrote a few words about the visit, and Andy busied himself taking photos:

It was a pleasure to chat about their visit, what I’m up to with Winter, and some of my thoughts on the current state of frame building and being an active bike designer/ manufacturer in the US.

My mouth hasn’t been the only thing working- I’ve also been keeping my hand quite busy. I have been predominantly working on a bike for a German customer, but have also begun picking away at a few other projects in the down times.

Here are a few select images from the process:

That’s enough from me for the moment- back to it. Thanks for reading- I’ll get more up soon.

Happy New Year!

To celebrate the New Year and the new winter to Toronto, Dandyhorse (blog) is running a “Winter cycling with Winter Bicycles” double feature.

First up is a Q&A revolving around some of what I consider when building an all weather urban bike, and some functional features that can be incorporated when setting your existing bike.

How to choose a winter bike with Winter Bicycles
by: Dana Lacey

Thanks to Winter supporter and forum friend “Fixednwinter”- Fixed turned me on to Dandyhorse, a great local advocacy and lifestyle magazine for the YYZ rider.

Happy holidays! Thanks for making this a great 2011.

While we still have a week left in the year, I’ll be shipping out the last made in 2011 product Tuesday (finished just in time for the holiday).

I’ll be back in the shop and updating this week, but for now I’m off to grab a warm drink to fight off the seasons chill and enjoy some family time. Happy holidays!

Mark contacted me about a bike I showed at last years NAHBS- Brian’s “Pay Back” road frame. He wanted something with a similar laminate treatment and paint job, but with a bit more subtle feel. Mark was looking for a good weather sport road frame that blended the fit, comfort and handling features of a couple of his other bikes for an all day performer.

Here is the result-a bike I call the “Flecha” (Spanish for “arrow”) after the visual theme and go-fast nature.

Mark chose a nice metallic grey for the head tube and a white pearl for the main body-quite the striking color combo that keep the subtlety he was shooting for:

Keith did a fantastic job with the paint layering the colors for a really crisp look:

Great edges- I really like how Keith can touch off the metal work details:

Check out the drop shadow- a painted effect under my normal dry transfer decals. Sweet:

Take a peek at the full frame set gallery here, and all the build details over here.

Mark is going to work with his local shop to build this up with a nice 10sp Record/ Chorus mix and a Ritchey Classic silver trip set. I can’t wait to see photos of it built up!

Look out, Nashville!

Hekang’s San Ume track frame was a fun project, and one I was excited about before even starting it. Knowing that it was going to be a cool bike I decided to run a shadow of it; a second bike cut and built while it was going through. With a few minor tweaks I changed the design over from a track/ road training frame to super tight and quick 80′s style crit bike, dubbed the “Shadow Road” for this project.

Here are the lugs- mostly the same set with the same treatment I gave Hekang’s.

Ready to tack in the jig:

In keeping with the 80′s Japanese theme I decided to braze the lugs in brass (save the top head lug, brazed in silver to maintain the cosmetic brass fillet). Big, soft flame, and off to the races!

Here are a few shots-

Lower head tube lug:

Seat tube lug with a very delicate point:

Inside and outside the BB shell- full penetration and crisp edges:

I opted for horizontal drop outs for this bike, partially for the look, but also for chain stay length adjustment (these are very short rear stays). Brazing and cleaned up- a Franco open scallop with a pointed end, semi reminiscent of Nagasawa dropouts, cast to look like these.

Brazed and finished:

For the seat stay attachment I used a Eisentraut-ish fast back the reminded me of the Cinelli inspired San Rensho look. That’s a lot of references for a little ol’ seat stay attachment, but there your go:

Braze ons, bridges and some finish work, and the frame was finished. I also decided to use a fun low pro fork crown- here is a quick shot mid process:

The frame set is done and hanging on a peg. I’m out of town this week visiting my folks for holiday, but I’ll snap some shots when I get back in.

A huge thanks to my customers, supporters and industry friends!

Now- go get off the internet and hang out with your family and friends, we can get back to this stiff tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving!