So the bike and the stem are off at paint. They have been there since February and hopefully they will return sometime in May. The first bit of the paint process involved a bit of back and forth with my classmate Clifford. Clifford graciously put together the design for the down tube (and for this I’m forever grateful). Turns out, not surprisingly to anyone who has spent time with me that I’m not a terribly visual person, which I suspect was frustrating for everyone in the process except me when I was trying to explain what I wanted. In the end we ended up on a design that I believe we’re both quite happy with. I’m excited to see it come to fruition on the bike. I’ll withhold pictures it until we have the actual bike to look at instead of the PDF. My attempt at suspense.
The next step was to open lines of communication with a painter. I was under the impression there was no one local to work with for the kind of detail work I was looking for (I’ve since been proven wrong multiple times over). I ended up going with a guy down in Iowa at Doug’s suggestion. The painter is a part time painter and builder, which I think accounts for the slower turn around. The process thus far has been to mail down the bike and stem, have a phone conversation about what I’m looking for and send off the PDF that contains the designs. As has been explained to me the PDF is being turned into a series of masks that the painter will use to do the down tube design as well as a small design on the seat tube.
The hard part about this whole process is not surprisingly communication and waiting. I assume no news is good news and whatnot. I’ve got to get my butt in gear and give him a call to make sure that A. I did everything correctly as far as finish and B. to figure out what the schedule looks like and if I need to do anything else. Maybe next week.
I’m also working towards a head badge for this bike. I’ve enlisted Laura of Path Less Pedaled and Tangerine Treehouse for help / all of the work here. I’m not in a huge hurry on the badge, and since Laura is currently traveling the country I expect this to take awhile, but I’m excited to see what she comes up with. This is all early stage still and whenever she can fit it in.
As far as other frame building news I’ve been amassing supplies and am almost ready to begin on number two, as soon as I figure out what the next one should be. I bought an alignment table / plate thing from Bringheli, its small, but should work well with the space I’ve got. I’ve also picked up a torch, regulators and hoses, a few things to improvise a lug vise or two, tubing blocks, files,vises etc. I should be ready to roll once the table shows up at the end of May. At least for now I’ll be building at my house. There is talk of being able to utilize some extra space at a friends shop, but for now thats just talk and I’m not sure I want to move myself into a place I don’t have 24hour access to.
As far as the next bike: I was thinking I’d build a single speed to replace the Trek I carry my son around on, but as of late I’ve had a hankering to play around on a mountain bike… decisions decisions.
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