Whats on my door step?

What's that on my door step?


Tubes!

I'm starting two new projects- a fairly straight forward lugged road bike with classic Italian geometry and a light weight hybrid construction (fillet/ lug bilam) step through city bike. At the moment I am experimenting with simul builds to keep working one one project when the other is tied up mid process (ie- doing fillets on frame two to give my hands a break from finish work on frame one). Both will are full Dedacciai (road Zero Tre, mixte Zero Uno). I generally mix and match tubes from different sets and manufacturers, but these fit the build perfectly just as they are.

I'm a bit in limbo as the bike I had planned on starting is still waiting on drop outs and a BB shell. Hence the simul build- looks like I can start the other!

Its been a busy UPS week. In addition to the tubes, I just received the hubs for the track build as well. They have inspired a "Guilty Pleasures" set in my flikr account. Tasty Dura Ace NJS goodness. Not because we need to, but because we can. And the box advertised the "Crystal Garnish" feature that must make them very fast indeed.

Feeling better!

Well, just after ranting about crappy customer service, today I had a stellar run of good luck.

The donut lady (or "doughnut" lady for those not from New England)was fantastically chipper for it being 5:15am. Surprisingly she was just as chipper when I discovered I had forgotten my wallet at home. To show my gratitude I doubled my order and added a cup of joe when I returned after running home for money.

I received a voice mail from one of my tubing suppliers explaining that he had forgotten to charge me for part of my order. Rather then make it a hassle, he called and said he made a simple mistake and would appreciate it if I corrected the invoice. This is a man who sent me several hundred dollars worth of inventory with a printed invoice and trusts me to send in payment. When was the last time a mail order company sent you something yet to be paid for?

I also received a standard version of a disc hub I ordered from another supplier. I emailed them, and by that afternoon I had the correct part and a pre-paid UPS return label on the way. Not only did they make it right, they made it a priority to make it right right away.

See, I'm not such a hard ass. Two of these companies made mistakes today, but it wasn't a big deal. Both went out of their way to be honest and to correct the mistakes expeditiously- and that is really all I could ask for. They have inspired me to add a list of company links for folks that have done right by me (see left). I'm not connected to any of these guys, I just appreciate their integrity.

On the Quixotic front, I sprayed the track frame today.

I'm still pretty green in the powder coat booth, and this was a bit of an experiment for me. Three colors in three cook cycles to get a layered pearl fade. I don't normally go in for fades (at least not since 1994), but the tube shapes seemed to scream for it. Black and chrome followed by black detailing all layed under a sweet rasberry pearl. I've attached a spy photo as a pre-build teaser. If I can get the ducks in a row I hope to do a semi-studio shoot for this one.





PS- blogging is very new to me. I'm still trying to figure out the whole "labels" bit in a way that is actually helpful for other folks. Please shoot me an email or comment with suggestions. Thanks!

Customer Service

A bit of a rant:

I've worked in the bicycle industry for a bit now- long enough to still remember the start of the LBS vs. on-line dealer wars and the time when Superblo was buying up shops to kill any meaningful difference. I believed then, and still do, that people are willing to (and should expect to) pay more for a "pro" shop experience that includes educated, experience based guidance, quality and timely repair or service work, clean bathrooms and a generally appreciative staff atmosphere. I don't think the customer is always right, but I do think they should be treated with respect and appreciation.

As a customer, I am not a big fan of paying retail- at least not for things that are mass produced and sold through international distribution channels. Fortunately, as an industry insider, I have many options on that front. That said, I am a huge fan of supporting local independent buisness and try to buy small things from local shops if I can (like tubes, chain lube, etc.). Sure, I'm not sending anybodies kids to college, but I try to help keep a viable community. But I'm also not willing to take abuse for the "privilege".

Friday I stopped by a local shop to pick up some vinyl for some down tube decal samples, and noticed a little shop I had always heard about and wanted to check out. I had a few bucks in my pocket and my wife needs a new helmet cover, so why not?

Hmmm... its never a good sign when you have to search for the bike rack in front of a store...

I checked the sign on the door and noted that I had 15 minutes before they closed. Plenty of time to do a quick lap, grab a helmet cover and groove on local bike shop vibes. Nope. I walked in and instantly got the stink eye. I smiled and walked over to the gloves. In one quick breath I heard th woman at the counter say:

"Hiyouknowwe'reclosingnow"

Um...ok...

The tone and attitude are impossible to type, but she literally stopped me in my tracks. My cockles went up and the pissey East Coast "screw you" meter went to 11. I turned on my heels and started to leave. As if some little tiny dollar signs started to die in her eyes, she quickly yelled after "hey, did you need anything?".

Yeah- decent customer service.

Rant off- thanks for that!

I finished cleaning up the fillets on the track bike, but the lighting was to far off today to get any decent shots. I'll try to get a raw pic before she gets shot with powder (I have a cool triple color scheme coming for this one)!

Clone Wars

Friday marks the end of a great campaign. This week I built 39 bikes, many of which were a stock version for one of our German dealers. It was the bike that would not end. 2 days of the same bike, over, and over, and over. Clones. In honor I thought I'd post a pic of my best Brazer Fett (even though I look more like Leia disguised as Boush when she sneeks into Jabba's palace). I'm not a geek.

And just like Bobba, I decided to break out on my own.

In addition to finishing (oh yeah) the 650b, I blazed (brazed?) ahead and completed the torch work for the track sprint bike. After moving with the herd, it was nice to seek adventure on something totally different. Clean up work and paint to follow.

Number Crunching...

I was talking to my friend Rick (check out his blog) and he mentioned that folks often like to read "nuts and bolts stuff" on tech-ish blogs. At the moment I am still deluding myself that this blog is generally about my bike endeavors (rather then just online ranting) so I thought I would take his advice.

My day job is as a brazer at Bike Friday. Essentially I take a skeletal frame and add on the doohikies that keep the cables where they should be, braze on the drop outs, fillet some sweet little forks and make the folding masts (seat tube extension) for the bikes that have those. My average day is about seven bikes, today I did nine. That got me thinking about all those little braze ons...

In an average week I:

- Make 1 or 2 triple (3 person) bikes
- Make 4-5 tandems
- Make 30 single rider bikes
- Make 35 forks
- Brazed on approx. 1000 braze ons

Thats quite a few.

By the end of the year I will have (conservatively):

- Used 50gallons of gas flux
- Stood on my feet and listened to my welders bad music for 10,000 hours (ok, really only about 2000)
- Lit my torch 43,000 times
- Brazed on 255,000 braze ons
- Used 29,500 ft (about a 5.5 miles) of brazing rod weighing approx. 190lbs

Oh, and after work I put a wishbone seat stay on the current track build!

Bikes rule!

I've made some good headway on the 650b project. This bike has been a real learning experience as its designed for the largest tires (2.5") and smallest rider (13" seat tube, 18" cockpit) for me thus far. Well, that does some funky things to the rear triangle! Quite tight back there angle wise, but I've managed a ton of tire clearance, a fair bit of chain ring clearance, and still managed to get a chain and disc caliper to not hit anything.

This bike is designed for approx. 12" BB height with 2.3" tires, and should run fairly well in touring duty with 700c fatties (the joy of disc brakes). It was made for a good sized strong rider who wanted to pull a loaded trailer. I used a mix of mtb and tandem tubing- should he decide to take up urban riding or post nuclear Armageddon Thunderdome events I'll wager he will not be under gunned. Thats an inch and a half .035" down tube for reference.

The real fun (for me) focuses around the seat tube cluster, which is sort of a triple triangle unto itself.Quite the challenge on the old fingers to clean up, but it looks good, helps tube transitions, and really uses that whopper top tube to help stabilize a trailer. I figured out a couple of little tricks to help with fillet transitions as well (some with the initial fillet, some in clean up).



I'm off to celebrate another successful year of life and five blissful years married to the love of my life, so I'll be out of the blog-sphere for a few days. Check back next week for some paint (maybe build) shots and updates on the track bike I'm working on!

Back from Portland

Wow. That about describes it.

Just returned from two days in Portland for NAHBS. I went down with the Bike Friday boys, but mostly went my own way to soak in the hours (and hours) or seminars but on by the frame building elite. Below is a general recap of my experience, though most of wasn't in the exhibit hall.

Friday-

Industry only day. Got there early to help with finishing touches on the booth.

Lesson 1) Don't expect there to be free indoor parking just because you read it on the internet. The poor volunteers looked swamped before we even started, so I just locked my bike up out front. Between about $10,000 worth of custom bicycles...

Lesson 2) If there is an option to buy your ticket early, do so. I walked in, went to the head of the line, and was in the hall before the CC machines were even buzzing.

I spent the early part of the day meeting some builders I have wanted to see, including Steve Garro (and Denise) of Coconino, Eric Baar of Ground Up and Sam Whittingham of Naked. These guys all build really clean, purpose driven machines. Sam received quite a bit of attention for his fancy show bike, but even that had a lot of cool utility built in to the shiny bits. Most of the rest of the day was spent filling my head with useful images and info.

Saturday-

Consumer (fan?) day.

Wowzers. I woke up a about 7 to see a sunny day and knew we were all in for something. I got there early, crammed my bike on a rack and took a picture of the full bike rack- a half hour before the doors even opened. I planned to walk the floor Saturday and mix some social catching-up with non-industry friends and a few late seminars. It was amazing watching the crowd of fans flood in the door then break on each row of the convention center. From 10am on the place was packed. There was a short stint during the lunch hour when they actually had to close out about 200 people when the hall hit fire capacity!

Honestly, Saturday was a bit of a blur. I had done most of my gawking Friday, so I spent lots of time making laps running into people. I was fortunate enough to find friends from college, bike school, my Seattle years, etc.

By Saturday afternoon I was starting to hit my "to many people in to small of a space" wall, and caught a ride home with my wife and some friends. NAHBS was an amazing show, but I needed to get back to the bikes. I added a few pictures of the sprint bike I worked on Sunday.

See you in Indianapolis next year?

NAHBS Tomorrow!

I generally fill my days working at Bike Friday here in Eugene. Bike Friday is a small company that makes some truly innovative products. How many bikes do you know that can convert between a tandem and a single, all while fitting in a suitcase?

One of the great things about working for BF is the general bike craze culture. Part of my terms of employment include making a bike for myself. Well, I finished a (decidedly not stock)folding fixed gear path bike just in time for Oregon Bicycle Constructors Association show in November. It was a great event showcasing part of the huge local talent pool.

After that smashing success we decided to ramp up for an even bigger turn out at this years North American Handbuilt Bike Show, a national venue for craft built bikes. I'm pretty excited to not only have built a pretty cool (and space conscious) booth for the show, but to have my bike return to Portland for an even bigger crowd!

While I will be up Friday and Saturday, I likley won't be working the booth (to much other eye candy, networking and catching up with old and new friends!). In any event, stop by, say hello to the boys, and take a peek at the bikes!

Hereis a little teaser shot of my bike Jonathan Maus posted on Bike Portland. (He called my bike classy). See you this weekend!

Gaberdine, Tweed, Oilskin, Oh MY!

I love bike geeks. LOVE EM!

While investigating my newly found Flikr I wandered across the Velocouture photo pool. This fantastic group of users take pictures of themselves in their best (and I mean darn tooting fanciest) cycle wear. From sun dresses to woolens, these kids have it all.

Now of course my tongue in cheek sarcasm is laced with hypocritical irony. I myself coordinate outfits, and just this weekend found my layers to match my bike, saddle and camera bags. Ahhh- we are amongst friends! And I mean that- there are several friends and acquaintances shaking their pedal pushers in the 339 member, 537 picture strong pool.

Off to go dig out my white vintage Carnacs and 15 year old Kangol. By days end there will be 340 members...

Fallen Brother- Sheldon Brown

I just read that Sheldon Brown passed away. For those not familiar, Sheldon was a long time mechanic, guru and fixed gear proponent. I never met the man, but his enthusiasm and influence ripple throughout the online cycling community. While he had some wacky ideas, his knowledge and willingness to share through prolific bike related articles made the sometimes elitist sport of cycling more accessible and personable to many, many people. His writings certainly helped me out as a pup (I still use his site as a reference). Sheldon, thanks for everything, you will be both missed and remembered. All my best to his family and friends.


Edit- the picture of Sheldon is from his web site.

Welcome!

Hi folks-

Welcome to the Quixotic Bicycles on-line presence!

My name is Eric Estlund. I am a full time industry frame builder in Eugene, OR. Quixotic Bicycles is my creative distraction where I can pursue non-work related projects.

Stay tuned for regular updates on all things bike coming out of Quixotic. Its a busy week planning for NAHBS, so I'll just leave you with a quick picture of a current build (a 13" 650b fillet brazed mtb/ touring rig for a friend). More tasty morsels can be seen here.