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I can't blame you I'm a Demolition Man!Quote:
Originally Posted by datas_brother
Seriously - try building frames in a wheelchair sometime - I bet it ups your injuries signifigantly.
That & off road hancycling & esp. boating seems good for injuries.
Can't get tough without practice.
I never was fast on a bike, I just could suffer harder!
- Garro.
26 is the new 29! - Garro.
And I just got this from Mr. Z. - Garro
And, lastly - A much overdue blog update: coconino cycles custom bicycles 928 774 7747 www.coconinocycles.com: May 2011 - It's a wrap! - Garro.
A childhood friend sent me this pic of my 2nd real MTB ever - an 85' {or 86'? - fuzzy....} C-Dale. What a trip! It made it's way all the way up to Alaska - Garro.
Hi Steve, I have been reading the thread about finger numbness, and there seems to be some evolution of what a MTB should look.ride like.
I am wondering whether you continue to receive feedback about the bikes you build, and how that gets incorporated into your mental database? Usually when someone achieves a certain fame/status in their craft, as you have done in building of MTBs, what you create become the definition of what it should be. I am wondering whether you have "locked in" onto what a MTB should be, or whether it's still shifting with more years of building? Thanks.
Steve, I was wondering if you've read the Norman Maclean book "Young Men and Fire?" The story of the Man Gulch Fire. That book made a big impact on my, and I've never been a jumper.
Craig
Oh yes - most certainly. I have long term reltionships with many of my clients, many of which own multible bikes. I call & ask for ride reports & pics - when you get your bike you have not heard the last of me!Quote:
Originally Posted by sevencyclist
MTB's ride MUCH better then they used to when I started riding them in the early 80's - 84' on "real" mountainbikes v. old schwinns. We have seen changes in wheel sizes, suspention - soooo much.
Early MTB's were largely made with short toptubes & narrow bars - nice for JRA but kind of sketchy in real world singletrack situations {we are just talking trail bikes here - not touring, just to be concise}
As suspention travel grew it became nessicary to move back on the bike to counteract fork dive & not get pitched OTB.
HT and ST angles slackened, we had to learn about sag and it's effects on geometry. Just think about axle to crown alone - it has grown from under 40cm to over 50cm on some models. Geometry has put riders more "in" the frame, and that's good.
I try to balance the rider inbetween the wheels where they can steer from the hips like you should.
Above all we have to remember that I/We build bikes for individuals and they are all different - back, neck, flexibility - it's important to listen and not just build people "your bike" in their "size"
I do not have bike "sizes" - I don't even measure this. I draw the person's body out in geometric terms and draw the frame into it.
Every frame is a learning experience and when it's not I'll quit, but I doubt that will ever happen. Does this help or awnser your Q? - Garro.
The Mann Gulch fire. Yep. 13 dead. We studied the shit out of that incident. everything went wrong there - lack of communication with the front line, bad crew placement, breakdown of leadership - you name it. My crew {Mormon Lake hotshots - your crew is your crew until you die.} lost a couple crew members a few yrs before I started & I have been on fires where people died & I was involved in a few dreadful rescue operations. I was burned over twice personally.Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig Ryan
I did 100 straight days of initial attack in Yellowstone 88'. What a thing to do when you are 21. I fought fires in AZ, UT, NM, CA, OR, WA, SD, MT, WY, ID. I did two tours & my knees started to go south so I quit & that's when I started working on bicycles professionally
Hey - Thanks for askin'. - Garro.
I am glad you take pride in your work to have a continuous relationship with your customers. I am in an industry where we only hear back when things don't go well. Three years ago, I decided to change my work, and having time to get feedback has made it a lot more satisfying, and helps me to be better at what I do.Quote:
Originally Posted by steve garro
Personalized really means just that, taking the whole person into account rather than finding the closest cookie cutter mold to match the person.
That is great that you draw out the person to visualize the balance. Do you ever put in big muscular chest, pop-belly, or big butts to help balance the bike for particular customer?
Thanks for answering the question. I am glad that you are continuing to learn through your job everyday.
Rex
I, Mr. Garro, find you to be one interesting dude. Very cool.Quote:
Originally Posted by steve garro
That's great! Thanks for the pre-coffee guffaw. In drawing a person they sadly are reduced to a few lines, but I like the way you think.....I have a really great old buddy named Rex. - Garro.Quote:
Originally Posted by sevencyclist
Thanks, Man - We'll hang some day.Quote:
Originally Posted by Britishbane
I filled my 1st life up & now I'm on my 2nd, which promises to be a crazy as the first but with more introspection and more productivity - Garro.
And also in this vein I must remind all of you that you are all invited to the Coconino Cycles family reunion - it's on 9-10-11 here in Flagstaff at Fort Tuthill county park - PM me if you want to come out for the fun! - Garro.Quote:
Originally Posted by sevencyclist
Early June update Coconino Cycles World HQ update coconino cycles custom bicycles 928 774 7747 www.coconinocycles.com: June 2011 - Jeffery's project, getting out in the woods. - Garro.
A quick blog post coconino cycles custom bicycles 928 774 7747 www.coconinocycles.com: mid June update / Progress on Jeffery's bike / A couple new Items. - and hey! thanks for the 10,000+ views - that rocks! Doing a little lug work for a friend & it's going very smoothly - Garro.
howdy steve.. that's all really.
hope you're finger's healing and you're catching rainbows out there :) happy friday.
thanks man! Fingers doing good, caught a couple 'Bows yesterday inbetween wind gusts {got up at 3AM to beat the wind - gotta get up early to beat me!} and had a nice day off. We saw a heron catch a big snake - Garro.Quote:
Originally Posted by roguedog
Another disc fat 700c + another 29er with rockers & flowers coconino cycles custom bicycles 928 774 7747 www.coconinocycles.com: Jeffery's off to paint / Turn & burn - Mike's 29er / some flowers in the garden. - thanks for reading! - Garro.
Blogger is not allowing me to post pics & I will not be here for FNL so here you go. - Garro.
Back from summer vacation in WI - coconino cycles custom bicycles 928 774 7747 www.coconinocycles.com: Wisconson - Family, Fun, Fishin' - Thanks for the great time! - Garro.
Fresh off the machines - custom drawn 1.125" x .028" for curved toptubes.
Rolls very nice, very beautiful finish, very round & right on .7mm spec.
I am super proud to have dusted off existing dies & putting them back to work for us & others.
Thanks True Temper! - Garro.
Mid July Coconino World HQ update: coconino cycles custom bicycles 928 774 7747 www.coconinocycles.com: Jeffery's bike ready to ship, Mike's at paint, John's moving right along, 1st bike ride in over five weeks. - Garro.
Yours truly at toil.
- Garro.
Yo,
I was thinking of you the other day while at the bench and wondering if you could talk a bit about how you made changes in your shop so that you could work efficiently from a chair. Some things are easy for me to picture and others less so (brazing and aligning would seem to be tough).
Are there other changes you'd like to make to be more comfortable and efficient?
Dave
P.S. I apologize if this is something you've talked about a lot - if so blow this off and have a beer on me.
Naw, Dave - totally valid. How to start.........well, everything is low (duh)Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Kirk
I have to keep lots of space between work stations to turn around & get out fast if I'm on fire, move about, ect.
Some places are padded for my knees to rest against like my vise in the background.
I have work stations that rotate to let me get access from one point to the whole workpiece.
Joe Bringheli made my custom alignment table with an "X" for legs so I can get close to it.
I cannot get great leverage for alignment so I don't force things, plus it hurts my shoulders. I mark my tube bows as well as I can, use tight ass mitering, sweat even tacking (I tack with both hands - I have been forced to become ambidexterous in all my work - filing, ect - I can write with both hands at the same time, forwards, backwards & mirror image even ! :}....) and use tacks to "pull" tubes rather then "bend" them.
Brazing.........Ahhh.......brazing. It was a whole new learning curve. I had been brazing for three years when I got crushed but I had to re-learn everything. My 1st frame took me months - i had to re-learn, modify my tooling, change my moves - at 115lbs with three external drains. Not my best time. I weigh 175lbs now & always.
Now, I can braze forwards, backwards, up, down - you name it. I braze in a park stand like everyone, just a low one.
I am re-thinking some more tooling to help me as I age - sanders, ect. every little bit helps when you use your arms all day.
I am a slow builder! slow & steady.........
Just keep at it! - Garro.
Yo Steve,
How does you average monkey get his hands on that 1.125x .028? Is somebody like HJ or Pacenti gonna be carrying it?
Or do you have to drive your psychobilly cadillac up to the factory and pick it up (it's cheaper that way)?
You have to order a 300' run..........looking at getting a run ofQuote:
Originally Posted by Chauncey Matthews
.035" at some point.
I don't want to step on HJ's toes by selling TT products but maybe KP could pick up some, plus it's something I don't want to chase around.... It's nice to have raw lengths when you are rolling large radii as you throw away less "tail" chunks.
I still need to send out your box as I am reaching critical mass on shipping & I found some classic goodies for you, too.
- Garro.
Summetime update - coconino cycles custom bicycles 928 774 7747 www.coconinocycles.com: Summertime. - Garro.
That all makes good sense to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by steve garro
Do you have your plate set up with lever bars. The plate we had at Serotta had bars set up in yokes that were bolted to the plate - you could put the levers through the yokes and use them for leverage. They bought this set up so that the personal doing alignments all day, everyday, has less chance of a repetitive motion injury and it worked very well. Very little force was needed. It might be something to consider to take as much stress as possible of your shoulders and save them for riding on the trail.
how do you keep from burning your lap when laying fillets? I image you must have some fireproof blanket that you lay on your thighs to keep hot flux from burning you?
Dave
I would love to see pics of that!Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Kirk
I have a leather welding apron that I put on my lap - it's covered with flux & I have a "shop chair" that's also covered with flux.
Did you recieve the box-O-tubes?
- Garro.
Sweet...thanks brother man.Quote:
Originally Posted by steve garro
I don't have a photo of that plate. I think it might have been an Everest plate. It had yokes much like you might find on a canoe but super beefy mounted on the plate - one each above and below the head tube, one near the top of the seat tube and one for the ass end. The alignment guy would insert a bar into the yoke so that he could pry either up or down with low pressure and get the job done. It had the two for the head tube and then a super heavy bar that went through the head tube that was mounted on shoulders that just slip fit into the head tube. If you wanted to tweak twist you could push down on one bar and up on the other. It worked very well and was easy to modulate.Quote:
Originally Posted by steve garro
I just looked at the Serotta site and didn't see a photo of it.
I think you might be well served by something similar.
I did get the tubes - now I just need to carve out a chunk of time to make something. Thanks so much!!
dave
yeah, man - looking forward to the fruition!Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Kirk
Still haven't built my new bike & i've had it over three yrs.
the cobbler's children have no shoes (but I bet his wife has several pairs for every occasion....)
- Garro.
Long overdue update coconino cycles custom bicycles 928 774 7747 www.coconinocycles.com: Long overdue blog post - a busy summer. - Garro.
Saw a beautiful navy blue single speed at the start line of the Wilderness 101 yesterday...I wish I'd gotten a chance to check it out fully but it was gorgeous.
Thanks! what state is that in? PA? Man, I've built many one speeds, and allot of blue bikes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shoogs
Sometimes I see ones I forgot I made - it's cool. After a "timeout" from personal scrutiny I can really enjoy them.
- Garro.
It is indeed PA, I saw him in OH for the Mohican as well. I'll be looking everywhere for him at the SM100, to drool on it some...
It may be Tom? If so then I am building him a 2nd bike, it's in the current FNL.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shoogs
I do build many ultra-endurance orientated bikes - it's something I know.
thanks for the field sighting! - Garro.