Zank has had the good fortune to hire unemployed circus performers to help in the shop. The work goes quickly this way. The only disadvantage is that now his shop smells like cabbage.
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Zank has had the good fortune to hire unemployed circus performers to help in the shop. The work goes quickly this way. The only disadvantage is that now his shop smells like cabbage.
Zank- What are your plans for the forks on your disc equipped CX rigs? I'm getting ready to do a run of 5 and haven't decided whether to purchase a fork jig or run a manufactured CF fork and wanted to know your thoughts and motivations. Thanks Buddy!-Chris
OH! and if you need any part time circus workers, I love cabbage and wouldn't mind learning some tricks, I mean lending a hand.- C
I only have one in the pipeline at the moment, and we are going with the Wound Up. The 3T one looks really nice, but they only have a tapered steerer version at the moment. I'm sure more options will be hitting the market soon.
Zanc,
I read your blog post about attending Lincoln Electric's welding classes and learning to TIG weld. Can you spill the beans on future plans to offer TIG'd Zancs?
Just getting caught up here after being away for the week. Thanks for the question, dbh! Long term, my goal is to become proficient in welding steel, stainless, aluminum, titanium, and magnesium. As you can imagine, that's a long way off. I am going to focus on steel and aluminum first. Road, cross, and hardtail MTBs. I'll be posting updates here, so stay tuned. And by all means, if you have any other questions, please fire away!
Thanks!
Thanks, Grant!
could you say a few words about what is compelling you to master aluminum?
Training your weakness is the road to self-actualization.
quit showing off. next you'll start making carbon fiber beauties to show us how multi dimensional you are...
Sorry I missed your question! Why aluminum? Mostly because I think it can be built into a fantastic race bike. Whether road, cyclocross, or mountain, it has a feel all its own. The other nice thing about aluminum is that it can formed and machined easier than other metals. Machine shops like working with it. This opens up some interesting design options for a small business like mine. But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. I have lots to learn about welding it.
Aluminum is dead man. Give it up.
Is that Mickey sarcasm? I love working in Aluminium, so much easier to machine, align and manipulate than those other hard metals.
Bill
Always sarcasm, always.
Mike-
What's your favorite bike you've built for yourself?
What bike, out of all the bikes you've ridden would you say has affected your jive the most?
I'll take the second one first.
My Klein Rascal. Maybe I'm looking back to my 140# past with rose-colored glasses, but that bike was awesome and I couldn't wait to ride it every single day.
I built a cross bike for myself back in 07 that I couldn't wait to roll up to the line on each and every weekend. That also coincided with a time that I was more fit than at other points in my life. Funny how that works.
mike-
thanks for the seminar on friday and saturday. all of us at the vsalon ball got a bit smarter.
ps- your bikes kill
http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/1...10604at624.png
Yes. Darren caught me off guard yesterday in front of the group, asking me what I liked about my Zanconato. I didn't have my prepared text with me so I said it was 'lively'. This is correct. But later we came to the consensus that a really nice bike does nothing to bring attention to itself, and certainly not in a negative way. Yesterday I rode 81 or so miles over really tough terrain - up steep hills on pavement, down the same, up and down steep gravel hills, around corners, over potholes, over washed out dirt road sections. I never once thought about the bike. And that is a good thing.
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5148/...5a8e7a09_b.jpg
Hey everybody! Bikes are meant to be ridden!
Wow. That bike brings back memories!
Whoa, a Zankstracycle. I'd ride that to the grocery store any day.
Yeah, very early. Fall of '99 or '00. I can't remember. That batch of 6 was built in Pittsfield and painted by Vicious for Adam, Steve, and Kathryn. Adam lent his to Chris Hill to race the Junior race at Worlds in Belgium. Good times.
That would have been fall of 2000 then. Adam rode Gunnars in '99*.
*the bikes, not the Shogren.
Remember when guys like Gunnar would come up to New England for the entire cross season back then? I wish I kept a diary. So many memories.
One of the things on my "to blog" list is a history of the last 20 years of Pioneer Valley cycling. There are lots of bits and pieces floating out there in various peoples minds- a sort of oral history could be assembled fairly easily. There is even some written source material documenting the nascent days of our cx scene like Gunnar's Whattisupwidat column from DirtRag!
Hi Zank,
Was admiring your handiwork at William's Ramble down in Ri a few weeks ago. A few freinds have started mountain biking to tide them over until snow flies and I am thinking I will to. But I want a better MT bike. Are a FS 29'r or 650B in any long term plans?
Jack O
Hey, Zank - did you ever use those 29er tubes i sent you? - Garro.
Hi Jack,
Great to hear from you! Hope you had fun at the Ramble. Thank you for your interest in a mtb frame!
A 650B bike is certainly possible. The only hesitation I have with 650B is available tire and fork selection. There are more options with 29 or 26. Was there a particular reason why you are considering 650B?
Regarding a suspension frame, I have no plans on the board at the moment. It's not really a focus for me. My main focus on the mountain side will be geared and SS rigid frames. I do have goals for a rigid fork design, but I've been swamped with road and cross fabrication. It's something I hope to work on over the winter. I'll keep you guys posted here. In the meantime, we could build a sweet hardtail for you ;-)
Thanks!
Mike
Yo Steve!
You bet. I cobbled together some frames to try out different 29er geometry and different SS tensioning systems. I really like the way those tubes ride. Very point and shoot even with the long Reba fork. None of those frames saw paint though, so the tubes are somewhat unrecognizable at this point. I really appreciate the help!
zank
Hey Mike,
How's the baby? Or preparations for the baby, can't remember when you guys are due.
I'll start saving my pennies for a geared HT 29er to match my CX frame. I see you have two SS frames in the pipeline, what's pricing going to look like on 29ers? I'll be in touch when the Mrs. Lets me spend money on bikes again.
What tubes are you using? What would you use for a big fella like me?
Zach
Z - once I get mine back and painted, I'll let you check it out. It's set up SS now, but could be run with gears.
Pretty sure those are the tubes I used for 4th place at SSWC 2011 in Ireland last week. As Z said, not painted yet, but damn he built a perfect ride!