44 Bikes

[fortyfour]

[mmoore]

what went not so smooth in the practice? argon coverage or something else?

#page44

[fortyfour]

what went not so smooth in the practice? argon coverage or something else?

#page44

I was using tape to seal up a gap between the bottom heat sync and head tube.

Post fusion and removal of the tape left a bit of residue / paper from the heat on the tube (cleaned it but didn't get ALL of it). When I was closing up that last bit of the weld some of the paper from the tape got airborne which hit my tungsten cause it to go from a 1.3 PPS to constant arc at 120amps with rapid fire pulse which had me blow a 1/4" hole at that junction (...and I basically had it floored at that point as I was coming up on the thickest point of the head tube as I was feeding in filler). I was able to fix it and fill the gap which was interesting to work the pedal and feed filler, but if it was customer work, it would have been finished - Basically would have had to start from scratch. That big of a hole sucked a lot of dirty air in with the exchange of heat/pressure from inside and outside, so it really blew the purge internally and sucked air across the weld externally too.

Chalk it up to good learning experience. However, I will never use tape again and only to seal up the holes on bottle bosses before the bosses are welded in place (that section of the tube stays cold). But good learning experience and I'm glad it happened sooner than later.

[fortyfour]

[fortyfour]

[fortyfour]

[dgaddis]

I'll finally be getting my posters up soon. They've stayed in the original packaging ever since they came in, other than getting them out to take a look at them. I've bought the frames, they'll be going in the new Southern Wheelworks shop. Pretty stoked.

I've also have this coming in.

[fortyfour]

[fortyfour]

[drewgh2o]

Makin' hay while it's still light.

[fortyfour]

[mmoore]

LOVE LOVE LOVE that color. is that a blue shade with your label on the DT?

[fortyfour]

LOVE LOVE LOVE that color. is that a blue shade with your label on the DT?

Color is RAL 2009. The decals are black, but this color looks really good with the sparkle blue Chris King anodized match decals I have. It looked a little too "Duke Boys" with the blue decals and orange powder. I wanted more "muscle car" and the black/silver badges looked more akin to that feel.

[fortyfour]

Had my head buried in javascript all weekend. Head over to 44HQ's shiny new website.

[the bottle ride]

Looks good...
Never saw the Marauder before... Hubba-hubba
That cuts a hot profile as hardtails go- killer

[fortyfour]

[fortyfour]

[fortyfour]

[joosttx]

I see that you are expanding into titanium.
1) Why? Love to hear your thoughts about titanium.
2) Will you offer a Huntsmans Ti bike in future?
3) How will the huntsman change if you make it in ti instead of steel?

[fortyfour]

I see that you are expanding into titanium.

This is correct. I'm working slowly and at my pace so I get it right. So it may take a bit longer than I'd prefer, but it will be right in the end.

1) Why? Love to hear your thoughts about titanium.

First for practical reasons: I want to offer more diversity to my clients. Not everyone is a steel customer and not everyone is a titanium customer. There are a lot of cases where one material trumps the other. However, I see the steel market shrinking and the titanium market growing. So from a practical stand point, it makes sense. The other element is that Titanium offers two key elements that are summed up this way: Strength of steel and the weight of aluminum. Wrap those two into a package that does not corrode and we have an ideally suited material for a bicycle that checks a good number of boxes for people. From a realistic point of view: I have been asked about titanium from the day the doors opened. I felt as though I needed to learn a bunch before I could refocus my efforts on becoming acquainted with this material. That just takes time and because of this process, I think the bikes will be some of the best available.

2) Will you offer a Huntsmans Ti bike in future?

The Huntsman is by far the frame/bicycle I sell the most of. This bike was realized from a pure need on my own behalf regarding a bicycle that just did not really exist at the time: A "road" bike that could be raced, could be used to tour, could be built up with racks / bags, commuted with, ridden in group rides, or taken for personal jaunts solo be it long all days or short and fast excursions. Too many bikes, as I see it, fit some sort of niche. They're a pure race machine. Or they're a touring rig. I wanted and needed a bicycle that had room for big tires, could be raced if the temptation hit or just ridden with friends. The Huntsman was born from that want and need. It just happened to coincide with the increasing movement towards dirt (or perhaps the reinvigoration or re-discovery of dirt roads?). Once customers find the Huntsman, it's really clear that this bike really checks all the boxes for them. And I've designed it to excel in all these arenas. It's really meant for the person who races CX occasionally, hits the group rides with friends, maybe rides it to work when the weather is warm and likes to take it out on short fast solo rides but does not shy away from the long haul with friends or by themselves. It looks fast and is fast. It climbs as well as it descends. It's stable at speed. It's quick without being twitchy. It's a true extension of the rider. All that sounds like a lot but it's what I've worked really hard perfecting (not perfect I will say, but it's honed darn close). So the first prototype is a Huntsman Ti (technically two will be made with two different sets of tubes so I can test a few things when it comes to ride quality). That's the first titanium bike I will release. I do not have a release date but if all goes according to plan, I will have one finished early/late spring so I can test it for the duration of the summer.

3) How will the huntsman change if you make it in ti instead of steel?

For one, there will be some bigger more expensive tubes involved. But initially, you're going to see it translated very closely to what it looks like now in steel. Functionally it's all business up front. As you move from the front triangle towards the rear, things start to become a bit more delicate. So I'm playing with stiffness where you want it but resiliency and where you need it. But to do all this requires a massive amount of time redesigning and machining a good deal of tooling. So that is part of what is taking me so long as I still have clients bikes to build. I schedule a project to rebuild a tool between each build basically. Bending dies were between this next build. My bottom bracket sub assembly jig is between the next two builds. I may even be completely redesigning and rebuilding my frame jig which may require a brief shutdown to just do it. That's the kind of investment and attention to detail I'm taking on with this project.

And to be clear, the titanium market is a highly competitive market. Competitive in the sense that those in that game, are the best. That's what I am up against and hence my persistence for getting this "just so".

Hope that helps.