Spectrum Cycles

[Lionel]

I knew I should have asked for a discount.

First ride today on the Spectrum awesome ride. Very happy. It was only 1.5 hours for the shake down ride but all the frames are kept I liked in the first km. I loved this one in the first km, it's a downhill km too ;-)

[Tom Kellogg]

I knew I should have asked for a discount.

First ride today on the Spectrum awesome ride. Very happy. It was only 1.5 hours for the shake down ride but all the frames are kept I liked in the first km. I loved this one in the first km, it's a downhill km too ;-)

Lionel:

Believe me, this one was NOT easy. The design work was pretty straight forward, but the hand holding through the finishing decision process was kind of over the top. It all worked out as that now closed thread was a hoot to follow. Have fun and keep the reports coming. You should see most of the advantages to this bike in the latter parts of your longer rides. Just sayin'.

[Lionel]

Lionel:

Believe me, this one was NOT easy. The design work was pretty straight forward, but the hand holding through the finishing decision process was kind of over the top. It all worked out as that now closed thread was a hoot to follow. Have fun and keep the reports coming. You should see most of the advantages to this bike in the latter parts of your longer rides. Just sayin'.

Everything would have been so much easier if that thread had not been closed ;-)

[sk_tle]

Everything would have been so much easier if that thread had not been closed ;-)

Just open a new one for the next bike in nylon.

[NBC]

hi tom,

i've been enjoying your FNL posts for a long while, i really do like the lug making ones a huge amount !

in the last few years over here in the UK there has been a fair resurgance in the popularity of steel tubed bicycles, i understand that in the US it's been much the same,

with the orders you have taken for your framesets, have you seen a rise and fall in steel frame orders much ?

with the addition of titanium framesets to your company over the last number of years, has that made a significant difference to the quantities of steel frames you produce as well ?

lastly while you manufacture your own lugs, if the correct angle cast lugs were available for a frame you were to build, would you still manufacture your own ?

many thanks

NBC

[Tom Kellogg]

hi tom,

i've been enjoying your FNL posts for a long while, i really do like the lug making ones a huge amount !

in the last few years over here in the UK there has been a fair resurgance in the popularity of steel tubed bicycles, i understand that in the US it's been much the same,

with the orders you have taken for your framesets, have you seen a rise and fall in steel frame orders much ?

with the addition of titanium framesets to your company over the last number of years, has that made a significant difference to the quantities of steel frames you produce as well ?

lastly while you manufacture your own lugs, if the correct angle cast lugs were available for a frame you were to build, would you still manufacture your own ?

many thanks

NBC

Nathan:

I'll take these one at a time ...
- Our backlog, which is a measure of how frequently we receive orders has gone up and down over the years, but the big changes in the rate of steel orders came first when titanium hit the market in a big way and to a lesser degree when composites hit the mainstream. Over the last couple of years we have seen a noticeable but by no means large increase in steel orders.

- Adding titanium frames to our business back in the mid 80's did reduce the number of steel frames we produced, but not because we couldn't handle the work. It was simply that we received fewer steel orders.

- When we first started making our own lugs, we did use cast ones when they were available. But fairly quickly we stopped buying lugs when we realized that we liked the way our own lugs looked better than the cast ones. Now of course we never even think about how lugs might effect geometry since they no longer have any effect at all. Helps?

[NBC]

tom,

that certainly does help regards lug angles, i see though that you use cast bottom bracket lugs sometimes, would you then only manufacture your own in the case of more extreme angles ?

thanks

NBC

[Tom Kellogg]

tom,

that certainly does help regards lug angles, i see though that you use cast bottom bracket lugs sometimes, would you then only manufacture your own in the case of more extreme angles ?

thanks

NBC

Nathan:

Bottom bracket angles tend to vary a bit less than lug angles ... usually. There are times, especially with small frames, when we do need to either build a shell from scratch or modify an existing shell by replacing the down tube socket. It's not that big a deal, but when it comes to BB shells, we can usually get what we need from PCD, Hank, Ceeway, etc.

[Tom Kellogg]

A friend of mine sent me this link to a short interview that she had when when was touring in New Zealand. Pretty cool. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=TcM5XqS_oGY

[Freddy Salgado]

I get quite a few tourists through the shop, it’s a real treat when someone rolls in on a custom made bike with a great story about their experience with the builder. I was really taken back by Allison and her enthusiasm for her bike and life in general, for me it was a 1st hand lesson on how to make dreams come true. I might add she kept going on about some little bottle of snake oil you gave her for her bike chain, that’s 2 exotic sightings in the wild in one day!

A friend of mine sent me this link to a short interview that she had when when was touring in New Zealand. Pretty cool. Enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=TcM5XqS_oGY

[ctbiker]

Many years ago (mid 80's) I picked up a ti Spectrum with press in BB. It was my size and rode extremely comfortably and well. Being the superficial cyclist I am, I added other bikes to my stable and raved about each of them for awhile - Colnago C40, De Rosa King, Giant TCR Advanced SL Limited, Moots Compact, Time VXS, etc. Every once in awhile, I get the Spectrum out and discover it all over again. Quite the bike that seems to return to the top each time!

[nahtnoj]

Tom,

Just watched some of the ride videos on your blog. I know Tower Road well - have a relative that lives on the other side - between the top and Home Road - right where the power line crosses. There are a few turns on that segment at the top that are really tricky to negotiate.

Also, thanks for your participation in the Expo. You were extremely generous with you time and knowledge, especially in the Saturday morning session.

[Tom Kellogg]

Tom,

Just watched some of the ride videos on your blog. I know Tower Road well - have a relative that lives on the other side - between the top and Home Road - right where the power line crosses. There are a few turns on that segment at the top that are really tricky to negotiate.

Also, thanks for your participation in the Expo. You were extremely generous with you time and knowledge, especially in the Saturday morning session.

Thanks for the note. I really did have a great time at the Phila. Bike Show. As you might have guessed, I do love teaching others what I can about what I do and about things that help them become better riders. I was slated for a one hour slot but folks kept asking such good questions that I didn't leave the seminar room for two hours and twenty-five minutes. I also really got a kick out of the Framebuilders Panel discussion in the afternoon. All six of us are so different with different backgrounds and very different business models. Yup, we are a herd of cats.

And as to "Tower" road. I screwed up the title of that video. In fact, that is Reservoir Road. Only somewhat technical near the bottom. In fact, the bottom of Tower can get someone in real trouble if they are not aware of how it drops down into Topton. I'll keep them coming. I'm uploading the fast part of yesterday's Derby this morning.

[nahtnoj]

Thanks for the note. I really did have a great time at the Phila. Bike Show. As you might have guessed, I do love teaching others what I can about what I do and about things that help them become better riders. I was slated for a one hour slot but folks kept asking such good questions that I didn't leave the seminar room for two hours and twenty-five minutes. I also really got a kick out of the Framebuilders Panel discussion in the afternoon. All six of us are so different with different backgrounds and very different business models. Yup, we are a herd of cats.

And as to "Tower" road. I screwed up the title of that video. In fact, that is Reservoir Road. Only somewhat technical near the bottom. In fact, the bottom of Tower can get someone in real trouble if they are not aware of how it drops down into Topton. I'll keep them coming. I'm uploading the fast part of yesterday's Derby this morning.

I don't really know any of the names of the roads up there. Just Tower and about 7 different ways to get to it, entirely based on landmarks and feel! Keep the videos coming - is that a GoPro?

The panel was a lot of fun, too. As someone who works for (and helps run) a very small enterprise, the lessons are valuable and translate directly to my experience.

[Tom Kellogg]

I don't really know any of the names of the roads up there. Just Tower and about 7 different ways to get to it, entirely based on landmarks and feel! Keep the videos coming - is that a GoPro?

The panel was a lot of fun, too. As someone who works for (and helps run) a very small enterprise, the lessons are valuable and translate directly to my experience.

The Camera is the Shimano CM-1000. It is very small and once you get used to how it works and how to understand the LED light sequences to tell how it is recording and how the battery is holding up, it is great. It is essentially required that you have an iPhone or Android in order to work with it though. When it is plugged into a computer for downloading, etc. it is in read only mode and you can't treat the memory as a hard drive ... thus you can't delete files etc. That is either done by removing the micro sd chip or by accessing the camera using your phone's wifi connection. Then you can watch live, change all the various settings, delete files etc. I amde the right choice getting the Shimano. Water proof and so small that it really is almost not there.

[Tom Kellogg]

I forgot to post this announcement here like I did in a few other places. Although the tone of the piece is a bit tongue-in-cheek, the offer is real. We've already gotten orders for two of these so I suspect that they will keep leaving at a steady rate. Text follows:

NEW STUFF - CUSTOM PUMPS
So you are getting a new custom bicycle, a completely unique bicycle made for your riding style, your body and your aesthetic tastes. What could you get with that new bicycle that would be the icing on the cake?

Let’s think about this. You are investing a large chunk of change and in fact, quite a bit of time and emotional energy in your new bike. You have spent a lot of time trying to arrive at the perfect paint scheme, even receiving unsolicited help from your family. Do you try to find socks that might kind of match the new bike’s paint? You might, but your new socks won’t remain new nearly as long as your bike will. How about a new helmet or a pair of matching shades? All well and good, but they can’t compare in quality, beauty and longevity to your new bike. So what are you to do?

Since you will have significantly increased your style quotient with your new bike, there is really only one answer; a new custom painted Silca SuperPista Ultimate floor pump to match your new bike. You will be the envy of all your friends.

Now don’t scoff at the idea just yet. While you can get a somewhat functional floor pump for 50.00 that will in fact put air in your tires … for a while, or until you get a bit of dirt in the barrel, you will never know exactly how much air you are actually putting in those tires since the gauge on that floor pump is only accurate (if you can call it that) to about +- 10% and the needle kind of sticks anyway. Plus the head always leaks and the threads stripped out after only a couple of months. Since your new bike is going to be your last bike anyway, why not get a matching floor pump that will last just as long?

And when I say matching, I mean matching. That lovely deep candy metallic blue that is going to look amazing on your new bike will look just as amazing on your new pump. And as long as you want only one color on that pump, we won’t need to charge you anything to paint it. Of course if you want us to add a frame matching custom flame pattern to the pump’s paint job, that’s going to cost you.

And think about this too. Having us deliver your custom painted Silca SuperPista with the bike will likely not even add 10% to the final price. Ten years from now when the pump is hardly broken in, you won’t even remember how much it cost.

[Too Tall]

Aside from the fact the pumps are insanely amazing as you'd expect. You get T.K., one of the best in the business to custom paint the best floor pump ever made.
I'm predicting this is going to be a go to item for those hard to find a gift for folks.

[Tom Kellogg]

Aside from the fact the pumps are insanely amazing as you'd expect. You get T.K., one of the best in the business to custom paint the best floor pump ever made.
I'm predicting this is going to be a go to item for those hard to find a gift for folks.

Stocking stuffer. Or maybe pantyhose stuffer. But don't wait until Christmas. That's too far off.

[blue boy]

Stocking stuffer. Or maybe pantyhose stuffer. But don't wait until Christmas. That's too far off.

Just more marketing hype........ I'm kidding of course. Tom, how bout a 7 year old Spectrum that still looks like new; can you work with that?

[Tom Kellogg]

Just more marketing hype........ I'm kidding of course. Tom, how bout a 7 year old Spectrum that still looks like new; can you work with that?

Sure ... BlueBoy blue?