Fridays is usually my design day but I’ll be taking tomorrow off to film two new webisodes. If you have a frame design in process expect to hear from me next week rather than this week. If you have a draft design that we still need to discuss I’ll still be taking calls so please feel free to call.

The next two webisodes will be a general overview of how a steel road frame is built and instructions on how to take your body and current bike measurements when ordering a frame. We should have all the video done tomorrow but it’ll take several weeks to edit and complete the videos. I hope to have them posted by the end of June. For those of you that haven’t seen webisode #1 “Shop Tour” it can be seen here.

Also I have a lot of bikes back that Bill will be assembling over the next couple of days. Below are some pictures of Chris H’s Rando bike and Sam M’s single speed 29er which I’m currently building. We’ll be assembling BJ, Tim W, Jessica, and Tim P’s bikes over the next couple of days. Also Earl’s bike has shipped back from paint and I should see it next week. I expect to see Joe S, Harold V and Brain B’s frames shortly.

The jerseys have finally arrived. If you ordered one we sent all the US addresses out yesterday and the global will go out today. The jerseys are actually for a local team so I didn’t buy any for stock. On this first order I piggybacked with the team. All orders were paid in advance and I didn’t stock any because there was no price breaks and they are pretty spendy at $78 each. I just passed on the same price I paid and added shipping. If you didn’t order one but are interested let me know. If we get enough interest I’ll try to put together another order.

BJ, I didn’t send yours because I figured you can get it when you pick up your bike on the 8th.

I had a great weekend. I hope everyone else did as well. We got great weather and I was able to ride two days and watch the Indy 500 with my buddies Dave Kirk and Pedro…not the most exciting 500 I’ve seen but oh well. Now I’m back to work. I must be a real geek because when I walked into my beloved shop this morning I got really excited. I must have missed it more than I thought. Just smelling the shop smell made me happy. I’ve got some really fun frames to build in the next couple weeks, the weather is great and I can open my big glass door and all is as it should be in my little framebuilding world. I’ll post things as they’re done later in the week.

So I’m finishing up Scott H’s frame. It’s pictured below ready for braze-on’s. I also received four frames back from Spectrum, all of which will be full assemblies.  I’ll be posting better picture of them in days to come. Ironically two of the frames have a similar paint scheme that was inspired by a bike the customers saw on the Spectrum website. Paint is usually the hardest decision a customer makes during their purchasing process. There are endless choices and colors and it can often be difficult to relay ideas and colors over the phone.

Strong Frames are priced with your choice of 12 stock colors, decals and clear topcoat. About half my customers will choose to upgrade. It may be a custom color, custom decal, addition of nick-name or it may be complex graphics, it’s up to their imagination and budget. Typically I recommend you go to the Spectrum gallery and check out  some of the things others have done to get ideas www.spectrumpowderworks.com. You can also find a paint work order on the Spectrum site which you can download and fill out and return to me. We find it works best if you find the color or colors you want and relay that info to me by either telling my the RAL # from the chart on the Spectrum site or emailing me a picture of a bike that you like from the Spectrum gallery. Keep in mind that there will be some variation due to monitors and other factors so if you are very particular about an exact color call me to discuss so we can  make sure we get it right. Once the color/colors are selected it time to  talk graphics.

With the graphics you can either send a picture with a design you like or you can sketch it in on the work order paint template. If you have a rough idea but want the artistic input of Spectrum’s painters you can let us know and they will use their years of experience and talent to interpret your idea and complete the development. Also , while I prefer you work with me when possible on more complex jobs I’ll have you work directly with Spectrum in order to eliminate any errors that could occur in translation.

The last item is decals. I use default decal set unless otherwise instructed. If you  want custom decal colors or some additional decals I can certainly accommodate those ideas. Spectrum has very sophisticated capabilities when it comes to decals and graphics and can do absolutely anything you can think of. We have customers put business logos and art pieces on their frames as well as just about anything else you can think of. If you want a custom graphic added just email the graphic to me along with placement instructions and I’ll pass it on to Spectrum along with your frame and work order.

So here are some pictures of Mike S’s dirt road bike which I finished and is off to paint. Currently I’m working on Scott H’s bike which is a clean road frame that’s coming along very nicely. Also we’re finishing up Pedro’s 29er. Bill is assembling it right now and Pedro should be taking it home today. He’s local.