I have a history of back problems. It’s a long story but I got run over by a car about 15 years ago and haven’t been the same since. I won’t go into detail about how it happened but let me just say don’t stand in front of a car when doing repair work while the guy helping tries to start it.

As a result of my little accident I have a bulging disc at L4 and L5 and every now and then I do something just the wrong way and I seize the area up. When this happens its very painful for me to transfer from sitting position to a standing position. Straightening out is incredibly painful. So as a consequence I don’t get to have any fun and my work pace is very slow.

I’ll continue to work because the problem could persist for weeks so if you call I may miss the phone so be sure to leave a message. If I’m not right by it I probably won’t even try to answer it until I start feeling better. For those of you who are having a frame made, DON”T WORRY! the quality won’t suffer. I’m very comfortable when sitting at the welding bench and working. I’m just slower than normal.

This week I’ll be finishing up Matt S’s ti road frame. Shipping Harold V’s Ti road bike, shipping Brian B’s steel road bike and starting Andreas M’s Columbus XCr frame and maybe shipping Joe S’s bike as well. It’s going to be a fun week and I should have lots a pictures to post as things progress.

So here is Matt’s titanium road frame. Currently I  have it mitered and fit in the fixture. The next thing I’ll do is clean up all the joints so the fit is perfect then tack and weld. Hopefully it’ll be welded up by the end of the day and then I’ll start the machining and finishing work.

So here is a frame I’m building for Gay S. It’s a classic steel road frame. I built this with a 1″ TT, round oval round chainstays and double taper seatstays. It’s a very traditional build with a nearly horizontal toptube. It’s gong to be built up with the new Ultegra, DT Swiss wheels and an Edge fork. It’s going to be a really good looking bike.

So I’m building a new website, actually I’m not, Todd my “webguy” is www.consumedesign.com. Todd has been doing my site for the last twelve years or so and I can’t say enough good things about him and his work. Not only is he a great web developer but  he’s a avid cyclist and apparently a  great dad too. Happy fathers day Todd!

At any rate we’re working on a new site design but for the most part content will be the same. We’ll be adding a few new webisodes, a better gallery and the site will be a larger size so all the images will be larger and easier to see which should help with details. The reason for this post is I thought I’d ask for input or ideas on what you think might help  us improve the site even more. You can make your suggestions on the blog here or you can send them directly to my email, strong@strongframes.com.

We hope to launch mid to late July. Thanks in advance for any and all comments and ideas.

For those of you waiting for the Sram Force build kit I expect it to start shipping on Tuesday.

I got two frames back from paint yesterday. The white frame is a Ti road frame for Harold. We’re building it up with Shimano Dura Ace and an Alpha Q fork. The gray frame is a steel road for Brian and it gets the new Sram Force and an Alpha Q fork. I’ll post images of the complete bikes once they’re assembled.