I just filmed a new webisode, a couple actually. One of the webisodes is an overview of how I build a TIG welded steel frame. Rather than use a customer frame I decided to build an unsold frame using a frame design I had from frames for the last NAHBS show. I had the tubes and design handy so it was easy enough to get rolling.

The frame is made with True  Temper OX Platinum, and Columbus Nivacrom round chainstays. It’s unpainted so included in the price will be a one color paint job in one of my stock colors and decals with a clear top coat. If you want to buy the frame and want a custom paint job, you are welcome to do so and I’ll add the cost difference of the custom paint to the price.

Below are pictures of the frame as it sits and the design.

Regular Price for a Custom Blend steel is $1650

This frame is $1150

Included at no extra cost will be a detailed documentary of your frame being built!

So here are some pictures Lionel sent after he had a chance to assemble his Columbus XCr frame. I’ll be adding it to may gallery but thought I’d show it off here because it’s such a good looking bike. Apprenetly the whole bike comes in at around 15 pounds! And that’s with a steel 62cm frame.  The frame was painted by JB (a first for me) and as I’m sure anyone familiar with JB’s work knows it’s second to none. Obviously Lionel spared no expense when choosing parts. I especially like the bar wrap and saddle. Very nice. Thanks for the pictures Lionel!

Some may have seen an earlier post where I bragged up our former “Shop Boy” Tejay. Well, he’s back in the news. Tejay is having a great season over in Belgium racing for Rabobank’s Continental team. Here is a link to a VeloNews artical with short description of his season along with an interview.

http://www.velonews.com/article/92868/the-other-young-american—a-conversation-with-tejay-van

Needless to say all of us here in Bozeman are very proud of him. We’ve known  him since he was a young kid riding bikes that were too big for him. As he grew older I provided him with bikes for about five years until he finally went off to race for teams that could provide him with bikes. His father who’s been a friend for nearly 20 years now was recently in town and it was a lot of fun to catch up and hear all about Teyay’s career, the smart choices he’s making and of course the hard work that he put’s in. I’ll be keeping a close eye on him and will post his progress as he continues to pursue his career.

Below are images we’ve collected over the years of Tejay and his racing progress.

So I love endurance racing from the 60’s and 70’s. Especially the Porsche’s. They had about 1000 horsepower coming out of twin turbo 12 cylinder engines with magnesium space frame chassis. Le Mans is probably the most famous race of them all and a great movie too. Drivers like Siffert and Redman were the hero’s and even the Actor Steve McQeen was a respected endurance race driver.

So it’s not surprise that when BJ told me what he wanted to do for paint I was completely on-board. I even have a model of a Porsche in Gulf Livery sitting on my desk and a collection of Porsche posters in my office.

So the bike is back, assembled and ready to go. It looks great. Of course I’m just taking some quick pics with my little camera but Loretta will  be setting it up in the studio tomorrow and she’ll get some better images we’ll post in the main part of our site later. Please note how insanely well the Mango King headset matches the orange on the paint job.

So here are a couple shots of Tim and Jessy’s bikes.  They are very close to being done. All we need to do is put on the post adapter for the front brake and fine tune them. Tim’s bike is a 29er and Jessy’s is a 26. They both have Fox forks and Shimano XTR. The bikes are very light, clean and fast. I’m sure they’re going to love them. Once they’re done we’ll assemble BJ’s frame and post some pictures of it. BJ’s is the road frame with t he Gulf paint job I posted last week and it ll be built with Sram Red with an Edge fork so it’s going to be really cool. Loretta just got a new backdrop color we hope will look good with most if not all frame colors so we’ll shoot all three of the bikes in our studio on Friday and post some good shots.