This pumpkin was carved by my superstar customer Jim G of Portland.

Happy Halloween

So not a lot to report right now. I thought I’d just give a little general information on everything that is going on right now.

Kurt’s bike is finished and shipping, I’ve attached some nice images.

Nick L’s bike will be assembled soon. A couple of images of that too.

I’m currently building Bob G’s frame.

We just received our new Made In Montana stickers and they look really cool.

I’ve also finished a new preliminary dropout design that I will be able to use with Steel, Titanium and Carbon. More to come on that once we’ve cut and tested a few parts.

Be sure to check out Erik’s (my apprentice) blog www.alliancebicycles.com. He’s been posting some interesting stuff that he does here on his own time.

Finally, I’ve been writing new web pages to explain carbon fiber, what I’ll be offering and a guide to choosing material. Look for that soon. Once it’s posted I’ll announce it here on the blog.

That’s it for now.

I’m getting Kurt’s bike all buttoned up and ready to ship. Loretta will take some pictures of it for our site later today and then we’ll start getting it in a box. It should ship tomorrow. You’ll receive a tracking number via email once we generate a shipping label Kurt.

I started Bob G’s frame yesterday. It’s coming along nicely and should be finished by the end of the week. Bob’s frame is titanium and will be going off to Spectrum Powderworks for a very nice finish once I’m done.

As many of you know I’ll be offering a Tube to Tube (no lugs) carbon frames soon. At the risk of sounding like a broken record let me say it again, I’m not “going carbon” I’m adding another choice. I’ll be limiting the number of carbon frames I sell each year in order to avoid taking focus off of steel and titanium. I think each material has something to offer different riders depending on their priorities and goals. Just as I added titanium to my steel offerings in the mid 90’s, I’m adding carbon now.

I won’t go into much detail here but you will start to see more info as we move through the Winter. I’ll be adding pages soon and will post blog entries from time to time as well. The frames will be true all custom frames just as the steel and titanium are. They will be priced at around $5000 including a headset and painted to match Edge 2.0 fork. The first year of  production will be limited to 20 frames.

I’ve been working on this project for over a year now. Nick Crumpton  www.crumptoncycles.com has been a great  help and incredibly generous with information. I’m also working with composites engineer Jared Nelson who holds a masters in composite engineering and has 10 years of experience working specifically in the bicycle industry, he’s also a hell of a rider. I’m lucky enough to have him here in town because he is currently working on his doctorate at MSU. Below are some pictures of Jared and me making some test coupons to test material and validate the oven.

All our titanium frames come with a “Satin” finish unless the customer chooses to paint them. Basically there are two types of finishes you will commonly see on titanium frames. The first is a glass media blasted finish (‘Satin”) which we use and he other is a “brushed” finish. The brushed finish is accomplished by using Scotch Brite synthetic steel wool and rubbing down the entire frame until a consistent pattern emerges. I prefer the media blasted finish because I think the frame looks more complete and professional. Also I don’t like to work around the air-born debris that is created when doing a brushed finish. Once we blast the frame we do not touch it with our bare hands because oils from our skin will imperfect the finish. We handle the frame using gloves and apply all the decals. Once the decals are on we apply Lemon Scented Pledge furniture wax to lock in and protect the finish. I don’t know what’s in the Pledge but we’ve tried substitutes and the Pledge produces the best results by a long shot. Once the customer has their frame the only maintenance required is an occasional rub down with some pledge to protect it from oils and staining and that’s it.

Below are images of our sand blast system including an 8hp 2 stage compressor with refrigerated line dryer, multiple coalescing filters and a “reverse venturi” system my old business partner Tony made. All this insures that their is no oil or water in the air that can contaminate the finish or any other process we use the air for. Also pictured below are  Nick’s freeride 26″ hardtail built around a Fox 36 RC2 Talas, it’s going into the blaster Monday for it’s final finish and a Dura Ace build kit for Kurt.