Signal Cycles

[vulture]

This "production" stuff is good reading. All of my jobs outside of the bike industry were production. I would cut and machine a pile of parts (or somebody else would) and weld all of said pile of parts. Some stuff would b 20 tubes worth of work and I would build 3 or 4 a day or sometimes hundreds of parts would flow thru my bench. One at a time bikes has been somewhat of a psychological challenge for me at times so I try to combine operations on a few bikes as I am working on them. It's all about having the parts ready to go, the inventory stacked. Matt I think you will be successful with this endeavor. It is one thing to build bikes, it is another to sell them and I think you are talented at both.

[cardinal]

April post from our Ziba Oregon Manifest collaboration:
April Diary: Ziba x Signal - Core77

[e-RICHIE]

April post from our Ziba Oregon Manifest collaboration:
April Diary: Ziba x Signal - Core77

yippie-aye-oh-kai-yea-ay-hey-ay-eh-atmo

[cardinal]

Allright,
Since I'm in danger of falling off the end of the page here, I think I'm going to post some progress on the first build in Signal Cycles new shop. It's a pretty unique bike, so should make for some interesting posts. The customer is the wife of our good friend Brett Flemming of Efficient Velo Tools. Brett is a tool maker and bike service manager for Portland's biggest bike shop, Bike Gallery. He has been a huge help to Signal Cycles even before we were Signal Cycles, Brett supplied tools and knowledge. He was key in making our journey to become bike builders a smooth one. So this bike has to be special.
Ruth has special fitting needs and has always had bikes modified dramatically to fit. Our job is to take her ideal fit numbers and make a bike that will be fun to ride, and look right with it's tall handlebar position. She liked our blue city bike that we made for NAHBS in 2007 so we started there.

The dropouts (in this case low disc mount Paragons) have been brazed to the chainstays and the seatpost to the BB. I've bent the .035 seat stay/ top tubes. The head tube and sleeves have been parted off and faced.


I brazed the main triangle together, and the chain stays without the upper head tube sleeve or seat stay/ top tubes. This will allow me better access to finishing the single top tube joint at the seat tube. I also cleaned up the lower head tube sleeve joint and started thinking about how this should look


I drew out a few lug shapes on the blank. Went from mild to wild, and decided that I want this to be more classic. The bike is already going to be unique with the triple top tubes. I don't need these to create too much visual chaos. I carefully measure the holes and punch and drill them out on both sides.


Next I center punch where I will be drilling to get rid of material quickly.


Drill, drill, drill...


After hacking a few cuts with a hack saw, I just bend the metal till it snaps off.


Hit it with a grinding wheel.


And finish it off with a few files while thinking about proportions and the graceful curve.


Thanks for looking. I'll post more pictures soon. Upper head lug and finish brazing, rack building... lot's more to share.

[72gmc]

Great stuff, Matt, thank you. Trying to decide if my retina-burning blue Signal tee is appropriate for Mother's Day. Or do I go with the more formal black Ira Ryan tee?

[cardinal]

And here is the top sleeve:






the finished product

[cardinal]

Another post on the progress of the Oregon Manifest project with the guys from Ziba industrial design: Oregon Manifest May Diary: Ziba x Signal, Prototyping? - Core77

I hope this post doesn't make us sound like we know it all and so we don't think we need to prototype. I just think this is an area where Ziba and Signal have very different design processes. We tend to take a pretty proven design (say a lugged road bike) and stick with geometry and tube sizes that we know will work. We don't have the luxury of making a bike that might be a cool idea, but we don't know for sure if it will ride right.

Ziba finds value in trying out tose ideas to gain a deeper understanding of the product they are working on. There are no bad ideas, each one informs the process and moves the design forward.

And hey, don't believe that stuff about us being master of our craft, we feel like babies in the world of builders, but we are cutting our teeth and want to get there some day.

[cardinal]

The Oregon Manifest project is about half over. Some thoughts on the blog

[72gmc]

Matt, I just took a casual cruise through cycleexif and saw some comments on your stem design:

Signal Cycles Jeff’s Road

I don't share the negativity, but I would be interested to know how that slot at roughly 2 o'clock affects the stem, if at all.

Thanks

[cardinal]

I saw that too. The answer as to why that guy doesn't like the stem can only be answered by him.

the stem is elegant at the expense of good (strong, rigid) design (hence, not actually elegant). That's a darned foolish place to put a clamping bolt.

There is no drawback to putting the binder bolt in that position, other than it takes us twice as long to finish.
Conversely, there is no benefit to doing it this way either, we just like looking at this better than a square on binder.

One thing for certain, there's no shortage of expert opinion on the world wide web.

[72gmc]

we just like looking at this better than a square on binder.

I agree. It's always fun to look at your work because you're looking at it so closely. Thanks for the reply.

[cardinal]

Team Kit now available by Castelli!!


This picture is of our older Champ-Sys kit, the Castelli version will be similar, but be a lot nicer quality. Jerseys are $80 and shorts are $130. Available by pre-order only. Order closes THIS THURSDAY by 5:00pm on the left coast.
If you are interested send an email to info@signalcycles.com

Thanks!

[e-RICHIE]

nice article and pictures atmo -
Lustworthy Rides: Signal Cycles « bicycles can save the world

[cardinal]

Here's what I've been up to lately:
We had our second child, a boy, on Tuesday Sept 13. Joseph Madrone Cardinal.

I'm going to have my hands full for a while.

[e-RICHIE]

Here's what I've been up to lately:
We had our second child, a boy, on Tuesday Sept 13. Joseph Madrone Cardinal.

I'm going to have my hands full for a while.

best signal ever atmo!

[joosttx]

Congradulation!

[Craig Ryan]

That is pretty cool Matt, keep the good vibes going at home.

[cardinal]

best signal ever atmo!

Dont tell that to his big sister!

[cardinal]

Crazy,
It's been a year and a half since I posted on this thread. A lot has happened since then, the biggest being my decision to step away from Signal as of Feb 1 this year, and concentrate on a new career path. It has been a joy to start a bike company with a very talented partner, and to push our designs as far as we could. Always with an eye on making things better. Now that I am the father of 2, my priorities are changing and I know that I need to find another job that will take better care of my family. Frame building isn't it for me.

Just to be clear, Signal isn't closing doors. Nate has been building the lion's share of the bikes for about the last 2-3 years, and I was more focused on production runs and marketing. Nate will continue to build the custom bikes just like he's been doing. We just finished up our tax info for 2012 and despite our feeling that it was a slow year, it was our best ever by a pretty good margin. It is a great job for one, but difficult for 2 owners.

I love building bikes, and I can't imagine a future where I am not building, but it will only be for me and my family for the time being.

[Mike Marley]

Matt, I enjoyed meeting you at NAHBS Indy and thought your bikes were wonderful. I was going to bump the thread you started in the NAHBS folder about builders missing from the '11 show to ask why Signal, among others, was not participating this year. Now I have an idea.
Best wishes in all your future endeavors. If you bring what you brought to Signal, I have a feeling you'll do well.