Winter Bicycles

[Eric Estlund]

Not at all- I've answered that one a bunch at the show.

Bike tubes in 1918 were crappy. The only thing crappier where the "roads". Two top tubes helped (to varied degrees) keep it bike shaped, especially loaded.

Now, with modern materials, it's because it looks so damn cool.

[-HvA-]

That's what I thought, thanks Eric!

[Eric Estlund]

I sent an inquiry to a client re: paint direction.

His response and today's Awesome Customer Interaction of the Day-

"I certainly am not going to distract you by trying to get paint-specific; do your art, man."

I'm on it.

[Eric Estlund]

And in another installment of Awesome Customer Interaction of the Day-

A client recently returned from a guided tour in Italy. Of his guides discussing his Winter:

"They often spoke in Italian, so I couldn't understand much of what they were saying, but the word 'elegante' was unmistakable."

[Eric Estlund]

As luck would have it, I got a little note from the guide in question mentioned above.

[Eric Estlund]

A few in process:

22.0/ 26.0 for a Herse-




A theadless open face stem with bell mount, custom lugs and a one off tall riser. All conceived as part of a travel set up for a Columbine-

Build it once:






Build it twice:








The pair:

[Matthew Strongin]

As luck would have it, I got a little note from the guide in question mentioned above.

Yeah, that's pretty cool.

[sevencyclist]

Hi Eric, looks like you are building some beautiful stems. Do you like threadless or quill stems better, functionally for a bike, and also from builder's perspective? With other things being equal, how much difference in weight when you factor in the steerer tube, spacers, and quill clamp bolt etc? A custom quill with faceplate seems to offer the minimal hassel of adjustment in height and changing out bars.

[Eric Estlund]

Thanks- I do enjoy them, and it's a pleasure to help people "finish" their special bikes.

So long as the variables are accounted for, I don't have a threaded/ thread less preference for typical range road bikes. Fit is fit, and I can take care of the rest of the parts interface.

If there is no functional driver and if a client has no preference I'll defer to what I think will look best. For my own bikes and the bikes I build my wife we seem to have a reasonably even split.

The stems are made in small groupings. I recently purchased a Sputnik stem fixture which arrived ready for thread less, so I built a bunch of thread less. The quill block landed and I am working through a little back log of quill style.

I am happy to build open face plate stems when people ask for them or need them (some wing style bars, some carbon bars), but in that case I do have a preference for single bolt faces given a choice. I think they look better (especially from the saddle) and I'm not convinced open faces save a ton of time in typical bar change outs. If you are swapping bars you need to unwrap the bar tape and take off the levers- the open face plate just means you do this after you pull the stem instead of before. I don't think there is a real clock advantage there. Now for straight bar displacement, such as for travel, then I think they can be great (as above).

Re: weight- I honestly have no idea. I don't have a scale in the shop. The stems I build are all steel, so they are not gram pinchers anyway. Within that there is a fairly overwhelming sea of variation it's pretty hard to say. For a given 1:1 thread less to threaded "design swap" (same reach, etc) I would guess the quill would be heavier, but not in any way I would notice while pushing the pedals.

This week I've been working on stems for a Columbine, a Herse, a Sachs and a Rhygin. Pretty good company to keep! One of these days I should make a list- it would be interesting to know all of the bikes they have been matched with. Today I got the lions share of the last two worked on, hopefully tomorrow I can get those finished up. Process shots will be on flickr, and I'll try to get something over here, too.

Thanks!

[Eric Estlund]

A little bit of love-

Every now and again one of my bikes hits the blog circuit and gets passed around. Recently, the 1918 has been on a bit of a loop.

Soma Fab

GBlog

Artigianeide (in Italian I believe)

Prolly is not probably

Cycle Exif

Bike Rumor

Let me know if you find more- it's always interesting to me which bikes people at large relate to. I just wrapped up another photo shoot with this one for a local sporting wear and US goods company, and people were stopping on the street to look at the bike. Not bad fr a "simple" machine.

Speaking of photos- big thanks to Anthony Bareno of Velo Cult who shot these for me. He also has photos and video from the Oregon show he has recently posted.

[Eric Estlund]

In this weeks FNL I showed two more stems, one for a Sachs, and another for a Rhygin.

I've also started to batch a few items for a run of bikes for Box Dog Bikes in SF.

To make life easier I made a few new items-

My new fender mounts- (special thanks to Curtis Odom for translating my napkin sketch into a CAD rendering)


A bender/ trim calibrator-






Never throw anything away! A dead hacksaw blade as a lowrider marker-


Consistency check/ length tool:




The yield-

[Eric Estlund]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22538785@N05/8190115424/

[Eric Estlund]

My last couple of updates have shown some of the progress I've been making on the Box Dog Bikes "Pelican" rando frames. This morning I picked them up from the powder coater, did the final prep (chased 114 M5's!) and boxed them up. Tomorrow I will be delivering them to the shop. The good folks at Box Dog will be hosting a little meet and greet get together starting at the shop at 7:30. I hope to see you there!

These are the first unfiled bikes I've put my name on, and the first I've done in a number of years. I'm really excited about how they have turned out. In addition to the raw main fillets the bikes are almost entirely "from the torch".









If you are in SF tomorrow night, swing by and say hello and check em out in person.

[false_aesthetic]

Eric,

I was looking through your gallery today. I'm wondering if you'd be willing to talk a little about this fork:


Thanks

[Eric Estlund]

Sure- that was a composite road fork I made for my Oregon Manifest bike a couple of years ago. That frame had my bilam head tube, and some bilam work at the BB shell and drop outs. This seemed like a nice compliment. The whole bike had a tongue-in-cheek devils advocate/ devil theme going on, and the wicked points really played into it.

I don't do as much of the wild carving anymore, but I'm happy to do it if it works with someones bike. It's a load of fun, and can really be striking for certain projects.

Let me know if there was anything specific you were interested in with it.

[false_aesthetic]

Would you mind sharing more pictures of bike + fork?

It's been a while since I've been so interested in a fork's construction.

[Eric Estlund]

Sure-

Here are some shots of the completed bike, and the construction set.

[Eric Estlund]

A couple of fun stems- several for forum members:

[Eric Estlund]

Some lug shots:

[Britishbane]

Oh, I'd take one:


Gabe's Pelican by boxdogbikes, on Flickr