Coconino Cycles

[steve garro]

Blogger is not allowing me to post pics & I will not be here for FNL so here you go. - Garro.

[steve garro]

Back from summer vacation in WI - coconino cycles custom bicycles 928 774 7747 www.coconinocycles.com: Wisconson - Family, Fun, Fishin' - Thanks for the great time! - Garro.

[steve garro]

Fresh off the machines - custom drawn 1.125" x .028" for curved toptubes.
Rolls very nice, very beautiful finish, very round & right on .7mm spec.
I am super proud to have dusted off existing dies & putting them back to work for us & others.
Thanks True Temper! - Garro.

[steve garro]

Mid July Coconino World HQ update: coconino cycles custom bicycles 928 774 7747 www.coconinocycles.com: Jeffery's bike ready to ship, Mike's at paint, John's moving right along, 1st bike ride in over five weeks. - Garro.

[steve garro]

Yours truly at toil.
- Garro.

[Dave Kirk]

Yo,

I was thinking of you the other day while at the bench and wondering if you could talk a bit about how you made changes in your shop so that you could work efficiently from a chair. Some things are easy for me to picture and others less so (brazing and aligning would seem to be tough).

Are there other changes you'd like to make to be more comfortable and efficient?

Dave



P.S. I apologize if this is something you've talked about a lot - if so blow this off and have a beer on me.

[steve garro]

Yo,

I was thinking of you the other day while at the bench and wondering if you could talk a bit about how you made changes in your shop so that you could work efficiently from a chair. Some things are easy for me to picture and others less so (brazing and aligning would seem to be tough).

Are there other changes you'd like to make to be more comfortable and efficient?

Dave

Naw, Dave - totally valid. How to start.........well, everything is low (duh)
I have to keep lots of space between work stations to turn around & get out fast if I'm on fire, move about, ect.
Some places are padded for my knees to rest against like my vise in the background.
I have work stations that rotate to let me get access from one point to the whole workpiece.
Joe Bringheli made my custom alignment table with an "X" for legs so I can get close to it.
I cannot get great leverage for alignment so I don't force things, plus it hurts my shoulders. I mark my tube bows as well as I can, use tight ass mitering, sweat even tacking (I tack with both hands - I have been forced to become ambidexterous in all my work - filing, ect - I can write with both hands at the same time, forwards, backwards & mirror image even ! :}....) and use tacks to "pull" tubes rather then "bend" them.
Brazing.........Ahhh.......brazing. It was a whole new learning curve. I had been brazing for three years when I got crushed but I had to re-learn everything. My 1st frame took me months - i had to re-learn, modify my tooling, change my moves - at 115lbs with three external drains. Not my best time. I weigh 175lbs now & always.
Now, I can braze forwards, backwards, up, down - you name it. I braze in a park stand like everyone, just a low one.
I am re-thinking some more tooling to help me as I age - sanders, ect. every little bit helps when you use your arms all day.
I am a slow builder! slow & steady.........
Just keep at it! - Garro.

[Chauncey Matthews]

Yo Steve,
How does you average monkey get his hands on that 1.125x .028? Is somebody like HJ or Pacenti gonna be carrying it?
Or do you have to drive your psychobilly cadillac up to the factory and pick it up (it's cheaper that way)?

[steve garro]

Yo Steve,
How does you average monkey get his hands on that 1.125x .028? Is somebody like HJ or Pacenti gonna be carrying it?
Or do you have to drive your psychobilly cadillac up to the factory and pick it up (it's cheaper that way)?

You have to order a 300' run..........looking at getting a run of
.035" at some point.
I don't want to step on HJ's toes by selling TT products but maybe KP could pick up some, plus it's something I don't want to chase around.... It's nice to have raw lengths when you are rolling large radii as you throw away less "tail" chunks.
I still need to send out your box as I am reaching critical mass on shipping & I found some classic goodies for you, too.
- Garro.

[steve garro]

Summetime update - coconino cycles custom bicycles 928 774 7747 www.coconinocycles.com: Summertime. - Garro.

[Dave Kirk]

Naw, Dave - totally valid. How to start.........well, everything is low (duh)
I have to keep lots of space between work stations to turn around & get out fast if I'm on fire, move about, ect.
Some places are padded for my knees to rest against like my vise in the background.
I have work stations that rotate to let me get access from one point to the whole workpiece.
Joe Bringheli made my custom alignment table with an "X" for legs so I can get close to it.
I cannot get great leverage for alignment so I don't force things, plus it hurts my shoulders. I mark my tube bows as well as I can, use tight ass mitering, sweat even tacking (I tack with both hands - I have been forced to become ambidexterous in all my work - filing, ect - I can write with both hands at the same time, forwards, backwards & mirror image even ! :}....) and use tacks to "pull" tubes rather then "bend" them.
Brazing.........Ahhh.......brazing. It was a whole new learning curve. I had been brazing for three years when I got crushed but I had to re-learn everything. My 1st frame took me months - i had to re-learn, modify my tooling, change my moves - at 115lbs with three external drains. Not my best time. I weigh 175lbs now & always.
Now, I can braze forwards, backwards, up, down - you name it. I braze in a park stand like everyone, just a low one.
I am re-thinking some more tooling to help me as I age - sanders, ect. every little bit helps when you use your arms all day.
I am a slow builder! slow & steady.........
Just keep at it! - Garro.

That all makes good sense to me.

Do you have your plate set up with lever bars. The plate we had at Serotta had bars set up in yokes that were bolted to the plate - you could put the levers through the yokes and use them for leverage. They bought this set up so that the personal doing alignments all day, everyday, has less chance of a repetitive motion injury and it worked very well. Very little force was needed. It might be something to consider to take as much stress as possible of your shoulders and save them for riding on the trail.

how do you keep from burning your lap when laying fillets? I image you must have some fireproof blanket that you lay on your thighs to keep hot flux from burning you?

Dave

[steve garro]

That all makes good sense to me.

Do you have your plate set up with lever bars. The plate we had at Serotta had bars set up in yokes that were bolted to the plate - you could put the levers through the yokes and use them for leverage. They bought this set up so that the personal doing alignments all day, everyday, has less chance of a repetitive motion injury and it worked very well. Very little force was needed. It might be something to consider to take as much stress as possible of your shoulders and save them for riding on the trail.

how do you keep from burning your lap when laying fillets? I image you must have some fireproof blanket that you lay on your thighs to keep hot flux from burning you?

Dave

I would love to see pics of that!
I have a leather welding apron that I put on my lap - it's covered with flux & I have a "shop chair" that's also covered with flux.
Did you recieve the box-O-tubes?
- Garro.

[Chauncey Matthews]

I still need to send out your box as I am reaching critical mass on shipping & I found some classic goodies for you, too.
- Garro.

Sweet...thanks brother man.

[Dave Kirk]

I would love to see pics of that!
I have a leather welding apron that I put on my lap - it's covered with flux & I have a "shop chair" that's also covered with flux.
Did you recieve the box-O-tubes?
- Garro.

I don't have a photo of that plate. I think it might have been an Everest plate. It had yokes much like you might find on a canoe but super beefy mounted on the plate - one each above and below the head tube, one near the top of the seat tube and one for the ass end. The alignment guy would insert a bar into the yoke so that he could pry either up or down with low pressure and get the job done. It had the two for the head tube and then a super heavy bar that went through the head tube that was mounted on shoulders that just slip fit into the head tube. If you wanted to tweak twist you could push down on one bar and up on the other. It worked very well and was easy to modulate.

I just looked at the Serotta site and didn't see a photo of it.

I think you might be well served by something similar.

I did get the tubes - now I just need to carve out a chunk of time to make something. Thanks so much!!


dave

[steve garro]

I did get the tubes - now I just need to carve out a chunk of time to make something. Thanks so much!!


dave

yeah, man - looking forward to the fruition!
Still haven't built my new bike & i've had it over three yrs.
the cobbler's children have no shoes (but I bet his wife has several pairs for every occasion....)
- Garro.

[steve garro]

Long overdue update coconino cycles custom bicycles 928 774 7747 www.coconinocycles.com: Long overdue blog post - a busy summer. - Garro.

[Shoogs]

Saw a beautiful navy blue single speed at the start line of the Wilderness 101 yesterday...I wish I'd gotten a chance to check it out fully but it was gorgeous.

[steve garro]

Saw a beautiful navy blue single speed at the start line of the Wilderness 101 yesterday...I wish I'd gotten a chance to check it out fully but it was gorgeous.

Thanks! what state is that in? PA? Man, I've built many one speeds, and allot of blue bikes.
Sometimes I see ones I forgot I made - it's cool. After a "timeout" from personal scrutiny I can really enjoy them.
- Garro.

[Shoogs]

It is indeed PA, I saw him in OH for the Mohican as well. I'll be looking everywhere for him at the SM100, to drool on it some...

[steve garro]

It is indeed PA, I saw him in OH for the Mohican as well. I'll be looking everywhere for him at the SM100, to drool on it some...

It may be Tom? If so then I am building him a 2nd bike, it's in the current FNL.
I do build many ultra-endurance orientated bikes - it's something I know.
thanks for the field sighting! - Garro.