Winter Bicycles

[Eric Estlund]

Raw.
Fillet.
CX.
Tool.

Come see it at the Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show this weekend! Details to follow.

[Eric Estlund]

I have updated the Tool page on my web site, including links to the new color and gallery of the CX Tools.

[Eric Estlund]

If you find yourself in Portland try to swing into Velo Cult to check out my latest Road Tool. This was one of the bikes I brought to the OHBS and is now available for test rides (or purchase if you don't want to wait for one). 55 ETT, and in addition to the Falz and CC 110, it is built with a mix of Force 22, FSA Energy and Velocity A23's.

Anthony Bareno from VC shot these for me:

[robin3mj]

Eric,
These Tool series bikes are dope, especially the hammered paint job.
If I was in a position to be ordering something new this year, these would be way up my short list.
I hope you sell a bunch of them.

[Eric Estlund]

Thanks- they are a lot of fun. Nice platform, solid builds. I enjoy making them.

[Eric Estlund]

It's been a good year for step through frames for me. I really enjoy building daily riders, and these city bikes really fill a need for their owners.

This one should be landing on Colorado in the next couple of days. La Fauvette is a modern city bike that draws from several traditions.



This bike was designed for a rider who needed to the fit of a classic Dutch bike, but wanted a design more capable of distance and sporting rides. She was drawn to French mixte styling and heavily British influenced coloring.



“La Fauvette” is the French name for the garden warbler, a light and nimble song bird that makes is’t home across Europe.



More info and photos in it's web gallery.

[fortyfour]

Love that color combo Eric! Nice work with that cream head tube highlighting the HT Badge.

[Eric Estlund]

Tis the season for rando builds- one at paint, one at chrome, and one on the bench. More in the line, but we'll get to those!

Here is a multi radius bend- nice long rake, but in a different style then the "French flick".



My eyes bugged out for a moment while brazing the BB. It was preheated and the brass was flowing, so I just let the muscle memory take over. Not bad, muscle memory, not bad.



Nice flow on this bike-



Here is where I will stop for the weekend. Back at it soon!

[Eric Estlund]

I don't do much repair work, but every now and again an interesting project turns up.

A local(ish) shop owner rolled in a bit ago with a Dave Moulton frame that had seen better days. Pretty classic roof rack to garage damage.

I had the paint stripped to better assess what I was looking at:


The front end was pretty well a loss, but the back of the bike was serviceable. So, off comes the offender-


Some clean up, some new tubes and fab, and a little TV cooking magic, and voila:


And after a new set of cloths, it's ready to get back out there!

[Eric Estlund]

A pleasant surprise in the mail-

[Eric Estlund]

Velo Cult in Portland now has Road and CX versions of the Tool Series to check out/ test ride.

[Eric Estlund]

Lots of fun projects on the bench this week, including this fun stem project for a Taylor. The client sent me an old Taylor stem for visual reference, and his Look Ergo stem pre-set to the position he needs. Hard to argue with that!

Below is my take on a Taylor style stem to match his frame.

[Eric Estlund]

I have started in on another batch of Pelicans for a December delivery.







"Production batches" are an interesting thing in a one person shop. I am ganging operations, but in reality I am still doing every step by hand, one at a time. I just do a couple of them in a row before moving to the next step. In a batch of six bikes, for instance, there are 25 drilled holes per frame. That's 150 holes drilled and deburred.









Forks are brazed, BB shells and head tubes are prepped, and seat tubes are mitered, bossed and bindered.


Monday it's on to main tube mitering and a big push. Should be a busy (and exciting!) week.

[Eric Estlund]

Moving right along:

[Eric Estlund]

It's official- I just sent in my deposit for the next Bespoked bicycle show. The show has been a pretty wild success, and this year is moving to a new venue- the Lee Valley Velodrome, London (Home of the London 2012 Olympic Track Cycling).



The show has treated me pretty well over the last few years- in 2012 my Wanderer frame set was awarded “Best Tour/ Randonee” (a category that didn't exist before the judging started).



The 2013 show was also great, with a nod to my Tenga track bike being awarded "Best Track Bike".



I have one bike picked out to show with another open spot. I have a few ideas, but would love to use to opportunity to hand deliver a frame or bike to a UK or European client in attendance. If you are interested in discussing a project that would work in this timeline (the show is only a few months away), please be in touch.

[Eric Estlund]

Found this raw fillet under the flux- getting closer to the mythical no file*.



Good wet out, nice feathering, and an even shape and width.



*The Box Dog Pelican bikes are no file, and have been a great push for me.

[Amaro Bikes]

Eric, you're getting into masterland with those no-file fillets and your previously shown muscular memory experiments...

[Eric Estlund]

A couple more-

A pierced quill with custom lug for a 31.8 bar. It has a 10 lira coin mojo/ badge.





And a Taylor style stem for a vintage Taylor made frame.

[Eric Estlund]

Both clients for the above stems sent me photos of them installed and in use. Thanks, guys!

[Eric Estlund]

With the start of the new year there have been some fun project under way:

-A batch of Pelicans are ready to fly down to SF. The no-file fillet thing is really coming together now.




-I've got a few things in a holding pattern as I wait for some parts to make it out of the holiday-loaded shippers. I took the oppertunity to sneak in a project I've been mulling for a few years. I've been calling it the OverKill: