Winter Bicycles

[Chauncey Matthews]

See ya there!

[Eric Estlund]

Thanks, Chauncey! It was fun to finally meet up and hang out a bit- sorry it wasn't more!

[Eric Estlund]

I have been slowly leaking process shots of a stainless commuter I have been working on. While technically still "in process" I decided to assemble it and bring it with me the the San Diego show.

Here is a quick glamor shot- more info and a full description can be found here:



This bike fits in with a lot of my city bikes- nimble handling with a slightly more relaxed position for in-traffic visibility and general town riding. As is my personal taste, this one is on the sportier end.

[Eric Estlund]

I received a fun email last night- straight to the point:

"Let me ask you, if there were one type of bike you would really love to build the most, the one type of project where you'd be totally psyched to get the order, what would it be?"

Fun question!

My response:

"Ooo- that's a tough one. I've been really into the fender-ed high performance/ non racing bikes I've been doing a lot of lately.

That said, I've been up at night with a particular track bike idea I'd love to do. Something I'd love to be cut loose with. No hiding, straight up aggression (but in a sweet way).

It really depends, I seem to get lucky and build my dream bike all the time- then the dream changes with the next one."

I work in a pretty interesting position- I get to fill in the blanks on other peoples dream bikes. I get to share in their obsession, and get the release of the finished and see the possibilities when the next dream bike comes up. I can spin it little twists and turns, add details, and generally bring into focus the wispy idea that has been floating in their heads.

So I'll end with the same question I ended that email with: You- what have you been jazzed on?

[Eric Estlund]

A few months ago a local University of Oregon student named Ryan Imondi dropped in for a few visits to shoot some photos and a little audio. He put this slideshow and audio track called "Custom Lifestyle":


Screen shot:


Link:
http://pages.uoregon.edu/rimondi/365.../publishtoweb/

[Eric Estlund]

Bryan took the train up Sunday- after a quick test ride around the neighborhood he loaded up his new Winter and promptly departed for the home stretch back to Eureka, CA. Not a bad shake down ride.



I received word from Terri (Bryan's wife) that "Bryan called yesterday afternoon from Reedsport - it had finally stopped raining, was still windy and he was still very, very happy to be riding and camping out with his new bike."

Thanks, Terri! I'm very much enjoying the coffee- the chocolate went down immediately.

Ride safe, Bryan!

[Eric Estlund]

Bryan made it home!

Terri wrote me: "Bryan rolled into Eureka 15 minutes ago and has hit the shower. He had a sunny last day of the trip :-D...and (made it home early with) easily 45 minutes of daylight, too. It is a beauty of a bike, Eric. The children swept up all around the bike rack so it'd have a sweet spot for it's first night."

I love it- buy it, ride it hard, and put it away happy!

PS- Terri, thanks again for the coffee. Off to brew more!

[Eric Estlund]

We updated the web site- fresh look and better galleries!

[timto]

Looks great Eric! I always liked your logo. Very stylish. Classy.

[Eric Estlund]

Thanks!

Today we moved the blog over to the site as well. Folks already following it should be automatically connected, but having it integrated will hopefully be easier for new folks to keep track of.

[Eric Estlund]

Winter in the press: Bicycle Times

The current issue of Bicycle Times printed quite the spread on NAHBS with 12 builder profiles. I was pleasantly surprised to get an email from a friend mentioning Winter Bicycles received half of page 39- take a peek!

Thanks to BT for coming out and covering the show.

[Eric Estlund]

I picked up a little press this week-

[Eric Estlund]

It's been a good week for me with the press- two articles I wrote for Momentum Magazine were cover features for their supplemental Special Edition Gear Guide. "How to Choose a City Bike" on p.3 and "Internal and External Gearing Options" on p. 12. Check them out online or pick up a print version!

Click the image to read the online versions:

[Craig Ryan]

Well deserved Eric. You're working through technical building issues with a ton of skill.

[Eric Estlund]

Thanks, Craig. I've been enjoying working on some fun projects as of late.

[Eric Estlund]

Inny


Outy


That inner ring is brass pulled in from the outside. This is called an “internal fillet” (pretty descriptive name, eh?) and both shows good filler penetration in the joint due to proper heating and acts as an internal brace increasing the strength of the structure. It’s a fun shot I can’t really take on a frame, but as I build stems in pieces it’s neat to get an inner glimpse.

The fillet in the second shot has a nice and even width, is consistently shaped and evenly feathers at the edges and is what the out side of an evenly heated strong fillet looks like. The smooth surface and even edges also make the cosmetic clean up and shaping move along pretty quickly.

A little more of the story on that particular stem can be found here.

[Craig Ryan]

Awesome Eric!

[Eric Estlund]

Well the old digs are tiny. After about 6 months or so of bumping into stuff my wife and I decided that a) we like Springfield and will be here for a bit, and b) the current location isn't cutting it. So we're buying a house 3 blocks away that meets our needs.

The mid-term plan is to build out a new space, but the immediate plan for Winter is to make the leap from pocket shop to honest to goodness light industrial. I'll be wrapping up one final project here then moving back across the river:


Loading dock, overhead crane, the whole deal. Tons of natural light, and no more bumping my head! I can't wait.

[conorb]

Well the old digs are tiny. After about 6 months or so of bumping into stuff my wife and I decided that a) we like Springfield and will be here for a bit, and b) the current location isn't cutting it. So we're buying a house 3 blocks away that meets our needs.

The mid-term plan is to build out a new space, but the immediate plan for Winter is to make the leap from pocket shop to honest to goodness light industrial. I'll be wrapping up one final project here then moving back across the river:


Loading dock, overhead crane, the whole deal. Tons of natural light, and no more bumping my head! I can't wait.

Wow, Eric that looks really nice.

Congrats on being able to get into the new space.

Do you have a general timeline for the move?

Oh, if you need help moving the big, heavy stuff I'll most likely be out of town that weekend.

Just FYI.

Conor

[Eric Estlund]

It will be fantastic- I have some storage stuff and the lathe there now and will have a pallet of materials delivered this week. Once I wrap up this last project I'll transition- hope to be move in and functional in the next couple of weeks with 5-7 days of change over and set up. That may be optimistic so I might precut or otherwise prep the next couple of frame before I pack up this location.

It's only about 8-10 miles away, so I'll be doing a bunch of micro runs with the heavy stuff.