Coconino Cycles

[steve garro]

Maybe part of it's that you list that option in black only. It sounds pretty appealing to me until you tell me I get one color.

that's just it - the actual time savings is in eliminating the color choice as much as filing. I can file down a frame faster then most people can choose a color! plus, black gets sprayed every day, expiditing the process. so you get it faster AND cheaper. lastly, it's an homage to Johnny Cash - the Man in Black. RIP. - Garro.

[edoz]

Eh, maybe it's just my contrary nature. I'd be just fine with a black bike until you say it's my only choice, then I'm wanting candy apple green and pearly translucent purple ghost flames or something. I can totally see the appeal of the powder guys being able to knock it out any day and not wait until they're set up for some other color.

[steve garro]

Eh, maybe it's just my contrary nature. I'd be just fine with a black bike until you say it's my only choice, then I'm wanting candy apple green and pearly translucent purple ghost flames or something..

then it's off to spectrum - add 3-4 weeks + $300-$400.00, please. - it's a mountain bike - you are supposed to ride it on rocks, in the rain, dirt and grime, and crash it at least every few rides - or, at least a hasty dismount here & there {not that there is anything wrong with bling if you are into it - it's your bike} - Garro.

[steve garro]

when I grow up I want to be able to braze fillets like Steve.

just let me know if you have any questions. I usually don't go into process details, but if you want to know my Fillet Brazing secrets then I reckon this is the spot to archive them. I'll even tell what color flux - Garro.

[e-RICHIE]

stevo are you using the blue paste from gasflux atmo?

[steve garro]

stevo are you using the blue paste from gasflux atmo?

Yes. I know it does not look like it in my pics. It is Gasflux blue {for brass/bronze} I run a Gasfluxer {on med} so I just use a very watery, milky mix of blue, just enough to eat into the metal and give it some "tooth", ease oxidation, give you a proper temperature gage for when to apply filler, show you the HAZ & ease/increase flow. I run it so watery that I have to have the torch in hand to "fix" the flux in place or it will all drip off the BB. Ask away, Y'all - this is my brazing FAQ. lemme know what you wanna know. - Garro.

[steve garro]

new tools in the shop, rollers for my 3-roll large radius bender - now i can do 1.125" and 1.25" tubing. I can curve 1.125" down to .028" wall & 1.25" down to .035" wall. man, this is soooo much better then the fill it full of sand and hand bend over a wooden mandrel. I've come a long way in learning about bending/curving metal - Garro.

[steve garro]

Aslo, a link to a coconino cruiser review from a couple of years back. this bike does triple duty: It was a centerpiece @ NAHBS, it did a Magazine review, and it got sold to Absolute Bikes in Salida, Co. where it is displayed, loved and even loaned out. I got my $$$$$ worth out of this build for sure. article here: Dirt Rag {Print Rag} - Garro.

[edoz]

The article says fifty hours of labor. Journalistic licence, or is something else going on?
Nice rollers, btw.

[steve garro]

The article says fifty hours of labor. Journalistic licence, or is something else going on?
Nice rollers, btw.

naw - that's correct - I kept track. packing toptube with sand, bending it, bending the seatstays, making the ST sleeve, cutting the SS brace from stock, fitting the kicker tube, adding a super complex fillet junction to the mix to file down {ST/TT/kicker tube} braze ons........shit just adds up. Oh yeah, I almost forgot - it was built when I was maybe 130lbs getting used to life in a wheelchair, too......I still polish a regular diamond frame for about 10hrs. I may be slow but the results look good.......keeps me {mostly} out of trouble...... - Garro.

[edoz]

10 hrs sounds pretty good to me, I spend 15+ on a frame. The seat tube sleeve accounts for 2 or 3 of that though. The rest is just me not having built hundreds of frames, plus walking around and getting distracted.

[steve garro]

10 hrs sounds pretty good to me, I spend 15+ on a frame. The seat tube sleeve accounts for 2 or 3 of that though. The rest is just me not having built hundreds of frames, plus walking around and getting distracted.

yeah - it used to take me forever. I take rests about every CD - stretch my hands & arms, back, shoulders, neck, eyes......wash your face, pet the dogs, look at all the flowers - and go back at it. I usually get the whole frame polished but the HT brazes on the 1st day {after paperwork/client realtions/ordering/shipping/cleaning, ect} ditto the next day but HT brazes & the braze-ons and frame prep for paint. I try to break it all down into do-able chunks of time & labor - Garro.

[steve garro]

hey, Oregonians! come out and sell some bikes & drink some brews, ride road or mountain, swim, paddle, sit in hotsprings and meet Me, Wade Beauchamp of Vulture cycles, hopefully Fred from Wolfhound and others. base camp will be with the promoters, Wilamette mountain mechantile. {bikes, carhart & cast iron - you gotta love that} race course map is up: Race Course see you there on the 18th - Garro.

[steve garro]

Coconino Cycles World HQ update 9/1/10: coconino cycles custom bicycles 928 774 7747 www.coconinocycles.com: Bum, Bloggery & the Cash. - Busy! / Bammy's bike, Fall. - Garro.

[steve garro]

Coconino Cycles World HQ update - 9/5/10 coconino cycles custom bicycles 928 774 7747 www.coconinocycles.com: Bammy's frame all wrapped up - Garro.

[steve garro]

Coconino Cycles mid-Sept update: coconino cycles custom bicycles 928 774 7747 www.coconinocycles.com: Giity's frame done, Bammy's waiting, Jeff's & Manzo's still at spectrum, some hard handcycling / out of here for two weeks, back 10-1 / build queue. see you all in Oct! - Garro.

[steve garro]

Back from an amazing time in the NW! coconino cycles custom bicycles 928 774 7747 www.coconinocycles.com: Thank you, Oregon and N. California for all the great food, recreation & friendship. the flu, not so much....... got to hang with salonistas Vulture & Jake {bellman} back to work tomorrow. - Garro.

[roguedog]

welcome back. looks like it was an awesom trip. great pix.

every time i go to your site the quote by bill bullard always makes me smile. who is bill bullard and what does that quote mean to you?

(I did google bill bullard and found the photographer)

[steve garro]

welcome back. looks like it was an awesom trip. great pix.

every time i go to your site the quote by bill bullard always makes me smile. who is bill bullard and what does that quote mean to you?

(I did google bill bullard and found the photographer)

for everyone here is the quote: "Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge," says educator Bill Bullard. "It requires no accountability, no understanding. The highest form of knowledge is "empathy", for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding." I got it from my great friend/photog D. Kish Dawn Kish Photography and it just stuck for me. my world in my previous life was one where i was guilty of just thinking of myself {largely as a survival instinct - nobody really raised me from 12yrs on - Mom split, Dad was courting my step-monster who never liked me} and I just basically walked through this world as if it was all a big soap opera where I was the star & everybody else were just talking heads/bit actors. I think many do. There are allot of things about the old Steve that died on Oct 5th, 2005 that were just as good gone. That's a hard pill to learn to swallow. Now, I'm not the flashy, tough, looked up to racer guy/endurance star/sports model. I'm that cripple guy hugging the side of the street to get good crutch placement just gimping along & trying not to spill his coffee. People who don't know me think I'm just some kind of 'tard or a worthless cripple without ever seeing under the exterior. I loath the fact that used to be me sometimes. Now, i've met guys who have climbed Kilamanjaro on a handcycle, guys who rode around the globe on one, climbed El Cap with arms alone, have several frinds with head injuries really struggling but are pulling it off under exterme duress while still being themselves, talked to MS kids, helped people get off the sidewalk for the first time in 20yrs, lots of that. and you know what? behind the peepers they are still humans along on the same fucked up ride on a tiny dustspeck as me, and everyone else. I learned that if someone is leading a life different then yours then that does not mean it can be a life without merit or happiness. I learned that there is my mind, and there is the thing we thing of as "reality", and that sometimes you have to step back from your percieved "reality" and let your mind determine right from wrong or to think in ways that may cause us to squirm a little. Lastly, it carries oner to building, and I have said this before, you have to build people THEIR bike, not YOUR bike in their size. that is substituting *opinion* {how you think their bike should be} to *empathy* {how thier bike should be} by being empathetic to tha nuances of fit, use and intent to make what will be the best for that client.........sorry for the rant, I just busted this out as train-of-though but think it covers your question - Garro.

[steve garro]

un-happy anniversary! today is the 5th anniversary of me being crushed like a grape. 5/10/05 - guess i'll go build frames to celebrate! - Garro.