Monkey Likes Shiny

BINGO was his name O

2012-01-27T03:11:00.000-08:00

Or something like that.....

Yesterday Sal ( the owner of Actual Caf'e ) appeared at my shop door with a bingo ball roller in hand....

Note : If your from Oakland or the bay area you might have heard of Actual Cafe, its really cool and very bicycle related cafe, I mean you ride right inside of the cafe and hang your bike up next to a lady drinking coffee reading a book most of the time, its really a great place. Most of the time MLS concept projects can be seen hanging from the ceiling around the cafe, such as the gravity bike.

" We are pressed for time and the event is Thursday, do you think you can build something to rotate these bingo balls that is bicycle related? " Sal told me.

So tonight I figured I better just get it done. With the help of Matt Ducot ( the dude that does a lot of the movies on my blog ) and a few DAD's root beers we were able to hammer this bad boy out from design to finished in a total of 4 hours.

Not bad, for a Thursday night hammer secession or should we call it Friday morning... Thursday night build sounds more dramatic and badass.

Lets see how we did it.

If you read my blog you know I am a big Schwinn collector

So I pulled this one down which was on display, from the ceiling above my welding table

A good old 1960s Schwinn American 24" Boys

I had a plan...

Thats a kids 16" steel rim, tacked to the side of the ball hopper

Now the rear track stand was built and a custom piece to replace the rear freewheel on the bike with no teeth, the chain just slides where the freewheel should be.

Matt thinking hes training while drinking

There is NO product placement in this photo.... Sponsors always welcomed !

How about a side profile, sorry I built faster then we could take photos.

There she is....

Ready for action at Actual Cafe's Non-Profit fund raising events

Matt wanted to show you how it works.

Sounds like an old tractor!

Want to know more about the event in Oakland at Actual Cafe.

Bike Bingo Event Info

Come out and support some good bicycle related causes!!!!

See you there !

working working working

2012-01-22T20:58:00.000-08:00

OK....

Wasn't expecting to turn MLS in to a T-Shirt factory but it kinda happened the last weeks. Super stoked to see people worldwide making it happen and showing the love. Thanks Everyone, The shirts are boxed and shipping!

I don't mind screen printing and you get a real custom MLS made shirt.

Doing the little green DiAcro Press brakes.

Done - This lucky person will be an investor in the DiAcro press brake as shown on their arm with the little green press brake. Other tools include a blue patternmakers vise, Calipers, Drills, Tig torch and so on. Every shirt is a surprise....

the little green press brake that could...

If you want to buy a shirt and help out heres the link - To the Buy a T-shirt blog page

Back to the metal shop

Some times you just need to know when its a good idea to say, " Theres a better way or person to do this job". I had to say it the other day. I was machining out the front hub for the top speed bike on manual lathe and I had it almost done and looked at it and said, this works for a prototype for me to make the front steering but really its not the quality I need for the look to be correct.

If Cane Creek didn't do such a good job making the hubs on the carbon rear wheel maybe my manually made hub would be fine but I really want to show off the machining marks on the outside of the hub. On a completely contoured machined hub with no straight lines its next to impossible to do on a manual machine and leave the raw machined look. This hub is really a pain in the ass to make and I can thank my brother for designing it like that.

I might not be a " True Machinist" to the " OLD Guys " but I still can give them a run for their money.

Doing some hoggin out of the center of the hub. That 7075 Aluminum is a dream to machine if you know what I am talking about.

The hub is very special as the steering is inside the hub shell in the big pocket.

This hub takes a lot of operation changes to make it happen on a manual lathe or CNC lathe, I took it out after roughing out the rough shape for the photo and to start machining the steel mandrel to hold it in the center bearing bore, so I could do my final profile cuts on the outside of the hub shell.

Like I said up above, I decided its time to ask for help so I got on the phone and called my buddy Derek over at Moss Machine in San Francisco. Derek is one of those machinist that looks at super crazy prototype stuff and says " OK ". The dude has maybe touched something thats on your high end bicycle in some way, he does a lot of prototype machine work for big companies like Easton and so on.... He said " OK " give me the block of aluminum and come back next week to get it, I owe you anyways for hammering out the stuff for the BRD RedShift bike ( video of Dereks machine shop ).

I finished up some of the last fab on the frame other then the crazy seat mount, it was just making all the stainless steel brackets for the rear dropout aluminum sections to bolt too. There is a Paragon Machine Works belt disconnect in the frame because I figured why not set it up for belt drive... Isn't it suppose to be a futuristic concept bike when chains don't exist on bikes, right ...?

The tube ends are capped and threaded for the built-in belt tensioning, don't worry you will understand later when you see the rest of the parts... And thanks to Best Buy telling me I am 2 days over on my extended warrantee on my broken digital camera, I am forced to use my Iphone for photos until I get a new camera... What a buzz kill

see the little seam for the belt disconnect?

This was just before I welded it all up and make it look fancy....

Make it happen !!

2012-01-20T01:25:00.000-08:00

If you read my blog you know that I get frustrated somedays about public schools across the USA dropping shop programs to save money and time.

I try my part to keep the kids a-buildin' and the dream alive....

This is a new edit from Matt Ducot for his work Connect-Ed which is a non-profit with the vision of getting videos out there for the kids in high schools to see what " A day in the Life " looks like for different careers.

Matt followed me around for a day and I built some stuff... He did a quick edit a while back for my blog, but this one has audio and a bit more footage from that first shoot that turned out so rad.

Enjoy

Prototype Fabricator from ConnectEd Studios on Vimeo.

Happiness comes in all forms....

2012-01-17T22:35:00.000-08:00

Anyone that knows me, knows my brain can work in odd ways and thinks outside of the box. Sometimes my brain runs wild and I get so trigger happy, my hands try to keep up with my brain, but as we all know thats not possible to keep up with the brain...

When you meet someone that feels the same way and runs on the same wave length, its something that catches you off guard and everything stops for a second to ponder how and why?

For the last 5 years theres been a pretty girl that for some reason runs on a similar wave as me and its always thrown me for a twist.

Back years ago when MLS was just getting the wheels moving for the first time in downtown Los Angeles, this girl lived next to me and we shared a wall between my machine shop and her workshop.

This proved to be a huge distraction for me, as she always seemed to be doing something or building something cooler then I was, so it proved to be be one of my biggest distractions but biggest loves. When the s#!t hit the fan at our crazy art compound in downtown LA. The whole crew like Goose, Dan, Sarah, Brie and everyone else was forced to split up, it truly was a sad day. Yes, the building was a complete S#!t box and over priced with a super shady landlord but it was all of us friends together in a amazing time, mindset and place in the ghetto of South Central LA.

I still miss that place ( maybe not the place ) but really times spent there.

Things have changed but what I do hasn't, and thats truely why I get out of bed every morning - to work with my hands and my mind.

Everyday has a different feeling and passion, from the little projects like an quick concept project for a science museum to have kids fill sand in to a plastic tube, to crazy projects like making parts for USA Government Laboritories where something I crafted could change history and science for ever, down to the basics like making a basic coat rack so I have somewhere to hang my apron at the end of the day.

My brain moves thru my hands - and I am in love with every second of it.

Ok, enough is enough, back to the topic about building stuff

Sarah, the girl that lived next door to me, is an amazing photographer that has traveled the world and enjoyed every second of it with a smile... That alone is rad, but it is her work that twist my brain and keeps me asking for more. When she lived next door, I had to be involved in her prop building because building stuff by the book is fun but what if you don't have a limit to how weird and how twisted you can make something. Thats when the fun starts....

Movie and Photo Prop building is one of my greatest hobbies because I can throw the blueprints out the door and let the brain run wild !

Now you combine that with another person thats on the same wave with the same motives but a different skill set and you have a run away train with two locomotives wide open until who know what happens...

But it is truly one of my most enjoyed times in my life, just sitting around thinking, laughing and building stuff with Sarah. I got to enjoy a weekend of building props when I visited her this last weekend and she put me to work in her workshop building props for a shoot with a band called Little Red Lung plus just having fun in the redwood forest for some "on the fly" random shoots.

This was the final out come of Sarah and I making stuff for the band Little Red Lung this weekend

The band seemed stoked... and so were we !

We couldn't go to crazy that you couldn't recognize them, think we got just the limit.

We made some crazy neck piece, using parts from my Espresso machine I am building and wood hands.

I love these behind the scene photos

Yep thats me, doing a light test before the band showed up to test the look and light.

Sunday in the morning, we decided to have some fun of our own

Lead Grip ( me ) on set getting things ready.

Bird on a wire....

Crazy forest woman

The magic !

In the end, I even got a kiss in, for a Hallmark style photo

A solid weekend !

So that sums up the weekend of making stuff with Sarah

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Heres some old photos of years back. I got to be part of...

Dan and I built this thing over a few beers and a evening of board-em

We made it dispense beer can in the seat tube like a PEZ dispenser

TV man entering the room

Art and I had to have some fun across the street from the old shop in LA before he took off for the NAVY.

I will leave you with this photo.

Just something I made for a shoot...

Need more....

Sarah Sitkin - Website or Flickr

Trust me you won't be let down...

T-Shirt fun raiser..... Hot off the Press and Shipping NOW

2012-01-08T22:04:00.000-08:00

Buying T-Shirts is really cool I read on the internet, but what if you were really an Investor in MLS by purchasing a T-shirt, is that a double bonus ?

The other day I was thinking of an idea,

I have been designing this Hydrogen Fuel Cell Race bike and have been thinking of what machines I need in the shop to build this thing. My goal with the frame of the Hydrogen Fuel Cell bike is to be 100% full Titanium sheet metal with 0 ( ZERO ) round tubing.

So heres where you come in....

I have been looking at getting a small DiAcro Press Brake to build the
Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bike frame and parts.

This is a little 4 foot DiAcro Mechanical Sheet Metal Press Brake
made in good old Minnesota for over 60+ years
cost for one of these 1960's used beauties is about $6,000

So here is my idea with the T-Shirts...

All the profits generated from the T-shirts will go towards getting the machine, with each shirt it will come with a small screen printed silhouette of the machine on the arm sleeve that the profits are going to.

That way when your riding around you might see someone else sportin' a rad MLS shirt, BUT they have a different machine silhouette on the arm sleeve indicating that they helped fund a different machine in the shop then you did.

Thats my little idea to make each shirt a little personalized and custom.

This is the first time that I am trying something like this, who knows if it will work but its worth a try!

If your ordering from overseas extra shipping will be required.

Just remember the small detail about the shirts - Just like Henry Ford put it best

" You can have it in any color you want as long as its BLACK !

If you are feeling like you just need to help make the shop a learning tool for the next generation of metal crafters and group of 10 year old kids taking my welding class right now ( extra points ), then I am going to put the donate button up for you.

Consider yourself as an Investor in the creative thinking and progression of concepts World Wide!

If you ordered shirts already they are going out this week if they haven't already... Thanks to the early birds that have helped get the project rolling.

A true MLS made shirt here in Oakland,CA

Printed on an American Apparel USA made shirt !
MLS is a Non-Profit
because we burned it all up having fun building stuff !

#1 and Proud

2012-01-01T16:53:00.000-08:00

Today I got the news that my bike make it as #1 Bicycle of 2011 according to CycleExif as the most popular bike on their site.

Top Ten Bicycles of 2011

Super Proud - a great way to start off the new year !

Special thanks goes to Kyle of trackosaurusrex for taking some amazing photos and enjoying a day of ripping this thing down the hills in LA and not crashing it ( thats my job ).

Some extra photos Kyle took on his Flickr of the Gravity bike.

And a big thanks to the crew at CycleExif, Tracko, Prolly and everyone else for putting it all together over the last year and making it amazing !

Happy New Year to everyone and keep those hands building !

Happy New Years !

2011-12-31T03:01:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone has a blast for the New Years!

MLS is throwing the big ball bash tomorrow night and I am getting ready but like normal something shows up to throw me off from my task and get me all fired up about building something.

Bear from All Power Labs in Berkeley, CA decided it would be perfect to push in to my shop the 500 watt PEM Hydrogen Fuel Cell for my next project during my party set up...

And like normal the party planning and set up stopped.... because I had to get my hands dirty and check this thing out.

Bear wants to be a model for Sears so bad!

Its a really cool set up made in the early 2000s by a company called Avista Labs, I don't know a ton about it yet and I will be doing some research about it but I do have some fuel cell experience and I think this is going to make a cool electric race bike project. I need to decided should it use 36 inch wheels or 29 inch , Coker wheels or Velocity wheels, that is the question ????

12 PEM Cells all packed in to a crazy brain of controllers

Either way - Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all - Its been a good time in 2011 and 2012 is looking very bright already !

Discovery Channel

2011-12-22T00:06:00.000-08:00

In the good old days, some years back I was on a few Discovery Channel shows.

I happened to run across this one tonight while surfin the web.

Blake and Jake are in there too, Blake and I were both new to California while filming this...

Had to capture the screen shot for the blog, a must have.

Clean cut back in those days

Imagine being a kid taken from your cold Minnesota home and thrown in front of a TV film crew in warm & sunny Southern California a week later and told to not get in to trouble.....

Yeah right, it was only the start of the fun for years to come....

Its a long show but you can fast forward thru that dude Billy... ha ha

There is the complete bike with those pipes I am still proud of.

Dylan and I did them in like 4 hours because it was a rush

Maybe someday I will dig up some of the other TV shows and post them..

Enjoy

100,000 people and counting.....

2011-12-19T23:35:00.000-08:00

First thing .....

Thanks to the readers for making MLS a fun project for me and being interested enough to come around and check it out. For a lot of people 100k people viewing my blog doesn't seem like a lot of people but when your from a small town in Minnesota with population of only a few thousand people, 100k seems like a lot!

well for you electronic nerds, a 100k resistor, kinda like the amount of page hits but not really.

Its getting close to Xmas as well so happy holidays to everyone and that means my normal quick escape back to Minnesota to make me realize how cold the earth can be for 5+ months of the year.

It was the Fwod' girls bicycle club's Sadie Hawking bike ride.

Classic style for Sadie Hawking dance or ride,

the lady asks out the dude so,

I got asked on the ride by Sanja and had a blast riding Oakland and Alameda.

Oh Boy....

One project at a time, but this one ended up in my hand

and I couldn't say NO

Hydrogen Fuel cells all ready to go...!!!!!

Did someone say Futuristic BoardTracker from 2050?

Expect some madness no one has ever seen with the

titanium sheet metal.

I started drawing it in Solidworks... Electric 36ers front and rear ??

You are going to have to nail bite for a while on this one...

Saturday Night Delight

2011-12-17T19:41:00.000-08:00

Theres nothing more peaceful then good music and a welding torch on a Saturday night.....

Its out of the fixture table and ready for welding!

Day in the office.....

2011-12-15T22:19:00.000-08:00

The Pullmax

This machine is straight up one of the coolest machines out there.

Designed really in the early days for one task - to cut circles out of sheet metal..

It holds a piece of sheet metal on a pad or point located deep in the throat of the machine,

next the operator spins the sheet around that point or pad, the machine eats the square piece in to a perfectly round circle ready for metal spinning or what ever.

This machine is set up for cutting circles with the yellow holder, this is the center of the circle for the cutter.

Later down the road in the 1950s or something like that, the aerospace monkeys started thinking what if we made shrinking, stretching, doming and all kinds of weird dies for it, the goal not trying to not cut the metal but to crush it and move it around.

It became a very important tool in every aircraft factory from then on... Thanks guys

I started out with a flat piece of copper 16g and just started doming it in to a bowl, the final product is ___________, maybe I will fill in the blanks later. Sorry I didn't notice the saw in front of the machine.

I think Jesse James really put this machine on the map when he decided to show it on Discovery Channel while building a gas tank, well, he at least did one thing... He made them so in demand, that no one could afford one anymore, so I have to go over to my friend Darrel's shop down the street to use his Pullmax machine...

Thanks Jesse

A busy Thanksgiving.....

2011-11-28T00:13:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving like most years was spent working....

This time I got a call last minute on the day before Thanksgiving telling me that I was needed for building stuff for a movie ( name no given at this current time ) and needed to be in LA in a few hours to start work.

So I took a small jet down to LA, why not?

Leaving Oakland at 8pm Wednesday and showing up in LA shortly after I was brought to the laser cutters at 10pm to start the weekend adventures...

Note : if you walk thru an airport with no luggage and just a welding helmet, people think you are on a tv show for some reason. don't ask why?

My only thing in hand....

Trust me it was a little chartered jet

just me and 30 of my most unknown friends headed to LA

To weld for a day, not bad way to travel.

I welded Thursday on movie stuff that needed to be loaded on a truck for a shoot that night and then Friday made a visit to Exile Cycles to work for the day on some new fun stuff Exile has coming out.

I had to put down some welds to make the kids happy and collect the check.

Blake asked what I was doing standing at the table, so here was my answer -

"Self-timed photo, someone has to take the photo and you were busy so I set the self timer,

And quit making fun of me and I don't like getting hit in the face while I am sleeping on your couch even if you think its funny"

Blake Schossler from Exile and I on lunch break

If anyone is in the Los Angeles Valley (818) area they need to hit up Vicious Dogs!

Best Chicago dogs on the west coast.

Anyone that knows me, knows I went to school to become a chef only for my 2 true loves

Donuts and Hotdogs. Thats why I have been going to this place for years

Hammering away welding at Exile most of the day Friday, my ride to the airport showed up at about 4pm....

None other then my brother and his lady in the PreRunner race truck.

This truck is very special to my brother and I, because its got some serious history with us.

1993 Ford F150 - Metal Morphosis Engineering Rig #2

This project is my brothers truck that got started maybe 7 or so years ago between him and I.

Its been a fun learning tool for both of us because we built just about everything, at that time when we started we had more time then money, It was such a fun learning project for me fab-wise.

As you can see...

The top of the truck is a soft top

The reason...

I rolled it a few times crushing the metal top

so I had to repay my brother in fab work for wrecking it

Sorry for that....

Custom mount my brother designed for a cheap Craftsman jack , Aluminum Fuel Cell ( old blog post ) and other stuff.

One of my first big welding projects year and years ago was these I-beams for the suspension

I Mig welded them and my brother machined all the parts.

Still look at them and remember how nervous I was about them working and looking good.

Had to post the picture of my brother as some repayment for rolling it and plus the hours he has worked on it to make it such a rad rig to beat up in the desert.

Maybe this funny photo will make him famous and he will forget about me rolling the truck so many times.

Racing to the airport, Bandit style!

Back to Oakland for meetings and more building !

Espresso machine part 1 of a long saga

2011-11-21T23:25:00.000-08:00

OK... I am just getting started on this project so don't expect it to be done any time soon but figured its time to post some photos, I am still building the Top Speed bike and a bunch of other things for myself not to mention my day to day work so this one will be my lunch time project for a while.

Any one that has met me most likely has met me at a coffee shop, its where I seem to hang out a lot. If your in Oakland and you see someone inside the coffee shop on a bmx bike doing 360s and flat land tricks or maybe a Yeti Mtb crashing in to chairs, I can almost bet 100% that you are seeing yours truly.

Some times I just shut down Actual Cafe and bring in all the bikes for the kids -

photo J. Suzuki - Actual Cafe - Oakland, CA

Ok besides my bad habits around coffee shops, I do have a true love for coffee and espresso. So anyone that reads my blog knows that only means on thing....

I have to build something......

I decided to build a espresso machine from scratch with about 0 experience in how a machine works, what makes a good shot or really anything about espresso other then I really like to drink it, it makes me type really really fast !!!

I did a ton of drawings trying to figure out what I even wanted it to look like, but one major goal in mind " make it look like a laboratory experiment ", I make them everyday anyways, so it shouldn't be to hard.

I am very inspired by lab experiments and one project came to mind that really stokes me out.

The USA has been working on a project called NIF or National Ignition Facility located not to far from San Francisco.

In a nut shell the quick way to understand it is - Using basically the most powerful laser in the world, a flash is created and that flash is broken over and over until its become 192 beamlets (small laser beams from the single beam) which are then shot in to a huge sphere, and then at a tiny target the size of a pencil eraser. When all the beamlets hit the target it creates a fusion reaction which means a mini star on earth for researchers to study only arms reach away. CRAZY !! it gets me pumped just writing about it.

YouTube on how NIF works

this drawing doesn't really do good for showing its massive size

This was when they were building it about 10 years ago, getting ready to lower it in to the ground.

Its huge and made of 10cm thick Aluminum plate made in to a sphere!

There is 200+ holes for both inspection and also the beamlets.

This is where I start with my Espresso project and its bits of inspiration from NIF and other projects I have seen at laboratories begins.

My brain had the design already now just to connect the dots with my hands.

I always like to make a quick sketch of what I thought of so I don't forget, having like 50 projects going at one time can cause you to forget good ideas or open you up to some new ones.

Don't judge my quick drawings... this is one of my 10 concepts I did, this one is a side view of the machine with a lot of NIF style to it.

Next step get some stuff made.

Projects like this I some times draw on Solidworks but other times I just like to go freestyle like the good old days... This one I am going to freestyle!

I heard word on the street of a old man and his son located in the San Francisco Bay Area that were some of the best metal spinners on the west coast, these guys might not know all the crazy details on material specs and tech stuff about the metal they are working on but they have enough experience with every kind of metal, they just know how to feel the metal and know what it needs! Theres a reason theres piles of Aerospace, Government and other precision parts around their shop, because they know how to get the job done right.

25+ years of metal spinning experience!

This is Roy Sr. spinning the lower half of the boiler out of 14g Copper sheet

Roy Jr. uses heat to help with the bending and soften the copper

The last photo in this post shows the finished spun copper.

Time for lunch and some lathe work!

This piece of copper will become the 3 viewing windows in to the copper boiler

I will weld them in and then the glass windows drop in, hope they don't fog to much.

There will be a small stainless ring on the outside that holds the glass in to the copper.

Lunch is done, I didn't get finished in the 45 minutes.

They still need holes drilled and tapped all the way around them for the stainless glass holders.

Maybe another lunch break would do the trick.

Remember I am freestylin this, so I am not using the CNC machines or blueprints, rollin dirty!

The other little sphere is Stainless and its 14 gauge because it will become the steam generator and be under pressure up to about 50 PSI, so not risking it due to pressure I decided to make it stainless, also for cleaning. If you know about making espresso shots you will understand having a boiler and a steamer separated is the best. Espresso shots pull the most rich at about 202 deg F. where as steam starts at 213 deg. F and above which makes for a bad tasting shot because of the high heat extracting to much acid.

Keep ya posted and be sure to enjoy

trapped in a love story....

2011-11-20T18:47:00.000-08:00

pushing the limits of perfection

2011-11-15T22:09:00.000-08:00

I received an email from a younger aged welder ( like myself ) with a bunch of questions. He was asking about different levels of measurement tolerances on welded parts I work on and tips about fixturing projects.

Its really not a very specific question that I could give an answer to because every project I do is so very different and working with such a huge range of materials causes it to be always changing, especially being a prototype fabricator because its more sometimes about the look and relatively close tolerances for testing with great efforts to keep the cost of time and money down.

A good example is the Top Speed bike I am building. The tubes on that bike are first rolled with a slight curve then some how with my tricky ways, machines, a bit of magic and wacky bending dies, I am able to put tight bends on the long curved tube. This kind of bending is very complex in a lot of ways both in measuring and in manufacturing.
The odds of hitting exact numbers that Solidworks is giving me on the blueprint is next to impossible, I am close but never exact, it then become more visual and getting the look and flow of the frame then getting the exact numbers ( I would have a pile of bad chromoly tubes touching the moon if I tried to get it perfect like the computer model )

Love my Starrett stuff - worth every penny!!

But when it comes to other projects for clients of the aerospace, medical, and science world, the level of expectations are very high so I then turn the attention to the numbers and getting it near or exactly what the customer expects.

Thats my job, and I think I do a good job at it !

Some projects come in that almost make me cry looking at the blue prints, because they expect near perfect things ( most of the time it seems these are not important things needing perfection and sometime are just errors on blueprints )
Learning from the old dudes over the years has stoked me out and stressed me out ( more on the stressed ) because there is those days where you build for days, weeks and months on a project only to find out things moved while welding, machining or handling and now you gotta fix them.

Some of the ideas we come up with to fix them scare or surprise me, thats when the years of experience come in...
Thats will be a great blog post of another day...

On a normal day to day I find myself holding very tight tolerances of measurements mostly because I make a lot of laboratory stuff where mishaps can throw everything off. Some times the worst looking weld seems to be the straightest and strongest and other days when you don't drink 15 cups of coffee and 2 cans of Mt. Dew at 5 AM before welding, things look great and are some times straight too.

Either way the lesson is " Metal loves to move " ( people in to having fun in large groups while drinking a lot of beer ( if you read that without the punctuation, it covered 2 lessons in one))

These Titanium Elbows have very tight measurements in all ways so the fixturing is design to be very restrictive to hold them in to the shape while welding and cooling. That leads to another problem of being able to get the torch in there to weld the parts and preform good quality welds.

If you seen the fixture that I use to weld these, you would ask how do you even weld it all in there, there is no room for the torch ? I was kinda happy with the welds for how restrictive the fixture was to welding, no show winners but defiantly not leakers and thats what matters to the customer. The tolerance is .008 +/-

I should have put a penny next to these Titanium parts so you know how small they are!

The Ti tube going in to and the bottom is a bit smaller then a wood pencil.

the part on the left is boarder line being to short

the part on the right is board line being to long

They both pass but on the limits

( side by side makes it easier to compare for the photo)

The measurement tolerance on these Titanium parts is .003" +/- or about 0.08 mm +/-

For you kids out there - thats the thickness of a piece of paper

Titanium tubes with 2 - 360 deg. welds holding parts to the blueprint specs while being leak-free

I love these... I do thousands of them in all different sizes and shapes

Skill testers and good time to listen to books on tape!

Well that didn't answer any questions so now that I am done writing I see its kinda a waste of a post.

But its getting posted anyways regardless.

Enjoy

Espresso Machine build is coming soon!!!

Get ready

Faucet Flower Vase

2011-11-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

Ok, I am sitting here and got an idea.

I know, I have an advantage with having a machine shop filled with weird stuff but I thought of a fun project to do quick, its great for anyone with any skill level to impress someone for the holidays coming up with a hand made piece.

Ready, start the timer!

Go to the junkyard or where ever to find a cool looking bath tub faucet and pull it all apart until its just the body. Also when your out looking for that perfect looking Brass faucet find some kind of tube ( I would recommend getting a plastic one so you can cut it )

I found this old chrome plated brass one so I gutted it

I also found this new test tube made of plastic. A small plastic drinking glass is an idea as well

Find a way ( hole saw, saw, ect. ) to cut a hole the size of the tube.

I have a milling machine but a hand drill would work as well with a hole saw

Give it !!!!

I cut down the plastic test tube and dropped it in!

Fits great!

Done - 15 minutes later !!!

I mounted a screw ( you decide how to mount it ) thru the plug pull hole

TIP - IF you find a brass one, sand or file off the chrome and under the chrome will be a beautiful raw brass body that will have a great GOLD glow !!

MLS works 365 days a year for the love of metal crafting...

Enjoy the fruits

The wheels keep turning.....

2011-11-14T04:11:00.000-08:00

This weekend I was working on my Lab style Espresso machine ( post coming this week ) and on the Top Speed Bicycle.

Good weekend of just hammering in the shop on all the projects and keeping the young kids happy teaching welding, by the way I had my youngest TIG student this weekend, 8 years old and I was proud to see him running the torch. Its amazing what kids can do if you get the wheels turning on proper methods and safety!

Friday I picked up the huge block, all 26 pounds of 7075 aluminum to make the front hub for the Top Speed bike. If you look at the 3D model you can see the front steering is inside the hub so it requires the hub to cup over the front steering point on the bike. Its not a big deal except for the fact that I need to start out with a huge 4 3/4 inch round of 7075 aluminum. This grade of aluminum is an amazing grade to machine and makes very light parts out of, but your welding fact for the day is DO NOT weld it, and there is a link why if you have some time to read about welding.

Yep, I used a can of Murry's for a size reference!!
After I am done making the hub I will have a good chunk left of this bar left and the hub will be under a pound with a huge pile of chips left in the lathe, which to me might as well be my paycheck laying in the machine.

I love my shop, its coming together very nicely

Thats Margaret Holland's Oil Painting of " Chuck " on the right

Chuck is a living legend in the Santa Cruz, CA area I've heard

She is a really good oil painter and I get to hang it in my shop as inspiration !!!

And on the left is Louise Chen's " Love to Bee Home" painting

Oh Yeah, the bike is coming along as well, got some 4130 tubes tacked on after 9 hours of making about 15 mistakes trying to put tight bend after tight bend on to rolled tubing ( kids don't do this at home, its not a good idea if you only have one shot to get it right )

A day in the life.......

2011-11-12T23:05:00.000-08:00

Somedays when I move about my day to day life, I never really stop and think about what I do and how much fun its been the last 5 or so years...

Some times I get the chance to look at it from a whole different prospective and see how it looks from a different way and it makes me smile...

This video is a quick view of the BRD Electric Motorcycle that I did some prototype work on a few months ago ( older blog post ) such as the aluminum skid plate and display stand, I don't appear in the video but it doesn't even matter to me, I was there with all those amazing designers, craftsman and thinkers and in the end the results with the project were amazing and I thank them for letting me be a part in the fun.

MLS has arrived and is here to stay, the San Francisco Bay Area is truly an amazing place for thinkers and builders of all kinds...

BRD RedShift from Sam Erickson on Vimeo.

Here we go..... You ready?

2011-11-09T23:57:00.000-08:00

100 MPH + on a track bike with no fork?

This project between my brother Jason Tiedeken and I has been on the burner for a while and its time to just hammer it out. I did the mock up of the bike and some of you got a sneak peek of it in the 360 deg view of my shop weeks back but its time to put it on the blog, plus a quick teaser video from Matt Ducot

The vision started about a year or so back when I asked my brother to team up with me to design and build something fun and fast, something that would get people thinking different about the bicycle industry and all the possibilities still out there when it comes to design.

He sent over some sketches for me to think about...

This one of the many 30 second sketch that caught my eye!

In my years of working in the prototype industry, I have got the opportunity to work with some of the most famous designers and engineers but my brother scores in the very top few because of his mad skills of thinking outside of the box as well as being one of the fastest design engineers on a computer, and then being able to walk in to the shop and build it, to put the cherry on top.
He is very highly in demand across many industries for that very reason.

Jason T, my brother and owner dude of Metal Morphosis Engineering threw a quick 3D drawing together of the creature to see what it would look like

in Solidworks so we could decided the layout. This was a quick drawing to take some of the guess work out of it, there was nothing specific about his drawing to build off of, most of the time this style of 3D modeling is done as a point of concept to clear up any questions before the specific drawings are made and building starts. This is the reason there is no seat, the chainring goes thru the tube and so on, its nothing more then a good way to view your project in a different way then a hand drawing.

My brother's concept was locked down and it was now my job to make it a reality, my brother stepped back and let me do the magic in my Skunkworks shop in Oakland,CA.

Peter from Cane Creek has always been a believer of anything rolling out of the MLS doors and was quick to join the effort with some sick carbon wheels and AER headset.

Since Cane Creek always helps me out I decided why not do an internal headset using their AER headset,

I decided to make it using a bottom bracket from a BMX frame I was suppose to build for a customer, the BB is the same size bearing bores as an internal headset, the only differences being in the small angle the bearings rest on ( you can see inside the tube), I machined an angle inside for the bearing rests. Kinda cool and it took about 5 minutes to make it work, if your ever looking for great info on machining headtubes for custom projects check out Cane Creek for PDFs they show every dimension need to make all sizes of HTs.

I did some quick layouts dimensions to set up my frame table

The frame geo is based off of Lance's TT bike.

My frame table I built about 2 years ago was built for this very reason.

TO THINK OUTSIDE OF THE FIXTURE

not to be constrained by the requirements of where to put the tubes, it takes a bit longer to build a frame because you need to be measuring extra, but in the end, your brain has no limits to where you need to be.

I machine out all the parts to save every possible gram...

There did I sound like a roadie?

I machine out the parts just to make sure that later down the road if I need to back purge the frame with argon for better weld quality or if I need to run cables inside the frame I don't have to get ghetto crazy with the frame and do it the wrong way with a long drill bit and some beers.

I know your asking " How do this thing steer"??

good question

These good old "Morse Push Pull Cables" as seen on your dads dragster and boat

This one is for a TOP FUEL dragster hammer shifter from B&M

I havn't lock down all the details with it and the mounting but I had to start somewhere with the concept.

If you going to go over 100 MPH your going to need a big ring, maybe like 90+ tooth

Thats a 52 tooth laying on the table and check out those chainstays.. talk about a pain to make

As of right now this is how far I am.

I built the mock-up bike already to make sure it looked right.

I like it.

Now I am running a orbital sander over all the tubes to clean them and doing the final tacks and cuts on the tubes.

Matt Ducot working on the video teaser

I don't think he wanted me to take the picture?

He made this video so quick and with such little amount of footage, kinda makes me wonder what he would do if he had a lot of footage and way more time.

Monkey Likes Shiny - 100mph + concept track bike
from Matt Ducot on Vimeo.

Remember tell you mom you seen it first here on MLS, she will be stoked.

Class is now in session.

2011-11-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

My drive in metal crafting for the last few years has been two things...

Kids and Learning

Its my true passion and love is teaching. Its the reason my dream jobs are doing work for science museums and once and a while at MLS the job comes along and I get the pleasure of crafting for museums and it makes me smile the whole time.

I have been shooting for my CWE and CWI certifications ( certified welding educator and inspector ) for a few years now, the reason I haven't got them yet is, I haven't been welding long enough to even qualify for it so expect the day I hit my qualifying year, I will be first in line for my test!

I also have been working with a non-profit out of California that develops classroom educational videos for students to get a behind the closed doors look at what a concept fabricator/ welder / machinist does and possible strike up some intrest in someone board in high school careers class.

I saw a need to share my passion a while back when a teacher told me about their school they worked at had only ONE very basic shop related class left, as all had been cut due to budgets years before. The machines were all sold at auction and the great shop teachers that helped hundreds of kids run the mills, lathes and welders were all let go..

That school was MY school......

That school in Minnesota and others around the USA were incubators for skilled craft works and it is truly sad to see these machines filling auction floors now days, realizing that these 1930s to 1990s machines built the USA's next generation of crafters. But now seeing them at auction makes my heart sink as I realize kids will never get the chance to see, hear or touch some of these amazing machines.

I am very busy and always running around building something for someone, but there comes those days when I need to shut it down relax and take a quick break. For some reason, I don't feel like I want to leave the shop, I guess when you Live, Work, Eat, and Sleep in your shop and or other shops it becomes a complete connection of you. I think thats why I wear my safety glasses all day every day because I am always in a shop, but either way I find spare time to mentor someone in hopes of opening a new option for that student as a skill choice or a new path on life.

My favorites are teaching welding to kids between the age of 8 to about 16 because they don't have the " I know " attitude, everything is fresh, exciting and ready to learn all about this crazy new stuff. My new student the last months has been little Nate, 11 years old and full of spunk always ready to grab the TIG torch and see what he can make. I wish I had an Aerospace Welder teacher when I was 11, thanks to my dad and his mad skills when I was about 11, I got to look at what was going on thru a 1950s POS welding helmet that was almost fully melted and I learned a lot from what he did and did wrong as he burned his hands and such.

Heres some cool shots and video of Nate, during one of our TIG/FAB classes.

I don't tell them what to build, I just show them how to build it.

Nate has been building stainless steel madness and learning torch angles

Nate forgetting to wear his safety glasses

yep, he got yelled at after this photo for not having his glasses on.

Not bad for some old Schwinn road bicycle handlebars &

a 11 year old's creativity

Remember I didn't pick up the torch once on this project

even Kane wanted in on the fun by taking this sweet picture

at MLS Skunkworks HQ.

New kid on the Block.......

2011-11-01T00:20:00.000-07:00

The last months at MLS have been off the hook nuts..... Sorry, I haven't been hiding, I have been living it large between getting flown around the USA to weld and working on some new crazy concept projects for a big airplane company, the new Gillette razor commercials, and those other kids down the street called Clorox who always have fun robotics to build...

With being so busy comes the problem of filling orders for things that MLS normally produces for various companies, the level of expectations the customers expects only leaves me the choice of hiring someone to help out that is experienced and as excited about building stuff as I am, which is hard to find....

I heard of a kid Mike Cleaver having fun building stuff in Oakland out of a Steam Engine restorer's machine shop, so I invited him to a bicycle art show I threw a few months back at the Actual Cafe and I was surprised to see his level of creativity and building odd stuff. He builds a lot of weird stuff that is quick to catch your eye and he has a good sense of style and flow to his machines.

I knew he would work great helping out around the shop so I put him to work building stuff and welding. I think he has a good out look on having fun and doing it for the love of building, learning as he goes along.

We had a booth at PedalFest in Oakland

Hard at work

Thanks Izi for the Polaroid Photos

This was a quick build Mike did years back

He builds a lot of normal track racing, touring and road bikes as well

I made a visit to the Steam workshop and seen this thing up on the rack

I pointed it out and he shook his head, why?

" A bike to haul a Pony Keg, I started building it years ago for a micro brewer to deliver and never got paid so I threw it up on the rack and never finished it "

I said " I need it, trade me for tools " so we traded for tools, everyone wins !

Check out Mike's Flickr for all kinds of cool photos of builds

Cleaver bikes Flickr

Pedalfest Jack London- Oakland, CA

This show put on by a bunch of avid riders from Oakland and it was so much fun, I some how slipped it in to my craziness of work and thanks to Sean from Soulcraft bicycles for throwing me down a booth next to Mark from Paragon machine works. I think the whole day the most enjoyment was seeing Mark's two young kids push each other around on the Gravity Speed bike in the trade show hall. Those kids put on a few miles pushing each other around laughing. It was so cool to have a free show in an very bicycle driven community, it made it possible for new groups of people to experience all the handbuilt and vintage bicycle world without paying for admission and scaring them off.

There was sooooo many kids wanting to talk at my booth about welding and building stuff, so rad!!!

Good work to crew for putting it on it made my day and my week!!

Izi shot this fun video of the 36er cruzin the WiskeyDrome

This was the test run by Slow Larry, the faster run didn't get filmed and got really dangerous!!!

Later in the night a bunch of builders all met up for dinner and they for some reason kind of invited me, mostly because I pulled up while they were standing waiting for a table and did a huge brake stand burnout in my truck,smoking out the street block, then I parked and joined them to their embarrassment.

It was rad, I got to hear all the great stories from the master story teller and master frame builder himself Bruce Gordon about the Slug Queen of Eugene,OR ( you might want to search that up if you don't know about it ).

Bruce Gordon, Sean and a bunch of us out for dinner in Oakland

Well, I will be all over the place like normal but I got a big fun project coming up

I will let you in on the secret - MLS Espresso machine

Just wait......

Lucky Lady

2011-10-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

The other day I was pressed for time as always in my life and I knew I needed to make something special for my lady for her birthday...

A quick scratch on my head, some Titanium bar and the stop at the coin shop on the drive home proved to be a good choice.

I have always been a big fan of big gauged earrings, better yet if they are worn by a super cute girl with tattoos that loves to ride bike!

Perfect sign me up, twice!

For the kids out there that don't know what Gauged earrings look like, here it is...

Heres what I made over lunch break ( don't tell her it was that quick )

Her ear hole size is 3/4 (.750 ) of an inch ( a bit bigger then the photo above ) and a Mercury dime has a outside diameter of .702

Then I pressed the dime in to the Titanium rings I made with a tight press, the dime is locked in without the use of glue or anything, so with that being said if you find a cooler dime you can press them out and press in a new dime.

With a big stack of roses and a pair of these 1938 Silver beauties, she is bound to hang out with me for another week!!

" Treat them like GOLD, and they will aways come back" - Casper Tiedeken ( my dad )

Thanks Dad you were right

Come on in....

2011-10-04T00:02:00.000-07:00

Once in a while I get someone that rolls in to my shop and wants help building something.....

Once in a while I am so stoked about what they do, I need in on it so I trade my work for work.

In this case my buddy Devin brought this dude Patrick Cheatham to my shop. Patrick is a photographer and you might have run across some of his work across the internet or seen it on TV. He came to me with a need for someway to hold a razor and rotate it 360 deg and make it look like it is floating for a TV commercial. He figured out the computer controlled rotating part using a crazy camera rotating mount, so I just had to make some easy holders for the product using Lexan plastic. When I found out what he did for a living shooting 360 images, I said, this one is on me but you have to come shoot the shop... Time for Time lets trade...

He came and set up a few days later, took a few minutes.... This camera was so cool, it was on a CNC robotic arm doing fully auto shooting!!

360° of Monkey Likes Shiny, by Patrick Cheatham

Figured I would show you my Manual Machine Shop..

These are the photos the camera takes using the crazy fish eye. These are the flat laid out 360 deg photos

After you do all the editing if needed, then you put the photos in the software and it makes it a crazy 3D image where you can look 360 degs around.

Check out the link below!!!

360° of Monkey Likes Shiny, by Patrick Cheatham

A secret place........

2011-09-25T19:19:00.000-07:00

When I first moved away from Minnesota to California, joining Exile cycles and working on Discovery channel shows, I was a bit taken back and sometimes a little overwhelmed by the work load of on and off camera work.

I needed a place to hide....

I happened to run in to someone that told me about a very special place located in Los Angeles that would cheer me up and leave my brain twisted, the true location is low key and I don't know how much I should share but here is quick peek at one of the most happy places in the world for me!

My buddy Art, who use to work here moving stuff around, now is on a Navy ship repairing jets and moving aerospace parts around just like when he worked here ( there you go Art, theres your fame for the month)

Remember I am an AeroSpace Welder and my love for NASA is very strong so this place is very special to me.....

This place is where NASA laid to rest so of its most well engineered " Space Race " projects of the late 1950 and 1960s.

You could call it a graveyard of Mercury, Apollo and Saturn rocket mission projects.

It is one of the only places that you can walk thru and NOT know what it does or what its used for.

There is about 40 rows in the building and two floors of just NASA stuff

over 20,000 feet of stuff!

Tanks and tanks and tanks

More tanks, complete rows of tanks

Titanium Tanks designed for fuel for NASA and the X projects

Rocketdyne J2 rocket used for the Saturn rocket and more Titanium tanks

One of the coolest things here!!

A back up rocket for the X-15 test projects

This little beast pushed the plane to set the record of mach 6.7 - the fastest thing on earth

North American X-15

Its only a dream to have it sitting in my living room

These are some of the tanks and parts used for the Apollo Command Module

This is a close up of the crazy Titanium welding that they did in the early 1960s

Remember these guys wrote the book on Titanium welding, it was all trial and error

and what a project to learn on.....

Just looking at some of the prototypes they built makes my jaw drop

these guys did it all without computers and without crazy machines.

Nothing but a good set of hands and a smile

Control boards from the research centers and back up rockets

I worked at exile all weekend with Blake ( aka - random ), can't tell you what I am working on with these NASA tanks from 1958s Saturn project, but I can say its going to make a nice hot cup of wake me up in the morning...

So many vistors....

2011-09-18T19:31:00.000-07:00

Over the last weeks theres been all kinds of people swinging by the shop to say hello and give me a high five, which is super rad!

The other night I was very surprised to see at my shop door with his lady, multi-time World Champ Downhill Mountain Biker Greg Minnaar, I would also add hes super rad and knows motorcycles.

I had to twist his brain with the idea of going 120 mph on a bike with no fork ( I think it worked ). Then he told me about the old Honda Downhill bikes and all about the new rad Santa Cruz DH bikes hes riding to twist my mind, then we were off to a music show in good old Oakland.

Theres a regular around MLS and his name is Noah Sakamoto. You might be one of the few million that have seen his videos or seen him on TV mashing some of the most crazy hills in the world both in competition and for fun. Hes one of the craziest fastest dudes in the world and a school teacher, even more radness!!

Noah and his classy speed-suit

The best part about this is it was before GoPro cameras were super hip and it wouldn't have been the same kind of video if they didn't hand off the camera while going 50 MPH +

Noah dropped of a rad board for me to crash in the hills

Thanks dude.

Its against a new machine I was given as a gift from the All Power Labs in Berkeley - a 1940s Gorton Pantographer machine, just wait until I get it running!!! its so neat its like a crazy over built engraver/cutter from the 1940s, this one is very special as it came from the Navy during WW2. It needs some TLC but I will put her back in to service! Search it up if you want to understand how it works, its really neat!

Burningman

2011-09-17T20:34:00.000-07:00

So, If you havn't heard about it.... Get with it and find out - Its crazy and amazing at the same time.

A 50,000 population city built in the desert for one week filled with all kinds of makers, designers, hippies, ravers, crafters and so on. Search up " Burningman "

My trip was very very last minute as normal, giving me about 3 days to get everything ready, and as being a fabricator and builder, you can't go to one of the biggest creative events in the world without something really cool and new to show..

So I started building..

Mr. Dirt Rag him self Maurice ( owner of Dirt Rag and Bicycle Times magazine )

was out testing the new Santa Cruz and seen my pile of BS laying on the sidewalk so he had to stop by and give me a hard time as he always does!

First being the 36er 29er cargo bike to a point that it was ridable - this was the perfect place to get out there and test the machine and beat it up. I put on every part on it that I didn't care about because of the crazy dust and wear and tear I knew it would see.

Next being silverware and plates - I built a quick set up with a spork that wraps around the plate and bolts on. Very few people use any sort of disposable cups or plates out there due to trash so always having a plate and a spork is perfect.

I decided to build my truck in to a desert combat ready rig with canvas top over the bed ( for sleeping in ) and sitting on top of the canvas supports, I welded up a support to hold a 55 gallon water drum acting as a water tower, all plumbed in to a 1930s shower head attached to the side of the truck. This ended up being so nice to take showers in the desert, I found a old NASA temp gauge and mounted it on the side to watch the water temp, as well as a water level hose to watch my uses as the week went on.

If you want a great way to meet people at Burningman - Just build a shower and they will be your friend all week !!!

With the help of Craig Johnson and his mad CAD skills in about few seconds, I had a blueprint for a sheet metal Conical hat made from .030 Aluminum and I made it just an hour before I left. This was so cool to ride around with ( not in the wind ), it kept me out of the sun and kept my head very cool.

Craig ( aka CJ $$$ ) making the flat layout for the hat on Solidworks

I was feeling lazy and he really wanted to draw it

here is the flat sheet before making the conical hat

The last thing I made was a custom Titanium wedding ring that I spun out on the Monarch lathe before jumping in the truck, using some of that great Titanium left over from Clorox prototype projects, I spun it up with the idea that I shouldn't leave home with out it, just incase something crazy happens and I find the lady of my dreams. ( by the way its back in my shop again )

yep, I hope her hands are cleaner then mine...

Add these things to the already long list of stuff needed to be built for others such as concept electric skateboards, art projects, concept bicycle stuff, and doing all the Clorox and Gov Lab stuff, it didn't leave much time for a thing they call sleep...

I will keep the story short...

I left Thursday night headed east while talking to Blake ( Aka Random ) about how Dirty Dave was going to ride his Harley almost to 250 MPH at the BUB Speed Trials. My brain decided that would be way for fun to go to the speed trials then to burningman so I kept on driving thru the night headed for the Salt flats passing thru Reno and pass the turn off for Burningman. I stopped in Reno to go in the Casino and after walking in with 100.00 dollars and leaving up with 100.16 ( mostly found change on the floor ) I decided there was only one thing to do with all those profits and that was to go see some ladies dancing....

Back on the road now about 250 miles (400 KM for you metric kids) past my turn off for Burningman, I got an odd feeling to turn on to a small road and go back towards Burningman, why my brain decided with only 50 miles left to drive to the speed trials, to turn around, it would be a mystery why I turned around but my brain told me to take a crazy gravel road that was 200+ miles long headed back west.

the death of a old Ford COE truck

the result of a new freeway years back..

Driving thru salt flats and gold mines, I got to a point where in every way I was 50 miles from everything.... I seen a man walking or more like dragging himself... I pulled up to see him out of water and in the last few hours before going in shock and maybe death.

I took this picture a few miles before finding the dude

being out here with no water seems like something out of a movie story

My brain is hurting now as I ask him why and how he got out to this point. He responds something about a hot spring... I put him in the truck, water him up and make him take a load off. He doesn't say anything to me but one last thing " you have beautiful welds " as he looks at the mega load of welded things filling my truck bed. Another 50 miles pass and not word was said, I drop him off at the sheriff station and tell him to have them help out, my brain was overwhelmed , and to finish it off - As soon as I dropped him off and everything was good I got back in my truck put it in drive and then had 4 flat tires......................................... My brain was done.....................

I gimped my truck in to the burn and aired up one slow leaking tire and put on the only spare to at least hold the heavy load of water, food and metal things in my truck and just drove it with the 2 fronts flat. I got to my camp and set up, I also got ready to work as I am an employee of the event, checking tickets and searching cars at the entrance.

I had to take this picture because it about made me cry

On the drive back I ended up blowing out my wheel bearing and having to ride the 36er cargo bike over 10 miles down the freeway to the auto parts store to buy a complete front wheel assembly to rebuild my truck on the freeway, it sucked.

the temple took months to build and was a great model of craftsmanship and then

they burn it down, along with all the things people wrote, added, or put in the temple to burn memories and start clean again...

The story goes on and on but in a nutshell, the week was amazing and there is really no way to describe the fun I had - being with some of the most interesting people and personalities made the week fly by and not think a single bit about my shop, jobs, love, or anything that existed miles away in the real world.

Don't hate on it until you try it......

Poe

2011-08-25T00:47:00.000-07:00

My little dog Poe at the Oakland Port - Photo by Kane Lynch

Wired - Gravity Speed Bike

2011-08-24T00:58:00.000-07:00

Well,

Caught off guard again by a cool write up from Wired.com

This time about the Gravity Speed bike....

Soooo Rad - Thanks Wired Crew!!

Heres the link to the article - Wired Magazine

Last time MLS was in Wired was the U-Lock tool last year

This was the U-lock post for Wired Magazine

Thanks to Kyle from Tracko for all the great pictures of the gravity bike and U-lock tool

Some quick updates on the progress of other projects -

Matt started filming for the 120mph Track Race Bike and its looking SICK

Building weird Burningman projects, including stuff for myself because I was given a ticket!!!!

So look for an update tomorrow on what I am building.....

Some fun for you while I work hard

2011-08-20T03:02:00.000-07:00

So when I build motorcycles I really only have one guy take photos of my bikes because he is one of the best and most recognized motorcycle photographers in the world.

If you have picked up a Harley magazine of some type you have for sure seen photos of Steve Kelly.

So over the last few years I have done many shoots with him both for my own bikes, Exile and other builds...

Here is small slice of the many shoots I have been involved in, see what you think.....

Oh, and if your wondering what I am working on - like every year its that time again for Burningman and my shop is filled with odd creatures and projects from everyone and their twin brother.....

Remember about 2 months ago when I built the gas tank and welded this rusty machine with Blake at Exile Cycles

See my older post ( 2 months ago )

As many of you know - I am like a star in every other country but the USA

I feel your pain David Hasselhoff and your over seas popularity

This is photos of my Pabst Blue Ribbon Harly Dragster.

Heres an good old photo of my brother Jason Tiedeken and I

This was the good old Metal Morphosis days when we built motorcycles in Minnesota

I was really young in the photo and using my fake ID to take those twins out on dates

My brother still runs Metal Morphosis Engineering and I have MLS as a separate company but in the end we are still working together and building some crazy things...

The Harley Twins with our Metal Morphosis Cycles 1968 Harley Sportster.

This was both of our first attempts at building Harleys - caught some of the right eyes in the industry

The thing also had one of the craziest vintage Harley race motors I have riden and you shifted it with your hand behind your ass, Jockey Shifting Death Machine

This is a Exile Hot Rod with reproduction 1970s Harley Shovel motor we built at Exile like 4 years ago

The girls not bad either.

This was a bike we built on Discovery Channel's Biker Build off for Exile to battle against Billy Lane's Choppers Inc.

This was the first time I really got thrown in front of the lights and cameras full time, then told to build stuff and don't look like a idiot because the WORLD is watching!!!

Dylan and I made those pipes in like a few hours - I am still proud of them

This is a bike that I built a few years ago for Adam Stark from Hollywood.

He is shorter and needed something special without the look of having a small bike so I did a drop seat Harley Sportster. At the time I was doing research and development for Edelbrock (the auto company) and so I got a crazy deal on the motor which kicked out about 100 HP, also one of the first bikes my brother made me build completely by myself which really sucked.

Ok with about 100 HP its easy to get in trouble, I remember doing this photo shoot burnout down the main street in Malibu, CA and saying S%*# as this photo was taken because there was a cop sitting right there!!

All these photos were shot by Steve Kelly and are copy written.

Success......!

2011-08-15T23:27:00.000-07:00

Thanks first of all to the people that came out and gave me a high 5 !!

I was really taken back by the people that drove hours to come say hi, see the bikes and art, I hope I didn't let anyone down...

Over the whole night we had almost 400 people come thru the good old Actual Cafe!!!!

The employees loved those tips!!!!

Like I told you in the last post that I would be easy to find with my used car salesman brown suite, and let me tell you, I know it was a fire hazard but it was well worth wearing it!!

Jon Suzuki sold a whole bunch of great photos he took around Oakland and else where, some of the photos were very cool like the old Schwinn photos..

Jon Suzuki had some great photos up on display

My personal favorite was the one in the middle of the chainguard on the Schwinn Racer

The big Penny Farthing up on display for the kids and it is still at the Cafe if you are in the area.

The speed bike is still up on display until my body heals up from the last crash.

Setting up for the show while we waited to see what Mike Cleaver who rolled up with a super rad late night build - A kick ass BMX CycleTruck cargo bike that could do bar spins !!! He also rolled up with a super cool bright Pink cargo bike.

I also had my custom 1938 Schwinn New World track racer with a custom race mechanic stand ( I need to do a photo shoot with that set up).

To close this post - Let me show you the best USED CAR SALESMAN in the Bay Area and for you Californians, NO its not Cal Worthington

Just rolled up on the 1938 Schwinn Superior to a photo by the Oakland North news, Matt Ducot is in the background locking up laughing at me like normal.

Want more info and pictures check out the Oakland North they are hip with the news

A night on the town..... Oakland style .....

2011-08-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

Well, tonight is the Bicycle Art Show at Actual Cafe in Oakland,CA.

I stayed up all night working on everything and I am tired....

Come out if your in the area, its going to be a good time - look for the dude in the one piece 1970s tux, thats me!!!

This 36-29er Coker machine is going to be sooooooooo much fun !!!!! I took the solar panel off for the photos, the rack is only tacked ( i still need to do a lot of tweeking on it to get it looking right ) and i need to make the stand for parking it which will also be the fork brace when your riding.

How to " bump it "

2011-08-11T00:26:00.000-07:00

Lets try something new, how about some "how to" videos....?

If you don't have a 90 ton sheet metal press brake at your house well then just follow along and at least you can talk about bumping it to your friends and pets!

This piece of aluminum would later become the skid plate for the BRD electric motorcycle.

If this video doesn't have text then go to the movie page for more info

Craig shot this sick video - I owe you now Craig maybe some Taco Bell but nothing over 3 dollars

Holy $#!+ where have I been.....

2011-08-07T21:36:00.000-07:00

July at MLS is always a mad month for many reasons and so this is my complete July post in a nut shell...

1.Interbike is coming up
2. New product releases for 2012 for various companies
3. Prototype medical stuff
4. Bike Expo in San Francisco is coming up
5. Doing a Kickstarter.com grant for the 120 mph Speed bicycle project for filming
6. Working with 2 electric motorcycle companies
7. Designing home decor and gardening products for a few new companies
8. Working with a green company that produces generators that run 100% off of wood chip and biomass
9. Doing R&D machines for Clorox and its brands
10. Making various research projects for donut making
11. Still making more designs for the video game console project
12. Threw MLS prom at the machine shop
13. Getting ready for an art show coming up in a week, here in Oakland.
14. Also pulled a high speed chase with the cops for fun.... first time I have gotten caught.... sucks..... $$$$ :(
15. Working in LA and helping my brother on the turbocharged Honda race concept project
16. Its summer and you know how it goes... This is my first full Oakland summer and its been amazing with all the stuff to do and people to meet. It reminds me of back in Minneapolis with September weather, but all year round.
17. Almost forgot - Had personal lunch with famous designer Pierre Terblanche who designed all the Ducati motorcycles for the last like 15+ years, kinda stoked me out to say the least.

so where do I even start....

How about the fun stuff.... wait its all fun.....

This blurry pictures seems to stoke me out so much - its my summer and its been a blur of good times.
Matt leading the cruz on his custom Traffic cross bike to the hidden lake in the Oakland hills. Swimming at midnight is EPIC after a long ride!!

The new MLS Laboratory Home decor line will be coming out soon...
Made from recycled Lab materials and goodies these should stoke out your mom and have her asking for more. I bend them up on the big 90 ton press shown in the MLS video and the flowers are not included.

This is Jay (Chemical Engineer/designer/good looking smart girl) and myself hanging out after our meeting at All Power Labs in Berkeley. This company designs, builds and test a system called Gasifiers, which in a nut shell - take wood chips, chars them, extracts the gases from the charring process then uses that to run a natural gas engine. Running completely 100% on wood chips - sooooo cool to see it all happen.

This is one of the prototype systems that gets tested around the clock with various different things, if you ask them what they have run in the machine other then wood chips, this list will go for days, they have even run cigs for a full tobacco running gas engine you could drive a car with. That is Abrim the Fabricator/Shipping bitch standing in the blue hat.

I spend about 60+ hours a week working in my shop and other shops, but every once and a while I just have to shut it down and relax. we made a Santa Cruz run to swim in the river with the friends, Mr. Poe the dog is always down to relax it seems....?

Don't feed me coffee at 10 PM or else you will have a set of bars to ride down the street to the local bar for last call.

For real don't do it, now the 1938 Schwinn New World is a racing machine in under an hour.

PROM at Monkey Likes Shiny - "a moment in time" theme prom

The idea was to dress as a couple in a matching period correct clothing, we went as Steampunk....

My lovely dates for the night - Louise Chen and Mr. Poe

I fired up the sheet metal press and made her a fan out of aluminum using a clear plastic protractor in the middle so she could measure the degrees.

The punch was so spiked it almost evaporated.... need I say more

Thats Matt up front dancing to Kenneth's hit single " Girl check your signal"

We had a list of celebs show up which stoked me out, also a live performance from Kenneth Ronquillo and with over 70+ couples attending, the MLS headquarters was hopping with fun. When no one wanted to leave because of all the fun, I decided to take things in to my own hands by doing a 4th gear burnout and donuts on the dance floor with my dirt bike, in my own place destroying the hardwood floors and smoking the place out ( please don't tell the landlords)

This is the Show coming up in Oakland if your in the area

Also I have asked Mike Cleaver of Cleaver Bikes to join me in displaying some oddness brewed in Oakland.

To finish up this post I think the electric motorcycle will do the trick.

Jeff Sand of Sand Studios contacted me about doing some odd fab work on his top secret project.

The idea was to build a concept 100% electric motorcycle that looks good and rides even better.

Using his odd 1 to 1 scaled blue prints and no numbers given ( all by eye ) I some how made the bash guard out of 1/8 thick aluminum all cold worked on the big press and all my sheet metal tools. With little to no time left before the date to unveil I put the last minute polish on the bash guard ( its the aluminum part around the orange battery box, it protect the batteries from stuff hitting the frame, batteries or underside of the bike) I receive an email from him asking for more things to be made. This use to be my life doing this last minute BS when I was fabricating on air for Discovery Channel shows and also when I was working for Roland Sands Design, so to say the least I don't really even get upset or frustrated like most people do when this stuff comes in hours before the big event.

The email said " hey make this stand for the bike and make it pretty"

BAM!!!

done, the only problem is now my track bike only has one grip because I put the other one on the handle for the stand as you can see in the lower left of the picture.

The photos is in Derek's shop in San Francisco which is sooooo sick, its called Moss Machine and they build some neat stuff there, even parts for the cable cars in San Francisco.

This photos is like taken an hour before we were to show the bike to a fully packed press release.

The BRD Redshift Electric Motorcycle with my bash guard left in the raw aluminum

It got painted black for press release.

If you want to read more about it here is some info from the press release

MX action or for some cool photos from the night( pictures )

Thanks everyone - This July has been fun !!!!!

Space chairs

2011-06-26T23:01:00.000-07:00

Found some behind the scenes photos of the crew working on the movie that I built the space seats for...

One of the crew members sitting there for the camera man to do a shot focus.

Love movie sets because when you see them in real life it looks nothing like what you see on TV.

Flux Foundation - Oakland,CA

2011-06-24T20:21:00.000-07:00

I have found true radness in Oakland

A group of women and men that are motivated to build, build and build crazy things.

The list of crazy builds goes on and on, but here is the last one they let me run the torch on.

The non-profit group is called The Flux Foundation , known for their crazy BurningMan projects. Check this site !

The project -

Called Brollyflock

BrollyFlock, a renegade flock of umbrellas, creates a fun and inviting installation, producing light, shade, mist and fire. It is a dancing swirl of mixed materials, anchored by over-sized handles to a wide base. The lowest umbrellas feature periodic misting systems, while the highest hold beautiful flame effects. By day the BrollyFlock is a refreshing landmark, by night its internal glow and fiery top enliven its surroundings. - posted from Flux Foundation

As you can see by the person at the bottom - its massive

Jen and I near the middle where everything meets up
Laying some Dual Shield Mig beads on the main tubes.

The only place to build something this big is a giant old steel mill in Oakland

Summer !!!!

2011-06-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

Hey, its summer time and my machines are running non-stop around my shop.

Tons of prototypes for start up companies and some even for some Fortune 500 companies.

Game consoles,Electric motorcycles, 3 flaming 40 foot tall umbrellas, concept bicycles, and concept medical radness,

I love it all !

Love to be any part of it...

Living the dream with Poe the dog

Welcome to Monkey Likes Shiny

Father's day is coming up - Start building!

2011-06-12T21:16:00.000-07:00

My dad kicks ass - Mad Fabricator

I decided to build something for my dad...

Couldn't really think of something...

The last 2 years I have built my dad customs bicycles only to them ending up at my house because they all were sized to big (some how my personal size ).. Then I tried a 1965 Fender guitar last year, which he seemed to like!

So I set the bar very high last year in gift giving, this year I can only go down in gift quality -

The Answer:

Because hes getting up there in age, why not build him a robot to help him with his daily tasks.

Just painted it, now I have to finish up his Titanium arm this week because he fell off the shelf and his clay arm broke, bummer.

If you are following the speed bike progress well your looking at some of the tubes...

Mark over at Paragon Machine Works works makes some nice stainless connectors

Here we go...

2011-06-09T20:47:00.000-07:00

Well, its time to start! This is going to be an odd ball so come along for the ride.

The idea concept came to me about a year ago after reading about "Mile a Minute Murphy" and his quest to ride a bike 60+ MPH in 1899 to promote the railroad, really the bike drafting off the rear of the train was just to get people to notice how fast and smooth the train could travel. They put down a lot of cash to build the 2 miles that Murphy would ride, a special straight section of track with smooth wood down the center for the bike to ride on.

The twist - develop a project that doubles that record and doubles everything used for the record, everyting from the design of the bike to the gear the rider uses.

I know your asking yourself " 120 mph on a bike !", its hard and so thats why we have a film crew!

So, I got on the phone with Peter Gilbert at Cane Creek and because everyone at Cane Creek is rad, they asked what do you need and how fast do you need it. Theres never been a project that Peter and his crew at Cane Creek have let me down on, there always seems to be wheels, headsets, shocks and stickers in the mail that day headed for my shop for my concept projects. I can't say a single bad thing about them or their products.

Next after locking in the parts I needed, was to go to the best design engineer I know - My brother Jason Tiedeken. The dude is off the chain when it comes to thinking outside the box and getting people to love it all. Hes got enough experience and education for a whole group of people plus why not have him design this machine, he is an engineer and my brother. Plus hes a hell of a bicycle designer.

A concept downhill project similar to the VPP of later years

my brother Jason Tiedeken designed back in I believe 1999 or so

welded by Peacock Groove - Erik Noren in Mpls,MN

Ok, stop for a second because I am getting pumped posting this.

Ok, I am back

So the concept design made my jaw drop, something no one has ever seen, so different, so future, so sleek, so top secret I can't show you until its done. If any of the big dogs out there see this before its done you might see Lance's TT bike look a little different next year.

My new section of my shop devoted to welding bicycle frames

I seem to find my zen in this corner of the shop.

And for you kids out there 650 front 700 rear

You may have seen posts from me over the last months talking about building this odd project, and I will say its taken a lot longer to start then I planned but then again I wasn't expecting my life to change so much in the last year an a half as well, so come along for the journey of a completly 100% concept project that will twist your mind and have you asking for more!

Enjoy

sorry - its top secret

2011-05-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

Well...

Sorry for the long delay in blog posts - I don't think I have ever worked on so many big projects for so long, its killing me because I can't show anything.

One of the big projects I can tell you, is MLS is part of designing one of the next big things to happen in the video game world and damn right I am proud, so I will get to show everyone soon after the press release!

The pressure is on... ACTION !!!!!

2011-05-02T22:42:00.000-07:00

The call came in Thrusday morning that I would be needed in Hollywood by 11 pm that night and I had a special job that needed a super quick turn around because of problems with filming. So I rolled up to Hollyweird with a stressed out crew looking at me wondering if it would all get done in time to set up and shoot on time.

The mission...

1. Complete 2 cockpit concept pilot seats for a futuristic space movie
2. Provide a less then 24 hour turn around for both seats
3. Design and develop a complete unique looking cockpit seat that films well with or without the pilot sitting in it.

Well, heres how we do it in H-Wood...

Blake was working on a Exile bike that weekend but needed to test out the race seats before they went under the bandsaw

So I rolled out a backbone out of 1.5 inch tubing then just got crazy with the mount tubes, not wasting anytime. I left the seat complete as a fixture for all the mounts, I cut it up later.

Ok now you get the idea, with such a time crunch, it was decided to just cut up the seat and make it look futuristic using the auto parts stores 46 dollar plastic seats. You can see the uncut seat and an almost done seat.

well there is a quick sneak preview of them, the bases get bolted in to the floor and are not seen on camera. Not bad for an under a day turn around for some wacky space seats, hope NASA doesn't copy them...

Just a teaser.......... for the kids

2011-04-18T20:43:00.000-07:00

So you remember a while back, I made a post about some possible TV radness........

This is just a quick teaser edit from Matt Ducot to see how you like it..... The real deal is coming and its better...!!!!!!

Monkey Likes Shiny from Matt Ducot on Vimeo.

We filmed some at my shop and some at Creative Viewpoint Machinery where I work in the mornings

Watch it a lot, because Sean at Soulcraft bicycles owes me .50 cents for every video hit because I am wearing his hat.......

woops but hey, life is good......

2011-04-14T18:08:00.000-07:00

Well....

Sometimes when you get thrown off your machine....

you dust yourself off and get back on....

then.......

you get thrown off your machine again.....

then....

---------------------------------------------------

thats a fill in the blank for the readers

Nan at B Spoke Tailor in Oakland,CA hooked me up with some of the most rad cycling Knickers I have ever wore, and then..... I crashed my speed bike during the photoshoot, sorry Nan, you have any patches?

And if your asking - It was a parking garage - I didn't think I needed my leathers for the speed which got faster every time........ should have got the picture after the first few runs ......

San Diego.... Party !!!!!!!

2011-04-12T23:48:00.000-07:00

Well, looks like things are calming down after the custom bicycle show in San Diego. I would like to thank Brian Baylis for putting on another ( the third year ) kick ass show making me want to go back next year....

I keep under the radar most of the time and wander the shows without anyone knowing, so it was kinda weird having a booth and getting to meet everyone and see the response to my projects and my efforts. Thanks to everyone that stopped by the booth and let me know how much they enjoy the blog, only makes me want to post more stuff and build more rad stuff... ( like I tell everyone sorry I can't post everything here - only about 10% of the stuff I build gets posted due to security reason)

So here was the run down

We left ASAP to get there by Thursday morning and made it at 2pm due to having to stop by Cranky's bike shop and also Golden Saddle in LA to drop off racks and pick up my Penny Farthing.
As soon as I got everything locked in at the show, I made some rounds and started picking on Soulcraft's Sean, Stevil and Mo. I was off to LA to party and for a business meeting with a big bicycle company.

Running on no sleep for days, I made it back to San Diego for a solid day of tradeshowing on Friday.

the penny, gravity bike, the beach cruzer and the guard dog Poe

on set up day which was already busy at the booth

Had lunch later in the day with writer Patrick from Red Kite Prayer and the crew, good times...

Friday night Jim decided to pass out at my booth

Ok, Peter at Cane Creek, I think that counts at a logo hit on my blog..... Pay up!

Saturday started strong with a race between Soulcraft and Monkey Likes Shiny

the Wizard Staff comp.

You might need to look at this blog for the results...

all hail the black market

thanks to Kyle from Tracko for the photo at a highlight in the day

Saturday night was off the hook with the alway super rad party at velo cult bike shop

followed by Paul from Paul and I shutting down the bar. After splitting off from everyone and riding for a while I found myself here......

with a beach cruzer chained to my leg...... I guess when your drunk you go to the thing you love!

I think we need to look at all the +s here

1. I was eating donuts at 4 AM

2. I was eating hotdogs at 4 AM

3. I made Paul buy me drinks all night

4. I had a bike chained to my leg

5. I woke up later to find a bike still chained to my leg

6. I kinda made it to the show on time the next day

Sunday - well, I crashed the speed bike twice during photoshoots and my leg looks like well I am sure you get the idea. I am sure its only a matter of time before you see some high side crash photos of me.

Late night ........

2011-04-01T01:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Kyle,

Why am I making bike racks all thru the night? I am tired, but I know I told you they would be there for the grand opening of Golden Saddle Cyclery.

Lucky man.....

Thats only a few of the wheel trays on the floor.

Cane Creek sent over some wheels for the Top Speed Project!!!! ( just a teaser for you kids )

Side profile

Mid-angle

Front

The neat design with these racks is based on how many bikes you have in stock, you will always have an appearence of a full showroom, the more bicycles you have in stock the more they can be straight out, the less bikes on the rack the more angle to fill in the gaps.

My first design when I designed Jims racks for Cranky's bikes, was to link all of the racks together and put them on a slow under-driven gear motor that was on a timer, so as the day goes on the bikes angle, it would be a sneaky way to tell the time for shop and sales workers or just always keep your bike shop changing in looks. I never forgot the idea, I just put it on the back burner.

A quick sketch looking overhead on what the racks might do as the day goes on.

Never really seen anything like it - tell your friends and your mom you seen it first here @ MLS

A new twist on flatbedding !!!

2011-03-27T18:36:00.000-07:00

Try something kinda new but dont go far from the path just incase............

So the other day I was messing around with some sheet metal trying to think of something new for my rack on my cargo bike with the 36 inch rear and 29er front.

My first thoughts are " DON'T make it look like an electric bike, hide the battery and don't let anyone know they are there ( unless they read my blog ). " I started building a lithium-ion battery pack that was 36 volt to match up with the rear drive hub but making it not too crazy large and heavy, the goal being an assist bike and not a full e-bike sized battery.

The next thought was to create a way to charge the system on the go without the charger, it doesn't need to be a full charge, just a helper is fine.

Coming from a strong background in renewable energy products and concept RE projects over the years, I remembered a very key solar panel that helped the US military. The company Uni-Solar has developed so many crazy products but one of the main products, being these crazy flexible solar panels that the US military could use on the battle grounds. With blocking diodes on each cell, a bullet can go thru the panel and only loose a section of cells as compaired with other companies that would result in the loss of the complete panel. The other neat thing is the panel is flexible and has a clear plastic covering, this also was a great design, to allow the ground soldier to be able to fold or roll up the panel to transport it. I decided to use this panel because of the no glass system and because it was could be modified very easy.

So this is the battery tray, the front part will be used as a glove box for paper work

It will have a door on the front

Here you can see the battery layout

The charger controller is in the middle of the pack

and the motor controller is on the left, plus the storage in front.

Here is the Uni-Solar panel just on top so you can get the idea

The final rack will have a 1/4 inch thick piece of lexan squeezing the panel down

This panel is a 11 watt panel at 12 volts, so it will be about 3.5 watts at 36 volts

Here is the mock up of the cargo bike waiting for the classic leif fork, the rack and bars to be finished, its an odd machine to say the lease. It won't look much off this photo when finished so the real question is.... Does it look electric?

San Diego Custom Bicycle show party time!!

2011-03-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

We hope to see you all there!!!!!

I am getting ready and working non-stop to make sure I have all my machines ready. Not only will I be in the show during the day but also there will be a fashion show that takes place on Saturday the 9th at night. Some of my current project bicycles will be used by the models on the runway, it should be a good old time and in a new location from last year! Theres a lot of good companies throwing down for the fashion show~!

Exile Cycles Rusty Machine

2011-03-07T10:26:00.000-08:00

Something in my heart just won't let go yet of my job at Exile cycles no matter how much and hard I work on other projects.

My welds and work have become somewhat of a trademark of Exile and Russell wants to make sure his products are at the highest level by keeping me around. The main problem of the deal is I live in Oakland and Exile is located in Los Angeles about 6 hours drive south. The is where the problem is, we have had to get creative.

Some of the most fun times I have had in the last 5 years have been because of Exile, traveling, TV shows and meeting some of the biggest names in the world.

Exile motorcycles start at $50,000 dollars just to give you an idea of the market for the bikes and the faces you get to see.... Not uncommon to see a class A big name walking in the shop.

Yep thats me, a while back when we were shooting for Discovery Channel

Riding the Exile Brown Pearl to lunch

built this tank last week

Photo Credit to Random ( Blake)

Joe the ironworker hammered the Exile in it

and I made a custom gas cap thats the " i " with a pop up gas cap

Always on the road traveling for Exile and work....

Louise and I run thru a field of grass

Always wanted a photo like this, ha ha BFF

Life..... Flowing smooth......

2011-03-06T22:26:00.000-08:00

Between moving in to the new shop, getting all the new machines in and getting ready to start a bunch of very high profile tech prototype jobs that I wasn't expecting. I am so stoked about all the new machines I bought, such as sheet metal machines and new mills and welder stuff. Moving isn't easy, nor is it fun.

Josh was helping me move!

That mill was my Xmas gift to myself for notching tubes.

A mint 1941 K&T Horz. Milling machine

I have been making some crazy projects this last week for a medical company

This is the first time I have been involved in an FDA medical approval, crazy amount of work!

So....

We tried to find a lady for him before his nuts got chopped off..

we hunted for a mini greyhound, ha ha, 2 days of dog parks with no finds

So...

Now he's got no nuts, no lady and a big cone...

O yeah, I was my B-day the other day

@$ years old - ha ha its a secret

A day at the circus ........

2011-02-21T21:09:00.000-08:00

A while back while doing Nitro Circus for MTV, the location for the shoot was a old circus way out in the desert far from LA.
Really kinda weird and odd feeling because of how run down it was, but either way, made the most of it and did a rad shoot with my Penny Farthing I built about a year ago.

Peter at Cane Creek and Avid threw it down for this one.....

I didn't have the chains on it cause I didn't want Travis P to ride it and crash it before interbike.

this was a picture from an art show and it shows the chain drive better

The wheel is so big it needs split drives, unless your 8 feet tall your inseam is to small....

Now its on display at Jims Shop "Cranky's" in Santa Barbara,CA

T-shirt and Stickers are on the way!!!

2011-02-14T21:40:00.000-08:00

So this is only the pre-order because I was so stoked about shirts I had to offer it ASAP

Here is the front logo

They look sooooo RAD!!

Just like Henry Ford put it best

" You can have it in any color you want as long as its BLACK ! "

All shirts will be offered in small thru XL and only in black
Shipping to an overseas address will be a bit higher, about 15 US dollars total if I can get them to fit in the box right.

This is a presale so orders won't go out until the shirts come in about 2 weeks, I was just to excited to wait.

All proceeds go to keep the sparks flying.....................

You ready?

2011-02-07T19:42:00.000-08:00

Monkey Likes Shiny is up to something.........................

Schwinn did it....................

The welder is warming up, its 2011, time for something no one has ever seen, Cane Creek and my brother Jason are on board -

Are You? ...................

Schwinn's 1940s try at it.......

Who will be the ironman to ride it, ha ha, it could be you, if your that brave!

Thanks Don

2011-02-06T21:24:00.000-08:00

Well..... After being turned down to attend the Handbuilt Bicycle Show, I got really upset and really started hammering in the shop on a few concepts to show everyone what time it is, but maybe it was a blessing because it turns out that because I didn't have to rush thru the next few concept prototypes I was building for the release at the show, - I put my attention else where... Thanks Don for not letting me attend the show, because of not being able to go I now have close to what I want for a dream workshop located in Emeryville, CA.

The secret skunkworks operation will be housed in a unknown location hidden in the busy streets of the East Bay in the city of Emeryville, which is also home to companies like Pixar and various other "think tank companies".

I will eat, sleep and do what I love to do BUILD !

Let me give you a tour of the first few days of work.... Come along for a tour of the shop.... maybe the house next week..... 5,000 sq ft and counting......... !!!!! So pumped to start building...

Mr. Poe - Guard Dog !

Size isn't everything

The design room

This will be the home of drawing tables and my office

Super rad sky lights and a stripper pole behind the red beam

Louise decided my assembly shop needed a little fun on the wall

about 6 hours in that, wish I was that quick. Laurel did the tree on the otherside of the door.

Here is a different view of the assembly shop

each room is a hair over 40 feet long and about 15 feet to 35 feet wide

this room is getting painted white - we call this room Hell cause its so dark right now

My pride is this little 2 level shop in the back corner of the building with skylights.

This is going to be the machine shop, it will be filled with the Bridgeport mills and lathes, all of which are waiting to get in this week ....... Just bought some of the machines from the Rolls Royce Prototype Jet shop

Thats about 2,000 sq feet of tour - just think we got another 3,000 to go for next time ! .

The new 2011 Jeff model rolled off the line today

2011-01-23T23:10:00.000-08:00

2010 was a year filled will all kinds of weird good things that went all over the place by the end, but most worked out to put me on a different path thats got me thinking 2011 is going to be a really fun action packed year...... that is 2010 in a nut shell

The wheels are still turning all over in my life and I am ready for a new start, new friends, new relationship, new location, new tools, new jobs and a new school....
,

Look out world - The new Jeff is ready for the road ahead

a wonderful sunset beach ride on the 1960s Schwinn tandem with my best friend forever.............

Downhill speed testing

2011-01-16T20:12:00.000-08:00

Today was a great day of sunny 75 deg California weather and the perfect day for some speed testing in the hills of Oakland.

The hill is about 5 miles of solid coasting action filled with corners, where you can race anyone or anything, or at least thats what I seem to be doing.

Check it...

Next time you see this beast it will have crazy paint job some fairings and hopefully be sitting on display at the NAHBS ( North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show ) in Austin, TX in late Feb.

Quick photo in front of my shop - this one is for you mom and dad

Roy did the video and drove me up the hill like 10 times

just wish he would have paid for gas and lunch and it would have been a perfect day.

Been in the wood work.............

2011-01-09T21:40:00.000-08:00

Everyone has been looking for me.......

Yes I am in hiding..........

Girl Problems and a lot of TV shoots, at least one is cool.

Expect some TV appearences soon - no show details can be given yet.........

got the mic on and rollin !

Show about prototypers............ Thats it, no more details

working with the brother.....

2010-12-08T22:20:00.000-08:00

The other day, I was in LA working on motorcycles and projects all over the place. First stop was a meeting at Disney Imagineering, next, work with my brother Jason on the Performance Machine catalog Harley Sportster then it was off to Exile Cycles to work with Blake and Russell on some fun projects.

my brother Jason Tiedeken working on the custom swingarm for the sporty in the garage. Late night sporty building just like back in the days of Metal Morphosis cycles when we were living in Minnesota.

Mock up Perfomace Machine Sporty - just wait..........

Blake working in the fab area.'

This is my work area when I am at Exile fabricating.

The good old Lincoln SquareWave - welds so nice

Working on a cool concept project with Blake. Gotta wait to see what it is.

The shop bike at Exile

I made this like 4 or 5 years ago to cut copper tubing for internal throttles.

It is neat to see it still being used years after I came up with it.

Trials project under way

2010-11-30T16:46:00.000-08:00

Well, it hasn't really started yet as far as building but I did make a trip to see Jana and the crew down at Fairing ind. in the far edge of Los Angeles and pick up some frame tubes and talk about everything thats not really important.

The goal is to build a trials bike thats got some twist but not really take to long to build mostly cause I really want to ride it...... All these YouTube videos got me all worked up, I had to take the Yeti out and manual the whole block just to remind me I still got it !

Here is kinda of a good idea of what I want the frame to look like... Really !

maybe 26 or 24 inch wheels with hidden disc brakes ( got to wait to find out how its done )

Some shots from Cranky's Bike Shop

2010-11-30T15:18:00.000-08:00

Jim posted up some photos of the racks I built for him a while back.

The best way to describe the racks are they can be moved like poster racks where they can swing almost 180 degs. Or if theres a need for a change in the wall and remove the bike rack to replace it by the clothing racks I made or helmet racks or Frame racks or ....... trust me I made A LOT of racks for everything.

Theres about 6 inches of hight adjustment as well.

Jims first week in his new shop - the bike racks on the left wall

Cranky's Bike Shop - Santa Barbara,CA

Just off Interstate 101 / PCH hwy 1

Santa Cruz.................

2010-11-23T18:29:00.000-08:00

Kinda want to rail slide that in the background.

6AM Santa Cruz BMX mashing in the water.

So long story short......

It was a early thanksgiving for the good down in Santa Cruz so Matt, Lisa and I rolled the truck down there from Oakland. Everything went great and the food everyone cooked was good, other then the rain that day it was all going as planned. Later after everyone ate, the dancing started! Matt busted out some of his masterful Robot moves that took 4 years of college to dial in, while I just bounced around and got dizzy. Something wasn't feeling right and everyone else was starting to feel it too. What we didn't know was there was a large fire going under the house and it was sucking all the oxygen and filling the room with toxic fumes, but there was no smoke until the vent work melted and filled the house with smoke. Everyone got out and the fire dept. was so pumped to get to chainsaw the very nice hardwood floor to small bits as they climbed under the house to put out the fire. In the end it was an build error when the house was fixed in the early 1990s that lead to the fire.

got lots of photos but this one I kinda liked cause people still wanted to party while the fire dept battled flames 5 feet away.

And I got some sick Avid Elixer CR brakes this weekend and made some quick radial mounts to hook them up. I can almost count the days.......

New Canon Camera !!!

2010-11-14T21:14:00.000-08:00

  Ok, check it kids -
I got a sick new Canon
so here it goes on the wild streets of Berkeley,CA

                                                      Gravity Speed downhill bike

Monkey Likes Shiny Gravity Speed bike
Mavic Lefty wheels and no drivetrain - pure coasting

close up of the non-frame side

Floating locked crank arm that now acts as a rear foot peg support
note the insert in the crank for the footpegs

front view of the mock up bars
the tow quick release, headlight and Iphone holder are next so stay tuned

Don't ask me why it won't rotate?
Cut down the Cane Creek headset as much as possible, they will be pumped that it has no logos!

Turn your head to the right!
Careful for your neck doesn't get sore!

Cargo Bike - Coker 36 inch Prototype design

Matt Ducot helping lace up the ELECTRIC Monster !!

Started making the rack!

Those are the sides you are looking at

They have 3 stop points

- Flat narrow - like you see it, about 15 inches wide

Box with sides - Flip those up 90 deg vertical and they become sides

Super wide Flat - Flip those babies out flat and now it a wopping 24+ inches wide !

German - Just like me

Got boxes of them to build weird stuff with.

So cool and so fast

I drilled this one from a 36 hole to a 48 as you can see by the missing holes

maybe 29 x 36 inch

made a quick mock up fork with some boxxer triples and Jim C's stolden 29er coaster rear wheel

I kinda like the look but it cuts in to the rack a lot with the big 29er wheel as compaired to the 26

getting closer

2010-11-06T17:09:00.000-07:00

well, its been a long few weeks and everyone at work has been hammering on concept projects and had family things coming up, so theres been a lot of extra weight on me to pull off the tasks during the day. Plus Monkey Likes Shiny was asked to design a very very big project for a major company, which has yes, I know, slowed down the posts on my blog and made everyone sad.

But I did some more work on the downhill gravity speed bike, including a tow hook with bar mounted quick release just like a glider airplane (photos coming soon) and got some more of the clip on bars and front end done. Thought I would take a pict of the roller since no one has got to see it with 2 wheels yet.

hope you enjoy........ theres a lot more to come with the all aluminum body and finishing up the bars and custom made banana seat out of aluminum I have been building during lunch at work.

there it is in a roller state with the Mavic Crossmax Lefty wheels

YEAH!!

If you didn't notice I shave my beard to me more aero!

SUPPORT THE TROOPS!!

2010-10-19T23:26:00.000-07:00

Art sent over some picts from the USS Washington. Check it!!

This is the elite crew of the metal crafter dudes that are out floating in the ocean keeping the birds flying.....................

Art is front row second from the left

Milling a good time.....

2010-10-18T21:50:00.000-07:00

I was making some parts a while back to try something new so maybe someone can take a spin off of this quick idea and make something cool with it.

The idea is to make a freewheel attach to a 6 bolt disc hub so you can run disc wheels and even if you want to get crazy mount a rotor between them and put the disc brake caliper on the right side of the bike for a super clean look.

I built it to mount to a lefty wheel but I decided to build the gravity bike without a drivetrain.

there it is kids

304 stainless of fun

Gravity bike fork on the way

2010-10-17T21:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I have had some of the most relaxing days I have had in a long while.

Kinda fun, peaceful and just a good time to catch up with the business side of MLS and all the fat stacks of cash that need to be counted.

Iphonin it up at the Actual Cafe in Oakland, super rad bicycle coffee shop

I think thats spelled correct?

Ok well I started hammering away again on the Gravity Speed bicycle's front end and machined up some Titanium parts last week. Check it out and see what you think?

The bars attach to the ring under the top triple tree. I think the chicks will dig it?

Coker Big One Cargo bike project

2010-10-10T23:20:00.000-07:00

Well, a while back COKER cycles sent me a wheel to build something with to get people pumped about the 36. I toyed around with a few designs and just was having a hard time making something that struck me as a good fit for the monster wheel.

I decided to try the 36 inch wheel with an electric hub that was sent to me for the rear of the cargo bike I am building. It will have a 26 mtb front wheel with a giant flat bed rack over the front wheel and the rear will have the 36 inch wheel with giant aluminum pannier bags to cover the largeness of the wheel.

It should look like if a Schwinn Cycletruck met a old tired Touring bike in a dirty alley, this is what the child may look like.

This will be, I hope at the handbuilt show in Feb. all done up with hot paint and fancy parts.

it might look something like this

big monster Coker Big one 36 inch wheel

Guess you will just have to wait and see what happens

I missed it .............

2010-10-02T09:13:00.000-07:00

I didn't even realize how rad Jim's Bicycle Film Fest block party in Santa Barabra was........................

I jetted out early and missed the radness ...............

Tims website has all the cool photos

Last night in the Werewolf den!

2010-09-29T22:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I got a new pad located over in the big city of San Francisco !

So..............

Lets Party !!!!

1938 Schwinn New World out for a ride down the coast of San Francisco

back to the good old story of whats new in the shop..............

Its been busy building stuff for all kinds of projects and helping out around the area. Props goes to Jim C down in Santa Barbara (Recap of the film fest) for throwing a super rad bicycle film fest weekend for the first time in Santa Barbara. Everything went super smooth, the guys got the ducks in a row and the key to the city, Nice job Jim !

I started working on my Gravity Speed Bike fork, its kinda of a odd duck being a right sided aero fork, who knows yet ................ I put the Avid brake on the front of the fork as well so that I can make a neat little scoop to pull cool air to the caliper so it doesn't over heat, not that I will really use the brakes but why not.

Beside the forks, I started messing with the rear foot pegs. Because the bike doesn't pedal it really doesn't need a bottom brack but, when I was building the frame, I got so excited about it, I decided to put a bb on it just incase I ever wanted to make it a ridable bike. Here the info behind the cranks, don't be fooled, theres a bit of info about the layout.

because it doesn't have a chainring I decided to cut off the spider and make both crank arms look the same, by the way, I got these super nice cranks at the bicycle swap meet that Jim threw for the film fest last weekend. 20 buck !!

So by making some press fit stainless steel pieces that press in to where the pedal threads use to be I made it convert the right and left threads in to just normal 3/8-16 theads so I could bolt up some cool RSD motorcycle pegs on it. The neat part about making these little stainless steel inserts is that the crank arm side with the chainstay has the insert welded to the frame so that once you tighten the foot peg it locks the crank arm to the chainstay and creates a structural connection using the bottom bracket as the other connection point. Kinda a neat way to lock in the cranks arms as well so that on the left side the crank arm is just floating next to the wheel creating a very unattached look. well I am tired and I got a long day tomorrow of welding titanium rocket looking things for who know what and who so peace out.

Its super small behind the black peg but you can kinda see the little stainless bung that fixtures the crank arm to the frame.

Saturday ...................

2010-09-12T11:01:00.000-07:00

I did most of the welding on my dads frame today and took a break mid-day to relax and take out the 1938 Schwinn 6 day race bike down the harbor coast. I love riding that bike and nothing makes it better then 75 deg sunny and a good view of the Golden Gate Bridge!

the white Schwinn Madison & the 1938 Schwinn New World Track

I love the front end on this machine - all 1940s style with Wald bars

This beast was all hand fillet brazed with chromoly tube - not bad for 1938

I also started working on the downhill gravity speed bike. I was doing a group ride in San Fran last week and out on the route they have a section that is over 3 miles of downhill cornering and fresh tar road. It is SOOOOO cool to coast the whole way for miles, the goal of the group ride is to see who can coast the farthest at the end of the 3 miles. I did it on my 1938 Schwinn and I was almost at the point of breaking the coaster brake wheel because its so long and with the sharp corners you need to brake at some points.

the right side with the rear end

with Paul from Atomics 12 dollar banana seat

the left side without the rear end

its about the size of a bmx bike with 26 inch Crossmax Lefty wheels

I also kinda threw together the 1984 Schwinn Madison track bike ( rental bike at the Velo track in LA from the 1980s), this was a trade up from Jim C of Cranky's bike for making the new helmet racks. And since Jim has 2 more rental Madisons and I know Jeff from Bike Jerks has one, we should have a race of the rental Madisons. I have wanted a Madison for a while, because I am a Schwinn dude and this was one of the last hand welded Non-Paramounts to roll out of the Chicago Plant in the 1980s and they only made a bunch of them for a short few years.

good old Chicago......

Atomic Cycles - Van Nuys,CA

2010-09-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

Anyone that doesn't know Paul and hasn't been to the shop needs to go! Its a lost treasure of a shop, filled with odd things and a lot of Schwinn parts!

If you need any Schwinn repair work done on a old machine that needs some life - this is the dude to bring it to!

I love this video, if you have seen the old Ford commericals you will know where the idea came from.

Project Christmas - day 1

2010-09-11T03:00:00.000-07:00

Fridays, I have off and don't have to weld and fab for Uncle Sam's Labs and Clorox. So today I decided to start a little project or maybe a larger sized one, of building my dad a bicycle for Christmas. shhhhhh..... Don't tell him, its a surprise, he won't find out...............

Long story short, every year I build my dad a bike and never give it to him because I fall in love with it or like last years cargo bike experience, I broke it in half in Hollywood from over loading it with about 500 pounds of building supplies. ( see my older post for the electric cargo bike ).

So this year I decided to start about the same time as every year, building my dad a bike, but this time I HAVE to give it to him..........

The plan.............

Well maybe I won't tell you, and just leave you to come back as I build it for the next few posts

sorry I didn't take many pictures while I was building, I was so pumped while I was building!! I took a step back after 8 hours today from when I started and realized I didn't even take any pictures while I was building.

Building all this crazy robotic medical and aerospace concepts at work has me dialed in to fabricate faster then the camera can take pictures for the blog.....

Don't worry there is a lot more at come on this ride ....

yep thats Jim C's 29er coaster brake wheel

8 hours + Coffee and Mt. Dew

The Bastard Child of a 1940s Schwinn and a 29er mountain bike

4130 and enough room for the fatty in the rear

Theres some reasons for the weird frame layout, you will see later

the only picture I took today during fab, because I was so pumped up how easy this simple little magnet makes life, worked so well, I called StrongHand and asked for more!

Its got an on and off switch, do I need to say more?

Nice Rack !!!

2010-08-22T23:32:00.000-07:00

Well, after last nights Chariot crash and a sore chest from laughing so much. I decided to start the day late and do a fun little afternoon project I could finish by 6 pm.

Brie's little Prototype SS Nina on the messy table ready for some fun.

My goal - Build a sick rack for my girl friend Brie's bike, because she works as a bicycle courier in San Fran, she often gets the call at 1 am for a solid cube of Natural Ice beer delivered to a party ASAP or the more common $150 dollar order of Chinese food to a house party. During the day she is doing legal paper work deliveries and light work and the basket isn't as needed that much.

Saturday morning she recieved a call for a load of coffee ( 6 large cups and other baked goods ) to a bed and breakfast, I happened to be there with her and seen how hard it is to make this certin delivery on time without the basket, so I decided I needed to make her a rack that would do everything from a bag of food all the way up to hauling a person if needed.

But like I always try to do it, make a quick easy job, a hard complex job by adding to much detail, so here we go, check it.........

done 4 hours later

Custom Koa Wood panels from Hawaii that Andrew at the shop cut for me ( he said its $$$)

OK you ready for this.......

So she can pick up normal orders like this because its got a 12"x12" load area

big enough for a good sized load

O yea and the shiny tubes are road bike handlebars from a 1970 Schwinn road bike ( perfect bends ! )

If she gets a huge order

The front extends out and can add an extra 9" to the front load area for light stuff.

well enjoy- I had a blast this afternoon building it, hope she enjoys it.

4130 chromoly to the streets of San Fran !

"Courier #4 on Route! "

kamikaze passanger

2010-08-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

Party Time

Justin and I took out the Chariot last night to a good old Berkeley College party!

Loaded with enough Colt 45 beers to kill a horse, we blazed the beast into the night without any lights, stealth style running from the heat under the radar....

The beast worked great and the ride is so smooth on the chariot seat (not shown in picts) but on the way home we came across some railroad tracks and one of the quick release bolts holding the chariot broke in half sending me on to a unknown journey into traffic...

Lucky no cars were harmed in this breakage, O yeah no one got hurt either.

this picture doesnt have the cranks and seat

Good old Schwinn Approved wheels

old camera phone picts

2010-08-20T20:15:00.000-07:00

I ran across this old photo of the first days of building the Pabst dragster years back. I think I was just out of high school when I started the build.

From This ......

To this a few months later ....

If you want to read the magazine article heres the link to Hot Bike Magazine

Chariot build day 2

2010-08-17T23:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't put to much time in to the project maybe 5 hours now, my goal was one day of work but now I am on a second day.....

either way, I want to make sure that it goes out the door and goes out the door with some style.

So now you get the point minus the 26" wheels

The tube that hooks to the bike isn't attached to the chariot yet, its sitting really high being held by the PARK stand, just for photos

Since she can pedal it, it needed a Bottom Bracket

But.... I figured down the road it may be used without the BB so its removable

Note for the Techies - its a 68mm!!! ha ha

Score of the day!!!

$20 replacement Aluminum hitch from REI off a tag-along bike

I couldn't have made anything look that good for 20 bucks.

Monkey Likes Shiny Tribute pedals

2010-08-16T20:48:00.000-07:00

Well, once years and years back when I was a young lad, I ran in to a person by the name of Erik Noren, a welder for the company Croll bicycles in Minneapolis. Who later started working for Quality bike (QBP), this was about the time my brother was working at Quality. Erik decided one day to start up a company on the side called Peacock Groove where he used is connections of Quality and his skills learned working with the legand builder Walter Croll and try his hand at his own business.

From bike #1 the good old black monster with hand carved skulls over all the exposed tube ends, I decided to build a set of pedals that copied that same skull. I started making them way way back about maybe 6 or 7 years ago but really never got to pumped about making them until a friendly machine shop decided to make them for me.

My brother got me on to the idea of using the Igis composite bearings which are really just crazy composite plastic bushings that that pedal axle rides on with no moving parts, plus it reduces the thickness of the body and drops some weight, this also allowed for me to make the axle bigger and stronger without making the pedal thicker. I am almost done building them, just a few more little things to finish like threading the titanium axles and some simple machine work on the 7071 aluminum bodies.

stack of the Monkey Likes Shiny Tribute pedals

They allow toe straps but only single straps

Over all I think Erik needs a tribue pedal because he is one of the few bicycle frame builders still making it thru the slow times, even though he switched to Hamms and Ramen noodles as his only meal of the day.

Cheers Erik !

Minneapolis I miss you...............

2010-08-10T22:07:00.000-07:00

I seen this link posted on Jeff's Blog Bike Jerks and couldn't help but post it on my blog because I miss Minneapolis so much. As Jeff said it, "watch it, and you will smile".

"I Ride My Bicycle" City of Minneapolis • Bicycling Safety PSA :60 from Cole Koehler on Vimeo.

Roman Style

2010-08-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

Well.....

Sorry for the good old month of freedom I took from the shop and the blog. Its been an exciting time working and living in the San Francisco bay area. It reminds me of the Twin Cities in September because its a bit colder and there is no BUGS!!! Plus to add to all the other great things PEOPLE LOVE TO RIDE!!!

I have been working at this new company as a concept fabricator and so far they are really happy with how I make it happen. The guys I work with, are my age times 3 or 4 and together they have hundreds of years of fabrication and crafting experience, so walking in to that shop everyday with my head hung low ready to learn.

So out of the blue, I recieved an email from a lady from LA asking if there was any way I could help her with an idea and if possible help her turn that idea in to something more then a pen and paper drawing.

The idea was to create a project for BurningMan coming up that would allow her daughter to be able to enjoy the weekend with everyone and have something neat to really show off and enjoy.

The catch of the project - her daughter has very very limited use of her legs forcing her to use a wheelchair for most of her day to day tasks. This build has to be very special to allow her to put the wheelchair aside and enjoy bike rides with the whole crew across the salt flats of Burning Man.

I thought really quick and the first thing that came to mind was a tag along bicycles and use hand pedals, kind of a copy of the bike I built months back for the dude that had no legs and was driven to ride a bike pedaling with his hands. After talking the lady about the project for her daughter, she decided that 2 wheels might be more safe then 1 so the next thing that came to mind was a Roman Chairot that you would sit in and pedal by hand. As soon as I said that, I could feel the smile over the phone and I knew I had brought up the right idea.

Time to Build the first project in the new Berkeley workshop.....

here is my first concept I quick drew up....

just kidding I didn't draw that.

about 2 hours in at this point, most of the chassis is done

the chariot will look like a tag along bicycle from the side profile in how it attachs to the bicycle in front.

watch out !

2010-06-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

Watch out San Francisco !

Monkey Like Shiny is moving in and is here to stay !!
Well, the word is and the reason no post have been made in a long time is, I have moved the shop to the San Fran Bay area because I got a new job and it just ended up being my dream job.

I get paid to build crazy machines and robots!!!!!!

My new gig is at a robotic company not far from Oakland, its so rad working with some of the most talented fabricators I have met on some of the toughest and most complex fabrication jobs I have worked on, from medical to food to cemicals we build crazy machines to do everything, plus I get every other friday off so expect some really rad stuff coming your way on the free days and weekends, its been a goal to move to the San Fran bay for years. Now its TIME, so WATCH OUT !!

Sounds like the home of the HQ of Monkey Likes Shiny will be Berkeley, CA.

Just as I move in, some people that I have looked up to such as ElCamino Fab's – Jason Grove moved out of the area, bummer, I will have to step it up and fill some big shoes. The bay area is perfect for the downhill speed bike, everyday I find a bigger hill, I keep getting more excited to finish it.........

Keep Posted !!!