She is half done Jeff

My project for Jeff Thrasher is coming along

I got all the Reynolds tubes notched and cleaned. Its only a 58cm but its one of the bigger bikes I have built, I keep on thinking I have measured something wrong because the Downhill Speed bike is so small ( BMX ) sized, seeing all this open space is really throwing me off.

So far, everything is looking good. 

The plan - To build a new aged Iver Johnson looking Track Bike that folds up to fit in a suite case so it is easy to travel with, no more oversized fees at the airport

The Catch - It needs to look like it doesn't fold and needs to follow the lines of a classic Iver.

As I get closer to putting the rear end on the bike, it will make a bit more sence, how the folding will work.

I welded the bottom bracket on already

This is a buddy of mine's Iver in his bicycle collection - I am using this photo for the frame design

It is a late 1800's Iver Johnson Custom Track race bicycle

 Heard of Iver Johnson or the name ring a bell? 

           Thats because they were one of the biggest firearms manufacturers from the mid 1800s to the early 1990s well over 100 years.

 For a while, from the late 1800s to the 1940s they produced bicycles  and motorcycles due to their great knowedge in manufacturing. You can thank Major Taylor in the late 1800s for putting the Iver Johnson bicycles on the map. Major Marshall Taylor was the fastest racer at the time, to top it off he happened to be one of the only African-American bicycle racers during a very strong racial time. He was so fast that he lapped on the track, every one of the pro racers during a 1/2 mile race.

A few years later he became the world champ on his Iver in 1899.

Iver Johnson Firearms, Motorcycles, Bicycles , Toys and so on are still around today because of the fine craftsmanship in every detail, they go down in my book as a inspiring company because of of many reasons. If you want to read more search it up, its a really cool when you read about all the patents and ideas they had over 100 years ago. They were ahead of their time in idea and product.

Spinning some parts

I have a lot of projects in the shop like always but the high priority goes to my bicycle projects, this one for Jeff Thrasher.

I want to tell everyone what I am building but thats half of fun not telling you until we get closer.... So stay tuned

The headtube I spun out of 4130 Chromoly steel and is a full Cane Creek style intergrated bearing style.

The custom bottom bracket with the bearings on it I also made out of 4130 chromoly. The bearings are out of a Cannondale mountain bike headset, they work perfect for a bottom bracket pivot.

Tired.........

Beside making custom motorcycle handlebars, I managed to escape the shop today and drive to Fairing.

The place is where most small bicycle frame builders order their special tubes and weld on goodies to build frames. The project at hand this week is to design bicycle guru Jeff Thrasher a cool custom ride. I like to go out to Fairing to pick out bicycle specific tubes sometimes before I start to really design a frame, because I kind of have an idea what I can work with. I will lay out some sketches of my ideas in a day or so.

I need to get done with these handlebars for this motorcycle, its crazy that people still come to me and ask me to build Exile style stuff. I worked at Exile Cycles years ago and that was what brought me to California. Russell Mitchell helped me and made sure to get me in front of the camera while we did a bunch of tv shows for Discovery Channel, TLC and Speed Channel.  It was crazy being a young kid getting thrown in front of a camera, building these handlebars kinda gave me a flash back to the good old days, years back and how much I really didn't like making these style of bars for various reason.......