Space chairs

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

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 !!!!

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!

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...

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

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 !!!!!

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

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......

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 !!!!!!!

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 ........

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 !!!

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!!

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

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......

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 ........

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!!!

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 ! "

Sizes

Small Med Large X-Large

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?

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

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

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

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.