As some of you may know I have a few interests outside of cycling and one of them is racing SCCA Solo – otherwise known as autocross. I race a Lotus Seven clone known as a Birkin S3 in the SCCA D Modified class. I race for my local SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) club and this weekend I’ll be heading north to Helena MT to race in my biggest event of the year, the NORPAC (Northern Pacific) Divisional.

We will have people from all over the Northwest coming in for the event. I’ve counted folks from 9 states and Canada. I’m most excited to run against a married couple from the Seattle area who between them have a good number of National Championships in Solo in my class racing a 1966 Lotus Elan. I’ve run against them at this event in years past and and have always had a great time. They have beat me each time but I’ve been narrowing the gap over the past few years as I’ve upped my driving and car preparation. I feel that if things go very well I might actually be a threat this year.

So wish me luck at the Divisionals event this weekend.

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading,

Dave

Just a quick coat of paint, that’s all. Shouldn’t take more than a day or two at the most.

That’s how it all starts. In this case I needed to repair a good number of serious dings in the sheet rock on the walls (sheet rock was donated by a friend a number of years ago and it didn’t travel from his place to mine very well) as well as tape and sand all the joints. Then just prime and paint and I’ll be done and get back to doing something I’m good at. But while the shop is torn down I may as well install some trim around the window and door and install some baseboards to make sweeping up easier. Ok so that shouldn’t take long as all I need to do is cut the baseboard stuff to length and put some polyurethane on it. Just a few minutes really.

And as long as I’m at it I should clean everything and rearrange the benches for the best flow and the least number of steps between work areas. That shouldn’t take too long………. just a few minutes really.

If not for Karin I’d still be in there painting the floor. It needs a new coat of paint but she talked me off the ledge and I’ll tackle that this fall. I like a shiny floor. I wouldn’t have taken more than a few minutes really.

So now it’s all set and I’ve been back at work in there for a few days and it works very well and it’s bright and pleasant to be in there. While cleaning up I took an inventory of some items and see I have more than I need so I’ll be listing them here for sale soon.

Thanks for reading,

Dave

For the past few years I’ve been meaning to paint my shop. I put up the drywall about 5 years ago but never made the time top paint the place after that as I’d been just too busy. Well we had a long wet spring here and I did something unusual and got too much work done and now find myself ahead of schedule  - so now is a great time to paint.

All the walls will be Lotus yellow and the floor will get a fresh coat of green. With the taping of the drywall, sanding, priming and painting I expect most of this week to be devoted to shop work. It will be very nice to have it fresh and bright this winter.

All are welcome to stop by for a visit, just don’t tell me I missed a spot.

Dave

I’m in the middle of building a JKS for Andy and thought I’d show you a progression of how a single lugged joint moves down the line.

The first photo shows the lug all covered in yummy flux and ready to be tacked. The tubes and lugs are being held by the jig in the proper orientation.

The second photo shows the joint still hot after being brazed. It’s covered with the now hard and glassy flux. The flux will be removed by soaking in very hot water.

The third photo shows what the joint looks like after it’s had it’s bath.

The last photo shows the lug after it’s been cleaned and made ready for JB to work his paint magic on.

Tomorrow I add the rear end to this frame and it starts looking bike-like.

later,

Dave

This went out the door to JB for paint the other day and I thought you might like to see it.

Enjoy the Tour!

Dave

With it being Tour De France time I find myself watching lots of very good racing on TV and thinking of race bikes and how they are used.

Most road bikes are race bikes designed to be ridden hard and fast yet most owners of these bikes will never race them. This is of course not a problem as a good race bike is often the best way to get from point A to point B in quick comfort. That said I do feel that many riders may miss something and may not fully understand why a race bike is designed and built the way it is until they have pushed themselves to 10/10ths on it. When a bike is raced effectively its design features will make sense and come into their own. The fit and handling of a race bike is designed to be right when the bike and rider are being pushed to the limit.

I’m not suggesting that everyone get racing licenses and go do a stage race next week so that they can experience all the bike and racing have to offer. Most of us don’t have either the time or desire to get into hardcore racing. I would however suggest that maybe you consider doing your local club’s weekly time trial just for the experience of it. Most every town large enough to be on a map will have a cycling club and most of these clubs will have a weekly time trial series. Typically a weekly time trial will be only 10 miles to 20 kilometers long so the racer doesn’t need to have huge miles in their legs to be able to complete the event. Doing a time trial is a great way to push yourself to your own personal limit to see what you are capable of while at the same time coming to a greater understanding of why one sits on a race bike in a certain way and why a race bike is designed the way it is. Only when you are at your limit can you feel and understand these things. I would urge you to not get caught up in the time trial equipment thing at first. Time trials were ridden for a good 80 years before the advent of the aero handlebar and the riders had no less fun. Just bring you and your normal bike out and give it a go.

After doing an event or two you will find yourself riding your normal rides a bit differently and appreciating your bike and it’s fit/design even more. When your riding partners push the pace and you need to bridge a gap you will find yourself not just pushing on the pedals harder but doing so more efficiently and in concert with the bike. Racing will make you a better cyclist.

If you currently race or have done so in the past then you know exactly what I mean. If you’ve never tried it I politely suggest that you give it a try. There is much to be learned and with that new knowledge comes more fun. And of course your experience will make it easier to relate to how strong and skilled those Tour riders are.

Thanks for reading.

Dave

I was having a conversation the other day with a fellow framebuilder and the conversation turned, as it often does, to some of the stupid stuff that happens in a production frame shop. Whenever you get a group of 20 to 40 year old boys together for long hours silly stuff seems to happen. Our conversation reminded me of an event I can actually share with others.

I started work at Serotta in October of 1989 and was over the top excited about landing the job but frankly I was let down by what I saw when I arrived. Not that anything was wrong but it was just that my expectations were out of line with the reality of a blue-collar labor production shop. I somehow expected that there would be serious men in lab coats using high tech laser guided tools and in reality is was shirtless guys with smokes hanging from their mouths using machine tools made during the second world war. Not to say that these guys weren’t extremely skilled because they were. I just expected it would look different.

With this in mind – I’d been working at Serotta for only month or so and was looking forward to building a Serotta for myself. The factory was in a converted split-level, cinderblock school building in the middle of nowhere and the production shop was in the basement while the offices were upstairs.

One day I stayed late to work on a Serotta for myself. A co-worker and new friend nicknamed “Chief” offered to stay and help me with my bike. We worked in earnest for a few hours and then our attention spans got very short and we started doing stupid stuff. Using seat stays as gun barrels we found that we could put push pins into them and shoot them like bullets all the way across the shop using compressed air. We were amazed that they would actually stick into the wall from 50 feet. Then out of nowhere Chief says, “watch this” and walks over to the wall where there was a piece of pipe sticking out from the wall. The pipe was used at some point as a rack for holding who knows what but at this point it was little more than a foot and a half of water pipe hooked to the wall with a pipe flange. Chief goes to the pipe with his oxy-acetylene torch in hand and while wearing a devilish grin opens the gas valve on the torch and sticks it in the end of the pipe filling it with the acetylene. I had no idea what he’s going to do but it was all in the name of fun – what could go wrong?

After a very long time filling the pipe on the wall with gas Chief tells me to stand back and he lights his torch. With the torch lit he swings it past the open end of the pipe and then all hell breaks loose. A huge BOOM comes from the pipe shaking the entire building and rattling the windows. The pipe, along with a large chunk of the cinderblock wall it was mounted to, falls to the floor. We just stare at each other in awe. We were both surprised by how big the explosion was. While standing there not knowing what to do we hear rushed foot steps coming down the stairs from the office above. Oh shit! We thought we were the only ones in the building. The door from the stairwell opens and Ben Serotta comes running into the shop.

Now I’d only been working there for a short time and was still in my probationary period and could be fired without warning. I really loved this job and seeing Ben burst into the room made me sure that I had just lost it. Ben looks around the room to see the two of us standing there trying to look normal, Chief with a lit torch still in his hand. There was no tell-tale smoking gun, only a piece of pipe on the floor surrounded by chunks of concrete. Ben says something like “what the hell was that”? I turn to Chief hoping that he has an answer and he doesn’t disappoint. “What are you talking about?” says Chief. I can’t believe it. Chief is going to pretend nothing happened? The whole damn building shook and all he can say is “what”? At this point I’m sure I’m fired and I’m going to have to find a new job and explain to my friends and family how I lost my dream job. Ben and Chief go back and forth with the obvious stuff – “Didn’t you hear that!” followed by more “Whats?”

Ben walks around the room and doesn’t notice the pipe and concrete on the floor and realizing that we are going to hold the line and continue to play dumb he finally tells us to go home and heads back up the stairs. Once we hear his footsteps going up the stairs we can’t contain it any longer and we both start laughing uncontrollably.

Many years later, my job being secure, I told Ben about this over a beer. To my surprise he didn’t remember it. How could he not remember it? He tells me so much stupid stuff happened over the years that it all blended together in his mind. The thing I think of when looking back on this time was just how devoted these boys were to making the best bikes on the planet. It was a singular focus that we all shared. But we were boys and in their free time boys do shockingly stupid stuff.

Dave