Saturday, September 4, 2010

Mustaches Wild



Hey y'all. Here's the latest black cat to roll out the door.


Curvy, butted True Temper top tube meets curvy,
butted Dedachai seat stays.
Custom bent by yours truly.








I'm pretty attached to this shade of green.
I know bright colors are all the rage right now,
and really, that's fine with me. I even like some of those colors.
Really though, give me an olive green bike to ride through the trees.


Nothing says "classy" like a neatly trimmed mustache.
There are some out there who have bugged me relentlessly
for a black cat head badge. Well folks, here it is.
I really think the best reason for going to an oversized
head tube is more real estate for your mustache.


Quicksand anyone?
Their first record, "Slip", is an amazing piece of work.
I wore out several cassette tapes listening to it.
There might be a digital groove worn
into my ipod playing it these days.
There are very few records out there
where all the songs are so good.

The second (and final), "Manic Compression",
is also a very good record
but it didn't have the advantage of being as
mind blowing-ly ground breaking.

I remember seeing this live video about 10 years ago.
All the segments are pretty good.





7 comments:

Lanterne Rouge said...

Can you give some details on the head tube? Looks like a custom TIG welded lug? Intergrated or Zero stack? I assume this is for added strength due to the short HT.

Looks GREAT by the way!

blackcatbicycles said...

the head tube is a 44mm id tube that allows for several things. it allows for quasi- integrated 1 1/8" headsets such as a chris king inset, or a cane creek zero stack. it also will let you run a 44xx headset, by cane creek, that will let you run a tapered steerer fork. another nice thing is a builder can run the down tube closer to the bottom of the head tube without the fork crown running into the down tube. a common problem on 29ers. the cup flanges pressed into the head tube have more surface area than a typical 1 1/8" head set, so it does bump up strength a bit that way.
the gusset is a collar that is sleeved onto the down tube, sweat brazed on, then mitered and fillet brazed with the rest of the down tube. it is a functioning gusset rather than just an ornate garnish.

full disclosure: this is a bike i made for myself to test this new head set/ steerer combo. i've ridden it a bunch in the last bit and all i can say is that this system is worth all the hype it may (or may not) be getting. the bike rails! i'm not one to blindly jump into new technology (i still predominantly ride rigid bikes with inner tubes, gasp!)so this was an expensive leap of faith for me.
pay dirt.

Jim Beam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
blackcatbicycles said...

funny how some people have said that's their favorite logo, others are not so into it. i change logos all the time, as displayed here.
mustaches are optional as well.

chad said...

I just listened to quicksand for the first time last night and was amazed how much i still like it and then today i check out your blog and......quicksand!

dRjON said...

do you have a fully built pic? stunning, as ever...

blackcatbicycles said...

drjon,
sorry it took so long to get up the pic of the complete. interbike has been looming...
i took a camera on a couple rides to get a good "trail side" shot, but forgot to stop and take the pic.
i'll be building some new wheels for this bike. the wheels on there are borrowed from other bikes.