Hey ever'body.
A new custom built road bike made specifically
for Bruce Marco from the Commomwealth of Virginia.
His new bike is a hybrid of sorts. It's got some handmade steel lugs
with some carbon fiber tubes carefully glued in there.
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Making these bikes is about as much work as making 3 bikes.
First I start off by brazing together some tubes at the correct angles.
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Next, the tubes are bored out to the correct diameter in the lathe,
and all excess material is removed.
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When the lugs are ready, they look like this.
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Skip ahead another 40-50 hours of work,
and here's what they look like when the Enve carbon tubes are glued in.
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After a bunch more work, the frame and fork are all ready to build into a bike.
Never done with the targets. So many ways to paint them...
That seat lug doesn't look so bad after all, huh?
Delicate looking s-bends terminated with
delicate looking, yet bombproof brass brazing.
The monochrome targets give the effect of each stripe
being darker closest to the lighter color underneath,
but there's no paint fade going on.
We'll let your eye trick you into thinking that I'm a better painter than I am.
I think the repetition from the lug to the paint came out quite nice.
What do you think? Worth the effort?
Lately, I've assigned myself some music listening.
I've been trying to get through the Rolling Stone's
Top 500 Albums of All Time.
I certainly don't agree with everything they point to,
and looking at the committee they've tasked with
coming up with that list, I can see why.
In my mind, any and all members of Blink 182
will never have a vote as to what is good music.
Anyway, so far I've really enjoyed it.
It's interesting to try and get some perspective
and context to where music has ended up,
as well as getting turned onto things I never would have.
There are things that I can now never again torture myself with:
anything by Pink Floyd, The Eagles (the Dude was right),
Prince (sorry, never liked him), early Neil Young, etc.
There are things that I knew were good, but had never connected with,
which brings us to Aretha Franklin.
Now, if that's not completely packed with awesome
in every way imaginable, I'll pack my things and go home.
6 comments:
Fantastic.
May I ask what is the approximate weight difference to an un-lugged all-steel frame?
there's not a terribly large weight difference- generally about a quarter to half pound. the big advantage is that the oversized carbon tubes damp vibration much better than the same diameter steel tubes. you keep the same stiffness as the steel, but it rides a bit softer. it pedals like a big tubed bike, but absorbs road vibration like a small tubed bike.
I've been doing the same thing with music lately, except not with the Rolling Stone list because it would just make me angry. Pffft, Blink 182...please. But it's always great to find something new, or something that for whatever reason you missed the first time around. And you are right Aretha is awesome, but Prince and The Eagles are just awful. Pink Floyd and early Neil Young though...well, let's not talk about that. The bike is gorgeous by the way. Oh yeah, almost forgot. Do you listen to Big Mam Thornton? http://youtu.be/JvbSXVc451Q
Woah! Before you knock Blink-182 too much, listen to their eponymous album - I'd argue it's good enough to be considered 'classic'. It's darker, edgier and grittier than anything they did previously, or have done since - in fact it's more like a Cure album than one done by a band obsessed with 'weiners' (I'm British and still find that term very odd).
As for the rest of their work - as you were.
i'll put it this way: when someone who postures themselves as the voice of rock and roll, which rolling stone certainly seems to (and who am i to say they're not), they'd do a lot toward legitimizing their list of the "500 greatest albums of all time," if their jury didn't include a bunch of guys that essentially make a career writing 3 chord songs about poop.
if blink 182 floats someone's boat, fine with me; i don't think less of someone for the music they listen to, but it just ain't my thing. i included my opinion of that band in particular to give some context of my opinion of the rolling stone list. i'm not trying to undermine the validity of the list (once again: who am i?), it's just that anything even hinting at "definitive" should be taken with a grain of salt.
best ......excellent cat
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