Day... 9 Sorry...

Well we are basically done with the class now so you have seen day one and two and then day nine. I will skip the apologies and just say that things have been pretty busy at class and Natalie was in town for the weekend. I am now done with the entire frame. We finished the front triangle last friday and have been working on the rear triangle for the the past three days with today focusing on minor details. The interesting thing about welding a bike is that the front triangle which draws the most attention for titanium bikes is the easiest to weld and the rear triangle is a pain. I think that the unfortunate thing about the class is that from day 3 you are welding the front triangle when your welds are not very good, yet are most noticable. Then the whole last week you are welding the rear with slightly better welds but no one will really look at them. I will post some pictures of the bike below for everyone to see what it looks like. Hopefully someday I will be able to build it up.

Just so everyone knows, this is a 29er mountain bike frame with geometry slightly like the Titus Fireline 29er with a few changes that I made to fit my body and personal riding style. The headtube has just a bit more slack than the Fireline because my riding is a little more aggresive and less racey. I also increased the chainstay length by about 15 mm for a little more stability and better tracking. The bike does have paragon sliding dropouts so that I can change to a single speed when I finally grow some muscles in my legs. Overall I love the way that the bike looks. The welds got progressively better and I am sure that the next bike that I build is going to look significantly better. Hope you all enjoy the pics.

Day two... Yep I still can't weld

Well we are now two days into class and I am still a terrible welder. By this point I thought that I would be creating the most beautiful welds that the titanium world had ever seen and I am currently creating welds that look like the moons of Saturn... Things are looking up however and my practice material is getting cleaner and cleaner. I have posted two of the practice T joints that I made today. You can compare them to the one I posted yesterday and really see the difference. I still wouldn't feel comfortable with these welds on my bike, but they at least look pretty.

We are working on our frame design right now and have gone over a few essential aspects of frame design. There are a lot of things that have to be taken into consideration when designing a bike frame, especially a custom one. I am going to try to simplify things using a few design ideas from the fireline 29er, but I don't want to create exactly the fireline, because after all this is a custom bicycle.

I also went out on the shuttle today for a nice ride. The first two miles were through huge patches of snow that I wrecked on everytime my tires hit the snow. Then I started up a really consistent steep grade climb that lasted about 15 minutes and finally I was ready for some downhill. The singletrack up here is fast. I was averaging about 20-25 mph weaving through trees and giong over roots. All the turns had burms that held my tires so I could lean way into it. Near the end there was a section that had some small jumps and had a section so fast that I had to be going 30mph it was scary.

Class is in session

Today was the first day of class and I definately got schooled!!! Welding is really really difficult and I feel like a first grader. We had about 5 hours of classroom session followed by about 3 1/2 hours of hands on figure out this welding thing. Below I have posted a few pictures of my first welding attempt. We had the scrap tubing cut for us and all we had to do was debur and file the pieces and then weld them together. Sounds simple I know... well you can see for yourself. The piece that I have pictured is similar to the joint between the headtube and the downtube. It has one very large hole that I tried to fix without success and then a whole bunch of other stuff kinda welded and kinda superglued and kinda falling apart. I had some hope breathed into me be the end of class period when i began my second of the same project that looks pretty dang good though. I will post a picture of that one tomorrow when it is finished. We are going to do a few more practice projects with one of them being a bottom bracket joint and then we are going to stress test the joint with a large breaker bar until we actually break it. This can tell us a little about the welds that we are doing and what we are doing wrong.

I also went on a short bike ride today after class. I got lost twice and never actually made it to a trail so that was pretty great. I did get in 12 miles though. Tomorrow I am going to take the shuttle after class and do a little dh. I will post some video so you can see how amazing it is here.

And in case you were wondering... YES THAT IS MY MUSTACHE... and you don't have to tell me, I already know how classy it looks.

After 20 Long Hours... I'M HERE

So the drive up went reasonably smooth. It definately wouldn't have been the same without the old stallion Honda Civic (pictured below). The views as I was driving up, especially as I neared northern California and Southern Oregon were spectacular. Lake Shasta and Mount Shasta are rediculously beautiful and breathtaking (I know breathtaking is a little gay but it definately describes how I felt). I tried to get some shots but they will have to wait until the drive home. Ashland is gorgeous. The hostel I am staying at is very cute and comfortable. I can't wait until Monday morning when class starts and you can get some quality action shots and finally begin to see the bike being born.

YOU ARE DOING WHAT?!?!

For all those who are interested... I have just graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Biomedical Engineering. Most with this degree would probably go on the become a biomedical engineer, but that path isn't quite for me. I have decided to use my background in Computer Aided Drafting, Materials Sciences, and Mechanics/Biomechanics to better the cycling community. The eventual goal of this detour is to create my own brand of boutique bicycles, but that is a million baby steps away. For the time I am going to get a basic understanding in simple bicycle design and a crashcourse in titanium welding. And there is no better place than United Bicycle Institute in Ashland, Oregon.

There are a lot of things that I hope to take home from this class, but first and foremost I will be taking home my very own titanium bicycle that I will have custom fit and welded specifically for me. I hope that you have fun following me on this two week adventure that is the first of many babysteps to a happy career in the cycling industry.