More stuff! Merlin cleared out ther old space in a rush one day and left a dumpster full of it tubes. Guy that got to it right before me got multiple 5 gallon buckets of cut chainstay material (16-18” lengths). Said he was going to use them in grates for his horse barn. Luckily he left the buckets of newsboy tubes for me. 1. Pre bikecad drawing for new bike. Anatomical drawings added by @garyemathis or tyler @fireflybicycles I think. 2. Finished bike. Ashtabula cranks. Ibis fork. XL wald basket. 3. Never wipe your weld bench off with barehands. Photo by Jaime @fireflybicycles

More stuff from my boxes of crap. Ben Coles notebook from one of the first meetings when we started IF, trying to come up with a name. Stock certificate for my ownership. Inspiration. Bike machinery and marchetti made so many machines for bike building. Did all the drawings for our tools with pencil and paper on a stack of 11x17 continuous feed paper. Xerox copies of old ads used in our first ad in “the ride” magazine

I hate vee blocks! When I first started making bikes and tools I thought they were great. I only need to make one set of blocks for all the differently size tubes I used. Great! I quickly and simultaneously learned that vee blocks suck and there are not that many different sized tubes on a bike. Vee blocks work most of the time but not enough for you to trust them. If they are not tight enough the tube slips, if they are too tight they dent the tube. Vee blocks are good for tubes that are inconsistent in shape , see oval chainstay. If you were to look at the last ten bikes you have built you probably used less than 5 different dia tubes in your seat and chain stays Multiple blocks cost more than a simple vee block but the time and material lost while using tools you cannot trust quickly add up to costing more than the right tool for the job.

Bumper crop of monarchs this year!

One turn of handle does 3 things. 1. Squeezes record 2. Rotates 180 degrees on one axis and rotates plus 90 degrees or minus 90 degrees in another axis 3. Release record. Then repeat order when handle returned to start. Working on a couple of solutions

Before @bikecad we did the math. At first we manually did the formulas on a HP11c with RPN. Got a tI-92 plus right when it came out. Programmed it to ask for inputs and it outputted frame data points. Later I made an excel spreadsheet to do all of the work. Understanding the math behind making bikes is important

I moved to San Francisco in 1989 to learn how to build bikes. This show was open when I arrived. To check out good pics of the catalog Charlie Kelly’s website has pics of all the cards. I tried to get a job with Ed litton, Albert e. And Bernie m. All said no but Bernie was over by the coliseum at the time I think . Went to see him and to see the Grateful Dead after. Or some dead offshoot. Was a bike message for a bit and got a job at Orinda Spoke and Petal. Chris Kelly would come in to use the campy tool kit sometimes. Stayed a year then went back to Wisconsin before heading out to Boston. Messengered a bit more then got a job at fat city. Met some of the best people working there but it didn’t work out.

I have boxes of things I have collected over the years. Cleaning out and consolidating some of them. I started really getting into bikes when I was 10 or 11. I liked riding them but also loved tinkering with them. First pics is of a box of parts I remember being on my bench in the basement. Weird collection of stuff: Benotto vinyl tape schraeder valve stem cores. Campy cable clamps. Spoke nipples. Suntour 2 prong freewheel remover. My mother is French so I would spend some summers in France as a kid. Followed the Tour everyday. Cut out stories and typed up the results every year. Check out some of the giants racing back then. Hinault, Kelly, Andersen, Joop and Vander Velde.

Before I made the simple main tube mitering jig the water bottle drill jig was my favorite tool. Both tools are easy to use, relying on center to center measurements easily gotten from bike cad or drawings and take the guess work out of the job. Set it up and run it! Not complicated, not fancy just fast and and accurate. Both in stock and ready to ship