Budd Bike Works World Word

My uncle announced ahead of his 62nd birthday that he’d be riding the French Alps this coming September and that he’d be taking the bike I built for him three years ago to do it.  This is the fulfillment of a decades old dream for him, and an honor for me that he’d choose his Budd Bike Works to ride some of the same storied passes that had been battled over by the heroes of the Tour De France.  Anyway his initial paint job was showing some signs of wear and possibly a poor pre-treat from the powder coater at this point so the bike came in for a re-finish.  With the paint stripped I couldn’t help but try to spiff up some of my earlier work to impress the Europeans on the climbs and nearly paid a high price for the vanity when I knocked loose a threaded fitting inside the frame.   It took a good bit of sweat and ingenuity to keep this from being a major plastic surgery disaster.

The new tinted clear powder coat is an antique bronze that looks amazing with the substrate visible beneath, as per usual my photography underwhelms but I hope he likes it when he sees it.  I’m excited for his trip and will be following his preparation for it when he re-fires his blog at Old Man Up the Mountain. One of the joys of building bikes for folks one at a time with hand tools  is that I put enough of myself into them that it feels like part of me gets to go on all the eventual adventures that the bikes do, I guess that is also why I can be a bit of a nag to customers that aren’t riding their BBWs.

I always welcome the christmas season, if for nothing else, it is an opportunity to make some things for which precision and structural integrity are not a pressing concern.   This year the family either got spirally ear rings or, if you happened to have one of my handmade bike frames, a headbadge for your stead, all in stainless steel. I am really exited about the head badges, a friend got me into the hobby shop at MIT to cut them on a water jet and I mounted them up with tiny little M2 screws, they could be a standard feature on all frames in the future.

Gifts gifted and toasts toasted, I am back home and back to work and the dust is beginning to settle from the whirlwind that was my trip to the folks house in beautiful Bucks County, PA.   Being more than a comfortable trip away means I don’t go home much, doing so always makes me wish I got to share more than rushed holidays with the people that brought me into the world.  One day, when I strike it big, I’ll give them all jobs at Budd Bike Works.

Photo Credits to Chris Firth, the great dude sleeping on my couch the last few days.

Photo Credits to Chris Firth, the great dude sleeping on my couch the last few days.

Someone shared this link with me today.

http://www.bikerumor.com/2011/11/28/first-look-retroshift-brake-shift-levers-for-cyclocross/

Looks like I’m not the only one fed up with overly complicated shifter mechanisms sullying the beauty of the sport.

I like the way Retroshift went about adding the shift mount directly to the brake lever,  I still think my version is a little better since they can be shifted from the tops and drops as well as the hoods.

So, any etymologists among readers in the ether? Is the word for the wasting of unused muscle the antonym for the prize in a contest?

I’d have to guess yes.

New England CycloCross 2011 will be winding down and I am fraught that failing to find time delve into the fray of the CAT 3 field to fight for a finish in the mid fifties, I’ve failed maintain my muscle tone, let alone finagle a few points.

There is still a bit of time to tune up and tie up my tip money in a day of travel and trying to muster the most of my traction in the trenches three minutes and change behind the triumphant.  I think I may have to,  racing offers its own rewards even if you aren’t in the hunt for a trophy, if only for the extra pop in your pedal stroke you get from trying to make it to the next corner first.

That, and I miss the familiar faces and this feeling.

Hunting Photos of yourself on facebook is a dangerous thing.

The inevitability that an uncomfortable conversation would begin among the kind of multi-generational  and politically/socially disparate group congregated for thanksgiving at the first mention of the occupy movement was palpable, and I was prepared to waffle.   I like that people are getting together and voicing that they are paying attention, and that they don’t like what has transpired to the detriment of many for the enrichment of a few. I can’t get behind the stark contrast that is made between capitalism and ambition with  a way forward for more people, though.     I spent the entirety of the movement momentum here in Boston at the chase for the 1 %’s scraps and I’ve got to say, I loved many a minute of it.  As long as there is a logical and useful means for me to make an honest dollar I am not going to have time to make a placard and join the movement.  It’s not a black and white situation.

The brown MTB bike I just joined my customer on its maiden voyage may as well be a case in point.  While it is a point of begrudgement that the globalized supply chain and  credit backed capital of the big players can reduce the price of the commodity I supply to a tenth of my expense, I can’t deny that I benefit greatly from the same system since damn, that SRAM shifts quite nicely and if it weren’t for venture capitalists, a technician in bio-tech would not have had the money to commission me to make something the slow way. Whittling away with hand tools at the advanced alloy steel that a belching furnace forged to perfection while listening to tales of strife boiling over among the multitudes on the radio I wondered if working on something so small while so many big things are happening in the world is the equivalent of putting my head in the sand, getting out for a ride on the thing I made makes me wonder if I really care.

The inevitability that an uncomfortable conversation would begin among the kind of multi-generational  and politically/socially disparate group congregated for thanksgiving at the first mention of the occupy movement was palpable, and I was prepared to waffle.   I like that people are getting together and voicing that they are paying attention, and that they don’t like what has transpired to the detriment of many for the enrichment of a few. I can’t get behind the stark contrast that is made between capitalism and ambition with  a way forward for more people, though.     I spent the entirety of the movement momentum here in Boston at the chase for the 1 %’s scraps and I’ve got to say, I loved many a minute of it.  As long as there is a logical and useful means for me to make an honest dollar I am not going to have time to make a placard and join the movement.  It’s not a black and white situation.

The brown MTB bike I just joined my customer on its maiden voyage may as well be a case in point.  While it is a point of begrudgement that the globalized supply chain and  credit backed capital of the big players can reduce the price of the commodity I supply to a tenth of my expense, I can’t deny that I benefit greatly from the same system since damn, that SRAM shifts quite nicely and if it weren’t for venture capitalists, a technician in bio-tech would not have had the money to commission me to make something the slow way. Whittling away with hand tools at the advanced alloy steel that a belching furnace forged to perfection while listening to tales of strife boiling over among the multitudes on the radio I wondered if working on something so small while so many big things are happening in the world is the equivalent of putting my head in the sand, getting out for a ride on the thing I made makes me wonder if I really care.

Well, sort of, maybe, for the right person with a penchant for photography and social media and willing to work in exchange for a bike frame.

My friday night light is low, and the camera was shaky.