Ladies and Gents: It's a Girl

I find naming bikes, like naming cars, one of the most important steps in the bonding process. Below is my baby, Beezer. Beezer is a strange beast on her own. She was originally supposed to be an entirely tig-welded thing... suddenly a seat cluster was added... then she suddenly received graceful Waterford chain stays (which are much daintier than the Gunnar chainstays she had initially). By the end, she was dubbed a Waterford.



Beezer's frame was my high school graduation gift from my father. I finally received Beezer and built her up at the age of 20.5 or so, moments after the death of Big Red, a prototype touring frame that I had bombed around on the entire summer previously. I have no pictures of Big Red (named for the red electrical "anti-theft tape" inwhich he was shrouded) because of the nature of the accident that took his life... it left the seatstays and chainstays bent and my rear wheel and deraillure destroyed.

I don't want to remember him that way...

Beezer is constructed of ovular True Temper stock. She is so fast to turn and light that she took a few months to really learn how to wield.

Her name is from nickname given to me by my father. "Beezer" is a morphed version of one of my mother's nicknames for me, "Queen Bee." I was quite the little girl, what can I say?

As for the new one, I don't know where I should take it. I like the idea of naming my bikes after nicknames. They are sweet and endearing.

Here are some I am considering for the new baby:

"Rosie"
"Queen Bee"
"Queenie"

I like these because they are all feminine, and my bike is most definitely female... even without the pink paint. You look at the frame as it is, naked, and everything is slim, graceful, and considered.

Other options, not quite as feminine, are:

"Toezacious Being" or "TB"
"Toezer"

These are names more in the vein of "Beezer." I don't know if I want to go that route.

If you have any input, please pass it along.

As for the fork, I will not be a part of it at all. Because of the choice to use a stainless crown, I am not qualified to braze (it requires a high temperature flux and a special touch to complete). Next time I see the bike is on the other side of paint. Updates to come soon.

Painted Lady

Ah yes, the issue of paint.

I'm a huge fan of charcoal for everything... cars, bikes, etc.

Why? I would prefer that my bike be naked, truthfully... or clear powder-coated. This is not an option.

I don't like the idea of the paint of a bike being its most recognized feature. The paint should not take away from the "hard" aspects of the bike (frame, drivetrain). The paint should only enhance the features of the frame.

So I marched up to Roger, Paintman Extraordinaire, and said "I want charcoal or silver with a black candy overcoat."

Roger is a color God. He's been a painter for probably 30 years.



Also, he has an Opel.





Roger: "No you don't... the black candy isn't really black. It's got blue in it..."

Me: "Ew."

Roger: "Now, a bike came through the other day this color..."


"Fine Russet Pearl"

Roger showed me this color. It's pink in white light, but turns velvety in the sun... with brown undertones. I'm currently thinking this pink with a pearl white head tube.

I know... sounds sketchy. The paint guys say it would be stunning. They would know.

Everyone I talk to says that the detail on the head tube is so subtle that the head tube HAS to be a different color. I don't know how I feel about it yet.

I do like the idea of a pink bike the more I think about it. I'm a freaking girl, gosh darnit! I get to have my pink freaking bike!

What will I name it?

Naked...

Today, after a tour of the plant with Todd, Ryan, and MaryAnn, I had Dad take these pictures of the Baby.



It's in this view where you can truely see the offset on the headtube...



These shots really show how slim the lugs are. The head tube "window" was openned significantly by drawing the window into points at the corners. I guess the best thing I could do is to put up pictures of the unshapped lugs.



Look at the pretty points in the back!





Such a sexy Baby!

Torch!

I walked into torch day at 7:10am.

There was an electric bike sitting by the bay door... so I took that for a quick spin.

We assembled the bike on the fixture and tacked.



The stuff all over the bike is flux, if you don't know. EJ refers to it as "good lovin'" because you can "never get enough.

EJ took care of the front of the head tube lugs because of how detailed they were.





Understandable. I did seat cluster and bottom bracket... and whatever braze-ons and bosses needed to be done. I'm good with those.



We decided that flat caps were the prettiest option for the cluster because the alternative molded tips were heavy and required wider seat stays.



I didn't have any part in the seat stays, unfortunately... I was back-up SAG for a ride Dad was putting on from the shop. The women I was called to pick-up were not where they said they would be... and they had no idea of what to do with their bikes once I came on the scene. (They were matching... because that is important.) Needless to say that the job took a bit longer than I'd have liked. When I returned, the seat stays had been tacked on. I did get to braze them to the drop-outs, however.

Baby Steps

Every bike at the factory starts as a spec sheet, a geometry, and a box of tubes... which looks like this.

The spec sheet and geo was assembled through deliberation with Marc. This bike would be a classic road racing bike.

I was talked into a stainless steel crown for my fork... but I wasn't looking for stainless on this bike.

Once armed with my spec sheet and geometry (which will create a shorter bike than my current baby) I ran out to the floor to start carving lugs.

Initially, they were fairly bulky and blank. We slimmed them down using grinders and files. But when we finished, the head tube bands were obviously too bulky for the rest of the lug.



EJ asked if he could take them for a day or two and try something... to offset the frame a little. I said, sure. I don't like perfect symmetry.

When EJ came in on torch day, this is what I saw:



Beautiful. He took a hacksaw and cut slices into the lug and curled up the tips of the slices.

When assembled on the headtube, the offset is on the same side (right). It will pull the headbadge to the left, visually.

Thesis Statement

The goal of this bike is to be my vision of classic bicycle beauty.

This bike will:


1) be lugged. The metal frame of the bike is its heart. While paint can make bikes look different, the frame does not change if the bike is stripped and repainted. Because of the finishing process on the lugs, each frame is a little different (with carved lugs, even moreso). I don't feel that tig-welding has this sort of effect.

2) be the void of carbon fiber. I respect it as a material, but I would like to show that an incredible bike can exist in this day without it. This requires some investigation as far as componentry (most current high-end stuff, includes some CF aspect... ie. Campy Record), etc.

3) have small tubing. I like the look of a lean bike. I feel that it gives the bike a swift and dainty feeling.

4) be steel. I'm old school, what can I say?

Pictures and more to come...