Saturday January 21, 2012
Peter Diantoni paid me a couple of visits over the last year and a half, and published a feature on Frances in the latest issue of COG Magazine. Peter is a quiet visitor- like he’s just there to take it all in. The Article includes his photographs and reflections on his visiits, an appraisal of Marc Norstad’s smallhaul in Richmond, CA (which Mark tells me is now is #1 most-ridden bike!), and a long-winded, rambling interview. The interview is a sparsely punctuated transcription of a conversation we had the day after an epic Halloween party in 2010. My arm was in a sling (not from the party, although I danced more than I ought with that injury) and my hair dyed black.
On peter’s second visit Leo and I took him on a loop through Wilder. I warned him about the off-camber down-hill left-hand turn at the bottom of long meadow. I also commented on the single freewheel with only a front brake (once I noticed it out on the trails) on his Schwinn Paramount. He did indeed go down on that little descent, and was quite a good sport about it.
The Frances Smallhaul gets the centerfold.
Peter Diantoni is a genuine sweetheart- If he’s passing through your town, take him in and feed him- tell him stories and show him around.
Check out COG Magazine here
Friday January 20, 2012
Darren and I are working our way though 4 builds of the new Mixtehaul. I have refined the Ballena design, adjusted the shapes slightly, and offer this itteration for sale:
Base frameset: $2500.00 (includes 2 headsets, steering assembly, kickstand and platform)
bag and rainfly: $275.00
And as we get back to work after holidays full of home rapairs, the bike church remodel and Soupy’s Illness and passing, here are a few images from the shop. Happy to see the rain.
Darren cut fork blade caps from this tube. nice pattern- in the fuzzy background he cleans them up on the belt sander. He cut out holes till the machine thunked to a miserable sounding halt. Damage was thankfully minor and the supermax will be up again by monday, better than before.
And just when you think you’re getting back to framebuilding, you’re repairing the machine again. . .
Putting the caps on.
Wednesday January 18, 2012
Soupy has been my close companion for 12 1/2 years. That’s one third of my life! She has inspired so much in me.
I put so much emotion into soupy, and now it is all coming around: the effort at being a good parent and friend, the righteousness against laws and fears that made soupy a second class citizen, the love, the disappointment, the desire. . .
Our house is unguarded by her benign bark; our bed unwarmed. My morning, my day unshaped by the campanion who was always ready to go and who was probably too understanding and accepting of the dull days not spent in the world with bodies of water and fields of grass, but in the shop listening to stressful news on the radio, making noise and maybe swearing.
When PedX bought their first longhaul from Jan in Eugene (Human Powered Machines), Emily, bello and Soupy and I took the Green Tortoise (Man I wish they were still around!- although we still had to fight to get the dogs on even though we bought tickets for them in advance) to Eugene and rode back with the dogs. We found great roads and toured through the length of the lost coast etc. etc. great times.
Soupy loved the bike Church tour, although I always let her work herself a little too hard.
This is soupy’s first bike that I made for her- Ann rides it now. We call it the “small gall” because it’s like a growth on the front of an Argos Road bike that I chopped up (after it had been wrecked). this is 2006.
This is Soupy’s second bike: my first smallhaul with cable steering.
There she goes.
And then today, Soupy’s lifelong friend Bello goes in for surgery as well. My thoughts are on Emily and Bello up in Portland, being my extended family, being two wonderful people who have given me so much.
Bello and Soupy
Wednesday January 11, 2012
I took the plunge- decided I just couldn’t not do it. I’ll be showing some bikes and framesets in booth #131. I missed the boat on getting over by some other Santa Cruz builders, but all the guys from around here are going to be there (just on the other side of the Sacromento convention center). I hope to have bags from Strawfoot Handmade who makes the bag for our new Mixtehaul (shown at the Manifest). Another fiend, Vince, is also making a some saddle and handlebar bags I hope to bring along.
North American Handmade Bicycle Show!
March 2nd – 4th in Sacramento, California
It was a push to decide to show at NAHBS. I finally have real product liability insurance (which I am happy about, but a fair bit poorer). And then there’s the fee to show, which is not all that small.
I will be looking for a place to stay in Sacramento if anyone out there has any proposals!
Friday October 7, 2011
My Sweetheart Ann Alstatt will be opening our house for open studios next weekend,
Oct. 15th and 16th, from 11am to 5pm.
Ann is an exceptional printmaker who creates alegorical prints about our natural world- real and unreal. She has some new work up and will be selling prints framed and unframed. Her work is not only excellent, but affordable.
Out back, I’ll be cleaning up and opening the Frances shop for visitors who like bikes.
Come on over and see what we’re up to!
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