Paragon Machine Works

All the bits are in, and while I iron out the last details before getting out the files, let me tell you how excited I am about some small chunks of steel. First off, I am in no way sponsored by, a part of, or even get discounts from: Paragon Machine Works. But what I am, is impressed at the quality and seriousness that is taken to make some of the nicest machined braze-ons, dropouts, and other frame bits available. Not only are they cooler, smarter, stronger, and or lighter, but they're pretty enough that many call this stuff 'frame jewelry.' Competitively priced, they're making the ol' "Made in the U.S.A." tag mean something good again. If only the U.S. car manufacturers were that cool.

The reason I'm talking about it so much now, is that I've used the excuse of ordering one thing from them, to order about $500.00 of stuff from them. The sliding dropouts that helped put them on the map have now expanded to pretty much everything except the main frame tubes. And every bit is given the utmost in design and detail. So I'm happy to say that with the U.S. made True Temper tubing, flux and filler from Henry James, and everything else down to the B.B. shell made from P.M.W. this next project will truly be a "Handmade in the U.S.A." bicycle frame.


And as always, more pictures here.

Sometimes Hard Work Pays Off

Justin's frame is painted, reamed, faced, chased, frame-saved, stickered, packed, and should ship out today. Ok, so I was feeling pretty down on the whole 'hidden binder bolt' lately. It was just too much work, and a real pain in the neck. But now that it's all finished and painted, it does look pretty sweet. Not to say I'll do another one anytime soon, (or ever) but I think it is pretty cool. Thanks for being patient Justin. Hope it's not too stiff.





As always, more pictures here on my Flickr site.

Ok, Now Back to Work!

Alright... so it's been forever since I've updated about anything really. But for those who knew, Melissae and I got married and honeymooned in Berlin. The wedding kicked ass. Seriously, I didn't know you were allowed to have so much fun at your own wedding. And not to brag, but I think we threw a pretty kick ass shindig for a pretty modest budget. But what really made it awesome, was the kick ass people that could make it. Cool friends and family make something like that much less stressful, and way more fun! Tons of pictures here if you're curious:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrismelissaefellet/

Berlin was also freakin' amazing! We're contemplating learning German so we can just move there. I've heard it a thousand times, but I was still blown away by the public transit. It puts Boston to shame. Anywhere in the city to anywhere else in the city - 2o maybe 30 minutes. I seriously wouldn't own a car. Well except maybe a Smart Sports Car. Yea, they have those over there.


The city was cool, the history even more amazing. The people were cool (as long as you were attempting to use their language and not demand they spoke yours), the food was great... well except for this plate I accidentally ordered due to not quite having my food words down: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrismelissaefellet/3743052736/in/set-72157621761373254/ The beer was great. Although there was fewer kinds of beer than I was expecting. They pretty much had three kinds. Weiss - White, Hell - Light, and Dunkel - Dark. And sometimes they'd have a Heffewissen. Seemed like the hundreds of kinds of totally different beer is more of something we do. They were good though, and on average more bitter than what we're used to in the states. Oh, and talk about bitter, their coffee is awesome bitter! Even they're supprised when you order it black.

But really, enough playing around. It's time to get back to work. I finished up Justin's frame yesterday. Had a bit of a freakout when I didn't cut the seat tube slot wide enough and it wouldn't clamp the post. But seems everything is in fine order now. I think it turned out pretty darn cool. Although the hidden bolt thing just seems like too much work for not enough gained. So more learning experiances. So it's off to paint Mon. or Tues. And now on to the next one. Eddy, let me know those final details so I can get started.

Prolonged Update...

So I haven't posted in a good while. While I have made some progress on Justin's frame, I've kept more busy with planning a wedding than I had imagined. This Sunday is the day, so things around here have been pretty hectic. Really not all that horrible, but it has most definitely eaten up most of my free time. I'll get some pictures of the progress up as soon as I can, but I just wanted to say I'm not dead, or have quit what I'm doing. And I may be busy for a bit more, as we're going to Germany after the wedding.

But once things settle back down to normal, I'm looking forward to tearing into things again. All Justin's frame needs from here is the brake bridge and final cutting of the seat binder slot. Then it's off to paint, and time to ship it out. Then it's time to start on the next project: A 650b specific mountain bike with custom suspension corrected steel disc fork, able to be swapped out at will with his suspension version. I'm actually kind of jealous, as I've wanted to make one of these for myself. I just haven't had the time or funds to do so. Maybe if he's nice, I can take it for a test ride ;)

Comming Together

Well after 9 miters, 11 brazes, and countless hours of work, the front triangle and chainstays were ready to be joined. And after a solid day of cleaning, sanding, cleaning, fluxing, tacking, checking alignment, and brazing, it was in fact together. And it was good. The brazes came out pretty smooth, so not too much *extra* work to smooth them out afterwards. And alignment is not too shabby. The worst part is that the non-drive chainstay ended up getting brazed just a hair further towards the middle of the bottom bracket. But the only way you can even tell is that the wheel is slightly closer to that side. But the wheel is straight, and should track quite nicely. (I guess I only checked the alignment after tacking in the jig. I didn't think to check the exact position of the joint. Yet another lesson that needed to be learned.)

But overall, I think this is going to turn out quite nice. Short chainstays will make it lively and stiff. Tube selection will be light, but not noodly light. And of course customness will make it awesome! Just need to do some custom seatstay action, cut down the seat and head tubes, and a few finishing touches, and she'll be ready for paint.


All the pictures, all the time: Click Here

Good Weather and Hard Work

Lately, things have warmed up here in St. Louis, bringing in the flocks to the shop as well as low electric bills. The bike trails are hitting critical mass, and street lanes are getting flooded with both cyclists and people on bicycles. So in the spirit of last year and commuters dusting off their bikes everywhere, I'm posting the sequel to the original "Do The Test" video. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but share the video with a friend or family member, and maybe raise some awareness. I wouldn't mind hearing a few less honks or choice words on the way to work, but I definitely would like to at least make it to work.



But in other goings on... The weather really is awesome. We were sitting outside a couple evenings ago, and just decided to stay there. So we busted out the tent and some sleeping pads, and camped on our back lawn. Working in my workshop is always more cheerful when I can open some doors and get some fresh breeze in. Justin's frame is coming right along. I even have some H2O bosses on the *correct* side of the seat tube! The fork is done, the tubes are mitered and set to go. Just need to spend a good day prepping and brazing this baby! Then it's some smoothing of the welds, making some chainstays, and a few last details, and she'll be ready for paint. Maybe a couple weeks to go? We'll see how long those last details actually take...

Smoothed out fork crown


Smoothed out seat tube collar. This took a lot of careful filing to get the edges rounded off like this. Trying to keep the lugged crown and seat tube collar matching with the overall smooth filler brazing feel this bike will have.


Tubes all ready to be a frame...

And as always, check out more pics here.

Rainy Vacation, and New Things

The last two weeks have been busy and trying, so the lady and I were going to go for a nice backpacking trip in the rain. We even bought the last couple things we needed for a totally waterproof hike. But the morning that we were scheduled to head out, they were calling for some severe thunderstorms at night. I was all for a good hard rain, but didn't really need to find out how conductive my titanium plate is. So we ended up just pretending, and loaded up the gear and had a good 8-10 mile hike in the rain. I'm not exactly sure, as our map wasn't very good, and the trail wasn't marked very well, so we got lost on a number of occasions.

But thanks to a good compass, and what map we did have not falling apart in the rain, we were able to make it out, and not turn a backpack simulation into a survival trip. And we did get to see some cool things, including deer tracks, a large cat tracks tracking the dear tracks, and what appeared to be either a beaver or a fresh water otter. He took off too fast, and I couldn't get a good look at him. And we stayed comfy and dry the whole time. This whole era of waterproof breathable materials is just too cool. So after we make it back, turns out the whole thunderstorm thing was a bust. But oh well, it was a great hike, and nice to re-charge the batteries.

So with the fresh start, I got to building today with the same outlook. The botched seat tube gave me an opportunity to take a different direction. The dropouts have a double curve detail (that I just hope will show up well after paint), and the *new* seat tube collar will have a curve detail that goes along with the fork crown. I even threw a little "FB" in there for fun. It's still got some finishing touches to go, but it's pretty close. The fork blades are all evened up, so they won't hold the wheel in crooked, and they're drilled and ready for the final assembly of the fork. And once I get done with the new collar, braze it in place, and drill the waterbottle mounts on the correct side, this thing will be just about ready for a big day of fillet brazing. So I might be running a tad behind schedule, but should be smoother from here on out.