rivbike:Here’s the story of our latest custom bike, for Liesle-of-Minnesota. If you click on the i
rivbike: Here’s the story of our latest custom bike, for Liesle-of-Minnesota. If you click on the images above, captions will appear. This is written on Tumblr. If somebody knows how to make the captions appear automatically, spread the word! Grant Liesl’s was the most challenging custom ever, here, for me, for sure, slam dunk. She is sized for a mixte but would have none of it. She had to have a diagatube, but there was no room for it. She wanted 650B, but adding that to the non-mixte and diagatube meant (and there is NO WAY around this) raising the head tube too high even for me and us here in High Head Tube Land. She was so patient, which was and is so appreciated. I was probably slightly lazier than usual because she WON the frame, but not a ton more lazy. The delays were 90 percent due to many false starts, and just needing time to work out some of the technical problems. I am really pretty good at that, better than some, and I knew I’d figure it out, and was enjoying the process of believing in a great ending but not knowing the exact path to it. Here’s where it gets no fun, this blogging part, because if I explain everything it’ll see so obvious, and you’ll naturally think why should THAT have taken so long? I won’t go thru all the false starts and relevations, but here are some key stepping stones to the solution: • using a 26-inch wheel (559), With a fat tire, the diameter is still plenty tall, for a good bump angle thing, and it meant a shorter fork, which solved the head-tube-gettin’ too-high problem. She has room for a 55 and fender, which—-makes everything harder. • skinny twins instead of a normal 28.6mm diagatube. There was no room for the diagatube, and Mark suggested this. I like the diagatube more, generally, for reasons that would become a tangent here, so forget that; but on a small Liesl bike, no problem. • the megalong chainstays made good rear clearance easier. I am, we are, all should be so grateful to Mark Nobilette for his super work on this. Like all super duper builders (there are not hundreds; I’m not sure there is even a score of ‘em; and maybe not even a dozen, but whatever)—Mark solves problems creatively, wonderfully, and beautifully. He doesn’t just plunk down a functional solution, then hide behind the “form follows function” banner as an excuse for making it ugly. He combines everything good in one, and the twinnies at the head tube, a nd the curve in the diagastays, and always his fork bends, are great examples of that. I am ashamed to say I haven’t yet personally live on the phone or in a letter thanked Mark for his work here, which is so extraordinary, but it is only because I look forward to it, I’ve been up to my ears in stuff, and I don’t want to rush it out there. He is so good. Joe Bell, too. JB has said that he likes his frames to pass the 6-inch test, meaning they look good with good eyes half a foot away. That this one does and all of his do, but in describing that, it makes it sound as though from twelve feet away you can’t tell a difference, and I’m saying (and all here would agree) that you can. From 6-inches you can point and say SEE, look at that clean line btw the cream and color…and you can’t do that from twelve feet, obviously. There’s nothing to point out specifically, but there’s an overall crisp deep glow to a JB-painted frame that nudges it up a notch. Don’t be sad if you don’t have one. It’s a snobby thing and in some ways unimportant, in MOST ways, unimportant. What is important, is that there is a guy in Spring Valley, CA who sets his own impossible standards with no regard for what anybody else is doing, and he lives up to them. He has always inspired me and made me try to be better, and Liesl’s bike deserved its JB jobber.. Keven was saying that Liesl’s bike combined all of our latest best tastes and desires and preferences in one frame, and it kind of does. Megalong chainstays, cool Bosco bars…everything so good. It will look better after surviving several Mpls winters, and I know I’ll see Liesl many times in the next many years, but for sure, in 20 years when I’m 79.5, I’m going to track her down and look at her bike. I wish I could see it in 50 years, but I’m just good, with two o’s. -- source link