Well, a couple days ago the internet caught us off guard and we scrambled to post our Road Bike Trials video that we’d been working on for a bit now. The short story is that we were forced to publish a copy of our video that wasn’t the final version our editor was working on but a copy put together by the shop. So I present to you our professional MadCow as an amateur video editor, enjoy.
***The Final Update of Project Right has been posted.
While we’ve been busy putting together our road bike trials video things have not stood still here at Fairwheel on all our other projects. The Right Project moved from Rob English’s workshop to CoMotion for initial painting and then onto Geoff McFetridge for hand painting. We did receive photos from Geoff of the bike as he worked on it and I figured I’d share them with you. Since this is the first time I’ve written about the Right Project let me say that there are two aspects of this bike that really got me excited. The first was Rob English’s completely unique build using only a right chain stay / seat post and fork blade (seen here in update 6). The second is Geoff McFetridge’s work. Read more
*** The Final Update of Project Right has been posted.
Working with Rob English is always a tremendous pleasure, not only is he a talented builder but delivers what he says he will, when he says he will. That’s a true rarity among custom frame builders. So now I get to present the completed, though certainly not finished, project: Right. Again just a photo update, we still have some really special touches to add. The build list is still finished drawing from both the road and mtb communities. Next a base coat has to be chosen and sprayed so that it can go off to artist Geoff McFetridge for some hand painted awesomeness and then back to the painters for finish work.
We’ve had a couple weeks to test out the new Soul Kozak road hubset which retail for $400 with either Campy or Shimano freehub bodies. For the front hub Soul Kozak brought the flanges in for increased aerodynamics while the rear hub gets both magnetic and bearing upgrades. The head of our custom wheel building program, Troy Watson, pulled them apart, rode them (laced to ENVE 45s with Sapim CX-ray Spokes) and gave us his thoughts. Read more
*** The Final Update of Project Right has been posted.
Mostly a pictorial update today. The axle has been finished for the righty hub, and put into the nearly completed fork. The 514 gram fork will use an inverted headset with the attachment point at the crown which means the steerer tube will be integrated as part of the stem rather than part of the fork. Front disc brake has been mounted inverted as well for right hand use. To get the brake to work on the right side of the bike, the mounting had to be changed. To do this we are using the front postmount and the lower body bolt. This meant the rear mounting tab could be removed. and also the cable stop could be as well. The actuation arm was removed and a new hold for the sping was drilled adn the spring reinstalled in a different location so that it pulls up to actuate. There is also an internal cable stop brazed into the leg of the fork.
*** The Final Update of Project Right has been posted.
Part 4 of Project Right. The frame is coming along nicely, not done, but lots of progress. The rear hub is finished. 3 steel pins were placed between the axle and the carrier to transmit the torque and an endcap holds the whole thing in the frame. The hub is polished and ready to go to anodizing. Also the extremely heavy 500+gram Phil Wood belt freewheel has been trimmed by more than 100 grams of unecessary weight.
*** The Final Update of Project Right has been posted.
Just another quick update on this NAHBS project. The rear end is coming along nicely. Rob had this to say, “Jigging the back end of this thing is tricky. With a regular frame the stays are triangulated, and thus don’t move during the brazing process. With the mono-stay I have to keep the stay from moving with the heat, and ensure the ‘dropout’ remains perfectly in plane with the bottom bracket shell.
*** The Final Update of Project Right has been posted.
Time for another quick update on Project Right. Part one can be found here. Frame builder Rob English has continued machining on the hub, which now is almost completely finished, it’s needing just some polishing, spoke holes, splines and anodizing. I think an interesting point is the non-conventional look and design of the rear hub. As you can see the rear hub is not terribly heavy at 174 grams, and will still get a bit lighter. Also shown is a selection of frame tubes to be used. Read more
*** The Final Update of Project Right has been posted.
A big part of what we do here at Fair Wheel involves building one off custom projects. Not long ago, I realized that we’ve never chronicled a project start to finish. The timing of this realization was pretty good because we are just starting a new and very custom project. Project: Right. Eventually the name will make more sense, but since we don’t want to give anything away we won’t be talking about or showing anything that isn’t done. We’ll definitely make sure to share progress as it moves along. Those of you that know me, know that I really enjoy these project bikes, the only thing that could make them even more fun is working on them with someone who enjoys them as much as I do. One of the few people who fits that description and shares my enjoyment of doing things different is frame builder Rob English from English Cycles. Read more
View our Custom Wheel Program here.
I got a visit from my keeper this week and he told me that I needed to update the blog. So I thought I’d take this chance to talk a little about our custom wheel program. We’ve been doing custom handbuilt wheels since 1973, but just recently we decided to really expand on that and brought Troy Watson from Ligero Wheelworks on board to head the program. Troy brings a wealth of knowledge and skill to our custom wheel program. We have a pretty extensive selection of rims, hubs and spokes and can build just about anything to suit each rider. This seems like a good chance to once again introduce Troy, the program and even show a bit of the workshop where it all takes place. Read more
