I had a great day today making things in the old shop. The bike I did most recently had something cool about it that I didn’t mention.

I have been using many of the same tools for many years. I am not talking about “hand” tools, but the stuff I make that helps me make bikes. “Tooling” seems to be what we call it. Anyway, this piece of tooling has been in service since the early 90’s I would guess and I recently cleaned it up a bit and made some refinements. I guess it’s not quite as “personal” and a bit more “homogenized” because there were oh-so-subtle variations in the stays. Hey, I make these things.. One at a time. Custom.

What was accomplished can be seen on the latest bike I built. The big thing with 29’s is getting “what you want” out of the geometry. What we are getting here is sub-17″ chainstays with room for big tires and rigidity. I also added a tiny bit of bend to the seat tube for additional tire clearance. Building a steel 29’r that doesn’t feel slushy isn’t easy. This new/old tooling makes a better chainstay which builds a better frame.  I don’t have one of these myself but I can tell it’s pretty stiff by the way it feels on the table.  I am really happy with the combination of tubes I am using.  I just wanted to tell you.