down...not out!

hello friends! well, I am on the road right now, working off the massive debt accumulated from trying to make a full time go of things with the shop. No worries, although the shop currently is closed up, I am already trying to figure out a new workspace to carry on in...albeit on a smaller scale (read: affordable).

Attached is a shot that Marty Jemison sent me of his SNS coupler bike that I built for him last summer. Sounds like the bike worked out well, I will leave the review to Marty. Frame is steel, with a hand buffed copper oxide finish, and edwin multi gear dropouts and seat collar (left in silver) and of course a sterling headbadge...very swanky!

have a good winter, ski some for me!

well, its time to move again! long story, but it revolves around a landlord that doens't like late rent (who does?) and the fact that being way down here in Heeb city just stinks anyhow. For example, have you ever noticed that all the stores on main street are closing, the chamber of commerce is begging for money, and yet Walmart is still going along with its construction? oh well, that is progress right? ha ha.

Anyhow, spending a sunday getting the last of the frames prepped, finished, and ready for the painter..so that I can spend Monday and Tuesday getting out of dodge. Kevin's painting showed up, holy cow...Kevin you rock man! I will hopefully be back sometime in Febuary, so stay tuned for the new shop..hopefully a casual bike commute away.

Bye bye Heber....

crossed up!

howdy! so I was told that perhaps the blog was a bit dark and angry...so true. So perhaps some positive notes! the cross bikes I am working on are super nice, some with steel some with steel and carbon. I have one sold and two 'spares'...takers? getting ready to go back to the other job for awhile. Fucking sucks, I have worked so hard and lost so much that to think about it is not exactly the best thing to do. Worst part was handing off my favorite little buddy, spinner, to someone else to watch for a long time...life is crazy.

Anyhow, no one has died, and the bikes are still awesome! I have a few days left to get the place mothballed and pack for parts unknown. Bringing an edwin along...should be interesting!

thanks to Kevin Neirman for making some of the most kick ass graphics I could ever hope for! hope the bikes are worth it for you man! and thanks for the words of encouragement!!

Stay tuned and keep riding!!!!!!

hmmm, yeahh......

edwin will continue to roll along, just at a fraction the size as before. I have learned that it is really hard to make enough to feed yourself, pay a mortgage and cover all of the daily expenses with the margins that come from being a full time bike maker.
Upon returning to the mill, I will focus on just titanium bikes, and won't attempt to make more than a few a month. The rest of that time, will be focused on doing something that I haven't done in five years....enjoy my life and where I live! life is too fruitin' short to be angry anymore.
In the interim...its off to work work work work.....and to stop messing around in cyber space,
later all!

small boinger

holly's new midmountain...16" frame...barely enough room for the shock for crying out loud.

stainless.....hmmmmmmmmmm

pre clear..

more goodness...

hmmm, glue..

today was a nutty day...started off with the usual early hours of paperwork followed by hitting the shop floor to complete the first half of the 300 chaintensioners for one customer, while simutaneously welding up the rest of the stay bridges and gluing up the cable guides on the carbon prototype..yes..that is right, carbon...don't get excited, its a mix of steel and carbon, quite sexy and with all the waterjet cut embellishments (e's) one could dream of having. Isn't 'e' a great thing? I cannot help but think of kermit the frog when I see the font...odd huh? also managed to get the road trip from hell wrapped up, salt lake to pick up frame annealing compounds, then to provo to pick up the new edwin bottle openers...sooooo sexy! 3.00 each by the way, and they go to support my sam adams habit..so ante up! (6061 T6 alluminum)

This pic is a close up...can you tell what it is? remember those annoying pics in that kids magazine of which I cannot remember the name of that did this?

okay, time for work stuff....

taxes...

so this morning I was going thru the piles of mail that I intentionally don't touch in the evenings to save me from sleep loss..well, I open the one from the Utah State Tax Commission and discover its been a banner sales period for Edwin! We owed 15,159.24 in sales tax revenues! of course, no one told me that was the case, where is the money exactly? ha ha..clearly a clerical errror..so I suppressed my anger and called to find out what was up.

I am amazed to find that a guy actually answered the phone there at a little past 7:30AM, and he was super helpful. Apparently the computer they use will calculate an average figure if you fail to mail in a tax report for that quarter...ouch, that thing is an optimist for sure huh?

Anyhow, here I sit, with a pile of quarterly tax reports to file...and still need to get my arse to working on the shop floor. Let the minutia begin!

On a shiny note, the new carbon rear ends will be done soon...

what day is it?

another fun day ahead, its saturday, and I feel like its mid week still. Had one hell of a week, found a great new location in park city to move the shop to; price was good too. landlords were bummed about us leaving, but no fuss was made, so I started tearing down a wall in the new shop, coordinating the move of the equipment, and dealing with the licensing, etc. Well, after a marathon day that included moving the first trailer load, I got approached by the new landlord and told that the shop wasn't zoned light industrial...this was bad. Then, one of the original landlords called and told me he expected me to pay rent on the original shop until it was rented...yeah, sure, I will pay rent, my business will go down, and you will be motivated to find a new renter when half of the shops in that area are already moved or closed for good? Needless to say I said fuck it, and spent another two days moving back in (reinstalling cabinets, etc.) and now I get to fix the wall I tore down..because its the right thing to do (at my cost of course).
Lesson learned? none.

f(*&^^% china

okay, just a quick update, and pardon the clearly masked explative on the title, but I am po'ed. I am frantically trying to meet the needs of a USA based company that needs a run of parts going that could mean jobs and work for americans. Instead, their business has already made inquires with Chineese makers to do their stuff, convinced that americans cannot and will not do their product at a cost that will be competitive with other stuff out there. Does anyone get it? are we going to be swallowed up by our insatiable thirst for stuff in quantities that lure us in by "per unit cost" ? how many fucking 40 foot shipping containers of crap does a manufacturer really need before they realize they are trying to sell off the remains at a lower cost later in the year and wondering why their product isn't worth a damn? fuck you nixon for helping pave the way for what is now the prostitution of our country's manufacturing capacity. And to the coroporate mucky mucks, a much deserved up yours...roll up your collective sleeves america...lets make having dirt under your nails a badge of honor once again...
okay, I am done...rants feel gooooooooodddddd!

what is it I "do" here...?

so its a monday and I cannot help but think about the movie office space when they talked about 'someone's having a case of the mondays' ahh, yes, what a great movie huh? anyhow, I spend monday playing office whipping boy, at the risk of my fingertips becoming soft, and the dirt dissipating under my nails, but someone's gotta do it right? anyhow, its not really work...yet somehow I feel exhausted at the end of the day. I would kill to just be building bikes and making chips..help! new website has yet to launch, so I killed myself to get the current one polished so it looks at least somewhat better...no laughing. Side note: I got asked by a person from Specialized to consider being a framebuilder for them....hmmmmmmmm.....

http://vimeo.com/5765805

four inches of goodness....

today was a good day of sorts, long day of running about working on some new projects, then off to the shop for more fun. Built up Bill Demong's new bike (while enjoying some well earned tecates). This is a 69'er...another reason to like that number...

carbon...yum...

city bombers

well last weekend was quite productive with regards to the edwin line! managed to wrap up jeremy's 29er mid mountain and test it...so nice. And..got both John and Heidi's city bombers done, both feature carbon rear ends and one is steel the other Ti...yum. The builds included yours truly spending the better part of four hours building four custom wheels for the bikes, but so worth it..amazing. The best part was going to dinner with John and Heidi and having a few folks drool and one even take a picture..now that is appreciation!
My website is permanently hijacked by a guy named Pete Nixon of Apogee consulting. He is a nice guy, right up to when he started helping himself to edwin cycles and named himself president...karma is funny thing.
Anyhow, its hot as hell in the shop and I have more work to do. Stay tuned for Jeremy Teela's and Chris Kehr's masterpiece webpage work..I am so lucky to have friends like these!

bikes and beer...

so another week has started and its time to hit the ground running. dealing with a guy who want me to pay some crazy price to get my url back , somehow he thinks that I actually care. Why are some folks so petty and selfish? but i digress...
just spent yesterday out on the trails with Jeremy and kerhsie riding the singlespeed sweeney, roundvalley hardtail and the midmoutain 29'er. The mid mountain performed so well that I think i need one now (or jeremy needs to return his for further 'testing'). the bottom bracket clearance and the head tube angle really makes a difference and it screamed up the most technical sections of sweeney's with ease! i don't want to pat myself on the back, but homerun for sure.
my neighbor works for a local shop and had his new trek fuel out today, i don't think he liked the idea of me suggesting a head to head test...what is it with carbon? awesome stuff, but so boring....ha ha.
okay, that is all.

mid mountain madness....

so its been a bit since the last post, dealing with the loss of a lathe, and the prospect of a new cnc lathe...DMG...yum. also moved the house to park city, what a nice place to call home...time to move the shop I think, and no more driving! weee...stay tuned.

just wrapped up jeremy teela's new mid mountain 29er...absolutely sexy.

time for sleep!

the jemison limited is on the way...

okay, so Marty Jemison's new bike is done and ready to head off to France and Spain and show (hopefully) that the USA is the king of the road! ha ha...edwin is anyhow. This frame is a full True Temper OXPlatinum frameset with SNS couplers and edwin custom dropouts and seatpost collar...hmm, sex.

Long ass day that culminated in some serious douching of the shop floor which was returned to its usual lustre...I think all those years in the army at least taught me to clean well.

anyhow, long arse day and a longer one on for tomorrow. Kevin your bikes are next in the show off page, thinking I will sport some kind of sexy attire when I display it...

who dares, Wins!

10 x 1 mm

okay I am pulling my hair out....10 x 1 thread on the derailleur hanger, now gotta go to salty again to get more stuff and then thread about 100 hangers.....what would jesus do?

so its going on 1am and yours truly is studying his users manual on the haas and playing with the computer. Do other folks out there just marvel at all things around them, a sort of engineering fetish? I cannot be alone, one of my biggest fears is to die and never know enough about stuff...prophetic eh? ha ha...

tomorrow promises to be a new and interesting day, I think I am going to start not working on mondays'; they tend to be stressful due to the two days of down time some folks have to generate problems for us all.

Its stink hot in the shop today, again! poor spinner needs a pool to keep cool.

Speaking of cool, I think I need to go home and close my eyes for a few hours. I can use all the beauty rest I can get! ha ha...

dread the thread...

so another day and I am still at the shop, ahh to be in business for oneself..is it the money, the glory, or the sheer sadomasochism that drives me? ha ha...all you fellow builders can relate...hell, all of you can relate!

today was dealing with more non bike related bits, in particular threading 3/4" rod for a rock crusher that had gone bad...the things we do to support our habits huh? some wear suits and ties, some sell sunglasses at the mall, and some of us whore ourselves out to anything that will bring in money! ha ha..

On a shiny happy note, Kehrsie has all but completed the first stage of the final version of the edwin website, so stay tuned, no more poorly constructed drivel from yours truly!

I need to get downstairs and clean up my mill, I left it dirtier than a highway gas station's bathroom yesterday and need to hose her down. More excitement here, finishing up #1 of a ten frame order for Staats, mountain cross bike with all the oddness of a mountain cross frame...can you say steep top tube? when did we start jamming mountain bike forks under BMX frames and calling it a sport? that said, I think I will build one for me too.

Ever notice that the more you work with metal the more your hands 'evervesse'? did I spell that right? I swear they look like I have glitter coming out of them.

Tell your friends about the blog, I need to share my mindless drivel with the world and of course I would be happy to read all of yours too!

Pic is of the head tube tig on the staats proto....weld porn....hmmmm, poooooornnn.

oh yeah...millionth...

so as part of the new business venture with the machining I have discovered that its truly three steps forward and two back...painful but still cool.

Sean from CNC solutions came up the past two days to inspect our Haas cnc mill and conducted tests that one would consider only necessary for the space shuttle or artificial hearts...good news, we are accurate to within ten thousandths of an inch...less than the hairs on my head! bad news is that the haas in pieces on the floor waiting to be final assembled tomorrow to return to making chips and bits...

billy demongs rust bucket...

here is a shot of Billy Demong's new toy...anyone who can catch a lift from someone on a road saddle with a bike over his shoulder deserves an edwin!! this one is a custom finish that I am really happy with and would do again for the right cool person! its faux rust and coloring...that is 'colouring' for you UK readers!

metal....not healthy to breathe...

so yours truly has breathed in some toxic stuff this past week, and frankly I don't feel so hot, if I fall of the map will someone call me to check on me? head still hurts from scuffing off the copper stuff.

On a positive note, off went the frames for clear today, and more on monday...it IS a holiday weekend for crying out loud. I am excited about the new painter that is helping me (Dave); he is clearly more experienced than I could hope for.

Its hot as hell here and I need to go home and have some beverages and take spinner for a swim. Happy fourth! attached is jeremy teelas new bike..pre clear...think industrial here...very industrial

hmm, copper. So this is a small photo of the frame I am doing for Marty Jemison, it was supposed to be done earlier, but sadly things never go as planned. Perhaps I should adopt the Italian mindset, leisure, work, leisure.....and more leisure? probably help my temperment.
Before anyone else asks for this copper plating treatment, please note that I am not quite sick from removing the oxide and breathing in the oh so toxic byproduct, this could verywell be the last one I do, we'll see.

porn

weld porn...amazing how many folks like to see puddles of solified metal post weld....

paahts.....get yo paarhhts heah!

chain tensioners, 500 pcs, with stainless hardware.....thank god for automation!

shiny tasty goodness...

so I was jamming along with a plethora of parts this week, to include less bike and more off the wall stuff like some support struts for a boat (with billet cleats), plates for some kind of food processing press, and more odd stuff. Somewhere in there managed to get some bike stuff in, but it seems odd that I cannot move in a straight line lately!

Our aluminum chip pile is impressive, have filled two 55 gallon garbage cans with chips so far...that is alot of material going to the recycler! ouch!

The funny part is all the bits in my hair and clothes, its like mini bedazzling!

Kevins, Jeremy's, Bill's, Holly's, Heidis, Kehrsey's, Jules, and MY bikes are going to paint today....well, maybe tomorrow..new painter, new finishes...should be cool!

hmmm, new drops....hmmmmm....

well, been a few since my last post, a sign of the insanity that abounds here lately.

Making chips is the name of the game, new dropouts, chain tensioners and yours truly suffering through this crappy economy. Poor me, poor us! ha ha..

The drops in this pic are going on Heidi's bike, Heidi is John's better half and the bike will feature carbon seat stays, ala 'mono' to a true temper OXPLAT mainframe. The polka-dot rims are the real cool part, they are reflective!!! Stay tuned, this thing goes to paint today.

titanium, carbon....light...sexy...

Okay, so the addition of some carbon into the line is here, spent about 16 hours yesterday knocking out number one. This bike is John's, and features some of the most amazing connectors on the market, period. What you don't see is what really makes it. Stay tuned for more...

just in time for family guy...

okay, just got off the shop floor after a marathon of a day, but the end result was a ti/carbon frame, first of hopefully many...will post pics later.
time for family guy and bed!

inmate racing....

okay, so I cannot be the only one to notice the associated press report on France's cycling tour that is specifically for inmates and prison personnel! its amazing! I especially liked that the inmates and the guards, escorts, and even judges dressed in the same white cycling duds! I don't want to be touchy feely, but perhaps that is a great way to recoup some lost pride and sense of accomplishment...wonder what the repeat offender rate is there?
On more productive fronts, yours truly is driving along with frames and bits as usual. Sold my car, thank god for a generous girlfriend and UPS. Please don't email me and ask for sponsorship or discounts, but feel free to call me and ask if I can build you a bike! (or two or three....).
Getting some interest in the edwin drops, particularly the slider, time to get that advertised more and recoup some of that money that went into developing it I guess!
Well, better get back to making stuff and not playing on this blog!

take it with you....

so this incessant rain is good for one thing...productivity! managed to get the sns bike for marty J all wrapped up for the plater...stay tuned, can you say neat (and nerve wracking...that should be wrecking...).

We are going to intro our own version of the coupler that will be retrofittable and lighter and lower pro than the sns...stay tuned.

Enjoying some fine tunes from Morrisey and the Housemartins today, and amazingly NOT depressed!

loathe the lathe...

ahh, another day of standing in front of the lathe making bushings for a rear axle on the handcycle project. What started off as a 2" round piece of solid 7005 aluminum has turned (hah ha, pun there) into four press fit bushings..bored out to 28.6 and turned to press into the rear of the frame.

The rain lately is making it easy to stay inside the shop, only bummer is that the rain comes in the door and I have to shut it or get soaked!

On other fronts, sold my car, so I am truly green now, did this before when I owned cyclesmith, wasn't too bad really.

Not much else to report, more pics coming of Marty's frame, I am excited to see it!

leap of faith...

I was out riding yesterday and was reminded about the first time I rode one of my bikes. I clearlly remember how I was just cruising along on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail up above the University of Utah and not really thinking much except how much fun I was having. The whole reality of it all set in when I was flying down city creek, a steep turny, rocky bit that I really enjoy...that is when I thought about how I was the manufacturer of the frame below me...crazy! I felt confident and blown away at the same time. That frame lives on the wall with several others now, sad thought, but clearly the frames have gotten better since then, but just like that day on city creek...I still have moments where I remember who made my bike. Who made yours?

what season is it?

I think we missed a few months here, wow! rain, thunder? amazing! its like fall without the colors, need to get out and ride today! and so do you, stop reading this blog and ride!

what day is it?

isn't it funny when you cannot recall what day of the week it is? I cannot be alone in using things like the fact that the post office is closed as a meter of what day it is...anyone else? ha ha..
today holds promise of more fun in the sun (the artificial one that is...all the UV goodness a TIG torch can provide..but I digress).
Spent yesterday in the suck I call Salt Lake, picking up a nasty product called Hysol with my buddy and mentor John. This stuff is what holds the skin on airplanes together, and I imagine that is good enough for edwin's new carbon bikes huh? ha ha...going to have to rip a toilet out of the spare bathroom to allow for room to add a heater and drying/curing heaters..is this carbon really worth it? we'll see.
Special thanks to Jules for being such an awesome listener when I am sweating the craziness of this business, you have earned a bike for sure.
Stay tuned for more edwin presence, after that backcountry debacle it was evident it was time to look at more local based advertising first, park silly market is looking good!

factory?

what to make?? hmmm, bikes, dropouts, spacers, stems, seatposts....and of course other widgets...suggestions?

lucky to have so many cool folks around..

new dropouts are finally taking shape, only I managed to get caught up in doing carbon stays too, so it gets more complicated...but lighter. What is a fledgling bike company to do? gotta stick out and bring innovations that actually are INNOVATIONS and not just more anodized crap that we laugh at later. Times like this, when I am flat broke (times...who am I kidding, been that way for over a year!) I get scared and think about companies like Fat, Ringle, Rhygin, Ted Wojick, Carumba, White...where did they go?

Stay tuned for the good stuff, things like low pro no slip slider drops, called the 'flex' and carbon stays, and eventually a more 'carbony' bike...the prospect of glue is neat...and much more preferable to having blindspots from tig all day! ha ha.

Keep an eye on the website for new content when this batch of frames gets done, and thanks for being so supportive. Remember that there is always room in my fridge, for beer (and food)!

Selling my car to cover bills for this month...anyone need a new car? (no extra charge for the dog hair)

public rant and roll....

okay, so here is the first of what will be many public rants! ha ha...lets see, what to report? currently juggling multiple projects:

handcycles (2)

11 framesets (three full suspension)

proto frame for marty j...hello copper!

Oh, and the addition of the new cnc mill, haas mini mill....very exciting, very expensive, ouch.

Getting tired of the battle to make enough to pay bills, grow the shop, and the complete lack of a paycheck...perhaps I should be making guns or something?