I know a lot of you have been experiencing the same odd weather as we have here in New England. This winter has been exceptional in the sense that temperature swings have been quite dramatic. So much so I could wear shorts one afternoon and then be ensconced with goretex and layers of insulation the …
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Weather
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Oranged 27 Plus
So it appears that Plus sized bikes have finally worked their way east into the collective conscience of my client base. A good majority of my clients call home here on the east coast. A good majority also hail from the mid-west too and if I were to take a guess, that’s where the majority …
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A time to get political…
Like many of you, I’m a fierce advocate of conservation and preservation of our natural world. I volunteer a lot of my time and expertise to local conservation efforts and projects right here in my little corner of New Hampshire. It’s something small I do and I help where I can on a local level. …
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What I See
Occasionally, I take a picture of what I see. Not what it is that I happen to be working on, but what I “see”. A lot of what I see is often looking past the surface. And that gets at the type of work I do. It’s the type of work that requires you to …
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2016 in Review
2016 has had plenty of hills to climb. Reviewing my Flickr archive, which is pretty much where I catalog all of my work at length in addition to the words written here, there’s been a lot of great bikes that rolled out the door, an enormous investment in time and machining in making new tooling …
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THERMLX™ Branding Project
With the departure of True Temper as a U.S. supplier of bicycle tubing, many in the small niche of Bicycle Framebuilding had some concerns, including myself, as to who may fill that void. For myself, utilizing as many U.S. suppliers as possible is paramount not only for my own brand, 44 Bikes, but in a …
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Sunsets and Basketballs
When I was home over the holidays, I was reminded of just how sweet the sunsets are at good old 138 Jefferson Street. Being in town has it’s negatives compared to living off the beaten path (it does have some benefits too) but one of the perks of growing up where I did was the …
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My First Precision Tool
The year was 1996. I was a student at Penn State University. I had recently been given permission to access a machine shop across the street from my studio on campus. I was turning and machining my own bicycle hubs and I needed my own dial caliper. The cheap one I had purchased from a …
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Thoughts on Soil…
I feel really lucky to have grown up in the Upper Perkiomen Valley. There’s a strong Pennsylvania Dutch heritage there (of which I share) and as a youngster, my grandparents would share lots of stories, their stories, that painted a picture of times long gone. Part of those stories were a fondness for that “simple …
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Titanium : Looking Back and Towards the Path that Lies Ahead
So if you’ve been following along via Flickr and Instagram and reading along here via the 44HQ blog, you’ll have taken note that I’ve been working with and working towards offering Titanium as a companion material to the tried and true offerings in Steel. At first, I was hesitant to share my work and journey …
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