Went for a much needed ride tonight in Greenfield, NH. Came up on a crossroads in the trail system maintained by the Greenfield Trails Association and heard some hootin’ -n- hollerin’ off in the distance. I decided to wait and see if it was the GTA out on one of their weekly rides and sure enough the GTA train arrived. We chatted for a bit and off we went. Always fun to ride in a pack of that size (I did not count, but there had to be at least 15 of them). Couple of breaks later and we were at the top of Sayer’s Descent. Many thanks to Scott, John, Dale, Arline and the rest of the crew for doing such a great job maintaining the trails. I think I heard some stoke about some new trails? I was off in a different direction as I only had about an hour to take out of my day today for a ride. Better than nothing. But if anyone’s reading this and wants some stickers and didn’t get any, just drop me a line anytime. I’ve got plenty. The website’s got my contact info…
Shop Update: As of 6.14.2011 I’ve just about completed the North facing wall of the shop.
I know that’s not all that much progress but considering that cutting up all the insulation is unfortunately weather dependent, I’m pretty stoked to be this far along. I think if the weather breaks and lets me get outside so I can finish cutting the remaining pieces I should have it finished up in about a week. The delay in power has been dependent on me finishing this wall. Basically we need to mount the panel in place and the wall needs to be finished. The north wall will most likely be the home of my bridgeport and welding station. This way I won’t have to run a lot of THICK GAUGE wires necessary to make the jump up to the power required. The line from the house will most likely run me over 1k just in copper. So I want to do it right.
Also been doing a lot of searching on Craigslist for windows. Scored a bunch of brand new casement’s for very little money so that will supply me with lots of natural light. My brother in law Franky also just replaced a window with a sliding set of doors to his new screened in porch I helped him frame out. The window’s about 55″x 48″. So I think this one will replace the larger set of single pane windows on the front of the shop. I’d like to move the door from the south facing wall to the eastern facing corner beside this window. More light. We get a lot of light in the field the shop overlooks so I want to maximize the passive solar heat as much as I can. Bridgeport will be moved across the shop to her semi final resting position in the shop once the north wall is done. That should be fun… The tanker bar is ready and waiting.
This shot’s the latest of my personal build. Once the shop is finished up and I finish the rest of my tooling, I really want to start concentrating on a key design element that previously was overlooked: weight. That’s kind of the last piece of the puzzle for me (not to say I’ve figured everything else out naturally). As pictured this is a 29er weighing in at 27 lbs.
My goal is to get bikes in the hands of riders in the 25 lbs range. I feel as though for a trail bike of this nature it’s a good all around weight. Frame weight should be more in the sub 3 lb range. The frame pictured is high 3 or low 4 (it’s been a while since I weighed it and can’t recall off the top of my head). The addition of ENVE as an OEM account brought the bars and post in to the 44 Shop for some testing.
So far so good-they’re an amazing piece of kit and hand made right here in these great 50 states. Something I very much support. Full review to follow once I’ve had enough time on them. But so far so good…
Tuesday Night Ride / Shop Update 6.14.2011
Went for a much needed ride tonight in Greenfield, NH. Came up on a crossroads in the trail system maintained by the Greenfield Trails Association and heard some hootin’ -n- hollerin’ off in the distance. I decided to wait and see if it was the GTA out on one of their weekly rides and sure enough the GTA train arrived. We chatted for a bit and off we went. Always fun to ride in a pack of that size (I did not count, but there had to be at least 15 of them). Couple of breaks later and we were at the top of Sayer’s Descent. Many thanks to Scott, John, Dale, Arline and the rest of the crew for doing such a great job maintaining the trails. I think I heard some stoke about some new trails? I was off in a different direction as I only had about an hour to take out of my day today for a ride. Better than nothing. But if anyone’s reading this and wants some stickers and didn’t get any, just drop me a line anytime. I’ve got plenty. The website’s got my contact info…
Shop Update: As of 6.14.2011 I’ve just about completed the North facing wall of the shop.
I know that’s not all that much progress but considering that cutting up all the insulation is unfortunately weather dependent, I’m pretty stoked to be this far along. I think if the weather breaks and lets me get outside so I can finish cutting the remaining pieces I should have it finished up in about a week. The delay in power has been dependent on me finishing this wall. Basically we need to mount the panel in place and the wall needs to be finished. The north wall will most likely be the home of my bridgeport and welding station. This way I won’t have to run a lot of THICK GAUGE wires necessary to make the jump up to the power required. The line from the house will most likely run me over 1k just in copper. So I want to do it right.
Also been doing a lot of searching on Craigslist for windows. Scored a bunch of brand new casement’s for very little money so that will supply me with lots of natural light. My brother in law Franky also just replaced a window with a sliding set of doors to his new screened in porch I helped him frame out. The window’s about 55″x 48″. So I think this one will replace the larger set of single pane windows on the front of the shop. I’d like to move the door from the south facing wall to the eastern facing corner beside this window. More light. We get a lot of light in the field the shop overlooks so I want to maximize the passive solar heat as much as I can. Bridgeport will be moved across the shop to her semi final resting position in the shop once the north wall is done. That should be fun… The tanker bar is ready and waiting.
Been busy with the design business so I’ve been lacking with the updates. I hope to be more consistent from here on out with the blog-i have been more consistent with the 44 Flickr gallery’s so be sure to get on over to the 44 Flickr and check out the latest builds / renovations.
This shot’s the latest of my personal build. Once the shop is finished up and I finish the rest of my tooling, I really want to start concentrating on a key design element that previously was overlooked: weight. That’s kind of the last piece of the puzzle for me (not to say I’ve figured everything else out naturally). As pictured this is a 29er weighing in at 27 lbs.
My goal is to get bikes in the hands of riders in the 25 lbs range. I feel as though for a trail bike of this nature it’s a good all around weight. Frame weight should be more in the sub 3 lb range. The frame pictured is high 3 or low 4 (it’s been a while since I weighed it and can’t recall off the top of my head). The addition of ENVE as an OEM account brought the bars and post in to the 44 Shop for some testing.
So far so good-they’re an amazing piece of kit and hand made right here in these great 50 states. Something I very much support. Full review to follow once I’ve had enough time on them. But so far so good…