Sounds easier than it actually is. I thought I’d keep a detailed record of this one just to see if I could. After a couple hours, the reality of just getting things done makes the documenting take a back seat. We will try again soon, but for now this is the most complete documentation of a bike build that we have done in our shop. The best way to view it is to look at the photoset and select the slideshow option over on the right of your screen. I think there are a lot of detail/process pictures in our flickr stream that tell the story of how we build bikes at Signal. The trick is putting these pictures together in a narrative that easy to follow along with and interesting. I’m just going to post some of my favorite pictures here to hopefully get you interested enough to watch the slideshow:

A nice change from the usual soft focus bike videos that are all the rage:

From IFHT Youtube Page

Come by and dig through our junk! We are cleaning out old stuff and making deals. We will be joining Ira Ryan, Tony Pereira, Joseph Ahearne, MAP cycles and Corsa Concepts to have a blow out on used cycling equipment. There will be bikes, wheels, t-shirts, junk and more! Doors open at noon, we are leaving at 5. What a great way to celebrate the new year!

We just finished up a really special bike for local rider Phillip W. We talked about making him a steel frame that would be sporty, but allow for full fenders, a pretty common request around Signal HQ. For this bike we used Llewellyn’s double oversized lug set. We carved a lot of meat off the lugs, and did a nice fastback treatment to the seat stays. The tubing is all Columbus Spirit with Paragon dropouts and custom down tube cable stops for the derailleurs. We built the bike around Campy brake calipers with the pads all the way down. This allows use of full fenders with 25c tires without long reach brakes. Phillip knew he wanted 10 speed Campagnolo, but left a lot of the final decisions to us. So we decided to use classically styled parts including the Brooks saddle and matching leather tape, Chris King headset and as soon as they are available this bike will sport the new R-45 Campagnolo hubs.

The paint was left up to us, so Nate and I spent some time sorting through chips till we came across this beautiful green. It just felt right. We decided to paint a matching frame pump with corresponding stripes and build a simply styles matching steel stem.

The bike looks amazing, but I’m anxious to hear from Phillip how the oversized steel tubes ride out in the real world. The combination of the springier ride of steel paired with over sized tubing to stiffen the ride a bit should make for a very sporty ride that will want to be ridden all day.

I spent the weekend in Bend over Halloween with the family and a few friends. Bend has great mountain biking, something that Portland is missing, so Liz took the opportunity to ride her Signal mountain bike with the ladies on Saturday while I was on baby duty. Liz hasn’t had many opportunities to ride the new mountain bike after coming down with the pregnancy last year, so I do what I can to make sure she does. They got to ride to the trails from the house so everyone was excited about that.

There was also the craziness of the Cross Crusade race series going on. I managed to make it to the race for about an hour on Sunday. It looked like there were a lot of cool costumes out there. My favorite was the guy with the wooden bike. But Andy really went over the top with his mohawk. That’s commitment.

Signal team rider Andy M even stayed at our house on Saturday. It gave him the opportunity to show off his superior child quietening skills.

And our friend Heather celebrated her birthday on the 30th by dressing her family up in StarWars apparel and eating cupcakes. It was nice to get away from Portland for a short weekend with some rad people. Thanks guys.

Kim’s bike is a great representation of a modern lugged steel bike. We built it with Columbus Spirit tubes, Sachs lugs and had Keith Anderson work his magic on the paint. The bike was build with Shimano Ultegra and all the Chris King components we could fit. The result is a solid bike that will be a joy to ride without needing much attention.

I boxed up the bike and rode it down to our local FedEx pickup. Notice the custom box.

Our new shop is breaking in nicely. It’s really starting to feel like home. When we moved in last April, we split a 2000 square foot space with Greg Hudson of Corsa Concepts. After we decided where everything was going to go, we had an extra room that we decided to share with artist and friend Roll Hardy and computer genius Mickey Deagle. I thought it might be fun to introduce them here.

Roll is a tattoo artist by trade at Atomic Tattoo, and a painter of oil paintings on the side. He managed to work his way in to one of the most prestigious galleries in Portland the Laura Russo gallery in NW right after graduating from PNCA. Roll and I graduated together and his talent was always apparent. He is working like mad to finish up his next show for the opening on first Thursday in November. I’ve had a chance to see the paintings as they progress from ideas to finished works and they look amazing as always. If you are in NW Portland on November 3rd (or any day in November), be sure to stop in the gallery and have a look.

Here are some pictures I took of Rolls painting studio:

Mickey has recently started his own company Isolary design. He can build and host websites and has a way of talking with computers. He has been the source of all the code to make the Signal website what it is today. It’s nice to have him around and to see the beginnings of what his company will become.

And of course there is Greg from Corsa Concepts. Greg has also put together a top notch cyclocross team for this year’s Cross Crusade series. We are working with Greg to make sure Shannon Skerritt has a bike and wheels. Other sponsors of the team are Ira Ryan, Mike Desalvo, Jake Rosenfeld of Huckelberry and Veloforma. Greg is doing a lot of work out there at the races. From putting up tents to wrenching on bikes, he’s always moving.

Our shop feels like a hive of buzzing activity and it’s great. There is always something new being made or an idea that gets passed around. We have managed to surround ourselves with creative people that love what they do and it feels awesome.

Riding down Saltzman was a blast! The bike felt like a rally car.