#5 - Yipsan Njörðr

This one is pretty special to me.  This one is a custom job.  Made by Reynold Yip.  It wasn't made for me but for the North American Handmade Bike Show.  It saw the big show and was passed around to a bunch of other places for reviews.  It was 650b before 650b was cool. Njörðr the nordic god of the wind.

#4 - Balfa DJ

Like my Dekerf this bike has come to me by the way of my Canadian connection Simon.  This was a friends bike that he thought I might like and I do.  Pretty sure it's a Balfa Minuteman.  I run a 24" wheel out back and a 26"wheel in front.  They tell me it's for better acceleration.  I have no idea.

2010 Turner 5spot - #3

I have wanted a Turner for a long time.  When my Grand mother passed away she left all her grand kids a little money.  This is what I got with a portion of that.  I bought it from Redstone Cyclery in Lyon's Colorado.  I called Dave Chase and he set me up with this beauty.  She's seen a few years now but she's just as stunning as ever.  I changed the front shifter to a thumbie.  Which I do on almost all my bikes.  Recently I put new tires on it and the Maxxis rubber has made a huge difference. 

Dekerf Generation - #2

This bike came to me from a friend in Canada.  Simon Freer and I have been friends for a long long time.  This frame didn't fit him quite right.  So some how back in the day I managed to pay for it.  Out fitted it with bits and pieces that I had at the time and got to riding.  It's been upgraded over the years.  The front disc brake.  The front fork and rear magura hs33 rim brake.  The cranks have been changed multiple times.  Recently I changed out the handle bars to find a pink super short RaceFace riser in my hands.  Times have changed.  However this bike just keeps kicking out good rides.  If I know it's not gonna be to bumpy this is the bike I bring.  Fast and nimble, great on the climbs.  She's a little dirty from riding on the rack so please forgive the bugs.

Montagner Road Bike - #1

Well this is the first out of ten(I think ten) posts about the bikes that I ride.  I have a bunch of bikes.  However these are the one's that get ridden year in and year out.  Some I've only had for a little while.  Some much longer.  Like the Montagner here.  I've had this one for a LONG time.  This frame was given to me by a long time friend Dave Noji.  I had made the comment that I didn't have a road bike.  Well he just happened to have a old racing frame around that he gave to me on one of my trips to California to ride mountain bikes.  It didn't get built up for years.  Finally I stripped it down, found parts for it and got it running.  I think it's a bit small for me, but it works.  It's one of my oldest bikes.

Topcap for the Monster

With the fat bike coming along so nicely I decided It needed a bit more bling.  I looked around he web for a purple top cap.  What I found was pretty disappointing.  Most of them were from overseas and just plain purple top caps.  I had remembered seeing a place that did custom top caps.  You submit your design and they engrave it for you.  So again I headed back to the web and found a few places and finally decided to give Kustomcaps.com a try.  After I found there downloadable template with the helpful instructions I opened up Illustrator and went to work.  I had the basics to work from.  If it was to be a Purple People Eater.  It had to fly, have one big horn and one big eye.  I had a few sketches I had done earlier.  They were more for a illustration that I want to do on the front fork.  However they would be a good starting place for my design.

  

So I printed out a bunch of the templates side by side on a piece of paper.  Then I started sketching again.  Getting the little monster to conform to the space given.  I had laid out six templates.  I figured I'd fill all six and get the little devil out of my system.

 

I then took a few of these in to Illustrator and made a functional design out of them.  I took my three favorite.  Top right, Bottom left and Middle left.  Then I went a step further and put them on a purple top cap.  Using Photoshop it wasn't that hard.  I also found a gold binder bolt.

I decided I liked the one with the Narwhal like horn.  So I packaged up the AI file just the way they asked and sent it off.  Now when I sent it off I didn't expect such a quick turn around.  I must have sent it off at about 10am in the morning.  By 4pm in the afternoon it was done and on it's way to me.

Not too far off of my photoshop job.  I like it.  I think it'll make a great top cap.  When I get it and get it on the Alubooyah I'll take some more pics.

Present state of Phat

Getting the Chris King headset installed this weekend was a .... well hard.  I had to modify the headset a bit to get it to fit correctly.  So right now I need to finish off the brake routing, add the rotors and tighten everything down.  I may have to bleed the brakes I'm not sure.  The drive train needs a chain of which I have two.  Need to measure it out and get it on.  Need to run cables and adjust both derailleurs.  I need to get my fatty Strippers in and get both tires running tubeless.  Add some grips to the "Ugly White" bar, that will be taken off the minute I get enough dough to get a purple bar.  Then fit the whole thing to my riding position.  Not sure exactly what that will be on a fat bike but I have plenty of adjustment in the seat and 3-4 stems I can try out as well.  It's not together yet but it's getting closer.  Eventually I want to paint the front fork purple and get some other purple bits for it.  Time and a bit of money.