After an email exchange with ace US framebuilder Steve Garro, I've decided to get off my arse and keep a blog. This entry comes most of the way through the building sequence of a lugged fixed gear bike I'm building for a friend, Leighton. The bike uses Long Shen oversized arrowhead lugs, forward facing horizontal lugs, a straight blade lugged fork and Columbus Zona tubes. It's the first frame I've built since moving to Blackwood. Some months were spent getting the workshop up and running, but the effort has paid off: it's a very productive work-space now. It'd be nice if it cleaned istself though.... The floor is already filthy with scraps of 80 grit paper, gobs of flux and metal filings.














The main triangle and rear end are brazed, and this post finds me in the middle of cleaning up the brass brazed rear dropouts. Earlier today I reamed the seat tube and faced the head tube. In the next day or so I'll braze in the rear brake bridge, which should be the end of it.














With this frame finished I can then turn my attention to something I've been promising Heather for a while: a Campy equipped road bike for her. I'll be building it from a mix Dedaccai and Columbus tubes, using the very fancy Long Shen Fleur de Lys lug-set.

The weather here has been crazy this past week. We went from nearly 30 degrees on Friday and Saturday to an overnight low of 2 last night. Hopefully things will fine up before the weekend. I'm planning on heading out on a trail ride wih Dave on Sunday morning, which should leave me nice and sore for the hour long massage scheduled for Sunday afternoon!