I'LL SHOW YOU MINE IF YOU SHOW ME YOURS

Greetings loyal followers and stalkers! Thanks to Jessica, Chris, Katy, Eugene, Nana, Pop, Rio and Papa, I somehow made it to Portland for the Oregon Handmade Bicycle Show and rocked the heck out. As may be expected I arrived with the tallest bike and and irreverant attitude and had a great time talking about bikes to any random person unsupectingly walking by my booth. Also as expected I arrived with more knobby tires than maybe the whole rest of the show combined. While there I saw some Absolutely Amazing work done by some hardworking craftsmen. No women builders were there though there were female craftspersons on hand, Randi and Shiela of note. My neighbors were awesome, Mark and Dan and thanks for letting the Vulture Culture Experience spill into your zones on occasion. Like I said, we had more candy, knobbies and ridden rides than anyone else there, and though I saw some totally VICTIM stuff, for the most part the bar is high and the paintshops are killing it. I know what I want to make myself next and how to do it, but I won't have time for a while.  am stoked to be a full time framebuilder again but sometimes I miss the guys I used to work with. Buy a bunch of bikes from me so I can hire them.  Here is a pic from the show.
Smack down on the ENTER key harder than ever,

Wade

OCTOBER IS ABOUT TO TURN INTO NOVEMBER

Whoa, here comes Halloween. I have not been blogging up to my potential, due to some sickness and stuff going around in the fam I have not been getting as much work done as I would like. Here are some pics to make up for words. By the way I am going to Portland, Oregon for the Oregon Handmand Bicycle Show check it out here.OREGON HANDMADE BICYCLE SHOW. If you are attending the show please come by the Vulture Zone and chat it up, I will have some fun stuff to see and yes the bikes there are all rideable.  Guy got his bike and he is stoked.  Rio chops wood, he is a good helper for our family.

PART HIPSTER, PART CAVE MAN, PART COWBOY

I had a great week. Other than getting some of my jawbone ground down for a crown, I had few distractions and reasonable weather. I watched the dentist with a mirror and I must say he had pretty good grinding technique. Sometimes the grinder would whipper over to another tooth but ample anesthetic made the procedure no prob. I am sore and healing but better my face hurts than my hands.

  Here are some pics of Nat's frame. I have been dreaming about building a frame like this for a long time and finally here it is. The green frame is for Guy, and if I get time I will build it up today.

I curved the struts on this fork, it just ocurred to me as I was building it, fun.
Weekend, cool.

SOME BEND OREGON CROSS RACING

 This is a quick post to say congrats to Damian from Sunnyside Sports for winning the Web Cyclery Thrilla Cross series. There is his travel ready Vulture all painted up. Go Damian! Of course the ground doesn't look like that now. Snow!

 Also we got the last cord of wood we will need this winter, nice lodgepole nickels there ready to split. Jessica thought loading these in the truck and trailer was a lot of work. Twice warmed I say.

THIS ISNT JUST ABOUT MOUNTAIN BIKING IN BEND OREGON

Due to popular request and the fact I might be the ugliest person in my family I have uploaded a picture of Papa eating at  the Deschutes Brewery Pub on my birthday last weekend. That's a big plate of food and he CPC'd it. CPC if you did not know is "clean plate club". Thanks to Steve for the pic upload suggestion, also the indoor net seems to be working today, Ah rural living.

Also in my mind is maybe a common one with framebuilders, what color should I paint/powdercoat my personal bike? While riding in eastern oregon, see mountain bike camping trip my frame got pretty rusty, I think it looks cool but it doesn't go with the concept of a finished product and its longevity is decreased. So far I am leaning toward a classic Fat Chance Yo (the design inspiration for this bike) of blue to green fade, or Olive drab with desert tan racks, or flat black on the racks. Kinda recon for the pine tree desert of central oregon. What do you think? Or orange super sparkle?...

SEPTEMBER DEPARTS

I am not meeting my goal of posting once a week dang it. This month I built a travel cross bike with a removable rear triangle to fit in a travel case. The design is simple but it took me a while to build. So far the test riding on it has been successful and the owner is stoked. I also built a new chainstay mitre fixture and that has sped up the building process somewhat. More accuracy and more speed is always better. Right now Guy's frame is about finished and Nat's frame is coming up. A month from now I am going to the OBCA handmade bike show in Portland and have a couple of special projects for that. Hopefully there will be time to finish them! An antiquated computer and slower than snot internet service makes for terrible picture uploading to Blogger so you will have to see my pics on flickr but they are right over there on the left of the screen.
As far as my life goes beyond bikes, I went to my 20 year high school reunion and had a blast. I must say that my classmates aged well and it was great to reconnect with old friends.
That's all for now so over and out.

AS SEPTEMBER APPROACHES...

I contemplate summer. In Bendor we have some freezing nights coming soon, not a lot in the way of color but some. I killed some peppers and a nice tomato plant, my son turned seven and got his yellow belt in foot-fist-way and I flowed and struggled my way back into building frames full time. Jessica has a good eye and has been messing with the blog so that it looks cool.  Now I have to write more stuff so that her work is appreciated. I went to Montana and returned with some sun on my back some quality time with my favorite person in the whole world and a couple of strait up mountain bike rides. I took about 120 pictures and have to look at them to edit what really works and looks cool. Rio and I had fun with the lights on the train and slow shutter speeds, but you dont want to see 50 blurry funny shaped pics. By the way, "then" is being confused with "than" out there a lot.  Cross dressing I mean racing is also aproaching and this year the nationals will be  here. I hope those of you who visit will come to see me and drink a beer or two. Until I spew again, "It's over, people."