VULTURE CYCLES

AUSTIN, TEXAS

2011-02-15T22:42:00.001-08:00

North American Handmade Bike Show

CROSS NATIONALS 2010

2010-12-08T22:28:00.000-08:00

Damian on his Vulture

Cyclocross Nationals is back in Bend this week for year 2. It is damn cold and snowy here right now, and the racing will be really fun to watch. Also fun is "lenses and mud, torches and steel", a little one-frame-one-builder handmade bike show mashed up with PDXCROSS, amazing cross photography. check out www.bendlovesbikes.com for all of the BendOR bike love this weekend.

Thanks to Damian Schmitt in the photo for racing so fast and working so hard this year. Good luck at Nationals!

PRODUCTION

2010-12-08T22:20:00.000-08:00

five of one

blogs. people still do blogs?

i watched a neat movie that turned me off from the internet for a few weeks. we live in public. yikes.

even though i haven't been blogging, it is totally possible to build bikes without blog posts. and i am glad to say that i have built more frames than i have followers.

an interesting job came my way. five of one. now that is refreshing.

SEE YOU IN PORTLAND

2010-10-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

I'm getting ready to head out to P-town for the OREGON HANDMADE BICYCLE SHOW.

see ya there.

Also I now have a new website so please check it out. www.vulturecycles.com. Thanks Tim!

FRUITS OF YOUR LABOR DAY

2010-09-06T21:35:00.000-07:00

A bike for Mike. I got my big Gorton mill from Mike. Mike gets a cross frame from me. Since he is a machinist I gave him a chunk of head tube stock so he could turn his own end collars. This is my first Blog from the shop. I have internet here so I can improve my updates, anyway here are some pictures.

 Fat 55 stuff getting started.

Mike's head tube and top tube.

Mike's BB cluster.

Seat stays are next and just wait, they are special...not bad for a Monday.

I LOVE OREGON

2010-08-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

I went to Mountain Bike Oregon in Oakridge and had tons of fun riding, hanging out with old friends and making some new ones. Oakridge is one reason I love Oregon. So you should go to the Fat 55 bike race there. www.fat55.com. Another reason I love Oregon is because of kayaking in Sparks Lake under a full moon.

Sam's cross bike is underway and it has quite a few "features". What does custom mean to you? To me it is more than fit, it is more than the frame or the bike as a whole. To me custom should be an experience. I have a lot to work on in that department but like my welding and machining and designing I am working to make improvements in the office as well. Ugh though, all of the shop stuff is so much more natural for me.

REPUBLIC OF DOOM

2010-08-12T18:03:00.000-07:00

Looky what I got in the mail, Thanks to Nat and Steve. republic of doom.

Also I got SMOKED OUT on the internet at Velocipede Salon. Find out the story about bike frame builders in their own words. It's the place for quite a few great stories and ideas about bikes and the frame business.
BOOM! That's for Jade.

SHOUT OUT TO OREGON HANDMADE BIKE SHOW

2010-08-04T10:55:00.000-07:00

I took this picture of my argon bottles for fun, I hope you enjoy it. The OHBS is in october so check it out, and if you build frames, sign up and show off your work. You don't have to be an Oregonian, its just where the show is. Cool venue, if you don't build frames come on up to P-town and check out the goods. Here is the link. oregonhandmadebicycleshow.com

NOTE TO SELF

2010-07-23T23:41:00.000-07:00

My Dad's first wheel.

I wrote the note and started at the bottom. Now I am done. Links to bullets are as follows: OBCA, FNL, FLIKNOID. Welcome to the midsummer night dream.

COOL CUSTY PICS

2010-07-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

OK, few words just two pics. Thanks Guys.

Niels at 2300 M in the Alps.

Matt's Ti traveler.

I GOT HACKED

2010-06-25T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well my email did anyway, I am not in England and I don't need any help. In the recovery process all of my email history of conversations were deleted, and all of my contacts are gone. If you need to talk to me with email the old vulturecycles one at gmail is back on. This kind of crap sucks. How awesome is it that our whole society is built on Oil and now we are controlled by computers. I fully recognize my hypocrisy, but in this day and age who thinks I could make a living making bikes without email? Thinking outside the box means making spherical computers at this point. At least I got to talk to a bunch of my friends today, that's cool, I heard their voices instead of reading their status. What the hell is real now? You are.

BLOGS ARE ONLY EFFECTIVE IF YOU POST A LOT.

2010-06-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

Yeah, like more than every three months. I clobbered my shoulder trying to dismount the Tall Bike. Shoulda seen that coming. Here's some pics of stuff I made. A full sus bike with a Ventana rear end. Its a 4" travel 29er. I made a tandem frame with custom racks and fork for the republic of Eugineistine and a cool brown cross bike that was a benefit for Bends Community Bike Shed. I'm pissed about not being able to ride but its my own dang fault, So I can only be pissed at me. I'm totally gonna wear my cowboy hat more too.  

This green full suspension bike is so much fun to ride.

                              There's a lot of fabrication here.  

On its way to Minnesota.

BUILDING ! AND! RIDING BIKES

2010-03-09T12:51:00.000-08:00

I went to OR, OR (Oakridge, Oregon) and yes folks, RODE for three days. Eugene had his annual birthday ride which I semi-annually attend and we all had a great time sampling the dirt goodness that is the westside. It has been a while since I was able to ride three days in a row and my legs are nicely cooked. Barb got her bike she is calling wavy gravy, and Susan at Sunnyside put up a nice pic on facebook. PIC As usual please check out my flickr thing and tell some one you appreciate that you appreciate them, or just say something like "you are hot".

I RODE MY UNICYCLE IN THE DARK

2010-02-16T23:21:00.000-08:00

I rode the unicycle home in the dark tonite, it is really warm for February. Here's a picture of Nat's bike all ridden and stuff. Chris is a rad dude who now has a cool white bike and does a bunch of trail work. I am glad he lives in Bendor so we can go ride and the trails are sweet. Barb's bike should be all brazed out tomorrow and I am thinking about Mike, Jim, and Matt mostly, Schmitty's fork is done, time for the Rack. I added a bunch of pics to flickr too. Remember don't put anything in your ear except your elbow.

WHAT AM I DOING AND WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?

2010-02-05T12:26:00.000-08:00

In the fun dept, I have been x-c skiing like when I was a kid, except when I was a kid people said "Hi" on the trail more. In the other fun dept. Chris's bike is at powder and Niels frame is on its way to powder. This weekend Barb is coming out and we will get a start on her "wavy gravy." I'm ordering parts for Matt, Jim's lugs got blasted and I found some more filing to do on them. The Picture on the bench represents the immediate future, Mikes 26 SS, Barb's dropouts and bb, Schmitty's fork and rack, and finally I got the tubing bent for Crane's stem. Gonna be a busy week!

AND NOW TO THE BUSINESS AT HAND

2010-01-20T22:22:00.000-08:00

Fun!

After a few weeks of dialing in new tools, making new tools, etc. I am back to doing the do. Starting with a local guy Chris, I am using my new mitering fixtures. His curved top tube 29er is moving along nicely. Also the riding is pretty nice here right now. Crazy winter that isn't too winter-y. Be sure and check out the flickr photos to see if you notice any of the new stuff.

2010 YEAR OF THE VULTURE

2009-12-22T08:30:00.000-08:00

OK, that's how I feel. In the last week my shop has been blown to bits by major addition of some tools. Gorton arrived on Sunday and I had to move everything to get him in, and I have to figure out how I am going to put everything back. It is time for a serious purge of the stuff not needed for building bike frames or at least some extraordinary rendition to an undisclosed location. Gorton is very big and super ultra stable, the table is big enough to put all of my miter fixtures on and still have room to do some milling. This week I have to make some Christmas presents, hook up the compressor and build some new tooling. Happy Whatever you choose to celebrate these final weeks of 2009, I am stoked that Vulture Cycles first year back has been a real success and thanks to those who helped.

Wade

CROSS NATS BEND OREGON HERE NOW

2009-12-10T23:58:00.000-08:00

Greetings fellow universe dwellers. The U.S. Cyclocross National Championships are here and some racing has taken place. Word on the cell is "two broken bones per race", please don't quote me on that. I won't be racing but I will be partying on the edges and showing off some art and art support structures with Amy Castano's photos at John Paul Designs in downtown Bendor Friday night. Furthermore there is a bike show at 900 Wall which is too downtown. Some of my frames will be randomly ridden and shown off elsewhere. Try to stay warm, just try. Snuggling is one way to stay warm. Fire is also warm. Please don't snuggle with fire.
Love, Wade

LESS BLOGGING MORE BUILDING

2009-12-06T18:11:00.000-08:00

Saw the Dweezil Zappa show and it was rad but I am just as proud as Frank would be!

Man, some folks I know just nail it on the blog to show everybody what they are doing every couple of days, Gardu for example. I wait til I have too many pictures and too much to say and get overwhelmed. Anyway I just built the most complicated and difficult build in the least amount of time with the most success of my framebuilding career. Project was as follows. Titanium traveler with steel fork and custom racks. TURBO. Deposit came in early November and shipped on friday. Lots of 2 am this week but it looks great and I cant wait for it to come visit me and I can ride it. Cross nats are here this week and I am back to building Jim's MAX lugged frame. Of course the photos are on flickr DIRECT MOUSE ON THESE BIG RED LETTERS AND CLICK.
Love ya
wade.

I'LL SHOW YOU MINE IF YOU SHOW ME YOURS

2009-11-05T15:32:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-09T10:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-26T12:08:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-08-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

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."

STAR WARS AND STINGRAYS

2009-08-18T23:54:00.000-07:00

Rio Rocks. I'm off to Montana til Tuesday. I have been working and and having a dental experience since returning from Eastern Oregon. Included with this episode are pictures of the fruits of my labors. Andy's fork, frame and stem are off to powder, Tim's massage is going to Hawaii and Rio rocks the stingray. Its a real one by the way. I am looking forward to riding in Montana. au revoir amigos.

MTB CAMPING

2009-08-11T23:16:00.000-07:00

I made racks for my bike and took off to eastern Oregon for some real mountain bike camping. Other than some weather and a bad root canal the trip was great. Chris, Katy, Jerry and Dave were awesome riding and camping companions and the fishing super fun. Here are some pics.

My cohorts all used Bobs but I have been wanting to dirt tour with some racks sans bags. My setup worked really well, with dual shear point attachments with removable pins, I could disattach my racks in a flash but the were bomber when connected. We climbed about three hours on dirt road to a high pass then rode single track that contoured along the crest of the range. A sweet 5 turn switchback delivered us to a pair of mini trout filled alpine lakes. There was fun micro fishing while mountain goats watched. After a nice lakeside dinner, it was lights out until a mostly full moon lit up night for great photography experiments and some cool dreams. A drop to the cars was super sweet single track and my experience left me wondering when I can go back.

I built most of Andy's bike today and have his bike to finish and some forks to knock out. I found some white ink so printing will happen as soon as possible. Please make the most of the remainder of summer.

IN THE SHOP

2009-07-31T11:41:00.000-07:00

Shop til ya drop. Lots of mosquitoes lately, they like my feet. I have been working a bunch to get ready to go to eastern Oregon for bike riding next week. I am building racks for the trip and they are nothing like what you have seen in racks before. Joyce bike delivered, Toms bike shipping, Sunnyside 29 belt drive will finish up today and Andys seat tube sub assembly ready. Guys parts list is coming together and Eugene wonders where his fork is. Somehow I have to get some white ink for some printing that is overdue but bikes are priority over shirts right now. Jessica just wants me to get them printed elsewhere but I'm sticking to my guns. I do my own shirts. Last week's flickr HERE. I will put up some more pics later today. Rio swims and the folbot came out this week too.
Love ya, Wade

TOES IN DIRT

2009-07-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

Stoked, I mean, when the mill is on, or the lathe is turning or the hood is down and the bright light pulsates, flashes and makes me feel like I am dreaming and I am building a bicycle frame. I like the bare steel with mill finish scotch-brited off. I love this and I am not sure why, I love other stuff too, like riding especially. There are also people, for example Rio who turned 7 years old this week and Jessica who somehow listens to me babble and ramble about bikes all the time. Jerry said years ago, "Wade all you think about is Bikes, Bikes, Bikes" I think about other stuff too, but I do think about bikes quite a bit. While I build them I daydream about riding them and when Im riding I daydream about building them. Of course there is all of the other stuff that swirls around the whole "business" and "self-employment" thing but with the ultimate goal being building and riding, the details can be massaged into place and there is just more learning and confidence. Orders are rolling in steadily and there is a lot of variety in the styles of frames, a speedy tourer for Andy is coming up next, there is a lugged Max tubed runabout and maybe even a lamplighter. My feet love summer cuz they get so dirty from wearing flip flops. I hope your toes are dirty too. The picture is of Joyce who won a custom frame from Sunnyside Sports during the spring fling. She looks pretty stoked.

JUNE BUG

2009-06-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

June is gone now. Here are some pics. I like to make most of my own tools but Goodtimes and Paragon goodies are much appreciated and make me stoked. For some reason blogger insists on have the pic rotated wierd, sorry folks I tried a few times to get it strait, Oh well you get the idea. Maybe an incorrectly rotated picture is only worth 500 words? I roll-curved some tubes for curvy top tubes so get on the list, I want to make a skirt bike with one of them so stay tuned. Tom's bike is coming up next week and I'm stoked to get it rolling. There are a couple pics of Dom's stem to go with his fork from last week, it turned out sweet. I went to Tahoe and rode with Eugene and Mark and camped out with Amanda, Harper and Oso. Tahoe trails are sweet and rocky and I so dig my killer mountain bike. I love rocks and rigid forks, for some slow mo control without REBAFLOP and blasting high speed over the tops. Sweet lines and great trail. I did another turbo Flickr upload with pics of the trip here. Oh, and a flower pic for Gardu, Snowflower Rad! Flickr Here PICTURES.

FORKEN EH?

2009-06-10T10:36:00.000-07:00

Pictures Rule, What do I really have to say about anything anyway. Oh No, Oh Khay, Here are some random thoughts. First thing on my mind about frame building is that the dream is to keep improving always... and it feels good to look back on earlier work and see the improvement. Since people keep asking I have built about 300 bike frames, for how long I have been building that is not very much but for education purposes that is a fair amount, I have learned a lot in 300 frames but anyone who as built thousands of frames will tell you there are still mistakes to be made, there is still learning to occur, My goal make the frames bomber, strait, clean, then worrry about pretty. I got really fired up on stainless steel shit a few years ago and some of it bit me in the ass. I have become more conservative in design and construction and frilly fru fru apeals less to me now. With all that said there are more curves on my frames than there used to be, but they are there for a reason, not form then function, rather the other way. I want to say something about Lugs as well. Practice the shit out of them before you build a frame. I would rather see a beginner building fillet and tig welded frames before lugs, because without X-ray vision who knows whats happening in there. Also the claim that repairing lugged frames is preferable is a myth. I hope I dont need to explain. So now it sounds like I dont like lugged frames. Not true, but I would be really choosy about whom I bought one from. I am a tig welder by profession and interest, but I admire those with the skills to fillet braze and build with lugs. It takes a bad ass to flow the brass! E-NUFF. Pics are as follows, fork mitre fixture, 5000 miles of tracks across 2 mile lava flow, Dom's fork, Lance ten over on the Geologic wave, Mount Jefferson Cascade Range Oregon sunset shaky camera hand.

TURBO FLICKR UPLOAD

2009-06-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

More picture less scripture. CLICK

MIKE WATT-FILMFESTIVAL-RIDING-PARTY

2009-06-01T08:38:00.000-07:00

For those of you who tuned in last time, I built a frame and shot a movie documenting the building of said frame. The movie was for the Bend Bicycle Film Festival and so I built a fork and assembled the whole bike as my donation to the cause. Thanks to Web Cyclery for helping out with the wheels. The bike was raffled off during the intermission and congratulations Anna! The crono part of this story is I built the frame on tuesday may 19. On may 21 I went to Portland via Maupin. OR and saw our friend RANGER BILLY BOB. Then Mike Watt totally rocked it the (heck) out at the Doug Fir lounge in P-town and blew my mind. We parked right by the bands Econo jammer. Back in bend the next day I went for a cool ride with Jessica and her cool new bike and hung out with Rio. This week I built a fork for the movie cruzer and built wheels and painted and assembled the whole bike. I also built two awards for some COTA bad asses and got the sunny side frames delivered just in time to raffle off another frame (thanks sunny side!) and congrats to Joyce. I look forward to building your cool bike! This weekend was a huge social experience for me, I live one on one and hang out in the shop by myself alot, but this weekend I saw a million people and some were friends I have had for a long time and love so much it makes me wish I saw them way more, and I met a ton of new folks that were so stoked on the bikes and stoked on being here in BENDOR, and just getting fired up on riding this summer. Wow better build some dirt jumpers soon! I saw a bannana chasing a gorrilla. Scooby style.

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO LATELY?

2009-05-20T23:46:00.000-07:00

Glad you asked. I have been building frames and stuff. Jake's 29er, Jessica's curvy mountain bike with sterling silver head badge and a 29 cruiser for the Bend Bike Film Festival. Some of Jake's bike process is up in the new gallery in the links section of this blog. You will find exits near the wings and to the front and rear of the cabin in the event of an earthquake this plane will never land. Whoa, its late. Any whoo I am more productive than I was a couple of months ago and I'm really diggin building bikes again. Luckily I have had visitors lately and so it keeps the motivation up. Shut it Wade and just get on with uploading pictures.

T SHIRT BLOG

2009-05-20T23:24:00.000-07:00

I screen all of my own shirts.( sometimes with help from Jessica andRio) Back before I had a screen I spray painted VULTURE on shirts, and some other stuff. Sometimes I used those big puffy iron-on letters too. Around 2002 I got the orig vulture screen and in about 2005 I got the "dead meat" screen. I have a bunch of ink and a flash dryer. Here's the lowdown... Shirts generally cost $13 Hoodies $20 If you send me your own shirt I will print it the next time I print for a beer the next time I see you. I use shirts I find randomly and have various sizes colors etc. If you email me I will help you get a shirt. I really dig the zip hoodies lately, In fact I kept a blue one even though I had a black one already. Also you can call or email me about jerseys but I don't print those. Someone else does, oh and they are wool. T-shirt blog over and out.
I

YARD DWELLER

2009-05-04T12:04:00.000-07:00

Camero-n came up from the joy area to build his self a sweet new twin lateral tubed touring machine. He did all of his own work while I looked over his shoulder, answered absolutely rediculous questions, and occasionally poked him in the ribs. His frame turned out really nice and broke the seal on twin lateral frames which I have had been thinking about for a long time. I got some work done on the Sunnyside frames and maybe today I will finish. Rio got his Camo belt in Tae Kwon Do. My dad and I have begun work on the Keg-B-Q for grillin' up some sausage and steaks. My mom took the cool shot of me welding in the dark, she is smart with pictures. As usual more pix in flickr album RIGHT HERE! CLICK THE RED PART. iF'n ya ever want to learn how to build your own frame, I'm ready, willing, and able to show you how, drop a line. I hope you have enough sausage for your Keg-B-Q too. Red right return.

MY NEW STD

2009-04-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

Due to selfishness and general " me first" symptoms I built myself a new bike. It is a rigid fork specific 29 inch wheeled geared mountain bike. MOUNTAIN BIKE. I wanted it to be like an old YO EDDY so it is . Some subtle (not so if you are a nerd) things are very un YO EDDY like. I welded it up two weekends ago and have been riding the heck out of it. I love it. The paint will come later for now I'm calling it STD for "standard" Finished up Keenan's frame and fork today and he is stoked. Mac got his frame and Aki's shipped today. Right now I am working on some frames for Sunnyside Sports and Jake's frame when he finishes his swingy dropouts. Mega upload in the gallery check it out HERE.

QUICK UPDATES

2009-03-13T08:23:00.000-07:00

Aki's fork and seatstay brace, Mac's ss brace and a random headtube weld pic. Check THIS out. John Paul Designs makes my head tube badges and some really killer metal art.

THE REST OF THE STORY

2009-03-02T08:11:00.000-08:00

Paul Harvey is dead, long live Paul Harvey!
Lots of Pics. I went to Reno, Cave Creek, 24hr Old Pueblo, Brian's wedding in Tuscon, and back. I saw Mark, The Shredder, their grommet Harper, the Coys, Mike, Mike, and John of TEAMBACONSTRIP. Team Konalingus, and had tons of fun in a whirlwind trip mid February. I came back to bend and assembled CK's monster cross bike and went riding with Jerry and Chris. Chris's bike turned out great and there is an MTBR thread on that. Rio rocks my P-Bass and so far in the shop I have Aki's fork and frame finished today hopefully. Keenan's fixie thru chainstays/dropouts and Mac is on his way to build an armegeddon cruizer. Fun stuff and I've been busy.

THIS ONE IS FOR JIM BROWN

2009-03-02T08:01:00.000-08:00

For the dude who taught me how to Tig! 41 Dodge with a slant 6. Jim's dream hot rod. It sounds great.

AUDI 5000 G

2009-02-11T06:09:00.000-08:00

Hello, I'm going to Reno to hook up with the Reno crew and head down to the 24hrs of Old Pueblo where I will crew a bit and go to Brian Lewis' wedding. I'll be back on the 16th or 17th. Still no good shop pics. I've been building forks and a cool LD style stem. Got Chris's bike back from the powdercoater and its the best job they've done yet! When I get back I'll try to get a new digital camera to get the indoor pics rolling. Happy Valentines day, I hope you all eat a lot of chocolate and get to make out with your valentine. Be careful though and don't forget your Jimmy Wrapper!
This weeks pics from the archives are Me looking great in wool, and Reedster gettin all jiggy!
Steady On.

GREAT RIDE WITH BILLY BOB

2009-02-05T09:44:00.000-08:00

B-Bob and I cruised up to The Criterion Ranch BLM Acquisition and rode to the Deschutes River. Our bikes got muddy and we missed the old road grade/ trail by one canyon, but we had a blast and I would consider it a successful recon mission. There are more pics of the adventure in the gallery. We were blessed with bluebird skys and great views of Mount Adams and Mount Hood. We could see all the way south to the Sisters but they did not show up in pics well. The ride reminded me of when I started riding mountain bikes in Elko in the mid 80's. I just rode around on cow trails and wagon roads, I did not learn about "single track" until I moved to california when I was 16. We managed to finagle a ride back up to the truck from one of Billy Bob's cohorts in Maupin, Thanks Eric! and finished off our night with a great dinner at Charlie's just south of Madras. Clemson beat Duke and white boys cant dunk!

FENCE POSTING, IT MIGHT BE WEDNESDAY AGAIN

2009-02-04T09:17:00.000-08:00

First off sorry about the lack of current shop shots. The camera situation is sketchy at best. I doesn't like to take pics inside. There is some progress being made on forks and stems and frames and my stupid little rc rock crawler. Here ARE some pics from this weekend, I went for a ride out in the desert and rode on Horse Ridge and Dry Canyon. It was the last day to ride in Dry Canyon due to closure for Perigrine frolicking. Dry Canyon is the most technical trail in Central Oregon and with snow it was really fun. No matter who you are, you will carry your bike in Dry Canyon. Also rode at Masten/Cline Butte and went x/c skiing on the ice out to the new Nordeen shelter.

I loaded some shop tool shots into the flickr zone. (TOOLS) I make most of all my own tools. Simple effective and made from drop of various places I have worked. Hope yall are having fun in the sun!

HOWDY ITS WEDNESDAY!

2009-01-28T14:31:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics Mat from cali sent me, looks like he's been having fun on his Vulture! Great pics too looks warm from where I sit typing. No shop pics this week, the camera has been confiscated and I need to rectify that situation.
any hoo have a great hump day, don't forget to hump.
over and out, Wade

PAIR FOR PAINT

2009-01-23T14:24:00.000-08:00

These frames are headed to paint now(powder really) one will be copperish and the other green. Sorry about the fuzzy pic of Rio kickin' it, that's him in the red headgear. I've been back at it for about 3 weeks now and I have not had a full day in the shop yet. Most days have been 4-6 hours and I built two frames and a fork. I did some finish brazing on another frame and re found my tools and figured out what I didn't have in the way of supplies. It feels good to be in the shop, and next week I won't have as much kid duty so Ill have longer days, up next, a stem and another monster crosser and some forks. Thanks for the comments and thanks for looking up a Vulture's dress. As usual I added a couple more pics to the new gallery in the links zone.
cheers, Wade

MAKING PROGRESS

2009-01-22T07:52:00.000-08:00

Well, I've had a fun week or so since my last post. I went to Oakridge, Oregon with Billy Bob to see the OROR crew and had a nice couple of rides on Salmon Crick and lower Alpine. Went to the Brewers Union local 180 pub and had some real ale in the cask conditioned style which is my current favorite way to have beer. www.brewersunion.com. I forgot the camera so no pics of that fun stuff. Rode the fixie on rollers this morning before 6Am...neat...
As pics above go, crazy divine cross drops are from my "brutality"phase, lack of sleep and anxiety from a few years ago, gotta finish that project up, diggin' the paragon touring dropouts and Chris' seatstay brace and my take on Garro's take on Bontrager's take on who knows, there is more than one way to skin a cat and luckily there are lots of cats. Now imagine being a muleskinner. "Good mornin' captain" There are a few more on flikr.
cheers, Wade

BACK AT IT!

2009-01-14T09:24:00.000-08:00

The aircraft industry being what it is... I'm throwing my hat back in the ring. I am now taking orders for frames again. I learned a bunch by tig welding cromo airplane parts all day everyday for two years so my frames will be even nicer than before. ( I wasn't selling real estate or designing web sites) I liked the J-O-B thing but never really gave up on vulture cycles so the lay off was not a bad thing. I have a couple cool projects on the board already so here we go. Keep in mind, I'm more interested in bikes for riding than looking at so you wont see a bunch of stainless steel knick knacks, just shreadworthy and reliable. I added some pix to the flickr zone and here are a couple of what I've been up to this week.
It's beautiful here in Bend by the way so go ride or rc crawling!

papa is doing much better and I had a vacation

2008-06-10T21:06:00.000-07:00

Went to minnesota and had a blast. Papa is walking around now thanks to my mom and dad for help. Rio is great and about to finish Kindergarten. Jessica is as cool as ever and I'm a little fat. check the flickr link for more photos.

papa is in the hospital so I have some computer time

2008-05-07T14:36:00.000-07:00

Hey there, Papa is hangin in the hospital with an infection anyone of us could get, its just taking him some time to recover cuz he's 80. In a week or so he will be able to kick your ass again. Heres a pic of a goofy bike I'm building at work at lunch.

I have strep throat so I'm useless, kinda time to check in appreciate the rest of the time when everybody is healthy.

new is old

2008-05-02T21:50:00.000-07:00

I forgot all of my old blog login and password info so I created all new stuff with my super old email title. Cool, back to my roots.

I'm working at my job.

2007-09-12T18:01:00.001-07:00

Here are some frames I'm making at work. Lots more tubes than bikes but still cromo tubing and tig welding! Hope your summer was fun, mine was cuz I got to ride more this year than in quite a few. Rio rips. Hows your sourdough? Hashiru Ji ten sa! Ume boshi!
Sincerely, Your friend Wade

Hosmer Lake in rainy rainy Oregon

2007-06-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

Went with Rio to Hosmer lake and took out my $50 yard sale folbot. Had a blast camping with the boy.
cheers, Wade

Its Blo-og its blo-og, its not made out of wood, OR... do not taunt happy fun blog

2007-05-31T16:27:00.000-07:00

Do not bounce or throw happy fun blog, do not forget your password or login with Happy Fun Blog. Been three speeding lately. No derailment devices or internal spurs, just three cogs and three chainrings all 54 tooth combos. 38-16,34-20, and 26-28. I like it. Just stop and shift. Heres Brians bike. I dig this bike so much that I dont want to send it but I must.
Rode with Nat and that was cool, he inspired me to ride my green fixie in the dirt, and damn that was hard. Woah, I got used to coasting. Shave your legs yet? Me neither. Thanks to old Dick Cunningham for the design inspiration.
from my guts to yours.
Wade

PROJECT NON-MERSH

2007-04-20T17:26:00.000-07:00

I'm retired damn it. Not retired, just really hired. Just to clarifiy, I am still building bike frames, just not for sale. I sucked at the business thing, my frames took too long to get and I never made any money building frames so In Aug I got a job. My job is cool and so is my kid. I would rather hang out with my kid and ride than worry about when I will ship a frame etc. I shut off the phone, and rarely look at the internet, My job is tig welding so I don't sit at a computer all day and get paid to surf the net. If you email me I will eventually respond so chill out. The frame Im working on now is a Mantis Valkire 29er replica. Next up, ERW 29er and Lots of riding and being with the people I love. In the fall I will consider building some frames for people besides me so if you have a really really cool idea and have lots of money to spend and want to wait for a long time email me and we will see what we can do. If you want to buy a custom frame now check out coconino cycles or hunter cycles. I also like Rock lobsters. Dont forget goodtimes bikes as well. Since you all can google, Im not including any links to these guys.
spring is here-ish, so keep your eyes out for tan legs.
cheese, Wade

10 YEARS

2006-10-09T21:11:00.000-07:00

By the way, November will mark 10 years since I built my first bike frame so I will be building myself a new frame that resembles and carries the spirit of my first frame. Somewhere out on the web there are some pics of me riding it, my buddy who goes by "elden grave" has the pics so get googlin' if you care. Better than a kick in the shin stick your hand in your armpit and make the fart sound. Feels good don't it.
Wade
Update, pic is not so good of the frame but so what, dig the etto.
www.flickr.com/photos/eldengrave/55026044/in/set-1196078/

Quickie

2006-10-09T20:49:00.000-07:00

Howdy, here's a couple of pics. Mark is racing in his Vulture woolie at the cascade cream puff on his 29er. The other one is a pic of Camero-N riding my fixie uphill in Oakridge OR. The latest news is that I have a JAY-OHH-BEE. Framebuilding wasn't paying for any of those exiting fringe benefits like health insurance. I'm currently employed as a Tig Welder. I Tig weld airplane landing gear and motor mounts, and various other stuff, Its pretty hard but I get to weld all day, way more welding than on a bike frame and thats all I do, no machining or cutting or etc. Just welding. Absolutly! I'm still building frames. They will just take longer to get and they are more expensive. FYI I will try to answer your email within two weeks but I really enjoy building frames and hanging out with my peoples compared to emailing and blogging. Oh yeah riding bikes rules too. I have quite a few frames in the hopper still and I will focus on building them rather than answering emails. So here's the lowdown... I have decided to do whole bikes only. That means rolling out my door, I can ride it first and I will put the whole project together. I have a lot of parts suppliers and I can get most anything you want. I am not really interested in doing just forks or frames or frame repairs or conversions. Ok there it is. Call me, E-mail me and be really patient. Sit on your hands, hang in there. Race some cross. Pull up your shirt and heres a ZERBERT from me Phbtsphbspt!

Ah, what's a couple of months between friends?

2006-07-31T19:57:00.000-07:00

For those of you who actually give a hoot, sorry I haven't blogged for a while. I've been building and riding bikes, hanging with my kid, dad, grandpa, and girly friend a bunch this summer. Summer has been hot and fast. There's been some Titanium and some 29ers and some roadbikes and a some cool fixies. Mostly 29" singlespeeds. Ive been riding fixed mostly. Ive had some cool stop bys including Camero-N and Mark On His MOTO. Some of the regulars have been irregular but thursday night ususally drags couple of single speed Vulture rigs out into the "back 40" single track for some fun shredding. If you are in bend on thursday, give me a call and we will go ride. This week was interesting, Ween on tuesday night, dirt track racing(cars) on sat pm and a local jazz trio sunday moring. As far as bikes go Ive got a ti 29"going to new mexico, and 650b S3 roadbike a traditional single speed 26" a cross bike and a 29" ss/gears with a cool feature on the top tube. Oh pictures are worth a thousand words. Five or six thousand words to follow shortly. Cross season is around the corner so start running.
Heres a big smooch..
Wade

been a while eh?

2006-05-07T22:48:00.000-07:00

Ok, I haven't been keeping up on my blog, Lots of other stuff to do. In the last couple of weeks I've finished, prepped and shipped a bunch of frames. This is good. I also got the titanium eccentric shells Ive been waiting for, Really good. Im in titanium mode for a couple of weeks now, I have some forks to build also so when my hair starts to hurt from working on ti. Ill take a break and make some 29" forks. All but two of the frames I have to build have 700c wheels 29, cross, and even a road bike. There's a 26 ss frame and a 650 road bike. Otherwise big-uns. Theres some new pics going on the gallery tonite by my buddy Eric. He has bikemecca.com and is a super photo pro. He used to work for the newspaper mafia in Chicago, as a bike goon in switzerland and as a pro road team mechanic so he always has interesting stories. Theres a couple of other pics by another friend JB chillin' who is getting antsy to make his way in the framebuilder abbey. Me thinks to me self, "shave head make good beer...burn fingers make good bikes" Its a toss up. I like the chanting sound of knobbys on long sustained just barely too steep for the gear you got climb. chhkkkkk, shhkkkkk,chhkkkkk... Ah but I digest. Found a cool way to town that reduces the time next to cars and improves the amount of dirt I get to ride. Ill take a picture of the part by the river I get to ride by. Its a chute part of the Deschutes alright, raging and roaring whitewater. Makes for a sweet commute. Lots of dirt, with a sash-ay thru inner suburbia...It has that new housing development smell of bark mulch. Look at the pictures, check the links, ride the bike.
love Wade

I have returned.

2006-04-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

Ok, Monday morning and my Vacation was great. I rode some cool trails on the fixie and had the place to myself. I also did lots of sitting and doing nothing. Yesterday I rode for about 4 hours with my girly friend and actually got a little sunburn on my legs. The weather is super here. Now I'm back and heres whats on the plate for this week. Shipping Chris L., Johnny G, Rick C. Finish fork and go to powdercoater with Jake P. Still waiting for ti Ebb shell for Joel and Lee. D-rock road bike front triangle. Design for Reed, Secret Person, and Christie. My Dad is here for a couple of months so he and I will have to some exploring of some new to me local singletrack, Maybe some dawn patrol riding before he goes fishing. If I have time to ride, I dont have time to go fishing right now. Theres lots of frames to build and some special projects to accomplish. Sliding dropouts for one, the drawing is done, Ill make some aluminum prototypes then maybe cut some Ti. Ive been wearing my Vulture jersey on every ride and I love it. Ill be putting together another order, (and some pics in the gallery) soon. If you want one, call me. Or send me an email that isnt about anything else. They cost $100.
cheers, good luck this week. ride your bike. Check out the Gallery for pics of the Jerseys and this sweet spectrum powderworks flame job. Its really really pricey and it took a while but Whoa Nelly(insert explicatives) it looks amazing. Glassy smooth and a ton of detail work. From now on, multi color stuff will go to specrum.
hugs and kisses
wade

Goin back to Cali.

2006-04-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm gone til April 21, Have a good week. Check out the tasty stainless dropouts in the gallery.
Jerseys are in the mail today. Jersey, hat, and socks pics when I get back.
cheers, Wade

I love girl scout cookies.

2006-04-12T01:42:00.000-07:00

Wow, 1:30 A.M. I just finished up two front triangles I started at 5 pm. I chased my kid around today and did errands. Now I'm eating girl scout cookies and drinking a Hamms. I' m sure Ill have some good dreams. The front triangles completed are for Jake and Rick. I'm going to try to get them done by thursday night. I have a ton of other stuff to do by then as well including shipping some sweet Vulture Wool jerseys. I was going to put a pic up of me wearing one but I look like a snake that swallowed an egg. Hopefully Chris's bike will get shipped from Spectrum tomorrow, and I'll be able to pick up Adi, Erik, and Gontarian's frames from the local powdercoater. Prep and ship, box, cut weld, braze. The picture is of my South Bend Model "A" pre-facing a head tube. I like to pre-face head tubes, the frames start out nice and strait . I will upload some pics to the gallery as well, click the link. Tomorrow I'll post a jersey pic. Something I have learned about myself is that whenever I make fun of or put down something, I find myself looking right at the opportunity to experience whatever it is my mouth was dissing. The current example is a Santa Cruz VP Free. Now understand, I really only ride bikes Ive built, 69 stingray and 80s Hutch excluded, well any way my good friend is loaning/storing his vp free with me for part of the summer. Now Im obligated to at least try to ride a bike that not only has shifters and coasts but has a ton of travel. The whole package includes a full face helmet and pads for my limbs. Do I have to pull the "freeriding is neither" sticker off my computer. Im not freeriding yet, and I may not be worth a damn at it but I will give it a try, hopefully to remove my foot from my mouth...seems I've already come up with a trick. Rock out Yall and check out the moon.

Gettin' all bloggy and stuff

2006-04-07T02:29:00.000-07:00

Today was the nicest day in Bend in a long time. I opened up the big door and was able to work all day wearing shorts. I had to put my hat on a couple of times but, for the most part I was super comfortable. I put up some links, check out the gallery. Who is on deck? Dan's cross and Erik's 29er are geting powdercoated, Gontarian is waiting for some brake posts, Adi is thru chainstays, should get seatstays tomorrow and Jake and Rick are up next. Still tracking down some Ti bits for Joel and Lee. Those should be in powder by next week then Im going to Reno, NV for a BBQ with Mark and The Shredder (wool jerseys in hand) and then over the sierras for easter and my Moms birthday. Ill be gone from April 14-21. No computer, no phone. I don't have a phone in the shop, its really nice for me, Is it nice for people with questions? The jury is out, maybe this summer Ill run a line out to the shop. For now just leave a message. My current project is some slider dropouts that I think answer the issues I have found with the other types. Im a big fan of the eccentric bb system, but Im open minded, and the sliders intrigue me. Pics when the protos are done.
cheers, Wade

Welcome

2006-04-05T14:31:00.000-07:00

Hello, welcome to my new blog beginnings. Soon I will have prices and pictures here. In fact heres a picture of a new Titanium 29" wheeled single speed frame. I used vertical plate on the chainstays to make for a short rear end with great tire clearance. More Soon, thanks for looking.
cheers, Vulture