Expedition touring is the theme for this week

The week started off with finishing up work on a Trek touring frame-set. I built a custom stem for this bike then added some brazons: Paul Racer mounts, cable guides, kickstand plate, generator mounts, etc etc.. and then sent it off to Spectrum Powderworks for a full repaint. After it was back from paint I did the full build and it turned out really nice with a mix of old and new parts. Matthew picked it up earlier in the week and was very happy with it.












While Matthew was picking up his "new" Trek he dropped off his custom Oswald touring bike (you may have seen it a couple years ago at the Handmade Bike Show). Matthew decided he would put it to better use as a dedicated commuter bike so were making some changes: Building a new fork with more clearance for fatter tires and setting up the front end geometry for a platform rack. I'll also be installing some new parts. I had previously built the custom stem for this bike (the one that holds the Rohlhoff shifter) so I was familiar with it. Tom Oswald (you can see more of his work here: http://www.oswaldcycleworks.com/did some nice work building this frame and it has some really nice details:













Later in the week Nat stopped with his "Super Tour" I built for him awhile ago. I installed the fork lock for him while he was here. This bike is still a work in progress as we need to finish the racks and chainguard, but in the mean time Nat's riding it around. Its certainly the most unique bike I've done. Build up was by the Yellow Jersey here in town, although I actually did the work while I worked there a bit last fall. Nat put some serious thought and consideration into it and came up with exactly how he wanted the bike. He's a nice enough guy and everything was reasonable enough so we just listened and added some guidance here and there. Here's the result (wow):