Vallie Components - bicycle part and accessory design

I just finished my fork building fixture. It feels amazing to be able to make my own tools. I think I started doing the CAD for this on march 22nd. Pretty quick turnaround, really.  I'm sure I'll find flaws in it as I go along, but I don't see myself ever stopping playing with bikes, so its not really a problem. 

Basically, its ajustable from 16" mini fork length, to 29" suspension corrected mountain bike fork length, with rake ranging from 0-100mm. Also, its accurate within +-0.0005" over 18" length.  Pretty freakin square. 

I still might  cut  a large hole in it, where the back of the fork crown would sit, that way I could weld through it.  And I'll probably have to screw the scales on, after the first time I torch them off.

 Either way, its nice to call it 'finished' for now. 

Another fun thing I've been playing with lately, has been the 'test fork' I built myself out of an old suspension crown, a derped Norco frame (thanks Nick!),  some of my own dropouts, and a laser cut disc tab. The fork is about as adjustable as my fork jig, with rake ranging from 20-50mm, and quite a bit of extra length as well. Its currently set up on my Haro Extreme street MTB, where I'm testing the effect of rake and trail in high speed cornering.

I'm pretty much obsessed with bicycle handling at this point in time, and I'm trying to learn as much about it as possible through experimentation.

Recently I was asked if I could help make a new decaleur for a bar bag on a rather nice 650B Rawlands Rsogn. Sure. why not. Ryan had bought the Velo Orange one, and found that with his particular bar position he was grinding his knuckles into it, and it sat low enough that the bag was entirely on the front rack where it wouldn't clip in properly.

So we started with the above piece from Velo Orange. I then utilized the sophisticated greyscale .jpg to laserjet with sharpie layering technique to do the CAD for this project. (yes, its still computer assisted). The position of the original Velo Orange Decaleur can be seen here. Its approximately 80mm long. I decided to extend it out to a whopping 125mm. CRAZY RITE!?!

After the initial concept sketch was approved, I slammed some coffee and got to work. First the offending appendage was excised from Ryan's Rawland's steerer tube, then it was further disassembled via a 32TPI blade:

When ever I start a reassembling a project like this, I get Dethklok's hit 'Sewn Back Together Wrong" in my head. Not a bad thing. So I lightly curved and chopped a section of 3/8" stainless tube, and welded the original vertical tubes to them at an eyeballed 90 degrees. Then I cut slots in them at an approximate 125mm as the crow flies with my old friend Dremel. I then had to start thinking about placement. With the original pegged bracket off the bar bag I was able to line everything up to a symetric but not parallel state for welding. I knew the weld area of the ring piece would be problematic so I spaced it out with an existing thick headset spacer:

I then proceeded to stitch it all together without warping it.. HAH. Sometimes I really feel like a hack. Nothing quite as sobering as having a stainless tube play tricks with your mind. Is it straight now? Did I bend it more? Anyway, I keep the Amperage low and use really fine gauge filler rod when doing this kind of stuff. I also added a leg of the original U to make a cross brace at the front. When I was done welding I threw it on the mill to clean up the critical area where it mates with other headset spacers:

Next up I used the old U once again, and after mitering it flat on the bottom, and matching it to the tubes, added an offcut tab that luckily already had a VC stamping on it. It just needed to be tapped for the M6 barrel adjuster threads, and have the corners shaved off. I then welded it all up. Here's the final tacking setup with my super handy spring loaded needle nosed pliers on a tube acting as a third hand:

A kiss from the file and a hug from a wire wheel, Et Voila! A remixed and remastered bike part!

Sometimes these small jobs are really satisfying. I really like how this thing works with the lines of the bike. I'm also stoked to have reused 80% of the original part. Hopefully Velo Orange is cool with my creative commons approach to their materials. The great thing is now this bike is now ready to get some serious randoneur mileage! Maybe it will go to Paris.. then to Brest, then BACK TO PARIS. Who really knows just how far Ryan will take this beautiful machine..

Well, I'm settling back into a work routine here in Vancouver. I've been back from California 2 days, and I think the NAHBS afterglow is starting to wear off.

I'm not going to pour over details of the show, or discuss all the rad bikes, but I will say this. The overwhelming positive energy, and batshit crazy creativity made it worth my while going there. It is so good to meet and talk with like minded people, all carving away at their own niche in the bicycle world.

There are photos on Urbanvelo.org, as well as Sam's blog. I really didn't take many pictures.

^Sam shot this one of Aran and I doing a quick tour of the show floor on a SyCip Trike on Saturday Morning

The trip back was exhausting. Literally.

We packed up Sam's booth into the van and were out of Sacramento around 6pm. A quick stop to visit Crystle at Applebees for dinner, and we were headed towards Eureka. We pulled in there sometime after Midnight, and picked up Sam's car, and swapped drivers. I then got to drive through the giant redwoods between 2 and 4am in the fog, with only a GPS to tell me which direction the next corner was. Straining through the fog to see was killing my weary eyes, so I swapped out at Grant's Pass, and went to sleep. Another stop in Medford Oregon's Dennys to fuel up, and we were ripping up the I-5. I swear I was hydroplaning the van for an hour straight on the way to Seattle. There we stopped to say farewell to Steve (and the Van), and froze our hands off in the snow trying to load the show bikes onto the back of Sam's Honda. (Which he acquired by trading for a frame)

Bikes worth 10x your car? check.

So the loaded Accord got us through Seattle, before we started hearing random noises. There was a  bit of a panic moment as the muffler hit the ground, and we pulled over to rip it off the car before it wrapped around the rear beam.

..and just like that, I was back in Vancouver, on a bus with drunk thugs, while Sam and Aran scrambled to make the 8:15pm Ferry to Vancouver Island. That's how it goes when you are traveling with the fastest man alive.

So.. Now that I'm back with all this inspiration, what am I going to do?

1)I've got a watch model to finish for Halios Watches

2)I've got two people with Rawlands 650B bikes to make racks for

3)I need to work on my cargo bike

4)I'm going to start making some fixtures

5)I have to figure out what sort of bike to put my new Gates belt drive train on..

Yep. I've got my work cut out for me. .. but today I have to go to the bike shop and sip espresso while reflecting.

Well, after some last minute website updates, (Finally putting up the incredible product shots that Brandon Edwards did for me) I'm off to the North American Handmade Bicycle show. I'm super excited, as this is the one bike industry event I look forward to every year. I haven't gone since 2009 either!

For the past week I've been jealously reading Sam Whittingham's Road to NAHBS blog. I wanted to ride down with them, but didn't think I could swing it due to costs. This trip is already setting me back as far as equipment purchases go.

My mind is racing right now just thinking of the creative people I will get to talk with, and imagining the extra ordinary lengths they've all gone to, in order to create items that are uniquely their own. I'll probably be spending the majority of my time hanging out at the Naked Bicycles booth, so come say hi to me there.

I'm traveling light though, no checked baggage, and only the carry-on and personal item. This of course means I'll be leaving the Bialetti at home, and trying to survive on airport/hotel coffee..

(My friend Matt Sipple of Team Beer'd shot this one after a previousyl mentioned 6-chain-drop-soul-crusing-xc ride on the shore. He's going for a sort of vignetted-b/w-Rapha epic vibe..)

I've only got a one way ticket mind you.. but I am pretty sure there is room for me in the back of a Dodge Sprinter van leaving from Sacramento.. Lets just hope that the US Customs Officers believe me when I say I'm not going to the states to steal their jobs..

See you at the show!