S & S Couplers

Today I drafted out Nick M's road frame and got all the tubing ready. I'm really excited about this build. Its my first frame with S & S couplers and I'm really excited to see how it turns out. Here are a few photos of the couplers and their set up.

Here is all the tubing and the couplers laid out. Yes the headtube is missing, it arrived late this evening. True Temper 44mm headtube stock is soooo sexy.

Here is a picture of the two couplers. 31.8 for the top tube and 38.1 for the downtube.

Here are the couplers assembled with the brazing nuts on them. You have to use different snap rings and different luck nuts during the brazing process. That way you don't overheat the stainless steel nuts that will be used after the frame is built.

Here I am measuring the butt section of the tube and where the coupler will be located. It is very important that the coupler is located in the thicker butt section of the tube. This ensures that the coupler strengthens the frame and not weaken it.

Thats all the pictures I have today. I won't be able to work on it much tomorrow because I have to help the local bike shop do our inventory of the store. I will be back to work on it early wednesday morning. Thats when the torch will be pulled out and we will start getting the frame together. 

On another note we raced cross this last weekend and did well. The race was just over the hill at Chamberlin Ranch. It was a blazing 97 degrees. Here are a few photos of John and I in our new kits.

Here I am on the run up. That run up was crazy steep. I have run up some gnarly stuff and that thing was ridiculous. 

Here I am on the next lap. Pre run up. You had to get as much speed as you could before the incline.

This is John looking good in his Stinner Kit

And the sandpit. Gotta love the sandpit. It can make you go from feeling great to going completely anaerobic in an instant.

Over all we did well. I was able to place 5th, which was my best placing so far this year. I will be hoping for a top 3 next race. I just need to find some time to train, its hard to race on 2 hrs a week on the bike. The heat got to John but he finished strong with a 15th. 

Its been getting cold down here in so cal. I have been enjoying shop time even more with the cold weather. It also helps to have good tunes. 

Don't Stop!

Life at Stinner Frameworks has been hectic. A good kind of hectic though. There has been lots of bike building. I recently finished a lugged commuter that is currently at paint.

I also finished re-building a Hetchins Fork. That proved to be overly challenging. I am very happy with the result but it took entirely way to long to figure out how to match the original. Looking back on it now I should have got in touch with Peter Weigle and asked for his advice on things, but I didn't think about getting in touch with him until the project was done. It took making several different bending mandrels using wood, steel and even plastic. I was finally able to achieve the bend I wanted with a 5" radius bender that tapers to a 15" radius bend. It took a long time to come up with this and by the time I got the form made, with some help from my friend Dana Anderson, I had to rig up a stop to hold the blade in place. So out came the welder and flat stock and away I went cutting and welding pieces to come up with the best way to hold the blade. The final product I came up with will probably be improved but I was happy with where it got me given the hours I had put into the project. I don't think I will be doing any more fork refurbishments in the future. I could have built 10 forks in the time it took me to re build this one.

Two size benders I made. The one on the right is the Hetchins bender, the other is a normal 12" radius bender.

CX racing is in full swing. Lots of training time in the dirt. Which I love. After all summer of riding the road bike, its nice to get out and ride in the dirt. I hope to build a 29er MTB for myself sometime soon, but I have other bikes to build in the mean time. Up next is Nick M's SS coupler road bike. Its going to be a really nice build and I am looking forward to getting it started. I will also be starting John Jones belt drive touring bike this week as well. Hopefully all things go well. After these bikes I will start Chris E's 29er (my NAHBS bike) and D^2's belt drive commuter. It's a good lineup of bikes and I am really looking forward to getting the ball rolling.

I hope everyone is enjoying fall. I really enjoy it when it gets colder outside. It makes me want to work in the shop, race cross, eat good food and drink great beer! I had a few friends in town the last couple of days. Two of my good friends John and Jeff. They are brothers that live up in SF. These kids can shred on a BMX bike. I had the joy of hanging out with them, doing some riding, talking about bikes and enjoying life. Here is a video of them riding this spill up in Nor Cal. The video was taken by some good people that run a great site called the Full Frame Collective. Check the video below:


Full Glory from WEREHAUS on Vimeo.


I also got a chance to see Blitzen Trapper last weekend. They rocked! I posted a video of there's last blog. Here is another song that has been buzzing my speakers and keeping me rockn'. More soon!