Titanium Townie Bike
I built this bike for the San Diego Custom Bicycle Show in April 2009. It was a fun show, and I got a new bike.
The Bike started out with the Cane Creek Titanium headset with the wood trim insert.
Peter Gilbert of Cane Creek sent me the headset for the first lugged Titanium frame I did for the NAHBS Portland last year. It arrived too late – the bike was already put together. Peter said he wanted the headset back – but I told him I would build a bike around the headset. So, I started with the headset with the wood trim. It needed more wood so I contacted Ric Hjerberg of Wheel Fanatyk. I got the beautiful Slovenian Beechwood sewup rims made in Italy by Cercio Ghisallo. The wheels were built up by my old friend Joe Young of Joe Young Wheels . Because it had wooden rims I wanted Disk Brakes. There was no ready made carbon road fork I liked available with a disk mount. I spoke with Mike Lopez of Serotta Composites, and he modified a mold he already had and added a brake mount and hose guides. The fork was the missing link to the project. Thanks Mike for making the whole thing come together.
The frame was the second generation of Lugged Titanium. I made many of the lug pieces from 40mm solid Titanium bar stock. I modified some dropouts from Paragon Machine Works. The amazing welds were done by my welder Chris Hayes (formerly of Ibis Cycles). The flawless paint was done by JB of Joe Bell Painting right down to the custom matched metal presta valve caps.
As for components – the seat, a Titanium Rail Swallow, was compliments of Brooks, and besides being beautiful, is real comfortable right out of the box. It is mounted on a Moots Titanium seat post – probably the nicest post I have ever used. The “Way Cool” disk brakes are the New Formula R1’s from Formula Brakes - Super Light. The Hubs, Freewheel, Cranks, Bottom Bracket and Pedals are from another Petaluma company - White Industries. Doug White’s stuff is not only amazingly precision, but functionally perfect. The Pedals with my Strapless Clips are the best city bike combination I have ever used. They are so easy to get into.
I also want to thank Ross Shafer, Sean Walling of Soulcraft and David di Falco of di Falco Fabrications for all their help and advice on the project. The photos were done by Matt Farruggio of Matthew Farruggio Photography of San Francisco.
Thanks for looking. | 