Making stuff- introducing the Fred Bar!

It was a great weekend for tinkering.

Song parts- check. Thanks to Phil for taking the lion’s share of this run of CS & BB mounts.

more Song parts- check. I made some yokes, plug mounts, and shock mounts today.

a custom-length head tube- check. I’ve got a KDK tool holder dedicated to head tubes now. It’s a snap.

Tooling for shock mounts- check. It pivots on a sealed bearing, and uses a toggle clamp. Fast & fun to use!

Most interestingly are the “Fred Bars” I made today for Mary’s Divide Bike. What are Fred bars you ask? Well, first you need the definition of “Fred,” from Bicycle Source dot com: actually, it’s their second definition that I had in mind:

2) n. a person who has a mishmash of old gear, does’t care at all about technology or fashion, didn’t race or follow racing, etc. Often identified by chainring marks on white calf socks. Used by “serious” roadies to disparage utility cyclists and touring riders, especially after these totally unfashionable “freds” drop the “serious” roadies on hills because the “serious” guys were really posers. This term is from road touring and, according to popular myth, “Fred” was a well-known grumpy old touring rider, who really was named Fred.

The idea for a more upright, totally Fredular hand position came to me during a ride with Mary that had extended waaay past my comfort zone. I’ve seen some setups with a short, DH stem mounted above the primary handlebar setup- a comfortable way to keep it real after a long day in the saddle. Trouble is, these setups are heavy & ugly. A real Fred wouldn’t mind heavy & ugly, but I figured all the non-Freds out there might prefer light & slender…

Mary will run either this pair, or perhaps a Fred V 2.0 in the 2,711 mile Tour Divide, coming up in about a month. They will mount above her normal Mary bars on a long steerer tube.

Introducing the Fred Bar- aero bar and accessory ready. Amazingly, this setup with a 14.5″ bar, stubby stem, and hardware weighs only 170 grams.

In the Apple-Pie department-

We’ve been listed onAmericanMadeYes.com
The site’s content is pretty self-explanatory, and good to see stuff like this out there. They list all manner of items made in the US. I like the idea.

Coincidentally, I had a walk-by visitor today. A retired woodworker, 83 years of age, stopped in to say hi. He went out of his way to do it, as most walk-by tourists up here keep a safe distance from the metal shavings & weld arcs. He said he came to see what I was up to, because he “doesn’t see a lot of young guys working these days.” Whoa. What he said to me resonates today, though. There aren’t a lot of “young guys” working on their own, at least not in my immediate peer group. I will stop there, short of a hypocritical rant about “work;” what goes on in our shop is nothing like the hand work this gentleman produced in his days anyhow- my tools & fixtures do most of the work for me. With domestic manufacturing on the decline, we might even see fewer young guys working with their hands in coming years. I don’t know if this is good, bad, or neither… but I do wonder what the implications will be, if any.