By the time this post is up our bike should be 99% complete. Like most design projects, the energy and intensity of the work has ramped up exponentially over the last few weeks. Everything had to work like clockwork to get us to this point: Paul built up the frame over 3 days, and it came out beautifully. The last day was spent with the whole team working in Santa Cruz until midnight to get all the details and additional custom parts to fit perfectly. Fifteen hours of filing our fillet brazed lugs later, the frame was ready for powder-coating. Since then, our nights have been spent CNC-machining custom parts, steam-bending wood fenders, running wires through the frame, and painstakingly tweaking the electronics and controls.
All of this couldn't have been done without the help of many friends and our network of skilled craftspeople in the Bay Area and beyond. We'd like to especially thank: Pete Weber of Quiet Horsepower for the excellent tube bending and fabrication; Neil Macc and Jeff Selzer of Palo Alto Bicycles; Alan from Precision Powdercoating; Gary from SSSink.com; Light and Motion for providing us with the parts that evolved into our custom headlights, and all of the great guys in our Palo Alto shop for going the extra mile—Jim Feuhrer, Derek Goodwin, Andy Deakin, Peter Bronk, and Kayvon Shakeri. Last but not least, special thanks to Robin Bigio for returning fresh from Italy and helping pull the final design details together, including the beautiful logo and chainguard.
Rock Lobster headquarters in Santa Cruz: Paul has finished the basic parts of the frame and we begin the process of adding all the brackets, braze-on details and front rack components.
The freshly completed frame hangs in Paul's shop.
Paul and Adam tweak the geometry and balance of the frame to better handle heavy loads.
Adam checks the openings we've cut in the frame to prepare for internal wire routing.
Paul's steady hand at work.
Adam hacks away at last-minute frame additions.
11pm... Welding the front rack on at the correct angle is not a straightforward task.
Purin reams the battery tubes to prep for the controller housing.
Adam carefully preps the front add-on rack to fit within tight tolerances.
15 hours of sanding and grinding later, our dream of fillet brazed tubes is a much closer reality.
Kyle begins the long process of wiring and adjusting the electronics.
Adam inspecting the sandblasted frame prior to powdercoating.
Andy artfully applies the decals to the frame.
Neil at Palo Alto Bicycles came by the shop to build up the final wheels. Thanks Neil!
Jimmy machining our LED housings. Sometimes we call him the lathe-whisperer.
Custom jigs for our steam-bent Ash fenders sit on the shop floor as the wood dries.
