Where To Start

By blackmountaincycles, Aug 21, 2018

Filed under: Black Mountain Cycles frames, Shop stuff, Things

As per the previous post, the disc brake frames were on the way and I’m happy to report that arrive, they did. In grand style a truck pulling a 20′ container pulled up in front of the shop late one morning. I had wrangled a few helping hands to help unload the container and with all the frames lined up in front of the shop, I sent my help along to the rest of their day while I organized all that stack of 149 frames into frames that were already sold and frames that needed to go into my storage. And then I moved all those frames one more time. All the frames that were sold went into the shop and the frame prep, frame shipping, bike building…began. And went on for a little over 3 weeks. And then seemed to keep going as more people came forward to buy frames. It was a big push, but I finally had one day a week or so ago when I did not have a pick-up scheduled from FedEx.

There were a lot of wheels that needed building too during the big push. Seventy-two wheels to be precise over the course of several weeks. The bulk during a one week stretch. Frame prep and bike building can only be done in the shop. Wheel building, however, could be done at home. So, for several days I actually drove to and from the shop with a station wagon full of rims, spokes and lacing tools. Then it was laced wheels, truing stand, dish gauge, tensiometer … that came home for the final building. This was in July, so I’d be up at 5 a.m. to watch the Tour de France and build wheels and in the evening, I watched every episode of “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” while building more wheels. I like that Seinfeld has a penchant for small, quirky cars.

So, where does that leave us. Well, it leaves me with a lot of holes in my inventory as of August 20.

MCD frames – Both colors of 56cm and 59cm are sold out. 50cm and 53cm Olive Oil frames are sold out. Still a fair number of pink 47cm, 50cm, and 53cm available. There are more MCD frames in Olive Oil on order with an ETA of end of Fall.

Road+ frames – Aetna Blue 50cm, 53cm, and 56cm frames are sold out. And there’s only one 56cm Aurora Red frame left. All other sizes/colors are ok. When I say they’re ok, they are single digits and in the grand scheme of things, I really don’t sell a lot of quantity. I do not have more Road+ frames on order. That will probably happen before the end of the year.

Rim brake frames – while this whole disc brake thing was blowing up, the rim brake frames were consistently moving out.
The Monstercross frame – the Gentian Blue and Greenery frames are sold out in 56cm, 58cm, and 60cm. The 62cm Greenery is sold out, as is the 64cm Gentian Blue (and now the 64cm Greenery as well). I’ve got more rim brake Monster Cross frames in production with the MCD frames. ETA is late fall. Color is Signal Yellow RAL 1003 – another Porsche inspiration.
The Road frame – 54cm and 58cm road frames are sold out. More are being produced with the run of Monstercross and MCD frames.

And after it seems like so many of the frames had sold out, I finally got the webstore updated with the new disc brake frames, new disc wheelsets for the MCD and Road+. Dynamo front hub versions of the MCD and Road+ wheels will be added soon as a dynamo front hub was a popular choice during the wheelbuild-a-thon.

Backing up a little, the frame prep that happened to each frame that left the shop included:

Running a tap through the bb threads. It’s my opinion that facing the bb shell and head tube is not crucial for today’s sealed bearing units. The bb and head tube were faced prior to painting and leaving paint on the surfaces helps to keep moisture out and rust at bay.
Installing the threaded cable stops with a dab of grease on the threads.
Sticking on the chainstay protector
Verifying the correct disc brake tab position
Fitting a rear wheel and aligning the derailer hanger
Making sure the thru-axle threads are clean
Facing the crown race just enough to remove the jagged paint edges left by masking during the paint process

A lot of the complete bike builds and wheelset builds required the brand new 105 R7000 parts. Luckily, most of that stuff arrived just prior to the frames arriving. All the hubs for those wheel builds arrived the day before the frames arrived. However, I still have not yet received 105 cranks or hydraulic levers. Thankfully, everyone who ordered bikes with 105 hydraulic levers and 105 cranks were ok with small upcharges to upgrade to Ultegra. All the new 105 R7000 parts are really nice. Mechanical shifters, derailers, thru-axle hubs – super nice stuff.

And now I’m about as worn out writing as I was prepping all those frames. Here’s pictures.