Sorry but the website got a bit messed up, i broke it. You can still view some stuff, thanks for you patience

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LIVE BRAZING AT BOILER ROOM (Posted by Poppy)

After making a batch of frames for Boiler Room – Red Stripe Make Session 007, Ted was asked if he could do some brazing live on stage during the event at Hackney Brewery on Monday. He tacked up a frame beforehand and brazed the entire frame during the event in front of a live crowd of 300, and thousands of viewers watching it on a live stream across the world. Apparently the loud music and flowing beer helped him focus.

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BMX BMX BMX

I first thought about building a BMX when i was around 18 when i had no means or know how, i have now finally build the first of many, i started building 3 at the same time, two are now complete, i will be putting up more pics when i can.

Click on image for more pics on flickr.

 

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MANUAL TUBE BENDING

A while ago i got myself an old beast of a manual tube bender along with a good range of formers.

I have bent some of my own unicrown fork blades, below you can see me bending some skinny mtb forks, it is 1” od with 1.5mm wall 4130 chromoly.

I have a piece of scaffold bar for extension with a solid 1 1/4” lever bar slotted inside for even more leverage, you can see the curve in this solid bar as it flexes under the strain.

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MADE IN ENGLAND (posted by Poppy)

A few weeks ago we went to Look Mum No Hands for the launch of a beautiful new book about the artisans behind the handbuilt bike, put together by Matthew Sowter, framebuilder Ricky Feather and photographer Kayti Peschke. It features 12 framebuilders, old and new. Ted is one of them. When we have a mo we’ll post his pages, but for now, check out the website pushprojects.net where you can also buy a copy.

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CLOUD 9 CYCLES

I popped into the new Cloud 9 Cycles shop the other day.

Great location and great looking shop. Kris and Adam are always working really hard to think of new things to do and try to offer something a little different.

I built them some frames, forks and stems one of which was dropped back from Armourtex paint shop.

Three are traditional looking fixed or singlespeed two of which have spliters for beltdrive.  Also a road frame with a more modern look. They all have etched CLoud 9 Cycles brass plates on the top tubes.

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IMPETUS MOMENTA (posted by Poppy)

Ted will be talking about the evolution of fixed gear trick riding at the Southbank Centre next Thursday 6th December as part of Impetus Momenta,  a presentation about the history of Fixed Gear. For more info and to buy tickets go to impetusmomenta.tumblr.com

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BIKE STORY  by  MIKE CHICK

This is a short film by Mike Chick about the craftmanship behind building a bike.

This was my first stainless steel frame build and was early days of Tig welding so when i had Mike who the bike is for following me at every step you can imagine that  it was a little stressful.  I am happy with how the frame came out and so is Mike, with everyone else involved in the build it has come together to be a very nice bike indeed.  This video, the amazing photos and Mike’s enthusiastic stories of how it rides makes it all worthwhile.

Bike Story from Mike Chick on Vimeo.

 

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RED BULL WEAVERS (posted by Poppy)

At the end of August Red Bull and Charge put on an epic event in a corn field in Somerset. It was a head to head dual slalom race through a corn field, on 29er hard tails. Ted competed, qualifying in the top 32 on speed to make it through to the next round where he was knocked out in the head to head slalom. Here’s the video – see if you can spot the 29gnar.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————-          SAM HART’s bike

This is one of my favorites, check out the details

Click here for more pictures

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CUSTOM ESB FOR D*FACE

Back in the spring I customised this ESB for artist D*Face. I handmade special racks which are brazed to the front and back with the rear rack shaped to fit a child’s seat and the custom mudguard also acts as part of the supporting structure.

It has a gusset between the top and down tube with D’s wing shape cutout and internal cable routing to rear brake and hub gear.

With drum brakes and hub gear it keeps it neat and looking simple.

Photos taken from D*Face

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TOURER IN SOUTH AMERICA (posted by Poppy)

Jason sent this picture in of his tourer (Ted built last year) loaded like a pack-horse, mid expedition in South America.

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THE WORKSHOP ON PEDAL CONSUMPTION (posted by Poppy)

The guys from Pedal Consumption came by the workshop recently and took some rather good photos. Check the full post here.

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SURREY HILLS ROAD RACE FESTIVAL (posted by Poppy)

TJD will be exhibiting at the Surrey Hills Road Race Festival on the 28th & 29th July.  It’s a free festival for anyone coming to the area around Box Hill to view the Olympic Road Races. The expo will feature “the cream of the cycling community showing off their wares” with a hand built section curated by Phil Taylor of Bespoked Bristol. TJD will be showing alongside Feather Cycles, Just Riding Along, Paulus Quiros, Simple and Slate.

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TJD IN DIRT MAG – posted by Poppy

TJD and the 29Gnar got a great mention and photo in the latest issue of Dirt magazine, stoked! The first appearance in a mountainbike mag, hopefully the first of many.

 

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SPECIAL OFFER ON TJD T-SHIRTS

We hand printed a load of TJD T-shirts a couple of months ago on heavy weight cotton Beefy T’s. There are a few left so we’re selling them at a reduced price of £18 including p&p. Click here to buy.

We also have a very limited number of the TJD Jacob Knill T-shirts left so are selling them at the reduced price of £20 including postage and packaging to make way for the new artist collaboration T-shirts coming soon! Click here to buy.

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TESTING THE  29GNAR

I’ve been on my 29 Gnar lots trying to get some test riding in, done a few miles and some jumps including this  gap.

I spied this wedge gap, bank to bank transfer, tabletop, whatever you want to call it.  Its two very mellow grass banks with a long gap between them and a flat run up.  It was hard work getting the speed up for this, i ended up using a steep double stair set to run in for extra speed, crankin, two gear shifts cranking till the last second then pull up hard off the non existant lip.

Pretty much made it with a couple of inches hang up. Gotta go back to get a propper nose in, hopefully with less wind

My friend Greg got some great shots

 

Check out the newest edition of  SOFB Gregs online mag

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29er SUPERTED CUSTOM – posted by Sol

The 29er Superted custom is made from the strongest lightest Reynolds steel and is built to resist the roof drops and gaps of the 14 Bike co team.

Oscar Khan bike check

http://vimeo.com/21996019

Oscar Khan putting the 29er to test in California and New York

http://vimeo.com/27079214

http://vimeo.com/27696955

Sol proving the strength of the frame hand made from British steel

Photos taken by Greg Falski

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BUSINESS CARD PRINTING

Just found this shot of TJD business cards being printed for Bespoke Bristol.

All hand printed in East London!

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TED ON RESONANCE FM’S THE BIKE SHOW

The Bike Show on Resonance FM went to Bespoked Bristol and interviewed Ted, Paul Villiers, Tom Donhou, Ricky Feather and Jonathan Paulus about how they got their start and what it takes to become a good framebuilder. Take a listen to the program here.

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29GNAR AT BESPOKED BRISTOL

It’s been crazy busy in the run up to and since Bespoked, hence it’s taken til now to post about the 29Gnar, which made it’s debut at Bespoked, having been finished at 6am the morning of the show! Full details and write-up to come when Ted has the time, but for now check out all the great coverage it got online from…(click on the names below for article)

Pro Elbows

Road CC

Bike Magic

Bike Radar

Cycle Works

Bomb Hills Speed Kills

 

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THE FOOTDOWN VISITS THE WORKSHOP

Ty from The Footdown came round yesterday and took some nice black and white shots of the workshop

See more here

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TJD ON REDBULL’S DRAKE’S PASSAGE

In this week’s episode, Drake visits London where he meets up with “Super Ted” James, one of the most innovative custom fixed bike builders around, before heading to judge the Red Bull X-Fighters event that night. The next morning, he takes a train ride north to visit darts legend Bobby George, aka “Bobby Dazzler,” at his home pub, where he discusses life and gets some pointers on his darts game. It’s an experience he’ll never forget.

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TJD ON THE GUARDIAN WEBSITE

Gave some quotes for an article on why it’s worth buying British bikes for the Guardian website a couple of days ago.

Read the full article here http://gu.com/p/3666y

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MACHINING A HUB

I have finally got my newest addition up and running after a long wait, it is the Rolls Royce of lathes. Dean Smith & Grace 17×36

It is amazing and such a pleasure to work with.

The first job on it is the first operations on a prototype hub for a special project i have been thinking about for a couple of years.

I want the hub to have a 135mm female axle for 10mm bolts with fixed cog fitting and disk mount, there is nothing on the market with this criteria so i decided to make it myself.

In the making of  this hub  all three of my machines have been used, doing each operation in turn to create the finished piece.

                                                       

I used the 4 jaw chuck to hold the billet of aluminium which i drilled right through then cut the bore for the bearing which has to be within 0.02mm and roughed out the disk brake mount.

With the 4 jaw i can leave two jaws  in place while i loosen the other two to flip the work then it’s much easier to get it exactly straight again ready to work on the other end.

I repeat the same process so i have two iso mounts, one for a disk brake and the other i can use for a bolt on sprocket.

I Then made a mandrel to hold the work from the inside. I spent a long time making sure it is very accurate, it has a slight taper at the ends to lock the work in place.

Next it goes on to the milling machine for iso hole drilling and tapping, shaping the disk mount and spoke hole drilling.

I have a collet chuck on a rotary table which gives good accuracy and ease of positioning.

   This machine was built in 1915, nearly 100 years old and still going strong.

                                       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using the same mandrel i then put it on my other lathe with a collet chuck which means it’s instantly centred.

I used a rotating centre to give extra support which is not really needed with this mandrel but extra support means bigger cuts.

The tool i wanted to use for profiling the shape of the hub body was too big to work in my tool post, i had no suitable cutter to mill it down but then found it would work upside down in the rear tool post.

I then did the final operation.

 

 

 

This hub is for a prototype bike with a hubgear mounted in the front triangle, if all goes well i will be unveiling the 29Gnar at Bespoked Bristol

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RESRAP TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY

It’s promising to be a great event with lots of support and prizes from various companies.

TJD will be offering Jacob Knill print t’s and a single one off hand built stem to mark the occasion.

Pic taken before going for a clear powder coat.

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MOULTON FRAME REPAIR

An old Moulton with a cracked seat tube proved to be quite an interesting job.

I stripped the bike down and checked the broken tube. There was quite a lot of rust inside the tube below the area where the seat post gripped internally.

The seat tube had an id of 35mm for the seat tube and 37mm od which went around 100mm from the top down, it then bulged out to 38od and 36id for the rest of the tube down to the bb.

The tube would have probably been custom drawn by Reynolds for Moulton, so getting hold of the same thing was not possible.

After much searching and thinking about how to work with available tube sizes and possibly having to use a shim, finally i found a tube with thick enough wall to get the desired profile.

The tube is BS4t45 commonly known as t45, it is a high quality English made tube used in automotive sport for roll cages and frames. Also used by Curtis bikes for their frames.

I machined the tube inside and out to give the desired profile, leaving the id a little under size to allow for any distorsion and reaming after brazing.

I carefully cut away all the broken tube rather than using heat to minimize  the chance of the existing tubes becoming brittle.

The bb shell had quite a lot of pitting from rust, i cleaned it up and drilled holes, one to allow any water in seat tube to go into the bb shell and  the other to allow it to drain straight out of the bottom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I brazed in the new tube and re-fitted the locating boss for the rack support, the socket for rear shock bushing, bottle bosses and seat binder.

I reamed the seat tube before sending all frame parts including racks to be powder coated.

All back together with some attention to the rear suspension pivot it works like new.

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NO ACETYLENE

I ran out of acetylene gas for brazing so as usual i called my supplier for a refill, they told me they have none and cant tell me when they might be getting more. This seems to be a problem affecting many businesses who have been using acetylene for years and are now having to find an alternative.

For brazing, propane can be used for the fuel gas instead and is much cheaper so seems to be a good alternative. BOC, my supplier are offering a discount on hoses and regulators needed for the swap over so with no other choice i went for it and grabbed a bottle of propane to try out.

I stuck it on the back of my big bike and strapped it down tightly to get it to my workshop. It’s a little heavier than it looks because the gas is in liquid form in the bottle but with this bike it’s no problem.

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SOME STEMS

I am working towards doing some batches of stems in various sizes but until then I thought it a good idea when making one to do a couple extra to stick up for sale.

    All have been made using Reynolds 631 tube.

 

 

The bolts are stainless steel and have had the lettering taken off on my lathe to give a cleaner look.

  

Here are two fillit brazed stems for 1 inch steerer and 25.4 or 1 inch handlebar clamp

They have single pinch bolts and raw finish with phosphate and matt clear coat to prevent any corosion.

The reynolds R logo shows it’s made with quality tubing but is easily removed if so desired.

 

When making my mums bike i made two stems because i was not sure which would go on. This is the stem which didn’t go on so its up for grabs.

I also made some spacers and top cap to match

Check my shop to buy

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MY MUM’S BIKE

I have finally finished my mum’s bike, It has taken me ages to build.

It’s all the small details which take the time and also give it a clean look.

I will be showing it at Bespoked Bristol 2012

Please see more pics

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TJD JACOB KNILL T-SHIRTS

My friend Jacob has drawn the TJD logo in his amazing style with slime and leaking brains

Check out Jacob Knill on the internet

This artwork is availabe to buy, professionally Printed on a Gildan heavyweight t shirt.    Buy Here

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26” prototype, seen here in SOFB

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Riding and judging at the Eurobike Fixed Gear Championships. Photo by Rip Zinger.

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TJD at Bespoked Bristol 2011

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Printing T shirts and business cards

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New lathe in the workshop