What a weird couple of weeks. Every day has brought a new scammer on Instagram (sign-up for the two-step verification people), it feels like the shitter the picture, the more likes it will get and honestly we're just a bit over it all. In fact, we are a bit over everything right now, other than hanging out and enjoying our family. Which brings us to our first topic of conversation.
August Bicycles on sabbatical
In light of parts shortages and everything else, we just fancy taking a break from bikes. It's more that we don't need to be locking ourselves in the workshop right now, wondering how many suppliers we need to go through to find one fucking cassette. Some lead times are 2023/2024. That's not something we should be wasting precious time navigating. No joke, we ordered frame building materials from California and they were here before we even got an email back from a UK supplier. No thanks. Also, our household dynamic makes a sabbatical a really good idea.
Mrs. A landed a really good job at the end of last year. She gets to work from home in her office, so while she earns the big bucks, I'm embracing the role of a house husband. I say embracing. I'm not exactly a savant with the washing machine yet and it does seem as though when she's done with work for the day Amy finds a lot of tidying and cleaning to do, but at least the small person isn't dropped off at nursery and forgotten about. The nursery we were hoping to enrol her in from this month has become a massive covid hotspot, so we made the decision to pause her entry until later this year. So it's daddy daycare for me. It's not a natural progression but I'm getting there now. It wouldn't work for everyone, but that's been the case for years with the way we live and work. It's actually great to have a chance to ride more too, as I can take the little one with me.
So. No bikes, forks or frames for a while. Everyone already on the list will be sorted, no problem. Small projects such as stems, wheels, racks are going to be easy to fit in, so please do keep them coming. We are also going to be looking to set up some B2B contracts while we enjoy a little torch downtime. Wheels and other work is on the cards with good people within the industry. And don't panic anyone. We have a full year's build queue but we won't be rushing through your frames to stay on track. We have looked at how we work and the best ways to do everything properly and in good time. Nobody will have to wait until next year. Everything has been scheduled nicely.
Friends...don't feel as though you can't ping us about something that needs sorting. You know we will make the time. Serial timewasters...let's use this sabbatical as a chance to hit the reset button and just stop. Shift your attention elsewhere, if you wouldn't mind. We would suggest some people but hey. Even we aren't that mean.
Less hassle, more of this for a few months...
Workshop stuff for sale
A workshop rejig (and a half-painted floor later, urgh) made it clear that now we have a Bridgeport all wired in, we don't need to keep our big horizontal mill as well. She's a stonker and although we are quite attached (a lot of bikes have been built with her), it's time for her to go to another home. We've had a few enquiries but nothing serious, so here are some pictures and all the details.
She is £1400 and it's down to you to come get her. We have an 8ft wide drive that leads to our house, which means you won't get a helpful truck up to the workshop and it would be best if you can bring a forklift on a hi-ab. We will help as much as possible and will endeavour to get her on the drive on day of collection to make things simpler. More info:
Its a #2 Plain 5 Horsepower Brown and Sharpe. It has a DRO that works well, I swapped the Y axis DRO onto the Z and retrofitted a smaller separate read out back onto the Y axis. This was a great combination for what I was doing, mostly mitering tubing. I built around 30 bikes with this mill and plenty of stems and racks too.
I still have the 50 taper arbor and the supports if you want to use slab milling cutters again. The mill comes with this Phase converter - https://inverterdrive.com/group/AC-Inverter-Drives-230V/Invertek-Optidrive-E3-2-2kW-1ph-3ph-IP20/ - and a control box that allows everything to be operated. I have a variable resistor that I never fitted that allows infinite adjustment of the spindle speed. this is easily wired in and means the speed selector on the side of the machine will not need to be used.
The coolant pump doesn't work with the converter, but i just used soluble oil in a water spritzer. It will come with no tooling but the er32 collect chuck will be supplied along with an unused er40 collet chuck. No rotary table or vice will be supplied. I can put the mill on a pallet and I have a pallet truck but other than that we have no lifting abilities here. Get in touch if you're interested.
Some pics too, for all you machine fans...
We are uploading all the hubshells we have in stock to the webstore too. As we said, we won't be just making them off the cuff anymore, so you will need to see what we have available and commission a specific tamper, if you see one you like. It's all nice and easy, with shipping all sorted for UK and international.
Shredders for mates
Noah. Part-man, part-glorious Afghan hound. When he decided he 'needed' another bike, we knew exactly what he was talking about and leapt at it. We've shown you some pictures of his frame before but he has just managed to get his whip all built up. He's not wrong when he says it looks like it needs a bloody angry ride.
Due to personal circumstances and parenting hilarity, this bike has been dubbed as Gruffalo Brown now. Tip for fellow toddler parents: hiring a gruffalo costume for a birthday party sounds utterly rad. It might not be in reality...
Framebuilders: get you a customer like Noah. He understands the brief and build NICE frames up.
Rad peeps of the week
All of our Buy Me A Coffee supporters. We always thank you because we never take you for granted. It's not a plea for more coffees!
Ricky Gervais, for providing Mrs. A with an opportunity to write a really fun news article.
ALL TODDLER PARENTS. Guys. We are the MVPs and we need to own it. This goes for anyone who is past toddler phase as well. You survived, You're our heroes.
Whoever keeps leaking more damning shit about Boris 'floppy-haired twat- Johnson. Even if it's Cummings, he gets a clap.
The lovely guys at Loaf Micro bakery. We are coming to see you today!
The surprising people that start as bike enquiries, transform into fun emails and finally, friends and support networks. We have a few of you in our circle and feel so fortunate to know you all. Noah, Mark E, Chris C...good people.
The person who revealed the Peloton hack that lets you turn a bike into the bike plus by spending £15. NICEEEE.
Here's something sexy leave you all with. Don't go making more babies people.
See you next week (or maybe not, depending on if we have anything fun to talk about!)