Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - the wait.

ok, i'm ready to gnaw my arm off.

i've been on the list for a jonny cycles since late april/early may and I WANT IT NOW! ok, so i know i sound like veruca salt and all, and i was warned that it would probably come to me in december, but i basically already have all the parts for it, need it, want it, and am going absolutely crazy waiting for it.

i'm not allowing myself to bug the builder anymore. haven't emailed him in a good month. i'm being good. very very good. no more changing my mind. even though i probably spend 5 hours a week looking at lugs.

but now i'm seeing all these frames in my size on CL and ebay and I just want a nicer frame, and I'm starting to want to buy a stop-gap frame, which is financially a bad idea.

But I just want my bike.

ok, now to make this somehow more than just me ranting:
let this be a warning to those of you thinking of getting a waitlist custom frame, like a vanilla or jonny or something. get on the list NOW so you can ride it next summer. really.
/rant

Buy a stop-gap frame and then sell it. For reals. No harm in that. It's not like you'll have a problem with finding any takers. It's a bull-market out there. Ask Raygunner.

Buy a stop-gap frame and then sell it. For reals. No harm in that. It's not like you'll have a problem with finding any takers. It's a bull-market out there. Ask Raygunner.
i'm not sure the steamroller is quite bad enough to warrant that. but it's just... you know... like my wheelset is worth more than twice the frame. it's unbalanced.

you know what though... when it comes time to make the transition to the Jonny, it will totally be bitter-sweet. Like ending a long-term relationship that just isn't working anymore. Leaving someone that you love and that you know loves you, for a younger, flashier, more responsive lover. You will see your steamroller, and have a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. Enjoy the good times you still have left.

Veruca Salt sucked!

you know what though... when it comes time to make the transition to the Jonny, it will totally be bitter-sweet. Like ending a long-term relationship that just isn't working anymore. Leaving someone that you love and that you know loves you, for a younger, flashier, more responsive lover. You will see your steamroller, and have a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. Enjoy the good times you still have left.

actually, i don't think i'll sell sue (the steamroller). I'll probably chop off half her handlebars and make her a polo bike.

i sort of have the same rule with bikes that i have with tshirts. If i don't ride them for a year, i have to sell them. so, she'll be with me for at least a year and a half still.

you ride a 49cm frame?

Below is my custom frame. Its 49cm (c-c), 52.7cm (c-c) TT, 74/75 ST, 73/74 HT, 40.5cm CS length.

Once I take delivery of a replacement frame, I will be ditching this frame. I expect to have a new frame in by the end of August or middle of September.


http://www.fototime.com/46F046252190A78/standard.jpg
One problem with the frame is that the framebuilder screwed up the rear triangle, by brazing on seatstays of slightly different lengths. The track ends are off by ~2cm. Which is why I'm ditching it.


http://www.fototime.com/01AED8E80497605/standard.jpg

Other than that, the bike rides great, tracks fine and people dig the paint job.

You want it as a stop-gap bike? I had planned on giving it away to someone who would need a beater.

that's awesome. i'll pm you.

though i'm really surprised a builder would ship out an imperfect frame. is there a story here?

I sympathize, waiting sucks. I am collecting parts for my JC frame, and have changed my mind about colors a few dozen times. I find that it can be a nice diversion to think about paint schemes........what are you thinking about for yours?

I really like the frame he already made in medium blue and stainless...
http://jonnycycles.com/images/0014%20024.jpg

i'm using henry james lugs and having stars cut out of the lug, filled in in blue. star dropouts, stars on the fork crown, maybe even some silver stars painted on. get the theme here? I'm almost 100% sure it's going to be some kind of medium or royal blue with stainless.

and yes, that makes me julie in dc on his list.

you?

OOOH.....yeah, that's one of my favorites.I will most likely be painting your frame, y'now. :) If you do silver stars, it might be cool to also paint the inside of the track end star cut-outs silver as well..........

Oh.............right now I'm thinking deep deep gloss black w/ a JC logo panel of gilded silverleaf.

see, this is what i mean. this is what's driving me crazy! i want to talk about it all day every day but i'm driving people (incl. myself) insane.

Yeah, I've thought about all of it. Painting the DC flag on in silver somewhere. my name somewhere. stars everywhere. but no clutter. simple. elegant. abusable.

i mean, i have friends who CALL ME when the JC website says he finished another frame (meaning mine moves up one in the queue). they call me! They called me this week because he finished that nervex bike. I didn't need to know that.

By the time you get it, you're not going to want it anymore;)

Hehehe, yeah, it can get obsessive. I once caught my GF tracing frames out of a book and very meticulously coloring them in with colored pencils in order to figure out the paint scheme for a bike I was painting for her.
Hey, at least it's worth the wait. Plus, this way you have time to really figure out what you want. Polished stainless...............no wait......a copper headbage.I'm still trying to talk Jonny into making me a custom stem that will double as a working "tobacco" pipe. A custom frame is definitely not an impulse buy. Hang in there, I'm off to the FG symposium. Ciao fer now

I've always had a thing for half chrome fork and dropouts, something about it, not too bling but just enough to catch the eye. I've been eyeing the JC website, but can't throw down that kinda cash for it yet, soon though....soon...

I'm still trying to talk Jonny into making me a custom stem that will double as a working "tobacco" pipe.

Nice.
It would have to be accessible while riding to be really cool...

you'd have to get into a nice aero tuck

By the time you get it, you're not going to want it anymore;)
She'll still want it. She'll just be disappointed that, in the end, it's only a bike.

My new villin is supposed to be done at the beginning of November. I feel you. I wish I could fast forward life- Cause I know that will be the best day of my life (besides that day when I lost my virginity).

She'll still want it. She'll just be disappointed that, in the end, it's only a bike.
huh? i really hope you don't feel that way about your Kalavinka. That's just wrong.

At the risk of sounding foolish, what is it, if not just a bike?

"just" a bike?
i don't think i've ever had "just' a bike. they're amazing fantastic machines that make me happy. they get me around town. they keep me from getting fat(ter) and teach me basic mechanics. they are works of art. they're unique.

call me crazy, but it's more than just an assembly of parts. it's my assembly of parts into a useful art form. my happy assembly of parts.

/waxing poetic

Well put. I completely agree with you on that.

At the risk of sounding foolish, what is it, if not just a bike?

A bi-wheeled sanity retention device of course.

Well put chimblysweep. Especially the "my happy assembly of parts" bit. Your frame looks really cool.

Your frame looks really cool.
that's not my frame-- though mine will look similar.

Hehehe.. I've been talking to Jonny about frame ideas lately. While I wait, I'm sure I'll put some beater together as that'll make receiving, assembling, and riding the finished one that much sweeter.