Back In Action - Jamison's bed trailer - Part 1

   The weather is finally cooperating with spring, and that means the shop is once again bearable to work in. I've been hitting it hard this weekend breaking in the new heavy duty tube bender.
   These tubes will soon be a trailer/cart for Jameson. We spent the winter months biking through feet of snow to meet up and draw out the design, and its mostly ready to put together. It'll be similar to his original trailer, which he brought to me in pieces, but stronger and more durable to stand up to months of summer touring in all terrains.
  The original was an aluminum 1" square frame (cracked) with an aluminum bed and 16" (bent) thru axle 'cart' style wheels. The new custom one will be the same size, built tough with 1" steel tubing, reusing the aluminum bed, and converting the frame to duo dropouts to accommodate heavy duty bolt on 20" ryno lite bolt on wheels. the hitch? stay tuned..!

Natalie and the baby are out of town through the weekend, so I'll be doing a Black Ship Crafts & Cycles retreat! If you want to help with and learn to: bend & weld metal tubing, build a bike cart, leather work with bike tubes, etc hit me up via FB, email, call or txt (due to limited space, fcfs)

26 Fri 12-5
27 Sat 9-1
28 Sun 9-1
29 Mon 10-3

Welcome to the Black Ship Cycles Blog

In the spirit of staying organized and making things more straight forward for customers, I split up the BSC blog into a Craft blog and a Cycles blog. In the next couple of weeks, I'll be moving cycle building and repair posts over from the Crafts blog to the Cycles blog, and posting new updates on work going on in the Black Ship Shops as we get ready for the 'gift giving' season. stay tuned!!

blackshipcrafts.blogspot.com

Finished: Custom Speaker Racks for Tipsy

Did you see these new racks on Tipsy Bike at the Bill Murray Mobile Dance Party?

Mpls, MN - Even if you did, you probably didn't actually see them - they were holding 25lb speakers to the front of the bike all night, like a pair of fkn champs.


 
The back story:
  We were working down the wire, and I mean it, to have them ready for the ride. I worked into the night, woke up early, had some coffee, then proceeded to cut and weld all day.

   As the paint was drying, I affixed all the hardware and waited for Tipsy. Due to technically difficulties, they didn't have time stop by and attach them, so after working all day and night for 3 days, I dreaded the call saying "I don't think we have time to attach them, meet up at the Nomad"

   I was still reeling from the feeling of dissatisfaction with not having them on from the beginning of the ride. That would mean 50lbs less of bumpin power. I couldn't fit them on my bike and get there in time to affix them and ride...

   Nat got home after work and agreed, the party was to be big, the job too big to fail; it had to be done. She offered to help load up her car and let me drive them, and my bike, to the park to set the up before the ride left. So she pulled around to the shop and we loaded everything up asap and I made it there just after Tipsy and with help, and lots o' sweat & elbow grease, got'em hooked up, tested, and bumped that fkn ride!

Thanks Tipsy for an awesome ride and stay tuned for lots more pics! (i took about 30-50 alone)

Interested in your own set or other custom bike gear?

frames | racks | mods | wtf

hit us up:  blackshipcrafts [at] gmail [dot] com

Black Ship Shop & new Custom Rack Project

 Here's a sneak peak of the new shop in Minneapolis and the first big fabrication project here; speaker rack mounts for Tipsy Bike.

The Black Ship Shop:
   is coming along. I finally have a TIG welder set up and working! A shop partner and I got it from an acquaintance that had intentions to use it but never did. We have access to a brazing setup and a small MIG as soon as i get time to set them up.

   Black Ship is ready to start brazing frames and welding custom frames, trailers, bikes, and whatever else we feel like (or you want!) We are still looking for bike building & tubing jigs, a pro bender, a drill press, bench grinder, cutoff saw, and some other stuff. Let us know if you've got something for sale/trade/loan.


Wanna see older projects by Black Ship (and that we're super-proud of??) just flip back through the blog for pics of bikes, trailers, etc we've crafted & built! Oh, and subscribe for future rad projects & info!

Speaker Mount Racks
   T.K. has two 25lb speakers (in the backround of photo) that he needs to mount to his already crankin multimedia bike: Tipsy Bike

We want the prototypes ready for the great Bill Murray Mobile Dance Party Ride of 2012 

After many long meetings and much deliberation, the prototype design was finalized and the rack started. The initial prep work and first tacking is done. We'll be working everyday to see how far we can get by Tuesday's ride..

Video Demo of homemade steel tube bender!

MIA Bike Night!

 I wasn't formally invited as a frame builder, but I did stop in (and sneak the Maiden Voyage in) to see what the local builders have been up to. here's a little gallery from A-Train, Wyganowski, Speedhound, Peacock Groove:

We also had a little HUB tent to to quick safety checks and small adjustments./repairs, and Tick brought Tipsy Bike out to blast some jams. Good conversations and lots of hot bikes, we took to the streets as Tipsy blasted jams down Franklin Ave to our destination for wooden nickel night and jams on the sidewalk!

This year was fun, but next year I hope for an Alley Cat beforehand and movies again (last year's movies were awesome) See ya next time!

Roody and Anna's NE tour

I will soon be publishing a post about Roody, Anna, and Brody's epic NE tour with the bike and trailer we built! As a fair warning, the few pictures I've seen so far are enough to make me jealous...