The Furlough

My Christopher is exceedingly talented. I know I'm biased, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong.

My ability to fix a flat tire is somewhat questionable while he has become a better bike mechanic than most of the mechanics you pay $50/hour for.

And that was just the start of it. After mastering the basics of maintenance, next up was building up his own bikes. He got frames and components and read up on all sorts of different bikes and their functions and figured out what bits work really nice with what other bits and he gets them all working super fantastically well together.

Was that enough? Oh no! This spring he took a welding class, bought a book on building bicycles, watched some videos, did some research and then built a bike. Built a bike as in designed the angles, dimensions, selected the type of steel, etc and transformed a box of steel tubing and lugs into a bike that one can ride.

Impressive as that may be, he took it EVEN further. To build the bike required specific tools & fixtures. Did he buy these fixtures? Oh no! He designed and built them and then used those to build the bike!

And here is the result. The Furlough. So named because it was built while Christopher was on "furlough" from his company and had the time to do this crazy project. I came up with the name. I may not be able to fix a flat, but I can name the socks off a bicycle! (Do bicycles have socks? Don't worry about it.)


A pretty basic bike, built with the intention of it being his "beater" bike for going to the movies, bars, etc. etc. Nothing too fancy, no high ends bits and bobs to attract attention, but still a pretty sweet ride.

Next up: He's been commissioned by his dad to build up a stainless steel lugged fancy smancy old man cruising machine. Now that he has worked out the process with that first bike he is ready to build some awesome rides. Let me know if you want him to make you one and we can put you on the waiting list before it gets too long!