iPd Cameron

you better have a good bike lock

Pretty sure that Cielo is never leaving my sight unless it's locked inside my house. Otherwise it'll be either under my ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD, or locked on top of the car I'm driving.

Oh yeah, some updated pics of my new Cielo -- little more fine tuning, some road tires for road riding, and taken with a proper camera:

Next project I'll have on the stand is a new road bike I'm building up for my wife as a surprise gift for our anniversary. It's kinda tricky coordinating part wrangling/shipping of an entire bike's worth of parts without her figuring it out! It's not anything crazy - basic aluminum road frameset with solid components (Shimano 105/Mavic/Cinelli) but it'll be a nice step up from her current Trek hybrid. the half road bike half mountain bike thing just doesn't do much for speed... She's been complaining about how she doesn't feel fast on her bike so building her a proper road bike is my solution. I'll post up some pics once it's all together. Likely going to have to do the complete assembly of the bike all at once late night next week one day to keep it under wraps. Wish me luck

He like bombed me on instagram, that's how I found him.

Blame it on the hashtags.

Because it's a saddle, not a bike seat.

On another note, I stumbled across these guys last night, only a 5 year wait to get a frame from them.

http://www.vanillabicycles.com/

Sacha's not really taking any new Vanilla orders now so the wait is currently..... forever. He's stated he wants to work down that backlog of Vanilla orders before taking new orders. You can still get yourself a frame/bike out of the shop though in the form of a Speedvagen: http://speedvagen.com/. I've been to their shop and spent a couple hours there with the guys. Sacha, and the handful of other folks that run Vanilla/Speedvagen are great -- really nice, amazing craftsmen, and really passionate about what they do.

Yeah Vanilla has quite the cult following.

They certainly do -- but so does the entire handbuilt custom bike market. Guys like Richard Sachs have 7 year wait lists for $4500 framesets. Same story for dozens of builders around the country.

Sacha White drives a 142, that's how I found them.

Did he find his way onto the Volvo forums somewhere yet? I've been lending him some advice here and there for his 142 since he got it but wasn't sure if he'd delved into the online Volvo world yet.

That's pretty cool i didn't know Chris King had partnered with a frame builder

Yup, it's all in house there. Cielo is a division of Chris King -- the frameshop is at the main CK facility here in NW Portland: http://cielo.chrisking.com/. Nice too because you can order any of the CK hardware factory installed too. For example I had the headset factory installed so the fork crown race was already pressed on and the headset cups were as well. They'll do the same for bottom bracket. I was pleased too that they pre-treat the inside of the tubes before delivery and also face all the mating surfaces and chase all the threads so it's ready for assembly. None of that sloppy metal bottom bracket faces or paint overspray into the threads business I've seen on a lot of new frames.

They do small batch, made to order. I was impressed with the fact too that they machine all the small parts in house too. Instead of sourcing the dropouts, braze-ons, etc. from somewhere else, they just make them all. The dropouts for example are machined out of a single piece of stainless steel as opposed to being cast pieces.

Soooo, the Bianchi I built that I posted got stolen in May. Only silver lining was my homeowner's insurance covered it and gave me a fair settlement out of it so I splurged and ordered this -- handmade just for me at Chris King here in Portland:

I picked it up at the beginning of July and just finished collecting all the pieces and got it all assembled this last weekend. I've only had the opportunity to put about 25 miles on it so far, but it's already the nicest bike I've had the opportunity to own/ride. Still screwing around with stem length/height to find where the reach/drop is most comfortable which is why the steerer is still extra tall.

Anyone want my Eikers? They're coming off my S70 this weekend in favor of the Volans.

Oh hey bike stuff - I like bike stuff!

Here's a couple of my newer ones -- first is a Bianchi Cross Concept frameset I picked up cheap off CL. Dude had bought it new and then went through various different setups on it before he finally decided the frame was too big for him. I bought it as a frameset with a Sugino RD2 single speed crankset on it which was perfect as I wanted to build a 1x9 anyway.

Started like so and this is after I sanded it and cleaned it to prep for paint:

Got it all painted and used our vinyl cutter at work to whip up some new logos:

The finish turned out nice:

Here it is initially built up (I've since swapped to a black seatpost to match better:

Only thing on the Bianchi I don't love right now are the cheap wheels I put on it. I just wanted to get it together so I could ride it so I went with some super basic Shimano/Alex wheels to save some money. As "fun" money in the budget allows I'll be putting much nicer wheels on. I scored a front Paul hub for super cheap on eBay and then picked up a nice rim and the spokes and had a friend teach me how to do a basic 3 cross lace pattern so we put this together -- matching rear will have to wait until I can find a good deal on a matching rear Paul multispeed hub because they are $$$:

Other bike I'm riding right now is this one -- Since this pic I updated it with a Chris Kind headset -- the gold pedals and gold front caliper will be gone shortly after I find a good deal on the components I want to replace them:

I was seriously considering picking this up to build up to satisfy my inner-fanboy urge:

But I decided this would be my better route:

It's kind of fun, might be in your neck of the woods next week!

If you are come by and say hi!

Hey Danny -- is that you???

Or do they not dispatch you to fix car journalist test Teslas yet??

You are going 40mph in reverse?

Busted :blush:

Hey Danny......

Trade for body parts cam??? I need to order a clip kit for the tailgate of my XC, so I need to hit you up soon

I'll trade you for your yellow Lemme know when you need that clip kit and I'll set you up.

If i had his phone number, I would call him for you.

I thought it was 1-900-BORK-STS???

Hey SwagSwagSwagSwag (Spencer) you want to buy my 242 now?

Too lazy to find it but do you have a build thread for that car?

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=232792

Remember dibs on the 240 not if but when you sell lol

I didn't forget about dibs on the 242 -- you'll be the first person that knows when that one goes up for sale!

I might have to retract my statement..... I fired up the 242 for the first time last night on the new 16v motor I built for it and my brother in law was there and tried to buy it from me on the spot If I ever decide to sell it you might have to roshambo over it.

Well that didn't last long lol. Remember dibs on the 240 not if but when you sell lol

Every couple years I get the itch for a new Volvo for some reason. I'm only gonna sell the S70 if I get the right price for it so I can pursue another couple interesting Volvos. I only rock Volvos that are a cut above. Or at least I try

I didn't forget about dibs on the 242 -- you'll be the first person that knows when that one goes up for sale! I am not too sentimental about cars and like to do something new with them each time which means when it is that time something has to move to make room.

Good luck Cameron!

Thanks dude. So when you ditching that S60 for an electric car??

Anyone local looking for a T5M? http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=261873

For reference too, I found that the NEO3 bulbs from superbrightleds.com found here: http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&Page2Disp=%2Fspecs%2FNEO.htm work in the rocker switches too, and they're much cheaper than the ones from autolumination (and you don't have to use autoluminations awful website) noted in original post.

They'll replace the rocker bulbs that are this style:

If anyone is curious, I was right about the pins. I swapped the bulbs for a brighter white bulb today and verified it. Pink wire into the biggest connector is power in for the lighting circuit and black is ground on the same connector. It was nice to power up the cluster lighting on the bench to verify all the lights were on before I put it all back in the car.

To aide in the ease of installation of LEDs for the cluster....

Can anyone verify which pins on the cluster connector are power and ground for lighting? Since a lot of these bulbs are polarized they'll only work in one orientation. It's kind of a pain to have to put it most of the way back together to test the bulbs. That is, if you don't want an SRS code you have to disconnect battery before you unplug the passenger side airbag and then plug airbag back in before reconnecting battery. That means putting the dash all back on before even powering the cluster to test the bulbs. Sucks to do all that and find that a couple bulbs aren't on because they're backwards and it has to come all back apart again. Because of this it would be really nice to simplify the process and power up the lighting circuit on the cluster on the bench. Just jumper from a battery or 12v power source and verify they all come on before re-installing the whole thing.

Glancing at the wiring diagram for a 1998 (I assume '99+ are the same?) looks like power in for lighting in the cluster is the pink wire -- pin 10 on the big connector and ground is black wire at pin 17 of the big connector. I kinda suck at wiring diagrams though so could be reading that wrong... Just hoping someone can verify that is right from experience.

Quick addition to note from swapping all my interior lighting to LED recently in my S70... If you are ordering from superbrightleds.com (who I have always had great service from BTW) For the mini wedge base bulbs, type 74 for the warning lights, turns, info cluster, etc., their part number 74-x and 74-xHP don't work perfectly for the application. They are just a touch wider diameter toward the bottom so when you push them down into the base the base spreads open a tiny bit which makes them too fat to fit back into the cluster. I tried to force it in the socket for the odometer bulb by shaving a little off the sides of the board where the base goes in but that didn't work to my liking so I axed that idea.

I did find though that the 74-xHP3 bulbs fit great and are brighter and more evenly spread light anyway. Those ones use 3 radially mounted SMD LEDs and the base is nice and slim where it slides into the holder. With thatose in the info display it is nice even light, no hot spots at all.

On a different note, anyone know what style bulb is used to illuminate the ring around the ignition cylinder? I haven't gotten in there to see yet.

how about we get some of the IPD crew to come out?

This...that would be cool!!!

I'm with Travis on that one!

Oh, pickmepickmepickmepickme!