Erik's SS 29+

I built a frame for a good friend of mine, a super versatile frame that he plans to run as a fully-rigid single-speed. The frame accepts up to a 3.0" tire in the rear. It has horizontal rear dropouts with a derailleur hanger so he can run gears if he wants. And it will take up to a 120mm suspension fork. Oh and three water bottle holders. Great for a townie, bikepacking and the weekly group trail ride, this thing will do it all!!

I'm trying a new coating on this frame as well. I took a wire wheel to the chromoly steel frame and then warmed it up with a small torch to drive the moisture out and rubbed in a bee's wax blend that has turpentine and linseed oils. It gave it a super cool matte-clear finish that really sets the mill finish steel off! We will see how it holds up to the mud and rain for rust protection. If it does begin to rust, it can be buffed with steel wool and the bee's wax re-applied. A little maintenance but this is a completely natural coating!! No sandblasting or harmful chemicals at all!

Bike #7

Just finished a Single Speed Mountain bike for myself. Twin top tubes, NO seatpost tube. It has super short chainstays and clears 2.5" Minions. Probably just gonna rock it fully-rigid but it will take up to a 140mm fork.

Staircase Photos!!

Pictures of the Stircase I built for Brian last year. Taken during fabrication in my shop and installation at his home.

Touring/commuter bike

Finished this up in December and have been riding to work a 2-3 days per week. The frame came in at 6lbs 10oz before paint. A little hefty but the thing is rock solid. Doesn't have much lateral flex and feels very solid on the road.

Erik and I just did a ride from Sedro Woolley to Bellingham and we went through Galbraith and the damn thing even likes the muddy single track!! Lost a pannier once but that's to be expected as low as I mounted them on the Custom Rack I made for the Salsa Vaya fork.

Bike #5 - Downhill Bike

I designed and welded up this 9" travel Downhill Bike.  The concentric pivot has NO pedal bob, its really fun. I rode this several days up at Whistler in 2015 and it was a blast. Handles the rough stuff really well!!

Custom Staircase

A buddy's Dad wanted a new steel staircase to replace the ailing wooden one down to his beach. He said he wanted it big and burly, we discussed some basic dimensions and he told me to come up with a design.

I used CAD to design the staircase so that I could see how it would look. I wanted to get a sense of how the angles and handrail would all look when built to scale. This way for example I could see how the spacing on the stanchions looks and if it should be tighter or more open to look right.

I had all the steel delivered last week and I'm in the middle of it now. The 12" channel is gonna look super stout and the rough cut Cedar should be really cool as well. The owner wants a naturally rusted look, I'll rust it with natural chemicals (vinegar and hydrogen peroxide) so that it rusts evenly and not blotchy.

Custom receiver for Erik's bike rack

A good friend recently picked up a Suzuki Swift to run from Seattle to Bellingham for the next year and needed to carry some bikes with him. He'll still be able to get his rides in after work and will be getting great mileage in this little car.

Last night after work we went through the brakes and found the front pads we're almost gone so we changed those. The rear pads still have some life left and the fluid looked good so that was an easy brake job.

Then we got to work on a custom 2" receiver for this little car. We set the receiver up with quite a bit of angle to compensate for the suspension sag and to improve ground clearance.

The car is all uni-body so I came up with a large fish plate behind the trunk area and tied into the rear a-arm mounts. The receiver is very stout and will probably stiffen this little pop-can thing up some too in the corners.

Next I plan to swap in a smallblock V-8 with a four-link 9" rear-end. Not really. Well, probably...

Front-mount Pannier Rack

I wanted to switch the panniers up to the front wheel after my Laos/Thailand Trip. The weight seems to ride better on the front wheel. Makes since with most of my body weight over the rear wheel already. During my trip I ended up moving all the weight I could to the front end and resulted in less pinch flats in the rear and the bike even felt more stable on the rough twisty roads.

 I used 1/2" x 1/2" angle for the main supports and 3/16" rod for all the rest. The rack turned out pretty light and it has very little flex. I left the design versitile so that I could use it on my 80mm corrected Surley fork also. Otherwise, I would have tightened the design up even further and really fit the mounts tight to this fork to clean up the lines. Still, it looks way nicer than anything I could have bought in a store and its lighter and stronger too.

1 1/4" receiver on Amber's Passat

We opted to take Amber's new whip to the Enduro race in BC this weekend so I installed this Curt 1 1/4" receiver onto her car so we could haul the bikes up with her cargo box on the roof. With the tinted windows, this car is now the ULTIMATE poach camping rig and will see a lot of use I'm sure for road trips and bike weekends!!

I'll post the instruction sheet soon, 2 of the 4 bolts were nice and simple however, the other 2 bolts required using a supplied fish-wire (waaaaay too short) and fishing the bolts through the box tube bumper and down into the holes. It actually worked, but wow! Soooo hard!!

B.C. Enduro Racin'

Come up and support Benham Custom Fabrication in lovely Vancouver, British Columbia this weekend May 10th at the first round of the Cascadia Cup Enduro Series mountain bike race!!

The event will criss-cross some of the trails on Mt. Seymour. I'll be racing the open-hardtail category on Benham Custom bike #4 and Amber will be on a super fun AM build in the women's category!!

http://www.pinkbike.com/u/bcenduroseries/blog/nth-vancouver-enduro-bces-amp-cdc.html

http://www.cascadiadirtcup.org/#!northshore/clnj

https://www.facebook.com/cascadiadirtcup

Lawnmower Repair

I fixed up an old lawnmower deck for a very nice local guy. These old John Deere mowers with hydrostatic drive were built super tough and they're around 30 years later, but the mower decks are rotting out. We used one at Olympic View Marine to town all the boats around in and out of the yard into the shop.

 I hammered in a new piece of steel to fit the inside of the deck. The guy brought me this steel to use because he had it on hand already and it worked great! The crack was about 12 inches long, I pushed it all back together and welded it up, then fit theses fish plates on the inside and outside. 

I made the plates made of 10 gauge and 3/16 carbon steel. The plate on the right I was able to fish into the wheel mount/brace for added support. All in all I had him out of here in an hour and a half and he was more than pleased with the work.