this coronavirus known as Covid-19 is serious business and has brought the world to it’s knees… what can anyone say other than Mother Nature rules and she will have her way if we do not respect her. while we are all are doing our best self quarantine, so as not to spread the virus, there are some silver linings along the way.
for me, i’ve been a one-man shop for the past several years and fortunately i am able to carry on day to day as i always have working in my shop, doing the work i have always done. hardly anyone stops by so i can actually get things done. everything pretty much arrives via UPS or US Mail and is shipped out pretty much the same way, so not a lot of personal human interaction there.
i’ve always been a freak about keeping my hands ultra-clean due to the nature of my work, and so i don’t end up with some clumsy finger print or dirt spot under the clear-coat of a perfectly good paint or powder coat job. so keeping my hands clean is not a new thing. in fact on average i wash my hands at least 20 times a day, hence my dried out sandpaper like hands during winter months.
i live with a pretty great woman who likes to hit the sack at 9, so we don’t go out much and there’s not a lot of person to person interaction or intermingling with people outside our normal circle or daily routine.
while the silver linings of solitude, and being able to focus a bit more than usual, it gets a bit lonely around the shop and i am concerned as im sure many of you are while we all watch from our computer screens to see what the latest casualties, spread, and sanctions of this deadly virus are. all while no one really knows how long this thing will last, the toll it will take, or if there will be a vaccine in the near or far off future. so all we can do is be patient while we sit tight and wait this thing out.
on February 29th, i thought i was gonna have this really fun “leap year sale” – something i don’t normally do, where id get to clear my shelve’s of some really awesome “new old stock”, offer some great deals on other “in-stock” items, maybe make some people real happy, and in the process put some coin in my pocket. to say the least it has been radio silent since week two of this month (March), and believe me i get it, especially after i watch informative videos, like the one im gonna share with you all below…
so for now, all i want to say is something i have always believed, that “what affects one – affects all”, and for the first time in all our lives we actually get to witness this on a global scale where life and death consequences are very real. hopefully we all will have done our due diligence of self-quarantine and avoided this terrible pandemic with minimal casualties or damage to our lives, both financially and physically. hopefully there will be a vaccine and a cure and it will pass swiftly as it came. in the meanwhile everyone be very careful and stay safe as you possibly can and if there is something you need from me know that i keep things pretty damn clean around my shop and im here for you.
the location with be the same as the Nevada City Classic race course and there will be lots of vendors, a couple great local brewery’s, a whole lot of things pertaining to Fat Tires, and a lot of really cool people!
One of the coolest things about being a larger size “small company” was the relationship we had with True Temper Sports and the ability to design our own proprietary tubing, with custom butting profiles, diameters and shapes.
The Kelly/True Temper relationship began when I met a guy named Paul Knox back in 1990 at Interbike. Paul planted the seed by sending me an OX3 mountain bike tube set in which I built my first TrueTemper MTB frame and was amazed.
I built it to the same exact drawing and specs as my previous MTB frames so I could be sure I was running a true comparison of materials. The results were astonishing and I was completely on board from there on out as a True Temper guy.
Paul called me up one day somewhere around 1996 or 97 and said they were developing a new material called “OX Gold” and asked if he could send me a few boxes to build with and test the new material. He explained it had a higher yield and tensile strength than the OX3 with a 12% elongation, better memory, dampening and an all around tougher material.
Obviously I said “yes”, and what began as OX Gold was later re-branded as OX Platinum, and the rest is history as far as our involvement and helping to put it on the map with our factory race program and exclusive production program.
Fast forward to 2016 – True Temper announces its getting out of the bicycle tubing business effective 2017 and what I have left on the shelf is the last of the OX Platinum.
Id say I have about 80-100 main tubes left that I use when im building road and CX style bikes, and after that, there are no more…
So if you’re one of those folks that love the ride of a premium built high quality US steel frame then you owe it to yourself to get in the queue for one of the last Kelly OX Platinum tubed frames as supplies are limited.
There will be a $100 non-refundable queue fee for these special frames, available in custom or production spec – in either tig or fillet brazed construction, with a great amount of attention to detail and care.
On May 1st there will be a 15% price increase on all Kelly® products and services.
This increase reflects the rising costs of building quality high-end bicycle frames and products so I can continue to improve and deliver the same or better quality products and services that many of you have come to enjoy over the past 33 years.
Thank you for your patronage over the years, and for your continued support and loyalty in the years to come.
yeah, as much as I have the whole Facebook thing down pat and have learned to utilize it without it utilizing me, I was very slow to jump onto the Instagram thing until one day my 11-year-old daughter Emma said to me, “Dad, you need an Instagram page”!
since it was a topic of discussion over the past year, while weighing the already over saturated world of social media along with the need to keep things simple while keeping up with the times I whole heartedly agreed. so literally right then and there I replied, “okay, let’s do it”.
ive been slow to transition but I have to say I love the simplicity of it and the fact that one can share the pertinent facts at a few swipe of the keys on the iPhone and the next thing you know you’re sharing your very latest work or moments via a fairly high-resolution picture or video for all the world to see, as well as share it on your Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages all at the same time.
so yeah, im loving the Instagram thing as it takes a lot of time out of the sharing process and gets immediate results… if you’d like to hash tag or share your Kelly® related or videos our official hash tag is “kellybikeco”, and we’re on Twitter under the same name.
Techno-Ciclo (sounds like “cheek-low”) external “uni-crown” style fork crowns available here at kellybike.com!
I keep bumping into this bucket full of really cool 1″ fork crowns and keep trying to figure out what i want to do with them, so i thought i would just share them with my fellow frame builders or anyone who might think of a good use for them… candle holders, blingy keychains, necklaces – i don’t know – whatever you want them to be? with free shipping and a sweet closeout sale price of only $19.99 how can one possibly go wrong?
here’s the skinny – these “surplus stock” decals are seconds that we decided not to use due to color bleed when mounted on a dark color. they make for a great toolbox, refrigerator, bumper or window sticker. also a nice gift if you know someone named “Kelly”…. ; )
• they measure 11 1/2″ x 1 3/8”
• these are “top mount” stick on decals. to apply simply peel and stick
• price includes shipping anywhere in the continental US
i got an email today from a guy named “Jimbo” (with a bogus return address)…
i know this because when i replied it bounced back as “no such address” (that’s right Jimbo, i do read and reply to all of my emails). besides that, it was addressed to a “John@doe.com”, which i figured was a little fishy in and of itself… but that’s not the point.
what was important about this email was that Jimbo commented that we had a lack of information about our frames and didn’t have all the geo and specs that the old site had. to which i replied: “thanks Jimbo, i am aware of the problems you mentioned. i had a short window of opportunity to get the new site up (with my web guy) and i was being heavily penalized by google because the old site was not mobile friendly – so i just damned the torpedoes and went full speed ahead with the plan to fill in the gaps as i go”.
so there you have it – this new website is a dream and is easy to upload all sorts of information, pictures, and videos.
if you have any questions or comments you can always call 530-362-8004 or email, and i almost always will reply within 24 hours…
thanks for the heads up today Jimbo, and i hope i’ve been helpful…
How do you run rear cantilever brakes if there is no cable hanger brazed onto the frame?
simple, you install a Kelly “Canti Basket” on the seat pinch bolt.
its as simple as it sounds. we came up with this little widget back in the late 90’s and its the perfect solution to the problem if you don’t have a cable stop tower already mounted to your seat stays.
the other nice thing about this product is it is easily removable and allows you the flexibility to run a cantilever or v-brake without having to commit to a permanent braze on on the seat stay bridge… a much better solution for those of you who are on the fence, or simply like the cleaner look of less stuff brazed onto your frame.. especially when (not if) it becomes obsolete.
available in black or silver and are available right here for only $15 on the Kelly website on our products page…. get your Canti Basket today!
One of the coolest things about being a larger size “small company” was the relationship we had with True Temper Sports and the ability to design our own proprietary tubing, with custom butting profiles, diameters and shapes.
