Building a bicycle framebuilding shop in Norway

JFW · Mar 10, 2008

I'm one of the new members here at PM and I'm enjoying the forum a lot. During the last few months I've followed this specific forum closely, since I've been planning to build a workshop next door to the house we bought last fall. The shop will be dedicated to custom bicycle framebuilding, and will contain my TOS milling machine, Torshälla lathe, Arboga drillpress and a whole lot of other fun tools. Oh, in addition to a full setup of fixtures from Anvil (www.anvilbikes.com). Currently they're working on the foundation. Blasting started today, and everything needs to be done by late thursday since the concrete will be poured early friday. The building (app. 400 sq.f.) will be delivered in modules this coming monday. Quite a hectic schedule. I'm updating my blog every night for those of you who wants to follow the building process. The blog can be found here: www.johnsenframeworks.com/blog

Kind regards,

Truls Erik Johnsen
Hølen, Norway

xtremcycles · Mar 10, 2008

Welcome aboard. im building bikes too, but more on the chopper and cruiser type. maybe you can do a litle search on the threads i started.

I hope seeing updates from your shop soon

Gregg K · Mar 11, 2008

Fantastic!

I love bikes. When I was a kid we used to get on our bikes and ride to Phil Wood's bike shop. That was in the late 60's or so.

Now I'm in northern California, and I'm just getting ready to build a shop. I've got a Deckel mill. And my dream is to design a hydraulic drive train. But then that has been on my mind for many years. It may never happen. It's a huge project.

You might like my latest acquisition- Ibis Mojo.

Bikes are good. That's why my life revolves around them.

Best of luck with all you do.

JFW · Mar 11, 2008

Thanks!

I've been looking at your creations, xtremecycles. Great stuff! And Gregg: Ibis is one of the great brands of mountainbiking. I visited them back in 1996, and had a ride with one of their semi-pro riders in the area around Petaluma (if I remember right?). Northern Cali. has great terrain, and I'd love to go back to ride.

Cheers!

Truls

donie · Mar 12, 2008

My personal favorite builder.
http://s170.photobucket.com/albums/u265/donsmonarch10ee/?action=view&current=singer21.jpg

http://s170.photobucket.com/albums/u265/donsmonarch10ee/?action=view&current=singer22.jpg

Metal Mutant · Mar 14, 2008

My obsession = bikes

I'm with you boys. I love bikes. My dream is to actually start making the parts I have been drawing in my notebook for the past 4 years. Hopefully someday that will happen when I can hire somebody to make our customers parts and I can do R&D on my bike parts! Any of you cyclists get to commute to work?

Metal Mutant

donie · Mar 14, 2008

I commute most every day, I have a Hardrock with skinny tires I use most of the time. I would prefer to ride the Singer however.

JFW · Mar 15, 2008

Thanks guys!

Great to see that there's more people in here that enjoys bicycles. I love Singer. It's one of the very few European framebuilders that have stayed in close contact with their customer base and refined their products instead of turning into industrialists and outsourching their production. The slab was poured yesterday and on monday the building will be delivered. Now I'm enjoying a cold brew and relaxing before a hectic easter holiday filled with building.

Cheers!

Truls

hesstool · Mar 17, 2008

Good luck with the shop, Truls.

And since the precidence has been sent, I'll attach a pic of my favorite ride. (I have 5, but none are mountain bikes!) It's a custom, WITT, frame from Ti 6Al-4V. I'm not a big fan of polished Ti frames so I had it painted my favorite color. I did, however, have the chainstays polished to appear "chrome" like.

I've made many parts for my bikes over the years, mostly to shave a few grams of weight here and there.

Gregg, isn't Phil Wood up near Portland, Oregon now?

BTW Truls, your fellow countryman, Thor Hushovd, is an animal!

bikebuilder · Mar 23, 2008

Hushovd or Fabian for Paris Roubaix...

Love the Mojo... one of the few fs bikes I would like to try.... wife has a Ibis roady in the garage

bb

hesstool · Mar 23, 2008

Cancellara for Paris Roubaix.

He's been outstanding so far this year, and his win this weekend in SanRemo shows that he's definately on form and the odds on favorite for victory.

bikebuilder · Mar 23, 2008

Yeah, a total animal... and young. We shall see... the unexpected always seems to happen... maybe Big George will come into form....

bb

hesstool · Mar 24, 2008

My sentimental favorite, however, is Tyler Farrar of Slipstream. He's about as local as you can get around here. I watched this kid grow up and win many races around these parts. He's a fantastic sprinter and really turning into a hardman for the one day classics. Unfortunately, he'll be a support rider for Magnus Backstedt.

But Nostrodamus predicts that the winner will be riding an American built frame.

andynycfreeride · Mar 30, 2008

Good to see so many bike fanatics on here. I've just signed up and am a bike component manufacturer in Brooklyn, NY. We just purchased our first CNC mill about 6 months ago and we're gearing up to purchase a lathe. I'm excited about being a member of this board. I'm sure it'll come in handy!
Andy

hesstool · Mar 31, 2008

andynycfreeride said:
Good to see so many bike fanatics on here. I've just signed up and am a bike component manufacturer in Brooklyn, NY. We just purchased our first CNC mill about 6 months ago and we're gearing up to purchase a lathe. I'm excited about being a member of this board. I'm sure it'll come in handy!
Andy

Welcome, Andy! You'll find this a most addicting forum. You'll spend too much time doing this :typing:

when you should really be working! What kind of bike goodies do you make?

Truls, I just watched the time-lapse video of your shop construction. Those prefabricated panels go together so quickly! Was this structure of your design, or is it a standard design of the manufacturer? Also, I didn't see a large door for you to bring your equipment into, just the regular "man" door.

andynycfreeride · Mar 31, 2008

We manufacture pedals, stems, seat collars and barcaps.

JFW · Apr 1, 2008

Readymade

Hesstool: Thanks for the comments! And Andy: Cool to see you here. Nice products!

It's a readymade structure from a company that usually makes garage-kits. My workshop is actually just a modification of a standard garage according to my needs. The plan was to have a double-door, but due to time constraints I had to stay with a wider-than-standard door (100cm). All of my machines should easily go through there, so hopefully it's ok. Got the electricity in this weekend as well as the internal panels (MDF-type) on the walls. Next chore is to grind the floor and get some surface treatment done before moving in the machines and tools next week. Here's a snapshot taken on sunday:

Truls

hesstool · Apr 1, 2008

Truls,

Be sure to leave plenty of time for your floor treatment to cure. You don't want to move those machines in there with the floor still tacky. Two years later, I'm still not happy that my landlord decided to treat the floor two days before I moved my machines into the shop.

At one time, my wife and I were considering a buying modular home (http://www.mkd-arc.com/homes/), but the areas in which I wanted to build it wouldn't allow for prefabricated structures. There are times I can't stand local zoning and restrictive covenants!

JFW · Apr 1, 2008

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll go for some kind of water-glass based surface threatment, and I think that does'nt need to long drying period. Nice houses from Kaufmann, btw. Before we bought the house we're living in now, I studied www.fabprefab.com quite a bit. Theres a lot of nice stuff presented there.

Truls

hesstool · Apr 13, 2008

Boonen takes Paris-Roubaix! Well Bikebuilder, we were both wrong. Boonen is a worthy champion. Cancellara had no chance in a sprint finish with Tom.

How's the shop looking these days, Truls?

Building a bicycle framebuilding shop in Norway

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