More photos on Flickr

This time it is a Ristretto track bike.



Click a photo to see the rest of the photos on flickr

A Stunning Romano

We just finished building a stunning looking Romano Road bike.



Click the photo to see the rest of the shots of this bike

Flickr

We have been busy taking some great photos of new bikes as they are completed and I am posting these on flickr.com. Now, with most photos, you will be able to click on them which will open flickr where you can see larger versions and more photos in that set. Here are some samples of recently added photo sets:



This is a bright paint scheme on a full Dura-Ace Cubano.



We call this paint scheme "Old School". It is a very nice green and this is a personal favourite.


This Corretto is similar to the one that went to the car show.

Upcoming events

Well, we were planning on going to the inauguaral Festival of Cycling coming up on Sunday 20th April at Albert Park, but circumstances have intervened and we have decided not to go this year. Next year perhaps.

Our next big event is the Geelong Mountain Bike Club "Crazy 6" race at the You Yangs on May 4th. This race is part of the Victorian MTB enduro series, and we will be there, probably running a couple of pairs teams. See the GMBC website for more details.

http://www.gmbc.com.au/

The Motor Show

We were at the motor show again this year. No, we have not released a 650hp 4WD sports car weighing 1200kg that does 0-100km/h in 4.0 seconds - although I wish we had - we had our latest titanium model being displayed on the Volvo stand. It was an occasion to let everyone know about the new Corretto. To make the Corretto we made the Cubano lighter by giving you less titanium for more money - figure that one out!

On the Cubano frame, the down tube, seat tube and top tube are butted. On the Corretto the seat stays and chainstays are also butted. There is more material removed in other areas too, such as the head tube and bottom bracket.

The following websites ran stories on our bike at the car show:

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/news/article/australian-bike-builder-baum-unveils-corretto-15010?img=4

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=tech/2008/news/03-12
(you will have to scroll down a bit to find the cyclingnews article)

The car show bike has been built up with Lightweight wheels and the new Sram Red groupset. It weighs in at 6.0kg without pedals.

Here it is packed on the roof of the Volvo C30,

Learning to ride

My proudest cycling moment happened last week and it wasn’t even my moment!

It had been coming for a few weeks. The left side training wheel on my son Will’s bike had a distinct canter upwards and to the left. Will was correcting the wheel position by leaning to the other side of the bike. A cycle fit nightmare!

A quick pep talk, a trusty Sidchrome shifter, a few tears and the wheels were gone. The following 15 minutes were not the bonding moment I thought they should have been. A hysterical nearly five year old all of a sudden seemed a bit much……now where did I put that bent training wheel? Now I had the two year old suggesting his wheels should come off too! Not today little mate!

Back to the pep talk. Lots of encouragement from mum with the video camera rolling. Run number two, from the back step to the end of the yard, went surprisingly well. Run number three raised a bit of confidence. Time to throw the bike, the kids and the wife in the car and head to the local netball courts. If you’re going to fall why not fall on bitumen (incentive not to fall).

I ran further in the next hour, holding onto the back of the seat, than I have run in the past 10 years. Then I was running next to him telling him I was holding on when I really wasn’t! Progress! Then it got technical. Will was working on the old and trusted method of setting seat height by sitting on the seat whilst both feet are firmly on the ground.

A brief discussion, a quick distraction and I lifted the seat. MORE HYSTERIA! Back on the bike, riding smoothly, a bit more power in the legs, now we just have to work on the dismount. Jumping from a moving object is never a good idea but he was managing to land clear of the bike! Introduced the concept of braking as opposed to breaking! Picked this up quickly (Key safety advice).



Confidence now sky high. Starting, cruising and now (thankfully) stopping safely. Next issue was convincing him that today was not a good day to go tackle the local outdoor velodrome.

Do you remember when your training wheels came off?
—Darren Baum

New kid on the Baum block

Hi there readers of the Baum blog. I would like to introduce myself as I am sure I will be making regular posts. David Rusden is my name and I have just started working here at Baum. My main role is to streamline the production processes and make the factory run as smooth as ... as smooth as ... well, put your own metaphor in there, you get the idea.

My relevant career background starts with my degree in Industrial Engineering which is exactly what my role is about. I have worked in small business for many years and also as a management consultant. Most importantly I have the mindset that “the man behind the welding mask” was looking for in this role.

Well that is all the boring stuff out of the way. What about the interesting stuff? I ride mountain bikes, focusing on longer cross country events such as 6 hour, 12 hour, 24 hour, 100km and so on. I recently completed the Otway Odyssey (see our mtb team blog). I am not a gun rider, but I have a very competitive nature. This forces me to be creative with how I express that competitive nature. I can not realistically shoot for an outright win, or even a win in my category, so I have to aim to beat a time, my friends or the young children in the field.

Here I am at the 2007 Kona 24hour at Forrest.

Image courtesy ontrackimages.com.au

You will see me at the Team Baum tent at these events in the future, or maybe out on the track.

The next Team Baum event is the Six Hours In The Saddle at Beechworth.