The paint factory

One of my last stops was at the painting factory, the only reason i went there was because i was curious to see what they did and to help me get all SA products perfect. It was a bit of an eye opener to see just what goes on in there i had never seen so many different types of bike products in one place. Basically all the cycle stuff thats made over there from the 12" wheel kiddies wall mart bike to the full on DH rig ends up here to get painted.

I took shots of each stage of the process to show you how it all works

Ok the products are hooked on to a line and then first primed, the paint gun is attached to the roof and moves up an down while spraying


Then the line moves along to the next automatic spray gun and the first layer of paint is applied




After this the paint is finished off by hand but what shocked me is the lack of protection the guy was wearing i bet his lungs are chuffed! behind the line was a continuos flow of water to catch any over spray



Then the line moves into the biggest oven ever! yes it was warm in there, ha



If the product has under lacquer decals then they are applied here then sent back through the line where the whole process is repeated with clear lacquer but if not they are just applied here and then sent back to the frame makers



I have no idea what products they are painting here though, maybe i should of asked, ha

pre production bars nearly done

Here is a shot of my BMX bars mid production, these bars are made by my tube maker and they also make for NS bikes and Odyssey to name some of the other companies who get there bars made here...............are all the BMW shots a clue??



as soon as they are finished il get the pictures up for you.

Bears bikes

Ben from Bears bikes kindly met me on the way to Chosen hubs to show me round the factory as he works there as well, as im planning on working on hubs in the future and wanted to see how things work in the factory to get a better idea for when i design my own. For those of you that dont know, Chosen make at least 90% of higher end hubs on the market today such as Proper, Eclat, Colony, NS bikes, Odyssey the list is endless.

Cranks

My luggage turned up yesterday so now i can finally start putting some information up!

Ok my second stop over in taiwan was at my frame and crank maker, Douglas. Douglas makes frames and cranks for many brands but just to name one would be WTP, and his factory is one of the best i have seen with outstanding quality control checks at every stage of production.


We have been testing these cranks for a while now and have held up to everything we have thrown at them and will be out early next year!

Spec
2.5 piece
fully liquid heat treated after welding SA tubing arms
fully liquid heat treated butted 48 spline axle
strong as Bull

The best bit about these cranks is the weight 730g........................Oi Eastern how do you like those apples, eh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Im thinking the production color should be chrome? Below is a picture of a set Douglas nocked up for me



Just to give you a better view of them






This is a picture of WTP frames and cranks being welded up




And Douglas him self

Liquid heat treating

OK, I'm back in the UK now and the airline has lost my luggage with my camera in with all my pictures on, until that hopefully turns up I will explain more about the liquid heat treating process.

So this liquid heat treating process isn't some new radical process that promises crazy weight with standard tubes. Basically all heat treating processes are the same, the product is put into an oven and heated up which makes the frame stronger and a little lighter. Most of the ovens in Taiwan are heated with air which is fine for most frames but with light weight frames it can lead to all sorts of problems. Basically the air that heats the oven will heat certain parts of the oven more than other parts which will lead to some parts of the frames being over heated and being heated for too long leading to brittle welds and tubes but also some parts not being heated enough and leading to un even weight and tube strength

The liquid heat treating heats the oven with a liquid that is at a constant controled temperature but is also constantly circulating to avoid any temperature changes, this leads to a product that is perfectly and evenly heat treated and is a must for light weight stuff.

All of SA cromo products will be heated this way, but as mentioned this is not some new radical heat treating process its just a better way of heating the oven that heat treats the frames.

Liquid heat treatment

Will explain it all tomorrow.............jet lag, ha

revised fork

Today i went to my fork makers, and was well impressed with the work Jack had done on them, Jack also makes forks for many of the top brands out there including NS bikes and Odyssey and his quality is amazing!

I will put a better shot up of the fork when its finished later in the week but just to give you the run down on what has been changed on the fork is as follows,

Tapered legs
smaller drop outs
shortened legs from 450mm to 435

here is shot of the man himself








also here is a shot of what is inside the fork







new drop out








After my meeting with Jack he kindly took me out for some food, this is what we ate................i kid you not! This is not a butchers shop this was the local cafe, ha

Destination Taiwan

This is going to be one of the best road trips out, I flew from Manchester to Paris to Hong kong to Taiwan, it was an epic, sleepless 23 hr journey and most of it was parked in this seat below.
















I killed my ipod battery watched the new Terminator movie, Star Trek, Night at the Museum 2 and Transformers 2 twice

8.75 and 9" rise any one?

Early next year we will launch our bars in 8.25, 8.5, 8.75 and 9" rises.

check with your countries distributor as these will be limited qty

Severed to be distributed in Poland

My good friend Simon from Manyfest BMX in Poland will be the Distributor for Severed Alliance over there. His store stocks more of the worlds top brands than you can think of, and yet again as with all the SA bikes distributors, Simon rides and rides hard! He has just been recovering from a operation after he broke his knee on his BMX.

WTF!!

Just to show you guys what an animal Mat Gillespie is look at this! Iv never seen a hub snap in half before, this was the second hub of week testing his proto frame after destroying his cassette on his previous hub as pictured in his bike check. its good to see the proto is being put through some!

Session at Corby any one?

see you guys there

on the way to mikey

Spec
fully heat treated after welding patented SA tubing legs
5mm thick laser cut drop outs
Butted threaded steerer tube
integrated bearing race
6061 cnc top cap
weight 880g

Soon!

Coming your way early 2010!!

Ludwig mans up........

.........and goes brakeless!

Down the local

So it seems no matter what camera I use my photography skills are best described as wazz, ha. Anyway here's some shots.










































































On the way to Rampworx Matty was saying he needs get some better ankle protection....


















Maybe some better under arm protection wouldn't go a miss dude lol

Mikey bike check

Name: Mikey McClelland
Age: 28
Location: Holywood N.Ireland
Frame - Severed Alliance Prototype 21"
Fork - Odyssey Race Classic CS2 fork.
Bars - BSD variety bar.
Stem - S&M Redneck XLT.
H-set - Fly Bikes.
Grips - ODI longneck.
Seat - DUO x Rogue Status pivotal.
Seat post -Federal slammed pivotal.
Cranks - Profile Race 175mm cranks with titanium spindle.
Pedals - Odyssey Twisted PC pedals - Chameleon.
Sprocket - United 28t.
Chain - KMC z710sl kool super light.
Front Wheel - Gsport Ribcage rim- DT Swiss Competition spokes- Simple Eject hub.
Back Wheel - Gsport Ribcage rim- DT Swiss Competition spokes-Profile Mini cassette 11t titanium driver plus Ti axle & nuts.
Tyres - Odyssey Path K-Lyte.
Pegs - N/A
Brake - Fly Bikes.
Lever - Odyssey Trigger.
Gyro - snafu.
Dust caps- Dollar sign on front & Bullet on bk, it’s important to hav “bling” dusties!
Weight - 18lbs

The Forum Comment

Bike check and test rider Mikey pictures will be along soon!

Coming soon

Should have some of these with us very soon for testing. We have removed the knurling from the center of the bars as this is a weak point of many bars on the market.

Spec
8 back sweep
4 upsweep
22.2 dia
710mm wide
3.25" rise (will be doing different rises)
heat treated SA tubing
weight TBA

Dear me Dale!

Ha, ok so the above picture is not my idea of how a bike should look but i sent my mate Dale a proto for testing as he is pretty hard on his kit and just because its Dale. Not too sure about the color Dale but each to his own eh?!


Bike Check
----------
frame - Severed Alliance Prototype 21"
fork - Badda Boom
bars - United Squad 28"
stem - A free one?
h-set - FBM internal
grips - ABikeCo Edwin
seat - United Embroidered
seat post - Coaltion
Bottom Bracket - Fit 22mm
cranks - Primo Hollowbites
pedals - 1 JC Trailmix and 1 Blank Bike Co
sprocket - Proper 25t
chain - Another free thing
front wheel - Odyssey Midway laced to Proper 36h
back wheel - Proper Rim laced to Proper 36h V3 Hub
tyres - Kenda Kniption (these are the daddy by the way - steal 'em from the next DB complete you find!!)
pegs - eh?
brake - The Force
weight - who cares?

MTB Fork

Finally managed to get an edit done of what the fork color scheme will be, looks sick!

features:
suspension correct
Fully heat treated after welding 4130
190mm butted fully flutted cnc threaded steerer tube
integrated bearing race
cnc 6061 top cap
severed alliance patented mesh tubing legs
6mm peg friendly laser cut drop outs
axle to crown 450
rake 36
weight 1002g......oh yes!

what goes on inside the severed tubing

Finally managed to take a good pic of the stuff you wont be able to see going on inside the tubes. Have to admit it looks sweet!

Severed 24" proto goes down under

In the next few weeks one of the Severed 24" prototypes in black and chrome will be sent to Mike Daly at Kickass Bmx Distribution in Australia for a review in the aussie MTB mag Revolution. I have known Mike for a while now and he distributes some of the worlds leading brands, such as Proper, Simple and Deluxe the list goes on and on of his brands. The most important thing about Mike is he rides and that means more than anything!