SUPER RAT MACHINE WORKS

howdy all, i missed the deadline set by myself for the friday freebies. was it intentional? to play on the fact that bmx racing the olympics kept getting delayed from rain… or it could have been the fact that i didn’t have computer access in portland and 50/50 eddie was buying too many [...]

my brother sent over some pics from fredonia daves wedding that was a few weeks ago. as you can tell we had a fine time!
there are some good comments on the friday freebie page concerning bmx and the olympics, it’s ending on august 22nd so have a peek and put in your 2cents [...]

i’ve got a couple of links that are somewhat pertinent i suppose.
there is a nice write up on some parts we made for kris over on the 44bikes blog
jeremy, who i’ve been pow-wowing (is that even a word?) with about some interesting things that i’ll continue to be vague [...]

i’ve seen alot of stuff with our buddy DMC in the internets lately! which is awesome. first up, a classic pic poached from the bmx roots blog

then there is the rooftop interview:

See more RooftopTV videos at Shred or Die
there is a quick pic in that interview at 2:03 that [...]

i’m terrible at blogging, this much is obvious. i’m trying to get better though! i am thoroughly impressed with amount of content over at SPRFLS and the resulting comments. anyhoo it’s a good morning read while the machine warms up.
we’ve been making stuff. finally got bottle openers stocked up again. (and out [...]

i’m a little slow on the uptake but better late than never seems to be my motto. i found this blog entry over on SPRFLS
i rather enjoy this blog and check in to see what kind of saltiness in regards to modern bmx can be had on a given day. and when [...]

primarily our work is in aluminum. and it’s nice to change things up. these dropouts, made of good ol’ 4130 chromoly, are for todd over at black cat bicycles.
he makes handmade bicycle frames, utilizing this dropout design of his and subtle mods such as the ever so sightly radiused toptube on this bike [...]

merle haggard shows up on the ipod the other day and and i was stoked! little ol’ wine drinker me caught my attention especially since i’ve been experimenting with these dust caps on the pedals: (these are the pedals off my bike, being disassembled for inspection. everything looks good.)

it seems [...]

when kyle came by to pick up his pedals the other day we talked about initial reactions and whatnot and decided to post them as a review of sorts. (note: of course he may not seem like the most objective candidate to be providing a review, he is very critical of the parts on [...]

the inaugural batch of S.R.M.W. pedals are finished! here are a few pics of what they look like…
spindle detail:

end cap:

the end cap proved to be a slight hurdle, it’s not necessary to the function of the pedal but i felt like it needed to be there [...]

back in high school i went through the machine shop program at the local technical school. this tap handle was one of the projects in that class. we use it a fair amount in the shop, for different little fixes and whatnot and it’s been pretty handy. it’s made from mystery metal, more than likely [...]

after spending some time with pedal v2.0 and talking with people about them and looking at them way too much we decided to make a few changes… they still have a slightly larger area but i brought the angle of the sides in and shaved away some material, chose to use flat head bolts that [...]

i’ve got a couple of pics of the latest revision of the terrible-one stem. we made a few tweaks to the wedges that clamp the steer tube, added a nice transition between the split cap and the relief on sides now wraps around to the back somewhat. i think it even shaved a little [...]

thecomeupbmx is a guilty pleasure of mine, i don’t venture onto the board and try to avoid the comments but it’s a great place to catch up on all things bmx from what seems like every company out there. and it leads me to blogs i would otherwise miss out on completely. this is [...]

i guess i’ve never really had the flu before… until last tuesday that is. i came down with what i anticipated being the usual cold that leaves you feeling crappy for 24 hours. ohhh no, not this time. sure on day three i tried to talk myself out of it, tell myself i was feeling [...]

originally i made a handful of these things for our wedding back in october as gifts and as a demonstration for friends and family that had not seen the machine shop before. they are made from 7075 t-6 aluminum and weigh about as much as 5 zip-ties… it fits nicely on your keychain so [...]

well-sort of, here is a pic of the “drag strip” where i’ve been doing sprints this morning… although i’ve ridden across the parking lot multiple times delivering various goods and services to the Songbird Cafe
incidentally this is my wife’s cafe that has recently opened here in the beautiful fairfax district. it’s pretty awesome and such [...]

its friday and it’s still cold and icy and snowy. i rode around the block 2 days ago and determined that animal asm tires do not perform well on icy snowy sidewalks…
here is a pic of warmer weather. this is the webman thad at fredonia daves house. dave has been adding onto [...]

here is the pedal in it’s final state. i changed a few details to the spindle, modified the body slightly and added some texture to the center of the body. i’ve got one pair on my bike and another for initial testing purposes. of course with the temperature in the 20’s not much testing is [...]

after staring at the pedal body for the last couple of days i made a few slight mods, then i whipped up 2 pair for initial testing. i got the official super rat army of one test pilot on the horn so we could get these things attached to a cycle. should have some [...]

at this point this is the configuration of the pedal spindle and bearings (some will call them bushings…) as with the pedal body i hoped to keep the spindle simple, functional and my hopes are to minimize “rattly pedal syndrome” that all sealed pedals seem plagued with. sealed pedals are real nice initially on the [...]

We have been working on a few new products in recent months, some for our customers which are top secret, and others that are our own design. This pedal will be our first offering! The picture is of the initial prototype. Sometimes it’s a tough call when to release product pics. The idea here is [...]

well, thad has outdone himself once again. he’s reconfigured the site in a way that will allow Super Rat to move in some new directions. i am quite excited about the changes and the new look. he also showed me a nice DIY light box technique that worked much better than anticipated. construction: cardboard [...]

so, my friend casey was telling me this story the other day that had absolutely nothing to do with hippies or sandals but he did touch on the fact that real hippies don’t (or didn’t) wear sandals. he had this science teacher in high school that pointed out that real hippies had to wear [...]

summer time heat wave has prompted us to get creative with air temperature control around the shop. justin climbed his way up to the ceiling to inspect the gearbox of the “wall”, he determined that all it needed was some extra weight on in to lower the wall into place. thus sealing off the back [...]

lots of changes going on around the shop lately, seeing as how i’ve neglected to update the website in the last couple of months here is some pics of what we’ve been doing,
we’ve been fortunate to find a supplier for 7075 plate that has been very helpful in getting us what [...]

so the quest for kick ass coffee never ends. aaron over at solid bikes
hooked us up with a pound of Sacramento’s finest beans from the peeps over at coffee works, we’ve got the dark star version that is quality all the way… i’ve already had a cup or 3 this morning [...]

when we moved in the machines got wired up where they landed, all the while mumbling the mantra “never time to do it right, always time to do it over…” so two months, we’ve gotten a better feel for the space and the latest set-up is beginning to take shape. the saw/material shelf now [...]

there are few things worse than picking up a cup of coffee that you think is a few hours old, only to realize it’s a few weeks old and the cream has become something that your tongue should never have to see…
that has only happened once, which was more than enough incentive to [...]

we’ve getting a relationship built with the scrapyard down the road that takes our aluminum chips and they gave us a bin to put the chips in (i had been using 32gallon trash cans) the bin is a far superior method. although we put a little too many chips in and didn’t have a [...]

this is the view from our back dock (almost, if it wasn’t for that massive building right behind us…) but it is a short jaunt to this spot…

when i worked at nelson machine in lawrence, i came to really enjoy the sunrise on cold winter mornings. i would typically [...]

our good buddy thad
has rebuilt the site to coincide with us getting all setup in the new space at the public levee in kansas city ,kansas. complete with breakroom/office and sunshine! here are a few pics of the new space:

roughly moved in…

our current setup, luckily fredonia dave came to the rescue and helped [...]

The move begins soon, here is our new address effective January 1, 2007:
SUPER RAT MACHINE WORKS
1401 FAIRFAX TRAFFICWAY BUILDING D #222
KANSAS CITY, KS 66115
The phone number will be changing as well, since we are crossing state lines we’ll be forced into a 913 number. they can’t confirm the new number until it is put into [...]

tis true, we’re moving out of the cave at the end of december. i keep telling myself that there isn’t really that much to move but i should know better… we’re moving into our own space above ground! woohoo!
and woode is having a blowout sale on all the bmx goods that are [...]

lord mandrake has escaped! (the mouse) one minute thin lizzy is jammin’ on the ipod the next minute mandrake was gone. this is probably what was going through his little mouse brain as he scaled the fish tank on his way to freedom in the cave: out of the frying pan and into [...]

after a rough weekend that started friday by repairing a plumbing disaster at home, (nothing like working on a bathroom for 3 weeks then turning the water on only to see a healthy stream making it’s way out the light fixtures in the kitchen at 3am) luckily we got that beast under control. just [...]

well, the mystery has been solved. i’ll spare the details to save some emabarrasment to myself… in my defense the phone has had trouble and i missed more than one message. particularly one about the mystery sprocket. problem solved, disaster averted, twas a good day. (thanks brad…)

we recieved a sprocket in the mail the other day from david hoganson, marquette, mi (as per return label) with only a thanks and return address attached? if you’re out there david (or if you know david) shoot us an e-mail and let us know what we can do to warrant the kudos! [...]

Here are a few photographs from a weekend session in Kansas City and includes a little street and skatepark action. From top to bottom: Phil Wasson air at Shawnee Mission Skatepark; Phil flattie from a curb onto an embankment; John Mann wallride on an overpass pillar; Justin Mann fakie wallride on the roof of an [...]

kyle had a little incident on his bike the other day that has left him with some time to think about life and… flatland? here he is making sure sam’s sprockets look good all the while trying to finalize a revolutionary freecoaster hub design. i heard him mumbling something about magnets and [...]

dave and tammy sent over some updated pics of the current set-up. these were taken at about 1:00pm so it looks to be a wise decision to move the jam to next weekend.
it was quite fun previously but with the addition of the new quarter and sub-rail there is a whole new realm [...]

well, the weather has forced us to postpone the best bmx get together ever till OCTOBER.28.2006.
hopefully the weather will cooperate this time…
if anyone is interested you can meet here at super rat machine to consolidate vehicles and or caravan down there.
HEY STEVE, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MOVING THE [...]

we’re on myspace now!!! check it out…

DMC just got back from china and was all set to attend the jammy jam at northpark but his bike didn’t arrive at the airport at the same time… however he shot over this pic of him, a famous chinese rider and a couple of fine looking bikes!(shameless plug i know)
[...]

the big news of the day or the year for that matter,is that courtney and i are engaged!!! yes, i finally put it all together and asked her, she said yes (although i waited for a couple of weeks before i made an annoucement, to make sure she wasn’t going to get cold [...]

there has been a thing or two moving through the shop lately.
to the amazement of all the solid stems v4.1 are being run as we speak, hotter than ever. more machining on the inside= less weight…

these bad boys are hot!
the man on the move, [...]

be there

Since Phil is too modest, I’ve taken it upon myself as head web junkie to post this pic of Phil at the Shawnee Mission Skatepark. Enjoy.
Thad

something along the lines of necessity being the mother of all invention, although is should read necessity is what leads to questionable activities…
on a side note this was justins doing, and after seeing new albany josh perched up in a tree stringing up lights last weekend i must say this looked [...]