Here's a bike from a small, little known frame maker from Minnesota (Joseph Judkins) who no longer builds. The guy from whom I bought the frameset sent me pics over a year ago, which made me drool, it was such a pretty bike. I finally had the opportunity to buy the frameset. I built it up using what I had on hand but it will soon have Dura Ace triple components. I'm still looking for a good color bar tape. It's a classic design, built with 531 tubes and Henry James lugs and bits. The paint job is drop-dead gorgeous and seems to glow in the sunshine.

Here's a bike from a small, little known frame maker from Minnesota (Joseph Judkins) who no longer builds. The guy from whom I bought the frameset sent me pics over a year ago, which made me drool, it was such a pretty bike. I finally had the opportunity to buy the frameset. I built it up using what I had on hand but it will soon have Dura Ace triple components. I'm still looking for a good color bar tape. It's a classic design, built with 531 tubes and Henry James lugs and bits. The paint job is drop-dead gorgeous and seems to glow in the sunshine.

I remember Judd's website from a few years ago. He had this cool cyclocross bike but set up with flat bars. The geometry of it was set up with a longer top tube to accomodate the flat bars. Neat look.

I tried putting flat bars on my cross frame, and quickly learned that it climbed pretty well with my hands on the center of the bar, but other than that it felt way too short. Took me a little bit to figure out, that DUH, road bike geom is set up to accomodate drop bars which extend out past the bar tops.

too bad he's not building anymore

I actually got in touch with Joe Judkins several days ago. One of the many questions I asked was why he stopped building. His quick answer was the very high cost of liabilty insurance for his frames. Another interesting thing was that he shared a space with Croll, another builder, and sometimes they shared in the work too.

He's not totally out of building frames, he's building one more for his wife.

I actually got in touch with Joe Judkins several days ago. One of the many questions I asked was why he stopped building. His quick answer was the very high cost of liabilty insurance for his frames. Another interesting thing was that he shared a space with Croll, another builder, and sometimes they shared in the work too.

He's not totally out of building frames, he's building one more for his wife.
Do you mind passing his email address on? I wanted to ask him a question about that Cross bike w/ flat bars he was building. I think he called it the Odd Nog or something like that.

Specifically about how the geometry of it compared to a traditional cross bike with drop bars. I am assuming that the top tube is longer, but just wondering by how much

thanks

Joe doesn't have an e-mail that I know of. I had to look him up in the phone book in Saint Paul Minnesota.