OT: KBedford making rings

[RWHowe]

Stopped by Kelly's shop and saw these on the workbench.
He is making rings out of ti and steel with various inlays.

[oliver1850]

26.0, 26.4, or 31.8?

Hope that this doesn't mean frame sales are slow. Brings to mind a LBS whose owner told me he made much more money selling Cabbage Patch dolls than selling bikes. Good shop, sadly out of business for many years - probably since the toy fad died out.

[Bruce K]

There is probably a higher profit margin in jewelry.

Also probably someone asked and Kelly agreed and a new product line was born.

BK

[soulspinner]

Looks great

[RWHowe]

Originally Posted by oliver1850

26.0, 26.4, or 31.8?

Hope that this doesn't mean frame sales are slow. Brings to mind a LBS whose owner told me he made much more money selling Cabbage Patch dolls than selling bikes. Good shop, sadly out of business for many years - probably since the toy fad died out.

Nope, sales are steady. He is very creative and has lots of ideas. Once upon a time he built surfboards while growing up in Florida.

He has a passion for fly fishing and makes/ties his own flies, has built is on rods and reels.

[seanile]

I’d like to point out that titanium is a terrible material for a ring in the instance you jam your finger and it gets swollen. Very difficult to cut off hard materials like that in a rush, youre effectively putting a tourniquet on your finger

[choke]

He wouldn't be the first to go that route.

Some of you may remember Boone twist cranks and Ti chainrings/cogs from the 90s. Bruce Boone, who was the man behind those, now makes Ti rings.

https://www.boonerings.com/about.htm

[hokoman]

Originally Posted by choke

He wouldn't be the first to go that route.

Some of you may remember Boone twist cranks and Ti chainrings/cogs from the 90s. Bruce Boone, who was the man behind those, now makes Ti rings.

https://www.boonerings.com/about.htm

The funny thing about his transition to jewelry is that as a cyclist - I loved his chainrings and had some of his stuff in the 90s, but it was definitely on the custom niche/expensive spectrum. Then you take his cheapest ti ring that is super easy to make, and it's considered a bargain. I'm sure he's making a lot more doing jewelry than bike parts.

A little OT - He also does laser engraving on TI stuff which is really cool, when I got married 5 years ago, I ordered some McGizmo titanium flashlights for my wedding party and Bruce was nice enough to laser engrave them for me which included a picture of two donkeys.

[Mikej]

Originally Posted by seanile

I’d like to point out that titanium is a terrible material for a ring in the instance you jam your finger and it gets swollen. Very difficult to cut off hard materials like that in a rush, youre effectively putting a tourniquet on your finger

Titanium is not hard, it’s chewy - it’s very easy to cut straight through. Now platinum is a different story -

[joosttx]

Originally Posted by hokoman

The funny thing about his transition to jewelry is that as a cyclist

Kris Henry of 44 Bikes studied jewelry design at RISD before making bikes.

[buddybikes]

Firefly made ti drinking straws this fall, complete with their anodizing

[RWHowe]

Some recent pics of Kelly's work

[RWHowe]

designs