Handbuilt to help you get lost
There are several ways to Tig tabbed dropouts but I've always wanted to emulate the type of dropout/stay connection found on my Y2K Independent Fabrication cross frame. It's a weird type of joinery for me to wrap my head around for some reason. I tried once on my own cross frame with Paul's horizontal dropouts... Continue Reading →
I used the Paragon Machine Works chainstay yoke for the first time on Adam's 29+ frame last month. The yoke was created to accommodate 3" tires and allow the use of a mtn crankset with a regular chainline on a 73mm BB shell. This is a difficult task to say the least without the use... Continue Reading →
Adam's frame is 95% done. I just need to cap the wishbone stay ends, put on a few cable guides, ream/face, and clean up before posting any final parting shots. It was a challenging build not just because the bent tubes but because it was so interrupted by time away from the shop. I have... Continue Reading →
Some process photos from today in the shop. Working on my new fatbike...more details later.
This was my first attempt at S-bends seatstays. I have built two frames with single-bend stays but those were a couple years ago and I did the single bend on my 7" radius oak fork blade bender. After hummin and hawing for awhile and attempting to make my own somewhat clunky 8" radius bender out... Continue Reading →
Working when I can on Timmy's frame. Headed down to my Dad's (both of them - step and real) for Dad's day last weekend so didn't get any shop time in for a few days. I've been fighting a weird bug as well that took me out of commission for a couple of weeks. Brutal. ... Continue Reading →
It's been a long time since I've ranted about framebuilding here (I do it every day in my head but rarely have time or want to spend it writing thoughts that few really care about). But hell, what good are ideas if you don't put them out there to bounce off the interwebs?! That's what... Continue Reading →
I finished finishing the segmented fork finally. Pictures are on Flickr or below in the earlier blog post. The color is totally disco, but in a good way. Should go well with the blue sparkly frame. I'd love to get my own powdercoating booth and oven some day. I do like the idea of doing... Continue Reading →
I need help figuring out how to better miter chainstays for hooded dropouts. Wow, it took way longer than i'm going to admit in writing. My chainstays are also 1mm shorter than i planned because of the file/check/repeat process not going as smoothly as it could have. Do others that use hooded dropouts file the... Continue Reading →
I'm slowly getting this frame finished. This wishbone seat stay in the photos is my second try. The first try, I cut the mainstay miter too close on the bottom and burned through the tube at the edge. This time, I cut the mainstay long, welded it to the crown pieces, then used the mill... Continue Reading →
It's been one year to the day when I finished my first solo frame in my garage. It was a 29er suspension adjusted frame that had a few holes burned through while welding the tubes. From the below photo, you can see I didn't move fast enough while welding, overheated the tubes, and well...just kinda... Continue Reading →
Yesterday I got some time to weld the front triangle of TK's mtn touring machine, after re-mitering the larger 38mm diameter downtube and brazing on the various braze-ons last week. I also mitered the chainstays to the BB, after first slotting them for the Paragon low-mount dropouts, and then dimpling the stays for more tire... Continue Reading →
For the next frame I'm building my buddy TK a 29er MTB set up for touring (TK is who I started MTB riding with on Mt. Tam in the 80's as kids). This bike isn't too custom, it's his favorite geometry from his current carbon Orbea frame but handmade in steel by me with the... Continue Reading →
Yesterday, I slotted and mitered the 19mm True Temper S-bend seat stays. These are expensive pieces of steel! Luckily i only went through 1 extra one to get it right! hah. I mitered the stays for the seat tube by hand (with 12" half-round file) and made them fit pretty tight if I do say... Continue Reading →
Frame 11 is coming together, slowly. It may look weird right now, but each tube has a purpose and even though this will be one heavy frame relative to a 'normal' two-triangle frame, it will be sweet to ride this fatty. It's been a slow process but mostly that was because jigging this thing up... Continue Reading →
I've gotten better at doing this so I thought I'd show and tell what I've learned. This is all in the Paterek manual but here is my way of doing this with the addition of a fixture. Just need a hacksaw, needle-nose pliers, 6" and 8" flat files, and a 10" rat-tail file. It helps... Continue Reading →
I did a post on mtbr about getting advice on these types of seat stays with the word "fastback" in the title and a builder deftly pointed out that there's nothing *fast* about this type of seat stay joining method. Fastbacks are the traditional method of joining the upper seat stays to the seat tube... Continue Reading →
I'm making progress on the cross frame. The front triangle is all welded up with a 1st pass and today i got the dropouts all brazed up and welded the chainstays to the BB. I learned to braze by watching the Tim Paterek DVD's and reading his book, along with watching some YouTube's from random... Continue Reading →
I've started the front triangle of a 54cm cross frame (and fork). It's a dead-on copy of the old 'stock' Indy-Fab Planet Cross frame. I'm of the opinion that they just got it right on these old frames...even for a gorilla like me the 56cm was nearly a perfect fit. Longer than tall with rather... Continue Reading →
The two-triangle bike frame is pretty hard to improve upon...there are little tweaks but for the most part everybody uses the same design because it works. I've always loved Retrotec and other frames that incorporate unique lines but try to make a rigid frame less rigid where it matters. I know there's very little evidence... Continue Reading →