Been sitting on this awhile now...my first frame recently back from powder coat and built up. Nothing fancy, just very large (if the top tube were horizontal it would be a 66cm frame.) Built with a torch, some files, a bench clamp, some chunks of angle iron, and a magnetic protractor. Also a few choice words here and there. Proud to say that it came out very straight, aligned within a millimeter via string method at the seat tube, and rides very nicely, stable at low and high speeds. Best road frame I've ridden that actually fit me! 

Pretty much taught myself how to do this by scouring this forum for a few months and reading the free version of the Paterek frame building manual, then jumped in. Had a lot of fun problem solving due to not having a lot of the specialized tools or a jig available. 


Number two is in progress......

Buried Treasure!

There are so many really awesome old bikes out there, people don't seem to value them.  If its not the latest model and made out of some space age material, then it must be worthless.  I beg to differ!

Here are some recent finds:

 Early 80s Lotus 26" mountain bike.  This thing is so damned sweet!!!!!  This would make an awesome touring bike thanks to slack angles, midblade rack mounts on fork, loooooong chainstays (465mm), lugged steel tubing, and clearance for large tires.  More pics:

Rides really nice, shifts well, wheels true.  Total score.

Then I found this:

 No big deal, just some dusty thing unloved in the corner of someone's garage.  Little simple green and a rag, couple of adjustments.....what a beauty.  Its like nobody ever really rode it!  

 Little heart shaped nubin brazed on.  How sweet.

Yet another bike find

I've been wanting a hard tail mountain bike, and I scored this sweet 1988 Fuji mountain bike for dirt cheap:

I love finding quirky old stuff like this.  What's awesome about it (to me) is that it is an unusually large frame, 22.5 inches, so it fits me perfectly.  This incidentally would make a sweet touring bike, as it has full rack mounts and 430mm chainstays--long enough to have full size bags without heal strike issues.  It also has a u-brake mounted to the chainstays, apparently a popular thing in 1987-1988, which would incidentally eliminate issues with rack/cargo interfering with traditional seat stay mounted cantilever brakes.  Also, unusually, it is a fillet brazed, triple butted tange steel frame, and is actually quite light yet rigid.  Really pretty fillet joints at the headtube:

....and also a unique and I think cool looking fillet brazed seat cluster.

As you can see, the previous owner had put drop bars and bar ends on it, I presume to make it a sort of ghetto cyclocross bike.  Its rideable as is, but I plan to put a flat bar back on it, and likely eliminate the front derailleur and set it up as a 1x9 with an 11-34 cassette in the rear, use it as a logging road cruiser and maybe some single track?

The other possibility I am considering is building a rear wheel with an internal gear hub plus roller brake.........

Messing around

I love making and repairing things, love working on bikes, and recently decided my road bike was a bit too small. Guess who is going to learn to make bike frames.

I am 6' 4" with a 96cm inseam, so I need a fairly gargantuan ride. I have an old 62cm 1973 Nishiki Semi-Pro that I have converted to a commuter that is quite comfortable, rides smooth as butter, and climbs easily with a heavy load. Unfortunately it also weighs as much as a small car and is ugly as sin.
By the way, this frame was designed for 27" wheels, so has longer chainstays than current road bikes, making it awesome for carrying bags and still having lots of heel clearance. And if you convert the wheels to 700c, you have a ton of space for big comfy touring tires! I have 32's on there now but could easily go a couple sizes bigger. The only problem is that you need some long reach brakes, but Tektro makes the R556 long reach calipers that work perfectly. In fact, I think these things are way better than cantilevers which is what is normally on touring/commuter bikes, and they provide plenty of clearance for large tires and fenders if used on a 27" to 700c conversion:


I added braze-ons for racks and cable stops for different cable routing, and it turned out pretty sweet. The top tube on this bike is nearly 61cm center to center, which is quite long, but seems to fit me really well. However, with the 62cm frame size I have to use a stem with a large rise to get the handlebars up in a comfortable range. Standover height is nice, it could be taller in this regard but I like a little extra room..

So......how the hell did I get so sidetracked here? What was I going to talk about? Oh yeah, I want to build a road frame that has a standover height not much more than my Nishiki, but with a tall headtube so I don't have to use a crazy amount of spacers to get the handlebars up (approximately 1.5 to 2 inch drop.) I wanted it to be kind of a classic looking lugged steel frame, but with a more modern "compact" geometry. I wanted it light but also not too flexy considering how big its going to have to be. Turns out the perfect lug set exists already, the Llewellyn XL compact road set:



These things use a 31.8mm top tube and seat tube, and a 35mm down tube. Head tube size is 36mm. They give you 73 degree seat and head tube angles and a 6 degree sloping top tube.

I put my rusty drafting skills to use (thanks Mr. Kenoyer) and drew up my full size drawing. Took several drafts before I got everything to fit just right. This sucker is going to have a 61cm center to center seat tube, an effective top tube length of 60.5cm, a 240mm head tube, 75mm bottom bracket drop, and 425mm chainstays. Instead of building a fork, I designed it around the IRD Mosaic 57 carbon fork, which has an extra long steerer so will work well with my long headtube.

To keep this beast light and reasonably rigid (but not harshly so) I ordered a fairly nice "double oversize" tubeset (Columbus Life). Got the set and all the small parts I'll need from Nova Cycles. My hope is that with my frame size these tubes will offer a little more stability and rigidity but still have that nice smooth snappy feel that you can get with steel.Can't wait to get started!

Finished Bianchi

This is a 61cm 1982 Bianchi Nuovo I bought as a complete bike, someone had painted half of it primer gray, then tried to repaint it with brushed on model enamel. I had it powder coated at Seattle Powder Coat with RAL 6027, which is slightly more blue than the original celeste color.

Purchased some decals from ebay for an older model Bianchi, including a nice headbadge.

Reused the campy cranks and shimano 600 brakes, new seatpost and stem from Velo Orange. Switched from downtube to barend shifters (I really like friction shifting but don't like reaching down so far to do it.) Replaced the original deep drop Cinelli bar (which was pretty cool looking but impractical) with something more usable.

Total frankenbike.

Fun, simple, fast, steel. A touch too small for me though :(