Thursday, February 11, 2010

Light steel road frame for the east bay


This month will be an intensive steel clinic at the shop. They may all be steel frames but they run the gamut of types that I build. This one is a road frame built to take 700x28 tires, pretty large for a road bike but not large enough to make major geometry changes. The welder is working nicely right now.....I guess it might be a little paranoid as the new machine is wired up and ready to try. It is doubtful that my old machine will ever be retired, though. I have used the same welder here for 18 years-we have become pretty close.



Heres a weld detail.......honestly, I don't think I could do better than this. I have an old machine with none of the bells and whistles of the new units so I feel like a hero when the product looks this nice.

4 comments:

Angostura Bitters said...

those welds around the last seat cluster pic are...TIDY!!!

thanks for posting up!

Peter W. Polack said...

Technique and skill will triumph over technology when it comes to crunch time. To be able to brag those welds were the result of you rather than the machine is a point to be proud of.

As a new owner of a Rock Lobster frame I wasn't particularly tuned to the quality of the welds. But when it was pointed out to me how tiny and smooth they were, I had to agree; there's some art and talent there.

Thanks for the frame, Paul!

Ric said...

Damn, that tire looks like a fat Campionato del Mundo Setas tubbie...what clincher is that? An P-R Challenge?

Hook me up for a frame like that--what tubing was used?

swiggco world said...

the tire is just a Michelin pro race 700x23. It looks big in the photo. The tubing was a mix of Columbus nivacrome tt&dt, the rest was Reynolds 725. I think the frame came out to about 3 lb.s 12 oz.