Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Small steel road frame and fork for Berkeley

This frame is all of 3 lb. 5 oz. , not bad for steel. The fork is 1 lb. 6 oz. and will lose a few oz. when trimmed. I'm hoping that the rider will like the geometry. Small bikes like this are really tricky to build-much more difficult than really large bikes. Keeping the rider balanced while making the front end long enough so that there's not a ton of foot overlap on the front wheel can be a serious challenge.
The straight blade fork might look pretty racy but it can take a 700x28 Continental tire.
I got a little carried away with the bends but I think the look is nicer than it would have been if I had not bothered. I also think the sweeping bends might soften the ride a taste-not a bad thing on such a small frame.