Small CX frame for team rider

This 5'1" woman requested steel- unusual for a team frame but she knows what she wants and stated good reasons for what she asked for.

This frame will be doing duties outside CX racing including trail riding and gravel races. This is why it is built with dropper post routing and three bottle mounts. There may even be some bike-packing in the future for this frame. The frame will be paired with an Enve G-series 50 mm rake fork to go with the 70 degree head angle. 

 

Steel single speed 29er going to Bonny Doon, Calif.

This customer lives just up the hill from town and he's a repeat customer. I built him a CX frame maybe 14-15 years ago. This frame has a lot of Paragon machine works hardware on it: Sliding dropouts, BB shell, machined head tube and seat tube topper for a 31.6 seat post . Tubing is a mix of Vari-Wall and Dedacciai. Rear end is boost and the head angle is 68 degrees, same as my bike as we both ride the same trails for the most part.  hope he likes it .

 

Steel CX/Gravel frame with painted to match fork and stem

This is one of my favorite colors- pretty much the same color as my 4th frame that I built back in 1979. This customer sent me the stem to have painted and I provided the fork. With luck I'll have it out on UPS to its new home up in Washington state. 

 

Steel road-plus frame going to the Phillipines.

This one is fitted to a fork that is new to me- the Whiskey 'Road Plus' that will take slightly larger tires than a normal road fork. I think the upper limit on tire size might be 700x35 but don't quote me- you can find out for certain by visiting the Whiskey site......I guess I could have done that but it has been a tiring day.

The customer found this nice King EC 34-44 headset- this is good as I have not had much luck sourcing this particular size. 

 

Unique steel big tire road frame and fork

The owner of this frame has very little mobility in his neck and has to have a very upright position. I hope that this frame allows him to ride more comfortably than the bike he currently has. The post mount disc brakes will be mated to flat bars for additional cockpit height. 

A lot of thought went into this frame- it was definitely a challenge and an example of how a custom frame can be shaped in a way that production frames cannot. I hope that it rides well for this customer- I have never built anything quite like it.

 

Steel Di II gravel frame for local rider

This one is a mix of Columbus tubes - light top tube and seat stays but a mid-weight down tube and pair of chain stays. Lemond bicycles used to call this the "Keel" approach. I just call it sensible. The frame is pretty stout but the weight is only 4 lb. 4 oz. for the equivalent of a 57 cm frame. 

No rack or fender mounts or guides for mechanical shifting- this one had to look clean. 

 

Small steel townie for a local .

The woman who ordered this frame is someone who got a bike from me maybe 20-odd years ago. This is what she is calling her 'retirement bike'. She has a townie now but it is very old and is not the best fit. It also does not have all the features that she requested on this frame.

There will be a steel fork with it but it is still in the process of being built. I should have the whole mess done tomorrow. My hope is that she likes the fit and the way it rides. Building a bike like this for a 5' rider is a challenge but that's why I exist....to build the kind of bikes that one does not find in stores. This is a prime example of that.

 

Aluminum CX frame with steel fork.

This was the combination I used on CX bikes from around 2002-2004. After that nearly every CX bike had a carbon fork. I raced on one like this back in the day and only sold it after I got injured and had to sit out a season. 

The steel fork is heavier but it is a lot less money and I can build it with any rake I want. There's not much variety in carbon CX fork geometry so this is a bit of an advantage for certain size bikes.

The owner is not a total Luddite, though- it will have modern flat mount disc brakes front and rear.
 

WCCX frame going to Sanger, Calif.

This might get raced, it might not but it will definitely get some dirt miles out in the sticks. This rider lives very close to the national park area of the Sierras - Kings Canyon, Sequoia and the huge foothill region. I'm sure there are endless dirt roads to explore. 

 

Big tire steel gravel frame going to Canada

This cyclist was very specific about what he wanted- slack head angle and room for really big tires. This isn't a formula I would have come up for a bike like this but this customer is willing to roll the dice on this idea. Many times I have been surprised how well some of these plans turn out to be great bikes. I hope that will be the case for this one.

The rear brake is post mount - not something I have put on a drop bar frame in a few years as now they are all flat mount. This rider has plenty of post mount brakes so that's what he will use on this frame. He will use an adaptor on the fork- might be a bit more complicated but it will definitely save him from having to buy new brake calipers.

One more current spec is the dropper post routing. I figure that about one in fifteen gravel frames are done this way in my shop but that number is probably going to go up in the coming years as the dropper gets more popular.