Big tire steel CX or as I like to call it "Drop bar MTB"

This one will squeeze 29x2.1 tires but will most likely spend most of it's life with 700x45 knobbies or 700x38 slicks. This one is going to British Columbia where it is generally pretty wet so it will fit fenders.

The frame is set up for a 31.6 dropper post so it will get some rough riding in. The tubing is Columbus Zona with a Velospec high strength down tube. 

 

Steel single speed CX frame

This one will no doubt see mud. This frame has Paragon sliding dropouts which will not only enable it to be run single speed- the setup can be used for internal geared hubs as well. The extra zip tie guides are for derailleur gears as well. Not much that you can't do with this kind of frame. The dropouts might be about a $ 200 extra but it is like having several frames in one. 

 

WCCX going to Indiana

This 7005 team issue WCCX frame is set up for mechanical shifiting but is adaptable for Di II with a couple of holes that can be added later. This frame is right about 3 lb. 8 oz. light but solid enough for rough competing on any type of track. 

I have started a pretty large batch of aluminum frames that will take me through most of next month. 

In a twist of fate, a frame just like this one will be raced tomorrow at the CX worlds in the junior men's race by none other than Voler/Easton/HRS/Rock Lobster presented by Kochlacs wood rider Dan English. Dan had a great season and qualified for the team as a result of some great results in 2021. I'm looking forward to watching the livestream tomorrow morning and hope to catch a glimpse of Dan racing by on his team color WCCX that I built for him. 
 

Steel road frame built for direct mount caliper brakes

This is a first for me. I hope they line up properly- they should as I used the fork as a template for my fixture. This is made out of really light Columbus Spirit tubes with a True Temper S-3 pear shaped top tube- yes, I still have a few of these but if you are over 140 lbs. I doubt one will wind up in your frame. This frame was the right size for the S-3 tube and the whole mess weighs well under 4 lbs. 

The color is much richer than how it appears in the photos- I would have liked to photograph it on a nice sunny day outside but we didn't really have the right conditions today.

Just so you all know- you folks who check out this blog.....I have built about 6 frames so far this month and it looks like I'll build about 70 more this year. The list currently has 73 frames on it so that means for the first time ever I have a year fully booked up in January. If you were looking to get a frame the wait could wind up as long as 14 months. Hope that you can be patient if you want one- there's no way for me to speed up at 66 years old and even if I could, I would not want to risk degrading the standard at which I build these frames....if anything I want to keep improving at this craft - there's still time !
 

Last project of 2021

This is an old bike carcass I inherited about two years ago and have been meaning to make it into a rideable bike. I am using a day or two this week to make it happen. The frame has no markings so I don't know what brand it is-all I know is that it must be British as the BB is made in England and bikes of this period usually had components from the country of origin of the frame. I doubt that this is US made.

The frame and fork look to be from the era 1915-1930. I look at it and think it might be from the '20's so it is nearly a century old and has probably been in storage for most of that time.

I have a good deal of old parts so I was able to get a crankset and hubs that look to be roughly the right stuff. I'm using modern rims and tires so I can ride it without worry.

I will most likely replace the bars and stem with something more appropriate. For now I'm just using what I have to get it rolling and see what a bike from this time period rides like. Should be interesting 

Here's the BB spindle after I cleaned it up a bit.

This BB cup was incrusted in decades old dirt- I was surprised that I was able to get it out of the frame. The grease was like shellac- totally dried out and solid. The bearing surfaces have some rust damage but are still operative- not bad for 100 year old stuff.
 

Sharing the experience

The time between Christmas and new years in my shop is usually spent doing projects that have nothing to do with the business. This period of a few days is what I like to use to do projects that have been on my mind during the year but have not been started because of the work load. Right now the shop is for all purposes shut until after the 1st of the year. Above is the start of the project- an old steel BB shell in its raw state. Below is what it looked like after we put some hand and machine work into it to make it nicer looking. 

These few days I would be spending showing Brendan - the guy who pretty much runs the CX team and puts on our race weekend - how a lugged frame is built. He has already built nearly 20 fillet brazed frames but had not attempted a lugged frame. I figured that I should show somebody what I have learned after all these years. UBI, the school where I taught an annual frame building class has decided to stop doing frame building classes and concentrate on mechanics training . If I want to teach, I'll have to do it in my own shop. The problem with my shop is that it is not set up for teaching at all. This is pretty much a one-time special occasion and it serves several purposes: # 1, I can show Brendan what I know about lugged building . # 2, we will have a nice road frame to let one of the team juniors use for training. # 3, I'll get to use some of the old materials that have been in my charge for far too long. When I am not building any more I don't want to have a huge stock of old frame building materials that my wife has to dispose of. I want to turn it all into bikes eventually and use as much of the stuff up as possible. 

Here's Brendan putting some heat into that BB shell. He wound up doing most of the brazing-I only did a couple of demos and a few spots of gap-filling after the frame was constructed. I think it will he a really nice riding frame-Columbus tubes , Cinelli head lugs and a Champion BB shell. Much of the materials is from the '70's and had been through a few hands before it got to me. 

Most of the frame was brazed using 50% silver- a little harder to make flow but really good for filling bigger voids inside the stamped steel Cinelli lugs. We built this frame in about 2-1/2 days......not bad considering we had many interruptions of random people stopping by - it's the holidays after all and that stuff is bound to happen. At least there's still a couple of days left in the week and the frame is done. 

This is one project that I'm very happy to have done- I don't know if Brendan will want to build many frames with lugs but at least now he has one under his belt and has a grasp of the procedure. I'll be happier to know that I didn't go to my grave not having passed on this bit of craft knowhow. Lugged frames only represent about 10% of the frames I have built but that still probably 200-300 of them . One learns something after that number , I would like to think. 
 

Single speed/geared EBB 7005 frame with painted to match Whiskey fork for Iowa

Rim brakes and three bottle mounts on this one. The EBB is the ONer from Squid bikes ( Formerly known as the Beer BB ) and is the best on the market. I was lucky to be able to find one of these # 7 forks- stuff is in short supply everywhere now and looks to be that way for the next few months.

The painter did a great job of matching the purple powdercoat of the frame on the wet-painted fork.