fixing disc brake tab

i received jasons frame on thursday. i built it so he could do a trip from South America to Alaska. this frame has really taken a beating. he made it to alaska, but his rear disc mount didnt.
upon arrival, it seems like its in part due to the thin walled seat stays. i know of others builders using the same stays with good results, never the less...lesson learned. thicker stays next time.
i decided to replace it with some comotion disc drops from pacenti cycles. they are designed for tandems and mountain frames. they are so burly, its not even funny.
i thought that the tab for the seat stay would be long enough when i cut off the damaged portion of the stay, but no dice. i had to do an internal sleeve and extend the tube to meet the tab. i then replaced the brace from the seatstay to chainstay. this may not be necessary with the disc tab being part of the dropouts and the things being so stout , but i did it anyway for good measure. plus its adds to the strengh of the internal gussetting. all brazing was done with brass and i left the ends of the stays square in order to have as much bulk at the joints as possible.

oh, i guess i do believe in reincarnation

i tried my hand at aluminum casting for the first time. its much less chaotic than doing an iron pour, but the outcome is just as satisfying. i made a mold for a tube bending mandrel. it has a gradual curve for doing top tubes. i decided to make 2 grooves for the size of the tubing to be used(25.4 and 28.6) instead of doing a V like in some designs.
its made almost entirely from scrap aluminum from bicycle parts. pretty cool.

delivery bicycle

so, i spent the afternoon modifying a mountain bicycle to fit this dominos pizza chest that i found in the garbage on the front. just extended the headtube and put an extra tube from the headtube to the downtube. kind of funky,but i have always wanted to build one and i thought this would be a good prototype.
then we spent the next day hanging out baking bread which i delivered to friends that evening.
thanks troy, erin, ryan, and evan.

Randonneur frame back from villin cycles

just received the rando frame from Villin Cycles in gainesville, so i had to build it up with random parts in the shop to see how it rides. it looks great even with all the mix match parts.

paint job from villin

here are a couple of photos of one of my frames getting painted by Villin Cycles in Gainesville Florida. they are focusing more on painting bicycles. im super excited about it since up till now ive been getting all my bikes powder coated.
ill have more pictures up when its complete.

post number 2 for the day

i have not been posting for a while, so i figure that i better post this stuff now before i forget.
Pete asked me if i would donate a frame for first female finisher in the Fixed Fight alleycat race.
Lex over at Villin cycles agreed to do the paint jobs, which is going to be really awesome.
Elizabeth Morse-Hill won the frame



and i also decided to build some integrated stem/riser bars with a built in brass crane bell. should have gotten a nice picture of them first

for the long haul

jason contacted me from alaska and he made it. rode all the way from chile on the bicycle frame that i built him. thats 12,000 of rough riding. he said that the frame was great until he got up to alaska and the disc brake mount ripped completely off. he is shipping the frame down to me to be repaired, ill probably replace the drop outs with THESE hopefully his bike will then last another cross continental trip.
check out the carnage

here are some photos from his trip.


my beautiful headbadge covered in muck and snow.