old field cycles

cutting the main triangle tubing

2012-01-18T23:33:00.000-05:00

with the finished drawing, the frame tubes can be mitered to the proper lengths.

much like wood, metal tubing has its imperfections, so before the tubes are cut, i roll each tube on my granite surface plate to find any bowing in the tub. i mark the high point in the tube and i make a scribe line down the entire length of the tube using a piece of 1/4" aluminum angle stock as a guide and a sharpened tungsten electrode to make the scribe line. this gives a nice reference point for cutting the tube and for braze ons and bottle mounts. I do this to all of the front triangle tubes. When the frame is all brazed together, the bows in each tube will be aligned along the vertical axis of the frame.

One final thing before cutting the tubes is finding the depth of the tubes butting. some tubing manufacturers provide the butt length data for each tubeset, but others do not. i use a combination of sight and the depth gage of my vernier caliper to figure out the butting length. fancier measuring tools are out there, but not worth the expense in my opinion. you can generally see the line of where the butting begins when you look inside the tubing. i mark the measurement with a sharpie

now we can cut the tubes
a few methods for cutting miters in tubing

1. there is a program on the internet called Tubemiter, you enter the tube diameter, the angle of the cut and the size of the tube it will be jointed to. then the program give you a flat representation of the cut that you then print out and tape around the tube. then you can mark the cut and use a hack saw and files to make the miter.(ive never used this method by the way)

2. use the lugs as your template for your miter. insert the tub into the lug to the point where you want to make the cut and use your scribing tool to mark the shape of the cut. once you do this, you make the cut the same way you did the cut on with method 1.

3. cutting the miter by hand. this method needs a little more experience, but once you have done a number of miters by hand, you get the hang of it. pretty much, you make a rough cut with a hack saw, then finish it using files and an angle gage.

4. using a mechanical cutting tool like hole saws on a milling machine or abrasive disc tools. pretty much, this is the most expensive method, but it can also be the quickest and most repeatable. i really recommend cutting your miters by hand to understand the technique. the downside of using machines to miter is that its real easy to mess up a tube by cutting it off center or too short, with hand mitering, it can be much more forgiving. if you miter is a little off and you are taking your time to not file it too short right away, you usually have enough tubing to fix the issue.

with each of these methods, you goal is to get a perfect miter. first check that the angle of your cut is right by using a steel protractor. then use a machinists square to make sure the high points of the cut are square to one another, then use the tube that the mitered tube is to be jointed to, to see if light gaps can be seen when you stick them together, if there are light gaps, use a half round file to finish the cut.

i usually start with the seat tube because only one end of the tube needs to be mitered, so its the easiest tube to deal with. also the main cut is a 90 degree angle. i then make a compound miter for the downtube.

then i make the headtube/downtube junction miter followed by the downtube bottom bracket miter and finally the top tube miters(these are the hardest to get in line with one another, so take your time to get them straight)

Arnold's track frame day 1

2011-12-12T22:08:00.001-05:00

finalized the geometry for Arnold's track frame. He wants a frame with steep head and seat tube angles(both 74 degrees), short rake(30mm), but a standard road bottom bracket drop(70mm). He currently rides a Surly steamroller, so the frame is designed to have the same fit.

here is a quick tutorial on how i draw a frame to full scale, im sure other builders do it differently. some builders have access to a printer which can print a full size image, which would be nice.

things you will need:
-a large piece of paper (i use news print that is free from the local newspaper, it is large enough to draw any frame, although its quite thin)
-a meter(yard) stick with metric
-pencil(i use mechanical pencils to get a finer line)
-a protractor(a machinist protractor works best, but the cheap ones from math class work)
- a vernier caliper with metric( dial and digital work too, but i prefer vernier)

step one

Near the bottom of the page make a long straight line that is at least as long as the wheelbase of the frame from the rear dropouts to the front dropouts) this is your wheel axle centerline.
then measure and mark the bottom bracket drop below this line in at least 3 places. connect the dots and this will give you a parallel line with your axle line. this represents your bottom bracket drop and i use it for some reference measurements for my Bringheli frame fixture.

step two
mark your bottom bracket on the lower line, i also have a neat circle making tool which you can get at an art supply store. for lugged frames, i use the circle that is the internal diameter of the lugged bottom bracket shell. for non lugged frames i use the circle that marks the outer diameter of the bottom bracket shell. make sure when you draw in the bottom bracket you give enough room to draw your chainstays on the one side and the front end of your bike on the other.
You can now draw the seat tube angle with your protractor. then extend the line with your meter stick. this is your seat tube centerline

step three

mark your seat tube height(this one is 53cm from the center of the bottom bracket to the center of the top tube) and you can draw in your top tube. this can be done in two ways: you can use the protractor by keeping the same angle you used for the seat tube angle and flipping it over to mark the top tube. if you remember geometry class, if your top tube is parallel, then the angle will be the same as the angle at the bottom bracket. then you can draw your top tube off of this line. the other method. i measure the imaginary perpendicular line from top tube to the bottom bracket line and then use this measurement to mark the line for the top tube. i use this method and then check the angle with the protractor to make sure its exact. its a good means to double check your work.

step four

mark your headtube point on the top tube centerline. use your protractor to draw your headtube angle and use your ruler and draw a line all the way to the axle line. you can check the headtube line against the axle line and you should get the same angle(if your headtube angle is supposed to be 74 degrees, then the angle at the axle line should be the same)

step five

measure the fork rake distance from the headtube line/axle line junction along the axle line and mark it. i like to put 2 lines, one perpendicular to the axle line and one parallel to the headtube line. the line just needs to be a few inches long for reference purposes. now you have your fork dropout mark.

step six

from the fork dropout mark you can draw in your imaginary wheel. figure out the radius of your maximum wheel size you want to use(this frame will have 700c x28 tires and the radius is around 340mm). i draw it by hand, but there are a number of tools to make large circles. i just measure from the dropout mark out and make a number of marks and connect the dots. i then mark my desired fork crown/tire clearance with a line perpendicular to the headtube line, then make another line like it for the headset lower stack height(technical information for common headsets is readily available, you can also measure the headset with a caliper) then the last line marking the bottom of the frames headtube

step seven

now you have to add the tube outside diameter for the headtube. this lugged headtube is 31.7mm. i use the caliper to measure half that distance from the headtube centerline and do so on both sides and a few spots along the fore mentioned line. then i connect the dots and go back and check to make sure its square and the right diameter(this is crucial)

step eight

now that the headtube is drawn in, we can mark the downtube. if its a lugged frame, you must measure the backside of the lower head lug to figure out the junction of the head and downtube. if its a welded frame there is a lot more play here and you can put this junction where you deem best. mark the lower downtube headtube junction.

i have a few different yard sticks that i have found that are exactly the width of the different downtubes(and seat tubes) i use. this makes it very easy to draw the downtube. i put a notch in the end of the stick to reference its center point and line that up with the center of the bottom bracket. then i line the other side of the straight edge with the downtube/headtube junction mark i just made and then draw the downtube outer lines(then you can go back and draw in the centerline for the downtube)

after that i do the same thing for the seat tube(this frame uses standard gauge tubing, so the seat and down tubes are the same diameter). for the seat tube i put marks for the width of the tube on either side of the seattube centerline then i can easily locate the center point and draw the lines for the tube.

step nine

do the same thing for your top tube and you are done. if you dont have a straight edge that is the width of the tubing you intend to use, then you have to draw the lines by measuring half the diameter of the tubing from the center line of the tube. for instance, if you are using a 25.4(1 inch) diameter top tube, then you need to make marks 12.7mm( above and below) along the center line and then use the straight edge to connect the dots. this method can be used for all of the tubes.

now your front triangle is done. its important that you check all your measurements because this drawing will be the reference for cutting your tube angles and lengths

step ten

drawing the rear triangle is not as important in my opinion. at least for the way that i build frames(i also use bikeCAD along with hand drawing, so i know my designs are sound before putting them to paper), but i like to mark the rear dropouts and wheel diameter to get an idea of what it will look line and they are helpful in locating braze ons, bridges, where to cut the stays and figuring the angle of the dropouts.

measure from the bottom bracket to the point on the axle line where you want your drop out, then from this point you can draw in your wheel and the seat and chainstays.

final notes

i draw my frames facing left, but you can do the same thing in the other direction, this is because of the Bringheli fixture i currently use.

the benefit of drawing the frame in this order is to figure out the headtube length and fork length. if you already know the fork you want you can change the order you draw the frame.

Quill stem/bar combo

2011-12-05T17:20:00.000-05:00

just finished this quill stem and straight bar combo(actually the bars curve back slightly)

it will be a prize for the Burro's 4 Year Anniversary Holiday Deliverycat & Party

i dont have any build photos because i just got a new camera, but this means that i will have more posts of my work with much better photos.

about this stem:

i machined the quill tube from 4130 stock to get it down to the standard 22.2mm. then i machined the inside of the tube to lighten it up( i could have used thinner tubing, but its what i had laying around)

i made the extension out of 4130 and used some bars i found at Krank It Up community bike shop

i wanted the stem to have a classic look, so i cut the extension tube so that the quill could slide all the way through. i then fillet brazed the bars in place and then made stainless steel caps for the ends of the bars. i capped the back of the extension tube with a Florida quarter.

instead of powder coating or painting the bars, i thought using a gun bluing technique would keep it looking classic. the nice thing about bluing is that you can touch it up easily and you can see the bronze in fillets along with the grain of the metal. the quill and extension took the bluing solution well, while the bars came out a little splotchy. I think that this must be due to whatever alloy the bars are made from or possibly due to the heat treatment that these bars may have gotten when they were made. whatever the case, i think it adds to the look.

after the bluing process, i finished the bars with some boiled linseed oil to seal the metal.

more pictures of Matt's touring bike

2011-05-18T09:08:00.000-04:00

racks for matt's touring bike done

2011-03-30T22:39:00.000-04:00

finished the front and rear racks for matt's touring bike. they are made from 304 stainless steel. they are designed to be taken apart so that they will fit in the S&S suitcase. the lowrider racks can also be removed when not needed.

matthew's touring bike

2011-02-25T09:59:00.000-05:00

here are some pictures of matt's touring frame just after soaking the flux off and reaming the headtube. ill do some filing and sanding on the lugs and then attach the seatstays and chainstays.

Cross frame back from getting powder coated

2011-02-02T18:54:00.000-05:00

we went with pearl white, goes well with the fillet brazing. this thing is gonna get so dirty.

Eians cyclocross frame in the works

2011-01-18T11:00:00.000-05:00

here are some photos of Eians frame. still in need of some finish work.

front rack for "The Hammer"

2011-01-06T11:18:00.000-05:00

just finished this front rack for Erin "the hammer" Hammes. its built with 304 stainless steel and i just did a brushed finish. its designed to take front panniers, but she is unsure of the kind she wants to use, so we plan on adding mounts for the bags once she gets them. thats the nice thing about using stainless, you can easily go back and braze bits to the rack and you dont have to deal with chrome or paint. this alloy of stainless is also easy to bend in the tube bender, which is a plus. we also may add a light mount in the future.

polo frame repair

2010-12-14T18:15:00.001-05:00

at the all florida bicycle polo tournament, Joshua Michael "A.B." Maes discovered that one of his chain stays was almost completely severed near the bottom bracket. im unsure how this sort of dent would happen, there is also a dent on the seat tube in the same area, so i assume either a mallet shaft or another bike caused it.
he continued to play on the bike and it lasted through the tournament. he sent it home with me and nice line of the crack allowed me to tig weld it very easily. i have never done a repair in a spot like that, but i would say that it should hold up well. if it does end up failing, its in a spot that shouldnt cause a catastrophic failure/wreck. if it does, its all part of playing bicycle polo i guess.

Randonnee gets some new parts.

2010-12-02T12:34:00.004-05:00

as this is my personal bike, it will never be finished, but for now its at a point that im happy with.
just got finished lacing these new wheels for this bike. i decided to go with 36 hole velo-orange diagonale rims. these rims have a classic look with a polished finished which makes them look like steel rims. i was pleasantly surprised by how well these rims laced up. once these rims were up to tension, truing was quite easy. that means that the production tolerances are pretty tight unlike some other rims i have used in the past which end up with a lot of hops that need to be "trued" out.
the rear wheel is laced to a shimano xt hub and the front to a shimano n-71 dynamo/generator hub. the generator is running to a Spanninga Micro FF LED lamp. it has a stand light which stays on for around 5 minutes after you stop. its not nearly as bright as some of the higher end dynamo LED lamps, but for less than half the price, its a good compromise.
this light is mounted on a rack i built out of stainless steel. mounting the light in this location reduces shadow cast by the front wheel and is low enough to illuminate obstacles in the road that high mounted lights would cast into shadow.

i have also been riding with the VO aluminum "hammered" fenders for a few months now, and they are sturdy and look great. they come with a lot of hardware, which is good when you have to deal with the mounting limitations of many frames.
this post is not trying to plug velo-orange products, but its great that there is a company out there creating bicycle parts that were on the verge of extinction. Their popularity shows a demand for these products which a large part of the bicycle industry has moved away from.

custom polo frame

2010-12-02T11:58:00.001-05:00

got finished with this frame recently.
Jason was looking for a frame with as short of a wheelbase as possible and the ability to use large diameter 26" slick tires with disc brakes.
we decided to go with paragon slider disc dropouts in the rear because he is running a single speed setup. the disc mounts are attached to the sliding dropout so that once they are adjusted, they do not need to be messed with if you need to adjust the chain tension. the other nice thing is that they drop out vertically, so once you have your tension set, removing the wheel becomes very easy.
the tubing for the frame is straight gage most of the way around. the frame is a bit heavier due to this but it also creates a very strong frame.
i pondered putting gussets at the top head tube area, but the head tube is so short already, i felt it would do more harm than good.
the fork uses a pacenti moutain crown that looks a lot like the original Ritchey fork crowns.
i used a willits disc mount on the fork to increase the stiffness of the blade. it works to distribute the braking load along a large area of the fork blade to reduce twisting.
as far as the geometry. the seat tube is quite steep at 76 degrees and the head tube is also moderately steep at 74 degrees. Jason wanted the fork rake to be the same as the Fleet Velo Joust, but this frame is designed for smaller diameter 26" tires. so i decided to make the fork rake 37mm in order to get a similar Trail.

spaghetti 100

2010-10-30T17:16:00.000-04:00

today i rode the spaghetti 100. got up at 5am and rode out to Miccosukee to meet up for the ride. i ended up riding with Joe and Windy Barnett, Joanne and a woman who works for the forestry service. i never caught her name but we spoke for a while about controlled burns. we did a modified version of the 40 mile offroad route. this leg of the trip was relaxed and we got to talk a lot. when we got to Boston GA, i ended up leaving them and riding the rest of the metric road century with some random people. they were all business, there was no talking in this bunch. i kept up easily despite the fact that i over packed. my new bag for my rack does me a disservice because it can hold so much stuff. i was probably carrying 20 extra pounds that i didnt need to. the last 10 miles i dropped off and ended up riding most of the rest of the way by myself. one guy (Trent?) came back and rode with me and we talked a bit about frame building and cave diving. he is one of the guys that did the wakulla springs mapping. he spent 23 hours under water for that. how insane. we got back to Miccosukee and ate the spaghetti dinner and i got a free message from core institute students.
then i proceeded to ride back into town alone. half way through i started to feel some pain in my knee. i probably should have caught a ride home with someone but i was excited to get a full century ride in today. here is my route.

spaghetti 100 part metric century part offroad

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

fixed gear for sale

2010-08-07T12:26:00.003-04:00

im still trying to sell my track bike.

Gareth's bike built up

2010-07-08T09:48:00.003-04:00

just recieved some pictures of Gareth's town bike. check em out.

logans bike back from paint and he is so excited

2010-06-21T13:26:00.002-04:00

tommy just dropped logans bike off at my shop. the paint job is great. lugs are pearl white and the tubes are a pearled medium blue.
the frame is designed to run 650b wheels. logan plans to run a 105 triple group on it. the only hard thing is finding a 650b wheelset. the biggest downside of 650b is that there are only a few options for tires and rims. in my opinion the pros outweigh the cons, they are the perfect size wheels for touring bikes when they are built for people of medium height, the smaller size makes a stronger wheel than 700c but have a better feeling ride than 26inch wheels.

troy's bike back from paint

2010-06-13T09:38:00.003-04:00

just got troy's bicycle back from villin cycles in gainesville florida. the paint job was a prize from the last Tall-o-ween bicycle race. we gave Lex free reign to do what he wanted with the paint job. after troy told him what what his components looked like, lex went to town on it and the result is a deep purple frame with pink sparkle and gold logo and lug lining. far more flashy than my usual, but it works with the style of the frame.

Logan's front triangle finished

2010-06-03T02:00:00.003-04:00

starting to get back in the swing of things after a 5 week vacation in Berlin and Italy. here are some pictures of the finished front triangle of Logan's 650b touring bike. The s&s couplers were installed by Bilenky cycles in Philadelphia and the tubes were waiting for me when i got back from my trip. with the couplers already installed in the tubes, building the frame is the same as if the couplers were not there.
the lugs are Long Shen arrowhead design, the crests or "bat wings" are a nice aesthetic. they do make modifying the lug angles much more difficult. on this frame i decided to fillet braze the bottom bracket. this bottom bracket is designed with sockets for the chainstays. fillet brazing the bottom bracket allows for a broader range of frame geometries than a lugged shell will allow.
this frame is designed for loaded touring, so it incorporates an relatively low trail front end, 55mm fork rake, 73 degree seat tube and headtube angles. it will be able to accommodate a lowrider front rack.

bill's city bicycle

2010-04-18T21:28:00.004-04:00

finished building up this bicycle. its a town bike set up for the alfine 8 spd drivetrain. it has the matching alfine dynamo front hub with a Schmidt Edelux LED headlamp and a sleek tail light. its running avid bb7 road disc brakes. some internal stainless steel lugs, internal cable routing and some really nice disc brake dropouts made by paragon machine works.

repaired orbea and 29er single speed wheel for sale

2010-03-14T19:12:00.002-04:00

i replaced the top tube in this orbea frame and now its time for me to let it go from my life. $350
the 700c wheel has a paul word single speed hub and torelli rim. never ridden.
$125

track frame back from paint.

2010-02-10T18:18:00.002-05:00

just got this bike back from tommy over at universal collision. he does a mean paint job.
this is my personal track frame. the lugs are schwinn paramount from pacenti cycles, 3rensho fork crown and dedacciai oversize tubing. beyond the copper accents, it has a sturmey archer drum brake front hub, campagnolo headset, cranks and bottom bracket,and profile track rear hub.

bicycle hats

2010-01-07T23:47:00.002-05:00

made these hats last night and this morning. there are 6 of the full winter hats in various combinations of gray and black, a few normal 3 panel cycling hats with the same fabric, the rest are various patterned fabrics like the photos. some of them have retro reflective bits. i tried to take pictures of me wearing one of the winter hats, these were the only ones i got with the whole hat in the picture

derosa repair

2009-12-10T22:35:00.003-05:00

i have no idea how this bike was damaged. somehow only the non driveside seat stay was damaged at all and the dents were on the top of the tube. i first cut the stay into 3 pieces so it was easier to heat and remove. when i cut the bottom section the section of tube with the dent sprang up about 2 cm. i heated the joints to melt the brass and then remove the tubes(did this outside so as not to breath the fumes from the paint)
i then cleaned off the excess brass and paint so i could match the stay.
i checked the dropout alignment before cutting and matching the stay. once the stay was matched to the other, i checked the alignment again before brazing in the new stay.

joselle's 26" touring bike.

2009-12-10T22:25:00.002-05:00

just back from getting powder coated. this custom frame was the prize for the first female winner in the Tall-o-ween 5 bicycle race. joselle wanted a touring bike that she can also use as her daily commuter ride.

2009-10-07T10:22:00.002-04:00

here is michael pedron's 650b touring bicycle built up. the lugs are very simple, the seat stays are bent in my fork blade bender.
it was painted at Villin Cycles in gainesville florida.

B is for Boston

2009-08-04T18:20:00.003-04:00

just spent a week in Boston visiting Katie and Aaron. they are summering in Jamaica Plains staying at a co-op house. the exterior is surrounded by sunflowers, while the inside is filled with 9 people. in order to accommodate this many people, they have a kitchen with two ovens, 2 refrigerators, and a large pantry along with a well working system for meals, shopping and cleaning. the basement has bike hooks with what seems like more than 1 bike per person(and at least a couple bikes for guests).
on my first day, Aaron, Erica and i rented a sail boat at the lake across the street. we had to convince the boat house keeper(aka merman) that we could sail(we dont know how to sail). we did a bunch of laps around the lake(i guess we kinda do know how to sail). i am now itching to get home to fix up my brothers hobie cat so we can take it out.
that same night we went out contra dancing in a small town outside the city. i thought i knew a thing or two about contra dancing, it turns out that i am better at sailing than i am at contra dancing(this is not saying very much).
day 2 was filled with rain and the most exciting thing we did was go to the Bikes Not Bombs storefront which is right down the street from the house. the shop sells new and used bikes and all the profits go to fund the BNB community projects. day three Aaron and i rode around boston. in boston common we saw some really awesome pedal powered paddle boats. the sat probably 20 people and the driver sat in a large swan. that night we went to a party at katie's work and ate free Turkish food till we couldnt move.
other highlights of the trip:
we went on 2 very nice rides in the boston area. the first one we rode up to Lynn, not the most exciting town, but its right one water, so that was nice.
the second ride was out to Holliston to visit A.N.T. Bicycles. Mike Flanigan's bikes really inspire me. they are simple, beautiful and utilitarian. they have a dutch city bike look, but are still very unique. his shop is in an old shoe factory. he was nice enough to show us his shop, let us see and ride one of his bikes(his personal dutch style bike) and then had lunch with us at a local cafe.(mike, thanks again for the drum brake boss, it will go on the next fork i build).
after 3 hours we were back on the road to boston.
im not going to post all the pictures on here, click this image to see more.

so, here are some statistics from my trip so far:

minimum number of miles ridden on a bike thus far: 200(hmm, should be more)

number of bikes ridden: 5

number of dead rats: boston 5
philly 2
nyc 0(huh?)
number of live rats: boston 0
philly 2
nyc 4
number of bus rides: 5 (2 more to go)

vegan ice cream shops visited: 2

of those, how many actually open for business: 1

# of collectively run vegan pizza joints that i tried to visit but were no longer in business: 1

Vietnamese veggie sandwiches eaten:5 (the ones in philly are the best so far)

total cost: $15

famous people i had to move out of the way of? 3

city were i spent the most money: new york

last day in philly, off to boston

2009-07-29T10:01:00.004-04:00

on my last day in philly, i decided to go down to south street. its pretty busy there and there are a bunch of cheesy shops along with some good ones like the wooden shoe collective book store and Via Bicycle a bike shop that has tons of vintage bikes and parts crammed into a small building. these are the shops i wanted to go to.
on south street there are a couple really cool community gardens along with the magic garden, an old empty lot that has been turned into a museum of mosaics.

Isaiah Zagar's mosiacs adorn buildings all over philadelphia. philly also has a lot of really interesting murals, i like this one of the dogs and cats, but there are ones that i have no idea what they are suppose to be about. i then met up with my friend lauren, her room mate Meg made us a treasure map to devils pool along the Wissahickon River. there is a great bike trail that goes along the river and connects to the trail on the Schuylkill.these trails are great connectors as well as for recreation. devils pool is pretty much a small deep pool in a stream off the Wissahickon between a couple 15-20ft high boulders that are perfect to jump off of. the pool isnt too deep but that didnt stop the kids from doing front flips and dives into it. i jumped feet first from the highest point from fear of hitting my head on the bottom. good idea since my feet hit the bottom. there is also bridge about 50 feet above the pool. the kids claim that they jump off it into the water, but i doubt you could do it without dying.

it took a while to get back and we stopped to see this great view of the skyline

my week in philadelphia

2009-07-28T16:07:00.002-04:00

i decided to take a vacation before i go on the poster job(hopefully for the last time and hopefully ill pay off my student loans)
i spent a week in new york and im now in philadelphia. visiting old friends, helping with there house projects and seeing whats new with the city.

sunday brunch around the corner at a house around the corner from Ben's place.
the money raised will go to start an Urban CSA

bike path along the schuylkill river. cycling has increased by over 300% in philly since the city has started to invest in bike facilities

neighborhood bike works is a community bicycle shop on penn campus, they do a youth earn a bike program along with open community shop hours.

Ryan's blinged out fillet brazed track frame.

2009-07-22T10:13:00.003-04:00

just got Ryans bike back from the powder coater. its sparkly black. it was hard to get good pictures of it during the day, i really need to get someone to come take good photos, but this is the best i could do outside my shop.

michael's touring frame

2009-07-22T09:43:00.003-04:00

just got this one finished before i left for the northeast. its a 650b touring frame Michael will be getting it painted at Villin Cycles in Gainesville Florida

its built with columbus spirit tubing for lugs. the fork crown is Pacenti cycles new Paris-Brest model. im digging it quite a bit. yet again this is another frame with curved seat stays, ever since i built the first bike with them, everyone has wanted their frame with curved stays. its not too hard for me to bend them, takes just a few more minutes. this one i made the top a scallop design then brazed them to the binder, i think i like this look best.

awesome photo in the shop

2009-07-12T08:30:00.002-04:00

kyle took this photo while we were building Ryan's track frame. just got the thing painted yesterday, should have some photos up tonight.

cassia's mixte

2009-06-12T00:19:00.002-04:00

this is my first mixte style frame. its set up with front and rear Sturmey Archer drum brake hubs. the front has a dynamo and the rear is an 8 speed internal. shifts a lot better than i thought it would and the drum brakes have excellent stopping power.

stem build pictures

2009-06-11T23:58:00.002-04:00

built a stem for Sean up in north carolina. here are some pictures of the mitering.

my brothers bike

2009-06-01T14:54:00.004-04:00

my little brother wanted to build his own bicycle frame with my guidance. its a tig welded fixed gear frame. the fork crown is the new "paris-brest" model from pacenti cycles. sorry for the not so stellar photos. the camera im using right now is not great.

fixing disc brake tab

2009-05-31T16:47:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-24T19:13:00.005-04:00

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

2009-05-12T21:09:00.003-04:00

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

2009-05-12T16:16:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-01T11:10:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-01T10:51:00.005-04:00

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

2009-05-01T10:24:00.007-04:00

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.

photos

2009-01-29T01:06:00.004-05:00

i know i have not been posting anything lately. thats because i dont have anything built right now. ill have new stuff up soon though. last weekend i went to BikeBike southeast, a conference for bicycle coops in atlanta. it was great, met some awesome people, then on the last day my friend Matt Miller took pictures of me and my tattoo that Danielle did on my left arm.

travis' track bike

2008-12-07T23:39:00.002-05:00

here is his track frame all built up with a new fork and custom stem bar combo.

2008-11-26T00:28:00.003-05:00

i started building stems recently, here are two that i just got back from getting powder coated. i modified the crane bells so that they can be attached to a water bottle braze on.

eriks new bicycle

2008-11-10T19:07:00.002-05:00

its my first fillet brazed frame. came out pretty well, its good to see what the fillets come out looking like when painted. we will have build photos once the parts come in.

Tall-o-ween bicycle race prize

2008-10-24T14:29:00.007-04:00

i took a break on eriks frame to build a frame for a prize for the talloween bicycle race this weekend. its a tig welded single speed frame made of mostly older tange tubing(not quite sure what tubing exactly, but its pretty thick walled) the top tube i purchased along with a bunch of other random tubes from steve garro. the track ends are from henry james. they are designed for a wide range of angles, so i left the tabs completely in tact to go along with the beefy chain stays and the inverted seat stays(which was done so that i could braze the stays directly to the binder. i think it looks classy along with the curved top tube.
powder coat done at organic engines in tallahassee. after the powder coat, i could notice the blems in my tig welds, i used this cheap tig welder that i purchased off ebay that i use for small projects. it doesnt have a foot control, so the amperage must be manually adjusted on the unit. this does not make for pretty welds, but it does the job.

eriks frame

2008-10-10T01:52:00.000-04:00

this is my first fillet brazed frame. its a "pursuit" style track frame. i decided to tack with the tig welder and ended up doing small portions of the joint using the tig then adding the fillet over it. i thought it would make things easier, but i think that it would have taken the same amount of time just using brass.

the beginning

2008-10-09T21:42:00.001-04:00

ive been hounded for a while to start either a website or a blog. i decided on a blog because it seems to be a little more fluid and personal. this blog will mostly focus on my bicycle frame building, but i might stray a little into other projects i may be working on.