Category Archives: Frame Building

Sliding dropout 29er

I wanted to create a 29er that could run biggish tyres, single speed or geared. This can easily take up to 2.5 tyres with as short a rear end as I could squeeze in to reduce overall length. The forks are modified Surlys to take a Salsa Anything cage and a front luggage rack. Just about ready to go to paint – just need to decide on the colour!

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Folding bike prototype

I finally finished my prototype folder. A fairly simple design, really to test the folding mechanism and the geometry. The first version requires the front wheel to be removed to fold it, mainly because it was easier to do it that way. The BB in the rear triangle means there’s no chain issues when folding. 20 inch wheels means it rolls a bit better than my Brommy. I need to put an extra spacer in the frame joint to raise the read a little and have changed the seatpost to one with less layback and suitable amount of seat adjustment. The cable routing seems to work ok with the folding action so far. The next version should enable the front wheel to say in when folding. On the first trip to London found this cool lit bridge with 406 which is coincidentally the tyre size on the bike.

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DIY Bamboo Frames

And now for something completely different. When browsing Kickstarter one day, we came across a really neat looking Bamboo frame idea. Self build Bamboo frames with the box it’s sent in becoming the frame jig. I always fancied building one and was fortunate enough to find another 3 willing victims. The kits look great – just need the other two of the four to turn up now! A weekend of epoxy, beer and pizza coming up me thinks.

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Custom stainless pannier rack

Lisy needed a rack for her Mixte so it was a chance to make a stainless one. Got a new Ridgid tube bender, some 10mm tubing and 4mm plate and bobs your uncle. I’ve tried using cheaper tube benders before but this made the job much easier. Solid handles, with flat sides to easily lock in the vice. Angle marker made it much easier to get the angles close to that desired.

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Clear lacquer Single Speed

Finally built up with S2C hub, so not a single speed at all really. Suitably steam punk in clear lacquer over the blasted steel. Coaster brake so minimum of braze ons or cables. Just waiting for the snow to melt to give it a try. Can’t wait to try the bars out too. They feel really comfortable when stationary. Very natural hand/wrist position. Let’s see how they work.

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Ben’s Uni Hybrid Bike

After a long time in the planning Ben’s Uni Bike finally emerges from cover and now taking pride of place in the student kitchen.

After looking at the terrain in and around Newcastle the idea of a fixie was binned in exchange for some gears and town proof tyre size. Just about enough room to run 29er tyres if needed (with a different fork). Hopefully this will make his commute to Uni easier and more enjoyable (and leave more time for work and play).

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Single speed bike

I wanted to build myself a new singlespeed frame to replace my Cooper Sebring. As one of the bikes I ride the most I wanted something a little different so designed in a wishbone rear stay using a Triumph conrod which was pretty heavily cut back to form the wishbone and the front fork crown. I think it looks pretty cool and certainly never seen one before.

Should be off to the powder coaters this week so just need to choose a colour….

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Lisy’s Mixte frame

Having seen the rest of the household with new frames my wife wanted in on the game. She was struggling with her old shopping bike so we decided on a Mixte style for lighter work of the school run and the chance for some fun on the weekend. I went for some skinny seatstays slightly curved in at the top and waisted the toptubes to try and give it some nice lines. It’s got enough room for some 28c tyres and mudguards and stainless rack mounts.

Fortunately I have outsourced the colour to choice to the rider. I thought I was bad!!

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Conrod wishbone seat stays

117Being a motorcycle fan I wanted to include some moto style into a bike frame. Whilst considering wishbone stays I figured a smallish moto conrod could possibly do the job. A lot of them, particularly modern jap ones, are pretty ugly. A few look a bit better and these Triumph ones have Triumph embossed into them and are about the right size. Cut some plugs into the base that will fit into 14mm stays, carve out most of the underside, the small end to fit the seat tube and bobs your uncle.

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New drop outs

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I’m having a go building some forks for my single speed project. Drop outs nearly finished. Slightly over engineered first set for testing. Next job is to finish off bending the legs and brazing it all together.

Raf’s custom mountain bike

At last, i’ve finished Raf’s custom mountain bike. It fits just right and he loves it.

Small enough so he can reach the floor easily and be confident but using 26 inch wheels. As he grows we can throw in a longer stem, sus forks, risers and longer seat post so it will hopefully last him longer than the 24 inch bikes that are aimed at his age group.

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Tube bender update

After chatting with Oli from DMO frameworks at Bespoked in April, I made some changes to my tube bender. Basically milling the slot deeper to try and reduce the amount the tube flattens. The initial test looks better so i’ll give it a further test and then look to recreate it in aluminium

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Powder Coat Close ups

A few more detailed close ups of the frames powder coat.

 

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The red frame was basically just cleaned. No filing fillets. It was a bit of an experiement to see how good (or otherwise) it would look so I was pretty pleased with the results.

Nice Powder

Well after much faffing I finally got these two down to the powder coaters (at Armourtex in Hackney).

It made a pretty cautious trip as the frame was wider the bars so filtering was an act of faith – remember the frames, remember the frames………

And then the most difficult bit – which colour to choose?

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Frame number 2

Mountain bike frame for my son. Curvy chain and seat stays. Some nice Ritchey dropouts. It will be disk only and it’s pretty small. New attachment for the jig to hold the chain stays parallel which seemed to help.

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Frame number 1

So first frame (not on a course). Fairly basic cromo pipes, in case it all goes horribly wrong, geared roadie frame to replace my slightly well used Kona Deluxe. Initial jig setup was done by putting the old frame in and building to that shape. I was desperately trying to curb the urge just to build something with enough practice and some level of measurement and design. Boy did I warm those tubes up though!

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IMG_0393_2Job (nearly) done. The head angle is an optical illusion courtesy of the iphone (honest). Just need to ream and face it and sort some paint. Roll spring time.

Baby frame

When I got my home brazing gear I needed something to test it with so bought some practice tubes, cut them all in half to make some cute little frames. Half lugged, half fillet brazed. The other one was half fillet brazed, half lugged! This was using oxy/propane which took a little getting used to from practicing with Acetylene. It heats up differently. Well that’s my excuse – just need some practice really.

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New tubes

I love when a box of tubes turns up. New possibilities abound. This is a set of Columbus Chromor for my single speed replacement and some 19mm, 16mm and 14mm tubing for some experimentation in the near future!

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Frame jig

IMG_0151_2Having checked out the price of commercially available jigs I decided to build my own to help with trying to get things straight. RS components stock these aluminium sections. I made the attachments to hold the bottom bracket, seat tube and head tube on the lathe. Lots of adjustment for frame size and angles.

First frame

This was m,y first frame built on the Downland cycles frame course. I wanted to try as many braze on’s as possible, so it’s got canti mounts, disk mount, bottle bosses and internal cable routing for the rear brake on the top tube. It’s made of Columbus Spirit tubing and weight in around 4lbs.

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Next job was to go on the fork course and sort some of those out for it.

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I wanted to try a uni-crown disk fork, as the most likely thing i’d want to repeat in the future. Pretty chunky but happy with the look of those.

Cyclocross frame and fork