New Inspectors!

After Alley passed away, it didn't take long for Lisa and I to decide we needed some new cats in our household, but I wasn't sure if they were going to be "shop cats" or not.

Lisa found a little gray tiger kitten named Chuckles at the Milwaukee Humane Society, and when we went to meet him, he was having such a great time playing with his roommate that we adopted them both! Below is Marshall, who seems to be the new Inspector looking over Scott's Waterford refurbish.


Here's Chuckles keeping an eye on me while I work in the office!

With Scott's bike, he was trying to get a bit of extra clearance on his RS-22 so he could run fenders and a bit wider tire. We initially talked about just building a slightly longer fork, but in the end I talked him into doing a fork and making the seat stays a bit longer as well. This way, the bike gets raised up a bit, but the angles and the handling should stay pretty similar.

The new and the old forks, along with the bits of seat stay that I removed. The new fork only has about 3mm more rake, but I must say I really prefer the small radius bend that I do over the rake in the old Waterford fork. The new fork also has an attachment point under the crown for fenders and a single eyelet on the dropouts.

I removed the "fastback" style seat stays and replaced them with these nice flat capped "sidetack" stays. These allow for more tire clearance and better placement for canti studs.

Marshall checking out the curved seat stay bridge with a fender mount.

A shot of the bridge reinforcing tang.

Finally, I had to add a chain stay bridge so Scott would have an attachment point for his fender. Unfortunately, it lands right in the end of the tire clearance "bump". Not an easy part to miter, but I managed to get it in there!

For the fender attachment on the dropout, I just drilled the flat part of the Waterford dropouts and threaded the holes.

Not quite a new bike, but the next best thing!

More 29'er Pics

A few more pics of Rob's new 29'er. Here's a nice shot of the custom bent brake bridge and seat stays. Those top miters on the stays are always fun to hand miter, but they're plenty tight.

A shot of the bi-lam seat lug. I used an externally butted seat tube and just brazed the socket on for the top tube.

The bottom bracket is originally a road shell, but with a little gentle persuasion, the sockets got a bit angled.

Finally, the sweet chainstay disk mount Paragon dropouts. Really liking these!

Cheers,

Dave

Rob's 29'er

Rob first contacted me about updating his '95? Paramount so he could use disk brakes and more modern componentry. I'm pretty hesitant to do a lot of work upgrading an older bike like this since it really wasn't designed for the loads that disks will put on both the frame and fork. Plus the fact that suspension forks really aren't available for an older bike like this got Rob thinking about a new frame, and if it was going to be built from the ground up, why not a 29'er?

I did a few drawings and while I may have been able to squeak the angles out of existing lugs, I felt like the bi-laminate construction wouldn't constrain the design and it would allow for some extra strength in certain areas as well. Plus it made for nice paint mask lines so Rob's new Ellis would still retain the classic lugged look of his old, well loved Paramount.

Here's the original.

Here's the modern, Ellis take on a suspension corrected 29'er. I gotta say, as I was building this frame I was getting a bit jealous of Rob, I'm gonna have to build one for myself soon!

The Niner carbon fork is a bit massive up front, but I think once the bike is built up it'll look just fine.
A shot of those beautiful bi-lam head lugs!

I extended the bottom lug down the tube a bit to act as a gusset for the front end. The tangs should take any stress and distribute it outward instead of down the tube.

This one's off to MI soon, but I should have some more pics before it's gone!

Cheers,

Dave

Paul's Modern Classic

Paul sent me some pics this past week of his new "Modern Classic" in the wild!

Should've gotten my "studio" photos of this one up sooner, but here they are. More are posted on the website under the title "Blue Goodness"!

Paul wanted the same look as the "Modern Classic" that won best lugged frame at NAHBS in 2009, but since he was going to be fitting a rack and fenders I choose to use standard tubing instead of 953 for the rear end and have it chromed. The 953 chainstays and seat stays are just too thin for my taste on a touring bike.

A good shot of the new double eyeleted Ellis dropouts.

The seat cluster and seat stays get a lot of detail work with the lug carving and the sleeved seat stays.

Some more finished bike shots. Nice to see he's not afraid of getting it wet!

Ride on Paul!

Cheers,

Dave

Sydney's Finished Frame

The little bi-lam frame is all finished up. I love doing these smaller frames since folks who ride them usually have to put up with a bunch of geometry compromises on "stock" frames. I can make each fork and frame fit perfectly together, and the end product is going to perform so much better.

I've been doing this lug detail on quite a few frames recently, and I really like the way the fork crown mimics the frame detail.

Bi-lam seat lug with sidetack seat stays and you can just see the internal cable routing. On little bikes, the internal really sends the housing out in a nice arc to the brake. Just hugs the seat post.

I've been brazing on a stainless washer for the brake mount, so the paint doesn't get chipped up.
Finally, the Ellis dropouts, really thinned back for such a small frame.