Ellis Cycles: Chris' 953 Special

OK, for those of you who haven't been watching the blog, Chris couldn't make up his mind on exactly what type of Ellis frame he wanted, so I surprised him. He received the frame yesterday, so now I can finally post some photos and not worry about ruining the surprise.

Parts all laid out, ready to fixture the main diamond.

A couple close up shots of the head lugs, before and after brazing.

The stainless brake bridge, post braze with the flux still hot.

After some careful finishing with very fine emery.

A little out of order here, but here's a shot of the seat stays, mitered and dry fit. I had to heat the ends of the stays just a bit and then squeeze them just a touch to get them narrow enough to fit up with the seat lug.

The stays, freshly brazed to the seat lug.

More careful finishing with 280 grit emery.

Finally, the finished product. Chris is going with a Campy Super Record group, so what better color than red for an Italian equipped bike.

Jason's amazing masking skills on display in the super clean shorelines around the head lug.

I'm really happy with the "fastback" style seat stay attachment. It allows me to use the cool curved brake bridge even on large frames where a side tack arrangement would be too wide for that particular bridge. Plus it looks pretty cool too!