My New DRB!

It took a while, but it's finally done! This frame is actually the one that I'm brazing in Chris' video in Vimeo, and I displayed it at NAHBS as a "raw" frame, but since then it's kept sliding onto the back burner as Jason worked on frames for customers. If you haven't seen the video, definitely take a couple minutes to check it out, it was filmed over the course of one day in my shop this past Jan, and it features both of Ellis' furry mascots, Woody and Chuckles!

Ellis Cycles from Chris Harris on Vimeo.

Getting back to the bike though, it's my personal DRB, and I designed it to accept mini v-brakes for maximum tire clearance and it features fully internal wired Di2 components. It's perfect for exploring dirt roads, and with a skinny set of tires, it certainly doesn't hold me back on the smoother pavement!

In the next week or so I'm hoping to get some better pictures of the complete bike, but if you're heading to Blue Mounds this Sunday for Robbie Ventura's Gran Fondo, you can check it out in person. I'm also looking forward to D2R2 in about a month's time as well, can't wait to try out the DRB there!

Cheers,
Dave

Three Dirt Road Bikes

As usual, I've been neglecting the blog, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been turning out bikes. If you check out my Ellis Picasa page here; https://picasaweb.google.com/elliscycles, there you'll see some of the newest bikes to head out into the world.

Right now, I'm working on parts of the next 3 bikes in the queue, which all happen to be DRB's (Dirt Road Bikes). They're all a bit different, but I managed to get the forks built together and yesterday I worked on all three sets of chainstays.

Here I've got 2 sets of blades for the two forks that will be getting chromed. The third fork will be painted, so it gets different dropouts.

All 3 forks brazed and ready for finishing.

Here's my chainstays and dropouts. All three bikes are going to have stainless steel chainstays and seat stays, so they require a bit more work to prepare. The longer stays are KVA's round oval round stays and the shorter oval stays are Reynolds 953.

On stainless chainstays, I grind the dropout tabs to a point and then slot the stays into a point as well. I'll finish the stays with this point slightly proud of the stay so that the silver braze material doesn't get polished out during finishing, leaving a low spot. Below are all the stays, slotted and prepped for brazing along with a bunch of stainless washers that will make up the dropout faces.

On the Reynolds 953 chainstays, I'll be leaving the reveals open on the end of the stays to allow for Di2 wiring.


All three sets, brazed up and ready for finishing. Two of these sets will be heading out for pre-polishing, and then I'll concentrate on finishing the one bike that will be getting a "brushed" finish.

More soon!
Dave