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