Paul's "Modern Classic"

Paul's take on the "Modern Classic" will be a light touring bike with mounts for fenders and racks. As you can see, I've got the tubes all mitered and ready to go, I've just been waiting for the head lugs to arrive. They showed up last week, but I've been distracted with my display stands for the NAHBS show which is coming up soon! More on the displays later...

Here's the Pacenti Artisan top tube lug after some solid carving time. I haven't used one of these lugs for quite a while, and I noticed that he's changed the casting a bit to give more of a radius to the transition between sockets, nice! Should make polishing easier too.

Another view.

OK, here's the other project that's been taking me away from my building duties. I originally planned to make some basic stands to display my complete bikes on for the show. Just plywood with some trim, no big deal. As I'm working on the basic parts, I mentioned to Lisa how I wanted to cut an arch out of the sides to make it a bit less "boxy". She immediately threw out the idea, "why don't you make it look like a lug"? Pretty good idea, but much more involved from the construction side. I even ended up making a steam box to bend strips of wood for the trim. See what I mean about more involved?

At least they're close to being done. Hopefully one more coat of finish tomorrow and they'll be done. I'll take some more photos with the bike mounts as well, and if you're at the show, stop by and see 'em. The bikes on top should be nice too!

Dave

Kevin's frame part 2

I'll keep the words to a minimum and let the pictures do the talking!

Kevin's Ellis

Drew just sent along this photo of Kevin's new road frame and I had to get it posted!

More soon!
Dave

Dave's (that's me) Show bike!

OK, let me begin by saying, I sometimes get involved in building and forget to stop and take pictures. So as you can see below, I've got the lugs for my personal bike all carved and ready...

And then the bike is brazed and finished! Sure I missed a couple steps, but who wants to see a frame all covered in flux. Once you've seen one, you've seen them all!

The chain stays and seat stays are polished 953, so I've left the dropout points proud of the stays.

Polished seat stays meet painted seat lug. Going to be some careful masking for Jason.

Now, a short story about this bike. When I was just getting into cycling in the late 80's, I lusted after Campy C-Record parts. I used to draw intricate bikes for my high school art classes with detailed parts down to the chain links and spoke nipples. I watched as Greg LeMond, Stephen Roche and Pedro Delgado won Tour's de France on bikes that I dreamed of...

Fast forward to 2009. I'm working at Ben's Cycle in Milwaukee while Ellis Cycles gets going and Ben's does a ton of business with Euro Asia imports. We just so happen to have a full Campy Record kit with Delta brakes. Don't even get me started on these brakes, I know they don't have the best reputation for function, they're heavy, but DAMN do they look cool! Form over function in this case. OK, so after getting the Record kit back fr0m some nutty customer, the folks in Ben's web sales were ready to send the whole shebang back to Euro Asia. I decided it time to build my 1991 dream bike, so I plunked down a bunch of my hard earned cash!

Campy parts, I've got the hubs built into wheels with an Ambrosio Synthesis Durex in the back and Crono Durex in the front. More NOS parts from Ben's! Also a classic non anatomic set of Nitto handlebars.

I got it back from the polisher, cleaned it off and then I just had to hang some parts on it! Sat in the basement for about 10 minutes just looking at it before Lisa got home and I made her look at it too! I love her for humoring me!

Thanks also go to Jason P. for the almost mint Turbo Special saddle. Once the bike's done I'll get that stem, (also custom made), down a little lower. Talked to Jason about paint and we're thinking of white with just the head tube logo and down tube logo in a gunmetal gray/blue to match the "Century" finish on the parts. The seat stays and chain stays will be fully polished and the fork is chromed.

I can't wait to get it built up! Maybe you can go home again?

Cheers,

Dave

Patrick's 953 Frame

Patrick's frame is another one I'm planning to display at the upcoming NAHBS in Richmond. It's a mostly 953 frame with the exception of the seat tube, head tube and a plain steel bottom bracket instead of stainless. All the stainless will be polished with a painted seat, head tube and fork blades. Very similar to the 953 Ellis I built for Mike S. last year. I was hoping to have that one done for the show, but we were held up by a stainless fork crown, this year there shouldn't be any problems.

Above, all the parts prepped and ready to for the fixture.

Here I've got the complete bike set up so I can cut the seat stays to length and get the stainless caps welded and finished. I have to thank the guys at Waterford for helping with that quick bit of stainless welding!

A couple detail shots of the 953 chain stays and my new dropouts. I extended the tabs just a bit so I have more contact area for silver brazing. When I prepare the dropouts for a 953 bike, I finish the tabs to a point and then slot my stays to fit that point. What I'm looking to do is leave the points slightly raised from the stays so when the frame is polished, the silver braze doesn't get undercut around the dropouts. Plus it looks kinda cool too!

The head lugs after brazing.

Head lugs after a soak and some finishing. I really like the detail of the points almost touching on the back of the head tube. Just a geeky frame builder thing.

The frame, fork and stem all ready for final polish and then paint. I've started working with Jason to have him prime the fork and stem before polish so the sealer gets right into the lug edges. He'll have to touch things up after polish, but it's been working well, and it makes the polisher a bit more careful of the edges as well.

A closer shot of the head lugs, fork crown and stainless lugged stem.

A couple detail shots of the brake bridge, (it really mitered up tight and brazed nicely), and the rear dropouts.

Finally, the seat lug with the side tack 953 seat stays.

Tomorrow, I'll post some shots of my personal road frame that's also destined for the NAHBS show!

Cheers,

Chad's Tri Frame

Once again, I'm really falling behind on my blog entries, I'm gonna try to get one up every day for a few days to get everyone up to date.

Chad contacted me last summer and wondered if I could make him a steel triathlon frame that would be unique and not just a cookie cutter version of all the typical carbon tri frames. Well, even with a simple paint job, this frame would stand out, but Chad took it one step further and had Jason paint it the classic Richard Petty NASCAR scheme. Honestly, the photos don't even do the orange justice, it's full on day glo!

In addition, we went with polished 953 chain stays and a chromed fork. If you look back through the blog, you'll see some shots of the raw frame and the bi-laminate lugs for the head tube and seat lug.
Jason added Chad's name on the top tube so just in case there's another Richard Petty tri frame out there!

A shot of the bi laminate seat lug and huge aero seat stays attached as a fastback.

Chad already got the frame built up last Sat., it's an interesting mix of modern and classic looks.

If you stop my the Ellis booth at NAHBS in Richmond, Chad's bike will be on display, you can't miss it!

Cheers,

Dave

Rob's Complete Bike

Rob certainly didn't waste any time getting his new Christmas present put together. He sent along this photo of the bike and his "inspector". "Looks like everything is where it needs to be!"

I'm busy working on show frames and bikes for NAHBS, should have some more photos soon!