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VDC frame #1: road sport bicycle. Nice seat cluster detail. All bronze fillet-brazed and filed. No filler putty here!
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More putty-free bronze-fillet-brazed joints.
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Lots of red. Vredestein tires. Polished stainless. Dura-Ace.
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Another view of the seat cluster fillet and polished stainless steel seat stay caps.
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Very smooth bronze fillets!
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Joe Bell paint.
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G.P. Wilson dropouts. Super-strong, super-light.
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More fillet details.
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Washed and waxed and ready for NAHBS 2010.
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VDC frame #2: road fixed-gear bicycle. Henry James lugs, Columbus EL OS tubing.
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Polished stainless steel fork crown. Paint by Chris Kvale. It’s purple. Some monitors don’t show the color accurately.
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In the wild.
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Repaint by Terry Osell’s painter, Butch.
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Another repaint by Terry Osell’s painter, Butch. In its current incarnation as a commuter bicycle.
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More G.P. Wilson super-light dropouts. These are on a road sport bicycle.
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Checking the frame geometry against the plan.
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Close-up of the modified G.P. Wilson fork end. Note the metal slug fitted around it to fill the fork end. Minimal silver filler is used.
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The rear G.P. Wilson dropout (with filler slug, or bottom eye, fitted) just after brazing.
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Dropout cleaned up and aligned. Test-fitting the rear wheel.
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Polished stainless steel fork crown. Test-fitting the front wheel.
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Bottom bracket fillets close-up. Some pin holes were filled with silver after shaping the fillets.
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Computer sensor cable guide detail.
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The completed, unpainted frame. The dull gray color is the zinc-phosphate rust inhibitor bonded to the steel. It does not bond to stainless steel (shiny areas) or bronze (dull gold areas).
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Joe Bell paint.
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That’s a thin fork end!
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Dropout detail. Note the chain rest.
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Bottom bracket fillet details.
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More fillet details.
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This frame was finished in 2006.
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Seat cluster detail. The trim was a tiny detail requested by the customer.
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Built-up road sport bicycle. Campagnolo Record cranks, hubs, and headset. The remainder of the components are Campagnolo Chorus. Wipperman chain.
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Cutting out a bottom bracket shell for a criterium bicycle.
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Bottom bracket shell is cut out and the chain stay sockets have been shaped and cleaned up.
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Applying a pattern which will be engraved in the bottom bracket shell.
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Engraving complete.
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Brazed-up bottom bracket shell with stainless steel dérailleur guides installed.
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Cleaning up the head lugs.
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Fork blade with computer sensor mount and internal sensor cable guide. The cable guide will be trimmed flush with the fork blade.
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Head tube close-up of the completed frame. Lugs are rounded over in the style of Terry Osell. Other builders may have done this, too, but I first saw it on his bicycles and really like the look.
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Close-up of the cluster-side dropout. Six cogs! Very retro. First generation “new” Dura-Ace.
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Detail of the bottom bracket shell cut-out.
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Head tube detail with headset installed.
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The completed criterium bicycle. Budget paint by Butch.
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The criterium bicycle with a shorter top tube. This necessitated a new fork. Very pretty, and excellent, paint by Butch.
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Most of the parts remained the same. Trying out a T.A. Alizé crankset and Tektro brake levers.
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A dedicated randonnée bicycle built as an experiment to test geometries construction techniques. Detail shot of the custom-made computer sensor braze-ons and the custom-made sensor magnet holder. A turned-down spoke nipple keeps the sensor in place.
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Polished stainless steel fork crown. This is the second fork built for this experimental bicycle.
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Shiny!
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The exit hole for the stainless steel guide in the right chainstay. The guide runs into the stay about 2cm, where it is brazed to a lathe-turned brass step-down coupler and joins to the continuous run of 4.8mm stainless guide which exits the chainstay, wraps around the bottom bracket shell, enters the down tube and exits at the head tube where it joins with an offset stop.
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Dropout detail. The rust is from soaking off the flux and not wiping off the water.
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Close-up detail of the dérailleur cable stop at the head tube, right after brazing.
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The bottom bracket area fillets cleaned up. The fillets are Fillet Pro, a silver-based filler. You can make out the rear dérailleur cable guide embedded in the filler. The front dérailleur cable guide exits at the rear of the seat tube.
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Rear dropout cleaned up. Note the rear dérailleur cable housing exit hole in the chain stay.
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Seat cluster detail with engraved bunny.
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Dura-Ace dérailleurs, cassette, and hubs. Perfect. The Jtek ShiftMate allow precise shifting with the SRAM Red shift levers. Budget paint is by Butch.
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Headtube close-up. Fitted with a Chris King headset. The headset was spun on the lathe and all the anodizing and laser-etching were sanded away and then polished. Note the Honjo Koken hammered fenders and custom front rack with clearence for short-reach, side-pull brakes.
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A new rack and fork with smooth Honjo Koken fenders. Built for NAHBS 2009.
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Another head tube close-up. Now fitted with front and rear lights, wires run rampant! Outstanding paint by Chris Kvale.
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The randonnée bicycle fitted with an Ostrich handlebar bag, halogen headlight, LED taillight, and 1.5kg sealed, lead-acid battery pack. As outfitted, the bicycle weighs 11.7kg.
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The criterium bicycle re-fitted with a Campagnolo Chorus group. Campagnolo Record hubs.
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Before (left) and after (right) of a seat lug going into a road sport bicycle intended for crushed limestone trails and supported rides.
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Finishing a head tube lug.
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Detail of the head tube and fork crown. The fork crown is a Henry James stainless steel model. The head badge is laser-cut from stainless steel. It’s supposed to be a bunny.
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Head tube detail after brazing and clean-up.
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Head tube detail after painting. The tops of the fork crown and the head badge are “brushed” stainless – just sanded to 340-grit.
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Stainless steel dérailleur cable guides run under the bottom bracket shell.
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The computer sensor cable runs through the fork blade and crown into the steerer and out the stem cap.
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The completed sport bicycle. Campagnolo Centaur group with Ultegra hubs and cassette. A Jtek ShiftMate adapter makes for flawless shifting.
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Parts for a custom stem for a track bicycle.
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Detail of the fully enclosed seat binder. Stress-relief holes are drilled. A slot is made with a small slitting saw before everything is enclosed. The tube jutting out of the side of the top tube is loose-fit over the binder to allow movement. It is brazed to the top tube and sanded flush.
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The finished seat cluster. Color is from the application of zinc phosphate rust inhibitor. Note the slotting in the seat tube and the recessed binder. Fillets in the seat cluster are 56% silver filler.
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Bottom bracket fillet and chain stay details. The 24mm diameter chainstays needed some clearance for the crank arm, so they were dented (both sides) and cut-out (drive side only).
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Paint by Curt Goodrich.
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Track bicycle completed in 2010.
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Assembly.
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Glamour shot.
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Ready to head up to Blaine and the National Sports Center Velodrome...
