Soundly engineered, hand-made, human-powered works of art.
Frame #3
by Vincent | published: 2007 July 4 | updated: 2022 September 21 |
This frame is presented to document my early frame-building adventures. This frame was built for my first client, my dentist, Paul. He stands 185cm (6′ 1″) tall, with a long torso and reach, and had been unable to find any off-the-shelf bicycles to fit him well.
In 2003, upon seeing Frame #1, he asked that I build him a frame just like it. Except, built to fit him, of course. And, he wanted Campagnolo parts instead of Shimano. I added a unique embellishment to the seat cluster (the polished stainless ring that follows the cut of the seatpost socket) specifically for him.
Due to working a full-time day job, and not one to rush things, this frame was more than three years in the making, plus several months at paint. Paul was very patient. I am very grateful that all of my clients have been very patient.
Two prepared bottom bracket shells and seat tubes, one head tube: Test pieces for practice brazing.
Practice tubes. The head tube is socketed to receive the top and down tubes.
Practice tubes.
Practice seat tube brazed to bottom bracket shell.
Cutting the down tube socket and checking for penetration of the bronze filler. Looks good!
All the tubes, except the chain stays (Columbus EL), are Tange Prestige. The fork crown, seat cluster embellishment, and seat stay caps are polished stainless steel. The front ends and dropouts are G.P. Wilson super-light castings with stainless steel faces added to increase the thickness of the clamping faces (this prevents exposing the skewer threads past the end of the skewer nut). Top tube length is 60.5cm; seat tube length (center-to-center) is 55cm.
Good fit of seat tube into bottom bracket shell socket.
"Dry-fitting" all the tubes to verify geometry and dimensions.
Seat tube tack-brazed into the bottom bracket shell socket. Good penetration of the bronze filler. Photo taken prior to removing excess seat tube and filler, before chasing threads.
Checking bronze penetration into the bottom bracket shell after tack-brazing the seat tube and chasing the bottom bracket threads.
Down tube socket milled into the bottom bracket shell. Good penetration of the bronze filler!
G.P. Wilson dropouts and fork ends in the raw.
G.P. Wilson dropouts and fork ends with clamping face washers brazed on.
Drive-side dropout right after brazing. Stainless steel plugs fill the space between the dropout tangs and the inner chain stay walls.
Dropouts brazed into place.
Hand-coped down tube.
Test-fitting the down tube in the head tube socket. Heat sink is in place. A Tange Prestige mountain down tube is used for its heavier wall gauge.
Bottom bracket area after brazing, with crispy flux!
Bottom bracket area fillets taking shape.
Head tube/top tube fillet starting to take shape.
Computer sensor cable guide. It's tiny.
Columbine chain hanger.
Finished drive-side dropout.
Finished drive-side dropout.
Finished non-drive-side dropout.
Custom-made "gear" water bottle boss reinforcement.
Internal rear brake cable guide.
Test fitting the rear brake to verify clearance.
Test-fitting the fork ends in the brazing fixture.
Fork end brazed into place.
Fork end with scalloped edges.
Custom computer sensor mount.
The raw fork crown, as cast.
Fork crown is sanded prior to polishing. Many, many times.
Fork crown is sanded prior to polishing. Many, many times.
Fork crown is sanded prior to polishing. Many, many times.
Front side of the polished fork crown.
Back side of the polished fork crown.
Completed fork...no, just one more thing (re-do the sensor braze-ons).
Test-fitting the finished fork to verify clearances, yet again.
Seat stays coped to receive stainless steel caps.
Seat tube before shaping and adding the polished stainless steel ring.
Shiny!
Polished stainless steel seat stay caps and seat tube ring.
Outfitted with spare parts for an off-road shake-down ride.
Freshly zinc-phosphate dipped and coated (grey areas). The shiny parts are stainless steel or bronze, unaffected by the rust inhibitor treatment.
In addition to the usual braze-ons, a Columbine chain hanger is used, as well as multiple custom-fabricated braze-ons for the front- and rear-wheel computer (Campagnolo Ergo Brain) sensors and computer sensor cable guides. In addition, this was the first use of my custom-made, stainless steel “gear” water bottle boss reinforcements.
Like Frame #1, this frame is painted red (Imron #51078) by Joe Bell:
Two color-matched stems: One for this frame, one for Frame #1 (shown).
Color-matched stem.
Finished in 2006. Painted in 2007.
Yes, it's made from mostly-iron!
The frame was built up with a mix of Campagnolo Record and Chorus components. Wheels were hand-built by Colorado Cyclist with Mavic CXP-33, black-anodized rims, DT Swiss spokes, and Campagnolo Records hubs. Crankset, brakes, headset, and brake/shift levers are Campagnolo Record. The cassette, dérailleurs, pedals, and bottom bracket bearing assembly are Campagnolo Chorus. Tires are Vredestein Fortezza 700c x 25mm.
This bicycle has been displayed at the Minnesota Bicycle Trade and Fitness Exposition in 2007; at the NAHBS in 2009; at Minnecycle in 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2016; and, at Third Thursday: Bike Night at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 2013(?).
All photos were taken with a Nikon D100 digital camera (6MP).
