Summer Knight – Vincent Domínguez Cycles

This frame was built for a friend, Michele, in 2012 as a long-distance bicycle. It was built specifically for randonneuring events, such as Paris-Brest-Paris and London-Edinburgh-London. This bicycle supplants a Waterford that Michele had been riding, which did not fit her well or comfortably for such long-distance events.

This frame was originally built around the 700c wheel size and 28mm-wide tires. It is fitted with a type of Hirth joint or bicycle torque coupler from S&S Machine to make it easy to disassemble the frame for airline travel.

She chose a medium metallic green for the frame, painted by Chris Kvale.

Summer Knight
Back from paint. Headset installed and ready for build-up.

Head tube and fork crown detail.
Brushed stainless steel fork crown.

Fork blade detail.
Custom computer sensor mount.

After more than a year of much randonneuring, including a successful London-Edinburgh-London ride, Michele was traveling from an event in her car when her bicycle detached itself from the bike rack. The bicycle was relatively unscathed but, because there was nothing to protect the fork, the fork blades were bent to one side when they hit the road at 50mph. There was damage to the down tube and right-side seat stay as well.

So, while I was building her a new fork and repairing her frame, Michele asked me to modify her frame to accommodate 650b wheels with 42mm-wide tires and cantilever brakes. Oh, and some front and rear racks would be nice, too — with light mounts and internal wiring.

Down tube.
The damaged down tube pulled from the lower head tube lug using the minimum of heat applied to the head lug and most of it directed onto the damaged down tube to remove it.

Rear rack.
Dry-fitting of rack parts before silver-brazing them together.

Rear rack and frame fixes.
The rear rack under construction, brazed together fitted to the frame for a perfect fit. Note the dimples added to the chain stays to clear the 42mm-wide tires. The right side seat stay was replaced and cantilever brake bosses were added.

New fork.
The new fork after attaching cantilever brake bosses and computer sensor mounting pads.

Front rack.
Attaching the side braces to the rack.

Summer Knight - painted!
Fresh out of the curing oven at Chris Kvale Cycles.

650b wheels.
New rims and tires for the Summer Knight: HED Belgium+ rims, Grand Bois 650b x 42mm tires. Schmidt front dynamo hub; DT Swiss rear hub; SRAM cassette.

Front fender.
Fitting the front fender to the fork.

Fresh paint.
London-Edinburgh-London (2013) finisher's sticker added under clear coat.

Summer Knight Redux
Building up the Summer Knight its new fork and racks; the drivetrain is composed mostly of SRAM parts.

The frame was built up with a DT Swiss rear hub; SRAM Red crankset and front dérailleur, SRAM XX rear dérailleur, SRAM PG-1070 cassette; Schmidt SON dynamo front hub. The wheels were re-built by Paul Wyganowski using HED Belgium+ 650b rims and DT Swiss spokes, fitted with Grand Bois 650b x 42mm tires.

In 2015, Michele participated in Paris-Brest-Paris on the Summer Knight. Only a few miles from the finish, she was struck from behind by another cyclist and suffered injuries that left her unable to finish. The Summer Knight was damaged as well.

Following her recovery from PBP 2015, Michele asked me to rebuild the Summer Knight. However, a combination of factors made that impractical. Therefore, Summer Knight II is an entirely new build and has been underway (on and off) since the winter of 2019. Photos of that bicycle…coming soon.

All photos were taken with a Nikon D700 digital camera (12MP).