The bike I built in Doug Fattic’s class has arrived, and I’m riding it. It is absolutely fantastic. I’ve only got about 40 miles on it, so will write more when I’ve spent some more time in the saddle, but so far I absolutely love it! The picture links to the flickr gallery, and my wife tells me she will take more photos of the complete bike in the near future.
Just in time for RAGBRAI, I was starting to get worried.
I’ve alluded to it in other posts, but I’ve officially begun work on a cyclocross bike for myself. I want to try racing cross this season, and I’ll ride it in the gravel races next year. My big challenge I think is going to be time. First can I come up with the time to get a bike done in July, so it can get some sort of paint on it in August, and then hopefully my butt on it in August / September. This sounds overly aggressive, but we will see.
The details:
The bike will be 73/73, 57 cm seat tube and a 56 cm top tube.
Just like we did in Doug’s class I’m building the bike around contact points. Because I intend to use it for cross I’m making the frame just a touch smaller to pull the bars closer to me, and they will be set up just a bit higher than my road position.
So far I’ve just been mucking about with the lugs. Tonight I rounded off some points I was not a fan of. Somewhere I read (Rivendell Reader maybe?) that the points on the underside of the down tube lug can cause stress risers. So maybe I did it for more than looks, a touch of paranoia never hurt anyone.
Lugs after rounding off the bottom points.
Lugs etc.
One good thing of note, I feel much quicker with the file than when I left Doug’s class. The work above, while nothing major was done inside of half an hour with little fuss. I was able to see the shape I wanted, sketch it and file it pretty quickly. I’m a little fussy about some of the shapes, but decided to sleep on it.
As far as other activities, I’ve squared off most of the lugs and rolled out all of the tubes. I’ve also designed the bike using bike cad as an experiment. I’m not really taken with it. The usability of the software is kinda so so (disclaimer, I build software for my real job and have some pretty strong opinions about what is usable and what isn’t). To top it off it appears that my save file has been corrupted. While this could have been anything along the chain (browser, my computer, etc) I’m a little bummed that I’ve got to do it again. My plan for this bike is to do a full size drawing, and save my pennies for a Fattic Jig. I’ve got another jig in the works for the rear end, more on that in another post.
My next plans are to get the drawing done, and get mitering. I need to get the tanks for my torch setup in the meantime as well. Hopefully I’ll have time to get them this week and with any luck, we will be brazing next week.
Finishing (thanks to Chel Stewart for taking the photo)
There really is something to these DIY gravel races. On Saturday I rode the first (of many I hope) Westside Dirty Benjamin. We set out from Chaska MN around eight in the morning with a hundred and ten or so riders. The weather was fantastic, low seventies with cloud cover in the morning. There was a bit of wind, gusting up to around twenty.
The first half of the race was more or less into the wind. We zig zaged back and forth into the wind and then back out of it. We headed out of town on some ATV/snowmobile trails. Everyone was bunched up in a rather large single file line. While crowded I think we were all having a good time. During the ATV trail was the only tactical move I’ve ever made on a bike, and I seem to have come out okay. There was a muddy section that I was able to coast through (others went around) and pass a few people. This added a giggle to my morning. The pack made it through the trail and back out onto the roads more or less intact. When we hit the first stretch of gravel I saw the lead group and the group behind them go. It was fun to see them take off. I more or less settled into my pace and tried to make up my mind if I was going to bust my ass all day or wait for my friends and take a more leisurely pace.
I ended up hooking up with a few other riders from miles 5 to 25 or so, my pace matched well with one in particular and we rode most of the first half of the race together chit chatting. During this time my buddy Shaun caught up and we pulled in a few more riders. I was enjoying our little band of riders quite a bit when we picked up another guy. For whatever reason this other guy decided he needed to talk a lot and criticize my shoes (no one messes with chuck taylor, no one). I wasn’t really in the mood for it and figured if you’re going to talk trash, at least get you and your S-Works Tri Cross (which is a darn nice bike in person) up in front of me. I left the group and expected him to follow. He didn’t and I was glad for the silence. I rode the rest of the first half alone and into the checkpoint in watertown. Most of this was the same back and forth into the wind, the roads were very nice, smooth gravel. At times a bit loose but nothing to get concerned about. To my recollection there weren’t any hills in the first half of the race besides coming off the ATV trail.
At the checkpoint I said hello to some folks that were there before me, filled bottles and had a snack. I stuck around for maybe ten min and saw the guys I was riding with earlier come in. By all indications they were going to hang out at the check point awhile and I was feeling good so I took off solo.
For the most part I was alone for the second half of the race. The wind seemed to mellow out a bit, and at times it was a tail wind. We did about 6 miles on the Luce Line trail and this was really the only time I remember the wind being in my face. The clouds cleared out a bit and the weather warmed up some. Nothing terrible, but I did start to notice the heat later on in the day. I believe the scenery in the second half of the day was superior to the first half. After leaving the checkpoint I increased my speed quite a bit. I passed four or five more riders on the road, and chatted with a few. Ran into one fellow who remembered my name from when we had passed each other before, that was neat and drives home the point that I need to figure out a way to remember peoples names.
There was only one hill on the second half that was any real trouble. A short affair that had a steep grade and I was in a lull when I hit it. After cresting this I was home free for the last ten miles. The last 5 or so miles were on nicely paved roads and the last two miles appeared to be all down hill. It was a great time to be able to roll down to the finish above twenty and not really working for it.
I’d like to say thanks to the folks who put this on. It was just a top notch event and I had a fantastic time. To top things off when we got to the end of the race there were pulled pork sliders and copious amounts of swag from the sponsors. Thanks everyone!
I rode the Hillborne again for this ride and it performed well. I’ve been thinking a lot about these events and I believe I’ll start riding a cross bike in them next year. The Hillborne pulls commuter duty and I don’t take the bags off, or add clipless pedals for these races. I’d like to try one where I’m all the way in the “racing” mindset and see how that works out. For me that means leaving the Riv at home and riding the cross bike I’m building (more on that later). One thing I really have noticed is that my Hillborne is really squirly on gravel descents. I think this is a combination of things: The first being that the top tube plus the stem is really quite long (70cm), and the second being the slack head angle. I find that I have problems keeping enough weight over the front end to keep the wheel from bouncing around (length). When the front end bounces, I have to work hard to correct the steering and stay on my line (head tube angle). None of this is a huge deal on pavement, and I really like the long top tube for comfort. It’s a great bike for tooling around, and its quite comfortable, but I think when I want to go fast I’ll choose another bike.
All that said about the bike, I’m very very happy with how I finished and don’t think I would have finished a ton faster on any other bike. The official list has not come out yet, but I believe I finished in the low 40′s and my bike computer said I was just a hair over seven hours of ride time. My goals were to finish in the top 50, and under seven hours. I’m one for two, but I’ll take it. All and all a fantastic day. Thank you very much to the race organizers and volunteers, you guys really did a fantastic job!
This Sunday, 5/30 I’m hosting a mill your way around the lake century (ish). There’s no clear route other than we will circumvent Lake Minnetonka. I’ll ride as fast as the slowest among us (although everyone should feel free to go off and explore themselves if they want to pickup the pace). We will stop for food, drinks and what have you when we see fit. A good chunk of this ride will be on gravel paths and roads (think farm roads), so make sure you bring a bike that you feel comfortable taking rocks on. Your new 8k race bike might be a bad plan. I have no doubt in my mind we will get lost, and turn down most any road that looks interesting.
Since there is no route planned other than go around the lake plan for plus or minus twenty miles. This is a support yourself ride, very laid back. If you’ve got an attitude or a chip on your shoulder you should find something else to do. Meet at CRC at 9:00 AM on Sunday morning. If you only want to come for part of the ride and bail when you have to, thats cool too, come for whatever you can. It’s sure to be a good time.
The real goal of this ride is to find gravel routes close enough for a weekly group ride for the newly forming Team Gravel. More on that later.
This last weekend I rode in the Almanzo 100. The Almanzo is a 100 mile gravel race in southern MN. Usually it starts in Rochester, but due to some difficulties this year it started in Spring Valley. While unfortunate for the race organizer (sounds like he had quite a few problems with the Rochester powers that be before he moved the race) I was stoked because I got to see a new town, and a new state park, new roads etc.
I headed down to the area on the Friday before the race to camp out and check out the roads. I spent a few hours riding around the state park (and as it turns out on the race course). I had a great time tooling around and checking stuff out. I also ran into some friends at the campground who had figured out the lay of the land and how to get to the start line in the morning. They offered a ride and I took it. This was much appreciated as I’d not picked up my race packet and didn’t have much in the way of a plan to get to the race on Saturday morning.
The course was absolutely fantastic. 100 miles of gravel, through some of the most beautiful parts of MN I’ve seen. Perhaps most surprising to me were the hills. In the cities we have hills, usually climbing in and out of the river valley, but for the most part they are all paved and relatively tame. Almanzo was a slightly different story. The hills were somewhat longer than my usual jaunt in the city, the gravel made things a bit more interesting, the number of them and the fact that I’d not been on a bike for three weeks (was out of town with my dad in the hospital) made for a challenging day. The downhills were more fun than I thought possible to have on a bike, and that totally made up for the uphill. The course in general was fast, and at one point in the downhill I hat 42 mph according to my computer. No major crashes for me or my friends, but there was at least one pile up pretty near the beginning of the race in the morning due to a sharp right turn at the bottom of a hill. Unfortunately this ended in a hospital trip for at least one person.
Early in the day I abandoned any hope of finishing quickly (early, as in the start line). My original goal had been to finish in the top 100. I started most of the way back and was not feeling the need to ride as fast as possible. I ended up riding with friends, and enjoyed myself all day long. The weather was perfect. Mid 70′s, no wind and sun in the morning. The afternoon brought some clouds, but nothing major and perhaps a slight breeze to keep us cool.
Almanzo is a support yourself race. I’d packed enough stuff into the saddle sack in my Rivendell to get through the day. On the advise of my friend Shaun (the very same who carried my bike and I to the start line from the camp ground) I stuck a few bottles of water and poweraid into his truck. This lightened my load by five or six pounds and was much appreciated. The race allowed for outside help at Preston MN. Shaun’s wife Julie met us and a few others there with not only my supplies but enough sandwiches to feed quite a few people. I’m thankful for their generosity and support.
The first 60 miles of the race were no problem. We took it easy, enjoyed the views, dealt with some mechanical issues in our group and had a great time. For me miles 60 – 63 were not a ton of fun. I dropped behind the group for awhile and they made it to the check point about 5 min ahead of me. Perhaps the most demoralizing part of the day came in this stretch when the group of pugsly riders I’d been leap frogging with dropped me for good. It’s a sad thing to get dropped by two guys with 4 inch tires, while they offer you food on the way by.
We spent quite awhile at the checkpoint eating, chatting and in general messing around. I welcomed the rest and the company, as well as the food (eating enough is the key to a good mood for me…). We tackled the remanning 37 miles or whatever it was with less gusto than the first 63, but our spirits were up and we were on our way to being done. We slowed down considerably for this last stretch, averaging maybe 12 miles an hour (possibly less). We’d given up pedaling on down hills, chit chat revolved around the food we would eat when we crossed the finish line, the things we would drink and the ibuprofen we would consume.
Shaun, Mark and I crossed the line at around 7:00PM, just over ten hours from the start of the race. According to my bike computer we had about 7:15 actual ride time. This put me in 238th place, and I’m more than happy with that considering the lead up to the race didn’t involved more time in a hospital than on a bike. After the race we regrouped first at the truck for beers, then at the local pizza place in spring valley for dinner and lively conversation.
As far as the bike, I rode my Rivendell Sam Hillborne with the large Saddlesack. The bike was comfortable and stable. I had one mechanical issue that was due to a rock being stuck in my front derailure, who knew that could even happen. Aside from that things were great, I was comfortable the whole day. I road Jack Brown Blue’s at 70 PSI. The pressure was probably a little high, when I was tired / low on energy the bike was harder to control than I’d like it to be. There was only one time I ended up in the weeds,so all and all it was a good day for bike crontrol. I did find myself wishing on some of the down hills that the bike steered just a bit quicker, but overall it performed admirably and I continue to be happy with my machine.
I’ve got at least one more gravel race on my calendar this year, and many more that are just for fun. For the next race (West Side Dirty Benjamin) I’ll try to get it in gear and soot for the top third.
So the bike and the stem are off at paint. They have been there since February and hopefully they will return sometime in May. The first bit of the paint process involved a bit of back and forth with my classmate Clifford. Clifford graciously put together the design for the down tube (and for this I’m forever grateful). Turns out, not surprisingly to anyone who has spent time with me that I’m not a terribly visual person, which I suspect was frustrating for everyone in the process except me when I was trying to explain what I wanted. In the end we ended up on a design that I believe we’re both quite happy with. I’m excited to see it come to fruition on the bike. I’ll withhold pictures it until we have the actual bike to look at instead of the PDF. My attempt at suspense.
The next step was to open lines of communication with a painter. I was under the impression there was no one local to work with for the kind of detail work I was looking for (I’ve since been proven wrong multiple times over). I ended up going with a guy down in Iowa at Doug’s suggestion. The painter is a part time painter and builder, which I think accounts for the slower turn around. The process thus far has been to mail down the bike and stem, have a phone conversation about what I’m looking for and send off the PDF that contains the designs. As has been explained to me the PDF is being turned into a series of masks that the painter will use to do the down tube design as well as a small design on the seat tube.
The hard part about this whole process is not surprisingly communication and waiting. I assume no news is good news and whatnot. I’ve got to get my butt in gear and give him a call to make sure that A. I did everything correctly as far as finish and B. to figure out what the schedule looks like and if I need to do anything else. Maybe next week.
I’m also working towards a head badge for this bike. I’ve enlisted Laura of Path Less Pedaled and Tangerine Treehouse for help / all of the work here. I’m not in a huge hurry on the badge, and since Laura is currently traveling the country I expect this to take awhile, but I’m excited to see what she comes up with. This is all early stage still and whenever she can fit it in.
As far as other frame building news I’ve been amassing supplies and am almost ready to begin on number two, as soon as I figure out what the next one should be. I bought an alignment table / plate thing from Bringheli, its small, but should work well with the space I’ve got. I’ve also picked up a torch, regulators and hoses, a few things to improvise a lug vise or two, tubing blocks, files,vises etc. I should be ready to roll once the table shows up at the end of May. At least for now I’ll be building at my house. There is talk of being able to utilize some extra space at a friends shop, but for now thats just talk and I’m not sure I want to move myself into a place I don’t have 24hour access to.
As far as the next bike: I was thinking I’d build a single speed to replace the Trek I carry my son around on, but as of late I’ve had a hankering to play around on a mountain bike… decisions decisions.
I’ve been home a few weeks now and more time to reflect on Doug’s class and frame building. In the first post in the series I said I was not sure if I’d build more than one bike. I’ve answered that question with a resounding yes. While at times frustrating and certainly difficult I really enjoyed the frame building process. I’ve had a few friends ask about building them bikes, and I’ve decided that there are a few more bikes that I’d like for myself, so I at least have a road map in front of me as far as what to build. Since I’ve been home I’ve started collecting tools and I’m not too far from having what I need to build. Making the jump to full time professional isn’t something I’m considering at this time.
Overall Doug’s class was great, I really enjoyed my time there. It felt a lot like being back in college. Long days, powered by caffeine and moments of fun inside long days of work. Thankfully I took in more information much faster than when I was in college, something about older and wiser I guess. We all went home with unfinished bikes. It took me a long time to figure out that the class was less about the bike I was building then, and more about the bikes I’ll be building later. This bike is just the first of many. Now that I have the bike finished I’m quite happy with it, much happier than when I left class. When I think back on my frustrations during class there were two major sources. One of them could have been avoided all together with a bit more thought before class.
The first big frustration was the bi-laminate thing and how long it took us to figure out that we should just drop it. Better planning before class would have fixed this. I could have a. made sure the lugs I had would work for the application I had in mind, b. ordered them sooner so we had them in time (or since Ceeway was out of stock order something else). I think that it would have been far better, from a frustration perspective to never have attempted the bi-laminate. That said I learned a lot about how to do it before we ditched the project. I am very happy to have gone through the process. On the other hand if we had just gone with a fillet brazed bike I’d have come home with a completed bike. I brought the head tube home that we started on for the bi-laminate project. So I have that to finish for another bike. I think I’ll wait until I have a jig to do that though. Since all I had to do was file when I got home I’m happy with the way it worked out.
My other frustration was the rear end, specifically chain stay attachment. Two of us had troubles getting things to line up properly post brazing and it was because we didn’t know (or retain) the process about how to maintain alignment during brazing. I am not sure why this happened, but it was something we both learned after the fact how to fix. In a way I’m grateful for this as we are much less likely to forget the correct process now. On the other hand we both spent a lot of time figuring out our problems. One upside of this is that we had quite the liveley dinner conversation one night about how to create a jig to do away with the problems we had. In both cases we had chain stays slide into the the bottom bracket during brazing, causing the rear end to be just slightly out of alignment. In both cases we fixed the issue and ended up with aligned frames, it just took a lot of work.
As far as the instructor, Doug is a fantastic teacher. He spends quite a bit of time figuring out how a student learns things, and does his best to adapt his teaching methods to that particular student. I saw this quite a bit in our class when I would look at how Doug explained things to me, vs. how Doug would explain the same thing to Clifford. I do wonder how much I frustrated Doug as I tend to learn things through repetition and explanation, rather than demonstration. If I did frustrate him he hid it well. Another thing that I really appreciated is that Doug is a true craftsman. He cares very much about the quality of his work, and that of his students. With Doug I didn’t feel like there was a lot of “thats good enough” in order to hurry us along. We did not cut corners. Everything was done, and done correctly. Sometimes we resorted to using different fixtures to speed the process along, but we never sacrificed quality for time.I really appreciated this.
Other observations and things I’ve realized since I’ve been home. Doug has every tool in the universe. This makes prioritizing purchases to build a shop at home a bit of a challenge. The first purchases are pretty obvious; alignment table, torch setup, files. What comes after that is still a bit of a mystery. I’m working on the table and torch setup now. I’ve got files and most of the general hand tools covered as well as a work bench and vise. After I get the torch and table worked out I think I’ll be picking up things like lug vises (the next bike is going to be a lugged single speed). After that I’ll start to think about one of Doug’s fixtures and maybe a small mill. I’ve had a lot of contact with my classmates and Doug to help with this process. I think all three of us are well on our way to having some type of shop setup.
I’m quite happy with the experience, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Weight isn’t something I get really worked up about, but I thought it would be fun to see how much the frame I built weighs, along with some other frames and bikes I have at the house. So I borrowed a scale from my buddy Dan and then dorked out
New Frame: 4lbs 2 oz. New Fork: 1 lbs 8 oz. All made from TrueTemper Verses, VersesHT and OX Platinum. The frame size is about 59 cm with a 58 cm top tube.
If I was to care about these sorts of things I’d say that the frame weight is right where I expected it to be, and the fork is god awful heavy. I can feel this when I lift the fork. You hold it in your hand and can tell it weighs far more than it should. This is two fold I think. A. the steerer is uncut, and B. we did the mutant 1 inch to 1 and 1/8th inch steerer deal so I’ve got 3 inches of 1 inch steerer inside my 1 and 1/8th inch steerer. 1 inch steerers are super duper thick. As long as handling isn’t effected I’ll soon forget about it (I am a touch concerned about what this will do to the handling, I don’t think I have a logical reason to worry, but we will see). On the upside if I ever get mugged on my bike, I can hit em with my fork, or attach a snow plow.
All thats hidden inside my steerer.
Knowing the frame weight I can take a guess at the total bike weight. I suspect I’ll end up in the 16 to 17 lbs range (including saddle and pedals). I say range because I’m still don’t have my head set and rear hub in hand so I can’t weigh them and I have not cut the steerer and head tube. For comparisons sake my Allez weighs 20 lbs 0 oz. (with saddle and pedals). I was shocked to see that the Specialized weighs that much as I’ve always thought of it as zippy and light weight. I will continue to think this. My Rivendell fully equipped weighs 35 lbs, and was a chore to lift onto the scale. Possibly the real kicker is the Trek 720 project I have in my basement. The frame, fork and cranks weigh a wopping 13 lbs. That’s before things like wheels, handlebars, chains etc. It’s going to make a hell of an xtra cycle when I get done with it.
With the new weight in had I played out a little thought experiment about my new bike compared to a new modern road bike. Modern typically means carbon, which has a serious weight advantage. Most of the folks I ride with ride on carbon bikes and love em. I’m not a believer that weight contributes to ride at all so that’s not taken into consideration below. Its merely the amount of effort required to get my bike vs. another one into a truck I guess. Or maybe RAGBRAI will have a really big hill this year that I’ll curse the extra weight.
(Mark or Heather correct me if I got this next part wrong, my memory is a little hazy from what you said on Saturday)
For arguments sake I want to compare a race bike to a race bike. A gal named Heather* rides with the same group I do and she just got a new Trek Madone that’s kitted with similar stuff (she’s using D/A, I’m using Red) to what I will be using. I think her rig tipped the scales at a hair over fifteen pounds. So my bike weighs a pound or two more than hers three at most. Lets call it two because I suspect that’s closer to the truth. I’d guess I’m running slightly lighter wheels (if memory serves she had something with a deeper dish than I do, but I think the Bontrager hubs are lighter than the Kings, and I’ve got way more spokes) and I think Red weighs a little less than D/A. But close enough. I think its neat that I could build a frame that allows me to have a bike anywhere near the weight of Heathers bike. When you pick up Heather’s bike there is a moment of panic that you over did and and you have to think about not tossing it across the room. I expected the frame I built to weigh at least 5 pounds more. Heck I’m shocked that I came in under the weight of my Specialized.
Perhaps to add a little perspective. I’ve been taking a cycling class over the course of the winter. One of those make you faster on the road affairs. I’ve lost the difference in weight between my bike and Heathers about 10 times over since the fall. Or another way of looking at it I’ve shed the weight of my old bike from my body. I suppose that more than makes up for the differences between my bike and Heathers. I’ve still got more to loose before I need to really start thinking about taking the weight out off the bike though.
Note I’ve not said much in this post about the advantages of one material over another. Typically I choose not to involve myself in this type of discussion because I think the talk tends towards drivel, conjecture (I bet I can count the number of people I know on one hand who have ridden carbon and steel and really thought critically about it in my circle of bike friends) and religious fervor. I don’t buy the argument that steel makes the greatest bikes in the world. I do think that steel is the most friendly material to work with, which might explains why there are so many one man steel operations. I think when folks start down the steel is real and the best thing ever line it’s total BS. If you’ve got a frame builder using this as their sales pitch you should go find a new one. Fit is job 1, material is secondary (at best). As for carbon there seems to be a lot of FUD there too. I don’t think that carbon bikes shatter all over the place or are in any way unsafe (despite the noise some of the folks I respect in the bike industry make). The only reason I’m not rocking my very own SL3 is that my wife would throw my ass to the curb if I showed up at home with another bike. Yeah crap happens and carbon reacts differently than steel in a crash or impact scinereo, but if something hits you hard enough to shatter your carbon fork / frame (where as steel would have bent / dented) you’re going down and the bike is the least of your worries at that point. Chances are that neither one is rideable if you get up. That said I don’t think a carbon touring bike makes any sense, and a steel racing bike is a flight of fancy and not something I’d expect to ever see in the pro peloton nor many of my friends on. I ride em because I like the way they feel. I’d go out on a limb and say that Heathers bike will ride nicer (where nicer means absorb more vibration) than mine because of the material. I have this grand unifying theory that says a carbon bike will have less vibration than a steel bike, but a steel bike will soften a large bump more. That seems to jive with the elasticity of both materials and is certainly how I’ve feel after riding both materials. I’d expect both bikes to be equally stiff, and the smiles on our faces will probably be gigantic the first time we get to ride our new bikes. So you know, go ride your bike, don’t worry too much about what its made out of. And if you’re shopping for a new one, get what makes you happy (The SL3 is a hot bike, if you can…. or an Ira Ryan if you want a custom, he makes pretty things and might just be the best of both worlds).
*Mark or Heather speak up if I got anything wrong or it bugs you that I’m using your bike as my example. There in the same size ball park and both new.
Clifford kept a blog while we were at class that can be found here. Daniel also kept one but I’m not privy to the location.
And we’re done (and I realized I never published this post).
I said earlier I wasn’t going to blog today, but we had a good day even if it did run long. Today was all about braze ons, bridges and reaming / tapping things. I didn’t get much of the latter done. I did get my fork crown race cut and thats all I was really worried about in the reaming / tapping / cutting department.
Test fitting the brake bridge
The bike is almost done from a construction stand point and will be finished by me at home. The only other thing I’m missing is how much head tube to cut off. I can set the bike up on a table at home to figure that out as there just wasn’t time to get it done in the shop today and I was out of gas at the end of the day. I’ll need to figure out where to get a vise and some sort of holding device until I can get a proper set of wood blocks. One of my classmates is looking into making them so I’m hoping to piggy back onto that.
Setting up a brake cable stop
Chain stay stop
All day I did braze ons. My bikes got the usual assortment of cable stops, as well as a few fun things. I added a chain hanger because I find them among the more useful things in the universe. One tiny dot 110mm up from the axle works wonders for mucking about on the side of the road. I also have a derailure braze on. While not unheard of you don’t see them much anymore. I’m using SRAM Red components for this bike and the derailure I have happens to be braze on. The part looked cool so I went with it. Aligning the hanger is officially more trouble than its worth and I don’t think I’ll do it again though.
All the bits and pieces attached
The other big challenge of the day was to get the STI stops lined up properly. This was stupidly harder than it needed to be. I had put a bit of rotation into mine to make them easier to adjust on the fly (the adjuster flares out from the down tube slightly) and matching the rotation and the positioning turned out to be a pain in the butt. After I had it all lined up and started the braze I bumped it with my silver and it locked itself down in the wrong place. Thankfully Doug and Herbie were around to help me out and everything got worked out and it all looks pretty good. A classmate had similar positioning issues. The next time I make an bike with STI stops I’m totally making a jig, it was foolish of us to try to do this by hand, way too much alignment and guess work when I think an hour with angle iron and a drill could have saved us two or three. Now I know, and making the jig will be a fun little side project.
The beginning of what turned out to be the most difficult part of the day.
All and all it was a good time. We worked way past sunset in the shop and I feel pretty bad about that. I’m super thankful Doug let us all finish up. Tonight was the last night and we had a good dinner, started to say our good byes and began to think about returning home.
Done!