The Pocket Rocket - "To Frame-Building and Beyond!"

It began with this:

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I went on a frame-building course last week. From a position of never having done anything like this before I managed to get that lot of tubes and bits to look like this by Friday..

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Treat it to a custom Wound-Up, not that cheapy Kinesis fork :)

Rad, great work! Which course did you go on? Been looking at the Enigma week-long course recently - seems like a decent price to take home a frame at the end of the week. What's the plan for the build?

Good cross post spot! Will look into that...

It was with Nerve Bikes. Mark Reilly helped set up Enigma before this new venture.. I'll write more about it in due course but I would really recommend it.
The plan for the build hasn't progressed much beyond getting the frame done. It's a new blank canvas...

Do it. I had one modified for fenders and it was a thing of some awesomeness - until someone drove a car into it.

No have an ano black one which is pretty sweet, too.

Finally an update.. After nine months of sitting around at home I finally managed to get organised and get the frame into a paint shop. I did entertain thoughts of painting it myself - partially the reason for the delay - but time and a lack of a spray booth defeated me and I went with Vaz in Hither Green as its super local to me.

I've been collecting parts etc in the meanwhile though so things should go a little faster now.. Chief amongst the hoard are a set of forks that my work gave me for my birthday. I sorted the forks but they sorted out a Death Spray Custom paint job for them. He asked me what my favourite colours are - black, white, grey, orange - and I let him decide the rest:

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The frame is pretty muted in comparison. The same colour palette but much plainer. I figured it can't compete with the forks so don't even try.

"Riverman" is from the Nick Drake song. It was one of the songs that we played at my son's funeral back in 2005 and it's my way of making sure he will be with me in spirit whenever I'm on this bike..

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Fork looks awesome. Who made it?

Frame pic just uploaded and looks great too. What are you dressing it with?

It's the Kinesis fork painted by Death Spray Custom - link to a great vid about him here:
https://vimeo.com/138962126

Dressing-wise, I've got forum-sourced, "nearly new" Ultegra Di2 groupset and H Plus Son disc wheels waiting to go one. The birthday present haul included a Chris King Ti Headset, Portland Cycle Work mudguards and Slate grey Cambium C15 saddle..

is that ultegra di2 hydro discs? if so i can tell you know, it's fucking awesome

. I sorted the forks but they sorted out a Death Spray Custom paint job

Where do you work? Any jobs going? I want to work there too. Looks great!

Didn't go full hydro ( I know I probably should have) so am trying a hybrid system that has got some good reviews..

http://Www.brinkworth.co.uk. The owner is good mates with DSC - they go grass track motor racing together. One of many perks... ; )

I used the hope V twin system and then changed to full shimano hydraulic (one bike mechanical the other one di2) the difference is huge between the hybrid-kludge and the full hydro

Tease. Show us the full frame and forks.

The back end is really boring. All plain grey. Wasn't meant to be but the painter couldn't manage the little detail I wanted for the seat tube and neglected to tell me that until after he had lacquered it. Looking into adding it with decals instead. Might also do a little bit of lining on the seatpost and BB lugs.

Here's a pic of the full frame with the Ti headset. Haven't taken one with the forks in yet.

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Looks great so far.

Course looks interesting.
Where did you stay?
What sort of hours was it?
Just wondering if I could do it and get the train for the week (it appears to be right by the train station and I live by Clapham Junction), save some money.

I think the plain back end works by the time you add in gears, guards etc
Nice touch on the naming and I like the downtube decal, its a hit penguin classics font

I took the week off and stayed close by in the local premier inn. Hours were 9 till about 5.
It was actually quite mentally tiring - which I didn't expect. Physically I expected it to be cold (it was an unheated workshop in January) and I'm not used to standing up all day, but the concentration needed was pretty full on as it was all entirely new to me.

They have moved premises since I was there. Brighton should be a bit easier than Newhaven for most to get to (and the workshop might be heated).

It's a hellishly expensive way of ending up with a frame but it's a fantastic experience. The other guy who was there at the same time as me is building frames for other people now.

Thanks! The detail at the rear end was only ever meant to be tiny so I'll see how I feel about adding it afterwards.

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Having failed to write up my actual frame building experience properly for the blog, the best I can do now is intersperse the parts build with some of the notes I jotted down about the build at the time. Hopefully this won't get too confusing:

First Parts Build install was the headset. I've done a couple of these before just using the bench vice in the garage. I have timber inserts in the vice to stop scratching etc and do one at a time, holding the frame above the vice with the headtube as square on as I can whilst slowly tightening. There is a lot of stopping and checking to see how straight the piece is going in, and I just adjust how I'm holding the frame as I tighten the vice to compensate.
Naturally I was bit more anxious than usual as this was Ti and Chris King but both ends went in fine.

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