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@Jingle_Jangle
The first week of January last year I attended the frame building course at Enigma Cycles in Hailsham, the results of which were documented in this thread:
http://www.lfgss.com/conversations/211326/
Subsequently, I spent much of 2015 basking in the warm glow of accomplishment that comes with cycling around on a bicycle you built yourself.
The bike has been used regularly on my daily commute through London, as well as going over to Europe on a couple of family holidays:
Toward the end of last year, when the nights started to draw in, I needed something to look forward to. While I love my new bike, the frame-building bug just won't go away, so I called Enigma to see if there was any chance they could fit me in at the start of the New Year.
Subsequently, last Sunday night I found myself checking in to a cheap hotel in Eastbourne (and it was cheap), getting ready to have another go with hacksaw, file and torch.
I have to say, the set up at Enigma is excellent. The workshop if fully appointed with everything you need to make bicycles (there main business of course is making high-end Titanium frames); and everybody in the workshop if friendly, helpful and indulgent towards people like me who roll up from London, hoping to 'give it a g0'.
The frame building course is led by Geoff Roberts, from the eponymous Croydon-based frame building dynasty. Despite his attempt to be the worlds most miserable human, Geoff is in fact a top bloke, a great teacher and of course, the font of all frame-building knowledge.
I had planned to document the process from start to finish, but I didn't take nearly enough 'photo's, write nearly enough notes or understand the process in enough details, so I'm just going to get straight to an image of the finished article:
The top tube is Gilco (same as on the Colnago Master), down and seat tubes are Columbus SL. It's got old-school horizontal dropouts, double taper top eyes and the rear end is spaced at 126mm. There are braze-on's on the down tube for friction shifters.
The plan is to build this up (once it has been painted) with suitably 'retro' components, and take it to Gaiolie on the first weekend in October.
What could possibly go wrong?