Geoff Roberts Framebuilding course - first and second, and third frames. And fourth (now finished). And fifth.

Sold the Porsche. Don't care. Audiwanker FTW nowadays.

I don't fully accept the existence of South London. To me, there's London, Kent and Surrey. North London born and bred. Hampstead Garden Suburb, FTW.

I don't fully accept the existence of London.
There is the (tiny) City of London, Middlesex, (bounded by the Colne to the west, the Thames to the south and the Lee to the east), Kent & Surrey.

This message brought to you by the Popular Front for the People of Middlesex.

As far as we in the glorious People's Republic of Suffolk are concerned, you all live in what are referred to as "the lost lands".

Don't despair: come the revolution, we will be reunited!

#anonymous

I'm happy to say that Brommers Bike #2 put in a sterling performance in Mallorca. 300 miles, over 11,000m of climbing, and the only mechanical problem was the self-destructinating stem. It tracks nice and true, and by the end of the first morning I was happy riding hands-free so I could tweak zips and furtle around in my jersey pockets. I set a fair few PBs both up and downhill, so it appears that a mofo great big freewheel and gravity aren't that bad a combination in terms of performance.

The one bit of the frame I really like is the wishbone seatstays. I know they're not particularly efficient from an engineering viewpoint, but they're so damned elegant...

I'm also rather taken by the flip paint. It is, however, pretty difficult to photograph well. I may have to splash out and get myself a half decent camera, just for photographing bike frames. The best shot I got of the paint doing its flip thing was with the bike inside the hire car:

And having spent many months telling me I shouldn't paint this one using flip paint, @Cycliste has now decided she wants her frame painted in a navy/plum flip paint, rather than the quietly understated pale blue she'd specified previously. Happily I have a litre of navy/plum flip paint I got cheap off eBay. Anyone need any pale blue paint?

Although the flip paint is supposed to be a red/gold flip, it actually goes from dark purple:

to a bronze/purple mix:

to a pale bronze:

and even in bright sunlight to a pale greeny gold:

I think I may try using flip paint over a metallic base next. No idea what it'll look like, but it'll be fun finding out.

In the meantime, Brommers Bike #2 is being converted to fixed and a 48/18 gear ratio rather more suitable for the flatlands of the Fens.

Lovely.
Lovely.
Lovely.

Way more special than any £15,000 Parlee could ever be.

Framebuilding Course no. 3 is go. Back to lugs for this one.

Interesting! Subbed.

Excellent,will watch with interest.

Need to get my next one booked in soon. Tell the old curmudgeon I say hi.

Amazeballs

He says 'Hi'. Another course in February? Sure it won't be too cold?

Monday started a bit later than planned, thanks to a cancelled Easyjet flight on Friday evening, an 85 mile MTB ride on Saturday and a severe case of CBA on Sunday. So I didn't turn up until Monday afternoon as it turned out. But not to worry, because I have A Plan.

This bike is going to be my Fourth Best Bike (UK). Steel frame, Easton EC90SLX forks, parts bin special Di2 groupset, and Ritchey WCS finishing kit. Due to the colours, which will for the moment remain a surprise, many many people are going to really hate the bike when it's finished. The frame spec is as follows:

1. Columbus Life tubing, except for a Spirit top tube
   
2. Lewellyn DOS lugs with sloping top tube and shot-in seat stays
   
3. Lewellyn dropouts
   
4. That's it really
   
   

I bought the tubes and lugs in advance, and by the end of Monday I'd mitered the main tubes. By lunchtime today I'd mitered all the tubes and polished them and the inside of the lugs, so I could do a mock-up on the jig.

Next step was to tack the lugs in place on the fixture, before removing it and brazing the lugs properly. This is my Stevie Wonder Throwing Shapes With Fire impression.

The main triangle is brazed (apart from the bottom bracket, obviously). Geoff keeps on complaining that he's got nothing to do. I've so far burnt one hole in Geoff, one hole in myself and one hole in my T-shirt. It's all good.

Tomorrow it's time to tack and braze the rear triangle and then move onto the braze-ons, including my home-made Di2 port plates.

UKIP colour scheme? I can’t think of anayrhing more divisive.

Unless gold and white with Colnago logos.

Geoff keeps on complaining

Naturally.

Excellent work.

Worse. Worse than you could possibly imagine. Coloured (not black or white) saddle and finishing kit. I'll let that fester in your imagination for a while.

When I arrived yesterday morning Geoff the magic shotblasting pixie had blasted the flux off the joints I'd brazed the day before and, though I say it myself, it's looking pretty good.

There's a bit of brass to file off the surface of the lugs, but the shorelines look nice and neat. Yesterday I added the rear triangle and finished off the main brazing with the bottom bracket, which as ever took quite a while just because it's such a big lump of steel.

I did get a bit overenthusiastic with the brass at one point, and so the threads on the BB shell on the DS are a bit gold at the moment. It might be time to buy new cutters for my BB chasin'n'facin' tool.

I've also done the brake bridge, with some little reinforcement/embellishment plates.

I'm currently in the process of making up some Di2 entry ports from scratch using 18 gauge stainless sheet. Just a few braze-ons left to do, and I can start Frame #4.

You going for two in a week?

I won't finish the second one, not least because I haven't got the dropouts yet. It'd be good to do the main triangle though.

Looking good mate!

Well, frame 3 is essentially finished. Frame 3 is going to be Di2, so I don't need cable stops, but since it's going to be Di2 internal I do need cable entry ports. I could just drill a hole and bodge a Di2 grommet in there, but the Columbus Life and Spirit tubes I'm using having very thin walls so I decided I'd add a stainless reinforcement plate and then bodge a Di2 grommet in there. So I made up some reinforcement plates from some 18 gauge 316L stainless I just happened to have with me using a hacksaw, drill and some files:

Here's the one on the bottom of the chainstay, brazed into place with some silver. It's looking rather matte because Geoff the Shotblasting Pixie did his magic and cleaned off the excess silver. I'll polish it to a mirror finish before painting the frame.

Another Di2 port on the seat tube, together with the FD mount and some bottle cage bosses.

I also added an internal brake line for the rear brake, which as ever was a total PITA.

The little embellishment/reinforcement plate next to the head tube was a particular PITA as the end lifted up while I was brazing it in place leaving a gap I had to try and plug using silver. Given that silver when molten has roughly the same viscosity as water, that's not easy. Just about managed it in the end, and while it looks a bit of a mess, it'll clean up fine.

And that's it for now. After Geoff the Shotblasting Pixie had worked his magic once again, Frame #3 looked like this:

I still need to cut down the top of the headtube, ream and face the headtube, cut down the seat tube to the top of the lug, ream the seat tube, bond in a shim to take it down to 27.2mm, file off the excess braze and polish it before painting, but these are all jobs I can do at home so for the moment it's in the back of the car while I start on Frame #4.

Frame #4 is a fillet-brazed, mini-V braked road bike using a Ritchey canti cross fork. It's to replace my former Basel Bike (PlanetX Pro Carbon, Ritchey Superlogic, SRAM Force, Quarq Riken) which @Cycliste left to be stolen in the communal bike store in her block of flats. More to follow.

Cheers! I'm pleased with it so far. Onwards and upwards with No. 4 now...

Fizik make a nice post for that lug. Or at least they did, can't seem to find it anywhere.

This is really great. Looking forward to the color scheme as it's sounds like its going to cause some drama (hopefully!)

They used to. They don't any more. I'll be shimming it down to 27.2mm.

Oh, it will. Burning torches, furious mobs, the lot.