M_V's multitude of bikes and adventures in the land of framebuilding

^ That was yesterday.

Today...

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Why don't you cut the sleeve on the seattube a little shorter so that it is congruent (?) with the lug?
The lugs themselves look really good, the look of the protruding sleeve doesn't fit imo.

I prefer to make a feature of it.

I think cutting it to the exact shape of the lug would just make the lug look really thick and heavy.

I agree. It looks good like it is.

Changed my mind on the sleeving, following the lines of the lug is undoubtedly better looking but I need somewhere to bring the seatstay wishbone into so I’m going to go with a straight cut tube.

I looked at following the lug at the front and how I could create something to support the wishbone but I wasn’t feeling it. Straight cut is going to keep it simple and clean.

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I’ve got the head, down and seat tubes brazed together and bottle mounts on the down and seat tubes done but no photos yet.

I do have photos of the chainstays though...

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shame, I was liking the shaped insert and thought you could snug the stays into the back cut away

The klunker had a bit of a shimmy, looking down on the toptube, it wasn’t straight with the front tyre when riding in a straight line.

I thought I’d fucked up big time, something that was going to be really difficult to fix so I was kind of just ignoring it, I’d dished the wheel a bit to bodge it but decided to try and do something about it properly the other day.

The seattube and headtube were slightly out of phase, about a degree. Fixed that by mounting a steerer tube from an old fork in a tube block in the vice, removed the stem/bars/fork from the klunker and then slid it onto the steerer in the vice, knee on the crankset pushing, hands pulling on the saddle and tweaked it till it was within a couple tenths of a degree.

Then looked at the rear triangle and realised the back end was kicked over to the nds about 20mm. Bit of scaffolding pole sorted that.

I was nicely surprised by how much effort it took to cold set it.

Cjell Mone had told me on Instagram that he’d built a bike with 110mm spacing but that it didn’t last very long (probably due to lack of bracing angle in the rear end) so I’d been a bit worried about trashing my frame but I’m a bit more confident in it now!

Sorting the alignment handily changed the chainline a bit so I was able to go back to 32:19 with the chainring on the outside of the cranks so I can actually use the adjustment on the ebb without worrying about chainring/chainstays clashes.

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I possibly could but the seattube only has 0.6mm wall thickness so I was a bit worried I’d get distortion if I was to fillet straight to it.

Here’s where the new frame is at, got the seattube sleeve brazed on today and touched up a couple bits on the bottle cage mounts where I hadn’t flowed enough silver in.

Glad I went for the reinforcement pieces behind the bottle cage mounts. Wasn’t sure about them but I think they add a bit of class.

Cleaning up shorelines and overspill as I go a bit but still loads to go. Pretty sure some of it is just like staining, not detectable by touch, so I wonder if it’s really necessary to get rid of it all before painting.

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A productive day for me.

Wish I could ride it right now but must be patient and spend as long on finishing touches and paint etc as is deserved.

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Looking good.

Did another 31.8 quill conversion today. Removable faceplate this time...

Had to remove and redo the rear triangle on the frame as it was a bit squint.

Before,

After,

How do you make sure it’s all aligned before welding? I know professionals will have a jig and have everything clamped into place before, do you do the same or just eye it in? Or a bit of both?

Looks great btw, really enjoying the thread! Would you consider making a regular (non quill) version of the stem to order?

I use a digital inclinometer.

I’ll start with the seattube, ensure it’s at 90deg to the side to side axis of the bb shell. Then I assemble the headtube and downtube, using the inclinometer to get the angle right as even with the lug there’s a bit of wiggle room. Then attach that hockey stick shaped sub assembly to the seattube/bb sub assembly to make a 3 sided structure, using the inclinometer to check the head and seattubes are parallel or ‘in phase’.

To check the rear triangle I (try to) ensure the seat stays are leaving the bb shell at the same angle in a number of planes, check a wheel sits in line with the seattube. Then the seat stays should just be a case of laying them in place but evidently something went a bit wrong.

I think it was that the cast wishbone piece was kicking the stays out for 130mm spacing at the ends, I had to tweak it in to 120mm and must have only brought one side over.

I will definitely be paying more attention to rear triangles in the future!

Faced, chased and reamed at work today.

Want to be able to give it a quick ride before painting it incase I’ve screwed anything (else) up.

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looking great!

Lovely, really smart. Big fan of the wishbone seatstay. How did you find switching to lugs with brass after fillet joints?

Are you getting your tubing for the stems from Ceeway? I'm guessing it's fairly thick walled tubing?

I’ve used silver in the lugs, flows easier but it is a bit more expensive. I could do with learning to just put it in the jumping, not all over the surrounding tubes as I must have filed/sanded a fair value of it off!

Other than that, I think lugs definitely make things easier. Because I’m building without a jig, fillet brazing is a bit, stick this to this, then this to that. With the lugs I was able to mock up the entire front triangle before I brazed anything.

Tubing for the stems is coming from LAS aero. It’s 0.053” wall thickness which is around 1.3mm so pretty heavy yeah.

I want to try and make a lighter weight stem for this new bike but the wall thickness determines the ID so I need to stick with that for the clamps anyway.

This is so cool. Would ride.

Did a wee mock up build today so I could take a quick spin and confirm it goes down the road straight. It does, so I can file those seatstay fillets. Again! Paint is in, only think I don’t have would be bartape. And I might get a new seat post for it.

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Yes !

Proportions and clearances look great

awesome job! looks bang on.

That looks sweet bro. I reckon this one deserves a professional paint job if you can spare the change