New Albion Microbrew

this may be a folly - a waste of money
...but since I have too many bikes in my flat and not enough space it makes some sense to make at least one of them smaller and after all, why shouldn't a city run around not have child sized wheels? (that's rhetorical, I don't want to know the many good reasons that I sure exist).
Currently en route from Madison Wisconsin - apologies Gretta Garbo. If there's any interest I'll update when this gets here and with what plans I have for the build.

some bits dug out and dusted off from the parts bin

frame is in the uk apparently

It's my duty to follow this thread

Can it/will it do Hills?

The list does need an update....

lulz...was thinking would bring it to hills - would be able to blame total lack of performance on it

If you finish this project

You bring it to hills

Understood

On further thought, the stem above will be unusable I think.
At 6ft I’m pushing the limits of what’s reasonable on a frame like this. I’m going to need a tall stem with a lot of rise.
Nitto do one - the “dirt drop” I think.
The bars above are quite narrow. 38” c-c I think, possibly smaller. They got taken off a bike I bought once upon a time as I hated how narrow they were.
They’re first choice for this build though

frame has arrived - check out the size of the head tube 🤣
paint has a matte finish which i've not seen before - feels pretty heavy for such a small frame but on a build like this who cares - i dont know much about frame geo but angles look pretty slack - will see how it fits when its built up - i think i'm probably;y going to have to stretch myself out on it a fair bit - the added reach of drop bars with levers is preferable to some swept back flat bars which might otherwise be nice

some info on the parts above -
cranks are camping athena of unknown vintage - 50 / 39 T rings- bars are sunrace somthingorothers - possibly pretty old - came off a 70 dawes tourer and possibly from the original build.
brake gear levers are ultegra 9 speed

@leggy_blonde

Thoughts?

406 or 451?

451

Why have they put a seat tube where the head tube should be?

What's the plan for the wheelset?

so you can ride it forwards or backwards - like a pushmepullyou

am going to take some hubs from an old pair of fulcrum 5s and lace them to something like this

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/rims-tape/sun-cr18-20in-451-abt-rim-silver-36-hole/

...maybe swap out to some 50mm deep crabon rims for white bear rides... 😂

What was the original purpose of this frame?

These frames were originally built by Soma a few years back as their venture into the mini velo market - they didn’t sell well (the concept has understandably struggled to take hold in the West) so they stopped making them. For some reason unknown New Albion then took over production of the frames - as far as I can tell it’s the same frame just rebranded. They have also stopped production after a relatively short period. This one I got from a bike shop in Wisconsin (on eBay) - they had a few to sell and were accepting pretty decent offers it seems so presumably they had struggled to shift them.
The main idea behind mini velos is space saving - more compact and convenient for city living - but closer to the ride and aesthetic of full size bikes. Essentially a full size frame built around 20” wheels.

My purpose is to try and reduce the bike footprint in my flat - currently my town run around / shopper lives in a cupboard - hopefully I can replace that with this and it will take up less space. Also because I have wanted to built one and see what’s it’s like for a while.

some bits arrived today

Clever

It's interesting that the velo orange neutrino (another mini velo) seems to have sold out a complete production run pretty fast and been restocked already with larger sizes.

Maybe a case of these being produced too early? Or possibly people want discs + fat tyres?

Not sure honestly. I think when Soma brought this frame out it went under the radar a bit. The interest in custom steel by people like Velo Orange in the US has certainly increased...

The build is progressing - hubs and rims should be with here in a few days so will figure out spoke lengths and hopefully have the wheels build next week...then will have a better idea of stand over height and what stem I’ll need...something with good length and rise I think.

some progress - wheels laced and half-tensioned - shorter cranks would be better i think - finally got any idea of general size and proportions - should be ridable for me (6 ft 1) with a bit of a mental riser quill stem

Wheels look good!