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• #51
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So where were we (two years later)? Ah yes we sort of had a front triangle. Excuse the slightly muddled timeline of photos, it's been so long that I partly forget the order of proceedings, and have to sift through a lot of snaps to find pictures!
For a first bit of live welding I was feeling pretty fucking smug if I'm honest. No massive dramas or melty tubes to speak of, which was probably due to practising a fair bit before getting straight into the spicy shit. With that done it was time to turn attention to the Konga yoke which, as a meter thick trio of steel plate, promised to be a bit of a shit bag to heat. Tacking went okay, but the way it sucked heat was an indicator of shite to come.
There are plenty of forumers who've used these and done a refined job, but I went for the FUCKINGBURNNAAAASHIIITTTLLOOOAAADDDDDOOFFFFFFFBRRRRROOOOOONNNNNZEEEEEEEEE approach. Same end result except about 2 kegs heavier than it might've been...
More on that abomination down the line, but first we need to get that heavy sonofabitch tacked up to the bottom bracket, preferably without warping the living shit out of it.
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Without a fancy mitring machine the yoke was always going to be a huge wanker to cut through, but a few beers and a lot of grinding and swearing with the file had it nice and lined up.
Will drew up a big dick on the BikeCock to keep spirits up.
Look at this tasty little bitch!
Time to get HOT as shit and glue this chjonky boi to the rest. This ended up being quite a sweaty, hot and troublesome bit of welding to get the heat right, and using a bigger nozzle.
Oh and a bit of measuring up with the chainstays after slotting them for the yoke and rear dropouts. This was probably one of the more pleasurable things to do about the build, especially seeing the Paragon badboys tacked on at the end. Throbbing.
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Wuhu
Moar!
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TACCKKKKKKKKKKKKKED. And onto melting that honey tuffness into the rear dropouts, which have basically been the driving force behind this build. They look so damn good.
And while we're at it - and just to be bang on trend (at least for the time this build got under way, and maybe still currently), we thought best to chuck on a top tube/seat tube brace. If nothing else and the whole build went to shit, we'd still be able to put one of those silly little bags in and have a snort laugh to ourselves.
I can't even remember if I'd updated on underside braze-ons, but we chucked some zit holes in for the underside cables AND, a trio of mounty-bois for a an Anything Cage. The plan all along has been to go without inner triangle bosses to run a full frame bag, so a bit of underside storage will come in handy.
Nobody cares about the downtube though do they? Here's the whole bastard in the vise for it's first belegged photo opportunity, which must've been photographed by an early 90's cell phone so sorry about that.
I should stress there were periods of weeks if not more where I was in another state renovating a house on and off throughout all this, hence the huge void between starting this thing and now. It's about this time I got restless and wanted to start the fork to fire up some interest.
Couldn't find a lot of pictures of the shaping for the fork, but the Anvil Fork jig ended up being godsend. Still a pain in the dick getting it level with the way the fork leg is pre-bent. As it was boost spacing the idea was to avoid the shitty bow-legged look you get with some unicrown forks on a narrower hub.
Picked up some of the lovely hooded dropouts from Paragon which look so fucking hench, and couldn't be happier with how they look. We wanted to get as much bronze on this girthy cunt as possible as there are only two welds, and chubby brazing looks hella sick, so I went in with some double Rod (he didn't mind), and a good bit of heat, and it came up slick as an af.
This came up pretty nicely after only a little faffing:
Next up; drilling the shoulder of the fork and adding a bashed up steel washer for strength to run a dynamo cable, and the same just above the hub area. Ball tingle level 5/10.
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He chonnkëh. And now with added Anything Cage zits, with some sweep on the angle to keep those bois back from the front axl.
Time for one of those clap like a toddler moments when you chuck a wheel in it to see what it do.
Time for a brake tab, also provided by Will's favourite North American machinists. This came up nice, but presented some pain in the ass bits to file on the inside of the tab. In back you can see the washer hole ready to gobble up a dynamo cable from the hub.
After all this ball tinglin' it was time to get back to the frame itself, much as it looked rideable without the seatstays...
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It was around this time that the tits hit the rotor and I messed up pretty monumentally, though I wouldn't realise just what I'd done until much later. More on that in due course.
After shaping up the seatstays I couldn't resist another brief sexy photoshoot with them held in place with a magnet. It's the little things..
Again, shaping and slotting these to the dropouts was actually really enjoyable, despite the inherent fiddliness.
A minor error here, as after shaping the bridge for the rear triangle I neglected to chuck the wheel back in to check clearance before brazing it in.
After a bit of raging, shouting, swearing and general fretting I re-found the wheel and discovered about 12mm of clearance, which is plenty. Didn't stop me deciding I'd never drink beers at the workshop again. A resolution which lasted all of two days.
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Gotta love the huge ass-end on this thing. Now, for portage, and because I'd like to keep most weight back and under the saddle where possible I drilled some boss holes in the seatstays, these will form the base for legs on a simple rack, which will stabilise at a tab on the seat tube, and the rack will support a big sideways bag.
A bit of clean up.
Right, post-glamour shots realism:.... At some point in brazing the seat cluster(fuck) I'd been a bit liberal with the heat, and thus had warped the seat tube right between the brazing. Doesn't show up fantastically well on a picture, but it was there and was clearly going to cause issues when reaming out the seat-tube, but would also obviously not fill me with confidence when it comes to huge multi-day bike rides in the middle of nowhere.
That lead me to do what any sane person would do. Call dad! And by dad I mean @hulsroy, because he doesn't mince words, and because he actually has a child. After sending him some shit pictures and explaining he confirmed one of the options we'd been considering as what he would do. As did Jimmy from Egress bikes in Melbourne. So the plan was to shim it by dropping in another length of tubing, which Will fortuitously had one hand having sent a piece off to a local chap with a lathe.
In it went past the cluster brazing and silver dribbled in to merge the whole thing with a holy strength. Before filing the lip down from the inner shim tube it was on to slotting the seat tube, with a tiny tiny saw.
Once tidied, an oblig introduction to the first seatpost fitting..
Now shit's gettin real real, I picked up a pair of 29er wheels from Todd, who'd just bought a new MTB and wanted some spicy fucking upgrade wheels bless his heart. So here I am with a pair of Stans Flow S1 to Novatec hubs which will do just fine till I sort out a dyno for the front. I put the tyre on the wrong way round (and thus the wheel) in my excitement.
Gotta try an Anything cage to see that swoop-back angle.
And probs better add some cable guides for that stupid rear derailleur...
Still to come: a dropper post cable hole, tab for the rack and a bit of back-end bending...
russmeyer
spotter
Rasmussloth
kjlem
Turkish
PhilDAS
JesperXT
Hulsroy
Simba-
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Mystery All-Rad Metallurgical Masterpiece And Other Projects
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