Customer expectation management: Pls builders help punters not be idiots

Greetings framebuilders.

Hoping this could start a general zone for us bike-buying idiots to ask the experts about framebuilding / repair / modification possibilities, details, reasonable expectations etc etc.

I’ll start: what advice would you lovely builders give for possible options for dynamo routeing braze-ons, for some reason I don’t feel that happy about trying to drill for internal routing. Happy to be told if I’m wrong. I’m not a particularly light or elegant rider...

Bike in question: Fork is ‘R’ (probably fine ? I guess I would consider that) frame is 853 triangle, intend to route rear light via BB area then into mudguard so no stays routeing needed.

Could there be a use for little tubes sections, from headtube down to behind BB, like bare cable shifter cable tunnels? Or grippy braze-ons?

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I'm not a builder, and my only client is an unreasonable fantasist - me. But I'd just drill away and braze on some re-enforcement plates around the hole. After all, no one thinks twice about drilling holes for bottle cage bosses, and a dynamo wire is small by comparison. On my fourth frame I used Di2 grommets for dynamo cable entry and exit.

What are everyone's thoughts on a Gravel step-through frame? My girlfriend has suffered with me buying her practical bikes for her needs. Her sister just brought a Pashley Princess which my partner is very envious of. She has a 22mile round trip along the canal and over Alexandra Palace, so a Pashley Princess simply not going to work (well.)

What I'd like to go is to make a stereotypically feminine bike but can function well. A step-through bike that can take 35c tyres with full mudguards, disc brakes and internal routing. Thoughts? It has to be relatively stiff as she does triathlons too :)

Stiff and step throughs are (sort of) mutually exclusive. Can double up tubes like a mixte frame, but that adds weight. Can go massively oversized on the tube diameters, but youre still limited by the shape of the front end.

Sounds like an N+1 . It might be cool to do, but probably wont do anything that well. Get an old step through frame and whack some brake calipers on it that clear big (Tektro,paul etc) and cruise around on that. Get someone to build a custom tri frame for smashing about at tri's. Or go crabon but thats less fun.

Do you/does she want the step through aspect for fit (standover) or for riding in a skirt? Or purely for aesthetics?

Gravel...35c tyres...mudguards...triathlons definitely sounds like at least 2 different bikes to me.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fireflybicycles/albums/72157658184254721

many more on firefly flickr

step through makes huge sense if you and your partner have little height diff and want to share the bike but just changing saddle height

Is that your latest p̶r̶o̶j̶e̶c̶t̶ purchase?

The step-thru is purely for aesthetics. She is not a serious triathlete. They're more for fun than to be competitive.

@amey That would be perfect. Just without the heft price tag.

How about looking out for an aluminium step through/ladies/mixte frame on eBay etc and building it up nice?

Thinking aluminium might help with the stiffness.

You could buy the nice Rourke step through on fleabay at the mo, if it fits, and have disc tabs added?

You could start with this as a base
https://www.koga.com/en/bikes/race/collection-2019/colmaro-sports.htm?frame=D

Get the new Velo Orange one:

you can't say they are not giving you enough tubes on that one.

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Link?

someone posted it on Rourke thread

I can’t see this for sale anywhere?

Sadly, too small.

Ah.

Soma do a nice mixte frame

Greetings framebuilders.... does anyone know how Bishop makes disc brakes safe on what looks like regular Columbus Max (or Air?) fork blades? What dark trickery is this?

Also, I'd be interested to know if this is 1" or 1 1/8" headtube, and if that makes a difference to disc brakes on forks.

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I can’t see this for sale anywhere?

Was just announced. My comment was a bit premature.

does anyone know how Bishop makes disc brakes safe on what looks like regular Columbus Max (or Air?) fork blades? What dark trickery is this?

Not a frame-builder but... There are non-tapered Max fork blades available, 0.9mm wall thickness all the way. That's the same wall thickness as other Columbus 'for disc' fork blades. Normal Max fork blades are just 0,9mm towards the crown and then 0.6mm all the way down.

Seen a few Max-Disc builds, here's one that sprung to mind

Interesting^, I’ve been wondering what the actual difference is between disc forks and non (apart from the mounts obvs). Seems like a tiny difference but I guess .3mm thickness more than butted blades around the whole length is a fair bit more steel.

I’ve been meaning to say thanks for replying to my original question. I might just get a framebuilder to do the actual drilling though ;)