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

I have a plan to use the toptube from the ‘30s Rudge that the giraffe’s chainstays came from as a 2nd toptube on the Raleigh. This will reinforce the downtube/headtube junction so I’m really not too concerned by the ripple.

After brazing in the larger diameter tube on the chainstays I’ve cold set the rear end to fit a 130mm hub. It’d been set in to fit a 120mm hub in the past.

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Looks great
How do you make sure you've set each side evenly with that method? String from drop outs to headtube and measure the distance from the seat tube? What about the angle of the dropouts and hanger? do you use the proper tool?
I have a Record ace with the same paint, are you sure it's a Royale? Record Ace is 531c

Ah you could be right.

Not sure why I thought it was a Royal. The decals are all pretty worn but I can see the top of an A on the top tube as well as the R so Record Ace makes sense.

Yeah, I’ll check each dropouts with a straight edge laid against the head and seattubes so works the same way as the string method and I have dropouts alignments tools I’ll use to check they are correct too.

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Yep, thats a record ace! Same as mine

Have just had my offer accepted for these cranks,

30/46 rings should give a nice range of gearing with the cassette I have which I think is 11/42.

Anyone know if a Campy road mech will be able to handle 16t difference between the rings?

Got the chainset and have tried the 10 speed chain on it and it sends to go on and off easily enough so fingers crossed.

A 107mm bb seems to make for the best chainline. Narrower than I expected but if it works…

Today I got some more brazing done on the frame, changed the cable routing for the rear derailleur so that it goes back to outer cable at the bottom of the downtube and stays in outer all the way to the derailleur. Realising not that having outer cable starting at the bottom of the downtube maybe isn’t the wisest as it’ll be right in the splash zone so maybe I’ll change that again.

The slot in the top of the seattube was real ugly and square ended, I’m surprised it’s not cracked yet! I’ve brazed on a washer and drilled it out, should keep it good for years to come.

Attached the second top tube and I’m really happy with how this has come out. Just did a micro fillet around the ends to keep head to a minimum as I didn’t want to as any reinforcement played to the seat and downtube.

I added downtube shifter bosses but the shifters I’ve bought have come without the base piece I think. There’s no stop for the shifter to sit against and the shifters are just square, was expecting a curved piece that would fit right up to the downtube. Not sure if that piece will be available separately or I just have to find different shifters.

I’ve looked at adding another set of stays, between the chain and seat stays, this would make up for any stiffness lost in the chainstay chop mod so think I’ll go ahead with this.

Another set of bottle bosses would be nice but I need to see where the front mech wants to be and maybe add a third boss on the downtube so that I can shift that bottle cage up to make room for one on the seattube.

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Make them bendy (yes bye bye stiffness) so they create an S with the second top tube!

Looks like fun work so far.

Bravo

This is very exciting! I love the curved second top tube. Are you building a custom fork for it?

I’m going to add trusses and probably a rack to a Pashley fork.

I’ve already brazed brake bosses on them, backwards, so need to sort some mounting point for a canti rocker too.

I did think of doing a custom fork but I had the Pashley one and the steerer was long enough so why not? It has nice internal routing for the dynamo cable apart from anything!

Got the trusses for the fork started today.

I was thinking of adding a rack to the front of them but dunno how flexible it’ll all be.

I was planning on bolting them into a hole just above the axle slot in the dropouts but might shorten the rods and do a braze in on the leg that they’ll bolt to.

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I love where all of this is going.

Just a couple of phone snaps until I get the rear hub rebuilt on a rim that matches the front, then I’ll take some proper photos.

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Yes! I love this. How does the truss'ed fork ride? I'd imagine it would be quite stiff?

Yeah, I dunno how much stiffness it adds. The fork was on my Pashley before without the truss obviously and I didn’t really notice it being overly flexy so I dunno what I stand to gain with the truss. (Other than Insta cred obvs!)

looks so boss, good job

i recognise that pink paint (i think). great work as always.

Ridiculously good!

I do not understand any of your bikes at all but they're all so cool. Another freaky banger!

Haha 100% what +ltc says. I love it! Will it get a M_V paintjob?

The added seatstays ruin it a bit for me. They just don't follow any line on the bike and just look like a foreign object. The rest of it including the build is really nice though!

I think whats missing is a bowtie-shaped framebag?

Not any time soon, I’ve given it a good heavy coat of lacquer as I want to show off both the mods I’ve made and the pre-existing patina.

Fair comment. There was a suggestion to curve them to flow into the extra toptube but I thought having them as their own element would be better.

Currently I'm in the Cairngorms doing some quality underbiking,

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5vecy_saLu/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==