Custom Steel Commuter for my Girl

I'm not much of a poster on this forum, but I have just finished building a commuter bike for my Girlfriend, I'm particularly proud of it, so I want to show it off.

The build came about after I helped our local framebuilder out with a load of stuff on the run upto Bespoked Bristol, In return he offered to tutor me and allow me to use his tools/facilities to build a frame. I have far too many bikes, so building a bike for my Girlfriend who doesn't have a bike seemed a good idea.

Unfortunately I lost most of the build pics on my old phone, so pics are only of the finished article.

The frame is fillet brazed 631 main tubes with 725 rear triangle, seat tube is sleeved at the top tube/seat stay end with a hand cut 4130 cromo tube to match the modified track fork crown. Brake posts have been machined down to keep the Paul Racer Mediums tighter to the frame/fork. All cable routing on the frame is internal, I also modified the Paragon sliding dropouts for mudguard eyes.

I painted the frame myself in 2K Ral 7036 Platinum Grey with pink accents on the mudguards to match the lined fork crown and seat tube sleeve.

The build kit is a mix of nice expensive bits and some cheaper low budget parts...

Alfine 8 and Small flange Gran Compe hubs onto TB14 Rims
Chris King Headset
Paul Love Levers, Moon Units, Funky Monkey and Racer Mediums
Nitto B603 Bars
Brooks B17s
JTek Bar end shifter, stripped of anodising and polished
Alfine Cranks and BB
Velo Orange Elk Hide Grips
Velo Orange Mud Guards colour coded to frame
Velo Orange Gran Cru Seatpost
Planet X Stem colour coded to frame

Anyway, Pictures....

Thats it...

That is seriously amazing.

superb build! what a present, she must be chuffed to bits

very nice man.

looks great........not wishing to be a dick, but the cables look a little all over the place..... if the rear was on the left and front hanger had a noodle and went under the bars, the lines (of the cables) would be a lot smoother........... but other than that it is a very handsome bike.

thanks all, i'm happy, she is also happy, which then makes my life easier too!

Luckyskull, I agree, the cables aren't quite right, I do need to sort thrm out, the funky monkey doesn't leave enough room under the stem for a decent cable run, as you say, I need to fit a noodle of some sort, though she does want a porteur rack, if I can get back into the workshop i'll build one with a cable hanger inegrated into it.

excellent work!

this is what i used: velo orange or problem solvers do them....... that noodle is very handy.

This is really very nice.

wow, really nice man , very impressed

Great work. Well done.

Tidy.

very inspiring work.
drill a hole in the stem and route the cable through it. maybe even use the stem as cable hanger. that will look very intended and custom like.