I make bikes

with this kind of negativity, you will never build a nice frame :P

Ah come on man - he's put a fwiggin YEAR into that frame!!! Even though I am an engineering genius who picks everything up perfectly the first time around, can see in the dark, navigate with bat-like hearing AND I can fly, I STILL wouldn't make anything that good on a five-day frame building course..!!

But I'll give it a bloody good go. ;-)

It'd be thinks like the neatly-shaping the pieces, or a graceful curve to the rear forks and stuffs like that which make a frame really beautiful. Those are the touches I wouldn't manage on a first build.

That is a very very nice bike. Congratulations indeed.

think i saw you going across st johns square.
looks beautiful in the flesh.
nice work man.

What made you choose 853 for your first bike?

I have to agree with Ed's earlier comment. What a feeling to be riding around on a frame that you created.... that captures the spirit of cycling right there.
Nice work mate

You can build a bike, but you can't take photos - I don't get it

I agree-lovely work on frame ,decals, and colour choice.Is'nt the advantage of 853 gained in a welded fabrication though?

You can build a bike, but you can't take photos - I don't get it

I don't own a camera.

I agree-lovely work on frame ,decals, and colour choice.Is'nt the advantage of 853 gained in a welded fabrication though?

853 is very strong, resistant to fatigue, and increases in strength with heating, ideal I thought for someone new to brazing, where there is a risk of overheating.
I wanted to have a light, strong frame seeing as I was going to all the trouble of making it. One or two of the tubes are 853 Proteam, which is very thin, but I compensated for this by going oversize on the downtube to minimize frame flex.

I also liked the look of the sticker.

My stays are 725.

Is it just me or does the bar tape look like it was pulled off a tramps soiled coat??

By the way.... I want my fucking coat back!!!!!!!!!!

Let it be known throughout the land that I have finished my first frame, a track frame in Reynolds 853.

Hand made in my back yard in Homerton, E5.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/matts_bike_stuff/3712214883/

I've racked up about 450 miles on it since last weekend, including the Dunwich Dynamo and a week of couriering.

Sorry the pictures aren't amazing, but my ex-girlfriend took them on a rainy afternoon.

Matt Wilkinson
(East London's newest bicycle maker)

[URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/matts_bike_stuff/3712214883/"][/URL]

I think I maybe saw your bike on Saturday in Stoke Newington? It turned my head. Very nice. I was actually going to come home and google 'Wilkinson Bicycles' to learn more, because I'd never seen one before.

I'm making my first frame next year on the Dave Yates course, can't wait. Spent along time thinking about it and trying to sort out doing it on my own but it was just too hard to get a suitable place to do it. Maybe later if I ever get more space I'll make more as a hobby.

Remember my last day of couriering and telling one of the other couriers that it was my 10 year plan to make my own frame, looks like it will be done in 5 years so can't complain.

Thats a great frame you've made there, makes me even more excited about making my own.

V nice bike. i really hope it works out, if you are making to order my Sister has just married a Wilkinson so i could order a customer made personalised bike for him ;)

Might be wrong here, but you are probably now East London's only frame builder!

Which is good news . East London used to have a number of small but bespoke frame builders .

If you want to find out more, pop into Everything cycling on Forest Rd in Wallthamstow and see the owner. He's got lots of tattoos

If you get on the right side oi him he ll tell you all about the various east london builders in the 50s and Sixties and his opinion of them

He might also get his photo album of his vintage frames. Prepare to be amazed

Great work Cosmonaut, really very impressive.

"If you want to find out more, pop into Everything cycling on Forest Rd in Wallthamstow and see the owner. He's got lots of tattoos"

I know, I bought a 1946 Bates Vegrandis off him. His dog has not just a spiked collar, but a spiked outfit.

Looks lie a wonderful job, I'd evcho what people have said about Yates' courses. You get a great frame at the end but you're by no means ready to go off and be a framebuilder. Looks like you've had a worthwhile year. A messenger I used to know called Jeremy from Texas recently started doing his own frames under the name Gallus Cycles. One of the Glasgow messengers just took delivery I believe and it looks like he's off to a good start!

Out of interest what did you use for a jig and how were your tolerances for alignment on the finished frame?

I made my jigs myself, which are my interpretations on Tim Paterek's designs.

I made one jig for the head tube-down tube, which I also adapted to braze my track ends into the chainstays; I made a simple fixture to braze the seat tube into the BB shell, I used several V blocks and shims, I built a rear triangle fixture to hold the rear end in the right place while I brazed. Every join was done separately so as to not build any stress into the frame. I used a flat surface with V blocks and a height guage to align the front triangle, and when the frame was built I did some cold setting of the rear dropouts.

Alignment tolerances on the front triangle were as perfect as any tool I can afford can measure.

The rear end was a little difficult with those chunky track ends - they are hard to get perfect in every plane. I pulled one out and re-brazed it because I wasn't happy with the alignment. Next time I'll take more care. Everything ended up pretty much perfect, although most of the framebuilders I have spoken to agree that tiny tolerances are irrelevant in frame alignment - measurements of fractions of a millimetre are the domain of machinists and are not noticeable by human riders.

Is it just me or does the bar tape look like it was pulled off a tramps soiled coat??

By the way.... I want my fucking coat back!!!!!!!!!!

That's what happens when you use your bike for more than just popping down to Fresh & Wild, love.

Did you get him talking at all?

He's not what you think he will be at all. Did you tell him you'd built a frame at all?

The stock is interesting as well.

Nice logo !

1 Attachment

what books would you recommend reading? id love to get into this but i need to absorb some more information first.

Tim Patareks Manual covers alot of stuff, also the framebuilders email thing has loads of info and you can ask any questions you want, loads of top builders use it regularly.

Did you get him talking at all?

He's not what you think he will be at all. Did you tell him you'd built a frame at all?

The stock is interesting as well.

I keep meaning to pop back with the Bates bike that I restored. I'll probably go in for a chat with my self-made bike. I'm sure he has some stories. A guy at work told me lots about him, including his Native American roots, and his nickname, "Texas Tom"..

Maybe he has an old jig or two gathering dust..

Very nice work.

The logo reminds me of the old train signs.