Serotta CSI

Looks like the dropouts are stainless steel:

Really enjoying this thread, kudos for putting in all the effort to get this on the road

Swapping a tube out looks like much more work than just building from scratch. I can see how this one worked out, but how do you take out and replace a TT or DT without taking the HT right off? And how do you get two whole joints hot enough all at once, and pull the joints apart while the brass is all melted without needing eight pairs of asbestos hands? It's like a whole different league of skill.

Bravo for the perseverance though!

One joint at a time innit, pop one end then the other....

One joint at a time innit, pop one end then the other....

But with only one joint loose, the others hold everything very much in place, there is no flex that would allow a lug to slipped/popped off.

Matt says that it is hugely more difficult to repair a frame than it is to make from scratch.

He also said that this particular frame is a bugger because the lugs are totally filled with braze- I.e very well built and therefore unwilling to come apart easily.

He's back on it on Tuesday, sounds like there is a fair way to go yet.

But with only one joint loose, the others hold everything very much in place, there is no flex that would allow a lug to slipped/popped off.

you cut the damaged tube over a bit from the joint. so it's just a short bit you need to remove.

you cut the damaged tube over a bit from the joint. so it's just a short bit you need to remove.

But then you can't get a new one in. It's fiendishly difficult, I tell you!

that's true.

(Though you can dismantle one joint at a time that way, you still have to be careful not to over heat the lugs/tubes that you want to keep)

do you think you'd have to redo the entire joint in question as heating the lug enough to braze the new tube in would also debraze the lug from the other tubes? for example top tube and seat stays if you do the top seat tube joint.
it might not be necessary but best practice, I think.
I almost don't know what I'm talking about tho.

Matt says that you have to get the whole joint up to an equal temperature, which is a tricky proposition as a moments inattention will see a hole burnt through the lug- he normally uses a number five tip, but for heating a joint to get a tube out he uses an 18.

Presumably he then beckons to his asbestos octopus, who deftly pulls the tube out whilst restraining the others.

I'm glad to see asbesto-octopus is handy with a camera.

He's just sent me a load more photographs, I'll sling them up later today- seat tube is in, lug re-construction is (possibly) also done.

I was joking before, but I'm now starting to believe that this will actually be done before the Time Machine.

Dammit this really is well played mate.

Looking fecking awesome!

It's all Matt's work, I've been sat on my arse in the office.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8131181@N05/sets/72157636552632534/

Just looked through the flickr .. Matt's doing some fine work.

Saved as a wallpaper:

This tubing was produced just before Reynolds went bankrupt in ~1999.

Matt was saying that on the tubing these days the stamp is usually very indistinct- to the degree that telling what it says is often difficult.

I'm still surprised that the tube was only $70, given that there is seemingly no other source of them around.

Serotta probably trying to get rid of it and see it as dead stock.

That's quite possible, although as long as they have stock they can charge for repair work- for them to replace that tube was ~$500.

The seat tube on my Oak is also swaged- but 31.8 at the base to 28.6 at the top as that is what is available from Reynolds these days.

It strikes me that you might be able to make some quite unique frames if you had the opportunity to go through Serotta's tubing stock-room.

That's what I started to think, but then it would be hard to convince them to sell you complete tube set, I imagine :)
Over long period of times, involving different frame builders and people asking for tubes, it could be possible, but not worth the hassle.

I'm very excited about riding the Serotta and comparing it to my Oak, a lot of the design ideas are shared between the two, but both execute those ideas in slightly different ways, and of course the Oak is 931 vs, the custom Serotta tubeset which is a mixture of things.

Selling old spare tubes isn't there business and gouging people for replacements due to scarcity would just give them a bad rep.