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

Had planned to paint this frame but I feel like I made a pretty good job of the fillets attaching the top and down tubes to the headtube so don’t know if I want to cover them!

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I received the Cotic frame.

It was a bit more damaged that I’d thought. The toptube was kinked at the brace to the seattube (realises this looking at the photos after bidding) and the seattube was also kinked right at the bottom where the downtube has pushed up into it.

Wasn’t much left when I’d finished cutting it up.

Removed the bb shell as I need a way to do chain tension with the Syntace bolt thru dropouts so I’ll replace it with an eccentric shell. I’ve removed the kinked bit of seattube, I’ll sleeve a larger tube over that which will get mitred to the ebb shell.

I have a Konga 3” yoke looking for a home so might chop the chainstays back a bit and fit that.

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I’ve started work on my first commission. A guy that comes to the velodrome wants a steel road fixed based on the geometry of his Seta.

It’ll be fillet brazed (apart from the chainstays, I’m using a bb shell with ports so they’ll be capillary brazed.

Chunky fillets to be left unfiled and he’ll be getting it clear powder coated. No pressure to do near fillets then!

I’m not making much profit on this build but I am getting a lot out of it. Building for someone else is very different to building for myself!

Got the front triangle buttoned up today.

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Orange P7 rebuild is done.

Couldn’t decide on what to do finish wise. Decided leaving it raw (or oil/lacquer) wasn’t going to be protective enough given the intended usage.

Couldn’t be bothered with powder coat as I have added polished stainless highlights which would need either masked or stripped back after coating plus I don’t want to use the place I had been using since the trashed a rack I had them do and I haven’t found a new coater yet.

Decided to brush paint with hammerite, went for smooth yellow and it went on anything fucking but smooth! It was so bad I painted over it with hammered black which still ain’t very smooth and hasn’t done much to hide the unevenness of the underlying yellow paint but I’m kinda starting to like it more and more. I dinked the frame with the bb thread chaser and the black chipped through to yellow so I think that once it starts doing that in more places it’ll look really good. It has a very ‘lived in’ look with all the brush marks and runs and stuff which I think suits the frame. I’m really not one for immaculate paint anyway.

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Also painted the Surly 1x1 chop and gave it a slightly different build. Should be fun around the pump track I think.

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Sick klunker, love the paint and the retro dropper too.

Awesome! they look like alot of fun

The Surly looks like fun.

Wow, haven't checked your thread for ages. You're going places with this hot metal stuff!

Both builds look great.

Chucked some parts on the frame I'm building for the velodrome customer and took it round the block. Rides straight (after a little cold setting) and looks pretty nice too IMO. Got to polish up the headtube badge and the frame number tag under the bb which are both stainless but other than that its done.

Handover on Thursday, it's going as a bare frame, customer works in construction and wants the raw look but protected, he says he can get it lacquered or clear powder coated through work so I'm leaving that to him.

Customer has purchased a Steamroller fork to use with the frame as I reckoned he would get a full fork, ready to go for about what the tubes etc to build a fork would cost me, plus I haven't done a fork yet. I've got one 90% finished but not comfortable enough with the process to want to do it for someone else yet. Luckily I have my own Steamy fork too so chucked that on and the angles are bang on where I wanted them.

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Excellent work, love it
That back end is really splendid
Forward facing seatpost clamp works well on a commuter (out of the way of road spray)

Thanks man.

Think I’ve done forward facing slots on all the frames I’ve built, just seems like the best option in the Scottish climate.

Really nice.

That's really quite nice.

My customer dropped by with his now clear powder coated frame and I built it up for him today.

Powdercoat is really nice. Seems a lot less brittle than the clear powdercoat I had done on frame 001.

Thought this was going to look awful with the Ultegra cranks but I don’t think it looks too bad actually. Cables still to be sorted, one of the problems of working in a velodrome is not having any stock here. The rear will be attached along the toptube using vintage style chrome bands as per the customer’s request. He wants to be able to run just a front brake sometimes and for there to be no extraneous guides or stops when he does so.

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He also brought me this trailer that he wanted rid of.

It’s meant to work with the qr skewer which is no use to me since I don’t own a single bike with a compatible rear hub/axle but I reckon with a little bit of work I can sort something out.

Might also modify the trailer a little as the wheel is pretty shoogly.

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That looks great - I love wishbone seatstays. Out of curiousity what powdercoater did the guy use? I've used a couple in & around Glasgow with varying degrees of success - last frame I had done was at ESP, had heard slightly mixed reviews but it turned out really good, always keen to hear if there's anyone else that does a good job on frames as most can't be arsed & just stick to wheels...

Cheers.

Not sure if the powder coaters name but they are in the borders type area.

I’m going to try ESP next. Mate has a frame in there just now and Carl at Bikelove uses/recommends them.

No worries, think Ben at Kinetics uses them too. They did this one for me a couple of years ago, been in regular commuting use since then & still looks good, nice even finish / threads all masked well / no chips or flaking since & the price was pretty good too.

Ben at Kinetics uses them too

If thats correct, the paint on his parts that come to SJS looks fine.

Been working on this fork to go with gravel frame.

Originally I’d wanted to make it a disc fork but the geometry of it doesn’t really work for that (a 160mm rotor hits the fork leg and the legs are too narrow to easily fit the caliper mount I wanted to use so I’ll keep it rim brake and I’ve ordered tubes to make a version 2 of the frame/fork which will use a pacenti mtb fork crown for the fork and seatstays.

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Hench

Is that hite rite any good? I've been wanting a dropper for my GT but it's an awkward seat post size so I thought that a hite rite might be a solution.

It’s alright. Needs a seatpost that moves smoothly and I was finding the seat twisted a bit as it went down. Also you don’t get much of a drop. There is a Long Travel version but good luck finding one!