Varonha custom frame... And other ongoing stuff

Wow how did i miss this. Winston and Mario did a great job on this! Enjoy it!!

Rack thingys...
They are, I feel, well overprices, especially the pretty nittos ones... And I don't absolutely need them right now, I commute on the bike with a back pack and it's fine.
So I bought a Vavert front rack, massively discounted on Evans clearance section / "soiled" products (the ironmongery was missing) at £11.

Then I used my good old pipe bender:

A bit of sawing, filing and drilling and I pre-installed the front rack last night. I just need to make a plate to attach it to the fixing to the underside of the fork crown. I have some bits of stainless steel that will do just fine, it's only a matter of finding the time...

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You did a very neat job, im impressed.

Me too, especially with the rack being made of aluminum, not something I want to bend!

Me too, especially with the rack being made of aluminum, not something I want to bend!

That was my first reaction too, but I googled "bending aluminium tube" and came across a little tutorial on YouTube where a dude was using a pipe bender successfully... Turns out it works very well, without crimping or flattening the tube...

When cutting / shortening the stays, I realised also that the tubes are not that hollow... despite being lightweight, there's a lot of alloy in there! I thought it would be like the LHS profile, but it was more like the RHS one...

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Top work!

That's good to know, since I just butchered one in a similar manner, though without benefir of a bender and mine is on a 29er, bent to mount to Tubus bolt on fork rack mounts. Been loving it so far.

I have that very same rack sat in my shed unused - may well borrow this idea! Thanks.

Made a stainless steel bracket this WE but it was too thin and too flexy, 6pt has seen it last night at SE drinks he can confirm. So once at home I finished another thicker bracket I had prepared and the front rack is now sturdily installed (as sturdy as such front rack can be...)

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Hi, love the bike. Do you have contact details for winston? Would like to see how much he'd charge for a disc fork.
Cheers. Jon

PMing you!

Cheers.

Gorgeous bike. Love the colour!

Yeah!! No more spraying and filthy bags and brooks saddles! Mudguards!! Went for a cheap option, but nothing wrong with them... I still need to carefully remove the front L shaped riveted bracket and fit to underside of fork crown, which will allow me a tighter / cleaner fit...

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I went to see Winston yesterday to pick up a mock up of the logo onto a tube, which he prepared for my friend Sarah who designed the logo.

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As I was there with the bike I took the opportunity to take a picture of it with it's builder and its enameller!

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Nice.

Great shot and really nice ride @veLLo. Getting the duo to do some work for me atm.. Cant wait for it to be ready

Recently swapped the middleburn cranks for modern ish stuff, I'll keep the middleburn for my vintage my the I keep in France.
And this week end I installed a tortec rear rack. Standard fitting brackets weren't of any use as the front of the rack is very closed from the seat stays so I fabricated stainless steel connectors from a 2mm thick plate. Quite happy with the result...

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As always, nice fettlin. This bike gets better everytime you do a new post.

Great build, looks like a perfect do it all ride where your heart takes you kind of bike. again saddle and bars not to my personal taste (sorry), what size bar clamp do you have on that stem? Had you considered nitto rando bars? Think they have a considerable drop and a nice shape with a little flare.

May I ask, what pedals are those? I'm doing a similar build to this with my Argos (just spinny singlespeed instead of gears) and am planning on running flats.

Thanks for the comments.
Bars are not everyone's taste, you're not the first to suggest something different. I'll check out these nitto's, I quite like also the salsa's suggested a couple of pages back. I like the look of these Ritchey and they feel right. The clamp size is normal oversize. I plan, in the next year, to build the bike with carbon forks (and no rack no mudguard no nothing) , it could be the occasion to experiment other bars...

Pedals were some supercheap eBay stuff, they weigh a ton, I'll try to find the link maybe they still have some. I want to change them for normal touring ones with cages and strap at some point.

Yes sorry didn't mean to bang the bar drum, just wasn't sure if you'd come across nitto rando before as thought they might suit your requirement if you decided to buy some new ones down the line.

Will have a look ont bay for pedals, although if they're heavy as shit then maybe not the ones.