Varonha custom frame... And other ongoing stuff

@jontea wants to try this I think, I'm happy with the Carradice to the back and Blackburn front rack at the front.

Can't believe I didn't ask to see your small wheel shopper bike last time though, I really liked your thread!

Yeah, saw that. Was thinking of getting some steel rod and getting the boys at work to do a bit of bending. Was gonna strap bag to bars and use bagman/homemade just as support. Cheers for info though, will have a head scratch and do some scribbling/doodling.

You'd like the Paul Minimoto but at nearly £300 for a pair its just pushing it.

Thread resurrection!
When Winston built my frame over 3 years ago now, there was a vague plan that at some point he would also make a custom steel stem for it... I slept on it for way too long until I found a bit of time to draw it (which wasn't 100% a necessity but I was keen to do it, as I had at the time drawn the frame geo).
Few discussions, few emails, it's finally on its way!
We met after Christmas and changed few details that I still need to show in "revision C" (haven't had a chance to update this yet)... It should be ready in a few weeks.

On the same occasion, he's built me new forks, basically same as the existing ones with slightly different measurements (at the time I kinda wanted to make the forks "carbon forks corrected" - bit like suspension corrected - as I was planning to also use carbon forks as well as the steel ones; but axle to crown of carbon cyclocross forks applied to steel forks with shallow crown result in a quite "gappy" look. So new forks are slightly shorter - fairly high BB allows for this - with minor change to trail. I re-drew the whole hero and it should work...)

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... and the forks

I'll put it all together until summer, then I'll think of another colour scheme for the bike, I fancy a change...

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Stem looks awesome!

Those drawings are nice!

Just to be clear, shorter fork so it’ll be the same length as carbon fork?

Stem gonna look just right, pastel colour or dark classic colour?

Just to be clear, shorter fork so it’ll be the same length as carbon fork?

No, sorry I wasn't clear. Originally I drew the frame and forks vaguely based on a cyclocross geo (I realise there's loads of variations within that, advocates of high bb versus advocates of low bb, etc...). I wanted, at the time, to have two sets of forks, one steel, one carbon, and both had comparable measurements (with minor variations in rake). So for the A/C of the steel forks I used an average length from few cyclocross carbon forks (Ritchey WCS canti, wound up...). Because carbon forks are more"meaty" at the crown, the equivalent length steel forks looked a little gappy, and the front wheel clearance was bigger than the rear. It was what I wanted at the time (Winston thought it was a little bizarre but we went ahead like this).
It turns out I only used carbon forks for few month and in the end I don't really care. So I wanted to correct the slight oddity of the forks by swapping them with shorter ones. I don't remember now because I went thru the CAD exercise couple month ago, but by reducing the A/C length by 8/10mm, it only lowered the BB by something like 4/5 mm and HT / ST angle are affected by less than half a degree. Bear in mind I had originally opted for quite a high BB. So I really think that if I feel the difference I'm going to like it. New forks are slightly lower trail than previous.
All of the above isn't very scientific I realise... I like how the bike feels; I made sure the new stem height accounts for the slightly shorter forks so reach will be the same... So in theory I'm still going to love the way the bike feels. To be honest, I wouldn't have bothered with new forks if it wasn't for the stem project. The custom stem is exiting to me, I wanted to play more, hence the new colour scheme I want to do as well... Hadn't had a project in a while, that's mostly how I justify all this!

Hi all!
Received update from Winston today, stem is ready! And he sent me pictures!

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Love the drawings. Stem is OK too I guess.

I haven't seen it with my own eyes but based on what Winston has done before, what he makes is much much better then what I draw!

That looks lovely 👍

I'm now ready for the slowest rebuild ever... (as I rarely find time for these things)
Also I use the bike daily.
Part wise, beside forks and stem, I'm nearly there. Going to swap bar end shifters for brifters, 105 ones, cantis for Shimano mini Vs, I've already got all that.
I'd like to swap my 42cm neoclassic bars for 44cm, and go from 35c tyres to 32c, even 30c depending on what I find (essentially road use). And if these don't fill the mudguards properly, get some narrower ones.
I'm keeping the wheels, just a bit of TLC/re greasing with a new cassette. Also new chainrings or new crankset, and new chain.
Rack wise, I'm hoping to make my own, I have done some semi successful / naive experiments (see below for the beater, never got installed), but really keen to get rid of the Blackburn outpost (although nothing wrong with it) and have something suited to the bike. I'd make rear ones as well, the narrow type you're hardly noticing unless there's panniers on. And the carradice thingy is staying for now.
Finally the whole thing should get a new paint job, and while I'm at Mario's for this I'm contemplating also talking to Winston about internal cabling for lights, if we can find a simple solution in case I go dynamo.
This is all a bit in flux still, probably going to change my mind on a few things. Ideas welcome! And I'm afraid it's all a bit ambitious for dad's life... We'll see.
Oh, and it's not everyday in London you get a snow shot of your bike!

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I may have some very gently used Ribmos in one of those sizes. Let me have a rummage...

Best frame builder in London.

Had to Google that, looks good, why not!
I'd expect a home delivery though... and make these long overdue galettes de sarrasin for you Julia and Benjamin...

I'm sure that stem won't disappoint when I pick it up (hopefully tomorrow)...

New bike finishing... Is clear lacquer a completely stupid idea? There's a bike that keeps coming back in functional with this, and some kind of greenish highlight... Was weirdly attracted to how it looked.

Just won’t last long. Paint and clear coat doesn’t really stick or seal well to metal hence the use of primer. So I think you’ll begin to see signs of corrosion through it

You can get it powder coated. Dependent on who does it you may get some spidering, but it's possible to have a totally clear and locked off finish, Brompton do it.

@PhilDAS and @coldharbour I was actually wondering if it was a terrible idea as in is it trying too hard... The fact it's not technically straight forward either adds to my uncertainty... I've got time anyway before making final decision.

If you can do it, I love the look of uncovered fillets

It was our son first birthday yesterday and, lucky him, being such a good father I drove him all the way to Mario who had primed the stem. I still haven't made up my mind on the respray scheme, but talking to him I feel I'm going further away from clear coat solution...
As I suspected, the stem is so much better than the pictures I'd seen, and I loved the pictures!
The wooden shapes Joseph received yesterday proved really useful to take better shots this morning... He was ok with me borrowing them for a bit.

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