White Whale Cycles 650B Frame/Build Project

Hi Everyone.

Until the shop closed it's doors for the last time yesterday, I was working at a local bike shop in Seattle for nearly 3 years as a mechanic. In that time I got to know a lot of great people, including my service manager who has ben an amateur frame builder for some time. This project is a collaboration between the two of us with my contribution being limited to filing lugs and finishing work, but it's been a blast thus far!

The project is a 650B Disc Brake frame with geometry mimicking the Surly Cross Check I've been riding for the last 2 years. It's built around a 650B Straggler fork to accommodate the Surly 24-Pack Rack that I can't praise enough for being awesome!

Excuse the Instgram filters, many of these photos were taken while drunk...

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That rear wishbone ;)

Looks ace!

looks rad!

What is it with mechanics and 650b

I like the visual proportions of a 650b x 42c personally. Maybe It's just different enough to be cool?

Also the mono stay of the wishbone is actually a top tube cannibalized from an old lugged racing bike!

This is gonna turn out great. Keeping the Surly orange theme?

I haven't landed on a color yet, i'll have to see if the local powdercoater has anything weird!

All the bits have been moved to the other shop, hopefully starting this project up again in the next week or two.

Seattle smells great. Fresh Pine.

Did it take long to grind the annoying "S" off the fork crown?

Not as long as I expected actually. Used a couple of hand files.

Just cable guides left, then hours of finish work. We did some modifications to the fork that I'll post soon. Hopefully done sometime in December.

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Looks great. Missed this thread somehow, sub'd now!

Still need to add fender eyelets to the dropouts and wishbone, then housing guides and a cable stop for the F Der. Other than that, it's all finishing work from here; hopefully dropping it off at the powdercoater's sometime in the next two weeks.

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Sweet, looking forward to the results

Powedercoater?

Do the frame justice and get it sprayed proper with spray paint at a place that knows their stuff.

Nah I'm good. Powdercoat is a superior treatment for a place where it rains 9-months out of the year. Also I'm not made of $$$.

Frame work is done. Off to get it painted tomorrow. Hopefully have it built up in the next two weeks.

The headbadge is stainless! And the cable guides on the DT hold both shift lines on the side and the brake line in the middle. Stealth!

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I'm not a graphic designer but have you considered a logo more along these lines:

(looks great btw)

Cheers! Dropped it off for paint this morning. They didn't have much selection; but they had goldenrod.

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Good colour. Those cable guides look like they'll keep everything nice n clean looking. Excellent project. Bummer about the shop.

Got the frameset back from the powdercoater today. Build starts tomorrow!

Had missed this somehow. Looks great. Looking forward to seeing what the powdercoaters have done with it.

4 hours later...

We dropped the ball with the rear fender eyelets. You can just barely clear a bolt with these hooded dropouts and there is 0 room for fender strut mounts. In this picture you may be able to spot that the rear fender is mounted inside the eyelets rather than out. This made it so I had to replace the 11t cog on my cassette with a spacer to clear the bolt head. After I left the shop I picked up some alum tubing that's got an inner diam. wide enough for the bolt, but an outer diam. that's slightly less than that of the bolt head. Using it like a long spacer, I think this will allow me to mount the fender struts just outside the hoods of the dropouts and reclaim that 11t cog. I'd be lying if I said it didn't stir a mini panic attack when I first tried the install.

Tomorrow is the mad-dash to get it finished. I'm cannibalizing the rest of the parts from my current and only bicycle. So I either finish tomorrow or I walk home.

Not sure about removing the paint on the headbadge now that I've got it back; kind of like it subdued.

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This looks awesome already!