All these bloody framebuilders eh

I've updated my website a bit to look nicer, and even bought myself a domain! I feel very fancy

hillframeworks.com

Site looks brilliant -- love the cargo, hadn't seen that before.

Thanks! The cargo bike is still one of my favourite frames for sure. Was such a fun build, I'd love to do more at some point.

Well, the wheel came after a week or so missing an endcap and a pawl. Not ideal, however i bodged an endcap replacement and used it to finish the frame. Its almost complete now, i just need to cut the seat tube slot and attach some braze ons. I'm very happy with its, been a fun build. The wishbone was cool to build and i think i like the way it looks so all good! Ill finish off the last bits today then build it up with the fork and wheels i have to see how itll look.

pics

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some parts arrived from ceeway for the next build as well.

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MTB looks great Max! I might have missed it but what fork will it have?

Thanks! Its a rockshox recon gold 35, not exactly the perfect fork for this application but i got it pretty cheap so will do nicely. It was 130mm but i changed it to 100mm this morning. I may play a bit with the travel to see how the frame feels slightly slacker.

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Awesome, I wasn’t sure if you were going to go full boutique MTB with a custom rigid fork. But bouncy is good too!

I was going to ! But i saw this fork come up and couldnt resist. I'd quite like to build a rigid fork at some point, i have most of the parts.

sneak peak :)

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and progress on the track frame

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fitup

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This looks great
I also reckon that you could get away with a bit more travel/slackness

Amazing stuff...

Are you mitering the tubes with hand tools only? They look spot on. How do you even draw the line up to which you have to remove material? That seems really hard?

Thanks! i actually got a quick ride in today on it and yeah i could imagine more travel would be handy hah. Its hilarious tho, i havent ridden a mountain bike in a while and forgot how fun it is.

Thanks :)

Yeah at the moment i mitre everything by hand. I did buy a tube notcher just before i left london but didn't manage to get it properly set up to use, and its still in london. I would like to figure out another way as by hand can be a bit tedious sometimes, especially with tig because you need really good fit up. My technique for main tubes is fairly simple, i measure the shortest distance along the mitres using the tool in the photo. Then I cut the short butt mitre and mark from that the shortest distance, then i can file/cut to that. The cutout for the downtube/seatube i mostly eyeball. The biggest challenge is keeping things in phase, so that the mitres are aligned rotationally to each other.

Chainstays are fairly easy, i weld them to the dropouts first then i can cut them to fit, they're quite easy to eyeball and the shape of the mitre is very standard so not too bad. Seatstays are a bit awkward but you just have to take it slowly and continually sense check where you are cutting, otherwise its really easy to file the wrong way and scrap one.

Usually the downtube is the hardest part for me, it just takes a lot of patience to slowly creep up on the right cut, its particularly difficult with large diameter tubes like the track frame i'm building now, which is a 44mm life tube. Im not sure why the larger tubes are hard but they seem more sensitive to being out of phase. A big tube like this is also difficult because its larger than the bb shell, which is 38mm. So i offset the cut in the downtube so that he difference in diameter is all left above the bottom bracket, this then gets removed from the downtube by the cutout for the seat tube

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Fascinating. Thanks.

i mitre everything by hand.

Just wow. What a skill to have!

The fit looks great on that track frame.

Thanks :)

I got the chainstays fitted up as well. I got some photos while cutting the mitres. Chainstays are quite easy as you can align the dummy axle with the vice and bench so that you know you're filing at the correct angle.

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So it is ready to weld now. I have to go and help my girlfriends mum move some logs now, so i will get on with it either later on today or tomorrow morning.

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I started welding the track frame, it went very well. Welding is fun, especially doing seat tube collars, very good. Mostly because theyre incredibly easy. Most of a frame is funny shapes and welding in all directions, so welding in a straight line around a tube is a very nice change. I also welded the chainstays to the bb. I just gotta remove a little bit from the seat tube mitre to account for the welds i just did then i will weld the seat tube too.

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collar weld

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I got another hour in on the mtb this morning, was great, beautiful weather and the trails were dry except for a little bit of dew. Its so fun, and theres just endless offroad riding right on our doorstep, im really excited to do more, i just need to build one for my girlfriend as well!

Im gonna get some longer rides in soon, but were doing a sportive on sunday and i need to save the legs a bit.

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