Saffron Frameworks Dream Bike

Spent the evening removing the printed logos from the stem.
It took about an hour, using nail polish remover and elbow grease.
I'm quite pleased:

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Richard Sachs makes 1 1/8th" 'Newvex' lugs

Pretty sure the Newvex lugs are for a 31.7mm headtube, so a 1" steerer. AFAIK the only Sachs lugset for a 1 1/8" steerer is the SaxMax.

Oh yeah, you're right. Cheers!
I always assumed he only made them for people who wanted Nervex-style lugs with a 1 1/8th" steerer.
Even less point my using them, I guess.

I needed a top cap and found out you can design your own... so I got carried away and ordered one. It says GARUDA, which is a creature in Hindu and Buddhist mythology that flies around with the gods on his back. He appears a lot in Indonesia and Thailand, where me and my girlfriend spent much of last year travelling and working. It's also the name of a metal band I used to be in!

Hopefully it'll also appear somewhere on the frame : )

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This is how I imagine myself riding this bike:

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That’s a very upright riding position. Have you considered a bike fit?

Wait... Am i doing it wrong?!

Where have you bought it from?

kapz:
https://www.kapz.com/stealth-caps

No idea if it'll be any good but it was a fun project.

Interesting build ideas you have here. I'm no expert but it seems to me you're bending over backwards to try and make 1" HT work. If you're willing to go 1 1/8 HT surely that opens up a galaxy of options and instead of focusing so much on the aesthetics of your fork you can consider frame geo and fit. As someone said above many many dream bikes and custom bikes for life get sold on in no time. Anecdotal evidence suggests it's down to customers spaffing over looks and frame building "innovations" instead of letting the professional frame builder take the lead. I say all this for three reasons:
1) your about to spend £6k on a bike
2) you have nearly the best framebuilder in the country
3) but you're still The Client. Remember it was Winston who brazed on the Paul studs for DBAD, ultimately he will do what you say so be smart.

I don't know about the Paul studs thing - what happened?

Like I said, I chose Winston because he knows what he's doing, and I won't be doing anything he's not happy with.

The question atm is more about fork blades than head tubes:
If stainless, disc-specific fork blades actually exist then we'll use them... If not then we'll look at non-stainless options, and finally rim brakes. Winston's going to ask Ceeway and Reynolds what the options are (including if they'd consider a one-off order) but tbh I'm not getting my hopes up. It's an unusual request so he hasn't had to look into it before.

Either way, a 1"HT should be fine on a smaller frame like this (roughly 53 x 53).

Stainless makes sense because it doesn't rot, and discs work better in the wet. I broke my femur last year so I'm more risk averse than you might think! I've looked into disc fork options a bit and even with a 1 1/8th steerer there are surprisingly few. I could go tapered but that really is too far away from the traditional-looking frames I love. This is going to be a bike that gets used all year round so it needs to be suitable, but of course for 6k I also have to love it, and that is partly about looks. If I was all about practicality then I'd go off-the-peg, but I love craftsmanship and wanted something special made with a bit of love.

I broke my femur too (end of 2018)! Sucks eh. Looks like you're back up and riding so that's good :)

No way? Mine was Jan 2019 so we might have been hobbling around at the same time.
Hope you're back to normal by now : )

Hit a huge slab of ice descending Beddlestead one day after my wife told me she was pregnant and three days before my birthday in December 2018. We were absolutely one-legged at the same time! But I'm all good (still some lingering stiffness), had a great second half of 2019 and 2020 started slow but have been banging out the furlough miles so pretty strong now. How's your recovery been?

Ouch! Great timing, well done.

Mine was 3 weeks before me and my girlfriend were due to start travelling for a year. I'm basically back to normal now - some stiffness when I'm out of the saddle but nothing major. Pleasantly surprised but still a little nervous. We only got back from travelling a couple of weeks before lockdown and I hadn't been on a bike since the injury.

Ok, so probably time for an update as pretty much everything has changed since last time I posted.

It started to strike me as a bit stupid spending loads of money on a high end groupset for an all-year bike, and that it was mainly the winter application of the bike that was causing all the problems about disc brake mounts on steel forks etc, as well as compromising what I really want from a 'dream bike'- which is a fast, fun road bike with beautiful detailing, a top of the line groupset and loud paint.

Winston seemed reluctant to spend his time researching disc brakes, polishing stainless steel or cutting bilaminate head tubes, and I felt like I was forcing him into a job he wasn't particularly interested in... and that probably wouldn't pay him enough for all the time he'd have to put into it.

So I changed the plan:

Instead of having a road bike that I can use all year round, and a tourer that I can commute on but that's way too sluggish to use as a winter road bike, it makes more sense to get a road bike that is just a road bike, and a winter bike that I can commute on, use all year without wearing down an expensive groupset, and do some occasional light tours on.

So that, ladies and gentleman, is the new plan.

For the road bike I have put down a deposit with Matthew at Saffron Frameworks. He specialises in stainless frames, has done a bunch of really well-exected bilam headtubes, and is also a short ride away from where I live in SE London. He's up for all the polishing and will certainly do a fastidious job with the details. The price hike from Varonha to Saffron is quite scary, but with Saffron I get a bike fit and a full (and carefully executed) final build thrown in, so it's not actually as bad I had presumed.

For the winter bike I'll update soon : )

Free choc-ice to anyone who bothered to read all of that!

Glad you've settled on this build, sounds like it will do you well. Does Winston get a consultation fee for all the emails you've exchanged with him 😂

No, but he does get to make the new winter frame : )

Ah yes!

Good decision all around. Good choice with Saffron.

Matthew is a true SE london Artisan.

I started a new thread for the winter bike:
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/352121/#comment15456087

Good shout.

Also a good decision.