Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Tom's club racer










This is another club racer. I know Independant Fabrications has a model called a club racer too but the term "club racer" is an old one. So I don't feel like I'm ripping their idea off. Besides, they don't do lugs. This bike, like the previous two, is designed around standard reach caliper brakes and the brake bridge and fork are built so the brake pads are near the bottom of the slot. This requires a fair bit of accuracy during the build because if the fork is a little too long or the bridge too high and the brakes won't reach the rims. That's bad! Why do I bother with this? Well this sort of bike is all about options. The additional clearances under the brakes allow for a range of tire widths and the eyelets make fenders possible. Tom lives in So. Cal so fenders probably won't make sense but who knows? If he wants to stick 30mm tires on and explore fire roads he can. If that doesn't appeal to him 23mm will be just as at home on this frame. The lugs, crown and bb shell are Sachs castings. Tom has agreed to let me paint it anyway I wish. How cool is that? I will be painting the same as Pete's club racer because they want me to. Pete lives on the East coast so the twins will be seperated by about 3000 miles. Hopefully they will get ridden together sometime though.

4 comments:

mcscholt said...

I think you should do a production run of these...

Curt Goodrich said...

I'm not really set up to do a production run. Perhaps if I had employees then it would be possible. But as a single builder it's difficult to gain a lot of efficiencies even with standardizing sizing. Maybe some day though.

Frank said...

Your Club Racer looks much nicer than the tigged club racer the other guy builds :>). Not that there is anything wrong with a tig welded frame.. if you like that sort of thing :>). Can't wait to throw a leg over the top tube. Frank

mcscholt said...

If you need help from a disenchanted grad student for a production run, let me know... :)