TK's rando frame and fork

This frame and fork are designed and built around 650B wheels. The lugs are from Richard Sach and are called Rene Singer. The fork crown and bb shell are Pacenti. Built with light tubes and painted by JB. There's a custom stem, tail light and front rack but I'll wait to get complete bike pictures. Then I'll post pictures of the complete bike.

BB's frame

I finally got this project painted. The frame has bi-laminate construction which is fillet brazing combined with lugged construction. The paint color is a stock color for a 1938 Ford Model A. It's sort of blue and sort of green depending on the light. The fenders are Honjos. I almost didn't mask off the ends but I think the fenders look better like this.

Pearl cross frame and fork

Built with Sachs lugs, crown and bb shell. Light tubes and will be built with Tune parts. This will be an all out race bike first with the ability to add fenders in the off season. I'm happy with how it all turned out. The paint is white with an alabaster pearl in the clear. It doesn't show well in the pictures but in person it's quite striking.

Twins

I built these for two customers that are pals. One lives on the East Coast and the other lives on the West Coast. Both customers wanted the bikes painted identically. The colors and paint scheme were up to me. The only restriction and really it was more of a suggestion was not red because Tom had several red bikes. No problem. I love this blue. If all my bikes were to be painted one color I'd be perfectly happy with this color for a long time.

Front rack

Here's some photos of a recently completed front rack. The frame and fork were done awhile ago but I was waiting for special mounting bolts to come in from Japan. The bolts replace the ones that mount the brake to the pivots. Finally the bolts showed up but they didn't work! Wrong thread pitch on one end. So I made my own. Not a big deal but bummed me out for waiting for these elusive good for nothing bolts. As I'm writing this I'm waiting for the customer to pick this up. I can't wait to see it built up.

Now for something completely different

I finally finished the bi-laminate frame. It's built to be a single speed or converted to a 3 speed Sturmey Archer with a coaster brake. The gear cable is routed internally. The cable enters the down tube near the head tube and exits near the bb shell. The cable goes under the bb shell and enters the chain stay. The cable then exits the side of the chain stay near the rear wheel. I hope I never do that again.

The seat stay arrangement is unusual. This sort of style was done by other builders like Singer and Routens. I doubt I'll do it again but it turned out the way I wanted it to. I like how the seat stay caps wrap part of the top tube. That was sort of a pain but worth it.

The rear drop outs are from Pacenti. The faces are brazed on seperately and are made of stainless steel. The faces will be masked off before paint. I think they're a nice touch. Also the coaster brake plate is made of stainless steel too and will be masked off before paint. The swoopy tube between the seat and chain stay acts as a brace during the braking loads from the coaster brake. The loads aren't that significant so the tube is more decorative than functional. The tube is brass but is quite thick walled so it will be strong enough to actually act as a brace if needed. I used brass because it bent the way I wanted and it was the diameter that would look appropriate.

The fork crown is the same twin plate crowns used on the Masis. It's a pain to work with but it sure lends some mojo to the overall aesthetic. These crowns are quite rare. Definitely not somthing I'll be using too often.

Bi-laminate

Sorry for the lame formatting. Here's some shots early into a build. Combining lugs with fillet brazing is often called bi-laminate construction. At least it is in England. This has never been a common form of joint joinery in the U.S. so I'm not sure if we have a term for it. I like to call it "a little something for everyone!" Heck there's even some tig welding in there. The points have been tig welded on and the weld bead was ground off. Thanks to Erik Noren for welding those on. Tig was necessary because I brazed the lugs and laid the fillets at the same time. Since fillets typically need to be done with brass it made sense to use that for the lugs too. If I had brazed the points onto the lugs beforehand with brass that filler would have melted during the construction. The melt would make the seam between the lug and the added point visible and ugly.