Silver Pearl

I'm a sucker for pearls. This is a silver pearl over white. I really like it. The Sachs lugs with red highlights really jump without being too much. The front rack is nickel plated. I like how that turned out. The tail light tucks in nicely yet is very visible from behind. The tail light weighs 30 grams.

Identity crisis?

Sachs lugs, crown and bb shell. Well, at least the drop outs aren't Sachs. This is a what I'd describe as a sensible road frame. Light tubing, chain stays aren't too short, proper seat angle, fork bend that starts low and continues to the drop out and a front center that's not too short. The frame and fork are for short reach brakes and there's room for 30mm tire. The customer is only going to run 25mm but there's no harm in have a little extra room. Who knows in ten years he might want 28mm tires?

Black and red

Here's some pictures of a recent frame. It's built with Pacenti bb shell, Sachs lugs and crown. The drop out faces are nickel plated. This frame will be built up as a single speed but the customer wanted provisions for gears. So the rear drops are a Campagnolo short slot copy. Photographing black bikes is tricky. Every little speck of dust or fingerprint shows. The graphics are painted on with a stencil. Normally they're decals. I prefer the decals but this looks good too.

New fork crown

Here's some pictures a recent fork built with Kirk Pacenti's new fork crown. I don't know if it has a name. The crown is wide. The blades are 70mm apart at the base of the crown. The fork seems ideal for rigid mountain bike forks. The steerer is 28.6mm. Aesthetically the crown reminds me of the cool faux twin plate crowns used on Bridgestone mountain bikes. Don't ask me what it weighs. I didn't put it on a scale. I don't normally make many mountain bikes but I could see using this fork crown in the future. It's nice to have options.

Butterscotch

The color in person looks like butterscotch. The photos were taken in the shade because it was too sunny to get good photos. This is the frame that's pictured earlier without paint. I apologize for the poor formatting so far. I'm still trying to learn how to move images and text around.

Nuovo Richie Series

This is the first frame I've built with the Nuovo Richie Series lugs. I like them. This frame is built around Paul Racer centerpull brakes. Hence the canti posts in the unusual position. The Paul brakes work great and allow for fat-ish tires and fenders. Those requirements ruled out even standard reach brakes and the customer didn't want cantis. Racers to the rescue. The steerer is threadless and obviously is still at the stock length. It will be shortened during assembly.

The next pictures show close ups of the lugs after brazing and clean up. They have been thinned and sanded smooth.

The photo of the seat lug shows the braze on for the tail light behind the seat tube. The light is an LED blinky light that I make. It's very bright and yet it's attractive. The light weighs 31 grams and is waterproof. Pictures of that some other time.

The fork will have braze ons attached to the fork blades for a custom front rack. I'm still working on the rack. Once the platform is completed then I will know where to put the mounts. In addition to the fork blades this rack will mount to the front of the Paul Racer brakes. The rack will secure the front of the fender, hold the headlight and on occasion a handlebar bag.

Fork alignment

Fork alignment is very important to me. I think it's as important as frame alignment. Unfortunately with the prevalence of carbon forks, fork alignment has become less important to many builders. Forks are taken out of boxes and stuck onto frames and as long as the wheel centers up between the blades all is golden. Well not really. Many of these forks have the drop outs pulled to one side or the other of centerline. So even if the wheel centers up between the blades the wheel will not be vertical. Since carbon forks can't be cold set there's nothing to do about it. The builder could return the fork and some do. But many don't. Many don't even have the tooling to check. Also there's a whole new generation of builders that have never even built a fork and are largely unaware of this issue. That bugs me a lot. Maybe too much. Anyway, I make my forks and I'm passionate about it. The first picture shows a fork on my Marchetti fork table. The steerer is held parallel to the table surface. The square is placed on the blades by the crown to make them perpendicular to the table surface. The black gauge at the drop outs has a dial to symmetrically set the pointers at the desired width. In this case 100mm. You can see that the gauge can move up and down the vertical shaft. The V is placed on the steerer and that sets the gauge at the centerline height.

The second picture is a close up of the gauge between the drop outs. This is to ensure the drops are spaced equidistantly from the centerline. There's more steps to aligning fork after this. I haven't taken photos of them but maybe will sometime. The other steps are to H-tool the drop outs to make sure they're parallel. The square is put into the drop out slots to confirm the crown isn't twisted. A properly dished wheel is then put in the fork to confirm the wheel is centered between the fork blades. Lastly the fork rake is measured to confirm it's to spec. When all of that has been done, then the wheel is truly vertical and the fork will truly perform as intended.