The design of this frame was dictated by the fact she was a short woman (under 5') with shorter than average legs. You will notice that the down tube and top tube aren't very far apart. Then because her fit dictated that her handlebars were a little higher than her seat, the head tube had to be fairly long so she didn't have an ugly amount of stackers above the headset. Also because she needed smaller wheels that also extends the bottom of the head tube longer. She played around with a variety of designs and liked the look she came up with. I did too. So yes the whole area of the head tube sleeve was brazed with silver. She used fillet pro silver on the main triangle joints without any sleeves in the top or down tube, just on the head and seat tube.