Originally Posted by
gregw
I checked with a friend who is a Machinist about welding a steel bike frame and he confirmed what you said about heat treating. He said that heat treating is no big deal if you know exactly what the original temper and Rockwell was to begin with. And of course we don't know that so, no welding please. Thanks Cyccommute for the correction! Glad we have some smart folks on this forum.
I am sticking to the canti brake advise. My cannondale came with canti brakes, they really sucked when new, then I shortened the yoke and changed out to koolstop pads and they did improve. When I switched to shimano parallel push V-brakes I could not believe the difference, it's night and day. I was going to save the canti's that I took off to maybe use on a beater, but once I tried the V-brakes I threw the canti's in the garbage. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.
I was thinking more along the lines of an aluminum bike with heat treatment. The fork and rear triangle on a regular bike may not be beefy enough to handle the additional stress too. Although, you could just replace the fork with one that already has tabs on it. I think Surly makes one for the Steamroller (but I won't go check because the Surly site disturbs me
)