I'm working my way through Chimonas' book on lugged frames. Not only will this be my first time building a frame, it will be my first time doing any major build on a bike. With that said, I was pretty intent on putting track ends on the bike until Chimonas highly recommended vertical drop outs.

Before I go ahead and disregard Chimonas on my first bike, can someone explain a little further why putting track ends would be a disaster? I should mention that I'm building this without a true jig. Maybe that has to do with it.

Chimonas likely recomended the ends he did because the crap torch he used doesn't produce enough heat to melt LFB and braze a track dropout in. Vertical dropouts will require an increased degree of skill (or luck) or some combination therof to get right.
Track ends will be more forgiving if you actually want your wheel centered.


imo, That book is crap, or at least the edition I thumbed through was.

someone had a similar question some time ago:

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...or-first-frame.

Track ends are easier to align with respect to each other. They allow chain stay length adjustment and only make the seat stay length issue a critical one. But they suck for working on the built up bike if you run a dérailleur. Why not just use traditional road ends? (This assumes that if verticals are considered then a dérailleur is also part of the package). Andy.