Working on Sunday... did a simple refit to an old Ritchey frame that needed v-brakes instead of a chainstay brake as well as some top tube guides.

Quite pleased with my new tacking jig, have made blocks with different spacings of 80,85,90, and 95mm and will mill one out so it is adjustable for any spacing I might need and serves as a nice retainer when you are mitering the bosses to fit.

It did not take any time at all to make, the QR makes things easier to adjust.

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikesales/brakejig1.JPG

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikesales/brakejig2.JPG

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikesales/brakejig3.JPG

Think I mentioned that if you wet the guides with brass that installing them is so much easier as all you need to do is bring the guide and tube up to brazing temperatures and it just sets itself in place really cleanly.

Did not get an after pic as the customer came by to pick up the bike just as I finished cleaning things up.

Nice jig. So the eutectic property of the brass brazing material isn't a factor/issue?

thanks, Brian

Seems to work just fine... my partner has been doing this for quite a few decades with no issues and the tip came from him.... this applies to small fittings like cable guides and not the brake bosses.

In removing the old chainstay bosses from the frame I was impressed at how clean the work was and suspect they brazed these internally... it was a factory built frame and not a hand built Ritchey.

Got to playing around this evening... a friend was asking about me making a few bag supports for him to support his Carradice bags so I did a quick and dirty mock up to check angles and fit.

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikes...tand%20(1).JPG

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikes...tand%20(2).JPG

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikes...tand%20(3).JPG

As much as I like to look at metal that saddle is completely awesome.

I am heading to Copake. 'up your goods fellas! It's Friday! Ill catch up next week.

I just finished this 'spring classics' JKS X build the other day and it's on its way to paint as I type.

Dave



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It is a Lycett L'Avenir... they were founded in the late 1800's and acquired by Brooks in the late 1930's.

Brooks produced saddles under this name well into the 1960's but they seem to be rather rare... I had another Lycett that was a clone of a B17 but it was beyond help while this one came to me in rather pristine condition save for a few side scuffs.

Thinking the Avenir musts have sat pretty close to the top of the line as it is a beautiful saddle.

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikepics/2012reg4.JPG

Always beautiful.

"Ball and socket" drops, what are they?
 

Hey Dave, very cool drops, something you fabricated/modified or....? Maybe a plug in drop with a ball bearing added to the socket? Really like the pre-braze brazing material ring placement(if I'm seeing it correctly). And very nice build as usual.

thanks, Brian

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...5&d=1366379052

He's been making those drops for a few years now. I believe he was selling them to builders as well.
a genius solution to covering the variety of ss/cs angles, isn't it? Plus, they look so darn cool!

Thanks for the comment.

The dropouts are my design and I have them cut for me from 4130. They allow each pair of stays to meet the drops at whatever angle and mate up with a straight cut on the end of the tubes. To prep the tubes I clean out the inside and put a bevel/chamfer on the end with a hand tool to make for a larger contact area between the stay and the drop. I then place a brass ring in the stay. Then the whole deal is placed in the jig and I heat the drop and flow the brass out onto the ball of the drop all around making an internal fillet. I then add a very small external fillet just to blend the two parts together. Once cool and free of flux they get a quick sanding and they are done.

Unlike plug dropout there is never an issue with fit of the drop into the stay. The tube maker closely controls the OD of the tube and the ID tends to vary a small amount which mean of you have a barrel shape going into the tube and the ID of the tube is a bit small that you need to mess with it a lot to get it to fit well. I hate doing that.

The shape of the ball on the other hand lets the stay meet it in such a way that it makes a very acute angle inside which is perfect for a small internal fillet. In testing the dropout fails before the joint between the tube and the drop does. The other thing I like about a ball/socket set up is that it allows for ideal alignment between the stay and the drop. This means that I braze the drops to the c-stay and no bending is needed to get the angle right so that in the finished frame one never needs to do any adjustments with the H tools. They just end up parallel and concentric and I don't need to mess with them.

They are fun to work with and a big time saver.

Thanks again,

Dave

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=311739

Dave, your dropouts are wonderful design and you should pm me with a price.

I will be passing within a few hundred km of you on my way to and from Portland... am tempted to swing by and pick them up in person. :)

Look for a PM.

thanks!


dave

Brilliant!

It's not friday anymore, but here's what I did this week:

After making a delrin shim for my litespeed mtb (~29.5 -> 27.2) and losing track of my cuts, I made one out of schedule 80 PVC. PVC machines surprisingly nicely. I was impressed. Oh, and the shim works great. No more of that squeaking I was getting with the old aluminum one.

http://i.imgur.com/KUW1BXWl.jpg

Here are some recent Flickr sets atmo -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9866331...7633272684112/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9866331...7633350924500/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9866331...7633373318962/

I enjoy spending time on you flickr pages. Beautiful bike work but you take nice photos also. Thanks for showing Skip and Hanne a good time. He was impressed and had a great day.


Here is the steering box I worked on last week. I also wanted to show you this cool mini sanding disc. They start out 3/4" diameter but I modded one to do some work on a motorcycle. I am not sure who made then or where to get more but it's a handy thing to have when you need it.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8533/8...8bcb54b3d0.jpg
30 259 by frankthewelder, on Flickr

Snow bike. The camera thinks I was pointing a light at it.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8404/8...053a8acbca.jpg
30 281 by frankthewelder, on Flickr

Simple fixture for locating brackets

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8255/8...30e87ef97d.jpg
30 258 by frankthewelder, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8254/8...a50c2c052e.jpg
30 249 by frankthewelder, on Flickr

This thread is really pulling in some big names. Awesome.

Dave; ...like a old long tailed cat in a nursing home; those drops are just terribly clever...

Can I assume you are willing to consider sales to other builders? Besides the angle advantages, they also seem to be a lot beefier than what others offer and that is a needed problem solver for tandem builds.

/K

Hey there -

I don't actively try to sell them to other builders but if they want them I'm willing to sell them. Get in touch directly of you would like some - info@kirkframeworks.com - and we'll work it out.

Dave

fabulous, is it made of reynolds or columbus steel?

Thanks -

Llewellyn lugs and all Reynolds tubes. The main tubes are 953 and the stays are tubes that Reynolds makes for me. They are very cool to work with and are willing to make the stuff I want.

Thanks again,

dave

Dave, the phots show FFFs on that stainless frame, but they look to be the Cr-Mo ones. Have you considered getting them made in say 17-4 SS?

I use a double ferrule to interface a stainless chainstay and dropout to a tubular wooden seatstay, so no standard dropout works for me. Your ball and socket idea could easily be modified to carry both the inner and outer tube of the double ferrule, saving me massive amounts of work.

Hey,

The frame shown is only partially stainless (main tubes) while the stays are non-stainless.

I briefly considered having drops cut from stainless but didn't like the idea if a silver joint holding them together for a lifetime. It would probably be fine but i'm pretty conservative and want zero failures over the long term.

Dave