That would be cool krusty. I too have a framebuilding book, in PDF. For mitering, I've seen a guy (cycles Golem) use a sanding belt instead of a lathe or a file

Awesome. I can get you some decent old frames to mess with if you need em.

I will start working on tubes. I am assuming with oxy/acet, brazed w/ lugs is the way to proceed? What size frame would you be thinking about? Do you have a preference as far as manufacturer or a specific tubeset you would prefer?

Is the fact I am getting misty eyed and excited with the thought of hours of hand filing lugwork a bad thing?

I'm more interested to hear about the type of frame you have in mind? Horizontal dropout road frame, cross, mountain, road?

why make boring frames... you should make some franken bikes or how 'bout a cool fork... say... one with a built in rack, say a rack that could hold a lots of weight

or a trike

or a 4 wheeled bike

or would it be possible to let me in on the learning

The first thing I have to do is get gases.

Brazed w/lugs definitely. It makes for a much more beautiful frame if you use things like polished stainless lugs. I am going to scribble up a jig design and try to work out any possible issues or limitations. It may take a bit to come up with a versatile and accurate enough design.

As far as size, I would of course want to make one to fit me (53ish). I would be interested in an old school tight track frame.

I have some specifications for Columbus tube sets from a few years ago. I have to go through them with an eye towards final usage to determine which set might be best for a start.

Now THIS is exciting!

fo shiz!

Me wanty fillet brazed road bike.

California was hideous:

"Once giants lived in the earth, Conan. And in the darkness of chaos, they fooled Crom, and they took from him the enigma of steel. Crom was angered, and the earth shook. Fire and Wind struck down these giants...but in their rage, the gods forgot the secret of steel and left it on the battlefield. And we who found it are just men - not gods, not giants, just men. The secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery. You must learn its riddle, Conan. You must learn its discipline. For no one, no one in the world can you trust - not men, not women, not beasts.... this you can trust."
-Conan's father, from "Conan the Barbarian"

We shall learn the secrets of steel.

CROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

I've always wanted to try my hand at brazing too..

aww those photos make me miss touring so much. my tour to manitoulin last summer was about the same, averaging between 80-100 km a day on a 90-someodd-lb bike.

when i got back i also thought my bike was faster than light. only time i ever truly enjoyed my urbanite...

damn you, cubicle job!

Ever done plumbing? 'Sweating' copper tube and fittings is quite similar to brazing with lugs. In both cases you are trying hard to not overheat the joint, yet get adequate flow of filler material into the joint itself without making a mess by adding too much.

haven't tried it myself.. yet.. but i see the plumbers at work do it all the time (i'm an electrician) and i'm sure they'd let me practice if i asked them. we pretty much all end up learning each others basic skills anyways..

Remember that scene where Arnold knocks out a camel? Ya ... good times.

Anyway, I'm going to Iceland today, so the summer adventures continue. I'll be back in 9-ish days and I'll try to post a photo or two on my Flickr account (see sig.) before then. I've got three days of riding planned along with all the other random crap there is to do in Iceland, so it should be good times!

Brad + Tam, got more pics of your trip? It looked to be pretty amazing! Those bike setups were epic.

125 and 90lbs? Whoa.... nice loaded tour! Can't wait for more pics, makes me sad I've not gone on any real long jaunts yet this year. Welcome back! That gravel road looks just like one of the roads in Niagara Region I take on my way to the falls... east of Victoria Ave, IIRC (9th road, grays road, I can't remember) - I'll never forget this time last year being able to see Toronto from all the way across the lake... for a smalltime British lad, that impressed the heck out of me

Welcome back Wes, am anxious to check those photos out too

Have fun in Iceland Mike, I never had chance to go when we had an Icelandic customer (Hallo.is - used to be a main telco there back in the day) - I heard it's a pretty unreal/cool place from my old cow-orkers.

I've e-mailed Andrew for the Mean Streets committing myself (not the only thing I should be committed to, some would argue ) - I'd suggest anyone else to do the same so you've got your name in at least.

Up at Keele/Steeles again today, might not make it for DSR (new start point, check the site) but definitely aim to be there for the Charlie ride tomorrow.

Also, homemade frames and reading these threads make me all kinds of excited... I'm no metalworker (only done brazing on karting chassis in high school... damn near 15 years ago now) - that stuff would be ueber cool to tinker with... so pics pics pics once you start I heard Tofu was framebuilding in amongst his other 324234 new jobs, I guess he's busy eh?

I would love to see a copy of it!

Taken from DSR:

Ride For Charlie


In the summer of 2007 our friend Charlie set out on an epic journey - The Double Cross. Sadly, fifty plus days in he was struck from behind and killed while riding across Alberta.

Thursday, August 28 @ 7pm meet outside JetFuel Coffee - 519 Parliament St - for a ride celebrating the life of Charlie and all cyclists lost much too early. The route will be a nice spin through Cabbagetown and continuing south to the lakeshore where we’ll visit the memorial tree for fallen cyclists.

Some pictures from Peter (of Misfit Psycles fame):


Me arriving at feed zone for water/donuts/beer. You heard me.


Typical Sonoma trail.. this was part of the course. Crazy rocky/dusty/loose uphill (ie. run-up). Pictures don't do these climbs any justice.


Me in the Marin headlands, just before descending to the area I already posted a shot of.


Peter and I, pre-riding the course. Yet another crazy uphill slog.




Also, I can't remember if I posted it or not.. but here's the Motionbased info from the group ride we did on Thursday. mmm.. 55km with 4300' of climbing (and NOT rolling, as you can see by the elevation profile). Singlespeed FTW! https://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6573228

With pleasure! PM me your address, the file is 8mb.

shop dudes / dudettes: anyone have any black b17s in stock? standard or narrow, preferred.

Serious climbing! So was that some sort of race you went to, or just a get together/group ride party thing?

The gps stats are from a group ride with tacos/beer in the middle "valley" in Santa Rosa, provided by Sycip. Cool shop. Amazing Tacos.

Mexican food is so good in California, I had a fish taco problem when I was last out there. I need to get out there again, I miss it.

Here's the gps data from the actual race.. 39km and 1576m (5170') climbing.

https://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6598410

i think there was a new one of these on CL the other day?

edit: appears to be gone. nevermind!