track end replacement build log
 

well this one has been in the works for a while. my brother has been riding a waaay to small cheap ass frame with a flared seattube so the seatpost slides down and makes him look like he is riding a clown bike. so i came across this nice trek from triry2002
here it is
http://static.flickr.com/27/39033051_da4dd8e9ae.jpg

now this would have been a nice conversion on its own but why ride a decent conversion when you can kick it up a notch. i stripped the frame down and it looked something like this badly photoshopped picture.

http://static.flickr.com/53/107196555_a4f82892e1.jpg

after that i sent it out to be bead blasted, i know now that u-strip in Milwaukee is a much better option than the guy i used. u-strip will probably have your frame done same day as opposed to the 14 days i waited with the guy i used.
anyways now that i had the frame blasted it looked exactly like the pic of the frame stripped except it was dull grey

(forgot to take a pic here)

so i suppose i could have sent it off to andy at Grafton powder coating services and had it powdered but i wanted to change it up a bit and make it special.

so i ordered some forged track dropouts from www.novacycles.com

the dropouts
http://static.flickr.com/49/107207344_2b7bee7aa8.jpg

after allot of filing and tweaking here they are. camera battery was charging while i was brazing so no action pics

http://static.flickr.com/41/107187685_dc475dc502_o.jpg

so now i have dropouts in place and they are semi aligned. but i have about a 130mm rear spacing and this is a track bike so its time to remove the rear brake bridge and re-space the rear triangle.

http://static.flickr.com/40/107187610_ec11a058f9_b.jpg

after re-spacing the rear triangle it was time to fabricate a new brake bridge. i didn't like the old on as it was too bulky and it looked odd in its new position. so i brake out some 3/8 o.d. round tube stock and cut off an appropriate piece

http://static.flickr.com/34/107186748_2e3f887364.jpg

after some work with the rat tail file it was time to braze it in place

http://static.flickr.com/55/107186607_37072a3d5f.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/48/107186379_e0d5c20198.jpg

after it was in place a few file strokes cleaned up the area and i had a finished product.

before cleanup
http://static.flickr.com/19/107185967_e09724da92_o.jpg

after cleanup
http://static.flickr.com/40/107185554_397ec6d156_o.jpg

and finally the final product

http://static.flickr.com/42/107185469_92faaf1a88.jpg

so now its off at GPSC being powder coated today. expect some pics of the new paint sometime tomorrow or Sunday.

thats sweet... want to do that to one of my frames for me???

An Amish mob is looking for you.

Nice work. How long have you been brazing? How did you keep the dropouts aligned?
I'll be doing the same thing next week, but with a welder.

Nice work Kale - thanks for sharing.

Nice shirt too.

i have been brazing for a few years but only a few months on bikes. the dropouts fit fairly tight in the stays before brazing, the keey to doin it well is spending lots of time adjusting the dopouts in the vice (bending them to fit) before you braze. once i had them brazed in and cleaned up i aligned them using a micrometer and a few peices of 3/8 threaded rod bolted to each dropout - although park makes a tool for it.

the next project will be a tigged 29" MTB frame although i will be assisting on that one since it is my friends bike (and he can actually tig as opposed to my lame ass attempts at it)

Good work. This is actually a really rad option for riding fixed on the street (I'd post my Bridgestone RB-1 with trackends, but everyone's probably sick of it).

That's going to be a really fun bike to ride. (and the resale value of that frame just went up by about 1000%)

Yeah, I was jus thinking, you could make a pretty good business for yourself getting cheap/free road frames, doing this procedure, powdercoating them and selling them on ebay. You could probably charge double what it costs you EASILY... especially if you can send out like 5 frames to be powdercoated at once, as that would be the biggest expense.

not if you are really good friends with the powdercoater. my real problem is letting them go i spend waay to much time making sure the dropouts are perfectly aligned and that they are both symetrical.

just buy the park tools if you're gonna be doing this as a hobby. They're about 80 bucks for the set and make dropout alignment super EZ

Good job...

UM

hey if I buy you said park tool and pay fo the powder coating and such......you wanna do this for me?.....eh......EH


xvx
wes

Nicely done. Now to find someone here in the Houston area that can braze.

Don Walker???

edit: and to all the people asking me about doing this for them i am not ignoring you just giving it consideration. also i dont want he mods to think i have some sort of commercial interest in posting this.

got it back from the powdercoaters last night. looks awsome. i totally recommend andy at GPSC if you are looking for a reasonable powdercoat. 75 for a single color and 120 for candy colors with clearcoat over the top. PM me if you are looking for a good deal on powdercoat and i will send you his contact info.
http://static.flickr.com/39/107629629_eafee8d5b6_b.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/52/107629789_e866446c54_b.jpg http://static.flickr.com/39/107629451_51c0f47805_b.jpg

very nicely done. fun color.

that refferece to candy paint got mike jones stuck in my head...
nice work, looks great!

You did in fact raise the height of the rear axle about 2-3mm which I think will be lowering the BB about the same, which may or may not be an issue depending on the frame's existing BB height.


That being said, looks good.

that looks awesome...love the color

the bb height isnt to bad and its only about 1.75mm measured from the back of the original dropouts which is essentially like taking 10 psi out of your tire so it is really negligble.

not houston, but austin
www.moyercycles.com

i think he is biff on this board, and he could do it for you.

Wow. Nice!

that project turned out pretty well. did you use brass on the track ends and brake bridge? did you cold set the seatstays when you put the brake bridge that you fabricated in?

I am looking at the wall and I can see your future written there.

hey man great work! I wish I had the skill to do that work...I just posted my MTB frame conversion and the new track ends my buddy brazed in last week.

I dig the step by step!

RJ

nice