Porter Bicycles – Made in New Mexico, USA

Just a quick notation on my “restoration” services. This frame from 1991 was one I’d made for one of the shop’s team riders.  Gabe was/is very hard on his equipment. I don’t recall seeing as many dents in any one frame or fork before.  Of course he explained it away as being this crash or that incident…. here’s a look at it when it arrived a couple days ago..

Well used MAX Porter click on to enlarge-arrow back

The frame was at the bike store hanging in the repair area. I asked about it and the guys said that he wanted to build it up again and ride it as his last “lightweight” (steel-bamboo) had broken in half..  Anyway, not wanting him “out there” on one of my frames that was as beat up as this old race bike, I offered a Bro deal to make it at least presentable again and the “deal” allowed me some discretion in how it would look..  His fork was the worst as it had been laying in the dirt in his back yard for years…

really rusted steerer tube

The fork had been in one of the previously mentioned crashes.. a crit where he’d got off line and sucked a marker cone between the blade and wheel..  I always liked the look of the MAX crown and the fat aero blades though they never fit worth a damn and required excess filler to look half way right. Nevertheless I spent some extra time to make this one safe and functional again..  Here’s a couple after the repair shots.. even still I missed a big ding in the top tube.. maybe a decal will cover it, just like the old PowerBar decal in the first picture..

AH! Signal Green.. like FM pumps..

seat lug

a real pump peg

Well, it is what it is.. probably good for a couple more years hammering from an old guy, but former National jersey winner..

As usual send me your comments and critiques…

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I got this oldish tube set from Omar at Oasis Bikes in AZ, he’d had it kicking around his shop for nearly ten years I think he said. At any rate his price was fair and I wanted a project and thought it would be well suited to long day rides, commuting and even touring, though I’ll admit I didn’t design it for fenders as originally it was going to be a cross bike… As Dale (CR list serve) alluded to, it has some NM turquoise and some NV Buffalo turquoise and some silver, chrome and polished steel bits to make it stand apart.If anyone wants custom racks, that’s possible too. My dog and a neighbors dog got into a bit of a well, dog fight and now I have some pending expenses I hadn’t planned on and that explains the low pricing. It’s a 1″ steerer if that makes or breaks the deal. The tubes are from Columbus and are the over sized FOCO kit with the unicrown fork and pre-mitered straight blades. It’s sized 57 x 56cm.

FOCO is made from an alloy called “Thermachrome”. It has the interesting and specific characteristic of having the same tensile strength after brazing or welding as before. There are no “hard” spots on the frame. This brings the frame closer to the builder’s ideal of taking the 8 tubes of the frame and uniting them into a single cohesive unit.

Here’s some pictures of the finished bike dolled up with paint and decals. I didn’t get the original Columbus decal from Omar so I just used an old Columbus “special tubes” decal for the job. Enjoy. Click on pics to enlarge..

Pumpkin patch Fondo

Buffalo Turquoise on the stays treatment

Chromed dropouts

Sterling silver and Turquoise head badge

silver wedding bands at the ends of the head tube too..

email me  frogeye@porterscustom.com  Well, I got through the City’s extortion proceedings without this frame, now built up and hanging in a local bike store (Bike Coop) being sold, so the killer deal is gone and it is priced accordingly.

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Rogues Galley: Keith, Dave and Chauncey

and again

...and again

Well, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say a few words and show a few pictures of this falls concorso.

This year the bicycles became an official part of the show and were judged by a team of judges, one of which knew a thing or two about bicycles and the others relied on what their parents taught them as kids, I suppose.

I was joined this year by Keith Anderson (OR) and Chauncey Matthews (NM) as current frame builders/painters. The other bikes in the concorso were privately owned collector bikes. They being mostly from the ’80s if I had to make a guess, though there was a very early Swiss Army bike in the mix.

I had fully expected Keith to take the top honors and the very, very cool trophy. I thought this because he had an exquisitely hand made kids bike with modern touches that connected bicycle history with modern technology. Well, I was wrong.

Second place, I thought could go to Keith or Chauncey or me. I was wrong again. Hmmmm.

OK then, third would go to Keith and it did. However, this time it wasn’t because it had new technology, but rather that it was a racing bike from the 80’s with a provenance on the track.

So who was the winner? Well, it was a1990s bike, a Sterling or more apt perhaps, a Bilenky. It was made from a stupidly ultra light Columbus KL tube set and some time was spent filing the lugs into graceful curlycues. It has probably never been ridden for fear of collapsing in on itself.

Second place was a late 90’s Ricard Sachs Campy equipped road bike.  It was an unusual green paint scheme and supposedly never ridden.  Good grief! Put it in a time capsule then..

Chauncey had 2 of his Ride the Divide 29er’s nicely decked out. I think if he had all the bags and bottles and racks and radios for the event on the bike he may have fared better.

I ended up with a Directors Award ribbon for one of my Santa Fe Style Spirit road bikes, as did Keith for his GT40 kids bike. We decided the ribbons were like Miss Congeniality prizes or consolation for just being there.

But the good news is that I took an order for a frame, Keith got an order for a Pinnarello  re-spray and Chauncey, he was just happy to be there and like the rest of us had a really nice day and a bit of a sun burn.

Here’s a shot of the 1st place award for the bicycles. I would really like to win one. It is the stylized bird of prey on the pedestal at the head of the table.. click on the photo to enlarge.

The Awards. Stunning!

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http://imgur.com/a/BIg3A#1

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A very forlorn MG Midget

Note; click on pictures to enlarge. back arrow to return to text.

My insurance agent called a couple weeks ago and told me another client had to be rid of a MG for her mother’s estate.  It was nearly 100 miles away and not even a “B”. The pictures they sent were pretty discouraging and there was no title, but it did have a 1275cc engine and gear box. I gave her $100 for the “parts” and $200 to the tow truck driver (Tom-a good guy) and next had to decide what to do with it. Part it out, build a race car or restore it..

The floors had rusted through or nearly so..

Drivers seat? (click to enlarge)

But as I mentioned it did have the drive train and only 36000 showing on the odometer, which works, but the engine was not original color so its been out and did I mention that the throw out bearing was missing the carbon/graphite face and probably was parked many years ago for that reason.

It all seems to be there.

After several days I have most of the paint off the body and engine compartment. The trunk area is pretty much OK as is.

Dirty job..

Hammered out the tree damage to the rear..

new floor pans, sills and cross members

I glued the new pieces in with a 3M bonding mastic for this purpose. A first for me. I don’t like it. It’s very expensive, requires more prep work and needs 24 hours to fully cure. I still have to repair the bottom edges of  both rear fenders and I’ll just MIG them in as usual. I understand that the insurance co.’s require the glue for new vehicle repair..

Well, as things would have it, I had another glue cartridge and decided to go ahead and use it up.  So here are two methods for gluing repair panels. The small one is probably the superior method. Cut to size, flange the edges, glue and clamp. The inside is wedged against the trunk floor edge with carpenter’s door plumb wooden wedges. In the second photo even though the damaged area was smaller than the first I decided to use the entire patch. Just glue it over the cleaned/prepped substrate and use a bunch of screws to clamp it until it dries, at which time the screws can be removed and the edges feathered with Bondo.

Correct way?

Incorrect way?

Regardless of the technique it will be interesting to see how these repairs weather time. I will admit that the floor and sill repairs seem very robust and I don’t foresee any problems structurally.

I’ve had a few more days to devote to the Spridget.  In the next set of photos I’ve finished with the dent repairs and Bondo phase. I also have coated all non painted and mostly hidden areas with 3M Body Schutz. It’s a rubberized sound deaden-er and sealer. It also serves to give everything a clean uniform look.

Right rear quarter

Body Schutz

Best hood of the 3 on hand..

The 36 grit tends to leave some “marks” so after the 80 and 180 grit sanding I use some glazing to fill any visibly deep gouges, hence the multi-color appearance in this last photo. Next step is to get the body and engine compartment primed for paint..

Of course the more the details are corrected, the more it pushes one to take it to the next level. I have no idea how the “1 day” paint shops can sleep at night knowing how much better a job they might have done. I’m also starting to appreciate why good body shops charge so much money, the price of materials notwithstanding.

Anyway, here it is in primer and awaiting today’s job of blocking. I did 3 coats of primer so I’m going to start with 180 grit to speed the process along. I finish with 400 wet or finer..

primed and ready to go?-- NOT!

Rear quarter shot

Still have a lot to do here..

So today I spent 10 hours block sanding every square and curved inch of the project car. I used 180 grit dry since I had applied 3 or more coats of primer before the guide coat and 400 or finer used wet would have been a multi-day affair.  I found some low spots and filled them and I found some high spots and I hammered them, and then I re-shot the repaired or sanded to bare metal areas with another coat of primer and then I re-shot the entire car with a light even coat. Next I’ll do the 400 grit wet and it should go very quickly as it it already flat and straight except at the repaired spots, but they are small and not very numerous. After that step it’s time to consider paint type and color… decisions, decisions… And lastly, but not leastly.. a tip of the hat to my pal Bruce, who volunteered to come over and help with the blocking. Thanks bud!! PS: I’d add more pictures, but it looks just like the ones above.. or nearly so.

Well…… I went and bought all the “stuff” for the base/clear coat.. ah $425 .. I’m quite used to and pretty good shooting good old Imron..  Let me set the stage.. it’s been about 60 degrees at 8 am the past few days but very windy by mid day.. So yesterday I got all the base color laid down and only a couple mishaps that were easily fixed. I usually use a little “repair” gun for bikes and rarely have used my big full qt. cup gun. But after adjusting the fan pattern and the air pressure it went OK. Now I’m told that I have to shoot the clear within 5 hours or I have to wet sand the car again.. OK the wind is still not too bad and all the scurrying about has me warmed up and I’ve not even thought about the ambient temp. The directions say two med-wet coats. OK Well not really, the clear is not flowing out because its too cool outside, if I try to make it wetter it just runs. what a mess, what a waste. Well, I guess a learned a lesson and that won’t happen again. Or I’ll just let the car guys do the painting! here’s a trick I learned after the fact for you DIY outsiders.. Put the paint in the microwave and warm it up first…why didn’t I think of that? I’ve put catalyzed paint in the ice box overnight to slow it down. I’m going to wait until this week of high wind speeds blows through and after a day or two I’ll wet sand it out, being very careful to not go through the color coat! And try it again when the conditions and pressure are better.. Here are my disappointing results..

double click to see how bad... arrow back

More work to do..

re-loaded

Wet sanded/blocked all the orange peel last evening. Actually it wasn’t a bad as I’d expected. It doesn’t have to be perfectly flat as the clear will fill what I’ve left behind. There are tape markers where I went thru to the primer. This morning I’ll go get an adequate amount of a less expensive urethane clear that has a slower flash time. I thought initially that it was the temperature that was the reason it didn’t flow out.. nope, it was setting up too fast.  Good for spot repairs, but not for an overall car shoot.  I’ll get a pint of color and fix those spots. Then I’m going to tarp off an area in the shop to paint it indoors. I have a couple big floor fans that will help. This isn’t the “right” way to paint a car, but it’s a one time deal… till the next one  ;~)   I’m also going to get a small can of reducer for the clear, Just in case I’m wrong about the drying time. Don’t want to sand it again!

The ’60’s circa dash panel arrived yesterday. It has had an extra instrument hole cut in it. I’ll either weld in a patch or add an ammeter or voltmeter… a work versus money decision..

I’m beginning to think this car is jinxed… Spent several hours repairing the dash and the paint went south on that too.. Monday last I had a professional painter friend come over to do the clear coat (I’m tired of messing it up) Well, he didn’t have much better luck. The back half of the car is fine, but the front half has water spots and enough hair and dust to make it in-salvageable. So I’ll sand it down again. This time I’ll just take the front fenders and hood to his shop where hopefully it’s not as dusty or dirty..

close, but no banana

this half I'll mask off and work around

This has gotten out of control as a fun project. I decided to just re-shoot the front half here, but out side again, instead of taking them to the other shop. I may have also decided to leave it as a Midget variant. The Sprite dash is going to be a PITA and requires new larger diameter instruments. Remember I was going to keep the drive train and recycle the rest at the beginning and I’ve already spent too much money just to make it presentable. So today’s result is OK, probably better than the back half now. I did get a couple small runs in the clear, but they will buff out and be just fine..IMHO. Here’s it is pre buffing..

ready to be buffed out finally.

I must say that the painting turned out to be a frustrating addition to a skill set. Most would agree that they want  the best result from their skill level. Well, where does the practitioner say enough is enough or that is not or is good enough. What about the parts and pieces that will be mounted on or adjacent to this shiny new paint? Personally I wanted the paint to look really good so when someone asks “Where’d you have it painted?” I could puff up a bit and say “Why I did it myself in the drive way” The reality is that now I have to spend extra time or extra money on the rest of the rehab to match the quality of the paint work.

Here it is with the fenders finally bolted on and the repaired grille in place and ready for the wiring and plumbing work to commence.. I thought about “making it run” for the first time today. It’s been here for 9 1/2 weeks now and if my real job doesn’t get in the way perhaps it will be on the road in another 2 months.. give-r-take

Some assembly required..

piece by piece

and hour by hour

The head light buckets were total trash in the original car. I spent nearly 6 hours repairing and piecing and polishing up my “cleanest dirty shirt” assortment of parts to get the two I finally installed..

Well, I was running out of things I wanted to do next so I decided it was time to think about getting the engine installed and running. So I moved the power-plant to the other bay and drained the oil as I wanted to drop the pan and inspect the bearings before it went back into the car. I had turned the engine over with the starter motor before it came out to check for compression and ugly noises and it made sorta OK compression (for a car that had sat for 20 years) and I didn’t hear anything bad. Well, you guessed it, after the pan was off I saw the oil pump screen was coated with chewed up bearing material. Yup, number 4 rod was spun. Damn, I hate it when that happens. I think in the interest of time I’ll use an available re-built engine and deal with this one later. It just means more money to spend now, but it will give me a better sales pitch for this right now.  When I had separated the gearbox from the engine I found the carbon facing on the release bearing gone and had assumed that the owner couldn’t put it in gear and had simply parked it for that reason…

missing carbon face on the Throw out bearing

but, here is the real reason it was parked..

#4 rod needs about .020 removed.... sigh

In the meantime, even though I have a miserable summer cold, I have the rest of the dash instruments installed and wired up. The harness I got from my trusty British car parts wholesaler is very close but not quite right for this year of Midget. It’s missing a couple grounds so I’ll get them made up shortly and that should make the dash lights work. Also the seats are back from Jim and Jerry Tanny’s upholstery shop. I can’t bolt them in until the carpet is down.. another semi big job for me.

The good news today is that the rebuilt engine arrived today. It used to belong to a Austin Healey club member in the Chicago area. He was traveling to one of the Healey gatherings on the West Coast and spun a bearing. A local Healey club guy gave him a spare he had and the Chicago guy paid to have this one rebuilt. So it’s just been sitting for a couple years waiting for a new home. I’ll eventually rebuild the one from this car when the urge and sufficient funds move me to do so. Here’s the most recent pictures..  The club guy recalls that the head had been modified. I measured it as best I could without removing it and well, it looks pretty stock to me. It is a later head, that had air injected into the exhaust ports, but no signs of porting or polishing or even much if any removed from the height dimension. I do know that the push rods all hit the rockers off center. I’m not sure if I should be  concerned or if this was purposely done to make the valves rotate more. I checked a couple others I have in the shed and they all seem to be about half this way…. ??

dash and instruments

seats from a '65-ish car

Re-built 1275cc engine"

I’m thinking about painting it gold. British Motor Corporation had a “Gold Seal Replacement” program for their replacement power plants. And they were painted a sort of gold color. I did this once before on one of my Bugeye Sprites and I liked the way it looked and it was always a good story to explain why it wasn’t the “proper” engine color…

Well, I’ve gotten ahead of the story line. An able bodied friend arrived and we dropped the engine/gearbox into the chassis before I took pictures of the gold engine block. Well, you get the idea.  I rebuilt the carbs while the paint was drying. Even after several hours in the carb washing machine still most of the black oxidation was untouched. I gave it my best shot. It won’t affect the operation any, but clean and shiny is often good for another 10MPH ;~)

Gold Seal Replacement?

..and the other side

I got the engine running yesterday. It was a bit disconcerting at first. Though I tried to get some oil pressure just spinning it with the starter I couldn’t get any reading and was worried I might have to pull the engine to see if it had the correct pump (which I’d assumed was done when the engine was rebuilt) I tilted the car, I squirted oil into the oil lines still no pressure. Finally I removed the sender line at the block and it squirted out like a geyser. Turns out the 20 year sleep for the gauge was the problem. I gave it a few sharp taps and it finally started to register. It still sticks so I’ll pull it out and get it serviced.

Though I marked the crank pulley with paint I still couldn’t see the mark to set the ignition timing. So I put it in 4th gear and pushed the car to rotate the engine…. except nothing happened. What now! I checked the gear box before I bolted it up. It was fine, but now no connection with the engine. I’d replaced the pressure plate and clutch disc since the old stuff had the chewed up release bearing. I know I installed the correct release bearing?? What I hadn’t done is any service to the slave cylinder. Well, geeze, no wonder the old release bearing was so worn, the push rod the previous “mechanic” had made was over 2 inches longer than is specified for the 1275 series…

Clutch slave components

In the above picture, the correct push rod is the short one, the bottom most one is what was in there and perpetually holding the clutch in a partially released condition.  I’ll get this re-installed and I hope to have the use of the gearbox afterwards.. I should have done this when it was out but sometimes I can’t get it through my thick skull exactly how stupid some mechanics/owners are…

new seat

This is the only current new picture from this week.. The carpet, panels, and seats are in. waiting for some weird packing pieces to install the top frame and add the new top… I’ll have more soon.. The car is running down the street and sounding good.. Oh yeah, the windshield and side glass is in as well. Now sporting a full tinted windshield…

front quarter w/ rebuilt/repainted wheels

rear quarter shot

OK, now it’s starting to look almost finished, eh? New tires all around and spare too. A few more interior trim items and the new top and I’ll head to DMV for the title hassle I’m sure to encounter..

nearly ready for prime time...

Here it is in pretty finished condition. I’m still awaiting a State VIN inspection so I can get the title work completed and then I can do some legal driving to shake out any problems that may surface..

Snug as a bug

Looking finished at last..whew!

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This is a fantastic automobile show on par with Pebble Beach or Amelia Island. Of special interest to me this year was the introduction of bicycles in the show.

SF Concorso bicycle display

Though the bikes were not judged this year, the organizers indicated that they would be next year. the bicycle entrants were however each given a Directors Award  ribbon for our time and expense. Of course we were treated to VIP credentials and privileges.

A highlight for me, as I am also an avid sports car owner was a chance to mix it up with Sir Sterling Moss, arguably one of the greatest race car drivers of all time. Here I  have Moss on my left, a D-Type Jaguar and an OSCA MT4 in front of my “54 Austin Healey 100. I won’t mention what our speed was in the photo to protect the innocent.. ;~)

Too much fun!

Here is my “winning” entry:

Me as a happy camper

In addition to my entries there was a Columbia ordinary, a Bates, a Cinelli, and a Guerciotti.

Here is the link to the official Concorso catalog: http://www.santafeconcorso.com/2011_flipbook.html

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Off to the Santa Fe Concorso

LeMans winner Bob Bondurant and wife Patty at Concorso

Framers and visitors:

Finished and ready for the San Diego bike show… It’s pretty sweet if I may say so myself..

I was in a hurry and took the pictures before I’d properly adjusted the handlebar positions.. so I’ve already been chastised for that..

This is the low trail design that Martin Manning (bike geometry 101) suggested that I try. This falls below the 2″ threshold and I must admit that it feels very light. The idea is that it will be less twitchy at lower speeds but still very stable at higher speeds  due to the team weight (mass).

Haven’t had a stoker on it yet, but due to initial feeling I see no reason for it not to be as predicted. It’s a 74.5 degree head tube if you all are wondering.

OK, if one looks at the pictures you’ll see that the captain’s bars are at the same height as the seat.  I don’t know precisely what the dynamics of this arrangement set up, something akin to over-leverage, Suffice it to say that after I flipped the stem over to a slightly negative rise the oversteering issue disappeared and the tandem handles like a dream.

In respect to the short trail design, I suspect that the major tandem suppliers don’t do this to protect themselves from litigation arising from neophyte owners with little or no tandem experience.

Hope you all approve.. have a great weekend

dave

Click on to enlarge-return arrow to escape

tote that load

sure is green

lotta rake

pretty Turquoise bits

adequate stoker space

Price yet to be determined…

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I have decided to attend the 2011 San Diego custom bike show as an exhibitor.  My last booth was probably an Interbike in the eighties.  Any way, it was suggested by a few that it would be cool to take a couple of the old  record bikes.. I still have a half dozen of them here in the shop. I dusted this one off yesterday. It’s probably one of the oddest of the bunch, but it did set a record the first day on the track. Oddly the men didn’t like the ideas, but the women did. Don’t ask me.. Carol Anne Bostick rode it to two records on two different dates. see

It is Columbus EL tubing.  Has some sheet metal fairing/gusseting, has a 24″ front wheel (which needs to be cleaned up), it has a gazillion holes through it (which should pique the ire of some on the CR list) and it has an eccentric BB. This last feature was an attempt to make some adjustment in seat tube angles for different riders. It added a lot of weight, but was located well below the axle line, so it added some noticeable stability with a lowered center of gravity. And note the skirts on the fork tips.. This was done after wind tunnel tests showed the air flow went up the blade instead of remaining in a horizontal flow..

Here ya go…

fork detail

still ready to go

with flash enhancement

last one- click on to enlarge pixs

I’ll put this in the running for making the trip.. Perhaps a vote is in order as the showtime nears.. dp

I got the 14 foot ladder out and got his bad boy down off the wall the other day. It was so filthy with dust that I’d forgotten it had a pretty cool fade paint scheme.. This one was used exclusively for track record breaking. The most notable is Kent Bostick’s  100 kilometer record. Like some of the other “record” bikes this record is 20 years unbroken, partly because the UCI has stopped doing a 100K event and second is because riding 60 miles at full bore is a really tough challenge, though the popularity of brevets would indicate otherwise.

Kent’s time is 2 hours, 9 minutes and 11 seconds  about 28 mph average! In comparison the UCI record held by Ole Ritter was 20 minutes slower.. Kent, you the man!

Here’s some pictures:

Time machine

It is Columbus MAX tubes, Cinelli cast BB, Zeus track dropouts, streteched Kevlar disc wheels (supplied by Scott & Vickie Gordon), Shimano drive train (supplied by Shimano-Wayne Stetina, Continental Olympic and Panaracer 26″ front tubulars  and a very early CF seat post. The whole package was 15 pounds.

seat "lug" aera

early aero bars

a pretty handsome "working bike"

This next one is a little different, but one that caused both great angst for me and great satisfaction.

The complete story of the bike is in an earlier blog post if one cares to go back a ways.. I’ll try to link to it before I run out of time tonight. Here:

To make a long story short, this is still after 18+ years the National Tandem TT champ.. and here are some pictures of how it’s set up now for riding with anyone who’s daring enough to trust a half blind captain…

The first green machine

It’s all Columbus MAX tubing except the oval boom and the middle seat stays which are fork blades as I recall.

close quarters for stoker

Adjustable stem reach

I got this from Pino Morroni. It’s part 3TTT and part Pino and is very handy for fitting different riders. Also a stayer brace is added to stiffen the bars, which as tandem riders know can deflect a bit with the mass at hand.

More funky Porter forks..

More choke holes and skirts.. what on Earth was I smoking?

I worried that the Max chain stays weren’t up to the job so I added a second set of stays..

Captains seat tube area

Captain's BB and lateral joint

One of the stiffener tubes can be seen in the boom tube. One can click on the photos to enlarge them, then use the “BACK” arrow to return to text..

Stoker's BB and a tangle of tubes

and lastly for those of you curious about the handle bar stem another shot for you..

Pino's handy work..and 3TTT

I’d like to have another of those MAVIC headsets.. a real work horse..

that’s it.. Dave

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I had this same frame up for sale several months ago. Unfortunately I knocked it off the hook it was hanging on and bounced it off the fender of a customer’s car fender. Ahh, both were dented…  The frame fared better than the car, but it’s really hard to sell damaged goods. So I stripped the paint, repaired the small dent and polished the dropouts as a bonus.

It’s a 58cm seat to top, 57cm top tube c to c. Seat angle is 73 degrees and the head tube angle is 72 degrees. It weighs a tad over 3lbs and is freshly painted with DuPont Imron slate grey metallic  and clear coated too.  It’s a 27.2 seat post, English threaded BB and 130mm spacing. The Columbus Spirit (shaped) tubes are arguably the most advanced bicycle steel tubing ever offered.  Near the weight of carbon fiber, but the resilient high performance feel only steel can offer.

This was a frame I made for my personal use as a long distance road bike. I’m an old racer at heart and still like the steeper head and seat angles, so it just sat around collecting dust. This should make any discerning collector a really nice bike! It’s an inch and a quarter ID head tube for thread-less fork. I am asking $750.00 and I’ll ship it anywhere in CONUS.

right side-click to enlarge

“Back”  arrow to return to text.

Silver Jack Rabbit & turquoise

Left side

Call me at 505-352-1378  Dave……..

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It’s been a year since the last tandem was finished. It was a success that, fortunately, matched my expectations, but being a track tandem it was a financial nightmare. Link to that build here. Like unicycles, the market is really small and the fixie group hasn’t decided they all need a tandem to round out their collections. So, I just spent another $800 bucks for this pile of very new steel (well, Niobium) tubes from Columbus. There are a couple odd balls, like the round Cromoly boom tube a 9/6/9 (that’s frame builder speak for the wall thickness of a butted tube, er, the ends and the middle).

There are 5 Columbus down tubes used for  the down tube, top tubes and the laterals. Normally they are 0.5/0.38/0.5mm for the Spirit road set.  These are .6/.38/.6  So just a smell more beef at the ends and this should be the cat’s meow for a tandem application.  Bear in mind that this is going to be a

Raw ingredients-stir and bake at 1200 degrees

geared road version with no intention of loaded touring.

Honestly, I’m swamped with automotive work and hopefully now that I’ve put this up for the world to see, it will push me to get started on the work I love the most and take a break from the work that pays the bills every month.   ;~)

Before I forget, again, here’s a picture, nearly an optical illusion, of one of the Columbus Spirit (shaped- not that round Over/Size “for lugs”  stuff the other guys are using)

As you can see it is oval-ized at the ends but the oval rotates from vertical at one end to horizontal at the other. One can also see the 8 sides. It is a marvel of tubing design, should such a marvel interest one…

At the heart of the matter

By the way,  a comparable Carbon Fiber down tube of equal length weighs about 50 grams, these weigh 60 grams..

With all the talk on the various frame-builder forums and chat lists about how to lay down the perfect fillet, try one or two of these on for size. It ain’t in Kansas anymore..

For anyone wondering, I’ll be using Fillet Pro silver based filler for 98% of the joining.  Great product, available here  http://www.CycleDesignUSA.com hope that link works..

OK let’s get this show on the road…

I spent an entire day trying to decide what to do with some of the design elements to come. Chauncey came by and then re rehashed the whole project over again and I finally drilled and tapped a couple new holes in the jig to lengthen the boom tube another one inch. It’s up to 650mm c/c now..

preparing jig for tandem build

Remember, click on photo to enlarge and use return arrow to return to text..

So here are the front eccentric and the rear (stokers) BB shells loaded in the jig and drilled for brazing vent holes.

Choosing the boom tube

Well, I had wanted a full length oval boom, but was unable to get one in a timely fashion so I bought a round 9/6/9 mountain bike down tube at 750mm but, it was too heavy and I couldn’t make myself like it enough to use it, so during the process of wasting the afternoon I found this slightly surface rusted Columbus MAX OR down tube, also 750mm long and I was just informed by a reader that the OR down tube is also 9/6/9.  It is perhaps  half the weight and oval-ized at both ends. Bonus!

front BB and boom tube

So I blasted it, mitered it and then did the other end..

rear BB shell and boom tube

here’s the cold fit look.

cold fitting-pre brazing

It’s time to give a plug to my collaborator from the last tandem.. Thank you Mr. Martin Manning!  Part of the reason I wasted so much time was deciding on some of the attributes I’m hoping for from this more versatile bike. So Martin and …well, it was mostly all Martin,. He made some insertions and changes to the track tandem drawing with his Bike Geometry program. (What a cool tool and its free!) I know there are some other programs out there to design with, but this one is very, very bicycle specific and Martin is so into bike design.

So, this is out of sequence, but here’s the 1 1/8th” head tube at it’s 74.5 degree angle. What? Yes, it’s going to have a 1″ steel, but thread-less steerer.  I like steel and I like to decorate it with silver. Get over it..               Builders note: Turns out that the thread less plan didn’t pan out as expected. It’s a threaded one inch steerer with a Cane Creek mod 100 doing the work load and a Nitto adapter for the stem adapter.. end note.

74.5 degrees

OK, time to get some more heat (and fumes) in the shop. It hasn’t been above freezing here for the last 2 days.. So, here is what I did for the second time. I’ve loaded the ID of the boom tube with 38 percent silver paste. This after coating with flux. The paste has its own but I found that more is better to get the 38% to move a little better. The point here is to create an internal filet at the same time I’m building the external filet..

silver paste "Butter"

Moving right along now..

eccentric post filet

so, here’s the “keel” backbone,

partial "keel"

next the chain stays. And lastly today, while Chauncey was here, he did some practice welds with the TIG on some stainless, like these, except these are mine… not very clear and probably just as well and anyway I don’t think I’ll ever TIG weld a bike frame

TIG'd stainless w/o filler practice welds

So today’s project was to get some work done on the chain stays, specifically the dropouts attached, but no, I out smarted myself. I bought another set of the cast adjustables like I last used on the Mini-MAX frame a few months back.  Well, it was a nice idea, but there is no way, short of S-bends in the stays to get the 140mm spacing needed for this tandem. Oh! How about Keith’s new Tito drops… well, they will bend, but they are a little too short for that and then to still have the finished look I would have wanted. Darn. So, without too many tears I went to the trusty file cabinet and found a suitable set of forged Columbus horizontals… here’s the choices..  (several days later: This just in from one of my growing list of guardian angels, Wayne on the Hobbs Tandem list tells me that the new “conventional” rear axle spacing is 145mm and wider still for Santana tandems- so much for convention ;~)  )

Decisions-decisions

And here is the brazed up stays and drops. I’ll file these next so I don’t have to do cleanup work after the seat stays are in the way to impede access to all surfaces. After they cool, I keep an old coffee maker next to the bench and soak the flux off with hot water, then give them a run through the wire brush whirligig. It would be nice to just leave them in this semi-organic state, but the forgings are so rough I have to file them smooth  for painting. Some may wonder what the big deal is here, well my “signature” seat stay attachment can make the connection at the drop look awkward due to the more acute angle.

Ready for detailing.

It’s late, but I’ll get these up now and explain later……(yawn) morning all. OK- I managed to cut the chain stays to length (430mm) and form the miters at the BB connection (70mm drop). These are triangular shaped stays from the old Columbus EGO sets. These, sadly, were the last two in stock at Nova Cycles warehouse stash. The next sets are going to be difficult to find. I have to drill vent holes in the BB shell and I think I’ll put a couple in the distal ends too. It’s pretty dry here in NM, but generally warm enough to ride throughout the winter months and that means that condensation can be a problem when returning to a warm storage spot or the frame could end up in wetter climes. These stays are closer to Nivachrome or Chromoly so they don’t have the rust resistance that the new Niobium has.

Chain-stays mitered to BB

Dropouts in road drop fixture @ 140mm

Just a shot of the drops loaded into the road drop fixture. It has shims to achieve the desired axle spacing and removable set screws to set the side to side indexing so the drops are at the same angle. There are also some pre-set holes to add rack bosses in the usual spots.

cog-scallop

I like this picture. Simple beauty. Enlarge. (click on pix)

Moving along again after a couple  “just touch” with a file as my late friend Pino would have said. The rear axle spacing is up to 145mm and the chain stays are brazed and semi finished. No point in doing too much finish work until the seat tube, guides and whatever are attached as well.  Here’s the picture..

left side

It’s back in the jig again. Normally I’d do the front down tube next, but I’ve decided to add the set or sets of seat stays next. This means the stokers seat tube must be positioned, so I’ll get after that..

I got the stokers seat tube attached and the primary set of  seat stays ready to attach at which time my feet, which I’d already been on for 12 hours in the “other side” of the shop were telling me to call it a day. I just want to point out in the following picture the unusual shape of the Spirit seat stays. They start as the usual round taper at the dropout and then have teardrop/wing sort of 6 1/2″ long section and reverts to round again. The OD is nearly 11/16ths, which is down right big as compared to other manufacturer’s stays. It adds a goodly (technical term) amount of strength.

Shaped seat stay

Building old fashioned steel frames is a pile of work and at some points in the process there are aspects that appear to the uninformed observer as ugly..  some of this next group of pictures is were the process is between the raw weld and semi-finished. To get to the full paint ready condition takes the majority of time. Gross pipe fitting is gratifying to the builder because he/she knows that the weld is correct and that the location of the part is where it should be-sometimes not an easy task. This is more so when lug less frames have no spigots to make the job easier.

Stoker BB

Here the stokers BB is on the 4th weld, the seat post. It still has one more when the rear lateral is added. At each stage I do some shaping of the fillet and removal of the used flux and oxides of combustion that stain the surface.

Niobium and silver

Here’s a real close look.

This next shot is the “signature” seat stay connection before any shaping. This joint was done with 56% silver filler. I need the filler to easily flow into the joints with out overheating the tubes. A balancing act with the torch..

Seat tube and seat stays

The non drive side rear drop is interesting as one can see a tiny piece of scrap that I’d inserted in the weld gap to hold the drop at the precise angle. Some folks use pins or nails or other means. This is easy and effective for me..

Rear drop out

..and here’s the other side..

Columbus horizontal dropout

Now that the rear triangle is attached, I’ve attached the brake bridge. It’s not the one I wanted to use, but after searching the shop for the tried and true Cinelli 506’s for an hour I said what the hell, so I turned this one upside down (I guess- no brake bridge police that I’m aware of) and I’ll doll it up with something when I get to that point. This is also 56% filler.

Brake Bridge

A bit fuzzy

Here’s the mid-seat connection after a little work with a round Riffler file. Looks better already. Darn digital camera gets fussy about focus with out doing the Macro setting which is too close for getting the whole object and the regular  way gets too busy with background stuff..then there’s the flash prompt..geeze.

keeping things moving, I’ve attached or more aptly pre-placed the captain’s seat tube. Here I loaded the ID with silver paste and heated until it bonded with the eccentric shell. This will keep overlap welds to a minimum while the main downtube is being fitted.

Captain's seat tube

I had the chance to buy a full size alignment table from a local builder and the price was good. I don’t really think I’ve had much use for one in the past as my Morroni jig doubles as an alignment fixture, but it can’t hurt to have another nice usable tool. I added casters to it so I don’t have to dedicate too much precious space.

Bringheli Alignment Table

Here’s a new trick. These tubes are really hard to scribe a center line on since the diameter changes constantly from end to end relative to the center line. So what I do is use a carpenter’s chalk line and snap the line. It’s by eye, but that ‘s pretty good. See the blue?

Thin Blue Line

Tonight I cut the main down tube to length and mitered the ends. Spent most of the evening trying to decide the seat tube lengths and placement of the internal laterals. I don’t have a drawing so I’m using my experience and how I think it will look the best.. it’s a personal thing, functionally it’s moot.

Now here’s a couple cuts that you won’t see too often.  I do this pretty much by eye. I’ll hold the top tube more or less in place and using a Sharpie draw the perpendicular outlines of the seat tube. Then with a hole saw followed with the trusty Dynafile cut the top and bottom of the top tube where the seat tube will (hopefully) intersect. The rusty old seat tube is just a way to gauge my progress in the vice until, as below.. and from the side

gross fitting stage

and lastly tonight, here’s the front half with the main down tube brazed in place. At this point the remaining top and lateral tubes won’t be brazed in place until they all fit and look pleasing to the eye.

New and old

I didn’t get a whole lot done on the frame tonight. I managed to get the rear lateral within an inch of where I want it. The captain’s top tube is also close, but the stoker’s top tube is just sitting on top of jig held on with a toe strap!

I received an old Raleigh in the parcel delivery today. It was bent sideways at the seat stays and I wanted to get the repair done and off my plate, so that ate up some time and I dismantled some of the new alignment table. I was very unhappy with the BB post’s method of setting the shell and the cylindrical jack was several thousandths out of perpendicularity (there’s a mouthful, eh?). Drew G. at the other end of the country recommended buying brass tipped set screws for the head tube “precision bar” so it wouldn’t be scarred with every tightening. I opted for flowing a drop of silver on them, same but different. Good idea Drew. Thanks!  Nevertheless, I’ll add one more picture..

Starting to look like a bike

I forewent a bike ride on a darn nice winter day today because this frame was calling to me. Right now I’m in the stage that is tedious and slow, thus requiring  a weekend afternoon without distractions. Well, all the main tubes are cut and mitered and ready to prep and braze, except for the internal lateral joint on the captain’s seat tube. The Spirit is very thin walled and I will cut some half tube shims to beef up the joint. They are “buried” in the fillet and unseen. So more hand mitering to open the circumference there. (I don’t feel there is any need to repeat that with the seat and top tube since it is effectively reinforced with the seat post.) You can see in the next picture that they sag a little there because its not a close miter and they are sitting on a c-clamp.

Main tubes all in place

This shouldn’t cause anguish, but I didn’t like some of the decisions I’d made along the way. I really need to get this sold, I don’t need another tandem, though one fellow on the Classic Rendezvous list admitted to having eight. It is now a 58.5cm captain seat tube and a 56cm stoker. I wanted a little smaller in the rear, but I reasoned that since the stoker doesn’t have to put their foot down at every stop it would still be an acceptable compromise.

So after cleaning the tubes and lathering with flux I brazed them into place. It’s a done deal now, eh? It’s a Federal holiday today, so I have a legitimate excuse to work on the frame and not on the cars backed up in the driveway, plus it could reach 60F today and it’s time to get back into a 5 day a week riding schedule.

I’ll do some filing on the new welds and try to decide how to address the open ends of the two top tubes at the captains seat, With the MAX I used to continue the tube to the other side then add a flat cover panel. But, here I have 4 flat surfaces just begging for some shiny silver decoration.

Now I remember why its been a year since the last one. They are a boat load of work. I put 10 hours of filing and shaping the fillets in today. My right hand (dominant) was the worst burned in the fire of ’07. The web area required grafting and has always given me some grief, but I must say that spending multiple hours with a Riffler file exercising the thumb and fore finger is excellent therapy. Good thing, as there are  still several days of similar finish work still to come.

I’m very happy with my welds, only two small spots that were not fully to the height of the rest and required going back to fill.. The most difficult was the rear seat/BB/Lateral joint. If you can imagine the thick wall BB and the near paper thin Spirit tubes and then try to flow the silver on the underside of the lateral as it miters into the BB and boom tube. A typical temperature flame will rapidly overheat the lateral and burn it and too cold it will never flow out on the BB or boom. Solution was to flow the under side of the boom first then adjust the flame to a super oxygen hot with a very short flame, which won’t wash over a large surface area, but rapidly heats the thick wall tubes and flowed the silver down very nicely.

All main tubes brazed and shaped

I took a bunch of photos of the individual joints but the flash and reflections made them unusable. Maybe tomorrow with some day light I’ll try again.

The next step is to fill the gaping holes on the top tubes, which I mentioned yesterday. Unfortunately tomorrow is a work day, so maybe tomorrow evening.

Finally had a chance to work on the frame a little tonight. I need to go back and do more shaping on a few of the fillets. Tonight I decided to get after the internal laterals where they butt to the captain’s seat tube. The front lateral is shorter than the rear, consequently the diameters and shape is a little different where they butt. So, the major shape was obtained using silver, but tonight I filled some of the low and mismatched spots with lead filler. I like the lead because it goes down at about 300 degrees F.  It’s very soft and easy to shape with a file. I also don’t need to worry that flexing of the frame will crack it off, like Bondo or glaze might. Here are a couple ultra close ups. So close the file marks from the jewelers files look like canyons. The  lead is slightly darker than the steel. The yellow is the silver. These still need some emery and then primer and blocking will take care of the rest..

Right side

Left side

I felt like I left this subject hanging last night, so I took a few moments this morning to finish/sand the joint with 320 grit cloth and hit it with some flat black rattle can to see where I am in getting it looking like I want.

These tubes do more shape shifting  and have more metal contours than I usually deal with. Anyway, this is getting close and I’ll just switch to a glaze to eliminate any visible feathering.. The lead is really superior to plastic fillers but, it requires another level of supplies and expertise.

Left side-pre blocking

Right side pre blocking

I decided that the ends of the top tubes were not going to fix themselves so I cleared the bench of the heavy tools and pulled out the jeweler’s stuff. I’m running low on some of the silver sheet and I’m running low on ideas.

I decided that a nice silver Oso (bear) fetish would look OK on the cover, then I decided to do an overlay, then I changed my mind and decided to put a stone bear over the silver overlay and antique-ish the edges. Well, after nearly a half day of messing around I have this..

Captain's seat back

For the head badge I decided to keep it pretty simple. All silver.

Head tube badge

I see its been six days since I added any content to this posting, But I have been hard at work on this tandem all those days, well nights at least. I have worn my fingers thin sanding and re-sanding and then re-sanding a couple more times. I haven’t bothered with glazing putty for ages and for good reason. It will make you crazy trying to fill every file mark or imperfection. That’s why they’re “hand made” for Pete’s sake. Anyway, its as smooth as I’m going to do. The braze-on’s are on and most of the silver work is on. I didn’t post pictures of this as its pretty rote stuff. I’ll finish the last silver bit tomorrow and then get after the fork. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yah!

Here’s some pictures without any explanations..

Lesft side with blocking showing

End caps and silver bridge work

Front to rear perspective

Headbadge

Bottle bosses

Last turquoise piece for the stoker

It’s been below 10 degrees F for the last two days, very unusual for Albuquerque and way too cold to work on cars, soooo I went to work on getting the fork done.  here’s the steerer and crown while still warm..

Crown and steerer joint

As I mentioned earlier in this article, I am collaborating with Martin (Bicycle geometry 101) Manning. He has  suggested a rake which results in 45mm of trail. I must say that I’m a little concerned. I’ve never built a fork with so much rake/offset as this one has. I was always happy with the handling when the trail was between 2 and 2  1/2 inches . This is about 1 7/8 inches of trail. Martin’s theory is that this will impart more low speed stability. One has essentially twice the force on the lever arm created by the trail, which makes tandems hard to handle at start-up and when climbing a steep hill.  Those situations are hard enough due to the rider coordination required.  They go fast, too, so the high-speed stuff can’t be ignored.  He believes the better compromise is to accept a little less stability at high speed in favor of the low speed operation.
Here’s the blades loaded in the jig with 47 mm of offset..

fork jig

And lastly today, here is the finished fork in the frame…

Frame and Fork

OK, time to think seriously about paint colors..

Well, after about two seconds of consideration and the fact that I have a full can of the green I painted my own bike with, here it is,  awaiting components.  Signal green Imron frame and fork…

front triangle and fork

back to front view

seat stays with turquoise

The whole enchilada

That about wraps this up. I’ll get it assembled as soon as I get all the “stuff” and then post a few pictures and an evaluation of its performance.

This project took over a month to complete and that was working on it very nearly every day. I haven’t decided on pricing yet, but no doubt it will be less than the effort expended.

Stay tuned in…

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