Archive for the ‘Bike Repairs’ Category

This is the second cross bike I’ve built for Adam St. Germain but it’s the fourth Circle A I’ve built for him. He also has one of the few Circle A BMX frames and a pretty fancy road bike. For this one, I wanted to make it as light as possible. I ended up going with Dedacciai’s Zero tube set. Because this is a cross bike and it’s going to be put through the motions, I put a small gusset at the down tube seat tube junction. I suggested a seat mast with some unique internal cable routing and Adam let me have my way. So here’s the final product but I unfortunately neglected to think about one thing…

 
 
 
 
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A week or two after he got the bike, at the NBX Grand Prix of Cyclocross right here in Rhode Island on December 4th, the seat mast bent. I was devastated. I totally felt like I let Adam down by building a bike with such a thin seat tube and doing the internal routing at the rear. He sent me a txt with the image and my heart sunk. I had to fix it. NOW.

 

So Adam dropped the bike off at the shop on the Monday after and I had it back to him at the week’s end for the Ice Weasels race in Wrentham, MA on the 10th. The repair consisted of me carefully straightening the mast and reshaping it with tubing blocks. To strengthen that joint, I bonded a section of slotted aluminum post into the seat tube. It essentially has a seatpost in there now, which I will recommend to all future customers who inquire about a seat mast. I repainted the affected area and it was ready to ride again. Just last week, he raced it at the Nationals in Madison and got 32nd. Attaboy! We’re very proud of him here at Circle A. Here are a couple shots of the bike after the repair.

 

My longtime friend Lee FINALLY got his bike together. Definitely a fun commuter/light touring ride. Hope you’re having fun, Lee!

 

And it was a long time ago (I think back in October) but we had our 10th year anniversary. A lot of friends and local builders came by to help us celebrate. We’d like to thank everyone who has supported us over the years and will continue to build for the unforeseeable future. Here are some shots of that beautiful day.

 
 

Next up is a travel bike with a couple of firsts for Circle A…

Joseph went to RISD here in Providence and then moved back to China for work and family. While he was here in Providence he helped out here at the shop for a bit. When he wanted us to build him a cyclocross frame, I was so excited. This one also has the flexibility of being a light tourer and have fenders put on it. We went back and forth a couple times to get the paint details straight and I’m very pleased with the satin finish that he chose. The seat cluster has a very non-steel look. Almost molded. Defying the standard steel look wasn’t my goal but was very satisfying.

 
 
 
 
 
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And our friend Ricardo has had us do some paint and repair work for him over the years. He took some time out of his busy schedule to bring by some of the completed projects. A very nice stable of bikes indeed!

 

 

 

 

Next up are the final couple of cross bikes for the year!

The summer of 2011 has proven to be hot and busy. That combination usually gets me stressed out but we’re survivors here at Circle A. The projects keep coming in and we have to keep them moving. These are the latest projects that I’ve recently completed. First up, this Richard Sachs came to us after Richard replaced the downtube. I built a new fork for it and painted the frameset this dark green with a slightly tinted yellow clearcoat to give the panels a creamy look.

 

This Mondonico came from the same owner as the Richard Sachs. It was in a parking garage vs. roof rack accident and needed both the top and downtubes replaced. The head lugs and head tube were saved and ground out. This bike also needed a new fork so I built one with the original crown minus the pantographing. A black paint job with gold details made this frameset good as new.

 

Our friend Francine came back to us to have her bright blue Waterford touring bike toned down a bit. She did the difficult task of picking the color and I did the complete breakdown and refinish. The result is this Daytona Blue beauty ready to roam the countryside.

 

I built a road frame for the owner of this Ira Ryan back in November of last year. He sent me this cross frame to have a couple modifications done as well as a full repaint. The final result is this stunning sparkling purple beauty ready to get covered in mud again!

 

This Harry Quinn has a lot of history as old bikes often do. I personally acquired this bike back in 1998. It was my daily commuter for a while, then my retro-direct experiment, and then it was passed on to my friend Mitch who has been riding it hard on the streets of New York, Boston, and Providence. It came back to the shop looking beat to hell but now it has been rejuvenated and is ready for many more years of service. Be good to her, Mitch.

 

And Mike’s bike that was completed last month has been fully built and ridden. Here’s a shot of the complete bike. The steerer tube has since been cut down, of course.

There was also a pretty rare flatland contest here in New England last month. Even rarer was the fact that there were four Circle A BMX frames in attendance! I had to get a shot of them all together still going strong.

Next up is Trevor’s XCr road frameset. It is a looker so check back soon!

The blog was down for a little over a week and I assumed that no-one would notice but a lot of you did. And no, I’m not going anywhere. I did start building bikes on the side as Chapman Cycles (more on that in another blog post) but I am still a full-time framebuilder/painter here at Circle A. My latest frame for Mike P. is a light tourer built with Columbus Zona tubing and Richard Sachs’ Rene Singer lugs. Dark blue pearl with lighter metallic blue panels round off this classy frameset. Almost all the parts are in so I’ll get some complete bike shots soon.

 
 
 
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This Mercian came in for a whole series of modifications. It was originally designed to be built up with 27″ wheels and now will be good with 700c wheels and cantilever brakes. The derailleur cable routing was moved to underneath the bottom bracket and a rear derailleur hanger from a Campagnolo dropout was brazed on. A new seat binder, rack mounts, fender braze-ons, and a black paint job and Chris is ready to go! Chris is also responsible for the Mercian Register on Flickr. Check it out if you get a chance.

 
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This Rivendell came to us in rough shape. There was a gaping hole in the top tube from corrosion. Needless to say, it had to be replaced. It was built at Waterford so it was silver brazed which is helpful when the lugs are very intricate like these. We gave it back to the customer as is because he wanted to get it powder coated for a nice durable finish. If *you* need any frame repairs done, please check our price sheet and then drop us a line if you want some help.

 

This paint job was for Alchemy out of Austin. Great people, great bikes, fancy paint. Getting those stripes to line up is trickier than you think!

 

Our friends, and amazing husband and wife team have been helping us out a bit here at Circle A. First, Josie, accomplished painter and designer, has been making us look amazing with her lug lining skills. This is all done with a brush and a steady hand, people. Truly a craft that she is a master at. Every frame that she does blows my mind. Including this cream Icarus which I painted and she lined.

 

And her husband Jay is a veteran high end auto finishing master whose skill set transferred very nicely to bicycles. He did the paint on this red Icarus.

 

And when you get them working together, they can make beautiful things look more beautiful like this Johnny Coast.

 

Next up is a lugged Columbus XCr stainless frameset and more repairs and repaints!

So much is going on at the shop right now! I think I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again—busy is good. Too busy, though—not as good. I think I’m riding that line these days. The sun is shining, the weather is hot and I’m holding a torch instead of cruising down a winding road in the woods. Oh well. But THIS is what I have to show for it. The latest bike is a single speed for Brian K (his second Circle A!). He went with the Paul Components rear dropouts with the adjusters and the monostay. This bike is clean, folks. Elegant fillet brazed construction with the understated gloss black. You have to look closely to appreciate the details on this one.

 
 
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My brother’s birthday was a while back and I had given him my old Circle A flatland BMX frame (one of only 6!). Unfortunately, he rides with back brakes (not that common in the flatland world nowadays) so I had to braze on some u-brake mounts and cable stops. I gave it a new paint job and it’s almost like he has a new bike. Old men on little bikes—Hooray!

 
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This Lemond Maillot Jaune came into the shop with some serious rust pitting on the Reynolds 853 steel portion. It wasn’t too deep, so after a light sandblasting and heavy primer/wet sand/primer, it was looking pretty good. The paint is a dark blue pearl with a silver base underneath. Painted on logos, bands, and panels and he’s ready to get back on the road.

 

Other paint work coming through the shop include this Zanconato brought in by the one and only Mike Zanconato. One of the nicest framebuilders in New England (no joke). Light blue with gray panels and white detailing. Those seat tube and down tube logos are painted on as well.

 

And this Riordon built by Ben Riordon out of Newburyport, MA. Chartreuse with classic seat tube stripes and a bold red panel on the downtube made for a very striking and unique paint scheme.

 

Another fork I made in the past month or two was for a Surly Cross Check owned by our friend Benno. The bike was being re-purposed as a porteur style bike so to get the geometry to what he desired, he needed a new fork with 70mm(!) of rake. I brazed spoke heads on the inside of the fork leg as a wire guide from the dynamo hub.

 

This fork off of an Abel Borne was sent to us because the crown race was milled too far and the front dropouts were chewed up beyond repair. The original dropouts were gas welded in so the ends needed to be cut off and the blades re-slotted. A set of Ritchey dropouts were chosen as a replacement and then heavily carved to mimic the original shape. I then built up the crown race with silver brazing alloy and re-machined it.

  
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I built this tiny rack and a fork for our friend Ryan who had acquired this tan Tournesol. He had a specific design for the rack in mind and I tried to get it to what he was envisioning. The Tournesol fork was designed to be a very shallow 41mm of rake and I did this on our bender which applies most of the rake at the fork end. The rack and fork were painted to match the frame and the rest is history.

 

And finally, some pictures of completed bikes. This is a Raleigh that I had repainted a bit ago, Bobby Earle’s IF that was re-re-painted, and Steve’s single speed that I built last month hanging out at the beach. I’m so jealous!

  

It has been some time since I’ve built a single speed so Steve’s bike was a fun project for me. This one is going to a former Rhode Islander now residing in southern California. It went there as a complete bike and I’ll have those pictures next posting. It’s built out of Dedacciai Zero Uno tubing with a white/celeste green paint scheme. The quote on the top tube is pretty awesome. Clearly Steve means business.

 
 
 
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Steve’s (another Steve) 1973 Raleigh Record Ace came into the shop with the Raleigh Racing USA paint scheme. Originally this bike would have been a white main frame with a yellow head tube and stripes on the seat tube. Someone in Iowa had already done some modifications and had it repainted and repaired. The original Record Ace fork was replaced with another Raleigh fork. The original Stronglight components had been replaced with Campagnolo as well. The frame was definitely worth keeping on the road so Steve had me paint it in the color scheme that he got it with but with a black head tube. The Reynolds 531 and Carlton decals that came on the 1973 RRA are on there for accurate ID but the other decals are very much Raleigh USA style. Complete bike pics to follow.

 
 
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I’ve become very familiar with Bobby Earle’s IF MTB frame. Originally I modified it to run 650B wheels and cantilever brakes. This time around I put on a disc brake mount, added a brace between the stays, and removed the canti posts. The bike got a straight white paint job and it being built up with some of the nicest components out there!

 

And it’s hard to stay out of the paint booth in these parts. Here are a couple of Bowen’s that I finished up a bit ago. One full paint job and one touch up.

 
 

Coming up next is Brian’s (not me) single speed with monostay, more restorations, more paint, more repairs, and hopefully more riding for me.

Here are some of the latest frames I’ve painted the past two weeks here at the shop. Some also had small alterations as well. Spring is clearly the time to have your frame painted. It happens every year and I forget how much time I spend in that booth in March. Now that I’m out of there and back at my bench, the next frameset should be done by early next week (as well as Benno’s fork and a couple more paint jobs).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Henry’s second frame from me! He’s the only other person out there with a Circle A BMX frame and a road frame. Definitely a well-rounded rider. I first met Henry in New York at a flatland jam. Super nice guy from the west coast. He went the ornate lugged route with the Richard Sachs Newvex series lugs, crown, and bottom bracket. The paint is a red candy over a red-tinted silver. Defnitely has another dimension in the sun.

 
 
 
 
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What happens when you drive into a parking garage with your bike on the roof. Nothing good. Except the opportunity to get a “new” bike. We can rebuild it. We have the technology. This bike has a new down tube and rear seat stays, and a new paint job. And now it’s back on the road and heading south from Philly to Florida!

 
 

Spring time means fun bike time! A bunch of us did a full moon ride down the bike path to Bristol. We had lights but didn’t really need them. Moon shadows abound! Another group did a little ride around the Little Compton area. We ended up on some trails heading down to Simmons pond. It just the start of a wonderful riding year.

 

I hope Mike enjoys riding this bike as much as I enjoyed building it. I’m always trying to use the customer’s input to visualize what they’re seeing in their mind and helping them get to that vision though components, paint, construction details, etc. This is a case where both of our visions came to fruition. This is Mike’s second Circle A and a big change from his cross bike that I built almost exactly one year ago. This is reminiscent of the cruisers of the 60′s and 70′s but with modern, lightweight components. The new Dia-Compe 610 centerpull brakes with their CNC’d aluminum arms are modern looking up close but resemble the classic Mafac brakes of times past. The same goes for the Campagnolo inspired IRD aluminum crankset and Mavic single speed wheelset. Many of the components on this bike were purchased from the Velo-Orange line that is fulfilling the needs of classically inspired cyclists everywhere. The complete bike with leather saddle, rack, and fenders weighs in at 23 pounds. And with a 46-18 around town gearing, Mike should have no problem getting this one up to speed.

 
 
 
 
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This Richard Sachs repaint was rusted and weather beaten when it first came in the shop. EVERYTHING was seized on there. Especially the bottom bracket and rear dropout alignment screws which were eventually drilled out and then re-tapped. There were even markings on the chainstays from someone bolting a Greenfield kickstand on there! Well, this one has been saved. New paint and love have brought this one back to life.

 
 
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This next frame was brought to the shop by our friend Billy who said it was built by Dave Hartranft of Lincoln, MA. If anybody has any information on him, I’d like to learn more. This frame needed a seat stay replacement in a bad way. There were no vent holes near the rear dropouts and the unconventional fastback attachment at the seat cluster allowed for a lot of water to get in there and it rotted out. I mitered a new stay in the same fashion and now it’s good to go again.

 

It has been a while since I’ve written anything here and realized that I haven’t mentioned the Bilenky junkyard cyclocross race that happened last month. It’s a non-competitive (for most) cyclocross race through the junkyard that’s in back of their shop in Philly. It was a damn good time and recommend it to any cyclists within driving distance.

 
 

In other news, we’ve been experimenting with matte clearcoats and got to test it out finally on a bike. This fillet brazed Icarus was requested to have a matte finish. So here it is! It isn’t something that I’m personally a fan of because it will get dirty fast. Maybe for a sunny day rider it’s perfect but as soon as it gets mucky out, you’d better hop on the beater.

 
 

And something special is coming together at the shop right now. I know everything we make or paint is special but this is my first foray into drillium! I was inspired by the rear dropout of the Hartranft that was at the shop and of course the stylings of Peter Weigle. And anyone else whose drilled out a dropout for that matter. These dropouts are going on a fillet brazed frameset for our new friend Dan. More about that one soon!

If this Serotta could talk, it’d probably complain about its achy joints, but that’s only because it has been ridden in countless brevets, centuries, and double-centuries as well as ridden across the country two and a half times! The endurance rider who owns this frame and fork, John, bought it new from Serotta in 1981. The reason it came into our shop was because of two significant cracks that formed over time in the head tube and the top tube. Not from an impact but just from excessive wear and tear! We replaced those two tubes and the head lug and then did a complete repaint. Check out the results.

 
 
 

This large Trek also came through the shop recently for some some paint after it had some alterations done by the talented Chris Bishop in Baltimore. It had a Silca pump and some Honjo fenders painted to match but I failed to take pictures of those. Oh well. More repairs and another stainless 953 frame are coming up next!