KIPP’S DEMOUNTABLE
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
Another first! We can’t stop! Local man-about-town Kipp wanted a bike he could take on planes and in trains, so for him we’re doing our first demountable. We’re using S&S Couplers, lovely stainless doohickies that allow you to break your full-size frame into two pieces! And then put it back together again! It’s true! Here they are:
So using these require that we take the top and down tubes, cut them in two, and braze the couplers in. I got True Temper tubes with extra-long butts (yes, we like big butts) so that I’d be brazing the couplers in the thick section; then I had to make a jig to hold the two sections of tube in line during the brazing. Kipp got this 80/20 which allowed us to jig it up nicely. Here are some shots of that, and yes those are lengths of old innertube holding the sections in place:





Then I mitered the tubes as usual. It’s a welded road bike with sloping top tube. Here are the joints before welding:



Here’s some shots of the frame in the jig, after welding & brazing, and out of the jig:



And here you can see how the entire frame & wheels will fit inside a wheel-size box about 12″ deep:
Room to spare, and that’s a bike with a 58cm top tube! Next up: Kipp’s complete bike, & Steve’s single speed cross bike!
GREEN MONSTER
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
Liane picked up her mountain bike on friday. It’s totally green. I’m not even kidding.
Here’s some detail shots. She’s running Avid Juicy 7 brakes, Sram XO twist shifters, and a Sid Team fork. It has a cool lockout you can see inboard of the right brake lever.




Having painted the fork I wasn’t excited about putting zip ties all over it to direct the brake housing so I made a little aluminum holder that’s bolted in where the canti posts were:
And here’s Liane on her test ride. Look at that smile!
HEAD FOR THE MOUNTAINS
Saturday, March 15th, 2008
So I finished up Liane’s mountain bike this week. She wanted it this hi-visibility green so she doesn’t get shot at by any off-season hunters:
Here’s a closeup of the BB shell:
And here are those great Paragon disc dropouts:
Liane is going to be using mostly Sram XO components, with Avid brakes. The last hydraulic brakes I worked on were from Garrett’s 1972 VW bus so that’s going to be fun. She’s running a Sid fork which I took apart and painted the lowers to match:
I’ll post more pictures of the complete bike later this week. Also I painted two frames for other folks this week: first, this beautiful retro-style single speed made by Liane’s husband Mark:
And this road bike from Bowen Bicycle Works in Connecticut:
Keep them coming. Next week – Kipp’s s&s coupled road bike! stay tuned!