One Joint A Night

 
My goal is to do one joint a night, 5 days a week.  A co-worker of mine suggested I clarify that I am talking about bicycle frame joints.  So yeah, one bicycle frame joint per night.  Usually it means cleaning up a joint that went into the trusty Home Depot orange soak bucket the night before, hand mitering the next joint, brazing it up, letting it cool (not much of a challenge in my MN garage), and throwing it in the soak. With the holidays and just life in general happening, this goal is a far stretch from reality, but one has to aim high.  The last half of a week I have spent all my free time eradicating ice dams from an out-of-town friends roof.  Next; friends in town and holidays and whatnot. Baby steps to getting this frame done.

Fatties Fit Fine

I am doing some sort of a sectional type chainstay for ultimate stiffness. The clearances are pretty tight getting an Endomorph on a Graceful Fat Sheba, the chain stays, and a Hammerschmidt on an 83mm shell all to fit. The chain only clears the tire by a few mm, so I can't afford to have things too flexy back there! 

It's gonna be a Cold One

So the first bike in the queue is the Cold One.  Sometimes I am so dang clever, I tell ya.  Homebrew Bikes?  Cold One?  Get it?

This first bike is going to be a fat tire snow bike.  It will have a Hammerschmidt two speed internally geared crankset.  This is basically a single speed snow bike, but with that bail-out gear for when the going gets tough.  A sectional fork spaced @ 135mm will accommodate either of the single speed wheels, each with a different cog on the hub so the wheels can be switched between front and rear if one requires a different gear ratio for the days conditions.  Paragon sliding drops will keep the chain tight and BB7's will be used for scrubbing off speed.  I'm thinking I might make my own stem and h-bar, but we'll see.  Time may be a factor.  It is winter and I should be riding this bike already!

Homebrew

If you don't get it already, my explaining probably isn't going to help; I homebrew.

Why go through all the hassle of making a bike frame when one could just buy one?

I can't even begin to tally up the total expenses or time spent on this project, but I can tell you how it gets started and how I justify it;  "Well, a frame would cost me $400, but a tube set is only about $200.  If I build a frame, I'm makin' money!"  Never mind the hours of work, all the tools purchased, the brazing gas, flux, brass, & silver.  Never mind the hours every night after work, hand filing joints in a frozen Minnesota garage, the cuts, the scrapes, the cold tools chilling my hands, my frozen toes, and the four thermal layers of clothes I have to put on just to stay warm.

I probably got started with these sorts of endeavors building homebrew electric guitar effects pedals when I was in high school.  Same approach, different product.  Why buy a pedal when I can learn some basic electronics and make my own pedals with some Radio Shack parts?  Or, with my homebrewing of beer and wine making.  Why drink crappy beer when I can make delicious beer @ the same price?  Or, why buy produce when I can grow a garden?

It's not just that I am "saving" on the cost of a frame.  How about learning something along the way?  How about making something the way I want it?  How about the pride of having done it yourself, knowing it was done right, and getting a better product out of it?

Welcome!

I created this blog for those that want to follow along on my frame building.  Feel free to leave comments and questions and all that.

I'd love to say there will be more soon, but there might not be. Until then, check for photos here.