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I made a frame!


aener

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I got backed into a corner by certain circumstances, and decided to try my luck.

Lots of trigonometry later, I have a lovely new frame to ride :D

Geometry (which I am staggered to say I have gotten within 1mm of what I was aiming for!) is:

Reach - 585mm

HA - 73°

WB - 950

BB - +65

CS - 350

FAO welders: feel 100% free to think it, but you really needn't bother telling me how horrible the welds are - I already know!

This has been my first welding project, so was learning how to do it (how effectively remains to be seen) on the job.

It turns out that what I thought was clean steel wasn't nearly clean enough, which is why the earlier joints have a lot of spatter, and the ones I did last are comparatively neat.

I didn't take close-ups, just to avoid you lot calling me out on it :lol:

If you're looking at doing something like this and want to know prices for materials: about £60.

Of course I couldn't buy exactly the bits I needed - had to buy 3m or 6m lengths so I have a lot left over, but the proportion I've used compared to what I paid overall works out at about £60.

All tubing is plain-gauge, 1.22mm wall welded mild steel, and dropouts are just some 6mm steel plate Adam had lying around.

Fully integrated headtube and Spanish BB came from Solid Bikes. Couldn't find anywhere UK based that would supply them so had to get them from America.

Again - to get my money's worth, I ordered 3 headtube and 3 BB shells which they can fit into a flat rate parcel, which is $25 to ship. They worked out at being around £10 per tube.

Frame weight is just a touch shy of 2.4kg, which I don't think is bad at all for saying how un-weight conscious the tubing is. I've also dropped something in the region of 160g by having an integrated headset rather than a Pig, so in terms of overall weight change, it's only about 200g heavier than what I had before. Was so excited to get riding that I didn't think to get a full-bike weight. Somewhere between 9kg and 9.2kg though, at a guess.

Apologies for the spiel - pretty damn stoked that it actually worked out!

Muchas gracias to Ben Slinger for bending the chainstays/seatstays for me, and an even bigger thanks to Adam Read for advice, tips, help and moral support ( :P) through the process!

1_zps30fb5e66.jpg

2_zpsc52594e7.jpg

3_zps5a28d7bc.jpg

(Snail cams on the outside due to a cock-up that I still don't understand. Had a 116mm spacer between dropouts whilst welding, took spacer out afterwards and it snapped shut to 110mm. Anyone got an explanation for this, and how to avoid it next time?)

4_zps1b7368b1.jpg

Had my first ride on her today and I'm in love already.

Seemingly just as good for the more power-based stuff as my previous geometry and nicer for streety stuff.

Certainly nose manuals - did the longest I'd ever done before on my 4th attempt after about 10 minutes on the new geo, then set a new personal best (by no small margin!) after another hour or so.

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Is that nose manual longer than the one you did on that manual pad near there for Clean 002?

Either way, kudos for getting the frame done (Y) See what you mean about the Trialtech forks matching the headtube now - looks sweet :)

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Is that nose manual longer than the one you did on that manual pad near there for Clean 002?

Either way, kudos for getting the frame done (Y) See what you mean about the Trialtech forks matching the headtube now - looks sweet :)

Yeah - probably an extra 30% on top of that.

That one in 002 was the one I did on the fourth attempt today ;) Didn't clip it this time either!

Super in-love with the headtube-crown matching too. Favourite bit, if I'm honest. Haha.

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Good effort that! The drop outs snapped shut after removing your spacer because of the heat.

when you weld it there is so much heat that the metal will change and want to move. This is normal, I would tack it in a jig and then weld it out, lets the metal do what it wants more and avoids stressing it so much.

what grade tube did you use out of interest? And wall thickness?

Mike

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I think so. It could be stainless I guess - I don't know how to tell :lol:

Off to Google that now...

Stainless steel is not magnetic some is a little bit but that's because it's a shit grade and has a tiny little bit of carbon in it certainly 304/316l is not so magnet it ;-)

Regards and respect as always

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