Jason's frame rolling along

I've been sequestered away at the FD for 72 hours over the weekend, so not much been happening at the shop.

I got started on three restorations on Sunday, Bob and Michael's Yo's and Jeff's Bruiser before having to go back into work.

Yesterday, I was pretty sleep deprived and feeling a bit of the spring flu bug, so I just kinda wandered around without much focus for a while, trying to keep close to the porcelain pedestal. Finally got my arse in gear though and worked on Jason's rear triangle a bit.

The Paragon sliders I'd been waiting for finally showed up. Seems the crew up there were suffering from the same bit of sickness, but they were out for a week. Glad they are all feeling better :)

Anyhoo, I mitered up Jasons chainstays, a nice oval to round s bend stay made by Dedda that uses a little more wall material in the dropout end for added strength in this single speed/Rohloff application. The thicker wall allows us to get away with not using a left stay brace with the Rohloff, as the torque created is substantial.

Here's a shot of the bb intersection...

I like these oval stays for singly applications because they allow me to set the piece far to the outside of the bottom bracket for maximum tire clearance, while still leaving room for up to a 40T chainring without any denting or manipulation. That's nice, because it maintains the highest level of structural strength.

A shot of the frame with the chainstays in place...



The Paragon sliders with windows all tacked up and in position. These will be silver brazed and then scallop cut for a smooth finished transition. I design the bike so that the sliders are in the center of their range with a wheel base of 17.25. This leaves room for the rider to custom tune the bike to either move the wheel forward and under them for a faster, more agile climber or back for more stable cruising and still have substantial tire clearance.

The windowed sliders are pretty sexy, but come at a price. About a 30 dollar up charge from the standard sliders.
With the chainstays in place, it's time to start working on the seatstays. They begin as straight pieces that I measure out. I mark off the center line, the rough cut length, the tire apex point, the top bend and the bottom bend before actually finessing the tubes.

Here's a shot of the start of the process...

And the final result after custom bending, wiping them clean, and getting ready for mitering.

and the last pic...the angled slot that is cut to allow a tight fit on the tab of the dropout.

Hope to have Jason's frame finished in fabrication on Friday.

I'm taking off for a day to visit some shops/customers in the Virginia area then I'll be back at it Thursday evening.

cheers,

rody