Project # SS0808

You may remember a quick reference, way back when, to a little bike drawing, and promises of more details to come;

Well, this is a drawing of a new bike frame for me... a race-dedicated, single-speed, cyclocross frame! No silly fender mounts, no derailleur tabs or cable stops in case I want to change my mind, not even any of those silly water bottle bosses. We're talking race-ready. I did most of the geometry to match up with my current Felt frame, since I really love the feel of that bike, and it seems so hard to find a cross bike, in my small size, with geometry I really like. Even more difficult to find a lightweight aluminum single speed cyclocross bike, without spending a small fortune, and/or going custom anyway. So this was drawn up by my friend JP over at JamesFrames.

Probably the coolest bit of the new frame, is that it will also serve as my "apprenticeship" for frame building as JP is letting me do most of the work, and sharing his knowledge with me. I had a very good idea of how things worked, from previous cycling-world experiences, but to really get in there with a saw and file, is a new experience. So with cross season quickly approaching, my new "bike" finally arrived;

We dove right in last night, as I set up the jig and started to get tubes cut. Here is the jig, with the seattube, headtube and bottom bracket shell (mostly) all set;

As I expected, it took a bit of time to get rolling, as I get familiar with the different tools, and measurements, and measure and remeasure everything 4 times. Plus, even with triple-checking everything, I still made the inevitable mistake and "wasted" one of the tubes, so that took some extra time. After about two hours, I had the main triangle set up.

And we had some other small details taken care of, like bending the seat and chainstays as well, so they are prepped to be cut and mitered. But with our limited time, it was time to call it a night. The plan is to finish up the rear of the bike by over this weekend, tack it up, and then get it all welded. I won't be doing the welding - it's one thing to play with, but I don't want to start out on my own frame... not yet anyway!

Now for the hardest part... picking a color for the powdercoat!