Bicycle Project 2, day 4

A brief hello then straight to the grindstone, literally. Back on to the sanding belts & buffer machine to grind out the imperfections on the bottom bracket. A few more corners here when compared to the dropouts gov'ner.

Probably a little too much time spent on the BB. The stainless lugs and the fork crown still need a lot of work.

Cutting out lugs takes time, patience, a good eye and a steady hand. That's why Dave doesn't usually offer this option in his frame-building class. But ask nicely and take the time to travel (17 hours) up from Australia and he's prepared to consider it.

Bottom bracket drilling to start some custom refinements.

I let Dave take care of some of the finer details.

Time out to have lunch and check out some old bicycle frames. A Glenn Erickson circa late 80's - early 90's and a Bianchi Competizione circa early 1960's. The Erickson is certainly a very well executed frame with clean shore lines, custom cutouts and nice even lug thinning. The Bianchi build is less refined with file marks evident and somewhat thick lugs but hey, it's a Bianchi with an integrated headset. That alone is style, history and cred and it's hard to see much further than that...

Dave scrutinizes the frames.

Then it's back to work with me supervising David Bohm on the more intricate seat lug work.

Dave under supervision.

Dave under close supervision.

The lug design is based on the Mercian Superlight. So to set things straight... an Australian travels to the United States to build a custom frame based on a mid-level British production bicycle. The world is clearly full of odd people...

Hey, the lugs are stainless and hand cut (unlike the Mercian)...