No, not mine…. I wish! 🙂
One of the guys on our group ride last night (27 riders!!) has made himself a frame.
He works ‘in accoustics’ (?) and made a jig from some alloy they had lying around, then sat down and welded it up out of Columbus tubing.
It took him about a year to do, on and off, and about 100hrs labour. I asked if he’d ‘borrowed’ any bits from other bikes, but no, he made the whole lot, incuding cutting the droputs from plate. Not sure about the EBB though, but I wouldn’t put it past him… (Yes it’s a SS)
He’s planning a Mk 2 as this one has a rather too slack head angle and not much chainstay mud-room, which will be cured by ‘S bend’ chainstays. It’ll also have stainless steel, Ritchey-style cowled dropouts. Nice….

OK, OK, I guess you’re imaginig some hideous bodge job, yes?
Well, whilst not up to the standards of a UK custom builder, it’s better than anything I’ve seen from any UK designed/Taiwan made frame, finish and detail wise. The back end is very Pipedream Sirus-esque. And there are some really neat touches, neat cable routing, and no creaks from the EBB!

Have a look at these (Crappy camera phone) pics…

One of the nicer details is the SS converter on the Pro 2 Hub….
Pro 2 have alloy freehub bodies, and this is made from an old SRAM PG990 cassette body, so he can screw any SS cog to it. Very, very trick…

Well, I’m impressed.
😀

very nice

That looks very tidy indeed. I’d love to have access to a machine shop…..

Very neat.

I like, a lot

That’s bloody nice, that. I’ve always dreamed of building my own frame. You coon’t get more ‘custom’ than that!

Pete, have a look on the THT forum, there is a whole thread following the making of this bike. For some reason we all thought it was a joke when Lyn posted a picture of a load of tubes and said it was his new bike.

Jason, Ohh, I didn’t know about that, I’ll have a look….
🙂

that looks really, really nice.

What’s the ‘THT forum’?

That is cooler than an otter sat on a rock cleaning its whiskers..!

So flinking coooooool!!!!!

What’s the ‘THT forum’?

I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.
😉

Tunnel Hill Trolls, the Farnborough area riders forum…

Very very nice indeed. Good work!

Beautiful frame, shame about the colour.

100 man hours plus materials. Not cheap!

Looks lovely. Downtube looks a bit skinny, but all the best to him.

Jason, I’ll be buggered if I can find that THT thread….
🙁

100 man hours plus materials. Not cheap!

I think you have missed the point. 🙂

That is very nice. I like the understated looks and I like the fact that someone else is representing for flat pedals and singlespeed.

I like the seat tube detail in the second picture. I’ve seen that sort of thing on Mathers and thought it was ace. 🙂

That ‘t’ is cut into the tube, and there appears to be some sort of gusset at the junction too, it looks lugged on the seat tube…..

For once I’m speechless.

It’s not too shabby, is it?
🙂

Ok the colour is the same as well but it reminds me of the Sanderson Life- NOT a bad frame.

some more stuff, construction things on here too – http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=508034

Credit where it’s due, that’s nice and it must feel pretty good riding a bike you made yourself.

Could do with a trick paint job to go with it. Anyone remember the Spesh on the old forum with the custom leaf effect paint? I think some thing like that would look great on it.

wow! seriously impressed!

Sweet baby Jesus!
I’ve just been pointed towards the thread concerning the build. Now that’s somthing else entirely………

And it’s not the only product either…

I’m totally, utterly gobsmacked now….

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Wow. I wouldnt know where to start. Some people are gifted with technical skills. Hats off. There my gobsmackedness has subsided. I can now speak.

Carpentry is one great skill- this goes further. 😀

looks nice but 100hrs of labour?!
well he will not make any money if he takes it up full time!

Very nice.

PP – One point though.

…..it’s better than anything I’ve seen from any UK designed/Taiwan made frame, finish and detail wise. …

A bit of an apples and oranges comparison really. If a Taiwanese frame builder were given about a year on and off and 100 hours with which to build a frame I’m sure it would turn out to be the nicest-built frame you’ve ever seen, but the price might be a little over the £230ish price point most UK designed/Taiwanese built frames are sold at or near.

A bit of an apples and oranges comparison really. If a Taiwanese frame builder were given about a year on and off and 100 hours with which to build a frame I’m sure it would turn out to be the nicest-built frame you’ve ever seen, but the price might be a little over the £230ish price point most UK designed/Taiwanese built frames are sold at or near.

Wasn’t meant to be a price comparison, or a production time comparison. I was trying to give an indiaction as to the quality of the work, and how long it takes to build someting like this from scratch….
Remember 100hrs is bike design, building and designing the 2 jigs, cutting an welding by hand, painting, finishing, trial and error, all in the garage….
I doubt you’ll ever see one for sale, put it that way
🙂

strictly speaking, doesn’t he need to get it torn apart on a testing machine now to ensure it’s BS EN compliance? Then when done, he can build another to ride.

Lovely looking – I’m glad I don’t have the skill or patience to do that otherwise I’d feel tempted to try it. So instead I’ll stick with rebadged TW mass produced frames, which are far more suited to my skilz anyway.

strictly speaking, doesn’t he need to get it torn apart on a testing machine now to ensure it’s BS EN compliance? Then when done, he can build another to ride

I guess you can do what the hell you like, because nobody’s ever gonna check are they?
🙂

but what if he had an accident and found himself unable to work, so claimed on insurance only for the insurance co to find out he’d been hooning about on an UNAPPROVED bike.

It’s for our own good honestly. These Brussel bureaucrats have our best interests at heart, we need protecting from ourselves.

<just in case it doesn’t come across I mean this to be very t-i-c. I don’t see any problems in using something you built, as long as you’re confident in your ability to build it, it’s your choice entirely, and while the original comment probably is true and he probably should *officially* have it tested – tell those nosey belgians to keep their noses out!!>

I tell you what, it doesn’t matted what you post on STW, some know-it-all has to slag it off, don’t they?

OK, go on then, do better yourself, cleverclogs.

sorry Peter, not slagging it off at all – my point isn’t coming across well. I’m pointing out how stupid it is that someone with real skills officially isn’t allowed to do it any more.

I’d love to be able to build my own frame, and if I was skilled enough and had the time / patience to do it I’d be ****ed if I’d let some numpty from Brussels (or indeed a know-it-all from STW) tell me I couldn’t.

How did he check the tracking?

Nice bit of DIY ! but without being in any way dismissive, isn’t it just a copy of bog standard Taiwanese Merlin geometry judging from PP’s second ‘sweet babay jeesus’ picture ??

PeterPoddy – Member
I tell you what, it doesn’t matted what you post on STW, some know-it-all has to slag it off, don’t they?
OK, go on then, do better yourself, cleverclogs

Wasn’t Peter referring to MrSmith’s post there?

That full-sus kiddie frame thing is a work of genius!

MrSmith: “looks nice but 100hrs of labour?!
well he will not make any money if he takes it up full time!”

Not immediately but he will once he gets more practice.

🙂

that is well cool, the dropouts look a bit thick but it could just be lack of scale.