Enigma Bikes

Just got my frame back having had a brake brace added on by Enigma bikes, and a very nice job they did! There's a slight difference in the finish (Enigma pointed out that this would be the case prior to doing the work) but its hardly noticable, the quality of the welding and the metal work is excellent. Nice looking range of bikes they make too! 🙂

I'll post up a piccy when I can finally get Flickr woking again.

I thought this was going to be a "where can I get…" question and my answer was going to be try Enigma.

Looking forward to pics.

Had never heard of them prior to this but there bikes look 8)

Great to deal with to, even got a 'weld update' phone call! 🙂

Hi Haddock,
What exactly did you have done and to what frame? I have a Merlin Taiga and keep thinking about having a rear disc mount fitted. Merlin themselves wanted £600+ a few years ago to do this, although they would have replaced the whole rear triangle with a disc specific one. I'd love to see your pics of the job.

James

Oh – I'd also be interested in seeing what this is as I'm after a disk-friendly light tourer at the moment and the only one I've spotted so far is the VN Amazon.

Ti dropout thread

Gasman – Will get some pics up later with a bit of luck, running a bit late on x mas card duties at the moment.

All I had put on was a small brace between the seat and chain stays to compensate for the sheering forces that come under heavy brake load.The frame is an On One 456, the early models having no brace, the current ones having one factory fitted as standard.

The above thread made interesting reading for me, seen as I decided to keep my frame for the long term, a brace seemed a good long term investment.

I think Enigma do disc mounts, worth a call.

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2668/4202689951_4281f8ec0a.jpg[/img]

That's a very puzzling addition. I've no idea why anyone would think that would improve strength for the failure mode shown in the previous thread.

[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4004/4203447822_5903f6032c.jpg[/img]

Brant – I wouldn't open the can of worms if I were you. 😉

…but what Dave put on another thread about Mark Lynskey fitting the brace on the later models, without his knowledge is nonsense. Lynskey build to On Ones design, they dont just add bits on.

I had Joe Waugh / Steeles in Newcastle put a disc mount on a steel Sunn frame with very skinny chain & seat stays. They recommended exactly the same brace as that. Must have been right, as 10 years later, it's still fine!

I've got no problem with braces, on seatstay mounted disc brake tabs. But that's not what we've got here.

Its great frame, so I think £85 well spent!

Brant's got a point, the disc brake tabs are all contained on a solid dropout. How does bracing the seatstay to the chainstay help? the droput surely can't flex so much that the brace will rectify anything?

The problem seemed to be that when braking the calliper became the pivot point of the whole back wheel, subsequently ripping the dropout from its weld attachment. Poor/insufficient welding maybe?

[EDIT] Sorry, forgot to add. Looks like a nice enough job though. Top welding is a little ratty, but otherwise 🙂

aye, that's what I thought.

What's it for though?

Thanks for putting up the pics, Haddock. Quite a neat piece of work, although I agree with Daffy about the top weld. Still undecided whether to go ahead and get the Merlin Taiga modified.

James

Daffy & Gasman – Enigma gave me a call to explain that the top weld 'spat' a bit and wasn't quite as good as the bottom one, just one of those things I guess. It looks a bit dimpled in the pic – its not in reality, granted not as good as the bottom one though, I believe its tricky stuff to weld.

looks like two different people did each end…

JBiker

I had Joe Waugh / Steeles in Newcastle put a disc mount on a steel Sunn frame with very skinny chain & seat stays. They recommended exactly the same brace as that. Must have been right, as 10 years later, it's still fine!

I'm in the North East and I'm thinking of having this done – what do Steel's normally charge for such a job?

Trail-blazer

It was ten years ago, so I'm afraid I can't recall. If you look on the Dave Yates website (http://www.daveyatescycles.co.uk/), there's a price list for frame repairs. Looks like ~£40.

J