Welding on frames

I was chatting to a non biking friend about motorbikes and I showed him the orange / guy Martin video,
He really enjoyed the vid but said the welding didn’t look that great on the bike,

I’ve got plenty of bikes and never look at the welding,I was just wondering what bikes have really good welding just out of interest,what makes good welding

Plus any links to quality welding on bike vids

is he a welder ?

doesnt have to look pretty to be strong.

but it can look pretty and be shit !

looks =/= strength (untill you get to the point where you’re looking at daylight through where the weld should be)

Cannondales always look pretty nice. Don’t they file the welds smooth or something, so the tubes all end up looking like one continuous piece?

Funny this post came up I received my Intense Tracer 2 last week, looks beautiful to me. A couple of guys who are in the building trade / enthusiasts of motorbikes etc, first thing they said was ‘wow that’s amazing welding’, and spent the next 5 minutes looking at the welds.

Something I don’t notice but I suppose those that are into it?

Welding on my new Solaris described by a yoof last week as ‘bang tidy’. And so it is.

the welding didn’t look that great on the bike,

the welding that martin does? it’s not. it’d hold together on a bike but agricultural would be a disservice to farmers. 😉

A lot of mass produced stuff is welded by a robot these days and they do a lovely job of it.

Hand made welding quality will never be as pretty as a robot can do because robots are very consistent and human-beings aren’t 😆

Unfortunately (or not depends on your perspective) robot-made welds are usually stronger and much more consistent.

doesnt have to look pretty to be strong.

Yes but….Any welder who can produce good quality structural welds will likely have been welding for a number of years & “have his hand in” for the the job he or she is doing. Ergo; the welds should be neat & uniform.

Untidy welding’s not a good sign IMO.

I was just wondering what bikes have really good welding

Nicolai

I get a pic of my fillet-brazed Coppi road bike when I get home. Well over a decade old but great looking welds.

That Nicolai is very nicely done. I’ve got access to a tig welder and do a bit through my day job and a few bits and pieces for me. I wouldn’t by any measure call me competent and welding like that makes me hugely envious. Aluminium welding is much trickier to get just right than steel. Also I think the better I get the more I realise that the actual welding is almost the easy bit – the hard bit is heat management and preventing of twisting and warping. That’s the thing I find hardest when doing precision stuff using thinner wall thickness’s.

http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/tig-welding-aluminum-bike-frame.html

The welds on my Nicolai are superb. Very pretty, even and good penetration.

The best welds I’ve ever seen are on aftermarket Japanese titanium motorcycle exhausts. Hand welded perfection – people struggle to believe they aren’t machine welded as they are so perfect.

A lot of mass produced stuff is welded by a robot these days and they do a lovely job of it.

I’ve not seen any robots in bike factories.

With relatively short production runs, I think people are cheaper than robots.

I was pondering the welds on my nukeproof mega the other day. Not sure if they are machine-made but I suspect so. Quite ‘agricultural’ I thought. Nowt wrong with that as such, but refined they ain’t…

So long as it holds I’m ok with it…

The Raleigh titanium frames were plasma robot welded.

End of an era

Moots do beautiful welds in Ti

Some factories use mig robot.

i went to a factory in bicester (i think) many years ago that made F1 exhausts. Amazing stuff. All made from Inconel too, which is even harder to weld than Ti, so they say.

Not pretty but does the job

That Nicolai’s welds look just the same as the welds on my Patriot! My friend’s just got a Liteville(alloy) frame. It’s welds look more like the welds on a ti frame. I dont know if that makes them any better thou!

Have you got a picture of the welds on your Patriot as the welds on my Five looks nowhere near as neat and tidy as the Nicolais’. Still love my five though 😀

Sorry I don’t.

around 3:30 onwards

I do.

Nowt wrong with it, but it doesn’t have anything like the obsessive attention to detail that the Nicolai does. Maybe you got a good-un, frankie.

Steve Potts FTW

interesting

Ventana. They do some lovely stuff.

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IMAG0581[/url] by pten2106[/url], on Flickr

Nukeproof welds done by hand.
Mega’s have some double pass smooth welds.

I think pretty welds top my list of lore type stuff that matters **** all to a bike’s function, but gets people very excited/creates a lot of forum discussion.

That Potts is nice tho 😛

smooth welds do it for me, none of this ugly I weld JCB’s for a living style of gop

American Bicycle I think had the first lovely chunky welds.

My old Fleet HT. Brazed, not welded.

Nukeproof welds done by hand.
Mega’s have some double pass smooth welds

Yeah, they are smooth and good, just struck me as big is all….kinda chunky. 😀

Merlin aren’t bad.

http://weldingdesign.com/equipment-automation/news/welding-superbike/

This is from Black Mountain Cycles Blog –

Believe it or not this Airborne had its down tube replace by Steve Potts. He cut the tube out and then performed a miracle with titanium by fitting a tube that was mitered at the head tube and double mitered at the bottom bracket. The tube was perfectly fit and then welded with Steve’s impeccable double-pass welding. After bead blasting, the frame looked like it was brand new. My job was menial compared to Steve’s by simply removing all parts, cleaning, replacing worn parts, and the building the bike back up. Turned out nice and will be a great bike for many more years.

http://blackmountaincycles.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/titanium-titanium-titanium-titanium.html

Awesome repair!