Custom Road build

I'm finishing up a 29er called the Monkey Butt on the 29er forum. Would anybody like me to build a custom road frame here? It could be very contemporary, TIG welded Columbus UltraFoco with a Carbon rear. This would bring to light steel as a performance material. Or a build with traditional fancy lugs, silver brazed. Road racing, criterium, or touring. Or something in between. If there is enough interest, I have a client that will put up with having his personal fitting exposed on a WEB site that just wants a Ted Wojcik road bike. He thought it might be fun to build it here.

Ted

His initial conversation lead me to believe he was interested in any type of skinny tired frame, but I just got off the phone with him and he would prefer a fast road bike. He would consider a touring frame, but he thinks a high performance frame would make him happiest, though I can't see him ever racing. I haven't fitted him yet, but I'm guessing a 54 cm top tube. Seat tube length will be determined when we decide the frame type. A high performance frame will have a sloping top tube and a shorter seat tube, commonly referred to as a compact design. A traditional lugged frame will have a horizontal top tube and longer seat tube dimension. The idea with this build is to give members an idea of what goes on with a custom frame order.

I have available three different carbon rear ends, Columbus Muscle, Columbus Carve, and Easton EC90. The Easton system is the lightest and has a bit more tire clearance. I would use Columbus Niobium tubing in the front triangle. I have found it to be consistently better tubing than the others based on straightness, accuracy of advertised dimensions, and there is a large selection of tubing to draw from. It doesn't have to be a compact frame, but it will be lighter and the front triangle/B.B. area will be stiffer if it is compact. This type of frame would be best TIG welded. Let's hear some requests for some of the other frame types.

The reason that I would use an off the shelf carbon rear is I couldn't do any better myself. The off the shelf rear ends require cutting and trimming to match frame specs. It doesn't exactly fall together. Carbon forks have become almost the standard, but I would almost insist on a steel crowned fork with a lugged build. Would you wear a tux without a bow tie? Stainless tubing has just become available and the tube set cost twice as much as titanium. I can't buy it by the tube and there isn't a stainless B.B. shell available yet that goes with the carbon rear ends. Also I don't like to have my customers do my R&D for me. I will have to try a frame or two with the new stainless tubing before I will do one to sell. So far Reynolds 953 has as many construction challenges as it offers in advantages, my opinion is it is to costly for the benefit. Hopefully Columbus' Xcr will offer a more economical completed frame than 953. So here are our choices, lugged steel frame and crowned fork, TIG welded steel frame and welded unicrown fork, TIG welded steel frame with carbon fork, TIG welded steel frame with carbon rear end and a carbon fork. Each type of frame has it's own construction techniques and tubing requirements. I will get the clients measurements this week and I will talk about the tubing needed for each construction type.

I have sold a good number of them and they have been received well. Probably the number one reason is weight. Carbon's biggest advantage is it's rigidity to weight ratio. There will be an increase in lateral rigidity without a weight penalty. To sum it up, for the same reason we would want a carbon fork.

So, it looks like it is going to be a carbon rear, carbon fork, fast road frame. I was hoping that there would be a bit more dialog here on the frame type. I'll wait a few more days before I order the materials to see if there is any interest in the other stuff.

This isn't the first "Ted" this client has and I'm sure it won't be last. He wants another bike from me and is open to what ever we build. Let me give you some more info to sway your decisions. Carbon is strong and has a great stiffness to weight ratio. It does not easily lend itself to custom construction especially by me. The best part of having a custom frame made is that it can be made for YOU and not just anyone about that size. My shop is set for welding and brazing. I do have glue for the carbon rear end, but I just don't have the experiance to lay up a custom carbon frame. I can build the front triangle in any manner that suits the client, but I don't have a lot of leeway in the steering geometry department when using a carbon fork. The only offsets that are really available are 45mm or 43mm. There are exceptions to that, but not many. A steel fork can be made with any offset we want. The tubing manufacturers have put a tremendous amount of R&D into our current stock lists of steel tubing. Short butting, as little as 35mm, with gradual transitions in a variety of diameters and gauges will allow tweaking the front triangle to give a stiff bottom bracket and torsional rigidity to give lots of confidence that the back end won't pass the front end when putting on the front brake. Typical wall thickness would be .6mm X.5mm X .6mm There is a lot of different chainstays and seatstays to give a nice ride. A frame with a carbon rear has a ride that is very similar to steel with a bit of weight savings. There is no denying that there is a certain amount on techno-envy when these frames show up for the Wednesday night training ride. A lugged frame requires a tubeset with longer butts, typically 120mm, and slightly heavier gauges. .7mmX .5mm X.7mm. And we would be confined to a 1"steerer for the fork and 28.6mm diameter top tube and 31.8 mm diameter down tubes. Again there are some exceptions to this, but for all intents and purposes, this is what we have to work with. Because my name is on the frame. I will tell you that if we use a steel fork with a TIG welded frame it will be a unicrown. Cast crown fork would go with a lugged frame and carbon forks can go with either TIG welded front triangles. but I would rather not put a cabon fork on a lugged frame.

My client was hoping for something a bit more exciting than an all steel frame. He hasn't made up his mind yet.