Bicycle Building Process

The process of building a bicycle frame must be methodical and unrushed. Most builders have settled on a fairly routine system that works for them, and I am no exception.

After reviewing all details of the customer’s order, I select the tubing, lugs, fork crown, bottom bracket shell and dropouts. Tubing is chosen from the heat-treated offerings of True Temper (USA), Columbus (Italy), and Reynolds (England). The correct gauges and butting profile are matched to the rider’s needs, weight and frame size.

The lugs, crowns and bottom brackets are selected from Henry James investment castings. I will sometimes substitute investment cast parts from Long Shen and Everest as well, depending on the application. Dropouts are stainless steel and selected from Long Shen, Tecnociclo, and Henry James.

After de-greasing the tubing and castings, each tube is checked for flaws and straightness then marked and readied for mitering. Now the actual metal work begins. I begin by carefully fitting and brazing the dropouts to the chainstays. This area is often overlooked when people talk about custom frames but it is one of my favorite parts of the process. The chainstays are now ready to be mitered with the main tubes.

All mitering is done in a precision fixture in a lathe for the utmost in accuracy. Many builders will use a mill to do this as well. Both methods work equally well. After mitering and de-burring the ends of the tubes, I then begin the lug work. All Solace frames have extensive lug work and I start with short point Henry James lugs. Cutouts are added to the top points of the three lugs and swirls are cut into the front and sides. The points are shaped to appear as if there is one finger laying over the other which adds dimension to the design. All lug edges are carefully cleaned up and squared. The wall thicknesses are tapered and all casting marks are eliminated.

The bottom bracket shell is then specially offset-machined to remove extra metal internally. This process scoops out more metal on the lower section than the top. Also at this time the faces of the shell are machined.Now all of the parts are ready to go on the frame jig for a trial fit. I use a jig of my own design which holds all of the tubes in perfect alignment for brazing. A trial fit is just that; an initial set up to check all angles, fit of lugs, front-center measurement & all other dimensions. After the trial fit, all parts, and tube ends are prepped and cleaned for brazing. The frame is then re-assembled on the jig and carefully silver-brazed.After brazing the main frame and chainstays the seatstays are readied to be fitted. On frames with a fastback style at the seatlug such as a Columbine or Solace this is a bit more time consuming than the typical side-tacked stays. Special stay caps are machined with a taper, then brazed into the stays. The stays are then mounted in a special fixture and machine-mitered to the correct angle. Finally the dropout end is fitted and the stays are brazed in place.

Now the frame is one piece and it is removed from the jig. After checking the alignment, I do the final brazing on each joint. The braze-ons are now selected and carefully fitted and brazed in place.

Next: The Solace Fork