Here is a project I have been working on in some spare time on and off since last spring. I’ve built three hundred some frames at this point but with those being all work-related I had a few things I wanted to do for fun, things I had never tried or haven’t done in a long time. I have been getting into more longer rides and finding myself curious about this whole randoneuring thing. My friends call my Randal, so I’m calling it the Cicli Randal. I’ve also managed to never build a real “road bike” and so it’s been fun to go pretty road bike.
My BikeCAD file seems to have gotten corrupted and I can not open it (does that ever happen to anyone else?) but the geometry is uhhh, pretty roadie. Clearance for a 40 (that’s a road bike right?) My first lugged fork, my first 1" steerer bike, my first rim brake frame ever (cantis). It’s got some cool old True Temper tubes I inherited from another builder. Mostly a parts bin build!
I’ve always wanted to do a fastback frame so I started there. Machined the binder from 1/2" stock and put a big ole fillet on there.
I wasn’t really planning on doing this so I didn’t take too many photos but here are a few of the fork. Silver brazing the blades in went a lot smoother than expected. Did the crown first then bent the blades and got everything squared up. Tacked the crown and DO’s in and brazed it all up. I used brass for the DO’s.
Brake bosses, brazeons, HT rings, seat stay bridge… things like that to go. I think I will have my painter paint it and might try logoing with some one shot or something like that. I’ve been gathering some old parts from parts bins and the bike co-op. Should be a fun project and hopefully a fun bike.
I got a little more work done on this over the weekend. I think all the stuff is attached now, so just ream/face/chase/finish work left. I’ll have to track down a 30mm head tube reamer to borrow for this one.
Had some fun getting the DT shifter bosses in place. I love making purpose built tools for stuff like this but it is also pretty fun to hack things together.
I’m excited to ride it. I have a work trip to Marin in March, should be a fun place to have a road bike to ride. Thinking about doing a black Lacquer finish. Anyone know what those old french bikes used?
Thinking about doing a black Lacquer finish. Anyone know what those old french bikes used?
In Italy, in the 40-50s they used a technique to mimic metallic paints, they used a transparent paint with a few drops of the chosen color over a silver base paint.
The pros were that it was cheaper than metallic paints and it gave a nice gradient effect.
The cons are that the transparent paint doesn’t last as long
I wonder if a “black transparent” over a silver paint is what you are looking for.
I think I am going to end up doing a black cerakote because my local guy does cerakote, then paint pen on the logos and then wax over it. We’ll see how that goes!
