Hi everyone. I am planning the rear end of a city bike for a friend. He is an advanced rider and would like to create a performance grocery bike. I would like to use paragon’s stainless sliders with iso brake and 10 mm quick release inserts. The stays are going to be Columbus Zona.
Paragon makes .990 and .740 stainless sliders. The rider is 160lbs, can I get away the .740 drop outs or should I go for heavier .990?
Do I have to back purge the tubes when tig welding to stainless dropouts?
Choose the slider with the hood that you’re chainstay will fit on. The .990 wide version was requested and created since the use of .75 x.035 for chainstays has become so popular.
You’ll can ask 100 different builders their take on back purging steel and stainless steel and get 100 different answers, here’s mine. I back purge everything and treat stainless like titanium.
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I understand now, I did not realize the difference is only in the width of the flange.
I would like to some day build a titanium bike so getting into the back purging might be the way to go.
Do sliders make sense on a bike that will likely see fenders and a rear rack?
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Sliders are extremely versatile, but we don’t offer a version with rack eyelets. You’ll have to add your own. Our Rocker dropouts are available with eyelets, so there’s less work for the builder. My personal commuter/touring bike is the first frame built with Rockers, and I can say with confidence that they work great!
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Personally I like PMW low mount drop outs but my friend is asking for my opinion on the sliders. I’ve never used them so I thought I would ask. All my bikes are city bikes so I haven’t gone down this road.
The rocker dropouts make more sense for the intending purpose of the bike if he wants a modular dropout. I’ll suggest the rockers instead, but I have a feeling that the PMW low mount dropouts are all he really needs.
Thank you!
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If you’re newer to TIG I would encourage you to go with .990 regardless of the diameter of your CS. Having a bit more material will help with heat control and give you room for sloppier beads if you haven’t dialed in your technique in yet.
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I think the rockers look better on bikes with larger CS/SS angles (touring bikes) and the sliders better with smaller ones (progressive mountain bikes).
I’ve done two methods of adding an eyelet. On one bike I drilled and tapped some space in the sliding part. On the second bike I made some aluminum plates that slide with the sliders and add (ugly) eyelets. I don’t have a milling machine at the moment so it was crudely hand cut.
Both of these bikes have Rohloff Speedhubs. There isn’t much advantage in a slider if the bike will only be used with a derailleur.
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How do you backpurge when welding dropouts? It’s easy to backpurge the CS / SS tube, but how do you deal with the inside of the dropout flange?
Was going to say this. I have a hardtail built with Paragon Sliders and a have built up a few Tiawanese made gravel/touring frames which used a knock-off version of the Paragon Rocker system. If you want to run a rear rack and have steeper seat stays then rockers are defo the go. My hardtail does have rear rack mounts but the position is a little awkward. I do prefer the sliders for setting up a single speed bike though.
Sometimes you have to get creative. The thing to remember is your just trying to get the gas to stay put. Since argon is heavier than air you can imagine it behaves similarly to water.
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I am going to build a diffuser. I think it could be really helpful in tight SS or CS joints.
Do you have any thoughts on sizes and shape after using one for a while? Anything you wish you knew before designing this one?
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Keep the volume low so you don’t waste a bunch of gas to get it to flow.
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