Brownie is Ready For Paint (again)

I finished up the disc fork this afternoon, and I think it came out pretty well. And I'm finally unveiling the fendette. It's an idea I've had for a while, and felt like experimenting with. I've got the strap on fenders that cover the rear of the wheel, but there was always a small amount of spray from the front. So it should help with that. But of course I'd be lying if I said it was totally for the sole purpose of being functional. I figured I'd style it a bit and do some lug-work type edges. So let me know what you think.


I also decided on the cable routing. With the comment from Sandbox, I definitely won't make a fork like this for anyone else until I get some serious miles on it. But with using fork legs with thicker than usual wall thickness, to better handle the stress of the disc brake, and also using the shortest cable guide braze-on I had to minimize the stress riser, I'm not too worried about it. But still, a risk I don't want to put on anyone else.


I also put some eyelets on the seat tube for a pump mount. I've never really liked the pump on the down tube (mainly looks), and using the normal eyelets, it was getting in the way. So, I'm experimenting with this to see if it's out of the way in both the visual and functional. If this doesn't work, my other idea was the seat stay. Who knows, it's just fun to be able to put things wherever I feel like. The more I do, the more I'll know.

Downtube Stickers and More

We got slammed today at The Shark, so I don't have it in me to say too much today. But I figured I would put in a quick post of the latest goings on here at Fellet Brazing. I've made some great progress on my disc fork, and pretty much just needed to clean up a couple spots on my brazes to be ready for paint until I realized I never put any cable housing guides on it. It would be pretty easy to just zip tie the lines, but what's the point of having a custom fork if you just have to jimmy-rig it when you're done? So it's not done, but here's a sneak preview:

You don't even want to know what kind of tight clearances I had to deal with on this one.


I also FINALLY got my down tube stickers in from Victory Circle Graphix. It was only about a month after I was expecting them, but it's still not a bad deal, and quality seems pretty good. Hoffmeyer and Marc, just swing by sometime and I can put them on for you, or let me know if you want me to just drop them off with you. Either way.

Disc or Disk?

Just thought I'd put up a quick post of some goings on with the fork. And in case you're wondering, it seems that it's both disc and disk. Depending on what company, what component, and sometimes even within the same description, it's spelled both ways. As someone who has a hard enough time spelling as it is, things like this don't help.

High tech uni-directional circumferential modifier.

Home-made tubing bender at work.

Disc/k tab miter. This one was fun to do.

Dropouts and disc/k tab brazed up. More to come.

O Fortuna!

Last night, the lady and I went out to dinner at Tortillaria Mexican Kitchen and then out to see the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra play Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. The tortillaria has changed since last time I was there. Now it's more of a sit down and be waited on sort of restaurant. I kind of liked the old go-to-the-counter-and-order way of doing things, but I'm a bit biased towards the hole-in-the-wall type of Mexican joints.

After opening with Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, the symphony did a great job with Orff's Carmina Burana. A large screen displaying the translation, the soloists all but acted out the storyline. They brought in some humor and expression to add a bit of liveliness to the script, without ruining the overall effect like these bozos. At the time of writing this, Saturday is sold out But if you get a chance, tonight and Sunday still have seats.


In other news, my disc fork is coming along. The most time consuming part is the miter of the disk tab to fit up against the curve of the fork blade. But I'm hoping to get some good work today, and at least braze the dropouts and the tab. Then comes the crown prep and making sure both blades are exactly the same length or else the wheel will sit crooked. Hopefully Saturday will be in good weather so everyone can get out and have a nice weekend.

Painted, and Ready

Hoffmeyer's bike is all painted, stickered, reamed, chased, and faced. A dose of "JP Weigle Frame Saver" was added, and Hoffmeyer picked it up yesterday. This will be a geared road bike that should be stiff enough to handle short sprints, but smooth enough for some long miles that he has planned. Clearance around 23c tires, with room for 25's, this should be about as useful as this guy and his folding dump pouch bags. (but not as dorky)

Aside from the constant learning curve to make frames that are aligned, fit well, and do what they were intended to do, this frame will undergo the closest thing I will get to an engineering stress testing machine. Hoffmeyer's brute strength has snapped, stripped, and cracked more parts than most downhill racers I've known. And he also puts more regular miles in than I ever could. So as long as this frame is holding up, I'll never have a working proof of what these frames can handle.




As always, more pictures on my Flikr site.