New Package

Well, there's still been no reply from Cecil at Renaissance. Urg. I really need my BB taps.

But, a new package arrived on Friday. It was my fork jig from Joe Bringheli. It looks nice and solid - hope it helps make it easier to build a fork. I put my first fork in to check it out. The fit on the dummy axle is slightly tight, but the width of my fork opening is slightly sung. I locked down the steerer while allowing the axle to float. Then I checked for tube twist (none) and locked down the axle. It looks like about 62mm of rake. So, I'm right on spec for my design. Cool.

After lots of fiddling with my dropouts, it seemed that they weren't going right. It looks like one has a little twist in it. So, I took them back out, filed the stays and reinstalled them. Now they are straight, parallel, and good. Like this, its much easier to align the chainstays. Yea!

With the CS good, its time to go after the seatstays. The seat cluster has receiving holes for the stays - simplifying this part of the job. I probably won't use this style again, but it does speed things up a bit. After working the top miter, it was time to trim and slot the bottoms. Then clean up, flux up, squeeze in, and braze. This was a mostly uneventful process. After cooling, the rear wheel was reattached. Things looked good.

What's left? 2 top tube cable stops, 1 chainstay derailer stop, the brake bridge, the chainstay bridge (there's one on the BB, but the stays are long enough that a traditional tubular bridge fits and makes sense), drilling the brake hole in the fork, filing, sanding, and milling/tapping everything. Then it's off to the painter.

Last night I spent a couple of hours on cleanup. Its amazing what good (Nicholson) sharp small files can do. There's still a little to do, and there'll be a need for bondo before paint, but things are starting to look good now.

Pictures soon.