VertigoCycles

yeah... I stated before that it's my personal bike. It happens that I finished welding this the day before I was to pack it up and head out to the east coast with my family (with the bike, of course) for a few weeks and I hadn't yet finished machining the front derailleur mount. Fortunately for me, the hills out in the Mid-Atlantic region are much lower than out here in Oregon and I could ride most of them in the 39t big ring. Once I got back home, I finished the FD mount and welded it all up. I need that baby ring out here edit: oh - and one more thing. I don't apply a finish to my own bikes, that's why the weld beads are super shiny and there's a slight golden hue to the heat affected zone. It may appear to be lazy, but I'm actually showing off a little bit. That color, or more accurately, the lack of blue and purple color in the HAZ is a sign of how clean and free of O2 contamination the welded areas are. You're seeing this exactly how it comes from the torch. Next time you see a naked ti frame hanging in a shop, look inside the head tube and bottom bracket shell for color. If you see blues and purples or worse, pink and chalky white, it's a sign of problems. It means the frame wasn't purged properly during the weld process and the material has been compromised. I see a lot of this on frames coming from Taiwan and Russia and in a few cases from some rather popular US builders.

No sweat, guys. I think all anyone wants in this industry is to know that someone is out there riding the snot out of our stuff. It doesn't matter if you're a designer or you do it all. Completely open. I've sent frames to Australia, Scotland and Germany. The customer pays shipping, insurance and applicable duties. In some cases, the duties comprise an astounding cost and it's more cost effective for them to fly to the states for pickup. Whatever the situation, I'm open to it. Sean

You know...it's not all THAT different than what individual builders do. In some ways, what they do can be more difficult because they need to scale it for production and tool up in such a way that some person on the other side of the planet can reliably complete a process and in the end, have a dependable product. When I'm doing a one-off, I can often wing it and come out with a good end-product BUT it takes faith, patience and determination and the knowledge that if I goof it up, I have to do it all over again but avoid whatever mistake I just made. The big disconnect is that the designer is almost never the person doing the labor. That's one of the reasons custom frames cost what they do. The same guy welding your frame (me) designs it, does the books, is the customer service person, the machinist, the floor sweeper and the logistics planner. I'll duck out for a while. Thanks for the discussion. Sean

While it's not up to me to decide whether or not it's art, I can answer a few questions about the frame. 1. a titanium tube carries the hydraulic fluid through the frame. It's fusion welded to the fitting and then another layer of 0.030" filler rod is added to the weld. The system has been tested and thoroughly ridden (by me, it's my bike) with no issues at all. There's no benefit to doing it this way whatsoever other than "because I wanted to" do it and the odds are very high that I'll never do it again. Materials, planning and fabrication put the project of routing that hydro line in the $1500 neighborhood and I highly doubt anyone wants to pay that just to hide a cable. I did it purely so I could stop thinking about it and move on with other ideas. 2. the post mounts for the rear brake are deliberately put between the stays, as I have been doing since 2006. When one post is welded to the chain stay, and the other welded to the seat stay, the brake caliper becomes a structural member and is spreading the braking force between the two stays and cutting the strain a single stay sees in half. I do this whenever practical and in the case of this particular bike, I bent the seat stays expressly to accommodate the brake caliper. I hope that clarifies a few things. Thanks for reading. Sean