bebnin

very nice! the natural progression 😂 perhaps, but there don't seem to be many framebuilders out there at the moment. Yeah, have some photos from as I was building, will take a look later and see what I can find.

pretty sure we all still suck pretty badly at bike polo. but I'm keen to try again (Donde might also know where all the clubs/sticks are?) I'm fairly confident it won't break, but maybe he'll find a way 😂

hahaha, yeah, quite a few hours, especially with all the "adjustments" and error-correction. Had about a week of holiday when I started, and then 2 weeks of after work shenanigans figuring the last bits out. Getting all the "bits" sorted out was way more effort that I expected - definitely could've saved a fair amount of time on some fronts, but all good fun figuring it out of course.

how much chain-slack in the big gear? If you can't figure out the derailleur adjustments (or they are correct) you can shorten the chain by a few links and try again (keep the links in case you need to extend it again). Chain tools are relatively cheap and easy to use.

Thanks. I used pretty thick walled stuff (like 2mm walls on everything) - so I'm not sure it's soft, but I don't really know how to compare frame stiffness, haven't ridden enough to feel for that. Seat stays above one another is unfortunately not an original idea (althought it was to me, and I agree it looks cool) - it's been done before by Weiss bikes, although perhaps not in the same way. Didn't have a jig, but I did bolt the dropouts between some all-thread to keep them spaced - then after welding everything, used a piece of string that goes from drop out - around the head tube and back to the other drop out (in order to measure the distance of the seat-tube from each piece of string to check for centred-ness). then I place block of wood on the rear drop-out and head tube and bounced on the middle of the bike until I had bent everything centred. (this whole process was suggested by Rolf).

The dream has always (in the past few years or so), been to build a bike, and ride the Argus (or cycle tour, or hatever you want to call it) on said bicycle. An achievable dream I reckon (done the "race" a couple times, no record breaking mind you). What first stopped me was the fact that bicycle tubes are hard to come by, and not particularly cheap. So I left it a while. My workshop is pretty comprehensive at the moment, and I eventually decided I may as well try with mild steel, the stuff that's readily available and comparatively cheap, and only half as strong as 4130 (+_250 mpa vs +_450 mpa yield strength, which i barely understand). I don't yet have oxy/acetylene for brazing (it's high on the list of things I want to invest in), but I have a good tig welding machine and enough skill with it to keep welds together. I found some geometry online for a commuter/street bike (it was a surly something or other, rest assured that geometry is VERY different to the bike that I made). I had a rough plan, I decided there was nothing to lose and dived right into it. A few weeks later this came out, my first bike. Many many lessons on measure twice cut once, many lessons on draw it 1:1 (I never did this. But watched enough paul brodie videos to know I was stupid not to). Greatly improved my welding from the start of the project. After first making the frame there were some improvments needed: Replaced the bb shell because it was too thin and warped, replaced the head tube because it was too small for headset cups, then replaced the downtube because the head angle was waaaaay off (thanks to WCW guys for some pointers on that one). Then rode it once or twice. And replaced the fork because geometry again. Then a lot of faffing with tyre clearance because I liked the chunky 700x42c tyres. Anyways. All in all a rodeo. Components were sourced almost ad cheap as possible because budget. These are the components for those interested: -Easton rims (raided from jewbacca a few years back) -fsa (gossamer?) Cranks from classifieds, probably richiespares -second hand disc hubs (no name i could see) from WCW, New spokes and nips from WCW -600mm straight bars were lying around -no name aliexpress mech disc brakes (they're not very good) -no name aliexpress brakes, which broke in shipping so made new levers for them -made the stem, cassette spacers, fork racers, top cap, seat clamp (top of the seat clamp was from a bontrager seatpost from wcw) -Chain was leftover bits from different chains from bike shop days. -seat was something on which the leather had all fallen off, just a plastic saddle with bent rails, had to add foam and leather. -skewers are m5 all thread with dome nuts and washers (I will upgrade this at some point, it's already frustrating) -I had one specialized sawtooth 700x42c lying around in my shop (don't know where I got it from, it's been there for years). Bought a second one to match (this was the biggest expense on the actually bike). -pedals were another "lying around for years" piece that I found in the box at home. -specialized grips from Solomons cycles because they were cheap (and matched the tan sidewalls) -headset was from the "old trash headsets" box at WCW (thanks again nils) -eccentric bb was me, bearings from silkuni because bb30 standard is one of the only bicycles standards that's also industry standard (6806 bearings). Final notes on the +-20km I've ridden this bike so far: it is big (I'm pretty tall, like 1.93m), it's waaay too high off the ground, (you've probably heard of bb drop, but what about bb rise?), feels like I'm leaning over the front end a bit too much, it's not very stable because of the high centre of gravity and steep headtube (I cannot ride my bike with no handlebars. Yet). I am unsure of whether this is a wise decision on which to ride the cycle tour, the jury is still out on that. It's heavy. If you read all of that, thanks for your time, please ask me questions. I'm relatively excited about this because it worked and I am sure I will be making more bikes in the near future (still sticking with mild steel for now, weight is not something I've ever cared about much). I have many many notes on improvements, ideas for next time etc etc. But will fully appreciate any and all ideas should people have them. Finally some photos. I'm sure there are more should there be interest.

Long time member/commuter, today I spent an hour reading the RC vs Andreas match from last week (haven't watched Dricus vs Sean yet, but I can't imagine it being any better). And although I didn't have popcorn I enjoyed it enough that I figured I should make some friends out here. Recently built my first bicycle frame and will be posting some stuff on that soon, feeling rather out of my depth but I've never had as much fun making something as that, so I'm sure it won't be the first. First real bike was a trek fast track 470 that I bought for R450 on gumtree in 2009 (the glory days of classifieds) - still riding it today.

can agree with all the above, I've shortened some al cranks doing exactly this (drill & tap with the right tap set) - if you're in woodstock often, let me know and I can help you out.

Hiya - happy to make you one of these if you can't find what you're looking for. Let me know.

Not sure about the model, and never ridden a battaglin, but my impression is that they are/were pretty sweet frames. Battaglin is the brand of Giovanni Battaglin, a professional cyclist from back in the day. Googling around will probably tell you quite a bit about the bike.

Rapide is the bomb. A pleasure to deal with

Routjie, Shimano Freehub bodies are throw away non servicable parts. As soon as the pawls/ratchets fail pull it off and stick a new one on. 250ZAR roughly but make sure you match the type. They come in a few different depths/options for the matching on the hub body.

Hey Everyone! This saturday, entry to Cape Point is free . For all of you who haven't got your act together with the R85-for-twelve-entries card, this is a super excuse to go for a lekker day of cycling and beaches Just thought I ought to spread the news. Hope this isn't a repeat or anything.