Branton's New Build

Here is the upstart of a new cross frame for Branton over at the Highroller Cyclery in Fayetteville here in Arkansas.  If you're familiar with the Joe Martin Stage Race, Hell's Kitchen, and a couple other spring classics you know the area, its some pretty sweet terrain.  

Basically just have a few miter shots to to look at.  I always try to show some of each build here on the blog.  A lot of customers like to see their frames progress from a drawing to a finished product. Videos would be nice on occasion but I never have anyone around to shoot 'em. You can see where I always clean off the coating on the inside lip of each tube.  It helps to have a good clean surface all the way around for the little internal fillet to stick to.  Yamaguchi is the one that taught me how to do that so I always try to pull a little extra brass inside the tubes for a little better bond.  I imagine its a little stronger however from what I've seen a good solid fillet on the outside is sufficient.  I've practiced and played and tried to rip brazed joints apart and all I've ever come up with is wadded up tubes that eventually tear apart behind the fillet or where the butting starts to taper.  When I first started building my main concern was a frame breaking apart at the fillet and after roughly 100 frames its yet to happen.  If you start out with some good clean surfaces and scuff the ends of the tube inside and out the only thing left is to flow a little concave of brass (keep the heat down but make it flow), and you're gonna be hard pressed to break that.

Decided to put a little custom chain ring clearance on this frame.  It looks so much better than an indentation.  Its a little more work but well worth it. I meant to take some pics of the actual process but forgot.  For the most part you just file a groove where the inner chain ring would touch, find a piece of tubing that is the correct diameter (preferably a meaty piece of tubing, I use head tube material),  then braze it in.  I cut off the excess with a Dremel and then start cleaning it up with a file or anything else that works for you.  Pretty easy and its a clean, custom look.

I included a couple of random shots for fun.  This tripped out looking photo was supposed to try and show where the butting in the tube starts but I didn't do a real good job.  It basically looks like I'm spying on my neighbor.  In the summer time sometimes my neighbor will walk around the yard in a little skimpy yellow swimsuit, but before you get too excited let me warn you, my neighbor is a hairy, fat dude.  Which reminds me, the other night I got an earfull.  My wife likes to watch that show the Biggest Loser.  I had never even watched one episode because its not my kinda thing.  When she's watching her shows I'm usually in here on the computer playing chess or messin with the blog, ebay, etc.  So I decided to go join her to watch TV because she's always telling me I don't ever watch TV with her.  Its not true but anyway I went in there with good intentions and said, "Hey baby, who's winning on the Fattest Loser?"  Whoops.  I botched the name a little bit.  So she set me straight on how those people are suffering and don't deserve to be made fun of.  It was an honest mistake.  I mean why do overweight people deserve all the sympathy?  Why can't skinny people get a TV show?  We suffer too.  We're not getting enough food to eat while these people are being locked in a room with $20,000 worth of Godiva chocolate.  I say chow down wide load, forget your team, when is this opportunity ever gonna come around again, you can start dieting again tomorrow.  The way i see it, they have an obligation to stuff their face, thats what the audience wants to see.  Do you think everybody wants to stand around the water cooler the next day and talk about how Fat Albert didn't eat the candy.  No way!  They want to see him on the security camera stuffing a $1000 worth of Godiva truffels in his pie hole until he falls on the floor vomiting chocolate with a complete look of failure on his face.  Don't be fooled by his teamates, they want him to eat it too, that way they are assured a place down on the farm for some more TV time. Fat people, skinny people, drug addicts, workaholics, we're all the same, but I would like my shot in that Godiva room.  I always wanted to take my dalmation Mickey into a grocery store just once and just let him run wild.  I always would park, leave him in the truck (the inside with the window down), then I would dissappear for a while and come back with bags full of food.  He'd look at me like, "Man, why don't you take me with you, I like food too."  I can just see him walking through those automatic doors like the Gates of Heaven, with a million different smells filling the air, his nose would be pointing straight up, he wouldn't know which way to go.  I'm pretty sure he would go straight back to the meat department, or perhaps the deli because that food is already cooked. Who could pass up baked chicken and ribs with donuts just down the aisle?  Moto Mickey kept me on my toes at all times.  Man, that construction worker was pissed when Mickey stole his box of Captain D's fish and chips.  Only thing left was a torn up box and the cole slaw.  Not even a dog will eat that crap.

This is my favorite piece of framebuilding clothing.  Its a vest that my wife got for me a couple of Christmases ago.  Its warm and leaves your arms free to move.  My favorite piece of cycling clothing is a vest as well.  That and a cycling cap are worth their weight in gold.  If you look closely at the vest you can see feathers coming out of about 5 different spots where I occasionally stuck it with a hot brazing rod.  I've actually got a brazing rod sitting on my bench out there now with a feather melted to the end of it. So if anyone out there ever gets a frame with a hairy fillet you'll know what happened. Maybe next year I'll get a new one, kevlar.  Chao amigos.