Scoot's Road Racer Build

Just got started on a new frame for an old friend of mine, Scott Taylor.  We call him Scoot, just so you know that I didn't misspell his name on the blog post title. Scott already has one of my earlier bikes and has ridden the molasses out of it for the last 5 years.  He's done the Bicycle Tour of Colorado on it many times and while it's still rollin strong he's ready for a new ride.  We're going with an "old school" (I hate that saying) slash "new school"(even worse) build on this frame. 

 "What the heck does that even mean Dimitri?" 

 It means steel frame and fork, with a 1" steerer, made with newer, lighter weight steel tubing, built with a more modern, aggressive geometry.  I guess I could've just used the phrase "traditional build" but that wouldn't have covered all the bases.  Besides, the larger

  1 1/8" headsets have been around for so long that they are now considered traditional.  Anyway, when I build a frame with a steel fork, 1 1/8" steerers make for a pretty heavy fork and are a bit overkill. The more traditional 1" steerer tubes work just fine and make for a very nice handling, predictable ride, however, a steel fork in either size makes you feel like you're on rails.  

"ALL ABOARD!"

"Oh no! Not more of these same old photos that you post every time you build a frame?"

Yep. Each and every frame gets special treatment and documented photography.  It turns out that many people enjoy watching their frame being built.  When I say that the main ingredient in anything you make is love, I'm serious.  This is a photo of love.  Look at the perfect miter.  And besides, if you paid attention you would notice that this photo is taken at a completely different angle than most of the others.

Ok, maybe you've seen this one before.

This...

...equals this. 

Did you notice the extra meat I took out of the bottom bracket shell for the chain stays?  I'm just checkin.  I've got my eyes on you.

This is a photo of nothing special, unless you happen to think that perfection is special. 

Ok, this photo is seriously imperfect, but the level never lies, and this frame thus far is perfect.

Head tube miter...

Down tube miter,

Can't get no tighter,

Now hand me my coffee,

And a cigarette lighter.

My dad always told me that the Creative Writing class I took in college was a waste of  time.  He was usually right, but if he could've seen this rhyme here he may have changed his mind.

Good solid foundation.

I was playing around and built a little prototype seat stay mitering jig.  It honestly can't get any simpler and yet its extremely effective.  I built it with things that were only an arms reach away from my vise.  The dummy axle holds the dropouts of course, however I had already brazed them into the chain stays before taking this picture.  I literally made this thing in minutes. When I have time I'm gonna build one out of metal and then polish it until you can see yourself in it.  Then I'm gonna paint it gold like the tires on my truck.

After building this, I suddenly realized that all of my old school teachers were wrong about me, and that I am in fact extremely smart. Never mind the fact that my blog posts don't have the correct punctuation, and ACT scores don't prove anything.  After learning how smart I am the other day, I decided I would go back to school and so I enrolled at the Rocket Science Academy.  I never was that interested in Science in the past but had we been talking about rockets perhaps I would've paid more attention.  What?  Was I supposed to get excited about the Bunson Burner?  And yes, I know I misspelled it.

"Of all the interesting things to study, why would you choose rocket cience D?"

Because I'm sick of hearing all these people say, 

"Its only a bicycle, its not rocket science."

I started to develope an inferiority complex toward rocket scientists, and since my mother always told me that I could be anything that I wanted to be I decided to put all those rocket scientists in their place.  Afterall, how many of those rocket scientists do you think have raced intermediate motocross all over the southern part of the United States, not to mention all the trophies I won for top-5 finishes.  Not lookin so great now are they.  So anyway, after talking to them on the phone they told me that I would have to take a test in order to see if I would be accepted into their little academy.

"WHAT?"  

Who the hell do these people think they are trying to make me take a test before I even go to class?  I haven't even had time to get the Cliff's Notes yet. This is absurd!

So anyway, I took their little test and they informed me that they were somewhat impressed and possibly concerned by many of my answers, and, while I wasn't quite qualified to be in their full-blown rocket science program, that I was almost certainly qualified to enroll in a bottle-rocket science program. To help me get started they gave me quite a few chinese phone numbers to call. 

So there you have it.  I'm probably not even gonna go. I just wanted to show them that I could do it.  However, if I ever do decide to start a bottle rocket manufacturing facility there are two things that I'm definitely gonna do.  First off, I'm gonna take out a multi-million dollar insurance policy on my business, and secondly, I'm gonna start smoking again and practice my cigarette butt flicking at break time. 

 Rocket scientists, pfff.