Cheesecake

My New Favorite Bike

Call it a bit premature if you like but I'm thinking this may be new favorite bike to build. This is gonna a be a traditional road bike built with a 1" steerer but just enough room in the fork to accommodate a 30c tire. I have built a couple for other people but have yet to ride one myself. I've ridden everything within a couple millimeters of it but never this exact style. The ease of maintenance, the simplicity of a caliper brake, and the room to run a wider tire that will handle much more than your average road tire will make this a very well-rounded versatile ride. This will be a go-to ride. Save your high-dollar carbon racer for the races and train all year long on this thing. Years ago when I raced on a regular basis I would spend my winters training on a cross bike on the road just to ride something durable with lots of resistance. I didn't worry about scratching it up, jumped the curbs, rode it off-road, suffered, and enjoyed every minute of it when race season rolled around, not to mention looked forward to riding it when the season ended. 

 I had planned on having just a couple more millimeters of clearance since I had a little extra  room to spare under the caliper. The distance between the top of the tire and the fork crown turned out just as I had planned and I never even thought I would come up this tight between the blades. The tire that I built this fork around just barely fits. There aren't many tires in the 30c tire category. This is my favorite as far as concept and size go but it's a cheap Kenda tire that doesn't feel very well made. With that said, I have ridden many a mile on this tire. Can almost get through the entire winter with a pair if you rotate them. I'm on the search for some other tires that may fit the bill. I think Specialized makes a fat road tire that would work and I believe it would be a bit higher quality. I'm not a big Specialized fan but I'm willing to see what they have. Other than that I'm back down to the 28c department which is full of choices. It'll all work out in the end and come out almost as tight as this fork did. Almost I say. Should be done here shortly. 

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Fork Play

Decided to clean out my tool box a bit the other day and fork these crowns in the back of one  of the drawers. Figured I would build up a couple forks for a couple of old school frames with 1" steerers. A one inch steel fork is still one of the best riding forks you can get, plenty strong and makes for a very compliant ride. I learned this a few years ago when I went to the Bicycle Tour of Colorado with one of my earliest frames, like the 5th I had ever built, and it had a 1" fork built with True Temper OX Platinum tubing and I still say it was one of my best riding frames that I have been on.  A friend of mine here in Jonesboro actually has it now.  I'm contemplating buying it back.  Anyway, gonna build a couple of traditional framesets with some good tire clearance so you can throw a 30c tire in there some everyday standard caliper brakes and roll with it. Lightweight, simple, straightforward riding. The kind of bike that will do it all and you're not afraid to go beat it up a little dirt or gravel, hop the curbs, wheelies, or whatever you feel like doing. That's my kind of riding. Probably gonna paint one in a traditional manner and the other maybe throw some swank down on it.

Doing it all by hand is where it's at. It's so satisfying.

This frame set may have a little extra clearance for a 32-35c tire. May opt for some mid-reach brakes on this one. It will be the ultimate year-round training bike.

This is when you know the crown is cut correctly. The crown race will just sort of hang over the edge of the crown and then with a couple of good hits with the crown race tool is drops right in place good and tight.

Feel free to check back in a couple of days for the finished product and the start of some new builds. I haven't been doing much other than painting here lately so I'm ready to get back to torch and files.

Thanks for stopping by!

LeTour etre!