MEECH Custom Bicycles: Yesterday Again

Yesterday evening, right after I posted some pics of the current build along with a few comments, I was thinking about what I had done and said. I remembered that I was gonna mention something about the fork that I just built and how it was gonna go on this frame. Then I remembered the words, 'integrated head tube' and lightning struck me right between the eyes.

"I'm not so sure that steel fork is gonna look right with an integrated style head tube."

Integrated head tubes are more suited toward a bigger, fatter, more modern looking carbon fork. Handmade steel road forks are generally a little more narrow and the area around the lug is not very thick. The bottom integrated cup sort of dwarfs the lug of the steel fork, and while it works just the same, it's not exactly eye candy. And so I walked over to the shop in order to lock it up and get a quick glance in order to get my plans in order for the following day. Sure enough the fork didn't look right inserted into the head tube and so a change was in order. Luckily I had a 200mm length of

1 1/8" head tube that would fit. I laid it on the table, locked up, and went to sleep knowing what had to be done.

It totally slipped my mind. I was just too eager to use that integrated head tube that's been sitting in my box for over 2 years.

I had to totally rework the front triangle as everything but the seat tube changes by a few millimeters. Mainly just at the head tube because the straight-wall head tube is actually a couple millimeters smaller in diameter than the integrated and since the miters of the top and down tube were made for larger head tube they needed to be tightened up a little.

The good news is that I got to take some more pictures of practically the same exact thing that i posted yesterday and share them again like it's something new. It is. Some of these photos are a little blurry as the automatic focus on the camera isn't working and I have to focus manually. Everyone knows I need all the help I can get with a camera but it is what it is. We're stuck. Try and see through it, there may be some treasure on the other side.

Before I got started on the task at hand I ate a big plate of leftover chicken and dressing for my breakfast. Anne had made it the day before and it was excellent. She's an excellent cook when she wants to be and dressing is one of my all-time favorites. These days i don't label food into certain groups like breakfast, lunch, and dinner anymore, if I'm hungry and it's available I'll eat it no matter the time. Chicken and dressing with a side of catfish for breakfast or bacon and egg sandwich for dinner, it's all the same to me.

After eating that big plate of food I was stuffed but I had a little craving in me for some chocolate. Anybody that knows me knows I have a serious sweet tooth. I put away sweets like a heroin addict goes through smack on a holiday weekend. And so with my truck between me and the workshop I jumped in and took a quick drive down to the Dollar General where I had noticed a couple days earlier that they had a new display filled with boxes of chocolate on sale getting ready for the upcoming Valentine's Day that's only 6 weeks away. It's a 4 minute drive from my house, I got there in 3. I ran in and walked straight back to the display and my eyes settled on a box of so-so brand chocolate turtles with pecans. "Only $3.50!" I almost felt guilty for ripping them off so bad. It didn't say how many were in there but I would've paid that much just for a couple of them and I knew a box of that size had to have more than two. I paid for them, jumped back in the truck, and was back on my way to the shop.

I pulled up in the driveway and put the bag and all under my arm hoping my wife wouldn't see me, or if she did, maybe she would think I went to the paint store or Home Depot or something, basically anything to keep her from looking at me like the junkie I am, plus I really wasn't wanting to share any of them. Luckily I made it back to the shop without issue and took the box out of the bag and threw it on my workshop bench. No sooner than I got it open Dizzy started crazily barking and I figured that the FedEx driver was pulling up with my chain stays and dropouts so I headed for the front door but not before grabbing a couple of those sugary, tasty, chocolate turtles and stuffing them both in my mouth. Don't forget that these things do have pecans in them which I consider a health food and that's how I have to think in order to live with myself through these episodes.

Good thing it wasn't the FedEx driver because my mouth was so full that I wouldn't have been able to talk, not to mention I had chocolate caramel ooze running down my chin. I didn't see Dizzy out front so I thought I would go look around back and of course on the way to the back door I grabbed another 2-3 turtles because I wasn't sure how long I would be looking for him. He came running around the corner of the house about the time I got outside and so we went back inside where is was warm and past time to get to work and fix the frame. So I headed over toward the tool box to grab my files and of course picked up another couple of turtles on the way. I was getting really full at this point after the plate of chicken and dressing just a few minutes earlier and then shoving 7 good-sized pieces of chocolate candy in my mouth within 5 minutes but at this point there were only 4 left in the box and that's hardly worth saving. I would do a little filing and then grab another piece of candy in between miters until the entire box was empty and the binge had to stop. Eleven pieces of candy in shortly under 30 minutes is roughly..., well, I don't know how many a minute but it's too damn many. I could barely move around the shop for the next 30 minutes and I realized that I was lucky that I didn't have a weight problem because I would be helpless (remind me to tell you about the time I was gonna try and get fat just to see what it felt like, unfortunately I didn't have time to get fat). Little by little the pain in my stomach got to be less and less and I managed to get the frame re-mitered. So here are a couple of photos of what you've already seen with the new head tube in place.

Down tube re-mitered. The straight head tube is not as sexy as the integrated head tube but when you throw one of Chris King' headsets in it'll take on a whole new look.