Frame Jig.

In the mid-1980s I commissioned Photographer Mike Graves to take some photographs of my frameshop. Above is a picture of my frame jig used to assemble frames. My work area was not as messy as it appears here, but Mike took some artistic license and added some extra tools and fixtures to compose a more interesting picture.

The picture does however give me an opportunity to explain what was going on before Mike took over to create this picture. Frames were made in three separate parts, the main triangle, which is not actually a triangle as it is made up of four tubes. Top and down tube, seat tube and head tube.

The second part is the rear triangle, made up of chainstays, seatstays, connected by the rear dropouts. The third part is the front fork that is assembled on a separate jig not shown here.

The main triangle was assembled here then fully brazed out of the jig to allow the metal to expand and contract freely. There is less distortion and built in stresses that way.

The main triangle is fully brazed at this stage. The lugs have yet to be filled and polished, but the surplus head tube has been cut off and the head tube has been machined ready to take a head bearing. The excess seat tube has also been cut off and filed to the shape of the seat lug.

At this stage the rear triangle is being assembled, so that it matches up with the main triangle.

This is evident by the seat stays left long at this point, to extend beyond the seat lug. (Pictured right.)

The seat stays at the rear dropout will be tacked in the jig, then fully brazed out of the jig.

The seatstays will be later cut to length and a machined seatstay cap will be brazed into the seatstay top end.

The main triangle and the rear triangle will both be finished filed and polished separately, because they are easier to handle and manipulate in a bench vise as separate smaller parts.

When the two parts are ready, they are assembled and brazed out of the jig to accommodate the distortion due to heat. Because the main and rear triangle were initially assembled in the jig, they will fit accurately out of the jig for the final brazing.

This modified vise-grip (Above.) has two pieces of angle iron brazed to the jaws, these clamp onto the seat tube. A short piece of round tube is welded to one side, at right angles to the seat tube.

The seatstays are then clamped to this tube on the fixture with two engineers clamps. One shown here. (Left.)

The chainstays are held in place at the bottom bracket with a vise grip on the chainstay sockets.

Alignment tools are used to make sure a wheel will sit central in the frame.   

Frames like the Fuso were made in batches of five frames all the same. So the set up in this picture will be used to make five rear triangles, for example. Each stage of the assembly process is repeated five times. With one exception.

Front fork blades, and chainstays were identical no matter what the frame size, so these were prepared ahead of time in batches of 20 or 30 pairs. Fork blades were bent (Raked.) slotted, tips brazed in, then fully filed and polished and cut to length.

Chainstays were cut to length, slotted, and the rear dropout brazed in. Followed by filing and polishing. One extra item, the right chainstay is flattened on the inside to clear the sprockets when the rear wheel is removed.

This is where this little tool comes into play.

The thin end of the chainstay was placed in one of the slots, heated to a red heat, and hammered flat with a small hammer.

This was done prior to slotting the tube to receive the rear dropout. 

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Retro-Mod: Pickin’ n’ Choosin’

Going Retro-Mod has its advantages. Vintage lugged steel frames (Sometimes in mint condition.)  can be picked up at bargain prices, and the ride quality is often far superior to that of a modern CF or aluminum frame. So there is the money saving incentive, along with value for your buck.

A few ounces heavier maybe, but often that doesn’t concern the cyclist riding for exercise and pleasure only. Why not ride a bike that is a pleasure to ride? Going retro-mod you have the best of both worlds. The ride quality and handling characteristics of the vintage frame, with the wider gear range, and fingertip shifting, together with better stopping power the modern brakes offer.

Outside of vintage frame and modern component group, one can pick and choose, which saddle, bars and stem, and pedals. New or old school. Longtime friend and regular commenter on this blog, Steve Farner, emailed me this week to say he had switched back from clipless pedals to toe clips and straps, and also tubular tires.

Steve raced back in the 1980s when toe clips and straps were the only option. When Steve went retro-mod back in 2014, he didn’t actually start with a vintage frame, but rather had Russ Denny build him a brand new retro style Fuso frame, with a level top tube, standard 1 inch and 1 1/8 inch tubes. The only exception was the frame had a plain steerer and a threadless headset. (See above.)

On his switch back to toe-clips, Steve said, “I have found getting into and out of toe clips almost silent. I get into the pedal quicker than clipless, and as a bonus, if you miss positioning, you just push on the other side of the pedal, without your foot slipping off as it does with carbon shoe bottoms and carbon or plastic pedals. Just keep pedaling and flip the pedal later.

I am riding Giro Empire shoes, which use laces and fit like a glove. The slotted cleats I use are Yoshida Champ Cleats. Keirin (NJS) approved, modern cleats used by Japanese Track racers. They fit on Look Three-Bolt modern shoes, using only two of the bolt holes. I also kept my old Vittoria shoes from my racing days, the 80's, and have cleats for them, and sometimes use those shoes, which still work fine, just not as stiff.

But the Giro Empires get into and out of clips just as well as the old shoes, and being modern are stiffer soles and good to know you can buy them today. 

The pedals I bought are MKS Supreme Track pedals. (Above.) Again they are Keirin, or NJS, approved and are quite striking in appearance. I have kept Christophe Steel Toe Clips all these years, which don't break as easily as the aluminum variety. I also have kept my Alfredo Binda Laminated White (Bianchi) Toe Straps, which I think I paid $25 for in 1980, but sell for over $100 used on Ebay today!

I like them because they don't stretch, don't need the twist in the pedals to stay in place, and do not flop while in use. I use the Cinelli toe strap buttons, chrome in this case to match the pedals and clips, which I like better than others because you can pull the straps all the way through to set wherever you like on the strap.”

The other switch Steve made was back to tubular tyres. He said:

“The wheels I am now riding are DT Swiss 190 Ceramic Bearing hubs, DT Swiss S.S. round spokes, and Mavic Reflex Rims, 32-Hole. These are a nice, light, low-drag set that match the steel frame and set-up much better than the Mavic Ksyrium SL Limited I had on.

The ride is quite impressive! Kind of like the difference between driving a sports car and a Prius. No comparison. No wonder tubulars are still preferred by pros. You just have to know how to care for them, and fix flats. 

All together I like how the bike looks. I think if Russ presented this appearance to customers, they would be enthused to own, and most importantly, ride one! Because it is the ride that stays with the owner long after the B.S. sales pitch of modern bikes and equipment.”

Unusually, Steve’s bike is all new. Rather than go Retro-Mod he has actually gone Modern-Retro. 

Footnote:

Here is another related article on aligning slotted cleats.

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Drillium and Bottom Bracket Cutouts

Most vintage bike enthusiasts know about cutouts in frame bottom brackets, but some, especially newbies don’t know the reason. Someone recently asked me why I didn’t put drain holes in my bottom brackets? I was baffled and asked, “Who does that?” He listed frames that had “Drain holes,” and I realized he was talking about bottom bracket cutouts.

It was a fashion gimmick of its time, that’s all. There was no logical reason. Think about it, it is a poor drainage system. The bottom bracket is in direct line of fire from water spraying up from the front wheel. These large holes let in more water than they let out again.

For those who don’t know, here is a history lesson. In the 1970s a craze started amongst cyclists all over Europe, later referred to as “Drillium.” (Picture left.)

Drilling holes in component parts to reduce weight. The fad was huge in the UK, especially amongst time-trialists, who were forever looking for ways to save weight. And of course removing metal reduces weight.

The amount of weight saved by drilling holes in aluminum components was miniscule, but it didn’t matter.

It was a way to customize a bike and a few more holes than your competitor was a psychological boost if nothing else.

If your bike had so many holes, it had no shadow, you were a winner, in style anyway.

Component manufactures were quick to follow this trend, and for example, a seat post that was previously round and smooth, now had flutes machined in them. Frame builders too got on the band wagon. A large hole cut out of a bottom bracket shell, was a considerable chunk of steel that was no longer there.

Of course all these holes and flutes created more aerodynamic drag, but no one thought of that at the time. Aero bikes would be a future craze.

Frame builders used a special die and a press to stamp out these cutouts in seconds. Holes were similarly stamped in lugs before the frame was assembled. It also gave framebuilders an opportunity to individualize frames with cutouts in the form of their logo. It was done for brand recognition.

My newbie inquisitor was still not satisfied. “If these are not drain holes in the BB, then why weren’t they engraved?” I’ll tell you why. Holes can be stamped out in seconds, but engraving takes time, and is super expensive. Especially engraving on a curved surface.

I know this because I had my name engraved in the top of the BB shell.

It had to be done with a special fixture that rotated the shell as the engraving progressed, so the router bit that does the cutting is always at right angles to the curved surface of the BB shell. (Picture right.)

It is a highly skilled operation and is one of the reasons my custom frames cost so much. If you see what appears to be engraving on the bottom bracket of a production bike. Things like lettering, a logo or grooves. It was most likely cast that way. The design was in the mold.

Just as my custom frames had my logo engraved in the crown, whereas my production Fuso frame had the name cast in it. (See above.)  I had to buy 1,000 crowns to get that feature. So why did my Fuso not have a cutout BB? By 1984 when production on the Fuso started, the fashion had run its course.

Some Italian framebuilders continued doing cutouts, but remember they had dies to stamp the holes. I was not about to invest that kind of money for the tooling and a press, for fad that had run its course, and was dying out anyway.

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Stolen... Be on the Lookout

The Fuso pictured above is owned by Richard Salinas of Ontario, California. It is a 56 cm. frame, serial number 190. It was stolen from an apartment communial garage last Sunday 28th May. 

Please be on the lookout, especaily in the Inland Empire (South East of LA.) area. The frame is a pretty distictive one. One of a kind if my memory serves me.

The Blue/Red paint was one reserved fo a bike store called Two Wheel Transit Autority, a huge store that was once in Huntigton Beach, CA. The store closed its doors in the late 1980s. They sold a lot of Fuso frames and bikes over the years.

This particular one was built for the owner of the store who requested something distinctive. I placed random white stars on the bottom blue portion of the frame.

This should make it easy to spot and difficult to sell. If anyone has info, please either contact Richad via his FB liknk above, or comment here or contact me via the email link on the right column of this page.

Footnote: If ever your bike is stolen file a police report. I have been told on good autority that the police often recover stolen bikes, but then have no record to get it back to its owner. Also if the bike is sold, and it could change hands several times, then the original owner has a problem proving ownership. File a report, its worth the effort.

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The One Thousandth Fuso

I never know from week to week what will pop up in my email inbox. Just this last week I heard from a Fuso owner living in British Columbia, Canada, he owns Fuso number 1000. He had bought it in 2008 from a friend who was the original owner.

It wasn’t until he sent pictures that the memory bank in my mind started to tick over, and I began to remember this one. It was a very special bike that was given some custom touches, like and all chrome front fork and rear triangle.

Built towards the end of 1986, that’s over 30 years ago and a long way to cast my memory back.

The first Fuso was built in 1984, I’m not sure what month, but a few months into the year.

The first frames were numbered 001, 002, 003, and so on. So up until frame number 999, it was always a three digit number.

So switching to a four digit number was an occasion. It also showed how successful the Fuso initially was as I had built a thousand of them in a little over two years.

In September every year I attended the Interbike Trade Show. I believe at that point it was still held in California. First in Long Beach, then Anaheim, before moving permanently to Las Vegas, Nevada in later years.

This 56 cm. bike was my center show piece for that year's Interbike, which is why I went all out with the special touches. It was essentially a Fuso LUX model, but on the rear end of the top tube where the “Fuso LUX” decal usually went, I put my signature, which was normally reserved for my custom frames only.

And on the front right side of the top tube it said, “1,000th Fuso.”

After the show the bike was sold to Los Angeles bike dealer, I. Martin Imports.

A few months later it was bought by the original owner, Brett Bandy, who later moved to British Columbia.

The current owner James Nicholls, still rides the bike. Here is a picture of James (Above left.) on this very same bike riding in the Vernon, BC Gran Fondo.

Thanks for the memory James.

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