Catching up...

I have lots of catching up to do here! Despite my absence, Riordon Cycles has been very busy over the last few months.

I made this race bike as a sort of tribute. The very special color of this bike matches a legendary, if forgotten, manufacturer in Italy named "Legnano". Legnano sponsored a team which kicked-off the careers of the most iconic cyclists in history: Alfredo Binda, Gino Bartoli and Fausto Coppi. They all rode Legnano bikes, scoring victories in the Giro, the tour de France, the World championships. In addition, multiple world hour records were set on these machines (see more here).

My intention here is not to make a copy or a vintage racing machine, but to capture the spirit of the original. This is a pure racing machine: quick, agile, stiff and light.

Ready for paint

All the little stuff is now in place, so Brian's bike is now ready to go off to the paint shop. I grabbed few snapshots to share...

Greatest Ride Ever?

I found this article from an early 1990's magazine, recounting Eddy Merckx' 1972 hour record. This record stood for many years, until advances in aerodynamics trumped athletic achievement. UCI, the governing body of cycling finally put a stop to the arms race, demoting all record breaking attempts since the Merckx record to be recategorized as "best human effort". After this change all attempts at the hour record were to be on a Merckx-like machine. In 2000 Chris Boardman "pimped" this ultimate ride by a mere 10m...otherwise the original Merckx record would still stand.

A good read:
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Benelux/Merckx/Merckx_hour_B-guide_1.htm

Getting there...

It looks like a bike!

Plug-type dropouts need a bit of love to smoothly transition to the tube. The goal is to make it look like one piece when its painted.

I admit that I gulp a few times before drilling big holes in a frame that's almost done. I've never had any issues, but it does feel odd.

One good thing though...brazed in steel bosses not only hold the bottle cages, but they really reinforce the tube near the hole. Although they look pretty much the same, aluminum frames have riveted bosses which don't add much (if any) strength. Its highly unlikely that a steel or an aluminum frame would ever fail in the middle of the tube, but if it did, the boss location is the most likely.

Test post

Lets see if this blog to Facebook link works.

More pix from Brian's build

This is the seatstay design that I've used for the last few bikes. This is one of those areas that framebuilders use as a "signature" for their style. I don't know if this is going to be the way that I do these all the time, but its my favorite so far.

I use a really large diameter tube on a very shallow angle so that the facet almost look flat, but has a soft "scooped" profile when its done. When its done, it almost looks like a solid bar that has been cut, but its completely hollow. Often, the seatstay ends are done with a cast plug that sticks in the top of the tube. These can have lots of different designs, but they always have a little bit of "heft" that I don't like. To be fair, no one would ever know either way I guess but if I'm going to add material to the bike it had better be for a good reason.

Here is a before and after picture of the seatstay...

The seatstays are now brazed to the frame. If you look closely, you'll see small pins (1/16" finishing nails) that hold them in the right spot while they are being brazed.

Brian's Fork

Now that I've recovered from my freak ski accident (and decided to listen to the doctor), I'm back in the shop making progress. I've uploaded some new pix from Brian's bike build, including a few images of the fork build.

There is a bit of skill to getting forks to come out well, but I think its worth it. A custom made fork is the key to making a high quality frameset. Why? A few main reasons: unlike production bikes (they work around one or two sizes), I can tailor the fit and geometry to perfectly match the frame.

Steel forks have a ride quality that is unparalleled. This is due to the fact that steel has such an incredible elastic limit, so that the blades can be designed to be as supple or firm as desired, without concern over permanent damage on potholes. The fork tubes can be switched out depending on the intended loads or use.

Custom forks are very adaptable. Bikes that have fenders or larger tires (or want the option, even) can be built with a bit more clearance. Any sort of attachment point can be added as well: disc brake mounts, rack mounts, mounts for lighting, etc.

Steel forks fail in the safest way possible. Steel is a ductile material, meaning that it will bend a LONG way before it snaps. Should the fork sustain some sort of damage (anything can be broken), a steel fork will give the rider the best possible chance of staying upright. Low ductility materials can fail very quickly as cracks (perhaps from an earlier event) rapidly propagate through the remaining section. This type of failure is particularly horrific in both wheels and forks (face, meet ground!).

To be fair, steel forks are a bit heavier than an equivalent carbon fiber fork. All things considered though...unless you are competing in an elite level event with a large elevation change this difference is insignificant to performance. Don't believe me? You may want to note that most U.S. road time trial records were set on custom steel frames with steel forks.

North American Handmade Bike Show Promo Video

NAHBS Promo

The official promotional trailer for the 2010 North American Handmade Bicycle Show Documentary

Going grocery shopping right before a snow storm is ridiculous, but as I had no choice today I headed out on the porteur bike to avoid the parking lot mess. 

Thirty pounds of food on the front rack seems to work just fine. For more stuff, I might need to make the rack a bit wider next time though.

Main triangle brazed

I snuck in a few hours this morning to braze the front triangle of Brian's bike. This photo shows what the joints look like while the bike is cooling. The flux, which starts off as a white paste turns to a clear fluid during brazing. This molten liquid both preps the base metal by eliminating surface oxides and helps the silver to flow through the joint...pretty cool stuff. While it cools, it solidifies into this glassy coating. The base metal underneath also cools contracts causing the flux to crack like a broken windshield like you see in this picture.

Porteur Bike

The porteur bike is complete! This design of this bike is inspired by porteur bikes used in the early 1900s in Europe by city bike couriers. Unlike modern bike messengers, which typically use shoulder packs for baggage, early messengers carried loads on large front racks. These racks were heavily braced and carried huge loads of newspapers, grocieries, etc. Similar to today, bike messengers would stage competitive events through the streets, picking up and dropping off huge piles of newpapers along the way:

The beauty of these bikes is that, with front-mounted rack, they are super-easy to load up and maneuver. Unlike the rear mounted racks that became popular in the U.S., these bikes put the load over the front wheel were it can be "steered" during the ride to help keep the bike upright. In addition, you can place the load on the bike while you are straddling the frame so getting loaded is really quick. To make this work, the steering geometry needs to be properly designed. The steering on these bikes is extremely quick to help reposition the bike under load.

I think people are starting to realize that bikes are not just for fun and fitness, they are also a very practical means of getting around. This could mean riding to work, to the store or on errands. Since most trips are only a mile or two, why get in the car? Unfortunately, one reason is that people don't ride real WORKING bikes. A full-suspension mountain bike will not help you pick up groceries!  A functional working bike has a strong frame, fenders, chain-guards, lights and a strong rack. In the early 1900s, when cars were not cheap to own and operate, people rode bikes with these things because they made sense. For many years, bike builders (called constructeurs) like Rene Herse and Alex Singer hand crafted high quality bikes for real people. Sometimes these bikes were super-classy and sometimes they were just basic but they all were well-made and functional. 

I've posted more pix of the porteur bike on my Flickr site. 

Brian's Bike

I got a nice start on Brian's road bike today. This is going to be a stable race bike with a bit longer (than typical) wheelbase, a bit lower and stable steering. I'm using a double-oversized tubeset here with thin walls. Its amazing what the suppliers are doing with some of the newer high-strength steels...

I've had a few people express an interest in learning a bit more about the process of transforming a pile of tubes into a bike so on this build I plan to post some pix mid-sequence. You can follow along on Flickr under the "Brian's Bike" set.

I spent a bit of time working on the lugset this morning. This lugset has decent lines and certainly could be used "as-is", but I thought it would be nice to sharpen things up a bit. I made the biggest changes to the seat lug. Since this bike won't have mitered seat stays, I chopped off the back and gave it lines to mirror the front. Sometimes, I cut details into the lugs using a really small jewelers saw. This allows me to make really tight corners and super small features. For this type of pattern, though, a large half-round file works best. By using even, light file strokes the curves seem to come out smoother than my sketches. Perhaps no one will ever notice the difference with the new lines, but I don't care...to me its the little things that give each bike their own personality.

The past few bikes have been built with a completely new workflow. I think this bike is already showing the benefits. On earlier bikes, I would build small subassemblies on the fixture slowly integrating part after part. At each step, I would check the parts on the surface plate to make sure that everything was going well. This worked ok, but by putting these pieces together I missed the opportunity to balance the fit of all of the parts at one time. Building a lugged bike is sometimes a negotiation. Since each lug is designed to fit a nominal angle, I'm always working on figuring out the how to best fit things together. This can mean filing, grinding and even a bit of "blacksmithing" to make the fit just-so. Silver brazing works through capillary action...if the gaps are too tight or too loose the silver just won't flow.

In my new process, I've placed my fixture right on the surface plate. In this orientation I can check the alignment of the tubes so that things line up perfectly. Since I spend a bit more time fitting up the whole front triangle, I also get to play with the fit of the lugs even more. When everything is perfect the bike is pinned and quickly tacked together and then brazed outside fixture.

to be continued...

Tattoo 'Cross Bike

The 'cross bike is all wrapped up. Check out the Flickr link (left bar) to see the full photo set.

I'd like to thank Lisa for making the tribal tattoo "sleeves" for the top and down tubes. This turned this custom frame into a truly unique design.

Cross Bike Sneak peak

Here is a quick snapshot of the cross bike on it's way off to paint. Lisa put together some sweet tattoo artwork for this rig. More details to come!

A Riordon Cycles Commuter Bike

Perhaps its not good to play favorites, but somehow the Commuter bike is the bike I turn to over all others. I initially built this bike as a long distance commuter, after all most cyclists aren't lucky enough to ride a short distance to work (this is America, right?). Over time though, I've come to realize that this bike is much more versatile.

The Commuter bike is inspired by light touring bikes made in Europe by famous custom framebuilders, like Rene Herse, over the last century. These bikes were built for touring the countryside...not fully burdened touring, like we see these days with everything but the kitchen sink packed in panniers on the side. These bikes just carried a light pack on the front..with a jacket, some food and other day-trip type gear.

Clearly this bike is not an all-out racing machine, but its fast enough for quick local club rides. This is certainly not a mountain bike, but with plenty of tire clearance for big tires this machine can go pretty much anywhere you would take a 'cross bike. This isn't a beefy touring bike, but its quick steering and lightweight frame makes it far more fun to ride in a long century. In other words, this bike is built for most of the people, for the most common types of riding in all types of weather conditions...pretty unusual huh?

Feel free to drop me note or reply to this post if you would like to learn more about the commuter bike. I've included some pictures on my Flickr site as well (still working on my photography skills...cut me some slack here!).

I posted a new set of photos of my (relatively) race bike on my Flickr site. I built this to do a little road racing this summer with Team Cycle Lodge. I spent a good amount of time handcarving the lugs on this bike..not a complex pattern, but very clean and sharp.

I recently completed Basil's fixed gear. This bike is designed for urban commuting, with a little extra room for fenders and bigger tires. I had a lot of fun designing and building this bike since we got to spend a lot of time together really working out the details. Basil had a clear vision of what he wanted in this bike: a clean functional bike that only includes the bare essentials...and a bit of subtle style. With this in mind, I carved Basil's initials "BT" instead of an ordinary drain hole in the bottom bracket.

Welcome

Welcome to the Riordon Cycles blog. I'll be updating this site with descriptions, photos and comments on the the newest bikes coming to life my shop. I plan to also keep a more extensive gallery of photos on my Flickr site as I move along so be sure to check here as well. I welcome any comments and feedback on postings.

One more thing...if you like my post, feel free to share. Each post will include options for sharing on Facebook, e-mail, etc.