AR cycles

[EliteVelo]

I'm that guy that's gonna work Aaron's hands, but it'll be epic. My apologies in advance, but we've been talking about it for a while. Glad it's coming to fruition.

[8aaron8]

Post brazing, starting the clean-up and polishing work. Stainless is always a tricky material to work with from cutting to brazing and of course polishing to a mirror like finish.

[truth]

Originally Posted by 8aaron8

Looking good! How do you polish stainless?

[8aaron8]

Originally Posted by truth

Looking good! How do you polish stainless?

More or less a lot of sanding with finer grits of sandpaper. Usually I start with 80 grit to smooth over the entire surface of the lugs, then 120/220/400/800/1000/1500 and finally hit them with polishing mops and compounds at the very end. It is a labor intense process but I love the look and by the amount of requests I get for it I'm thinking others do as well. Thanks for the question.

[8aaron8]

After hours of sanding and finally buffing compound and wheels we have some shine

[nighthawk]

Looks great, Aaron. Painting the tubes?

[8aaron8]

Originally Posted by nighthawk

Looks great, Aaron. Painting the tubes?

Thanks, yes I believe this one will wear a pearl white coat with contrasting red logos.

[8aaron8]

Still working through different projects simultaneously, not my favorite way to work. This one just needs seat stays, brake bridge and a lot of polishing before it's ready for paint. I also just started a 10-day frame class, so far we have mitered tubes and spent an entire day doing practice brazing.






Frame Class

[8aaron8]

It's always a lot of fun teaching someone how to build a bike frame. On day one they look at the pile of tubes, lugs, braze-ons, etc and understand that somehow these things go together but it still seems unobtainable. A few days in they are holding the front triangle of a bicycle and in a few more they are filing the lugs and shorelines so their new frame will look good after paint. I'm always satisfied watching others learn new skills and seeing them progress in a short period of time, it must be the teacher in me. Some students may go on to build more frame and even those who decide firmly that it is way too much work to ever do it again I glad I was able to provide the experience.

[fried bake]

Very cool, Aaron!


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[8aaron8]

Making slow progress, hurt my wrist doing some construction work and polishing stainless didn't help. Here's my process for getting brake bridges straight.

[8aaron8]

Always busy, another frame ready for paint. Stainless lugs, Di2, Max fork, custom stem, room for big tires, should be good!

[madsciencenow]

Overall that’s purty! Love those stainless lugs!!


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[8aaron8]

Within the last 3 weeks I have finally finished my paint booth so now I can start painting again. When I moved 2 years ago I lost my shop space and was working out of my garage, which worked well for the actual building part of frame building but made painting a real chore, having to break down an area of the garage, set up visqueen walls, pull my paint supplies out of boxes. Each time was a day wasted in setup plus the lighting was less than ideal. Now I have a place I can simply walk into and start painting.

Here is the latest: All-road frame for a local, clearance for 650x48s and 700x35s. Full housing runs for the derailleur and brake, internal through the downtube and an internal run on the flat mount fork with stainless crown. I got to get creative on the design as its for a smaller rider, so bi-lam lugs with a heavily modified bb shell to match. Built around light thin walled, heat treated, OS Reynolds 853 tubing and fork blades. Finished off with a classic Porsche color and yellow graphics. Looking forward to seeing the finished build which will be getting a bunch of nicely polished parts.

[woodworker]

Beautiful bike. Love the clean lines on it. Very nice.