Kirk Frameworks

[Kirk007]

Originally Posted by David Kirk

It's a stunning summer morning after a long, cold and wet Montana springtime. I'm taking the day off to celebrate Karin's and my 27th wedding anniversary and to soak up some warm sun.

Back to the bench on Monday - have fun and be safe out there.

dave

Happy Anniversary! Hope you and Karin have a great day; nothing like that warm summer sun, blue, smoke free skies and a stunning landscape to lift the spirits!

[Climb01742]

Wow, 27 years. Congratulations to you both. Y’all have partnered in so many things in life. Hope the journey goes another 27 years!

[EliteVelo]

.

[David Kirk]

Anyone here headed to the Cino Heroica this weekend? I'm headed up with a friend to ride the deserted gravel roads that climb the mountains of northwestern Montana.

If you are there and you're a Paceline person please shake my hand and introduce yourself. I'll be the tall guy on the bright green bike.

dave

[Pastashop]

Beautiful bike! How did you manage to nail the color?.. I've been trying to learn more about it, but those who figured it out aren't sharing (https://condorino.com/2014/06/11/noa...he-impossible/ & https://www.spraydosen-shop.de/spray...water-basecoat)...

[David Kirk]

Originally Posted by Pastashop

Beautiful bike! How did you manage to nail the color?.. I've been trying to learn more about it, but those who figured it out aren't sharing (https://condorino.com/2014/06/11/noa...he-impossible/ & https://www.spraydosen-shop.de/spray...water-basecoat)...

I left that part up to Joe Bell - I told him what I was looking for and he made it happen!

dave

[AngryScientist]

Nice Dave. Is the whole drivetrain there Mavic? I dont think I've ever seen those DT shifters before, they look nice. Actually the whole group looks minty!

[David Kirk]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

Nice Dave. Is the whole drivetrain there Mavic? I dont think I've ever seen those DT shifters before, they look nice. Actually the whole group looks minty!

Yes....the only thing not Mavic is the freewheel and chain.

dave

[Web1111a]

Originally Posted by David Kirk

Yes....the only thing not Mavic is the freewheel and chain.

dave

When did you build that bike with 753? Did Reynolds do a special run for you or was it old stock?

Did you use the Mavic hubs that take the 8 speed Shimano cassette?

[David Kirk]

Originally Posted by Web1111a

When did you build that bike with 753? Did Reynolds do a special run for you or was it old stock?

Did you use the Mavic hubs that take the 8 speed Shimano cassette?

I built this 753 tube bike in 1990 as an "after school" project while working at Serotta. I had just passed my Reynolds 753 test and wanted to build something fun and special so I spent a huge amount of time cutting and shaping a set of Henry James stainless lugs and then brazed it all together. Once it was done I brought it into the paint shop with a case of beer (the usual fee) and asked them to mask the lugs and paint it and all I got was silly looks from the boys in there. Understandably no one wanted to spend the time to do such intricate masking.

So I took it home with the idea that I would do the masking myself and then have the guys paint it. I put it on a hook in the basement and it stayed there for 30 years. I had other bikes and never "needed" this one so there it stayed.

When I wanted a vintage bike for the Cino ride I didn't want to pick up an old Bianchi from eBay so I decided it was time to pull the 753 bike down and have JB paint it for me and the Cino ride. Some very generous members of the Paceline helped supply the parts needed and the rest came from eBay (including the 50T Mavic big ring that came from Romania) and this resulted in the bike you see here.

The rear hub has a screw on freewheel and not a freehub....I don't think Mavic offered a freehub at that time. In any case this is a screw-on and I built it up with an 8 spd freehweel and chain.

It's a fun ride and an interesting comparison to a modern bike. I'm proud of the workmanship but happy it's not my everyday bike. Modern steels leave small dia. old school stuff in the dust. There's just no comparison. But it's still a fun place to spend time.

dave

[tiretrax]

Was the frame still wearing your 32 y.o. masking job when you sent it to JB?

[David Kirk]

Originally Posted by tiretrax

Was the frame still wearing your 32 y.o. masking job when you sent it to JB?

Nope.

I didn't have enough time to get the masking done!

dave

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by David Kirk

Anyone here headed to the Cino Heroica this weekend? I'm headed up with a friend to ride the deserted gravel roads that climb the mountains of northwestern Montana.

If you are there and you're a Paceline person please shake my hand and introduce yourself. I'll be the tall guy on the bright green bike.

dave

still my favorite graphics!

[David Kirk]

I owned my very first fillet brazed bike 40 years ago when I asked Fisher Mountain Bikes to make me a full-on custom race MTB. I didn’t know it at the time but it was built by the one and only Albert Eisentraut and the fillets were perfectly round and organic and looked stunning under the signal green paint laid on by Cyclart. It was wonderful.

A few years later I was sponsored by Ritchey USA and I was given a handmade-by-Tom fillet frameset and matching fillet bullmoose handlebar. The fillets were larger but every bit as beautiful covered in the blood red that the team bikes were painted.

A few years later I started working at Serotta. My racing days behind me, I focused on the craft of framebuilding. I wanted to learn to fillet braze and I hadn’t been working there long when I was given my chance. I learned that making those perfect fillets took real skill. My first fillets were large and lumpy but there was enough material to work with so that they could be finished down to a nice shape. At that time most Serottas had some fillet brazing so I had a ****-ton of bikes pass through my hands and over time I got better. I then learned “precision fillet brazing” which is similar to TIG welding. The amount of brass laid down was very carefully controlled and it was much faster. In time I was appointed to head custom framebuilder at Serotta and that meant that I would be the one doing the finish work on my own fillets. This was where the real learning happened. If someone else is cleaning your work it’s hard to see how it could be done better…but when you are the one shaping the fillets you laid down 45 minutes ago one tends to learn very quickly. In the end I’d brazed/built thousands of fillet bikes during my 10 years at Serotta and one could not have asked for a better learning experience.

That was 20-30 years ago and I no longer build in the numbers I did at Serotta but I still use the lessons I learned when building fillet bikes today. Today most of my fillet bikes are stainless with silver fillets and they show everything. In that way they are honest and that’s why my raw stainless bikes are called Onesto.

dave

[bob heinatz]

That's a great story Dave. I still have a Eisentraut road bike that I ride a few times a year. I rode that bike for over15 years. That frame made me want to attack any hills I could find.