A few photos of the city bike frame. It exceeds my expectations. Please excuse the dust and fingerprints on the paint; the paint is perfect. Major kudos to Ahren! And to Carl for painting it.
Please note the pump pegs, generator mount, adjustable chain guard mounts, over BB cable routing, dual dropout eyelets, and wide flat fork crown for fat 650b tires.
Update:I've started to build it up and I have even more respect for the amount of detail Ahren had to consider when building it. This is one complicated frame and it's impressive that everything fits so perfectly. Many racing frames with half the braze-ons don't come close to being this well thought out.
The French bars and stems arrived this afternoon and I've used one of the porteur bars on the city bike. It looks great and is a nice shape.
I'll drill and mount the chain guard and fenders in the morning when I'm fresh, otherwise most of the components are on the frame.
That's really sweet. I've been checking Ahren's blog regularly for any photos, but he hasn't updated it in months. I'm looking forward to seeing it built up. Have you found a source for the chain guard?
ReplyDeleteWOW... !!! When can i order!!!???? looks great....
ReplyDeleteGood lookin' frameset. Hope to make it out on Sunday.
ReplyDeleteWill you have regular hours at some point, other open houses later on, or work by appointment?
Looks like you're heading in the right direction of distinguished city bikes...
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/2wz7ur
We will have regular hours, but maybe not too regular for the next week or two since there is still a lot to be done at the shop.
ReplyDeleteYou can order the frames now. Neil Berg's is being built right now.
I can't wait to fit the CLB chainguard. The fitting Ahren made are too cool. I just found I'm out of single chain ring bolts and seat binder bolts. I hope Capital Bikes has them; or it's a trip to DC.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteIf you need some bolts picked up let me know, I can get them from College Park Bikes and bring them out this weekend.
Michael
When will I be able to get a mixte?
ReplyDeleteYou can get a mixte if Neil's wife's mixte works out as planned.
ReplyDeleteMichael, Thanks for the offer, but I borrowed them from my Motobecane.
ReplyDeleteI know you'll be busy with the open house, but please post photos of the semi-builtup city bike as soon as possible. I can't wait to see the French bars... -Andy
ReplyDeleteVery nice. Elegant clean lines. Look forward to seeing the built up bike.
ReplyDeleteLooks great! Is that Stronglight crank made for one ring? If not, what kind of spacers did you use to accomodate a single ring?
ReplyDeleteWould you offer a complete VO build? Or just a frame/fork?
That CLB chain guard is the coolest thing I have ever seen. Very Art Nouveau.
ReplyDeleteHandlebars are very nice. Chainstay is quite a piece!
ReplyDeleteWe are just starting to do complete bikes. But we can't find a chainguard like that for every bike, though we do have some other neat models in stock.
ReplyDeleteThat's a regular Stronglight 93 crank with bolts for a single ring. Did you know that Stronglights still makes the rings to fit that crank? Nice as it is, it'll be replaced with a Nevar. the Stronglight is just too busy looking and it doesn't seem right with the flowing lines of the chainguard.
I like the bars a lot. The stems are pretty too. The bike will get reverse levers soon, but there was no time to drill the bars today. And the bars will be taped and shellaced.
Are those Belleri handlebars?
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see the full pic!
IMO, the CLB chaincase is too fancy. Wald makes a chromed steel chaincase that has clean, simple lines - elegant in a utilitarian manner.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/2cb5pl
Chris,
ReplyDeleteHave you considered using internal ger hubs?
Do you have strong feelings for or against this type of setup? Just curious...as the comments here are always quite good and insightful. Thanks,
Jack
The next two bikes will have internal gear hubs. We will build them fixed, single speed, internal geared hub, rear dérailleur and with two dérailleurs. The basic geometry stays the same, but the drive-train is up to the customer.
ReplyDeleteI actually would have preferred an internal gear hub on my bike, but I wanted to try one with a derailleur to see how it would work with the chainguard and with the eventual chain case.
wow. where do you find a chain protector like that?
ReplyDeleteThose CLB chainguards are neat, what with the art nouveau styling along with a superbly practical shape to keep one’s trousers away from the dirty stuff. It’s actually a very common design in Europe, although the ones I’ve seen must be knockoffs because they have the circle but no “CLB” in them. I saw one in Paris that had a little color painting of Jesus Christ in that circle – now that’s gotta give you bit of a tailwind …
ReplyDeleteI found one of these (no CLB logo) and have put it on my current beater-to-porteur project. I’ll send along a picture when that gets done. I think you guys will give it a thumbs-up.
/david_nj, who cannot figure out how to work this new blogging sign-in thing
Contary to my earlier sanguinity, it turned out to be devilishly hard to mount the bar-end brake levers in those Nitto porteur-type bars. The difference in diameter is just too great. The fellow who I'd asked to do the machining was super nice and made up a new set of bases for the levers -- visually identical but machined out of a block much stronger alloy. Those cast bases just don't take to machining very well, and the bars would really have to be reamed out to accommodate the levers, to the point that I think there's a real chance of breaking.
ReplyDeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteRegarding the TA style bottle cages, have you considered a run of handelbar mounted cages?
Some of us have frames without bottle bosses.Besides, they do look pretty cool on the stem and bars.
Bill in Rockville