B. Frank picked up his flat black, single speed-able cross racer today. As with a lot of the frames that I sell to my hard riding peers it will initially be built with whatever he can manage to scrape together from the parts bin to get it running. It might be nice to have it roll out the door with the most svelte, color coordinated, and shining components available but I know Ben will do right by it and I’ll try to help him compile the lighter better stuff ahead of the 2010 fall race series. For now it will get broken in with a surly fork pulled from his old chinese pig of a bike and some abused old Phil wood single speed wheels, I can’t wait to hear what he thinks of the ride.
I’ve been filing away at two bike spines for a couple of long legged ladies that have close enough biometrics that the measurements for their frames came out the same. There will be some subtle differences in the builds but they’re both built on a cross geometry for disc brakes with eccentric bottom brackets taking up chain tensioning duties in case they’d like to eschew with derailleurs. I’ve got a couple more sets of chain and seat stays to hammer out and they’ll both be ready for the torch.
We’ll see how I’ll proceed with getting these frames outfitted for service as they aren’t intended for costumers with as much mechanical acumen or an accumulation of quality old parts from years of riding by a guy like Ben so the complete builds will require a bit more of my input. Weather they are kitted out for racing or budget cruising I hope the thought and effort (and blood, I definitely cut myself and bled a bit on just about every BBW so far) I put in to designing and building the frame put them on a level above the cheap chinese factory bikes shown in the add banner that has popped up on my blog this week.
