25Seven: Project Berlin Bike: Teil Drei

The first two posts showed concept and component. Now, the Berlin Bike is starting to look sort of like an actual bike. This next step in the process is to build the frame. This is the "easy" part for Seven.

This first photo is proof that Seven is hip--or at least, "on a hip". Yes, I know that puns are the lowest form of humor.

This is Staci's key chain. Staci did a lot of the paintwork on this project. You'll soon get to see how skilled she is.

However, today, I'll post a few details of the framebuilding process. We've shown framebuilding at Seven many times so I'll try to show work that we wouldn't normally show. Not the same old welding photos.

Here's a snippet of the Buildsheet--what the frame builder uses. It includes every detail for the frame.

Here is the dropout in the process of modification to work with the Gates belt drive system. We chose a belt drive because it provides a clean drivetrain, a quiet ride on early morning streets, and it is extremely low maintenance and long service life. Perfect for an urban commuting bike.

Here are the titanium lugs we used for the titanium-to-carbon unification frame.

Here are most of the pieces of the tubeset machined and ready for welding. Not the "mock" tubing that takes the place of the carbon tubes during the welding process. These tubes have Hitech(tm) :) hose clamps on them. The right tool for the right job.

That tube in the front is one of the chainstays; compound bends on top of slightly ovalized tubes to ensure clearance for 32c tires and the belt drive front ring.

Frameset is complete. Now it goes into the frame tacking jig.

We're doing some internal cable routing on this bike, too--for the tail light. That's always fun to run internals.

Here is a rare shot of one of Seven's weld standards; this is a page from our weld book--about 100 pages of details. A light read. Lots of fun illustrations.