Making a quill style seatpost

Today we have a pretty simple project. The quill seatpost. Some may find these useful for their french constructeur bicycles, others to save a frame with a mangled or broken binder boss. I decided to build my touring frame for use with a Suntour quill seatpost. After about 4500 miles of touring (+ its life on a previous bike) the post developed a crack. I held it all together with an unsightly hose clamp until now.











I picked up a couple of old these old SR seatposts with the closed tops. They work well because the top provides a good bolt seat and after drilling it out to the correct size, the bolt fits snugly in place. A regular plain old seatpost could be used as well with washers or a little machined cap to hold the bolt in the center. Seatposts with a built in clamp will work but you must be choosy about finding one with enough area and material for an added bolt hole. I made a previous quill seatpost using this same Kalloy model pictures in this Yellow Jersey article on this same subject.

Yellow Jersey Quill Seatpost Article









I also picked up some old 1 1/8" stem quills. Their o.d. is larger than 27.2 so they were perfect for milling down to size.









To hold the wedge simple screw it onto the stem bolt and vice it up in the chuck. Adding a spacer provides some room for the cutter to pass.









Then you'll need to cut the post at a 35° angle. Or whatever angle your wedge is. I cut mine at a 45° angle mistakenly and then cut it to 35°. That is why a little too much bolt is protruding. It will work but it is even shorter now. I recommend trying to find stem bolts that are 9 inches or longer, if such things exist.














A little more searching for longer stem bolts, and I will make some more.

Long Awaited Update

Preface:

I've moved to Portland for a sort of frame builder residency or apprenticeship. I've been fortunate enough to land a position in the shared shop of Joseph Ahearne of Ahearne cycles and Mitch Pyror of MAP bicycles. Its a sort of mini dream come true. Although I'm not doing a lot of work with frames right now I'm happy to be building racks again, working on my brazing skills, and generally crafting things with my hands. I feel at home standing beside my new rolling cart bench.

This week Mitch asked me to help him construct a rack for a city bike he'd recently built. I was happy to accept the project. Mitch pretty much gave me authority over the design which was an honor, though I consulted him on my thoughts and ideas along the way. It was a collaboration right up until the end. We even solved some problems together that Mitch himself wasn't excited to solve on his own. The main problem being that the basket was just too big to make sense on the bike. The rack would have had to have been way out over the front wheel in a precarious and ridiculous fashion, or the handle bars would have to be jacked to the sky to clear it. The end result was something we both were proud to send out the door. Though it hasn't actually left the building yet.

Late March Update

Yep, almost two months since my last post. A lot has happened in that time. Since the last post I've ruined the frame pictured in coarse of building, started and completed another, built three and a half racks and just today dropped it all off with the powder coater downstairs.

You might wonder what went wrong with the first frame. Well I was on a roll and everything was going very well. I was working eight to nine hours a day on the frame for about five or six days straight. I'd brazed the dropouts into the Sachs/Columbus chainstays and I was all ready to braze them in place. I'd already brazed together the front triangle, it came out straight and the fillets looked decent so I was feeling confident and was pretty sure I didn't need any tips on how to braze the chain stays in so I went for it. For some reason I had decided to use brass instead of silver and I hadn't done much lug style brazing with brass. Penetration was poor so I tried to heat it all up again to get some brass to flow. That didn't work. So the next day Michael Catano and I tried to up the sockets to remove the stays. That only resulted in ripping the sockets and stays apart. At that point my only option with that frame would have been to cut off the sockets, braze a plate over the holes and fillet braze new stays to that... Not feeling up to the challenge of making a really janky fix I decided to just start over. Glad I did. The new frame went well, I took my time and it came out pretty well for my first frame out of class. So I built it up.








The racks were built in the french style as well. I aimed for them to be simple and functional. That to me usually adds up to beautiful. I made a point of making the front racks two instead of one if for whatever reason I need to remove one. As lone standing forms the seem a little awkward, but once on the bike they look quite good.

Frame: Day Five (maybe six.. already loosing count)

A lot has happened since I last posted. First off I finished up the fork. I think it looks pretty good. I'm glad I took the care in making a mandrel. I'm not sure I trust it yet. Only after some spirited long loaded riding will I feel confident in it. I'm just a little unsure how the brazing went inside the crown. I did manage to get the canti studs brazed on too.







I started the fitting up the chainstays and bottom bracket the next time in the shop. Then I brazed the stays into the dropouts. The dropouts are socketed and stainless steel. I'm thinking of leaving them unpainted and sand blasted to have the sort of look J. Muir from Santa Cruz employs:







The dropouts I'm using are a bit different style and I think they will look really good with this treatment.

Yesterday I started on the main triangle. I mitered the seat tube to fit the bottom bracket and that was about all. Today I mitered the rest of the main tubes and got them all fitted up just right. Then I added some braze ons. Michael Catano, a frame builder and shop mate of mine suggested I do as many braze ons as I logically could before brazing the main triangle to avoid warping. Good idea. Learning new thing every day. One thing I figured out on my own when using the Anvil is when getting that final fit between tubes to just hold the joint in place and pull strips of abrasive paper through, I don't think there is any way you could get more accurate.

Frame number 2: day one

So its started. Building frame number two. Or number one depending how you look at it. I've been planning it out for a couple of months now and it feels good to finally be making something I'm going to use. (I've been practicing my fillet brazing, which is mostly unexciting and fruitless. Well besides the reward of becoming better at brazing) I'm glad I decided to make my own mandrel, it isn't quite perfect but I think the blades look plenty good considering my experience. I've decided to go with the Gran Bois fork crown and matching Kaisei imperial oval fork blades.

I brazed the steerer in the fork crown under the watchful eyes of Owen Lloyd. Its always a relief when I don't totally screw up a braze. Actually, it went well I just need to trust in my brazing abilities... that will come it time.

First steps to frame number 2

I'm planning on building a frame. My second frame. I'm also planning on moving out of Chicago come may. I'll be moving to bike touring for several months and of course this is the perfect time to build a new bike for it. I've got the dead of winter, and all the time one could ask for. I've decided the bike will pretty much replace the ill fitting bike I made in Doug Fattic's class. Though I intended on that bike to be more of a 650b commuter this one will be a super touring bike. Not quite expedition. I'll be using those 650b wheels as well as other parts and the lighting system from that first bike. Sorry goose (goose is its name) you'll be on the hook for some time.






One of the things I needed to get in order was a fork bending mandrel that gave me at least 65mm of rake. I've decided to go again with low trail front end geometry, which requires greater fork rake. The whole operation was easier than I had anticipated. All one needs is a fork with a pleasing radius to trace, a block of maple, some sort of band saw to cut the radius and a small variety of rat tail files. I filed this mandrel for imperial oval blades. I filed a variable radius into the block, if you were to file a "V" it would probably accept other variety of blade styles. In filing I attempted to match the radius of the blade as it conformed around the mandrel.

For the question of finding the right fork to trace I used a 1961 Schwinn Paramount fork to model after. You can either trace the inside or the outside of the bend. I choose the inside. After transferring the curve from paper to block and then cutting off the excess wood the next step is filing. Since I chose the inside radius of the fork after filing I ended up with an even tighter radius, which I anticipated and am pleased with. If you traced the outside edge of the fork you'd probably end up with a curve closer to the original.

After the first few tests and some modifications I ended up with a fork rake max of 110mm. After cutting off the flat section of the rake I get about 80-90mm of rake. This mandrel will be adequate for the fork I am building and will look pleasing to my eyes, perhaps to others as well.

Winter bikes

For the last 4 years I've built up a new bike for each winter. The first of the series of designated winter bikes was a KHS flite track bike, which doubled as a polo bike. A simple fixed gear with a seat mounted fender. I had it geared really low to battle the wind and warm up my body more rapidly. I ended up selling it for some reason or another. The next year I built up a white trek 750 with a 3 speed Shimano internal gear hub. I guess the combination of building up a used hub with winter street salt and my desire to ride hard and fast wherever I went that destroyed that hub in a matter of a few months. I then built it up with a derailleur again. Once again having to deal with the mechanism freezing up with the slush inside of it. That was a swell bike that I thoroughly enjoyed. It met its demise when we were deflected of the front side panel of a white Ford 250 pickup truck. Last year I rode a early 80's stump jumper most everywhere, including 28 miles round trip three times a week across Chicago. Derailleurs froze, Cantilevers seized up, but all in all a decent bike. Its currently set up with a large cargo rack on the front. Gaining weight its even more unappealing to ride 14 miles to work and then another 14 home, probably into the wind. So it was once again time for a new winter bike.





I'd found myself missing riding fixed. I'd given it up half out of my growing interest in geared bikes and half out of my distaste for the gaudy sub culture growing around fixed geared bikes. I wanted to have those muscles I had when I used to ride fixed. I wanted the simplicity of a bicycle that won't fail under salt and slush. I wanted an excuse to build another bike. After five winters in Chicago I've reached this years conclusion. Fixed gear, Internal brake, and Generator. So far the bike is working out great, though there is no snow on the ground yet.