Constructing the Rear Triangle: The West County Custom P3

[@tahoward818]

I’ve often fantasized about building my own frame and have even looked into taking classes. As you’ve demonstrated here, the process has many twists and turns, but you’ve worked through the problems magnificently. Well done! Can’t wait to see you ride that beauty.

[@BruceChastain]

very nice job, can't wait to see it finished

[@dewittlunsford2527]

What a great project! Looking forward to seeing more of it as you progress with it 👍

[@benc8386]

👏 Fantastic job! You nailed the hardest part which is getting the rear triangle aligned right without having to resort to filing the dropouts. Lovely work too on the tops of those seatstays with a traditional wraparound design. I always put the bottle bosses in before joining the tubes together worried that otherwise I won't be able to fit the drill in there but I'm sure you will figure it out! There is some controversy in framebuilding circles around whether the SS bridge needs a larger fillet or if you can just flow some silver in there so will be interesting to see what you do.

[@wismuthennecke1808]

Verry nice! 👍

[@postpetrol43]

Nice job so far. I like to drill the water bottle mounts before joining tubes. I don't have a jig or guide so I drill a pilot hole first. Then I use a jewelers round file to move the center if I need to, and usually I do. Once the slot that is made has a center where it is supposed to be, I drill out to the final 1/4 inch size. This works to place to any hole on the frame precisely, as long as you use a smaller pilot hole and you have no other way of consistently properly placed holes. I usually cut away the bridge cast into the chainstay sockets to later put in another bridge made from a seatstay cutoff. A fender mount can go on this bridge. I drill holes at the seatstays where brake bridges join, so there are hidden de-fluxing passages. You can drill drain holes at the inside seatstay scallops on the dropouts.

[@Henrywildeberry]

Thanks for the tips and suggestions. John mentioned I should drill all the bottle bosses first too, but I didn’t want to have to worry about getting the holes in line with the miter cuts. After doing it this way I can see that it would work to do them first.

[@the_derpler]

A new era. Maybe I will ride a wildeberry frame one day :)

[@Henrywildeberry]

Thanks for the vote of confidence! Before you place an order we should wait and see if this one doesn’t fold in half. 😂

[@davidsonvillain]

​​@@HenrywildeberryBy "fold in half" you mean you're going to put in S&S couplers?! 😅

[@gerarddriscoll5599]

It would be cool to use your KZbin symbol for the head tube badge. Well done on the build 🚴🚴🚴

[@Henrywildeberry]

@@gerarddriscoll5599 Thanks for the idea! Happy New Year!

[@MrMarumari]

Nice job Henry!

[@Henrywildeberry]

Thank you!

[@mikemaxwell2591]

The satisfaction of knowing you built the bike you're riding will be next level. Can't wait for the finished frame ready for assembly. How do they chrome the lugs? Be well.

[@Henrywildeberry]

Thanks Mike. To chrome the lugs I believe the entire frame needs to be chrome plated. The paint is applied over the chrome and the lugs are left exposed. I think that's how it's done?

[@mikemaxwell2591]

@@Henrywildeberry Adds up perfectly. It does make that Cadillac ride pop! Thanks.

[@tmagee27]

Chapeau!

[@pajo2460]

LOOKS GOOD 🚴‍♀Nice What an adventure

[@Henrywildeberry]

Thanks! This project is a lot of fun.

[@kenblair2538]

WOW ! Happy New Year, Ya'all. HW, I'm totally impressed with this build. Only someone with an engineering background , could do this project . Just can't wait to see the finished bike and you riding . Thanks. KB

[@Henrywildeberry]

Thanks for the kind words, Ken! It's just a lot of messing up and redoing. If you put enough time in it will look half decent. Happy New Year!

[@toddmcdonough]

Born in a shed and ready to shred.

[@Henrywildeberry]

That’s what my mom said too!

[@brunorosa2227]

For cold setting, and you're welcome to take this idea with a pinch of salt, I use an aluminium yard rule, the sort that costs 10-15 bucks on fleaBay, then buy a second hand internal set of dividers/calipers (the things that look like lobster pincers) Now unbolt said calipers and then bolt a half of the calipers to the end of the rule,, typically where the hole is put to hang up the rule. Now you have a tool that when placed against tubes of the same diameter will give you a parallel datum you can measure. Example, using you Vernier's you measure the rear drop out spacing as 129mm, you want/expected 126mm, 126mm /2 = 63mm, on the non drive side the caliper touches the drop out, on the drive side, after measuring, it's 3mm out, bend the drive side only. It's always worked for me, remember the tubes must be like for like. Also drop out alignment tools are mandatory, I use Cyclus Tools ones because they give virtually every possible combination of width, just well designed kit.

[@Henrywildeberry]

Good tip! I like your idea, and I think I can make something like that. Cheers!

[@felixjackson2670]

Fantastic. Really well done. Yes Miss Cools,Congratulations. Am very interested to know the approx cost of all your equipment needed for this project,plus cost of frame materials. You have created a beautiful bike frame there Henry. Respect.

[@Henrywildeberry]

Thank you, Felix! I appreciate the kind words. The total cost of the equipment is hard to total up. The oxy-acetylene tanks, regulators were purchased used. The kit I purchased came with a hose and torch. However, one of the regulators needed to be repaired and I decided to purchase a new torch (smaller one). I also bought new flex hoses for the smaller torch. That was the biggest by far cost. I bought a used bench grinder, and a used air compressor (neither were required to do this, but they helped). The other big item was the fork fixture (bought used also). Otherwise, hand files, a bench vise (the most important tool), the tubing blocks, dummy axle, sand paper (the stuff on a roll is excellent), flux and filler wire. I printed out a full sized drawing at the local printing place and hand the miter templates printed. The reason I decided to invest in the brazing outfit was so I could make racks and other misc stuff. That was what lead me into wanting to try a frame. If I were to make another frame I will design and build a few fixtures (on a budget) to help keep things aligned while I'm working. The other item I would like is a bigger flat table (3-feet x 4-feet) to work from. Having to lay out the plans on the floor is hard on the knees.

[@DavidRains-j4u]

It’s looking good Mr Wildeberry, are you going to make a headtube badge for it?

[@Henrywildeberry]

Thanks David. l haven’t decided. I will give it some thought to see what I can come up with.

[@Primifluous]

@@Henrywildeberry It's got to be a local Sonoma wild berry, no?

[@peterbedford2610]

You're not using premade seat stay ends?? Looks cool. I used a 135mm Axle width and I made my chain stays 46cm. I still needed to dimple for tires wider than about 40mm.

[@Henrywildeberry]

The seat stay was the only custom feature. I figured it would either be a flat plate type or the curved plate. I wasn't planning on curving the tips around the top of the seat lug, but as I worked on it I thought I would give it a try. I figured if it didn't work out I could always file them shorter. Luckily it worked out okay. I may need to dimple the stays a little. The tire fits but with only a few mm's on each side to spare.

[@cosinus_square]

You should frame this template when you're done.

[@ccjelley2390]

Did you aim for a certain bottom bracket height, or did it just emerge from the chainstay lug angle in the rear BB? A track frame might have a higher bb height, a pure touring frame quite a bit lower. Also wheel size might vary requiring a higher or lower BB, indeed the length of chainstay will also affect the height to some degree.

[@Henrywildeberry]

I set the BB height to match my road bike with 271mm, but with 35mm tires. The way I got it there was to slope the TT slightly and slacken the HTA & STA. That way I could use standard lugs. The chain stay lug angle is somewhat flexible which allowed me to set the chain stay length at 420. All of this was designed in Bike CAD and then checked in ACAD.

What is a fillet brazed frame?🤔

[@Henrywildeberry]

It's a frame constructed without lugs. It allows the builder the freedom to set all the tube angles, but you need to a fixture to hold the tubes while you're brazing the joints. It's more advanced. Check out Paul Brodie he's a master at fillet brazing bicycles. He has a bunch of videos making fillet bicycles. Also, check out any of Tom Ritchey's original mountain bikes, they were fillet brazed and still going strong today. I think it was Dario Pegoretti who said fillet brazed bicycle frames are the best riding bikes.

@Henrywildeberry ok thx, I see some french builders doing it

[@tmagee27]

Taylor Brother's used it too. There are some Lugged Jack Taylor's out there but think majority of their work was fillet. My Tandem is.