Building A Bike Frame

November 22, 2021 Ag Manta

A few weeks ago, I went to Johnstown PA to learn how to build a bike frame with Megan Dean of Moth Attack. The course was designed around teaching with traditional, fillet-brazed construction and focused primarily on the use of hand tools. Over those two weeks, I measured, mitered and brazed a set of tubes together and ended up with a semblance of a bicycle frame. I also learned that there is an incredible amount of work that goes into a single fillet brazed frame. The whole experience was amazing, from the work we did, to the rides we went on. I’m very excited to finish the frame, build it up and ride it!

For this class we used a hacksaw, a drill and some files to get the tubes cut and mitered. After finalizing our designs in BikeCAD, we inspected and prepared our tubes. This meant marking centerlines, finding butts (haha) and labeling every part of the tube. Click through the gallery below for a much abridged step-by-step process of building the frame.

Marking and labeling tubes is very important.

Front triangle is laid out with an edit of the frame design.

Some primary dimensions listed on final frame design from BikeCAD.

After a few practice joints, we attached our seat tube to the bottom bracket in the Anvil Jig

Next up was mitering and tacking the down tube. Getting the miters accurate was a really important and challenging part of building the bike frame. Megan helped out a lot!

Front triangle taking shape.

Tacked front triangle is ready to be taken out of the jig and fully brazed.

Megan is making sure I don’t overheat the tubes!

Freshly brazed, covered in flux.

Mocking up tire clearance for the rear. The bike is built around 27.5 x 2.3ish tires.

Tacked the stainless sliding dropouts. Stainless steel requires silver instead of brass.

There is a lot of double and triple checking alignment and clearances.

Trying to get the seatstay miters even.

The frame is tacked!

“Complete” frame, after brazing on cable guides and cage/bag mounts.

I would be remiss not to include pictures of Johnstown, Pa, from the Center for Metal Arts to Hope Cyclery to the wonderful places to ride.

Spring Time Bike Swap 5/15!

May 9, 2021 Ryan Stanis

Hi folks, just popping in for a quick announcement: This coming Saturday, 5/15, we’ll be hosting a bike swap at the shop! Philly has been without a bike swap for quite some time, so we’re hoping you’ll come out and see what’s cooking! They’ll be plenty of vintage parts, complete bikes, probably some new parts as well. They’ll also be pottery for sale, and honestly who knows what else! Ryan will probably have a box of old punk shirts if that’s your thing. If you’d like to get in on the fun and reserve a spot, check our instagram bio for a link on how to sign up.

Also, even though the event is outside, we’ll be requiring masks to browse or participate. Maintaining adequate distance will be difficult, and there will be the possibility of a dense concentration of people, so please bring a mask and keep it on for the length of your stay!

Hope to see you Saturday!

First Bikes of the Season, More Custom Builds, Introducing Semi-Custom!

April 21, 2021 Ryan Stanis

The busy season is upon us with quite the vengeance. As most folks probably know by now, the bike industry (like many others) has been riddled with shipping delays, missed stock ETAs, and unsureness (is that a word?) as to when we’re going to be seeing more of…..anything.

Spring's About Sprung - Office Hours pt. 3

March 5, 2021 Ryan Stanis

March is here and we’re starting to see the first signs of the spring tune ups roll into the shop. This can only mean more folks are getting out on rides or planning to do so in short order. Unfortunately, this nasty winter has left us with tons of debris in the road, often times cleared from the path of cars and right into our unsuspecting and comparatively small tires.

Winter Custom Builds

February 27, 2021 Ryan Stanis

We’re entering the first thaw of the season (Will it last?? Will it be a false start to spring?? Only time will tell!), and we’ve got a bunch of custom builds to share. These builds kept us busy through the winter doldrums.