Reed McFarland
unread,Nov 13, 2023, 11:39:22 AM11/13/23Sign in to reply to author
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Hello Everyone,
My frame failed! I’m not all that upset about it because the odds were not in my favor. The frame has had quite the journey just to get built and so the integrity was questionable.
About 10 years ago, I bought a tube and lug kit from Nova (RIP 😢) and used my Jiggernaut to braze up the main triangle. Unfortunately, the bottom bracket shell came out super crooked and I was pretty discouraged. I hung the front triangle up for about 5 years.
After those 5 years, I was inspired to tackle the frame again. The frame had developed some rust but nothing serious. I unbrazed the whole main triangle as a way to restart. At this point I had a more serious frame jig since I was doing a lot of frame modification and repair. I used this to tack the frame together and got a much straighter frame this time around. I ended up finishing the frame but made a huge rookie mistake.
I wasn’t aware at the time that you could not fillet braze stainless steel. At least not easily. And in my inexperience, I just got the dropouts and chainstays as hot as I could. The bronze managed to stick but after finishing the frame, I was discouraged again. The geometry was more of an experiment as well. I made the top tube/reach a little longer thinking it would handle some single track stuff better but after riding it, I would get migraines. Probably from craning my neck or something, but I only rode the bike like 5 times. It sat, unpainted again, for another roughly 5 years.
Fast forward to this past summer, I found I some inspiration to finally put the bike back together. I put a shorter stem on it and a pair of Surly Sunrise bars and it was much better. I relocated some cable guides and removed some cable stops, so once again the frame had a torch to it. I had the frame powder coated and it came out really nice. I built it up with a belt drive, alfine 8-speed hub, dynamo front hub, and made my own decals for it with my wife’s cricut.
I rode it about 2 weeks ago and noticed some interesting marks around where the seat tube meets the bb shell. The braze had cracked. I also noticed that the dropout essentially let go of the bronze. I put a torch to the bb shell and was able to re-melt the silver and fix the crack, but the dropout was unsalvageable.
I started over with fresh tubes, and this weekend I mitered and brazed a set of non-stainless paragon-style dropouts.
Here’s some pictures of the bike that failed and the start of a new one.