Looking for a local frame builder

brendonj

brendonj

Likes Dirt
Hi All,
Any one have suggestions who i can talk to about getting a custom frame built?
Am building an aluminium dual suspension frame using the front triangle from a hard tail.
Appreciate any help.
 
MARKL

MARKL

Eats Squid
How are you going to attach the rear triangle without fucking up the heat treatment and turning it to spaghetti?

I would start with cromoly.
 
mitchy_

mitchy_

Llama calmer
I'm not of much help, but won't the geometry be out of whack? Hardtails usually have a much lower BB due to not needing to allow for suspension, raising this will give you a much steeper STA and HTA.
 
merc-blue

merc-blue

Likes Bikes and Dirt
brendonj said:
Hi All,
Any one have suggestions who i can talk to about getting a custom frame built?
Am building an aluminium dual suspension frame using the front triangle from a hard tail.
Appreciate any help.
Click to expand...
I have done a little frame building.. start in steel. getting tubing in good alu grades and sizes is a PITA. and heat treating is also tricky, there arent a huge number of people who have kilns that can take a bike frame, I had to give up a frame build because no one had a kiln in Aus big enough that they were willing to use for a "small" one off job.
Jump on pinkbike into the home made bike thread. the user madm3chanic is a self taught frame builder I would PM him for some advice.. building your own frame is costly, time consuming and hard. if your doing it for anything other than the enjoyment I wouldn't start.

I would recommend starting with some steel hardtails.
converting an existing frame is hard as the tubing will not really be designed for the localized loads the pivots cause
 
brendonj

brendonj

Likes Dirt
Its a prototype, so i do t want the mass of steel affecting the dynamics and i dont need it to last forever. I am considering HT for the rear subframe.
Aside from that i have heavily compensated for the reduction in mechanical strength in the HAZ through design details at connection points.
 
merc-blue

merc-blue

Likes Bikes and Dirt
brendonj said:
Its a prototype, so i do t want the mass of steel affecting the dynamics.
Click to expand...
thats not how it works. you can buzz up a steel frame for a about a 1k, depending on what you have access to. an alloy frame by the time you go through getting some extrusions and heat treating your going to be spending a couple of grand. if its a prototype. buzz up something quick and cheap to see if it work.
I think you fill find most of the good DIYers use steel even for their finished bikes as the cost/weight/availability/ease of use balances out. I think you will find the weights of steel isn't much more than alloy when you dealing with straight wall round tube (i have assumed this) unless your paying to have your own profiles done. in which case its not really a prototype, butted steel is readily available aswell.
 
brendonj

brendonj

Likes Dirt
merc-blue said:
thats not how it works. you can buzz up a steel frame for a about a 1k, depending on what you have access to. an alloy frame by the time you go through getting some extrusions and heat treating your going to be spending a couple of grand. if its a prototype. buzz up something quick and cheap to see if it work.
I think you fill find most of the good DIYers use steel even for their finished bikes as the cost/weight/availability/ease of use balances out. I think you will find the weights of steel isn't much more than alloy when you dealing with straight wall round tube (i have assumed this) unless your paying to have your own profiles done. in which case its not really a prototype, butted steel is readily available aswell.
Click to expand...
Really appreciate your comments, but the problems you are talking about dont affect me. I have all the light tubing i need. I have some excess weight impact fromthe connection design to deal with strength loss. But i can live with that.
The design will work. The question is more about how well it works.
 
mik_git

mik_git

Likes Bikes and Dirt
brendonj said:
but the problems you are talking about dont affect me. I have all the light tubing i need. .
Click to expand...
I think he means that with steel you can weld away to your hearts content, attach bits here and there or move them anywhere, but as soon as you start welding something to your pre heat set aluminium frame, it may well turn into a big pile of slag.
By all means give it a go, may well all work out fine, be interesting to see how it works, just be prepared for it to big a big cluster fk (and you still have to pay someone for it).
 
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