I've always wanted to build myself a custom lugged steel bike frame. A current gap in my employment as an IT professional, combined with just enough cash to get some parts, and some awesome encouragement from my Velomihottie (thanks, babe!) recently had me going from just thinking about this, to ordering a Columbus SL Tubeset with lugs and all the rest.
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| Uncut tubeset and lugs roughly laid out on my template board. |
Upon receipt of the package, I set out the tubes and lugs to see if the angles and sizes were roughly correct.
Once this was confirmed, I decided to start with the top tube/head tube junction, filing the lug and removing the burrs from the edges to fit it to the top tube.
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| The headtube/downtube lug sitting on the workbench. |
The idea is to build a classic steel road frame with lively 74 degree angles like the steel racers I rode as a kid. I plan on it being a size 58.5 center to center because this is the only way to get that size, and that's my size according to Greg LeMond's formula of taking one's inseam and multiplying it by 0.65. It'll have enough clearance for fenders, and I'm still deciding whether it should have rack mounts as well. I want it to be versatile, but at the same time, I'm a bit leery of cluttering the frame too much with braze ons.
