Travel bike started
 

I previously built the fork without posting about it. Experimenting with low trail, fork blades bent by John Clay

I put the couplers on. The gymnastics I had to go through to get them on the butts while leaving enough room on the other end of the tube makes me wonder about the locations I have seen on other bikes. Went really well, I was a little hesitant to do this part. But I'm going to France this summer, so it was time

I have some polishing to do, fork crown, lugs, dropouts, and the couplers are all stainless

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ef2f3dac_z.jpgIMG_20190605_111802301 by unterhausen, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4ff2868c_z.jpgIMG_20190605_111811005 by unterhausen, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e0f8d7cb_z.jpgIMG_20190616_235204241 by unterhausen, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8d65a2b1_z.jpgIMG_20190616_235133652 by unterhausen, on Flickr

Eric- The two coupled frames I've built also had me questioning retrofits and the wall thickness where the couplers end up. But then I think of all those super thin gage frames with .7mm ends in lugs, or worse with welded joints... Andy

this one is .75/.45/.75 on both top tube and down tube. But I really didn't want to violate the butt distance recommendations, which are 30mm from the end of the butt to the next tube over. The thing about SfL is that it has really long butted areas, and even then it was tricky to get the couplers in since they add an inch. I guess if I was taller it would be easier.

I'm not worried about the thickness, my experience with these tubes has been really good. My last SFL bike withstood a lot, only succumbing to a stuck seatpost and a failed removal. I still might revive it, we'll see. Main thing stopping me is I made the chainstays too short for the tires I want to use.

got kinda tight at the end because I left for France to ride PBP in mid-August. So I didn't take too many pictures. I was really happy with the way the couplers fit together, that was a relief. Here the bike is set up to ride. I'll get it powdercoated eventually. This was my first experience with low trail, 38mm. I like it. Only downside is it isn't that great to sprint out of the saddle, but otherwise the handling is nice

Nice follow up. The few low trail bikes that I have tried have handling quarks that I am not fond of. But many others seem to like. Oh well, that's why we do this self making of our bikes. We can experiment and chose. Andy

Love that fork! Did you make your own block to bend the tube like that? Simply sweet!

See the first post's second sentence.

BTW I have 6", 9" and 10" radius forms to bend blades. If anyone is looking for these curves (remember there's some spring back, maybe 10-15%) I can help. Andy

As Andy noted, bent by John Clay. I was somewhat skeptical about using that bend going forward, so paying him to bend the blades made more sense to me than making a bending die. But as long as he's willing to take my money, I'm going to get him to bend blades for me if I want a tight bend. I'm going to get him to do a couple more sets real soon now. I might go with a little shorter rake on the next set to see if it fixes the out of saddle sprinting issue. I'm going to make some dropouts because anything you can buy is a little awkward with this bend.

I really like the handling of this bike, it feels super solid. I have seen complaints about low trail that really don't match my experience. Low trail means low flop, and I hate flop. I am a firm believer in handlebar bags for the kind of riding I do. They work a lot better with a lot of rake. I was going really fast down some big hills in France, and it never gave me any reason to think I should slow down.

I flunked reading comprehension back in the day. Should have caught that!