unterhausen

I am building a frame so I can swap bikes around when my main road bike is off getting painted. I have one all ready to braze, but when I started on it long ago, I decided to use all the ideas I don't like on it. It's going to be a rim brake randonneur, that isn't going to change.

Anyway, I have the rear brake housing routed through the top tube, and after that I ran out of ideas I don't like.

Andrew R Stewart 

How about a trail amount that you wouldn't be caught dear riding? Or that fork which has horizontally slotted drop outs to adjust rake and trail that you always meant to make but never got around to. How about a dedicated to only one light design bracket? Or for a tire size that's going out of style? Andy (who has more if you've got the time)

Aubergine 

You should use Simplex dropouts.

unterhausen

Big tires only Not sure about your light suggestion, I was thinking about finally using my seat tube mounted taillight that I have in storage. I haven't used it because I don't think it will be as effective as I want, and I prefer to stay alive.

I am going to make that adjustable rake fork someday. Interestingly, I tried a really low-trail fork for my travel bike, and I'm pretty happy with it.

vintage cellar

I think you should incorporate INTERNAL gear wires for a start. Especially if they do not have any sort of guide tubes to route the wires.

Secondly - use rear track ends with a derailleur hanger brazed on. Truly epic fun every time you need to remove the rear wheel. Extra points if you install a fender on there.

Lastly - use the old water bottle bosses where they brazed on a bolt sticking up instead of drilling the tube.Then be sure to start to cross-thread the nut and strip the threads away. This is especially enjoyable
when you do it on a new frame with the new owner watching you assemble it.

That's O.K. - you can thank me later (he says as he is running away)

unterhausen

I like silly ideas. For example, I really wanted to get a set of Cambio Corsa dropouts for a frame. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I didn't move quickly enough on that idea and now people have bought up all the parts. OTOH, I keep thinking that it would be possible to make the dropouts.

Since this is a practical bike that I intend to ride, I was more thinking about ideas you would see on a bike at NAHBS (RIP) that have pointless features just to get attention. Now that I've had time to think about it, one of the ideas I had originally was to have a slip ring between the fork and head tube to pass current to the taillight. I'm trying to think of an excuse for why I don't have to do that now.

guy153

OK some frame features I don't really like (for reasons of personal aesthetics and in some cases possibly the age I was when they were invented):

1. Eccentric BB shells
2. Curved seat-tubes in order to make the chainstay length ridiculously short
3. Loads of seatpost sticking out
4. "Adventure nipples" on everything for "bikepacking". I prefer rack bosses to be braze-ons that don't require drilling the tube ("adventure nipples" are actually bottle cage bosses)
5. Internal cable routing

unterhausen

We agree on #5, obviously. I am thinking about low rider bosses with drilling on this bike though.
I was thinking about getting a curved seat post for my long-delayed mtb frame. It's silly, but everybody's doing it.

blacknbluebikes 

big over-padded meemaw seat?

unterhausen

This is the framebuilding forum, not road.

obrentharris 

Take your cues from some of the mid-20th century English builders; cantiflex tubing, diadrant forks, hellenic stays, curly stays, floral lugwork, flying gate style frame.
Moving farther afield and forward in time how about Gilco tubing, a front derailleur braze-on, and a little hinged door for a built-in toolbox?
Brent

unterhausen

I forgot to mention that the front triangle is already mitered and fork blades are raked, so that limits things on the tubing front. Realizing the tubes were ready to braze up was like finding a $20 bill in your coat pocket the first time you put it on in the winter.

Where does the toolbox go?

obrentharris 

On the carbon bikes with this feature it inhabits a little triangular space above the bottom bracket and between the seat tube and down tube.
Brent

Andrew R Stewart 

Or in the team car following you... Andy

vintage cellar

Even with the main triangle brazed-up, there is still time to glue Boron-Fiber strips to the tubes like Gary Klein.

Again, no thanks necessary . . .

MF in SF

unterhausen

Klein bonded them? I thought it was some kind of composite alloy

Aubergine 

you can stil braze a tool box with a hinged door to the frame!

bulgie 

Yep, boron strips were bonded to the rear stays after the frame was heat-treated. Not on the main triangle, which was plenty stiff enough due to the diameter. But stays are more constrained in diameter, so they needed a little help stiffness-wise, in Gary's opinion. Only on the top models, Team Super or whatever it was called.

He also added the boron strips to the fork blades, which were normal steel, so that was a really dumb idea. As dumb as Exxon adding a cabron overlay on their steel forks on Grafteks. Mostly for looks or product differentiation than any real effect on the ride.