RiddleOfSteel

Hi everyone, hope you're doing well. I'm usually over on the C&V forum, but came across (and picked up) this sweet fillet brazed steel Bushnell track frameset just today after spotting it a few days ago. I normally ride anywhere from a 63-65cm road frame as I am 6'5", so this being a 62cm was close enough/my size.

Dennis Bushnell is, for those of us new to his name (including myself), is best known currently for his eccentric bottom bracket (primarily for tandems) but is a master frame builder that worked for R&E Cycles here in Seattle for a number of years. He built many framesets, including ones for the 1984 US Olympic team, and is well known for his tandem frame builds.

Needless to say, I am very excited about coming across this uncommon frameset, and in my size, let alone now having a true track frame in my quiver. As the frame is used and came about through a non-profit bike shop in the area, it is not a NOS show piece. But that's perfectly fine! I'll clean, wax, and touch up the paint, and then just build it up. We have a local velodrome at Marymoor Park which I'd take it to.

Some stats and measurements so far:

Frame size: 62cm CTT
Top tube: 59cm CTC
Chainstay/rear center: 395mm measured at the midway point of the rear dropouts
Dropout length ("CTC" possibilities): 25mm
Head tube: 205mm
Dropout spacing: 100/120 F/R - standard track spacing
Frameset weight: 3089g or 6.80 lb which includes the frame, fork, and Chris King 1 1/8" threaded headset(!)

I'll get to pictures, because that's important, but if anyone has a Bushnell or information or pictures of one, I'd love to know/see it--so thank you very much in advance! Google searching, both 'normal' (text/ articles) and image, have turned up absolutely nothing, so I'm soloing it for now.

Buried among other framesets:


Skull sticker covers a perfectly nice "B" decal. This was immediately removed when I got it home.

RiddleOfSteel

Once home, I took some dingy (thanks, new apartment hallway lighting!) but clear photos. Fillet brazing is very nicely done. I'm used to seeing lugs with steel, so smoothed joints are something I have to remind myself of being done...even if I own a handful of vintage Cannondales...

As far as weight goes, 3089g for the frameset puts it among the very lightest steel framesets I have owned or currently own. It feels super solid, if heavier than I thought it would be.


CK headset is super stealth. One only knows it's a King by 1) spinning it 2) looking at some of the detailing 3) reading the engraved text at the top. I did #3 , then #1 made sense, and now that top cup detailing has me checking off #2 . Notice also zero accommodation for a front brake mount, even if the fork will allow a 28mm tire!


Smooth BB shell. The seat tube starts off as round, and tapers to a "semi-creased" oval at the BB shell, presumably for added stiffness. Cool detail. (and perhaps a 27.0mm accommodation as it measures less than 27.2mm longitudinally. I will have to confirm via trial and error once I find my freaking 5mm allen wrench!)

RiddleOfSteel

Some details of condition and other features. Some paint bubbling here. I'm not going to repaint it, but the non-paint sections will get touched up:


Columbus rear dropouts:


...aaaaand Columbus front dropouts. Classin' up that unicrown fork!

hairnet

I am so jelly. Great looking frame, have fun!

seau grateau

Nice find! Got parts picked out to build it up yet?

RiddleOfSteel

Thanks!

Thank you! The parts list is slowly formulating. I picked up a 1 1/8" threaded-to-threadless stem converter, which I've used a ton on 1" steerers on my vintage road bikes as I usually hot rod them with newer STI "brifters" etc. I'll put a 1 1/8" threadless stem on it with 31.8mm clamp bars. Nice, stiff, "sure-feeling" front end.

The seat post diameter measures a little funny, so I'm going to have to experiment with that and use a post from the half a dozen or so that I have. Saddle will be a spare one that I have. I'm thinking an older Fizik Aliante Carbon in all black. It's subject to change.

I'm mulling over a few wheelset options. Not spending a million bucks is the general aim (same for many of us, so nothing new here, lol). There's a set of Miche polished track hubs laced to black Mavic CXP22 rims (silver/machined brake track) that is available, as well as another set of (much newer) Miche track wheels--the Pistard WR. All black hubs, spokes, and rims. Rims have no brake track. Both sets are in great shape and are the same price. Of the two, I'm leaning toward the newer Miches because of the brake track-less rims. It's a single color, and would allow for some killer contrast when running tan wall tires or tires with any color. Sure, they are 2000g and as a track/SS/FG novice [I've had and built up some SS/FG bikes, but it's been 3-5 years and neither frame was a true track frame, but with this I want a full track orientation] I don't yet have a frame of reference for preferable/non-preferable outside of "doesn't weigh 10 lbs," "doesn't weight 0.5 lbs," "strength/stiffness is an ideal due to the power and forces being put through the bike." So I'll have more research to do on that front. Nothing on the local Craigslist at the moment. I could go new. I'm a fan of the H+Son Formation Face, if largely in part due to old super-deep-V Campagnolo Shamal wheels that were run on bikes in the pro peloton back in the day.

Crankset is also unknown. Nothing used at any of the local used bike shops in town. Nothing on CL yet either. We have the Seattle Bike Swap coming up in a few weeks, so I'll keep my eye out for things there.

The bike will likely be a panda color-scheme-wise, which will be fun. I'll try and splash some well thought out color in there where possible.

TimothyH

Beautiful work on that bottom bracket area.

phobus

Super cool. Are you planning to run a brake at all? The fork crown looks like it has plenty of room for drilling if you can stomach that. If not, there are brackets that clamp to the fork blades to let you run a standard caliper, for example:

https://www.tracksupermarket.com/bra...set-front.html

mouse

RiddleOfSteel

Thanks! No plans to run a brake or brakes. I was surprised to find that 28mm tires fit underneath the fork crown, though I'll be running smaller. I want to keep the frame as original as possible, even if a nice powder coat would get rid of the various paint chips. The decals are in great shape, it's just the rear triangle that managed to get a lot of wear--not really anywhere else.

I've gotta try and figure out fitment, which means getting this thing on wheels and seeing the angles I'm working with. That will determine saddle setback, though I'll not have it set back as much as my road setups. I may end up running a longer stem and 'tune' the fitment for riding in the drops. Much to consider!

50voltphantom

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! There are other ways. That frame deserves better.

REDMASTA

lol ^^^^^ thought the same when i read it.

RiddleOfSteel

While I appreciate your opinion, do you care to suggest a solution? A search for 1 1/8" quill stems reveals a multitude of 90° and taller stems, primarily for mountain bikes and hybrids. Not a 73° road-type angled stem in sight. I looked locally as well (used parts shops) and didn't find anything either. I'm no dummy, and have been running threadless-to-threaded adapters on 1" forks for my vintage road bikes for years. They look great (because I know how to set them up), and allow for a 31.8mm clamp diameter drop bar. I can run a standard +/-7° rise 1 1/8" threadless stem, or I can find a +/-17° one that gets the stem horizontal or angling downward slightly. I am perfectly fine being a classicist by running quill stems and have them on a number of my bikes. I do the conversions primarily for the compact drop bar profile, running 'brifters', a modernized look, and some weight reduction. I only run these conversions 'slammed' or as low as they can go--anything else, IMO, looks bad.

Exhibit A:

RiddleOfSteel

Picked up the Miche Pistard WR wheelset I was considering. Butter smooth hubs. Silver, high flange. Single side fixed cog threading. Picked up a 15T Dura-Ace cog as well--another good deal as well.

Using a level app on my phone (for what that is worth in accuracy), I have a seat tube angle of 75° and a head tube angle of 75.5°. Nice and properly steep, as one would expect.

As for fitment, lining it up in comparison to one of my road bikes, it looks like a 90mm stem will put the bars (and thus my hands) in a location that is comparable to my road bike, reach-wise. The seat post is obviously much too high, and will come down substantially. Proportionally so far though, I'm liking where this is heading. I really dig the no brake track aspect of the rims. Certainly makes sense! Tires on next. I have some darker tan wall Deda Tre 23mm tires that are more 21mm in size. That I think would play nice with the all black rims, certainly breaking up the heavy black/white theme so far.

EDIT: Took some more measurements, and ran numbers through CAD to come to a calculated fork rake and trail.

Front center: 602mm
Fork rake: 28mm
Geometric trail: 58mm

For margin of error's sake, rounding a fork rake number to a nice 30mm fits, as does making the trail the "ideal" "neutral" of 56mm. I've had a few super steep head tube road bikes and they usually tame themselves the faster you go. They're still a bit nuts, even with trail amounts at or around 56mm, but they behave well enough if you pay attention. Vintage crit bikes were something else, including Cannondales. HT angles in my size on those beauties was 74.75° with sub-400mm chain stays thanks to a seat tube whose centerline met the BB shell ahead of the BB shell's center/spindle line. Road variants weren't much longer in the chain stay department. All are great riders and total rockets if your legs are up for the challenge.

50voltphantom

Quill stem-friendly compact drop: https://www.somafab.com/archives/product/highway-1-bar

Would look so much better on that nice bike.

IAmSam

I am a bit of a retro-grouc...errr...traditionalist myself - I happily use quill stems on my 1" threaded steerer bikes. And I even have a Highway 1 bar on one of them.

But in this case - I have to agree with RiddleOfSteel that he has a valid reason to go with a threadless stem adaptor. Did you notice that he mentioned more than once that his bike has a 1-1/8", not 1", threaded set-up? I've been around long enough that I can remember when 1-1/8" threaded steerers were the next big thing in mountain bikes...for a minute. It did not take very long for that standard to be dropped in favor of threadless; and while my Altzheimer's may be kicking in - for the life of me, I can't recollect it ever gaining a bit of traction on roadies or track bikes,. Maybe its hung around for some cruiser(ish) and hybrid bikes but, to me, it is damn weird that it is on that otherwise pretty nice frame.

I am not in the mood to go shopping to double-check, but IIRC RiddleOfSteel is also right that there ain't really such a thing as a decent 1 1/8" road or track quill stem out there for his bike. So I cannot fault him for adopting an adaptor, and its really no use to keep

RiddleOfSteel

@50voltphantom I am a big fan of the Soma Highway 1 bars. They come in 31.8mm clamp diameter as we know, but more importantly the 26.0mm diameter is offered. The ergonomic benefit while still keeping a classic quill is something I really appreciate. Still, as mentioned before, It's the getting from 'there' (a 1 1/8" threaded headset) to 'here' (a handlebar of choice that works well with a road-angled quill stem) that is the tricky part.
@IAmSam thank you for the information and added context regarding 1 1/8" stems and headsets. I think what you've said helps date this frameset as some further research is putting that headset's time around the early '90s. Perhaps the lack of lugs and the presence of a unicrown-type fork also corroborate that as well. Mountain bikes have led the way in component durability (and thus beefiness) for a long time, so I can see the logic trickling into a track frame of that era--especially a large frame--due to the need to handle power.

I had the idea to find some sweet made in the USA Controltech stems as I think they look great in that '90s vintage sort of way. Alas, their road stems were 1" with their 1 1/8" and 1 1/4" stems being mountain geometry.



We live in a very good era of threadless stems. '90s through the mid '00s saw some dark days in stem land. 2-bolt clamps for 26.0mm bars, with 'ergo' bars working with brifters that hadn't fully shaken their brake-lever-only roots (hood to bar meet angle). What I call the "mountain range" bar/stem/brifter setup (up, down, up, down):

RiddleOfSteel

So apparently a 1 1/4" road stem exists, is immensely uncommon, but no 1 1/8". Tandem use? The -15° rise is absolutely perfect for my head tube angle. So close...

TMonk

nice, older Control Tech stuff is cool IMO

RiddleOfSteel

For sure. Their road quill offerings had that slammed threadless stem look and a -17° rise like more traditional 1" quill stems. Too bad I can't use any of it! I am very happy with the converter and it should serve me well.

Controltech's modern stem offerings are pretty cool, particularly the Falcon and Falcon Aero stems.

hairnet

The ControlTech Falcon Aero stem would look great with that frame. All you need to do is place a black spacer under the stem to fill the gap and it will tie-in to the rest of the bike smoothly. I use 1-1/8" stem adaptors just because they're so much more convenient than quill stems and you don't risk scratching up a nice bar getting it into the stem's clamp.

RiddleOfSteel

I was/am thinking about the black spacer. My thinking up to this point is that the gap, which is as little as it can be at present, allows for very minor stem/adapter flex without binding on the headset and causing any creaking sound. I can always try grease, though. A Falcon Aero stem would be sweet, but the stem converter bolt is currently in the place of a normally smaller bolt that cinches a normal stem cap down to preload the bearing. Maybe the bolts are the same size, maybe not. My concern is that the bolt for the stem converter is meant to be torqued down solid like a normal quill stem, versus the torque rating for a top cap (traditional threadless headset setup) is a lot less. I wouldn't want to ruin a perfectly good and new cap due to ill fitment or undue amounts of torque. I'm looking up to see if I can find torque specs on the converter.

hairnet

Does the cap butt up against the body of the converter? On mine the converter and cap are separate (sold together) but they mate when everything is fastened, so the bolt is torqued the same as any quill stem.

RiddleOfSteel

That cap does do that. The thing with the Falcon stems is that they have their own caps due to being specifically aero. I don't want to grab a bunch of pictures and break down explanations or draw diagrams (I know it would help all of us) because I'm leaving town for the weekend and need to leave very soon (gotta pack, too, lol, I know what I'm doing...), but there's the link to the Controltech stems. The cap of the profile design converter may not fit well with the CT stem, and the converter bolt head is likely too large to fit into the CT stem cap, and that's to say nothing of the CT stem cap being able to withstand converter (or quill stem) bolt tightening torque should the converter bolt head happen to fit into the CT stem cap's bolt head recess. And at any rate, it's not going to be used on this bike, but I'll keep it in mind for other builds/bikes.

hairnet

Right, I see what you're talking about. Welp, that's too bad.