@meganL has a question about cycle builders who design for repairability:

AI6YR Ben

@genex @ascentale @meganL Not that I plan on buying anything made in the last decade anytime soon, but I see a lot of touring bikes from Surly, and curious if they are built better because they are touring bikes, or not.

(one can argue I don't need another bike, period, as mine suit me fine, but it is fun to fix them up...).

Weldon Bradstreet

@ascentale @meganL A6. This was a good article, I found it mid-week courtesy of @ai6yr. So many good bikes were built in the 80s. Good steel frames, easily maintained and repaired, not ridiculously expensive unless you bought one new back then. I've ridden Fujis, Miyatas, and Bianchis from the 80s. All well built, all easy to repair. I do wonder about replacement parts availability for these more universal road bikes in the future, though.
#BikeNite

Megan Lynch (she/her)

@Heyweldon @ascentale A6. Yeah, it does seem like that could change, which would suuuuuck.

With both bikes and cars (which have already succumbed to the proprietary parts, surveillance, DRM thing), I wonder whether models with a lot of fans will have someone actually making new parts from scratch, from molds or something... #BikeNite

moggie

Smaller custom frame builders tend to use standard parts, even if the frames themselves are unique.

As for brands, Bike Friday is the first one that comes to mind.

@ascentale @meganL

Demian

@ascentale @meganL My steel frames have been custom which is nice but a bit indulgent. Fairlight and Ritchey make some pretty nice stock ones.

Epu

@ai6yr @genex @ascentale @meganL I like my surly cross check and haven’t done any touring with it. It does have lots of braze on points for mounting stuff.

My rear seat stay broke and @meganL noticed there was a frame builder near me, and I had them do my repair.

My bike is just around 7 or 8 years old and I wouldn’t have expected it to break off, but being steel it went back together. The surly warranty is 3 years on frame.

Grauskeks 🕸🦇👻🍪🎃 :graz:

@dgodon @ascentale @meganL A few days ago apropos of not much I jotted down a list of steel bike brands: besides Soma, Merry also have New Albion; then there's Kona, Velo Orange, Pelago, Brother, Genesis, and somewhat more upmarket Fairlight, Rivendell, Shand, and Singular. A couple of small brands making steel frames in Europe are Paripa (Czechia/Germany) and Glanzrad (Italy/Austria).

Megan Lynch (she/her)

@twobiscuits Thank you.

AI6YR Ben

@epu @genex @ascentale @meganL Hmm, that's an idea, learn how to braze my own rack mountpoints on vintage steel frames!

Sam Whited

@meganL @twobiscuits I've got a New Albion Drake and I'm a big fan. They're basically the same as Soma just with a different badge (both made by Merry Sales Co. and I think they're the same factory/designers IIRC). It is… concerning to me that they were like "yes, Colonialism and slave traders, those would make good bicycle brand names" :S

#BikeNite

Epu

@ai6yr @genex @ascentale @meganL pretty soon I’m gonna know two frame builders

AI6YR Ben

@epu @genex @ascentale @meganL Learning how to weld is on my list of skills I need to learn.

Sam Whited

@ai6yr @epu @genex @ascentale @meganL I built my first frame recently and I highly recommend it!

For small stuff like a seat stay repair, even if the frame was originally welded brazing may be a better way to repair it (since you've already lost material and it's *very* easy to take too much off if you're not an expert TIG welder with steel that thin).

#BikeNite

Sam Whited

@meganL @Heyweldon @ascentale I wouldn't worry about replacement parts for these sorts of bikes. Half the parts haven't changed since then, and even the ones that have there are so many used parts and we're most likely still making new ones (albeit at a smaller scale), so you're not likely to run out in the next couple hundred years

#BikeNite

Sam Whited

@EverydayMoggie @ascentale @meganL it's more expensive to be sure, but if anyone does end up looking for a small frame builder I really recommend Danielle Schön. She was my teacher and her frames (both the normal stuff and some of the weird fun stuff for shows) are absolutely amazing! She's one of the few people who does brazing anymore, which I just personally like better than TIG welding (though she does that too).

Custom Framebuilding Squamish

Custom framebuilding Canada, bicycle frame repair vancouver, squamish, sea to sky, Framebuilding classes in Canada, Framebuilding classes in Vancouver

Schön Studio (www.schonstudio.com)

#BikeNite

Epu

@sam @ai6yr @genex @ascentale @meganL

Unsure which mode my team did. Torch work. It looked like they scuffed some parts, heated or burned each piece a little, then slathered some paste-like ? Flux ? on, popped the pieces together and warmed up the whole thing to super hot. (Memory slightly faded, the heat might have all happened at the end after the pasty part). This was a braze on attached to the seat stay that had come apart taking a little bit of the seat stay with it.

Sam Whited

@epu @ai6yr @genex @ascentale @meganL oh cool, probably brazing then, but it could have been oxyacetylene welding too (the difference is just whether you use a brass or silver filler material in brazing or you melt the two pieces of steel together directly in welding). I've only done brazing really; I'd love to learn some welding too though.

Demian

@sam @EverydayMoggie @ascentale @meganL wow, amazing lugwork and brazing.

Sam Whited

@dgodon @EverydayMoggie @ascentale @meganL check out the bike she did for MADE recently if you haven't! Scroll down to the "Peoples Choice" section:

Our Editors’ Favorite Bikes from MADE Show 2024

Our Test Team attended the 2024 MADE Bike Show in Portland, Oregon—North America’s largest handbuilt bicycle event—these are the best bikes they saw!

Bicycling (www.bicycling.com)

#BikeNite

Demian

@sam @meganL @Heyweldon @ascentale In 2002, I gave up finding replacement 7sp SunTour freewheels. I coulda switched to Shimano and either changed shifters or turned the index off on the SunTour shifters, but I donated the bike instead and got a new one with 9sp. Still miss the old one with SunTour SuperbePro. Really nicely made, cold forged parts. And the old Mavic hubs were awesome