Included with all of the Bundy framebuilding equipment from the were one and a half track frames built by Peter. The half frame was completed by Minh and has since been one of his personal rides around Melbourne. Pictured below is the very last Peter Bundy-built bicycle frame and fork. These are its specs: Tubing: … More The Final Peter Bundy-Built Bicycle Frame
One half of VillaVelo visits the Handmade Bicycle Show Australia 2019. Recap and admiration. … More Handmade Bicycle Show Australia 2019
Today Killenbike (Sean Killen) and Tempest Bicycles (Rob Benson) launched a new collaborative bike label, Chimera Frame Works at the Killenbike workshop in Newtown. With intentions to make a steady stream of truly handbuilt steel bicycle frames, the first Chimera prototype road frame was debut today. Featuring fillet brazed Columbus Minimax tubing, wishbone seatstay finishing, … More “The Makers” Event Recap
Now this is a bike that has seen a couple of owners. My earliest memory of this bike was seeing it for sale via Munga, a regular on FOA and BNA forums, later forming the original incarnation of the Retro Cycling Classics Facebook group. About a year or two later when we were over at … More Minh’s LOOK KG361
On paper, the idea of brazing a bicycle frame sounds simple enough: the tubes are cut and mitred to length at the correct angles, then either fitted up into lugs or tube to tube for brazing. The brazing material should be adequately melted and flowed to fill the inner surface of the lug and where … More Frame Dissection
This week’s tool is a recent acquisition, thanks to Gypsy aka @thedomesticdomestique. It is another bottom bracket tap, this time in Italian threading: 36mm x 24tpi, right-hand thread. Packaged with the Italian-threaded cutter was a matching VAR branded tap handle. It is of fairly similar design to our pair of English-threaded taps, with a cylindrical … More Tool of the week: Italian thread bottom bracket tap
Ah, the trusty old dremel. Well, it is more accurate to call it a die grinder or rotary tool, as Dremel is the brand name of the ubiquitous workshop tool – kinda like how we all call what is identified as an ice box “Esky”. Yes, things were done by hand in the old days … More Tool of the week: Dremel
Brazing small parts onto steel tubes is one thing; stopping them from moving around is another. That is why jigs and guides take a lot of guesswork out of positioning parts to be brazed, because once it’s brazed on… a bit of effort required to make adjustments. One such spot that is a bit challenging … More Tool of the week: cable guide holder
This isn’t so much a tool specifically related to frame building, but something that we use everyday, and is rather important in general. Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE, is generally an item of clothing or equipment worn or used to minimise risks to the health and well-being of the user. In the frame builder’s workshop, … More Safety first.
After digging around the shed earlier this afternoon, we have uncovered a mystery jig that we had almost forgotten about! Quang had designed and machined a chain stay jig for use with our main jig plate, so this separate contraption became obsolete. The main issue is: we don’t know how to use it. First, let’s … More Tool of the week: chain stay brazing jig
VillaVelo 