Both Ron’s and David’s Huntsman builds are very similar. Both Force 22. Both Stan’s wheelsets and King and Thomson bits. Both sport racks and fenders. But Ron’s has a rear rack, David’s will have a front rack with a matching bag/tote. As I was waiting on fenders for both builds, I couldn’t finish up Ron’s until those came. The way fenders work, at least the ones I rely on, HONJO (IMO, these are THE best money can buy) they come un-drilled. So you can set them exactly where you want. But this also takes some care to make sure that the bridges are in the right locations balancing both tire clearance and fender balance visually. Form and function as they say.
With fenders in hand, I can then determine exactly where the chainstay bridge should be (I determine the seat stay bridge first on tire clearance, with an eye for room for the fender too). But fenders were on their way when I was completing Ron’s build, so chainstay bridge had to wait along with his rear rack. Rather than wait over a week, I decided to move ahead with the next in the list, David’s Huntsman. This is good because it allowed me to keep things moving, have no down time but also allowed me to do a little double duty on fenders and brazing when parts arrived for both of these builds. I have a handful of fatbikes come up next and even more 135mm spaced thru axle fat forks, so I’ll do the same here and maximize some time with setups. So here’s David’s build coming together, beginning with welding his bottom bracket sub-assembly:
Tacking the hidden spot on the seat tube / bottom bracket junction. Weld the 4 points of the compass, then wrap that weld where the Down Tube overlaps the Seat Tube :
All tacked :
Holding those seat stays :
Just a few of the tools and equipment to ensure proper weld integrity. Heat syncs and purge fittings. To give you an idea, that’s over $400 worth of tooling…
And then stitching it all together (my favorite part, albeit the shortest of the process in terms of time investment) :
Every start/stop of a weld requires a clean tip of the filler to be cut. No exceptions. The ends once finished, and cooled are contaminated (or can be). Thus a clean tip is snipped. Noticed they were lined up. Gives you an idea of time investment :
The work and the results :
A little brazing and wheel checks :
And then of course, when the work is done and the torch has cooled, we need to suit up and head out to the trails for additional inspiration and a much need refresh of the soul.
David’s Huntsman
Both Ron’s and David’s Huntsman builds are very similar. Both Force 22. Both Stan’s wheelsets and King and Thomson bits. Both sport racks and fenders. But Ron’s has a rear rack, David’s will have a front rack with a matching bag/tote. As I was waiting on fenders for both builds, I couldn’t finish up Ron’s until those came. The way fenders work, at least the ones I rely on, HONJO (IMO, these are THE best money can buy) they come un-drilled. So you can set them exactly where you want. But this also takes some care to make sure that the bridges are in the right locations balancing both tire clearance and fender balance visually. Form and function as they say.
With fenders in hand, I can then determine exactly where the chainstay bridge should be (I determine the seat stay bridge first on tire clearance, with an eye for room for the fender too). But fenders were on their way when I was completing Ron’s build, so chainstay bridge had to wait along with his rear rack. Rather than wait over a week, I decided to move ahead with the next in the list, David’s Huntsman. This is good because it allowed me to keep things moving, have no down time but also allowed me to do a little double duty on fenders and brazing when parts arrived for both of these builds. I have a handful of fatbikes come up next and even more 135mm spaced thru axle fat forks, so I’ll do the same here and maximize some time with setups. So here’s David’s build coming together, beginning with welding his bottom bracket sub-assembly:
Tacking the hidden spot on the seat tube / bottom bracket junction. Weld the 4 points of the compass, then wrap that weld where the Down Tube overlaps the Seat Tube :
All tacked :
Holding those seat stays :
Just a few of the tools and equipment to ensure proper weld integrity. Heat syncs and purge fittings. To give you an idea, that’s over $400 worth of tooling…
And then stitching it all together (my favorite part, albeit the shortest of the process in terms of time investment) :
Every start/stop of a weld requires a clean tip of the filler to be cut. No exceptions. The ends once finished, and cooled are contaminated (or can be). Thus a clean tip is snipped. Noticed they were lined up. Gives you an idea of time investment :
The work and the results :
A little brazing and wheel checks :
And then of course, when the work is done and the torch has cooled, we need to suit up and head out to the trails for additional inspiration and a much need refresh of the soul.