Going Long and Hard.

[Steve Vai]

Part 2.

I picked out my cable stops and locations and marked all those up. While Steve was putting those on I got to work sand blasting my Tange Super Prestige fork. Doing a custom frame is pretty sick but having a matching fork is even baller-er...

And like 200 hours of work later, we have a frame!!

I didn't get pics of each step. While Steve was welding Dennis' frame I sanded the bosses and brazing residue and such.

We momentarily took a break for a job well done and went out to dinner with Steve and his wife. While we were at dinner we had the frames pre-baking in the oven so they'd be ready for powder when we got back.

These things come out of here HOT!! Don't touch. I touched my fork. It wasn't smart.

Guess what color I ended up with? Did you say rust? Correct!! The rust is by far the sickest finish ever. I can't get a pic to do it justice. It looks like it's been at the bottom of the ocean for like 100 years. Seriously, it looks like real rust.

You can't get a feel for the texture it has. Maybe this one is better?

And the all important seat tube decal...

And the only thing that can rival that work of art? I managed to work on my little sculpture.

Like for real, the welds I did today were totally passable. Peep the fork. Watching Steve all day started to sink in a little...Sleep.

-Jim.

 

[Dusty the Whale]

Monkey see, monkey do Frame looks good yo.... Teal and White trim will make it very Rat Rod

 

[pooriggy]

Awesome Jim!

I'm not sure how the ride is going to compare to your custom Seven but the fact that you built it your self has got to make it special.

That guy Steve seems pretty cool to spend that much time with you guys and still want to go out to dinner with you.😛

 

[jdog]

Loving the rust color choice. Now you just need a Brown "Red" kit.

 

[Steve Vai]

I'm gonna see how the green King stuff looks. It may pull off a sick look.

We picked a good tubeset so I'm pretty sure it's gonna ride just fine. If it sucks I'll have a sick beater 🙂

-Jim.

 

[TedH]

I'm gonna see how the green King stuff looks. It may pull off a sick look.

We picked a good tubeset so I'm pretty sure it's gonna ride just fine. If it sucks I'll have a sick beater 🙂

-Jim.

You can always do the root beer king stuff. Congratulations on the frame; that's a great accomplishment.

 

[ChrisG]

You can always do the root beer king stuff. Congratulations on the frame; that's a great accomplishment.

Let me second both statements.😀

 

[don]

Looks very nice Jim - big thumbs up on getting it all done! I am on my phone but it looks dope with the rust beer finish - will view pics when I get on the computer later. BTW, I have a die cut machine if you want some custom stickers for it or a stencil and you could paint the logo on.

Safe travels home - will be siked to see it built and how it rides.



Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using Tapatalk

 

[Steve Vai]

Thanks all. The second color isn't set in stone and can be swapped easy. I already have all the green stuff so its going on. If it sucks I'll swap it later on.

Jim.

 

[Steve Vai]

Saturday.

Drive home. We made great time coming home. We made it in just under 9 hours. Dennis dropped me off at the shop so I could press my headset in and cut the fork. After dinner I built the bike right quick.

Some parts are wrong for now. I forgot about needing a 28.6 front derailleur and seat clamp. I had a 7900 braze-on kicking around so I put that on with an adapter. 7900 won't work with Sram so the derailleur is locked out and just hold the chain on. Wanted to wait on the tape until I got it out on the light...

In the light this morning I decided to go with black tape to match the saddle. I also have green Salsa skewers and will get a green clamp to tie it all together. Just enough green. The front fender needs a custom mount, it sits too low and rubs the tire. I'll make something when I get back into the shop. Now I'm going for a bike ride.

-Jim.

 

[addicted7369]

looks great Jim. Enjoy the rat ride its sick son.

 

[Steve Vai]

Sunday.

Took Rusty out for it's maiden voyage. Damn son, steel is real!! This bike rides very similar to my Resolute. The chainstays aren't as beefy so it's a little softer, read, comfy 😀

The steel fork balances the bike nice. It's a tad heavier than the EC90 on my other bike but it's a shit-ton more confidence inspiring. Whenever I hit rough roads on the Seven I sorta brace for the fork to snap. I think I prefer the extra pound. The geo and fit is identical so there's nothing to get used to at all.

Had to hit eBay to see about finding an old 28.6 Salsa Lip-Lock in green. No luck. Profile Racing makes the Slim Jim in green still though. It looks like it'll match up well. If not, can't go wrong with a black Thomson.

There's something I can't quite explain about riding this thing around. It's literally one of kind. No model name. No brand name. No serial number. 1 of 1. There was only 1 other bike even painted this color, and I used the last of the custom powder so there won't ever be another one. It's sorta surreal that only a week ago this thing was a box of steel tubes on a shelf and now I'm riding it around.

-Jim.

 

[Delish]

Nice work Jim. Love the rust job. I rode steel for years and there are many days I miss it. At some point I'm sure I'll go that way again.

In that last photo it looks like there is very little room between the front tire and the downtube--is that due to the HT angle, fork rake or is that just an illusion? What is the HT angle?

 

[Steve Vai]

It's a combo of all 3. It's not tight for a custom, you're used to looking at production bikes. On a sub-52cm mass produced bike they'll slack the headtube out and add some extra rake to the fork in order to avoid toe overlap. My bike uses a standard 73 degree HT angle and 45mm rake fork so the wheel is tucked up under the DT nice and tight. Custom bikes don't take toe overlap into consideration because performance is compromised far too much. I also purposely put the DT as low as it could go to make it even tighter to give it that slammed look without the bars actually being that low.

Monday.

Took Rusty out for a nice long ride. Stopped at the shop en route to tie up a loose end or 5. Ended up being at the shop a little longer than I wanted to be. But alas, I was on my way out to enjoy the day and hit some of my favorite dirt roads.

Normal Roubaix loop. Started with the Larger Cross loop to McCann. Went up around Hacklebarney and then came back through McCann and Larger Cross out Cedar Ridge and River Road to Burnt Mills. The dirt roads are in great shape, probably better than most of the paved roads around here.

As you'd expect, Rusty slays it on dirt. This kind of bike really comes into it's own in this type of stuff. It just smooths out the bumps and really lets you get power down even in the roughest stuff. Today I noticed even more so how much softer this bike is than my Seven. If my Seven is a 6 of 10, this is a 5, very comfy. I weighed it at the shop. It's not light. 20.5 pounds with nothing on it. It's a full pound heavier than my Seven. However, the frame itself is 1/2 pound lighter. The weight difference is in the fork. The SuperPrestige is about 800 grams cut down, the EC90SL is like 200 grams. If I put the EC90 on Rusty it'll be lighter than my Resolute. I don't like the EC90 though so I prefer it this way. It made me realize that I need a beefier fork for the Seven.

Speaking of Seven.

Not sure if anyone caught that I sold my P3 a couple weeks ago. In an everlasting goal to replace everything in my stable with something handmade here in the US of A. I pulled the trigger on a Diamas SLX. Baller status. The Cervelo actually uses a 58cm TT anywhoo so my position on that bike isn't right. I'm fishing for time in the TT Cup and dialing my tuck will do wonders. I want to do better this year and take the cup more seriously.

Anyway. A few months back some dialog started up there about putting together a new race team. Somehow my name got put into that pile. I got call from Dan, who's in charge of the team, and he asks if I'm interested. Interested in racing for Seven? Are you F'ing kidding me? Of course I'm interested!! He said it would be a couple months before he worked out all the deets. So this morning I get a call from Dan saying that he's designing my bike because he does all the team stuff. I'm in. I called back again this afternoon to go over the details of my bike and my goals for the season, etc...I'm super stoked 😀

Speaking of goals.

This year I really plan on making an actual return to racing. Last year I really never got going. I was much more concerned with making it through in one piece and letting my shoulder heal. I pushed hard in the TT Cup because there was minimal risk of ending up in the hospital with another broken whatever. I feel like I'm ready to go now. My fitness is on the up, my weight has been on the down, my spirit and motivation has come back. In short, I feel like racing my bike. That feeling wasn't there in '11, I just showed up and rode around. I'm not sure if the "kill everything that moves" attitude I had in '09 will ever return, nor am I sure I want it to. A balance between the 2 is in order...

-Jim.

 

[Steve Vai]

Tuesday.

Back to it this morning. Work!! I was surprised to hear we have a full schedule worth of repairs. Being 40 degrees in January has it's benefits but I sorta keep waiting for the floor to drop and it to turn into winter at some point.

So just a commute through the ghetto today. It was cold enough to score an extra point this morning. The ride home was warm and toasty though.

Took care of some odds and ends on Rusty. The FD and seat clamp came in already so it's not ghetto anymore. I drilled the barrell adjusters to 4.5mm so I could put ferrulles on my gear cables where they sit in the stops.

Not sure if I went over that or not. In my quest to make the bike sorta traditional and OG, I just rooted through all the bins until I found some cool old cable stops. However, I forgot that back in the day the stops were 6mm and used an adjuster for 5mm housing. These days those stops are 5mm. I used the cool inline adjuster that comes on newer CX cantis like the TRP Euro-Xs. The hole in the top of those is designed for a straddle cable and not a 4mm ferrulle. Nothing a drill didn't fix. Custom.

-Jim.

 

[Pearl]

Jim, what is the difference between the Seven and Rusty?

 

[Steve Vai]

Jim, what is the difference between the Seven and Rusty?

Rusty has a lighter weight/thinner diameter set of chainstays on it so it's like 1 point more vertically compliant. Rusty also has a beefy fork on it so it's more stable over the choppy stuff. Angles and fit are identical between the two. I'm gonna build the Seven up lighter, and murderer(er). All black errrything.

-Jim.

 

[UtahJoe]

It does kinda remind me of this....love the color choice

 

[THATmanMANNY]

yeeaaa.... I'd rather just buy my frames haha 😀 Great job.

If you were to reccommend three make/models of fenders what would they be? I ask cause my planet bike one has really large mud flaps and cause toe overlap

 

[jdog]

I never thought Rust on a bike could be such a wonderful thing.