Bundit turned up at my workshop with an old frame. You know the sort. It had the original iteration of integrated headset (everything old is new again), bolt on rear seat stays and unicrown ( if that is the right wording) chain stays. Built for 28 x 11/4 inch wheels. It was too long for him. He wanted to know if I would shorten it and in the process make it more amenable to a press fit headset. My first question was WHY. The reasons for doing something like this are always personal. The frame may have sentimental value or the owner may just want to do it. It can be a bit like hot-rodding a car. We got past that question. The next one was more a question to myself. Could I do this without compromising the geometry of the frame. Bundit said he wanted to run 700c wheels. That meant the resulting longer headtube might be offset by the shorter blade forks. I did some further calculations. As long as he agreed to run a fork with a reasonable amount of offset in order to reduce toeclip overlap it should pan out. I made it clear that the replacement headtube lugs wouldn’t match the originals which were rather blocky. Bundit understood. I was running out of reasons not to take this job on. He left the frame in the cue and I got on to it a couple of weeks later.
Bundits frame
Off with the headtube
Looking through the lugs
Filing finished
Reaming and Facing
New Headtube
g.duke Handmade Bicycles 