Monthly Archives: December 2015

Marc dropped by with a couple of Colnago’s that had encountered a hard time during re-refurbishment. The Mexico had lost a cable guide. No problem there. I dug around in my stash and found one that matched. Easy fix

Colnago Mexico cable guide

The Master. Well it had had the rear end crushed.

Colnago Master crushed rear end

This was going to be somewhat of a bigger job. Marc wanted to save as much as he could from the original. That amounted to the dropouts and the brake bridge.

Colnago Master DO’s

The rear end of this Master is socketed at both ends of every tube so that meant that tubing had to be the same as original. I think I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Seat Stay sockets Colnago Master

Chain stay ports Colnago Master

Colnago Master rear DO’s
in the jig

Chain Stays fluxed and ready for heat Colnago Master

Colnago Master seat stays fluxed

Colnago Master DO’s again

Colnago Master seat stays

Dropouts finished Colnago Master

Colnago Master with new rear end

Merry Christmas everyone. Stay safe out there

Mark brought me his 1890’s era Humber frame.

Pre- 1900 Humber

These bikes are pre- BSA standards and just post the high wheeler or penny farthing era. As such they have some very interesting features. Not the least is yet another example of the fact that there is nothing new under the sun. Observe the offset chain stays in an obsessive attempt to make sure chain line was correct.

Offset Chain stay

More recent bikes have featured asymmetrical chain stays for both the same reasons and in an attempt to provide more direct power transmission. Marks frame was out of alignment and because the bottom bracket was a smaller diameter than the standard ( now almost unlimitedly variable ) BB, I had to turn up some bushes in order to use my alignment post. In a past attempt at cold setting this frame the chain stay bridge had been torn away from the stays so a bit of brazing was required to repair that.

Humber Alignment

Humber alignment

As it turned out the frame wasn’t that far out and when I had finished it was spot on, but the fact that these frames sit rather high may have exaggerated the feeling that Mark was having. Anyway he was happy and has gone off to re-assemble it and experience the ride of over a century ago