Christmas is rapidly approaching, and Santa should have something in his stocking for Leighton. This is a fixed-gear commuter. Front brake only, but running dual brake levers as Leighton likes to ride on the hoods.



Fizik Aliante saddle, Velocity wheelset, Nitto bars and Soma crank.



The frame is Zona and Nivacrom tubes on Long Shen oversized lugs.



Powdercoated in Precious Steeel Pearl yet again.



Oval chainstays and forward-facing rear dropouts.

The year is winding up, which unfortunately has meant that work has been flat out. Add to this the fact that Heather has been sick for what seems like weeks. Consequently, my time has not been my own, and there's been very little happening in the Shed.

I had a few hours blocked out this afternoon for working on Frame #5, but that got derailled when we picked up a car-load of ancient gardening tools from the Trentham tip for $10. What should have been time spent on the frame turned into a couple of hours spent wire-brushing and welding shovels, spades and garden forks. But I'm not complaining - a good scavenge is its own reward.

I did manage to spend some time on the frame though, and can report that the main triangle is mitered, the lugs are fettled and the water bottle cage mounts and front derailleur hanger are all brazed on. Cable guides are brazed on, vent holes drilled and the main triangle is more or less ready for the fixture. One last clean of the tubes and it'll be ready for brazing.



This frame is Nuovo Richie lugs, Columbus Zona tubes and a wishbone rear end. I'm loving working with the NR lugs - they are beautiful, very well made and are, in my opinion, just the right amount of ornate, without being over the top.



I'm planning to use a Strawberry/LAN71 wishbone unit on the seatstays. The connector tube will obviously fix to the back of the seat tube. Advice from those older and much wiser than me is that brazing it to the back of a .6mm tube with no other re-inforcement is not a good idea. The Nuovo Richie seat lug is too short at the back to allow me to braze it to the back of the seat lug. What to do? To cut a long story short, I ended up fabricating an extension to the lug, matching it to the lug's existing shoreline. I brazed it up using brass and then carefully sanded it back till it was an almost seamless addition to the lug. Then came carving the extension to match the lines of the lug. It's finished now, but for a little fettling of the edges. It'll provide a much bigger surface to braze to, and hopefully will be sympathetic to the rest of the lugs.