Recently I wanted to build up a bike with a slightly shorter top tube and a different head angle to test out a few fit ideas for myself - part of the joys of getting older and less flexible! Plus, if I could make the seat tube short enough then my 10 year old son could ride it as well - which would be his first true 700c road bike.
Since I had this old frame hanging in the shop that had a dented top tube I decided this particular frame would be a perfect candidate to do this conversion.
This frame was originally built in 1992 using a Tange Prestige Ultimate Superlight tube set - when this frame was built I had "upgraded" the down tube to use a slightly more robust "standard" Tange Prestige 28.6 O.D (.7mm x .4mm x .7mm) tube, and I also replaced the super thin 25.4mm top tube from the set with the original 28.6mm (.6mm x .3mm x .6mm) down tube as an upgraded and "oversized" top tube.
It is no wonder that the super thin top tube ended up with some dents and creases...This was, and is still, the only tube set I have ever seen with such a thin .3mm wall thickness - I think that is just a little too thin for a proper steel bike frame.
For this repair I decided to update the head tube to a simple 36.5mm O.D. 1-1/8" EC34 and also used a TrueTemper S3 teardrop shaped top tube that I had in stock. The existing seat tube was cut down a fair bit for the improved stand over clearance I wanted - this made for a very aggressively sloped top tube. I also removed the old above BB braze-ons and re-routed the cables under the BB.
The final color of this updated frame is a nice candy blue powder coat that almost changes colors depending on the surrounding area.
I can ride it now with a long 330mm seat post, and my son can also ride it with the seat slammed close to the top tube...
He is pretty excited about it and can't believe how fast a real road bike - his first adult sized bike!
We specialize in high end custom made steel racing bicycles. Contact us to see if we can help you with the selection of a new bicycle, repairs, replacement parts, as well as the design and building of one-off hand made custom frames. We can provide hard to find parts and accessories, specialty replacement parts, and even custom designed and manufactured parts and accessories.
Based in Santa Cruz California Worthington Cycles was founded in 1983 by Monty Worthington. Since 1983 we have built custom steel frames including; mountain bike frames, road frames, track frames, and cyclo-cross frames. We have also designed and built specialty handlebars, custom stems, cantilever brakes, custom wheels, and many other specialty parts. 2019 is the 36th year building and working on custom bicycles!
Take a look at the posts on Custom Frames, Cantilever Brakes, Custom Wheels, and Custom Steel Stems, each is summarized with photos, product information, and some history of the product. All of our in house products are made in small custom quantities offering a limited supply, and depending on the season we may be out doing R&D testing or racing, instead of just building parts.
Worthington Cycles also has a long history of doing bicycle racing photography and product photography for the bicycle industry. We are working on a Image Library to show some of our classic racing images from our many years of covering races freelance or on assignment with major cycling publications.
We like to build with different rims and hubs when new products are available. The latest is a wheel set I just finished that uses the Boyd Altamont Lite rims and Bitex hubs.
I built this set up pictured below with a 20H front rim using DT Revolution spokes, alloy nipples and radial lacing - the 24H rear uses DT Revolution spokes on the non-drive side with alloy nipples laced 2 cross, and on the drive side DT Competition DB 14g spokes also laced 2 cross with more durable brass nipples.
This is probably going to be my replacement rim of choice since the Stan's NoTubes Alpha 340 rims are no longer being made - this wheel set weighs 1454g.
