Hot Tubes Bike Building Course

I've been obsessing about bicycles for a few years now. Something about the freedom of riding a vehicle that is powered by only the person driving it really appeals to me. The design and artistry that goes into bike frames and components is also something that I find massively appealing. I've been tossing around the idea of making myself a lugged steel frame for a while now. I've bought, downloaded or borrowed from the library, just about every book on the subject that has every been written. The problem is that brazing requires lots of practice and is best learned from someone with lots of experience. I looked into some frame building courses, but they all seemed to be two weeks long and that would eat up all of my vacation, which would not go over well with the wife. I then stumbled onto a course at Hot Tubes near Worcester, MA that is only a week long. Not only that, but it happens to be fairly close to where I used to live/work and I have a friend in whose guest room I can stay for the week.

The only catch is that due to the compressed course time, the method of frame construction is TIG welding, not brazing. TIG welding has benefits over lugged construction, in that it is faster, potentially stronger, and does not limit the frame geometry to only angles for which there are existing lugs. The drawback is that it lacks some of the artistry involved in intricately carved lugs, which is one of the things that really draws me to hand-built road bikes.

The fact that TIG welding has the benefit of flexible geometry made the decision to make a mountain bike rather than a road bike an easy one. I've been considering getting a 29er mountain bike for a few years now. They have a reputation for being well-suited to northeastern riding and bigger riders. The larger tire diameter rolls over obstacles like the rocks and roots common to New England trails. Also the larger tires provide more traction which is always beneficial.

Initially, I intend to run the bike with a rigid fork and 2x9 gear setup with a bash guard up front. I rarely use the highest gear on my mountain bike so I think I'll be better off without it as I may be able to run a medium cage rear deraileur which should improve shift speed, smoothness and reliability. I have had problems with my current bike jamming the chain resulting in chain breakage, so hopefully some of that will be negated by running a 2x9 or maybe even a 1x9 setup. As far as the fork goes, I haven't really decided on what suspension fork I want to base the frame around. For all I know I may like riding rigid. I think that I'll base it around the Fox F29 with 100mm of travel for the time being and see if I want to add it down the road.

So far I have purchased a few items that I am certain I will need such as a wheelset and brakes. I will purchase the remaining components from Hot Tubes at the end of the class. Toby Stanton, the owner/instructor says that he will sell the components "at catalog prices". Whatever that means. All in all this bike is not going to be cheap, but I think that learning skills such as this from someone with as much experience as Toby is priceless. Sure, I still wish that I could take a course taught by Doug Fattic or someone else, known to be exceptional at fillet brazing and lug work, but I have to start somewhere and Toby's class will give me a starting point from which I will be able to grow my abilities. Best of all, I can skip the initial blundering and have a working, high quality bike that I can be confident in and proud to ride.

I hope to take pictures and document the experience as I go, but as any of the few people who bother reading my blog know, I will probably fail in doing it in a timely manner. There is just always something else to do. I never remember to take enough pictures and have trouble organizing my thoughts in a concise manner such as to describe them to others. Hopefully I'll figure out how to do it in time for the class. It seems like it should be an important enough thing that I may be able to follow through on it.