Hi everyone,
Sorry about that title; I had my writers working overtime to come up with that opener. Ah, framebuilder humor; can't get enough of it. The answer is in fact twofold. One particular person hit the nail on the head on both accounts recently! The first way would be to send me a 13 T track cog! Turns out to be the only size cog I didn't have any of in my find. Doesn't get any better than that! Or DOES it?! Well, it does actually if one were to go to the mailbox and find enclosed in the very same package a brand new set of Kirk Pascenti lugs. Both a gift from Kirk Pacenti himself to little 'ole me. Ah, schucks. That there was an awfully nice gesture my good Sir! Thank you very much!
So where does the woody part come in, you ask? Well it started when I opened the mailbox and discovered the package. But what REALLY blew my dress up is that I have come up with a design of my liking. Right away I came up with a pattern that is very classic but combines elements of lug curves that aren't commonly seen together. I will lop off all but about 2mm of the upper head tube extention beyond the normal amount. I will have to only add one piece to each of the headlugs. These lugs have lots of potential; I suspect I could come up with at least 5 or 6 designs that would be unique in some way. I haven't started the transformation process on the seat lug yet, but there is no shortage of room to work there. WOW!
I'm not sure what will become of these lugs. I don't have any plans to build anything with them at this time. I am considering building a "superlight" frame with all 1 1/8" main tubes of light steel and very minimal lugs. Tiny minimal plate dropouts and even a CARBON?? fork. It will be for 650c wheels and a modern light grouppo and wheels. The Ti guys on the Sunday ride say I could ride a 13 lb. bike? Is this possible? Is there enough money in the world (that I can lay MY hands on) to outfit such a wraith of a bicycle? Would I be able to drag my sorry ass up the hill any faster on such a machine? I'm very tempted to find out. I wonder how light just the frame would be, made of steel with "bikini" lugs, etc. I'd better send a memo to R&D to get working on it.
Anyway, I'm seriously enchanted with these lugs. To be honest, I haven't started cutting the lugs yet, just the patterns are now on the raw lugs. But I already know what the effect will be once finished and "excitement" is the only word to use right now. I start up the chainsaw and wood chipper to begin carving out some lugs tomorrow morning at 8am when the whistle blows. Stand back, I don't want anyone to get hit by red hot steel.
I will try to get some photos to Kirk soon so all you fine persons can see what sort of thing floats my boat after 30 years of hacking lugs up like a cannibal. There are many beautiful lug designs out there, like those done by Peter Weigle recently. I like mine as much as anything I've seen so far. It combines some of my favorite aspects of classic French lugs with some curves from my fondest classic musical instrument. I can hardley wait to fire up the chainsaw! YAHOOOOO!
Brian Baylis La Mesa, CA Having dreams of Freddy Kruger tonight as inspiration for tomorrow.