MattiThundrrr
Kona Fan
How I learnt to stop worrying and love FTW
- Thread starter ragnarock
- Start date
ragnarock
Retro Guru
My bike thanks you all for the praise! I do feel very lucky to have been able to work with Frank. I actually approached a handful of UK builders in the early stages of this process and got turned down. "Mini dogsbolx" and "mini Donkis nob" were email subject lines. I also got into discussion with Chris Dekerf who I also had the privilege of speaking to prior. He was keen - but for this particular project I felt Frank was a better fit for what I was after in feel and connection.
Man this is just fantastic !So...I initially finished this bike in the midst of the covid fog - but started this all in April/May 2019.
I was going to tease this out piece by piece but I don't have time, (it's already been near 5 years)...so here it all comes in one go!
Boring Introduction and "why":
One day in 1995 or so my friend told me about a hot bike shop in downtown Oslo (where I grew up). We popped in, and there on display; was an awesome yellow turquoise ARC - the colours were poppin' and the whole thing with the big sponsor logos looked badass. I've had a thing for Yeti ever since, but only recently scratched the itch when I tracked down a 22" FRO PRO frame in 2015. It was that restoration project that prompted my first contact FTW in 2016 - he welded up a new FTWtrax fork for me in 1-1/4 flavour.
Now...the biggest problem with this thing of ours is it requires a fair whack of space to keep all these bikes. This is compounded in London where I now live. Furthermore I need to carry these things up and down numerous flights of stairs to reach the rabbit hutch I call home. This is quite incompatible with fat tyres and meaty frames at least for the day to day. I wanted something that gave me the MTB feel but was small and that I could also rip about in the city on.
The Design:
Having decided I wanted something with a bit of Yeti, and that it had to be small and therefore bespoke - I set about researching. What I wanted was a mini velo but in MTB/BMX form. When I was searching for this (initially about 10 years ago) not much came up at all, and being that I'm a tall gangly sort of shape, I knew the geometry was going to be challenging. I did at the end of the my research come across pictures of what I since learned were VVA creations but at that time didn't come across any details of who they were attributed and hence no insight into that fellow fruitloop's thinking. I find it quite reaffirming that what I've since ended up with is not too far off where he was way back in the early days. It's always nice to be in good company when it comes to madness.
I started with the base geometry (saddle height, wheelbase, and slightly adjusted reach) lifted off the bike I ride more than any other - a 1974 Moulton MK3 that I commute on. It's a great bike - it's cool - it's a workhorse - it's my little bike that can do anything - it's just not MTB cool.
I wanted a hub gear - I'm a big fan of Sturmey 3 speeds. You don't need much more in London. The 3 speed gets me up the hills in Hampstead the few times I'm there. It allows me to monster mash past the roadies and I can also hop in the mid gear and pootle about. It's perfect.
Also being a Brompton rider and burning through rims due to street grime and rim brakes, I wanted disc brakes and it's great to be able to stop on a dime.
Lastly I was keen to try a belt drive so wanted the chain stay to be separable.
From there it actually came together very quickly - I traced over an elevation photo, took some dimensions and RattleCADed up a drawing with basic dims and sent all my pictures and sketches and cad files off to Vermont.
The Welding:
After some money changed hands... I had a couple short but awesome little video chats with Frank before we got started - but mostly I left him on his own to interpret what I was after and also discuss gearing ratios as that needs to be considered in terms of belt drive and the chainstay length. Apart from that I'd get little messages and photos here and there, what do you think of this or that little detail? I'd say great and Frank would bash it out. The majority of it came together over a period of a week or two. Frank doesn't sleep much it seems!
I'd originally planned on finding a standard set of BMX bars to suit the build, but couldn't find anything nice and narrow (for avoiding those rear view mirrors in traffic) so sketched something up and Frank welded that up too in no time at all.
He was supportive the whole time, and suggested tweaks to things like rake and offset. When it was all fabricated in the end, he also helped get the frame powdered at a shop nearby to him to my colour choices and then it was just a wait for the box to arrive.
The Build:
When it arrived it then took me a good few months to scrape together all the other parts I had in mind as well as getting parts re-anodized (rims and stem, Thank you Acorn for the matte pink!). There had to be some purple of course. Bits came in and I'd assemble them, we've all screwed together a bike so I'll skip all that and on to the current iteration. I've probably gone through 6 or 7 seatposts trying to find proper length and layback for the bouncy Brooks. In retrospect I could have corrected this in the geometry.. you learn. I also fitted a dynamo hub upfront, hence the tape... but I like it like that. I was recently in Tokyo - hence the frame pads, safety pizza and bar bag courtesy of an hour gawking at the wonder that is the Blue Lug bicycle shop in Shibuya. I normally ride it with the bars lower on the headset stack - but I was out enjoying the sun this weekend so I raised to a more leisurely upright position - and that flexibility was always the intent.
The Ride:
It was a big investment and frankly (ha!) I have to admit, I was worried about how it would ride and feel being that it was such an oddball geometry - but it's turned out great - all at once, fast and nippy, firm, solid and comfortably pootley.
Frank was great. Ride on!
ragnarock
Retro Guru
For my specific project, steel with FRO inspired style was most viable structurally. Just contact him: https://www.frankthewelder.com/contact/Anyone knows if he makes new ARCs or can do one? What would the price be?
minor_LEGEND
Senior Retro Guru
What a great build. A pretty cool concept. I could ride that.
He does something not a million miles off for Ron's Bikes, so can't see it being too much of an ask?Anyone knows if he makes new ARCs or can do one? What would the price be?
Similar threads
