As Hide said on the ‘Leader 721’ string of the ‘Post your Ride’ section of this forum:- “Clean welding of the Leader is a big +”.
Look at what this guy has done to a VISP frame with a bit of work - Fixed Gear Gallery :: Rollo, Manchester UK, Visp . ‘Rollo from Manchester’ says that he has “smoothed out (re-worked = welds)” on his VISP. Does that mean that he filed, or grinded, the visible parts of the welds? Would that weaken the frame? Any thoughts?
Is the crappy looking welding the only reason why some people hate VISP frames? I’ve never ridden one so I don’t know. VISP frames don’t cost very much – so is it worth doing this?
Yes and maybe, the welds have been filed down, gotta be careful if you want to do this as if you undercut onto the tubing you are fucked.
Was reading about this somewhere as the cannonade track frames that everyone loves so much have had the same treatment, and some people seem to think that it weakens the frame (everyone has heard the whole cracknfail thing).
Personally I don’t like aluminium, but even so I don’t mind those lumpy welds cause that is what happens when you weld aluminium, it is called the “stacked dimes” technique and is considered a desirable welding practice, some people like the aesthetics, but not necessarily in the bike world
When I used to work at a security grille manufacturing workshop (run by a speed/meth addicted kiwi bloke…but that’s another story) I used to have to sand & file down the welds so they were smooth before we powdercoated them. Mind you this was straight gauge square steel tubing, so cutting into the tubes was not as much of an issue. It made a heap of difference, aesthetically, once painted though.
I’ve had one in the past, and while a little rough to look at in spots(welding) they really don’t differ from a hilbrick pista which seem to viewed favourably. I rode a HB pista loaner at gepps x many times, until I built a budget visp, and really couldn’t pick any major differences.
I fitted a rosselli track fork (carbon) like the hillbricks run, and felt that my bike was smoother and queiter than the loaner. Probably because it was new and I’d built and new everything was OK.Probably a lot of the dissers havn’t ridden one anyway.
If you aren’t too fussed about being sneered at by the snobs and want a no fuss hack for low $$$ then they really fill a niche. Don’t think i’d bother with the weld finishing though, just buy a leader.
That dudes email addy is there, why not ask him what he did?
You just wait till you see my new visp, that fucker’ll be so desirable, with it’s carbon forks an cats drawn all over it, and pink splatter paint and shit.
Yeeeah
i’m not 100% sure yet, hence why i haven’t thrown up a wanted ad yet.
hoping to snap up a complete, so been checkin out any clubs that have classifieds on their website etc (plus bikeexchange/gumtree/ebay/FOA). happy for it to be old steel like the hillman etc, but chances of one of those complete for a decent price is pretty rare. having pretty big regrets about selling all the bits off the yellow orlando. what i should’ve done is flipped the frame and got something bigger. job done. but i didn’t coz i thought i needed the cash. good ol hindsight!!!
budget ain’t big, maybe $800 tops. really tryin to find something other than a hillbrick (although i’m told they’re good for the money)
If you go to all the trouble of smoothing out the welds I’d reccomend a decent paint job to finish it off. The paint on these frames chips off far too easy.
Rolly if you could get some good priced wheels you could build up our hillman cheap
Roselli cranks $120 with a sealed bb.
Bars and stems are every where gyp and i would have a stem around.
Just need some well priced wheels.
free bars and stem.
seat and post?
leaves $200 for wheels to get your $800 budget.