My s works tarmac can fit 25’s but the problem is when I’m sprinting and I get wheel flex they rub on the stays,
Up front is fine but the rear rubs so its back to 23
And BB drop will be 75mm…
The geo is all dialled in and BikeCAD has been done by Ryan.
Darren will review it and a copy will be sent to me.
This is not a crit racing bike so should be and fast as possible while
maintaining comfort for long rides.
The way they fit seems backwards to most bike shops as they haven’t yet built the frame.
The bars and saddle position are set relative to the BB then HT, ST length and angles are determined on mid rail mounting of
the chosen saddle and steering ‘speed’.
Once the cockpit size it set the whole cockpit can be moved relative to the BB, so changing the ST angle only.
And to keep Alex happy, a single 10mm spacer below the stem & 5mm spacer above to allow for minor adjustment.
The HT length is varied to make this work rather than just using more spacers.
Cool bro, you must be excited … happy for you 
Except longer chainstays make for a more stable bike. You know how the trend of short chainstays came about?
Builders used shorter chainstay to reduce the amount of flex in the rear of the bike, with mordern steels/materials, there is little need for this.
Long chainstays 4 LYF = clearance for 28s + guards = beardo roadie. NORE GRTS
Well that’s true in principle. My Duarte has a CS length of 398mm and 10-speed worked fine on it.
400 mm chain stays on my merida
Like a school girl at a One Direction concert.
Got the final geo in the emails today.
BB drop 80mm
Chainstay 420mm
HT angle 72deg
ST angle 72.5deg
Fork rake(offset) 50mm
Trail 58mm
what you gona do with the paint work.?
GTA paint scheme. Still working out colours.
Something very close to this is what I’m thinking at the moment. Pretty conservative.
Not feeling the blue spacers or headset, black on black = winning.
3T Ergonova Stealth bars - more black on black.
And the geometry, very much different to what I’m currently riding.
This shape is all about riding on the hoods which I don’t seem to do as much
as I should as I’m too stretched out on my current bike.
Seat is also about 40mm higher than what I’m currently riding.
I’ve been hanging out for this info and had put off getting a fitting locally once I ordered the bike.
This is based around a saddle that I have been using for the last 10 years. I’ve put this saddle
on three other bikes as it seems reasonably comfortable.
The fitting also revealed that it does work for me and doesn’t create any hip issues.
I was also told that I should never buy a f’izi:k Arione as this would certainly not work for me
but f’izi:k do have other saddles that would be ok.
All interesting stuff.
I feel bad about putting this saddle on the bike as it’s not very fancy, but it’s a good shape for me and it works. boyracer did point out that I could always get Busyman to recover it for me to make it a bit special.
Interesting
Also Busyman recover makes any saddle baller
Also asked Ryan about CX frame sizing. He said 10mm longer & bars 10mm higher.
Get weight more forward. And I’m guessing BB 10mm higher for clearance.
Thats pretty much spot on what I would do
^^^^ Great diagram. I love how they include the water bottle!
The #roadtrip was over-documented on Hipstagram for those that follow. Got to Melbs incident free, caught up with MikeD to grab a crossing guard, played bike shop roulette with Jetnikoff, Commuter, Abbortsford and Shifter.
Some confusion at Shifter about wheels with hubs not arriving. Faces were made words were said then everything was back on track. Hubs were found and requirements confirmed. Boring Campy hubs to sweeeet HED Belgiums - 32H front & back. Dan’s preference is for 2x front & 3x rear so that’s what’s happening.
Said I was heading straight from Prahran to Geelong for an AM fitting. He give that knowing smile and asked if I’d been there before or if it’s my first time. I was indeed popping my handmade cherry and he just laughed. Kid in a candy store type of laugh and he wasn’t wrong.
For folks that bang out some of the best hand made frames, their workshops like 20 other shops I’ve been to pretty modest and all about getting the job done.
And I’m thinking, really, am I at the right place. I thought there’d be sculpted gardens and a gravel drive like a winery or a boutique, rural art gallery. Yep, been to a few of both. Then you get inside and it’s like - holy shit, I saw that bike on Polly NAHBS blog and shit…
Turn to the right and BOOM - this is where it’s at. Shit just got real.
But that’s for later. Compulsory coffee and introductions then a tour of the ‘workshop’.
- “So you remember this bike from the Bike Shop”
“Yeah sure, nice colours, well balanced” - “Yeah, it’s one of Darren’s and he’s been riding the shit out of it. XX1 is helping sort out some issues with BB width vs stays vs fatter tires which is why Darren built this for the show. 650B to boot, just to show we can read”
Pretty much the stable of bike that the guys and girls that work there own. All personal rigs.
There is one ring-in. A mass produced TT rig. Since Baum are all about the fit they ‘borrowed’ a bike from a local reviewer just to see what’s what in this space. We then chatted about the 2013 BMC TimeMachine - I was hijacked by Team BMC last week at coffee (I had a big table and was lone wolfing). One of the guys must have been on the new TimeMachine, that shit is 'cray.
Fourth seat back has some phat crabon going on.
Quite look around and this is a serious place. Lots of machinery and I’m awestruck. One of the lads is reaming a Ti seat tube and it sounds like someone murdering a Banshee with a chainsaw. The conversation is stilted until he’s finished. Glancing around and there’s a bunch of frames on the wall, all repair jobs. Some Baum, some not. Those that aren’t are Ti frames, beloved by their owner but most likely from a bigger shop with less commitment to design. These frames nearly all have problems that are design related.
Sure they can be repaired but no-one is going to guarantee a repair when there are design issues.
One of the questions a number of people have asked about the new bike is:
- “So it a Columbus tubeset, yeah?”
“Errrr, no it’s not. It’s a blended tubeset using Columbus, Reynolds and Dedaacciai tubes.” - “Oh, I thought it would be all Columbus”
Sure, I’m getting a steel bike and this is somewhat understandable. Steel has been around for a long time
and people have preference or beliefs in what’s ‘best’. I’m cool with that.
What’s not so understandable and blew my mind is what happens when you make the switch to Ti.
It’s a crazy arse material used in a bunch specialised applications including bike frames.
Baum choose to buy plain gauge Ti tubing and custom butt the tubing in-house to suit each frame and rider they
are building a frame for. I had not idea this is how they did things and how much labour in then involved in
each Ti frame they make. Sure, there is a cost difference in materials but the fact that they swage each tube
by hand is just epic.
The chainstays are ovalized, manipulated, mitred and welded to product something that none of the tube makes do. Just amazing and all the usual phrases are bandied about - horizontal stiffness, vertical compliance, power transfer.
This is crabon hyper speak but when you see it in raw Ti it seems to mean something different.
And there is a tool for everything. There could be more and over time I’m sure there will be.
I’ve seen picture of what Kumo currently has and is banging out some top class product. You get here
and it’s just a toolmaker/frame maker/bike nerds wet dream. So much thought gone into what’s important.
What’s not. What quality means and how we set a standard and maintain it. While trying to maintain a
reasonable customer expectation on time frames.
There are processes that help streamline the process without making it robotic or monkey work.
And every mitre, every joint is a precision thing. A thing of beauty, art and engineering magnificence.
Some jobs are done by hand and always will be like the seat tube reamer from earlier.
Other jobs benefit from the ‘right tool’ but this still doesn’t mean they forsake know, skill and experience.
Have you every tried notching a stainless steel tube by hand or even with a basic angle grinder and a template? I helped out a mate with some S/S balustrading a while back when I was blacksmithing.
Not something I’d be doing day in day out. It’s had work and requires so much time and concentration.
He did the sums and decided that a new tool was required and could be built into the job costs.
Horses for courses and the belt notcher is king.
Then we get to the heart of the work. These are Ti and steel frames that are tig welded together.
They are not lugged, they are not fillet brazed.
A shield of pure, inert gas protects the tubes that have been sanded, polished then washed with hospital
pre-op type diligence before they are melted and filled with surgical type precision.
Tacked on a contemporary jig (Anvil in this case) then welded freehand in a clamped only arrangement.
First weld is a tiny root weld, securing the tubes together. Speed and direction of the weld stops the materials
from pulling in the wrong direction. This is followed by a larger, capping weld, biting into more of the material
on both tubes and providing the structural integrity that allows a rider to push a bike to it’s limits.
A true master of the trade and the man that puts his name on your bike welded each and every one of those
joints with the skill of a surgeon.
Cleanup is not something Darren is big on. I can understand this from my time doing photography.
Photoshop is not a solution, is a time vortex and a tool for covering up inadequacy. Take a better picture to start with. Don’t spend a day on PS trying to polish a turd.
Every single weld is pristine. Don’t do them fast like a robot, do every single one well with commitment.
And then the fun starts. The frame is finished. It enters into the PPG surface protection system and is coated like a high end Euro sports cars while being ready for priming and paint.
One of the things that attracted me to Baum as a frame build was the styling and finish. Not to everyone’s
taste and some say too contemporary. TIG welded, flashy paint, big tubes. Other builders do different things
but I had my favourite Baum colours on a frame as a computer background for almost a year.
It’s a thing and is seems to be polar.
Quite a few people saw the Baum/Rapha colab at the ACBS and the feedback was equally mixed.
That bike was rumoured to have spent over 80 hours in paint alone. Worthy of the Rapha ‘Epic’ mantra.
There are do’s and don’ts in the Baum way. Some lady rang while I was there and asked if she could have
flowers painted on her Baum frame. She was sternly told that she couldn’t.
Some might say this is harsh and that the customer is paying and should have what they want.
And I’m sure other builders can be and would be more flexible but this is not a ‘fad’ bike. This is not a piece
of whimsey. If you think it is they maybe you should look else where.
Clearly Baum has a reputation and has a clear view and direction on where this is going.
Colabs are different to single customer whimsey.
I’m not saying either is right or wrong, sure the customer is always right, doesn’t mean it’s right for you.
Clearly the Rapha colab was not flowers on a TT but serious business and I think the results showed what was
possible when two groups embark on an endeavour to show what is possible.
Having scene the final product there is no way I was going to put anything that was Rapha pink anywhere
near my bike. I’d seen what serious people with serious coin and serious intent could do.
No ‘try hard’ paints for me.
So you can have contemporary, alot of what we see in the Photostream, or the classic.
The choice is yours, within reason. Ti lends itself to more polished sections and different designs not available
to steel. The palette is virtually endless as are the combinations of colours. Match a race car, watch, perfume or favourite sporting team. There rules are simple, the name is to be clear.
And once all this is done, and not until all this is done then your slot, your cardboard boxes, the visual representation of the bikes that will be can point the most important point of all… fabrication.
did darren write that, or did you?
Are you really in a Nepalese hospital or are you ‘phone this in’ from the Goldy, Channel 9 style?
who cares.
For me it was a great insight into a brand that I’ve never had much regard for. Looking at the effort and service that seems to be provided, as well as the quality, I can see why the pricetag is somewhat justified. Those welds are beautiful.