- RICHARD’S STAINLESS FILLET BRAZED MODERN CLASSIC -

Richard’s modern classic is an absolute beauty. There’s always something quite special about a steel frame and fork, even more so when it’s a stainless steel frame and fork.

It’s not often I get to test ride a customers bike, but this one was more or less my measurements and I just couldn’t help myself taking it for a lap around the block. It was like riding a magic carpet, you just forget how absorbent curved steel forks are and this bike brought it all flooding back.

Built from a mix of @columbus_official XCr, with Reynolds 921 seat tube, Reynolds 921 fork blades and a custom 17/4 stainless steel headtube machined to my requirements by @bear_frame_supplies.

This bike is everything you want from a classic build and nothing you don’t. However, building a fillet brazed frame with classic sized tubes and a 1” fork brings along challenges you wouldn’t expect. I say classic, but for a better ride quality it’s actually built using OS tubes, so the down tube and head tube would be the same diameter which would lead to no material to build a fillet around the sides of the joint. This brought me to the decision to design a headtube just for this bike. Internally butted for weight reduction and a single diameter on the outside designed to finish flush with the Chris King 1” threaded headset.

The bike rolls on one of the last pairs of Royce Titan hubs laced to H Plus Son TB14 which are expertly handbuilt.

I finished the build with a Nitto cockpit and seat post, my go to parts for a classic build like this. They make the most beautiful and finely finished aluminium parts in perfect shapes and sizes for modern ergonomics.