The New Steel Stead....

Both Steve and me have been talking for a wee while about sorting out a small steel hardtail for Angie, throwing ideas around regarding geometry and what have you, something lively, responsive and most of all fast.... some points were notable; as the frame will be used predominantly off-season and for less extreme enduro events it demanded a fair bit of mud room out the back, the ability to fit a 2.5 tyre without it clogging up with crud.  Also to keep in with the contemporary technology an oversized 30.9 internal diameter seat tube so that we can easily fit a 'dropper' seat post, which is a boon with the typical British 'rollercoaster' style trails. The frame's been built around a 140mm travel fork, more than ample for anything that the British Isles can throw at it, and again a contemporary 44mm internal diameter headtube which gives a plethora of headset and fork steerer options.... in a nutshell this frame was not only being made to be ridden hard it was also being made to be future proof!

With all this in mind Frank set to work using his favoured Columbus Zona tubing mating it to some gorgeous Paragon Machine Works rear drop outs (http://www.paragonmachineworks.com) and a custom made silver headbadge that I had crafted by the lovely Jen Green at www.headbadges.com.  Previously I had some Americana style 'Frank Wadelton' frame decals made bespoke for my own street bike, Steve and I agreed to use the same ones on Angie's frame too, it just ties everything in so perfectly

The end result is an absolutely stunning, precision hand crafted frame with a semi-transparent purple paint job highlighting the rainbow effect of the welds and if there's ever any doubt over whose frame it is, well you'll soon see who the owner is in a moment or two.  This is going to be a bit of a slow build whilst we wait for the 2013 team kit to arrive, Angie's itching to get out on it, I'll post further pictures as we go along.....

The mitering begins......

Tacking the left Paragon Machine Works drop out.....

And then the right one.....

Fabricating the bottom bracket shell....

 Tacking up the back end.....

Almost ready for the next step.....

Rear disk brake mount now added, all of the cable stops, seatstay and chainstay bridges.....

Et viola, perfect craftsmanship....

 Semi-transparent purple paint job done, pre-frame decals and clear top coat..... beautiful....

 All stickered up......

 Just after Christmas, a mysterious box arrived at Angie's.....

Can you see what it is yet? (Nice socks by the way!)......

 Craftsmanship is second to none the paint job is absolutely superb, just look at those welds, stunning....

The big man himself, Frank Wadelton....

 Big "Thank You" going out to Jen Green for the bespoke silver headbadge.....

The frame means business......

 All snuggled down......

 And the icing on the cake, Angie's very own name plate, there's no doubt who this frame belongs to....

We were all mind blown with the frame and a massive "Thank You" goes straight out across the pond to Frank for this.  We're looking forward to getting out there again with FTW Industries, exciting times are afoot!

Lee.

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