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Frank The Welder


monkeyseemonkeydo

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***

Can be deleted as Tim's made a proper topic in the News section here.

***

Sorry if this is a repost (I did search and found nowt). Anyway, I've just been on Trialsin.com and Tim's put up a couple of interesting pictures of a new frame in the prototype stages from 'Frank the Welder'...

ftw1index.jpg

ftwframe3.gif

The second one expecially gives the impression of (quite) a unique design kinda like the Vario Styx.

Dave

Edited by Danny
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Haven't found any more pics yet... The blurb from Tim:

...when planets correctly align....

***. Who/what is ***? Frank The Welder. This year to be inducted into Mountian Bike Hall of Fame. Why? Because the man knows frame design and construction like few other on the planet. Intrigued by the sport of trials, Frank has taken a clean sheet of paper and designed something that is intuitively logical. Strength, stiffness and simplicity of design are hallmarks of a great trials frame, and here we have an example like no other. Pics are of prototypes, more details to follow. What we can tell you is that for hand built in USA frames they will be quite reasonable (somewhere around $825), come in one color (hey....we are selling a precision competition machine, not lipstick fashion) and feature engineer principles versus buzz words. A couple of cool features that will be announced shortly. Look for Frank to be welding them up sometime this fall, the initial run being limited to approx 25 for world wide consumption. Geometry to be something like 72 degree headtube angle, 378 chainstays, 15mm up BB and 1080 wheelbase. If you want to know more, call us or zip an e-mail.

Dave

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Frank The Welder. This year to be inducted into Mountian Bike Hall of Fame. Why? Because the man knows frame design and construction like few other on the planet. Intrigued by the sport of trials, Frank has taken a clean sheet of paper and designed something that is intuitively logical.

Hmmm, so this guy who knows nothing about trials thinks he can battle against the big boys, just because he has a history of MTB frames? He's setting himself up for a fall I reckon. It does look quite nice though - I like the CNC circles in the dropouts (more weld area?). But it's not going to be that different to a lot of Deng frames (geometry wise) so I'm not really sure how's it's going to justify the price tag.

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Hmmm, so this guy who knows nothing about trials thinks he can battle against the big boys, just because he has a history of MTB frames? He's setting himself up for a fall I reckon. It does look quite nice though - I like the CNC circles in the dropouts (more weld area?). But it's not going to be that different to a lot of Deng frames (geometry wise) so I'm not really sure how's it's going to justify the price tag.

'i doubt its going to be that price over here either - given that we pay £100 extra for mass=produced US made bmx frames over here (import duties etc).. I'd guess we're talking XTP / 221ti money which is gonna price it out of the leeson/curtis bracket - shame really, it looks kinda interesting.

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'i doubt its going to be that price over here either - given that we pay £100 extra for mass=produced US made bmx frames over here (import duties etc).. I'd guess we're talking XTP / 221ti money which is gonna price it out of the leeson/curtis bracket - shame really, it looks kinda interesting.

That's what I mean though. If it's above £400, I can't really work out who would buy it?

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I guess the same people who would buy MBK's, XTP's, Ozony's, Atomz, and montys. He doe's have an awesome reputation in MTB's and there is absolutly no reason why that knowledge can't be transfered to trials frames, at the end of the day they're exerted to the same forces, and its not that hard to work out the geo now.

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I guess the same people who would buy MBK's, XTP's, Ozony's, Atomz, and montys. He doe's have an awesome reputation in MTB's and there is absolutly no reason why that knowledge can't be transfered to trials frames, at the end of the day they're exerted to the same forces, and its not that hard to work out the geo now.

well at least someone is thinkin the same way i was, whos to say he hasnt got some american rider testing it for him!?!?!

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square and circular tubing.. not gonna look to nice i don't think. Shame they havent taken a picture of the whole frame, not really liking what i can see from those though.

See Ash's post. Pictures of built bike in there.

Dave

edit:

sinister.jpg

Edited by monkeyseemonkeydo
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age old forum response.... LOOKs heavy ..... :lol:

some nice drop outs on there - i like alot - pretty beefy mount. rear triangle looks disturbingly stiff.

just not sure about the front end - how much are those extra tubes actually contributing to strength/stiffness ? also not sure if those sideplate gusset thingies are really needed on the headtube either. I mean how many trials bikes have them ? not many - and how many trials bikes (of any type) fail at the headtube ?

just an opinion

RJ

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Hmmm, so this guy who knows nothing about trials thinks he can battle against the big boys, just because he has a history of MTB frames? He's setting himself up for a fall I reckon. It does look quite nice though - I like the CNC circles in the dropouts (more weld area?). But it's not going to be that different to a lot of Deng frames (geometry wise) so I'm not really sure how's it's going to justify the price tag.

The big boys? You mean the companies that unleash 4 or 5 brands at us that have damn near the same geometry and the advancement is called discovering a new CNC tool? Frank does have experience in trials frame construction....he was building trials frames before anything out of China existed. I know we all like to think trials is somehow different than other types of cycling, but in the end of the day, construction and engineering principles apply across the entirety of cycling. I can assure you the Frank knows vastly more about trials/cycling than the actual people that are doing the welding of most other brands.

The square tubes that are the chainstays that extend forward to the downtube are there for a reason, not looks. I made a post (not realizing this thread already existed) under NEWS section. It addresses a number of the issues raised here. I posted there as to try and keep "advertisement" type posts to a minimum in the general discussion forum.

Edited by Tim/Trialsin USA
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