Frame Building (continued)

At Bob Jackson Cycles we free build our frames for the following reasons: When building free a great deal of skill is required due to the fact that the frame is held at one place at a time, with guides allowing the tube being joined to expand along its length, whilst staying perfectly in line. Each join is then allowed to cool thoroughly so as to ensure there is no stress on the frame, hence the term “No tension building”. Each join is done separately, from mitreing, to brazing, to cleaning & polishing, resulting in a frame that requires minimal or no tracking and uses the best qualities of the tubing, giving it that magical ride quality that only comes from a top quality steel frame.

All steel tubes deteriorate if not heated correctly by between 5 & 15% dependant on the mix of metals in the tubeset. Savings of approximately 200F in temperature can be achieved by using silver braze rather than brass, this however is not cheap, silver braze costs 6 to 7 times more than brass.

The way the heat is applied directly affects the frame strength and its durability. Sudden or very quick changes such as when building quickly or welding creates a sudden change in the crystal structure of the metal, leading to a rapid change in strength of the tubing & increasing the need for blow holes to allow gasses to escape from the frame. Blow holes may allow gasses out but also allow water in hence all Bob Jackson frames are built without blow holes & to ensure we can honour our 5 Year Guarantee all frames are built under no time or cost constraints.

Bob Jackson Cycles uses silver for all braze ons, fittings & frame joins with the exception of Reynolds 853 where due to its unique properties we use brass, heated & cooled at specific rates to heat treat the tube joins & so achieve tensile strengths of over 100tons (twice as strong as 531)!

After all this care & effort in the construction the frame now needs to fit & do exactly what you want. If you are a standard size & require the frame for a particular use we may build an Off The Peg model that will do the job, but if you need something a bit different then the way to go is fully Custom Built.

You can download a copy of our frame order form, print it off and fill it in:

Frame Order Form - Sheet 1
Frame Order Form - Sheet 2

These files can be posted to:
Station Buildings
312-324 Stanningley Road
Bramley
Leeds
LS13 3EG

Or emailed to:
Factory@bobjacksoncycles.demon.co.uk

Don't forget to refer to our colours page. CLICK HERE

NOTE: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these PDF files. If you click on the links and the files do not open, you may not have Acrobat Reader installed. You can download it for free HERE

If you have any problems please CONTACT US