In my 20+ years of being a framebuilder there has always been one frame part that left me cold and that has been the rear dropouts. Over the years I’ve had the chance to design a few dropouts but time and budget always compromised the design. Well being on my own has allowed me to design the dropout I’ve always wanted, cost be damned.

Enter the “Triple F’ dropout. The name “Triple F’ stands for “Form Follows Function” and as you can see there is nothing extra or blingy about these dropouts. They are designed to be as minimalist as possible while still being strong enough for the largest rider to use the rest of their lives. The Triple F is machined from 4130 steel which is stronger and more fatigue resistant than most of the stainless dropouts on the market so the chance that one will ever break is almost nonexistent.

The simple design allows for the stays to be square cut on the ends and eliminates the need to slot the stays or give them a compound angle miter. This saves a huge amount of time. In my testing and prototyping I’ve found that I’m saving about 45 minutes per bike using the Triple F compared to a Breeze style dropout and even more when compared to a traditional plate style dropout.

There are two balls machined into the dropout for the stays to attach to and they allow for stays of different diameters and wall thicknesses to be joined to the dropout and almost any angle. This makes it simple to build most any sized frame and to attach curved stays if the builder wishes. The square cut ends of the stays mean that it’s quick and easy to get the stays to the exact right length - a few seconds on the disc sander is all it takes and there is no need to file a slot deeper into the stay to get the right length. The ball and socket interface also means that the builder can rotate the stay to the desired position on the dropout to get bent or ovalized stays to be in phase with one another.

Stays can be attached to the Triple F by either fillet brazing or TIG welding. When fillet brazing the heat is applied to the concave surface nearest the axle slot to preheat the ball and then brass can be pulled into the joint. The acute angle that the inside of the stay makes with the ball allows the builder to form a large internal fillet for strength and a small aesthetic fillet on the outside to blend the stay and the dropout together seamlessly.

The Triple F is also designed to be a ‘centerline” dropout - meaning that the axle lands the centerline of the chainstay. This means that the angle that the chain stay leaves the bottom bracket is true and that the stay will not be loaded into the BB socket at an angle. For anyone that has built lugged frames with Breeze dropouts this is a big deal.

I suppose many of you are wondering why I am sharing all this detail. It’s because as of today I am offering the Triple F to other insured framebuilders to use in their own frames. Because I’ve picked what must be one of the most complex shapes known to man to machine they aren’t cheap. But there is much time and frustration to be saved in using the Triple F and and I suspect that for many builders the cost will be more than worth it. The cost for a pair of Triple F’s is $110 plus shipping and they are only available to builders who can show proof of insurance. I have a one time offer to allow builders to try a single pair of Triple F’s at a lower cost of $85.

Interested builders should contact me by phone (800 605 5475) or email (info@kirkframeworks.com) to ask questions or place orders.

These dropouts are the first in what I hope will be an ever expanding group of framebuilding parts for the discriminating professional builder. The first product was the brass barrel adjusters, now the Triple F rear dropouts and the matching Triple F front dropouts are next on the horizon.

Thanks for looking.

Dave

I was just going through photos on my machine to clean out duplicates and the such and enjoyed looking at some of them………… so I figured you might enjoy looking at them too. Some of these are old and others not. Let me know which photos you like.

Dave

I’m a bit embarrassed to say that I didn’t realize that our 20 year old telephone answering machine was on the fritz until a friend complained that he had been trying to get in touch with me for days but the machine wouldn’t take his message. It feels like a safe bet that some of you have tried to call and have either left a message that I didn’t get or couldn’t leave a message and that in the end I couldn’t tell you called. I’m able to answer the phone most of the time during business hours but I miss it at times because I’ve got a 2000° torch in my hand or because I’ve run out on errands and I rely on the machine to get those calls for me.

I’ll be getting a new machine today so that should fix the problem from continuing but I’m sure there are some out there wondering why I haven’t returned your calls. I pride myself on being good about responding to calls and emails very quickly and it bums me out knowing that some calls didn’t get returned. I apologize if your call is one that slipped through the cracks.

So if you called and didn’t hear back from me please call back (800 605 5475) or send an email (info@kirkframeworks.com) and I’ll do my best to get right back to you. Operators are standing by.

Thanks,

Dave

The word “shoreline” has two meanings to me. The first, and most obvious, is the shoreline where water meets land and this is on my mind today as Karin and I just got back from the ocean shoreline of northern California where we went for a few days for a family reunion. It was, as it usually is, stunning. The highlight for me was seeing the huge elephant seals (about the size and weight of a minivan) rearing up and smashing into each other to try to get the attention of the females. Very cool stuff.

The other shoreline on my mind is the framebuilding kind - lug shorelines. The edge of the lug where it meets the tube is often called the ’shoreline’ and clean shorelines are the trademark of a proud builder. I like fussing over these small details and getting them just right and to get them to look just so I need to work on them in a very macro way and get in very close. I thought that today I’d show you the type of shoreline I make. There are no elephant seals on my shorelines so don’t worry.

Thanks for looking.

Dave

Just a quick note to let you know that I will be away for a few days and will not have phone or email access. So if you are trying to get in touch I won’t be able to get back to you until Thursday when I return.

Be sure to clock out a bit early at least one day this week and get out for a long ride after work. Summer is short and we only get so many of these super long evenings.

See you on the other side.

Dave

Well the YNH bike is done and ready to go off to JB to have him put whatever color you want on it. Please let me know if you are interested and we’ll get it off to paint ASAP.

Thanks for looking,

Dave

After a long weekend with a few very good dirt road rides it was back to the bench today to work on the YNH bike I offered up last week. Today I got the frame all finished up and ready to go and got a good start on the fork. Tomorrow I’ll finish up the fork and it will be ready to have it’s new owner pick a color.

I’ve had a few serious inquiries about the bike but no one has signed on the dotted line as of this afternoon. First come, first served - who’s going to take this one home?

Dave

When I estimate delivery times for new orders I tend to build in a buffer just in case I get sick or something goes wrong and it tends to serve me well as I am on time or early 99% of the time. Sometimes I end up being a bit too early and it leaves me time to spare. In this case I’ve been in touch with the next few customers in line and they were on vacation or not expecting me to be in touch so early and weren’t fully ready to go - and being the kind of guy who hates to sit around I’m doing something unusual thing for me - I’m building a bike for stock.

I started it a few days ago and it will be done soon and ready to go off to JB to have him spray the color of your choice. This is a good opportunity for a quick turn around if the bike fits you. I’ve attached an image of the design and fit so you can compare it to your needs.

It’s a straight forward road race bike designed to use short reach brakes and fit up to a 28 mm tire. It’s constructed with a mix of Reynolds 725 and special tubes that Reynolds makes for me and modified Sachs lugs. It also features Terraplane seat stays and the new Triple F dropouts.

Please call or email with any questions you might have and be thinking about how you like like this painted. First come first served and there is just this one available so if you are interested don’t wait too long to get in touch.

Thanks for looking,

Dave

I post or two back I shared some photos of a Newvex lugged bike that was in process and just today I realized that I’d meant to post photos of the sidetack stays but had forgotten to - better late than never I suppose.

Side tack stays in various stages from having the caps brazed on to the finished deal.

Dave

I take all of the photos on my site and blog with a Nikon D70 digital camera and while I like it very much for shop and studio shots it’s more than a bit too large to fit in a jersey pocket to take out on a ride. Well I went for a ride around the flat part of the valley close to the house yesterday and right as I was getting ready to shove off I asked to barrow Karin’s little point and shoot camera. I’m always a bit lost with this thing and feel like I’m doing something wrong and they way I make up for it is to take some many photos that I’m bound to get one or two that don’t suck. Well yesterday was so perfect and sunny and warm it was hard to go wrong. As you read awhile back I was whining about out wet weather but now I can reap the benefits of it - it is so green it almost hurts your eyes. It’s that kodachrome green from film camera days gone by and just stunning to look at.

I thought you might like to see what my ride looks like when it’s green in spring.

Dave