Llewellyn Bikes

[bigbill]

Fork for my new Argonaut before it went to be nickel plated.

[minstrie]

Hi Dazza, just a note of concern hoping you and all are well during the flooding....

Chris aka Minstrie.

[Dazza]

nothing to do with frame building but dazza whats happened to your boys ?....................ENGLAND,ENGLAND!!!!!!

I just back home last night from a two weeks off in Melbourne
and then road nationals in Ballarat (yeah, it raining there as well)

Ginger and I watched every ball bowled in the third test. (just made it into the forth day, sigh)
England batted superbly
England bowled fantastic stuff
England fielded better
The English players heads were in a better place
It was good cricket
but the Aussies are a mess, from the top down.
It will be three to four years before their test game is turned onto the highest levels again.
Burn that 20 20 rubbish say I
It is for a juvenile intellect

[Dazza]

Hi Dazza, just a note of concern hoping you and all are well during the flooding....

Chris aka Minstrie.

I got home last night from the road nationals where it is raining cats and dogs and the flooding may well be under way.
All is good but for a jungle back yard and swampy ground here
No problem where with floods where I am.
Thank you for your thoughts.

[roguedog]

Hey Dazza,

Just sorta waving Hi. Been a bit quiet and no bike pix. .so was perusing your site to get my fix.

Came across the Training Ergo. Can you explain and post up pix of the Training Ergo? Sounds like there's a story behind that one as well.

Hope all is well and you're just buried under work and/or prepping for NAHBS (but I thought you weren't going this year but my memory sux)

[Dazza]

Hey Dazza,

Just sorta waving Hi. Been a bit quiet and no bike pix. .so was perusing your site to get my fix.

Came across the Training Ergo. Can you explain and post up pix of the Training Ergo? Sounds like there's a story behind that one as well.

Hope all is well and you're just buried under work and/or prepping for NAHBS (but I thought you weren't going this year but my memory sux)

Hi, I will not be at NAHBS, too much to going on here. Mary Ann and I are working on the new Llewellyn website and it is looking nice and it will have a better navigation and explanation of what I do, considering the old site has never been changed for over ten years but for the gallery, so it is long over due. The old site was started in 2001 when I stopped full time mechanico work with the national team I was not sure of where I was going but as the first 5 years passed it all settled down into what I do today and the last 5-6 years has been consolidating my gig with the new castings to remove grief from my life and add versatility to the building.
The training Ergos. The original concept comes from the Italian National track team many years ago.
Brian Hayes at the AIS in Adelaide was making them but at the end of 1999 he did not want to make any, the National Team wanted some, so when I went home that Summer I made a batch. I had a few left over which I sold to punters.
Since then it became a regular yearly project and also I farmed off the construction to Joe Cosgrove (my painter) as I have plenty of frame work to do and Joe needed the work. The Ergos are a pain to make and the returns are low but it is worthwhile, but we fit it around our other work, so we never have enough of them to sell. Once you have ridden one, you will never ride a wheel driven wind trainer again. The resistance is smooth and cubes with speed and it blows a bit of air onto you to keep you from cooking too much. They are super if you are recovering from a broken collar bone etc.
They are used for SE efforts and O2 efforts, warm ups at the track and time trials. You can putter on them of thrash yourself to a pulp. They are used mainly in structured intense training sessions, SE and or high intensity.
Right at this time, I have none and there is plans for a batch this year, but when is????

[Bob Ross]

New website looks fantastic!

Question (and I apologize if this was answered somewhere earlier in this thread), is there a rider height/weight/power threshold or some other metric you use to determine whether a Custodian or Cadenzia frame is more appropriate?

[Dazza]

New website looks fantastic!

Question (and I apologize if this was answered somewhere earlier in this thread), is there a rider height/weight/power threshold or some other metric you use to determine whether a Custodian or Cadenzia frame is more appropriate?

Thank you, the new site is due to Mary Ann's labour of love and her skills.
I wrote text and she created. The shopping pages and new gallery are yet to be completed but we needed a break from evenings and weekend work.
About the OS to XL size question
try here
http://www.velocipedesalon.com/forum...tml#post297128

any questions?

[Dazza]

Richie's BDC interview reminds me
that I have been slack and letting smoked out slip

bad dazza bad Dazza



Intervista a Darrell McCulloch -Llewellyn Cycles- | Bdc-forum.it | Bici da corsa

-How did you start?
My family never owned a car
We walked, caught trains, buses every where or we rode our bikes to the shops or Library. At that time it was unusual in a car centric world but for many today it is a chosen life style.
I rode bikes, and competed at athletics and I enjoyed cross country running. At school I liked metal work and woodwork and technical drawing. I read about bikes and the exploits of Eddy Merckx, Gimondi, Moser etc. I read in a “Bicycling” magazine circa 1978 about a group of people making bespoke bicycle frames and there was also an article about a race team mechanic working on the USA national team. These two articles inspired me and eventually set me on my professional direction. I left school at age 15 and started work in a small hardware warehouse so I could afford to start racing bikes and I ordered a new racing frame from Eric Hendren who owned Hoffy Cycles. Eric was the local frame builder and built his frames at the back of his shop in the Sandgate suburb of Brisbane city. (Australia)


Who's the man that teach you?

After racing bikes for 6 months I was hooked and I went to Hoffy Cycles to ask for a job.
That dream of making bike frames had fully infected my blood and mind.
Eric Hendren gave me a start, first and foremost I was there to learn to repair every day bikes, there was a lot of junk that had to be made working again, rebuilding Sturmy Archer gear hubs through to wheel building. Later I got to assist Eric with frame repairs and new frames. Eric was a good boss. We lived in isolation to the frame building world and I would scrupulously study any picture or magazine article about frame building that I could get my hands on. I had a small bench and vice in my bedroom at my parent’s home where I started cutting playing card suite into lugs for Eric, until I was allowed some space in the garage.
As the years passed I bought my own lathe and many tools which I kept at home and I learnt basic metal working with my hobby of live miniature steam locomotives. ( another passion that is not yet sated!)
For Eric it was more of an every dayjob. The only job he had ever known for nearly 60 years. But for a young lad like me, it was the vision and dream of becoming an independent frame maker that fed my hours of toil.
-How many frames did you have build before acknowledging yourself as a framebuilders?
I called my self a frame builder when I started making Llewellyn frames in 1989. (Llewellyn is my middle name)
-What's the limit number of frames per-year to be a craftsman frame builder?
I do not think there is a magic number that a builder must pass and then they become a frame builder.
I have no idea of numbers, people can make thousands of frames and still do the same thing, just average work, for an average price. They do what they did yesterday today and the same tomorrow. Some people have different skill levels and motivations. A builder may make 20,000 frames but that does not mean they have good skills to make the correct frame for a particular customer. They are more like a survivor in the changing commerical world, but it does not always mean they are skilled, or have care and appreciation of the customers hard earned dollars. I know of builders who have made 1000 times more frames than I have and I look at the frames and how they are designed for the customer and how they are made and I think that there is no way I want to make bikes that work and look like that! But we all have a place in this world.
I was still leaning when I started Llewellyn, I was still learning and maturing as a frame builder 10 years ago, I am still learning and maturing as a frame builder today and in ten year into the future if I am still alive I think I will make better frames than I do today.
The progress and purification of the building never stops.
Many details and techniques would not make one difference to the client’s perception of their Llewelyn bicycle, but are done for my satisfaction. For me to know that a particular detail or step is inserted is to sate my pursuit of purity in the frame construction process.
This does not mean marketing a bullshit innovation just to keep sales number rolling,
I mean the style and skill of the chosen process and direction is always being refined. Perfection is never obtained. For me it is lugged road frames and how I do this for clients.
I also service my customers Llewellyn bicycles. I have a Llewellyn family.


-Have you ever welded titanium and aluminium frames?
No.
If I was a young lad maybe I would make titanium frames like Darren Crisp, or carbon frames like Nick Crumpton.
I grew up with lugged steel.
Steel tubes joined with lugs is my chosen path.
To go further along this path is why I created OS and XL size sloping top tube lugs
and many other new casting designs that did not exist before, so as to refine and further my lugged steel frame making.
There is nothing wrong with the other materials, one can make very good working bicycles with titanium, aluminium tubes and even Carbon. They are many of my friends who are very skilled at making these.
As a one person operation is makes no sense to diversify and dilute my product by attempting to make every thing and any thing to have a broad presence in the market.
It is best to make what I understands and can do best.
The customer comes to me because they understand what I “the builder” can do with the steel for them.
I will continue with steel and lugs as long as I am motivated to better today what I did yesterday, if that stops then I know it is time to retire.


-Who's your main inspiration in frame building?
To pay the bills 
I am self motivated.
I work alone in my workshop but I have taken inspiration from many people. The search to perfect what I do is the engine pushing what I do.
Perfection is a destination one can never reach.



-The three most influential framebuilders of the MY? past?
Not of all history, because I do not have a good knowledge of frame building history

So I assume we are speaking of the three most influential frame builders in my past.
I like to think I am a student of the world, I take inspiration and motivation from many people and some of these people make bicycles. I like seeing what builders do and I like meeting and speaking with them. Remember I did not grow up in a frame factory where one stood and brazed 300 dropouts in one day and tomorrow drilled 2000 holes in tubes for water bottle mounts. Every one has a bit influence in me.
But you have asked to name three
1. Eric Hendren at Hoffy Cycles. That was my start with bikes as a profession. His method I would consider rough now, but it was the period and style then and he was a good boss. I thank him.
2. Richard Sachs. It is not for his building method or skills but about his message and business model. This I think was very important to me when I was young.

Circa 1990-1991 I was on holidays and I saw Sachs adverts in a magazine. It told a different message in a different style than the Colnagos and DeRosa’s etc who boasted about the racing victories. I wrote to him as an interested customer (I think I may have used my wife’s name) and I received his brochure and price list and measure form. I took a lot from his marketing style or more about knowing what my message was and getting it out here. It was an understanding for me that there is a different path than the wholesale production and sales volume business model. A different path than the Colnagos and Treks of this world.
I wanted to be the builder and remain the builder of Llewellyn frames, rather than a business man wearing a tie sitting a desk with a team of workers on the factory floor.
Later on I got to know Richard closer and much intercourse which has been fun and I can and do disagree with Richard on many subjects, however he does many good things for new frame builders.

3. Every body else. I cannot name them all, I learn from every body. One can see many ways and styles and processes to this caper. It is fun.

[Dazza]

-Who's your main inspiration in frame building?-In the present?
Just recently Dario Pegoretti, the recent Cadenzia lug project was interesting.
The Framebuilders' Collective | Cadenzia Lug Set
and working with him on the XCr tube project and other little projects is fun. He has no much technical knowledge and to spend time with him at his Caldannazo workshop
Italy_2009_Dario Pegoretti, Sacha White {Mr Vanilla} and Dazza and Mary Ann
and having meals with him is fun. A lot of fun. He has an infectious personality.
I like doing projects with other builders and I want to do more of this.

One builder who I think has style oozing out every pore of his skin is Sacha White. (Vanilla)
I feel he does not have the baggage of growing up with frames in the 1980’s with the Italian flavour and aesthetic overwhelming his product.
I appreciate his style and rational.
He does not want to rule the world or be the God Father of American frame building.
Sacha is a bonza fella (Aussie slang)
I really like his operation.
-Can you give us a profile of your customer?
They are every body and any body.
A chap or lass who has saved their very hard earned dollars for 5 or more years to buy a nice bicycle from me.
Or it can be business man/woman who just added a Llewellyn to there collection of fine hand made bicycles they ride.
I think the profile of my customer is that they appreciate and understand what I do.
Llewellyn Philosophy

“A bicycle that gives you many years of enjoyable riding. So with each passing year, your Llewellyn bicycle gives you greater value. Thus you Cherish their Llewellyn.
This is my desire and goal.”

Darrell Llewellyn McCulloch

For me it is not about being chic or a status symbol. A brand lust is not my goal. Of course I need to make a professional income from my work as I do not operate a charity.
.My lovely wife just finished most of my new website which explains and shows what I do
Llewellyn Custom Bicycles Home
this may help
Google Translate

-Do you have a collection of bicycles?
No collection.
Only the bikes I ride.
Currently a fixie* (circa 1997) I use it once or twice for 65km rides each week ( * fixed cog single speed)
A very worn and tired daily training bike (Circa 1997) which is used most mornings.
Also nice bike for longer weekend rides in the hills around Brisbane. This is the only new bike I have made for myself in the last 14 years that I ride
A daily bike

if so, can you tell us the highlights of the collection?
I have only this one which I built for me and I have never ridden it
"OS Compact Lucentezza"
It is for sale!
but I keep it as a snap shot of a 2007 Llewellyn bike with Campy Record
So this one is my one and only bicycle that I consider in my collection.

I built this fixie for me but have never ridden it as it is for sale and currently used as a display bike
Cadenzia
I want to ride it, but if I ride it then it is spoilt and not new.

If not, why?
I have never been a collector. I never had the space to house a collection or the resources.
I like history and the people behind history and I like to read about bicycles and appreciate the history of every thing related to bicycles and racing but I am not a collector bicycles.
If I had the resources and space under my house I would like to have one new bicycle to ride from each of Frame Builder’s Collective builders
The Framebuilders' Collective | Vision/Mission
that would be fun!

I have another passion that deals with history, machinery and metal work.
This is steam locomotives.  But that is another story.

-I don't know the English name of these "nails"
bb - a set on Flickr,
they are called pins and the process is called pinning
anyway what do you think about frames that are not built with?
There is no need for pins with small torch brazing

Pins are from the days when they were used to hold the frame tubes and lugs in alignment during brazing on a heath/forge made from fire brick with a big torch and a big flame. The frame was not in a jig or fixture for the brazing process. The whole joint was heated up to the melting temperature of the brass and then the brass was fed into the joint, so the pins were needed to hold the joint in location and alignment. I have done this method 30 years ago when repairing very cheap normal use frames.
When thin tubing arrived and small hand held torches became normal then new procedures removed the need for pins with a small tack braze which is used to join the tubes in lugs when the frame is in the jig/fixture.
Making a bespoke Llewellyn - Pagina 2 - Bici da corsa | bdc-forum.it
post # 20
the pics show the tubes and lugs tacked in the jig.
The tack holds the location and alignment of the tubes and lugs.
The frame is removed from the jig and alignments checked on the inspection table and corrected if needed and then the full brazing is completed in a stand (not in the jig as the forces of expansion and contraction should occur with freedom.)
The tack holds the frame tubes and lugs in alignment while brazing the joint on the opposite side of the tack. When that is done and solidified then this holds the tubes and lugs in alignment so then one completes the joint by fully brazing over the tack area
This is usually the normal procedure in a small workshop or in a bigger production environment.
I find that there is no need for pins other than as a location pin in some cases.
I use a pin in a few locations for a relocation aid such as here
Making a bespoke Llewellyn - Pagina 7 - Bici da corsa | bdc-forum.it
Post # 65
And some times with fork blades to the fork crown. It is relocation device during the forming up of the frame in the jig before brazing.
Many builders still use pins and it is best to ask them about their method
It is about feeling comfortable using them in the build method.

I think it's enough for the moment
My pleasure.

Thanks![/QUOTE]

[dubrat]

Thought this may be as good a place as any to document the build of my New Cadenzia.

Over the years I have owned 3 Llewellyns but never a custom built for me.

This process started Mid last year with the Initial deposit to jump in line.. Next came deciding deciding what to build. I have always been a fan of a traditional level top tube but being around the 85kg mark the Cadenzia "The inspiration behind this frame set came from the word ‘Cadenza’ which is an impassioned improvisation played by a virtuoso soloist toward the end of a musical performance. " model with its OS Columbus Spirit for lugs tubing was the choice for me. Next came the decision on the fork. Do I go with Dario's Fals carbon fork or Darrell's straight fork.. Being that I like the traditional look I mentioned a curved blade fork to Darrell and it just so happened he had a set of Richards blades and crown which would be perfect, so decision made.

The process from the beginning has been has been amazing. Darrell is more than helpful and accommodating of my ideas and an amazing communicator. Each morning I look forward to getting to work and opening his email with the progress pics from the day before.

I have attached some of my favourite progress pics below

[dubrat]

And here is more toil

[dubrat]

with its OS Columbus Spirit for lugs tubing was the choice for me.

Quick correction this is double oversize OOS or XL not OS.

[Lionel]

These UOS blades look good

[dubrat]

I think they will suit the XL Spirit tubesets really well...

Next decision is paint....?

[dubrat]

Stem is Shanped, Filed and Brazed

[dubrat]

It's the little details no one will ever see...

[Peter B]

Lingerie...

[dubrat]

[e-RICHIE]

There was a picture here...

Are you making this frame yourself atmo?