All's Weld that Ends Weld...

Okay, braze is the proper word here. Let me have my fun.

Tom Palermo of Palermo Bicycles (Baltimore, MD) has agreed to breathe new life into my old and disabled Cross-check. On a suggestion from the Outlaw, I recently shot an email to Tom and explained the otherwise grim situation. Tom replied within minutes, outlining a detailed plan of attack and quoting me a very reasonable figure for his services. The idea is to hack off the old dropouts at the chain- and seat-stay ends—a process that necessarily eliminates the original “dome ends” of the stays (fine with me, I think they’re an ugly style anyway)—prep the inside of the tube ends to ensure a good, clean, solid fitting (oxides kill), then brass-braze the new dropouts in place.

That’s the process, in a nutshell. With regard to the shape of the stay ends, I expect the result will be something like what’s shown in the pic above (minus the fancy "arrow" file-work on the dropout slot), which I pinched from the Palermo Bicycles flickr page. Of course, the new bits will likely be Campy-style knock-offs; the one pictured is a very nice Paragon Machine Works product.

The downside to all of this? Well, it’s not a downside, really, given that I’d have to scrap the frame if this option were not available to me: the dropouts will either be rattle-can flat black or raw, my choice. Regardless, once I have the repaired frame, I plan to tape off the stays and rattle-can the dropouts gloss black to match the fork. But let’s be honest, when your frame is “bean green” to begin with, it’s hard to pretend that esthetics are important. Function is paramount here.

Over the weekend, I dropped off the frame with Dave B. (thanks, man!) in Towson prior to biking into Baltimore to hit Max’s Taphouse. It appears Dave plans to deliver the frame to the shop this afternoon. Won't be long after that. And good thing, too. It's randonneuring season and I have a nice Tubus Cargo rack that's itching to get nasty with some panniers!