Here is the Mule fully assembled. You can see the cable stops so he can go multi speed should he so desire.

The ENO hub, disc brake, curvy seat stays, and bridge. It all works.

Honestly, it has to be seen in person. It is really a striking bicycle.

OK, now down to the future fun. ButterCupII with a further shortened head tube to fit Devos more svelte frame. And how about reducing the wheel gap to 22mm, ala Jimbos ride. Lighter weight, stiffer(probably not noticable), and quicker handling. I would also remove the Pacenti chainstay brace.

Could this be Jimbos next ride? With the 75* seat tube angle, it really pushes the limits of the lugs and BB. But never say die..............................

The Mule is finished, but neither Devin nor I have any decent pic's of it. Keep checking his blog, it's a beautiful machine.

Above is a rendering of what Buttercup Redux will aspire to if the bike gods allow. The head tube is 10mm shorter to compensate for the 30mm FSA head set. It will also be a thinner wall thickness. In additon, the seat stays diameter will be reduced to 14mm and they will be attached to the seat tube lug ala fastback style. Can we come up with a sub 4lb. frame?

This will be Dylan's next frame. It is identical in concept to Buttercup. But, it will be faster because it is white.

And then there is this old horse. I started to convert it to disc brakes, but abandoned the idea because of the sand blast damaged head tube. Changed my mind again, I can't bring myself to toss a frame that fit so well and with Llewelyn lugs. When I am done with polished stainless and groovy colorways, it will be beautiful.

The front wheel really is dished properly, the tire isn't seated. The front brake cable was intentionally left long in case the bars are raised on final fit.

Like on Butter Cup, the seat post is too long and contacting the "bow" in the seat tube. It's possible that when I ball hone the seat tube it will slide all the way in. But who wants to carry all that extra weight!

It's a good looking bike and rode quite nice. Final finish at the shop with cock pit numbers from the SS or the Curtlo.

I actually did get the rear brake installed after taking this pic and before leaving for PIR. The white and mud go together quite well. The ENO hub is a bear as the eccentric constantly tries to settle at 12 o'clock and the wheel bolts want to walk out off the dropouts when you tighten them. I suppose it is a learned technique, or you hire a monkey to help. Tomorrow is USGP all day, so hopefully I can finish it Sunday..........

The paint job came out great! I don't believe it will need a 3rd coat of clear as thr logos blened in quite nice. Any way the temps are dropping too low to paint in my garage. Now to start amassing all the bits and pieces to begin final assembly.

The frame is through base coat and two coats of clear and looks pretty good. Can't wait to see it in the day light. I bought a new HVLP(high volume low pressure)spray gun that really keeps the overspray to a minimum. I want to let the paint set and tighten up for a few days to decide if I want to color sand and apply a third coat of clear.

No turning back now, the fork is sanded, washed, and primed. Also got the Alaska white on for the logos. How about that high tech paint arrestor, eh? Works surprisingly well, though. I'll finish sand the frame and fork tomorrow and shoot the color coat on Monday.

I never get the pics in order. I believe this will be the color of choice for the Mule.

The frame is freshly etch primed.

Here is the frame after glass peen peening. looks real nice. The filters are for the Rube Goldberg paint arrestor I'm going to make so I don't get overspray all over everything in my garage.

The mighty Mule is ready for glass bead and etch prime on Monday.

You can see on these two shots of how I slanted the scallop forward to provide clearance for the eccentric caliper adapter. Will still need to chamfer the leading edge of the adapter to give it as much clearance as possible.

Buttercup is fairly complete, but it's too cold to dial in the brakes, 36'. Also the left front arm has issues, post is too short or bent or the arm bushing is too long, etc. I will go back out when it is warmer and finish up.

Here is where I ended up today. The seat post was problematic. It would insert cleanly to 170mm then bind up. I believe that because we reamed the butt out to accept the 30.8 post that it was running into the bow in the seat tube. I cut 70mm off the post and now all is well. The handlebar height is 10mm higher than the Curtlo. I didn't compensate for the added stack height of the FSA over a Chris King. I had to remove displaced metal on the freehub to accept the tight tolerances of the Chris King cog and I used a thread locker on the knurled knobs on the axle keepers, they just wouldn't stay tight.

Tomorrow, brakes, chain, etc. then your test ride to drill down the fit.

Here we are so far...........................................lots o' black.

Buttercup has returned from the abyss known as the paint shop! I haven't seen it in person, this is a pic I stole from Devin's blog. Hope to amass all the parts and begin assembly today at home.

Six hours working on the seat stays! And then ran out of gas before I was finished. Not real keen on lugging it down to Airgas in my messenger bag, always hurts the shoulder. Prior to brazing I did an alignment check on the front triangle and right chain stay with the seat stay tacked. Spot on.
Shaky old man pic, probably due to the Reverend yesterday . I made the mandrels to bend the tubing out of stuff laying around the garage. It still doesn't have the arc I would like, so I will keep finessing until it does. In the old days we used to make tube benders out of VW wheels when we would build off road cars.

A rough mock up of the seat stays. They will be 45 mm below the top of the seat post though. had to fab little tooling blocks to provide a linear edge to cold set the tabs on, pita.

I walked the Sherwood course today with Dylan. He and Vigilante Dave rode it afterwards. Long, slippery, and a hard uphill pull to the finish line.

A few shots of your crankset installed

and the chain ring clearance. Took a

quite a dimple to clear the 42 tooth

inner ring.

This is the "dynafile" that I bought to perfect

the scallops on the dropouts. I just received

the tubing for the seat stay. Now to find a way

to bend it.........................

The left side chain stay is silver brazed in place, but I want to

make sure there is adequate chain ring clearance on the right side before brazing.

A little better shot of the scallop on the dropout. My new dynafile does

a good job.

Here is a quick mock up of the chain stays at 435 mm
and 64.5' off the seat tube. The wheel is my 135mm off my
Redline. I'll do a little cosmetic silver tomorrow morning,
then probably brass braze the stays to the BB. For the
chain stay/fender mount bridge, do you want a braze-on so you can bolt the fender, or do you just want to use the clip on the fender?

A blurry pic, but it will work! Lugs, s-bend chain stays, low mount disc brakes, and 135mm dropout spacing.

I cut 50 mm off he BB end and 30 mm off the dropout end and still have about 20 mm fore and aft movement to optimaly position the bends. I'll try to have them ready for brazing today. Need to provide sufficient clearance for the chain rings. What crank set is Devin going to run?

Is today the day that the paint shop calls and sez the SS is done?

Life gets really busy with cross season, soccer, college football, etc.

Any way I hope to leave the shop early today, if the manager will allow, and finish up the front triangle of the Mule.

Here is the latest sticky wicket. The low mount dropouts are so long that they will force the chainstays so far into the BB that the s-bend will be all but eliminated. I don't know how long the butt length is on the dropout end and will call Nova today.

While we are waiting for Buttercup to come out of the paint shop, I'll slowly start on the Mule. Here is the tube set, etc. You can see that I have cut the chain stay bridge so I can cold set the chain stay ports wider to accept the s-bends.







Here is my idea on the rear fender mount.
If we use a pedastel when you are running 23's,
it can be removed for running 32's.

OK, let's paint. Off to Class Act Paint and Powder tomorrow. I didn't really know how far to finish the the frame prep as far as cleaning up the investment cast imperfections and silver flash go. We don't know how much detail work is included in the paint job.

So I probably over did the prep to insure a great paint job. On the next frame, I think I will take it to Clackamas Sandblasting and glass bead it myself for $30.00. Glass beading is excellent for silver flash removal and imparts a small compressive stress layer that improves fatigue life. Plus it takes one hour versus five doing it by hand.

Still prepping the frame for paint.................................hoping for this Monday. The head tube is faced and reamed. I also honed and slit the seat tube. File and sand, repeat...................

Got to spend 4 hours on the frame this morning. Spent a bit of it reaming the seat tube to accommodate the Thomson seat post. We will ball hone it at the shop to finish it. With all the grinding, filing, and sanding, the weight is now 4lbs. 4.25 oz.

Here are the very nice dropouts for the mule. I'm not going to put in a strut on the 'stone. Although it was quite the light weight machine in its day, I think it is plenty robust to handle a 140mm disc and a 23mm tire. We will see................

The silver brazing is complete and the filing, sanding, and handwork has begun. If I don't have jury duty tomorrow, should make great strides towards completing the frame. Jeff brought in his Merckx to have the BB removed. The frame only weighed just under 5.4 lbs. Significantly heavier than Butter Cup.

I believe that Devin has ordered the s-bend seat stays for the Mule. The luddites and traditionalists will rail against this design. I think it is keen and will no doubt build one for myself.

While I was giving my fingers a rest from all the sanding, I started the fit up for discs on my old Bridgestone RB-1. It will be my rain bike this winter.