Corvid: Dura Ace Build

Yesterday we built up a Corvid for one of our customers.

A fantastic build consisting of a full Dura Ace gruppo and some handbuilt wheels.

As shown the bike came in at 16lbs, including water bottles, cages and pedals.

This frame has unidirectional tubing paired with lugs featuring a carbon fiber weave.

The headset is the all new Cane Creek Inset headset.


Above is the all new Corvid seat collar in black anodized aluminum.


The customer chose a pmp seatpost to pimp out the saddle.


The Corvid comes ready to accept the new bottom bracket standard, the BB30. Shimano has not made a specific BB30 bottom bracket yet but does make adapters, pictured above.

Also, a little bling with the Parlee all carbon front derailleur clamp.

The rear derailleur mounts to the two-piece titanium dropouts with ease.

The hand built wheels round out this high performance machine.

Look for more complete builds coming soon.

Weekend Crush: Contrasto XS

Shipping out today is an XS with painted titanium lugs (2008 special color Tokyo Pearl), clearcoated carbon fiber (made exclusively for us by EDGE Composites) and white script decals. The black and white motif is really timeless and sets off the lug design quite well.

The carbon fiber EDGE 2.0 fork has a black painted-in crown wrap on each blade.



Each titanium lug is laser cut by our pals at LaserServices. The carbon fiber tubing and rear monostay are both made to our specifications by EDGE Composites.

We take the lug parts and cut them, one at a time, to fit together. We then TIG weld them together, creating a completely custom lug. After welding all of the lugs together the parts are sent out to the Metal Improvement, our shotpeening facility. Upon receiving the lugs back from "The Peeners" (as we lovingly refer to them) we set up our frame jig and bond the lugs to the carbon fiber tubing and monostay. At this point they look like this:

The frame then goes to the paint department where the luscious paint gets sprayed...



The final touch.... 1.1oz of sterling silver.

The Carbon Cell

Carbon fiber Corvid lugs are being cleaned up on the downdraft table above. Each lug is individually prepped for each custom frame.
This is our new do-all carbon fiber cutting machine... dubbed: "The Horizontal Plow" by Sputnik Tool. It has various modular parts that plug in to miter each tube.
Below is a close up of one of the diamond tipped hole saws that we use for plowing through the carbon fiber tubing.
Each lug is made for an individual build. Inside the lugs you can see the name of the end customer that it is intended for.
We are building a couple here... one for Spinelli and one for Wolfson.
Until we get the dust collector hooked up Jamie miters the tubes (below) and sucks the dust away with a shop vac outfitted with a fine particulates dust filter inside.

The tubes are fit up in the jig before the lugs are put on. This ensures that straight alignment, exact geometry and maximum bond surface....
The two piece dropouts are welded together in our welding department and are part of a sub assembly that ensures a good wheel check.
Before bonding the frame together it is dry fit and inspected (more like drooled on) by Sparky (Wolfson)... this is the bike from a couple of posts ago... Radly.

Radly Presented: Sparky's Corvid

Q: How much does it weigh?

A: It weighs 1.1 ounces (in sterling silver) more than it could.... gotta make it legal, right?

BTW: You must click on the above picture to see through the tint to the weave on the top tube... in certain lighting situations (like in our photo studio, or in the sun) the tint really pops.
Kevin (AKA Sparky) is Indy Fab's lead frame designer and super fast racer. He and his brand-spankin'-new Corvid are on their way to Bend, Oregon for the Elite Road National Championships. He will be rendezvousing there with the rest of the IFracing team who drove out in the super-duper IFracing suburban. Good luck fellas!

The Indy Fab logos are nothing but clearcoat showing through to the carbon fiber beneath... subtle elegance.

Notice (below) the chain radly crossing over the chainstay? So sweet.

All that power transfer, such a tiny chain....
Bikes are so cool.

Sparky doesn't know it, but i named his bike Radly... Can I do that??... I think so.