Frame Services

Frame Services

Winterborne Bicycle Institute is a fully tooled teaching facility, and teaching is what we do full time. We are a unique facility in that our roots started out as a high-end custom bicycle frame building shop. We shifted our focus once we had seen a tremendous increase in response from our customers suggesting that we offer more courses relating to all things bicycle. Which we did, and enthusiastically continue to develop.

In addition to our fully tooled work benches for our students to get the hands on experience that they need to prepare for themselves for the demands of a fast paced bike shop, we also have a full complement of frame building equipment.

The majority of the frame related work that we continue to do now would be considered mechanical. Which is to say that we can offer a number of services that can alter, or fix an existing bike frame.  We no longer have the time to build custom frames, however we do schedule frame repair jobs.

We offer many services that most bicycle shops do not offer mainly because of the over all expense of the tooling involved. The frame is the heart of the bicycle and there are many frame related problems that can be misdiagnosed as component failures.

Have a look at what we can offer here in this area of our web site, and feel free to give us a call, or write us an e-mail with your frame repair questions. As a frame repair client you can expect your consultation and frame examination to be free of charge

Bottom Bracket Facing and Chasing

Bottom bracket facing and thread cutting is a procedure preformed during the manufacturing of the bicycle frame. It is not uncommon for bottom bracket threads to become damaged because of improper installation, and other factors including corrosion. Chasing these threads with a specific die can repair, and redefine the threads for ease of bottom bracket installation. The facing procedure is much like head tube facing as the 2 sides of the bottom bracket shell need to be completely flat and paralell to each other.

Bottom Bracket Re-Sizing

Once in a while bottom bracket threads can get damaged beyond the point of being able to be repaired by simply sending a tap through and chasing (redefining) the thread. This would render a bike frame useless. Here at Winterborne Bicycles we have the tooling and experience to save the completely stripped bottom bracket shell. If the ISO threads (1.375"x24TPI) have been destroyed we can ream out the bottom bracket shell and cut an Italian thread pitch (36mmx24TPI) into your existing bottom bracket shell.

Head Tube Reaming and Facing

Head tube reaming and facing is an operation typically handled at the factory during the initial manufacturing of the bike frame. Reaming is an operation that refers to the machining of the inner diameter of the head tube in order to produce the ideal press fit of the headset cups. Facing is the operation that makes the head tube ends flat, and square to each other. In a lot of cases frames will get powder coated after the initial reaming and facing procedures. Powder coating is thick and can be unevenly distributed on the face of the head tube.

Rear Triangle Re-Spacing

With the modern popularity of the fixed gear bike, many cyclist are acquiring classic steel frames like nice old peugeots, and Bianchis and installing fixed gear and single speed hubs into the rear triangle of the frame. Problems quickly arise in that the rear triangle spacing of these old beauties are set for 127mm or 130mm hubs, and most fixed gear, or single speed hubs have an outer locknut spacing of 120mm, which makes them incompatible.