It's a cluster alright

Now where were we? I could make that mistake work. It wouldn't be the first bike frame with a seat post binderbelow the top tube, but it wouldn't look right. So what would the point of finishing? After sifting through many ideas, and a massive expense of time and effort lost trying to make a tubing expander work.  I grabbed my hack saw, and my trusty rotary file. Like I've said before. The rotary file gets things done fast, but at the cost of throwing metal splinters everywhere.

When you get to this point, your decision is made for which direction your going to go.

Looks like I'm going to commit to making a seat tube reinforcement work. Feel me yet?

Looks real Nice right?

So how the 1-1/4" tube doesn't exactly fit snug over the 1-1/8". I've got to fix that. This is where the fun begins.

 A birds eye view.

Since 1-1/8" tubing inside 1-1/4" tubing leaves too much tolerance, I'd have to get a thicker tube, or get special tubing drawn, or modify this tube. I chose to cut the length of the tube down the middle holding a very straight line. concentrate, don't let that saw wonder. You also want to crank the tension up on the blade.

It took not just 1 but 2 cuts going down the length holding a 1/16" tolerance. Just use a hask saw with the most teeth per inch you can find, a lot of patience and concentration.



With it clamped up it's really close. Considering it was done with a hack saw.

Here it is roughed out, so you can get a rough idea how this is going to work out.