Henry James Bicycles, Inc. Frame Components

ROAD BIKE FRAME COMPONENTS

Lugged bicycle frame construction goes all the way back to the early days of steel framed bicycles. The concept is simple: The ends of the four main tubes on the bike frame slip into steel sleeves or sockets, which are called lugs. Then the joints are brazed with either silver or brass. The resulting brazed lugged frame has these good things going for it:

Lugged joints are very strong. The brazing material bonds with the steel at the microscopic level. The nature of brazing leads to very consistent and reliable joints under typical manufacturing conditions. The joints have excellent fatigue resistance, much better than TIG welded joints. The frame has undergone a minimum of heat caused metallurgical change. The frame can be repaired by reheating the joint and removing a damaged tube.

You don't see lugged aluminum or lugged titanium frames because these materials can't be brazed as easily as steel. The hype is that welding is better than brazing. The truth is you can't braze aluminum or titanium like you can braze steel! Brazing is simply a great way to put high quality steel frames together, that other frame materials can't match.

From a technical point of view, brazed lugged construction is superb. But what about the rider's point of view? Here is where lugged construction really shines.

First, the obvious: Lugged joints look great, and can have all kinds of visual differences that make your bike unique. If you've seen one weld, you've seen them all. When you order a custom frame, it can reflect your taste.

Lugged frames last longer than welded steel frames, and are more reliable.

Lugged steel frames are light. Lugless frames (in all materials) usually have heavier gauge butts at the ends in an attempt to compensate for the stress concentrations that lugless construction creates. Lugged construction allows thinner end butts, because a low temperature silver brazed lug creates much lower stress concentrations than any other method.

The ads for welded bikes always talk about how they save weight by not using lugs. What the big welded bike makers never tell you is that in order to make the welding easier in production, they use a very thick walled head tube. This thicker tube matches the weight of a pair of lugs and a standard gauge head tube!

The seat lug is replaced with an externally butted seat tube which is needed to compensate for welding distortion. Seat tube distortion is a big problem for welded steel frames, because the seat tube must be reamed out to accept the standard diameter seat post. If too much metal has to be removed, the frame's strength is compromised. The additional weight of the external butt almost matches the seat lug weight, and the welded on seat bolt boss or a separate clamp adds some more weight. The net saving is from zero to negligible.

That leaves the bottom bracket shell. Where the 4 tubes intersect with the shell, you would think that they would remove the area of the shell that the tubes cover. They don't remove the metal because of welding distortion and strength problems. Our Henry James investment cast BB shells weigh within an ounce of the simple sawed off tube sections used on welded frames. The socket walls on our shells reinforce the joint so our sockets can go right through the shell to save weight, at no loss of strength, and with excellent rigidity.

ROAD LUGS:

Regular and OVERSIZE!

Our Custom Series Lugs are available in the full range of angles, so your frame can be designed to truly fit you. Lug makers typically offer one set of angles only, because the tooling cost is so high. Henry James has been making lugs for 20 years with the philosophy of making the angles that the riders need.

Our oversize lugs have the same styling as the regular sized Custom Series Lugs. Your builder can customize tubing diameters, too, to give you the optimum stiffness. For example, the top tube can be oversize and the down tube regular size.

The lug walls are tapered to square edges less than .030" thick. Our clearances are for silver brazing. Imported lugs and shells are usually intended for use in mass production using brass brazing rod which typically requires a larger brazing clearance than silver. The socket clearances are thus often larger than recommended for silver brazing.

The Seat Lug is tapped for the stainless steel 6 mm bolt that is supplied.

Custom Series Bottom Bracket Shells

Regular and OVERSIZE!

Our BB Shell is one of the stiffest. We recently rebuilt the tooling to fit the trend to shorter stays and wider hubs. Henry James bottom bracket shells have integral cable guides as an option. Henry James Bottom bracket shells are tapped on a precision custom made machine that taps both sides at once to ensure alignment of the threads. The shells are faced precisely perpendicular to the threads. With the new cartridge style bottom bracket shells, threading and facing accuracy might not seem as important any more. Not so. The threading and facing are critical still, as they are what the alignment of the frame is based on. A poorly faced or misaligned thread will throw the alignment off, possibly leading to poor handling.

Custom Series Fork Crown

We are especially proud of our Custom Series Crown. It's rigidity, lightness and beauty come from its hollow construction with integral reinforcement tangs. Our tubular design puts the steel where it is most effective.

The Henry James Custom Crown weighs an ounce less than full sloping crowns, yet it is 50% stiffer in torsion. All of our crowns undergo a safety check (dye penetrant) for cracks.

We offer an alternative to straight fork blades. Our crown is also available bored at a 3° angle. If straight blades were used, the rake would be 20 mm. So the blades are raked 20 mm. less than usual, and the final fork then has the desired rake. When straight blades are used, they leave the head tube at a 6° angle that many find looks strange. With our 3° angle crown, the appearance is subtle, and the additional rake of the blades is very subtle. The end result is unique.

ROAD DROPOUTS

Custom Series Horizontal Road Dropouts

Our Custom Series Horizontal Style Dropouts are stainless steel, so the quick release faces bite into steel, not your expensive paint job! (Chrome plating, by the way, tends to chip and pit.) The sculpted contours blend gracefully into the stays.

Henry James dropouts are plug-in style for a clean finished look. We make them in a full range of gauges to fit into your tubing choice. The dropouts are designed so your builder can cold set the angles to perfectly match your needs. Forged dropouts are too brittle for this, and do not look right on very small or large frames.

Our short horizontal style has the advantage that if a spoke breaks, the wheel alignment can be temporarily adjusted. Our horizontal dropouts are not weakened by adjuster screws.

Custom Series Vertical Road Dropouts

Our Custom Series Vertical Dropouts are stainless steel, so the quick release faces bite into steel, not your expensive paint job! (Chrome plating, by the way, tends to chip and pit.) The sculpted contours blend gracefully into the stays.

Henry James dropouts are plug-in style for a clean finished look. We make them in a full range of gauges to fit into your tubing choice. The dropouts are designed so your builder can cold set the angles to perfectly match your needs. Forged dropouts are too brittle for this, and do not look right on very small or large frames.

Our vertical road dropouts are light, and ideal for short wheelbase frames. Vertical dropouts have the advantage that the wheel can not pull out of line under heavy pedaling loads.

NEW! LASER CUT 4130 STEEL SINGLE SPEED DROPOUTS

• Conversion Dropout for converting road or mountain bike frames to single speed
• Road and Track Dropout for track and road use
• Single Speed Mountain Dropout

The Conversion Dropout is extra long so it can be used to convert existing frames to single speed, after removing the original dropouts. It has a long slot for gearing freedom.

The Track Dropout is designed for use in new frames. It has a 1.5" (38mm) slot for maximum gearing flexibility. The tabs are located for road/track rear geometries.

The Mountain Dropout is beefier, with the tab angles set for off road geometries.