MOUNTAIN BIKE FRAME COMPONENTS
Mountain Lugs
Henry James Mountain Lugs are designed so your mountain bike will not look like a fat road bike! Our design anticipated the laboratory tests that show lugged frames to have much longer fatigue lives than fillet brazed and TIG welded frames. The points are all rounded. The edges of the lugs are quarter round. The technical reasoning for this unique style is to distribute stresses as much as possible, thus extending the fatigue life of your frame.
This design makes cleaning the frame after a ride easier. The lugs look great with a powder coat finish.
The head tube rings are thicker to resist the severe impacts of fast off road riding.
The Seat Bolt Boss has a hex socket to take a 6mm nut and bolt. To use a quick release, just remove the bolt and run the 6 mm quick release skewer into the nut. You can mount the lever on the left or right side. When you get the tension force adjusted, you may find that the quick Release lever is not aligned the way you want. If so, just loosen off the lever, and rotate the nut the desired amount.
Some say TIG welding saves weight. They do not mention the heavy wall head tube and the externally butted seat tube needed to compensate for the inevitable welding distortion. Our BB shell is within a few grams of a lugless shell. Any weight savings are not worth the loss in frame life and looks. Lugged frames can be of lighter gauge tubing than TIG welded frames which must compensate for the stress risers in any welded joint.
Cleanline Mountain Bike Shell
The Henry James Mountain Bottom Bracket Shell has no chain stay sockets. Why? There are too many different chain stay configurations available. (We sell 3 designs made by True Temper in 2 diameters and 2 angles.) Having cast sockets would limit the builder's design flexibility. The chain stays are either fillet brazed or TIG welded in place.
Our mountain shell has the same rounded tips and soft quarter round edges as our mountain lugs do, for the same reasons.
Our mountain bike shell weighs within a few grams of a lugless shell. On welded frames, the metal that the tubes cover can not be removed, because of welding distortion and strength concerns. On lugged shells, think of reshaping that metal to form the tube sockets. The lugged sockets can be thought of as tubes intersecting another tube. This is a very strong and stiff configuration, so lugged shells are better than lugless construction.
Mountain Vertical Dropouts
Our Mountain Vertical Dropouts are stainless steel, so the quick release faces bite into steel, not your expensive paint job! 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. Out mountain dropouts are designed for mountain bike geometry. Your builder can fine tune 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 mountain dropouts are light, yet have a very strong derailleur hanger. The hanger is malleable, so if it gets bent in a crash, it can be straightened. Vertical dropouts are essential for mountain bikes so the wheel will not pull out of line under the heavy pedaling loads. Our mountain dropouts now come with 2 eyelets. Some racers insist that their racing frames be made without eyelets. Apparently they are so insecure about their strength that they think a 1/2 ounce (14g) will cost them the race! Many racers never consider that a steel frame is going to last long beyond its racing life (After all, it's not aluminum.), so it will eventually be used for touring, on and off road, commuting, etc., and the eyelets will come in handy.
