If you've been watching Bikernet over the last year, it's more than likely you've seen this project come together in a series of tech articles in the Bikernet Garage. Well here's the final product.

The whole idea of this bike came together when I ended up with a spare transmission in my garage from Baker Drivetrain. A beautiful smooth, black & chrome 6 speed with laser etching, a .86 overdrive, and Andrews gears to take some serious punishment. It would be a shame to let it just sit there. It needed a bike built around it for sure.

So enter Atlas Precision, frame makers extraordinaire from Apple Valley, CA. The owners, Dick and Peggy, were very helful and more than happy to fill the the frame order for the concept. Dick's been welding frames together for 30 years. It shows. There was absolutely no need to dress any welds on this work of art. The weld beads on this thing are less than 1/8" in diameter and laid on top of one another like dominoes. It would be a shame to hide that type of craftsmanship, so I left them alone. The only problem is, the powder coating almost hid them entirely once the frame was finished.

I used an Atlas frame on my last project, so there was never any question about the choice of frame maker. If you've ever built a bike, you can appreciate what it's like NOT to have to modify the frame at all once you receive it. Atlas's ordering sheet covered all the basis for bungs and tabs. In addition, the frame was so straight and well fixtured that not one shim was needed to mount the drivetrain system.