Almost 30 Years Later: Achim Builds His Own Bicycle Frame

Achim had thought about building his own bicycle frame before.

That was almost 30 years ago.

Back then, he was working in a bike shop while he was a student. Among other things, they sold fillet-brazed frames by Achim Nöll.

So the idea of building a frame himself was already there.

But, as sometimes happens, life got in the way.

Today, Achim lives in Gießen with his wife, children and dog and works in the pharmaceutical industry. But of course, bicycles never really disappeared from his life.

And at some point, that old idea came back.

I want to take a framebuilding course.

This time, it wasn’t going to remain just an idea.

Achim asked a few friends if any of them wanted to join him.

Nobody could quite make up their mind.

So he’d do it alone.

A Bicycle Frame Is Supposed to Come Out of This Box?

Achim didn’t have many doubts about whether he could actually build the frame.

He considered himself reasonably handy, and he knew he’d have help during the course.

Still, he remembers one moment from the beginning of the week very clearly.

In front of him was a box containing the tubes for his frame.

And he thought:

“There’s a box full of frame tubes … and this is supposed to become a bicycle frame?”

That was exactly the plan.

Achim wanted to build a gravel bike. These days, he prefers riding away from the roads, and he had some pretty specific ideas for his new frame: a longer 44 mm head tube, a T47 bottom bracket, internal cable routing and a slightly larger down tube.

Then it was time to get started.

Now It Gets Serious

Achim didn’t have much experience working with metal beforehand.

During his studies, he’d once welded together a heavy-duty storage rack as part of an internship. Until then, that had been his only real experience with welding or brazing.

Which made another moment from the course particularly memorable:

The first time he held the torch in his hand.

“Now it gets serious :))”

Before starting on the actual frame, of course, there was some practicing to do.

And afterward, one of those practice joints had to be destroyed.

At least, that was the plan.

Achim tried to break the brazed joint apart. In the end, it took two people and a serious amount of force to destroy it.

His conclusion:

“So the frame can definitely take some abuse!!!”

Now it was time to move on to the actual frame.

A Week of Working With His Hands

For Achim, the course wasn’t just about taking a finished bicycle frame home on Friday.

Normally, his work is much more about using his head. He’s also on the road a lot for his job.

Spending an entire week doing something completely different, creating something with his own hands and actually having a finished frame in front of him at the end was an important part of the experience.

There was just one thing he’d underestimated:

Filing and finishing the fillet-brazed joints.

He’d imagined that being considerably less work. 😉

But eventually, that box full of tubes really had become a bicycle frame.

His bicycle frame.

Und wie fährt er?

Inzwischen ist aus dem Rahmen ein fertiges Gravelbike geworden.

Achim mag das Fahrgefühl von Stahl. Für ihn filtert der Rahmen feine Vibrationen angenehmer heraus als ein Carbonrahmen, und zusammen mit der auf ihn angepassten Geometrie fährt sich das Rad genauso, wie er es sich vorgestellt hatte.

Bisher war er damit hauptsächlich rund um Gießen unterwegs.

Als Nächstes geht es mit Freunden an den Gardasee.

Und wenn er heute auf seinem eigenen Rahmen sitzt?

„Da schwingt beim Radeln schon ein wenig Stolz mit. Gehöre jetzt zu den Wenigen, die einen Rahmen selbst gebaut haben.“

Fast 30 Jahre nachdem er zum ersten Mal darüber nachgedacht hatte.

Und der nächste Rahmen?

Direkt nach dem Kurs hätte Achim diese Frage wahrscheinlich noch nicht beantworten können.

Sein Vergleich gefällt mir:

„Ist ein wenig wie beim Marathonlauf. Direkt danach kann man sich den nächsten nicht vorstellen. Mit ein wenig Abstand war’s dann doch toll und man überlegt, den nächsten zu laufen.“

Mittlerweile gibt es also durchaus Gedanken an Rahmen Nummer zwei.

Und diesmal vielleicht nicht alleine.

Achim findet die Idee ziemlich gut, noch einmal einen Rahmenbaukurs zu machen, aber dann gemeinsam mit Freunden.

Er arbeitet daran …