Steve Howard’s stuff were made in his company’s machine shop, where they made commercial restaurant or food service equipment. They were works of art to me. I had one, which I donated to Unicon 11 as a raffle prize, but this was in 2002, before splined axles were widely available. I think it was just the DM ATU at that point, or maybe the Wilders were then available (I got mine in 2003)!
Here are some pictures of the Steve Howard I had:
Oops! I am reminded that my online photos only go back to 2003 for the most part. All of my earlier ones were hosted on a site that’s no longer around (Ofoto, later the Kodak Gallery). I will have to try and post some from home when I get a chance…
Okay, I have re-posted my “2002 Misc. Riding” album. This link gives the sexy shot of the Steve Howard (very similar to Harper’s!). Arrow left and right to see more, including a closeup of the bearing holder area. Also in this album is the Harper geared hub uni, which toured all over North America for people to test ride it, and Krazy Karl Thompson hopping over a very difficult ladder thingie. Unfortunately my 2002 video clips from my camera are the wrong flavor, so those will have to be updated and posted in the future…
Trying to wrap my head around how Steve H. assembled the hub on the blue shift or the muni frame? One would assume the hub would be placed in frame first then bearings pressed after, am I remotely close or off my rocker? Not sure how the older axles were before splined .
Steve’s frames are bolted together with machine screws. You can see the three screws on each side of the legs up by the crown. The legs can be quickly removed from the seatpost/crown assembly. The legs are removed and then easily pressed by hand onto the bearings on the hub with a somewhat loose fit. There are relief slots which allow the bearing holders to slightly clamp the bearings. These are cut upward into the frame from the top of the bearing holder holes. There are pinch bolts passing through the slots which tighten them. Then the legs are bolted back onto the crown.
The BlueShift axle has a square taper, like all of the older hubs had after the cottered-crank era ended. It’s a square cross section with a 2 degree axial taper.
When Steve machined these pieces, they had perfect fitment. If you could zoom into the crown/leg interface you would see a small lip of the crown which sits on top of the legs. All of the vertical force is exerted along the two machined surfaces at that interface, not the screws. The screws hold the legs against the crown in that tight cut-out. Steve’s seat post tube was a tight press fit into the crown with a roll pin to prevent rotation. There were no welds on the frame anywhere. It’s as strong as a welded frame, especially if those welds were done in aluminum.
I have all the drawings for Steve’s BlueShift frame and all of the drawings for the production hub we intended to have made. They’re all in AutoCAD 2k2 .dwg format as well as .pdf. You’re welcome to them. The drawings for the test geared hub that John Foss mentioned that traveled around the country are on my unicyclist.com website. Just right-click on the drawings and save the .jpg images of the drawings: www.harper.unicyclist.com
In my opinion, the best custom frames you can buy now are made by flansberrium ( https://www.instagram.com/flansberrium/ to see some of his work). Nothing unconventional in his designs for the most part, but very well done.
the lobbybopster frame are cool and the first one looks like a hatchet! not sure how suspension would feel as seat height would be constantly changing.
In my defense, the Hatchet looks like my frame along with any on hub in frame disc brake. The second was an experiment for spd pedals on a uni which is working well still.
Thanks! Going with the light and strong recepe for now. But I’ve built some wild ones (like the Penguin (pre-instagram era, it’s on facebook)). All custom one by one, built in a space you wouldn’t believe is workable
Going with the light and strong recepe for now. But I’ve built some wild ones (like the Penguin (pre-instagram era, it’s on facebook)). All custom one by one, built in a space you wouldn’t believe is workable 