I just couldn't resist.........

For those of you aren't aware of the Chris King Cielo bikes some of them come with some pretty nicely carved out dropouts - as such I couldn't resist the temptation in emulating them on the first run of element frames - check out the pictures below:

I'm not sure I'll be doing this by hand for all dropouts - they do come out pretty nice but it takes ages!!!

Paragon Dropouts Added to CAD Model

Having spoken with the splendid chaps from Paragon Machine works it turns out that they provide step files for all of their machined parts available on the website - this makes it super quick, easy and most importantly accurate to simply smash the parts into your CAD model - which is what I did on Friday - see image below.

Now I really need to crack on with making the drop-outs a tad lighter and shaping the seat and chainstays!

Drop-Outs Sorted

So having tried in vain to get my own design of sliding dropout manufactured I turned instead to the splendid chaps at Paragon Machine Works in Richmond, CA.

The drop-outs arrived on Tuesday and I couldn't resist getting the stainless steel bits super-finished - check out the pics below....

Left Hand Drop-Out::

Riight Hand Drop-Out::

So as you can see all of the bits are really nicely made, now all I need to do is jig them up ready to be joined to the rear triangle.

Check out paragon machine works for these and more splendid bike frame building supplies -
http://www.paragonmachineworks.com/.