Hello,
Thanks for checking out my blog. I am a family guy, CNC Programmer/Machinist, former Autocross Junkie, CAT5 Cyclocross Racer and a Hobby Framebuilder. I have been around bikes in almost all forms throughout my life. I race cyclocross, have competed in BMX racing, BMX freestyle contests, competed in fat bike racing and have even been to the velodrome once or twice. I got my feet wet in a framebuilding environment in 2012 and 2013 by working for Serotta where I gained an understanding of the tooling and fixturing involved in framebuilding. After leaving upstate NY and moving to Los Angeles I bought myself a fixed gear bike. I enjoyed riding it at first but the track geometry left me uncomfortable after longer rides. I checked out other companies offerings and all track bikes had similar geometry. Then I knew that I had to build my own. It wasn’t until late 2014 that I finally decided to build myself a frame in my own garage. I read every book, website, forum I could get my hands on and spoke to/emailed as many framebuilders as I could get a hold of before attempting to braze anything. Once I started I couldn’t stop! I was brazing cable stops, bottle bosses, dropouts, lugs, stuff out of the scrap bin at work and basically anything steel I could get my hands on before I ordered my first tube and lugset. I came up with a process for frame construction that made sense to me and got going. I built myself a track frame with a top tube that was long enough for me, cleared 700×32 tires and had a taller head tube. It rode great! I was addicted!
I love the look of a lug constructed frame! Having started my bicycling life on BMX bikes I had seen some beautifully welded frames but the look of a lugged frame really spoke to me. The modern, performance inspired lugwork of guys like Ben Serotta, Curt Goodrich, David Kirk, Nate Zukas and Andy Hampsten really spoke to me. However, lately I’ve been practicing fillet brazing! The goal is to make frames that are as capable off road as they are on. Fillet brazing will allow me more freedom to design and build frames that can utilize wider tires and geometry that make bikes fun both on and off road.
Another goal of mine is to build frames with as little environmental impact as possible. I reheat my flux soaking water with bucket heaters and use my tube cut-offs for practice. I feel there is more I can do so if you have any suggestions PLEASE email me at allan@varcocycles.com
These days I mainly commute on my cyclocross bike while hitting as many trails as I can. I also race cyclocross with my son! The fat bike bug bit me and really enjoy riding that monster too!
I am keeping a blog of my projects to show my progress and to have a little fun in the process.
Here is a link to my old blog. I had to switch when the Blogger app wouldn’t allow me to upload pics anymore.
Allan Varcoe
allan@varcocycles.com
Loving this hardtail!
Up in the fire roads above LA county.
Still ride the BMX bike every now and then. 6-21-17
Putting in some road miles on the CX bike.
Testing department!
Varco Cycles 