dropouts

With several months to ponder construction details on the new frame, one consideration is the type of dropout....

there's the standard slider dropout from Paragon Machine Works:











these are apparently bulletproof, but I've never been very fond of the look of them as the seatstay has to be shortened and the centerpoint of the rear wheel just looks weird behind the frame....


The Black Cat swingers:


















I like these a lot and Walt can build a frame with them, though there a bit more $ upcharge over the Paragons. They look good and are easy to set up from my experience as long as the main bolt is pretty sturdy. I replaced the stock stainless bolt on each side with a carbon steel deep socket head bolt on my old Black Cat and improved these greatly, IMO. One negative is that they're chromoly steel, not stainless, so they could potentially rust, but I never saw any corrosion on mine while I had it. A little steel wool scrubbing added a bit of luster to them and cleaned up nice.


then there's the "new" Rocker drop out from Paragon Machine Works:










I haven't seen where these have been used in a frame build yet, but they have the potential to make it in on the Waltworks build. The fixed part is stainless and the dropout portion is aluminum. They have a nice clean, compact look and seem like they would function very similar to the Swinger dropout.

All the dropouts above are made in the USA.