David Bird Hardtail Fitiment Question

[_MC6_]

For those of you that have installed a David Bird hardtail, did you have to grind / fit the top tubes where they meet the backbone? I know that everything metal requires fitting and adjusting and just wondered what your install experiences were. Some people have left the metal plate wrapping around the top tube that the rear downtubes weld to and some have removed them. Is the extra material to allow for those options? It appears to require 0.20" to be removed to make it fit in my case... It was off a little and appeared to be "extra" like it was left that way on purpose by David.

Here are some photos:

 

[jbgore]

My son and I both have Bird tails. His is looped and mine is straight. Neither of us had to do any adjustment or fitting. They fit like he had made them for our specific frames - super tight and ready to go.
I think you'll find in the instructions that come with it, as well as those posted on Lowbrow Customs site, that he shows the tail installed with the metal plate you referred to on the backbone removed. We removed ours and everything went together extremely well...couldn't be more pleased.
Good luck!

 

[_MC6_]

moved...