Chainstays pt.3

The Swing Bike made it into the shop (Midwest Cyclery) yesterday. Here is Zeke negotiating the bike shop with it. The report is everybody has had fun on it. So I suspect it will be there to stay.

Chainstays Galore! . . . times Four (x4). Roughing in the fit is one thing, precision miters is another. These took a little longer than I thought they would. The complexity grows exponentially. The good news is they are mitered, sanded, cleaned, and ready for brazing.

Chainstays and Such

After a brief interuption with the Swing bike.


Some Bottle openers.

I've finally gotten back to the chainstays for the CX frame.

Facing Mustache/Judgment Day

To face a head tube, or tubes in my case your going to need one of these. It reams the inside of the tube to precisely to 30.1mm, the faces the top perpendicular.


In it goes for this side.


Once the bore is in, then it's face time. Be sure to use cutting oil. There is cuttng oil, you just can't see it in this picture.

Since the bike is based upon it's ability to swing. I thought it was nessessary to make all the tolerances as tight as I can make them . . . Even if it is a RoadMaster.

***Also***

Mustache/Judgment day ride. May 21 …2-n-1. 21

Grow it, Stick it, Draw it on. You must have a mustache to ride.
Also this date is the same day some people believe is “Judgment Day”.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/04/may-21-2011-judgment-day_n_804166.html

let’s do both at once…21…2-n-1…Mustache /Judgment Day …it all seems to fit

The ride will start from Midwest Cyclery, then go North East towards Knuckleheads, then back West towards Strawberry hill, then back towards Wesport to Buzzard Beach with stops, detours in between.

Meet at Midwest Cyclery at 4pm

Tri Colored Bifold

Looks good from a distance. I suspect it might get a few double takes.


Some fillets looked OK. I didn't sand the primer so it looks kinda rough. Should I have taken the time to polish a RoadMaster?

Since it's was a hatchet Job, I have some accidental hatchet marks. Not to mention a few others that were no fault of mine. I could spend the next 2 days fixing them all, but in the end it would still be a RoadMaster. I've already got 2 more projects on the burner.

Swing Test

Just anticipating the fun. Death Trap!? I think not.


Why have a front wheel and a rear wheel when you can have side wheels. A little drifting sideways a speed.

I got a few stares. I think people know something is not right, they just don't know what it is.

You can really carve a turn when your frame has two pivots.

Folds up nice. Who needs S&S couplers when you have a Swing Bike?

Swing Bike Frame pt.2

The swing bike so far . . . sans Headsets

All the tubes are in place. I still have some cable guides and stuff to "modify". That mean the stops will have to be made into guides. Since the frame pivots at the seat tube you have to use housing all the way. Hopefuly after tonight I'll have the frame in position to paint. One modifcation you might notice is that I flipped the down tube around so maybe those water bottle braze-ons will be usable.


Got my MWI team jersey . We race Cyclo-Cross.

Got my MWI Coffee. It's a custom blend made by Benetti's. It a medium roast coffee, so its got a charge; and a flavor you want to sip all day. It's also a coffee that tastes the way it smells. By that I mean for example if you grind a coffee like Indian Monsooned Malabar, that smell doesn't really caputure the slight mustiness that gives Indian Mansooned Malabar it's distinction.

Got my MWI Embrocation. It's a custom mix made by Mad Alchemy.

Swing Bike ADD

Remember when I was going to make a swing Bike? Well for some reason it seems like a good time to piece one together. Even though I'm in the middle of another project.

I found this old Roadmaster in the basement and decided it might be a good frame to hack apart and use for a swing bike project. Holy Smokes Batman check these welds! They almost seem to defy logic. I know I'm ignorant about some things, maybe even more things than I know, but something is just not right here. It's obvious the bike was though some abuse, and yet has not come apart. Maybe the logic here is, it can't come apart, if it was never together to begin with.


Yes, that's a Wear your helmut safety sticker . . . Gee Why? Is it because the welds are below the surface of the tube? Does the tube even touch the head tube? Did a team of hampsters wel this thing together from the inside out?

What? . . . Why waste time mitering tubes together? This is what was revealed to me when I hacked the downtube off. That hole is the bottom of the seat tube.

Now time for a picture of some quality at Benetti's.

Well here it is so far. That's a fork steerer sweated into a piece of 1-1/8" 4130, brazed to the seat tube. Nothing fancy. Brazing together old tubing is not fun. It's hard enough to clean new tubing, let alone painted, rusted tubing.

Swingers

Not these Swingers!

Trent: "Dig this high tech navigation s#1t!"

These Swingers


Mike: "That was so money. It was like that "Jedi mind s#1t."